Our Dreamy Life at the Villa on our Trip to Tuscany ~ Our family style feasts, local wines and spritzin’

February 28, 2020August 6, 2018

More adventures from our trip to Tuscany!

For our trip to Tuscany, trying to decide the best itinerary and finding the perfect accommodations was a fun process, but truthfully a bit stressful for me. I am confident when I plan travel for myself or with just Craig, but to include six other discerning travelers, I wanted everything to be just right. No one dictated a thing, it was just my need to make sure that everyone had the very best possible experience! Through the tour company Palio Tours, we found the perfect size villa for our party of eight. The enormous house was just big enough to allow every couple to have their own room and offered several indoor and outdoor living spaces where we could all hang out, but it never felt overwhelming or too large to navigate.

Adventures at The Palio in Siena ~ An Exhilarating Experience

February 28, 2020July 31, 2018

Hold on to your seat, you are in for a wild ride at The Palio!

Before we even arrived at The Palio in Siena, I knew that it would be a vibrant, colorful spectacle, but it was way bigger than we imagined! The passion and emotion that runs through the crowd feels like a strong electric current. Not a seat or section of pavement was available and the famous Piazza del Campo was transformed into a carefully constructed racetrack with an audience of thousands of excited Italians, mostly from the walled city of Siena.

I’m Back From The BIG Summer Travel Adventure It was…absolutely AMAZING!

February 28, 2020July 30, 2018

I am back from the BIG Summer Travel Adventure – It was…absolutely AMAZING!

Miss me? I’ve just returned from twenty-nine adventure-filled days in Europe. Here’s how it went!

I traveled to six countries – Italy, Spain, England, Germany, Czech Republic and Hungary
Eight total flights: Los Angeles to London to Rome, Florence to Barcelona to Palma to Berlin, Prague to Budapest to London to Washington DC to Los Angeles
2 trains
2 Viking ships
Many kilometers by Viking Coach
Two rental cars
Multiple cabs
Several subway rides
Miles walked? Who knows! A lot!

BIG Summer Travel – Where are we going this time?

February 28, 2020June 27, 2018

Summer Travel Update

Hey fellow adventurers! I wanted to check in to let you know that we are embarking on a BIG Summer Travel Adventure!

Craig and I will be traveling with our family to see The Palio in Siena, Italy with a quick couple of days in Rome! Next, we say goodbye to the family and fly to the gorgeous island of Majorca, Spain. We visited last summer and it was so spectacular that we just had to go back! And there’s more…

Friday Roundup – Bits and pieces we didn’t get a chance to talk about this week!

February 28, 2020May 18, 2018

Happy Friday! If you missed it…You can find this week’s post about == > How to Stay Fit When You Travel ===> HERE My Friday Roundup: Links to Awesome Stories You Have Probably Not Seen. Don’t you love it when someone else does the work? OMGee 20 Books everyone ill be talking about this Summer! …

Travel Tips for Everyone: How to Eat Everything and Still Stay Fit

February 28, 2020May 17, 2018

How to Eat Everything and Still Stay Fit When You Travel

Well, first of all this is a TALL order. Second of all, it takes some work. Third of all, nobody’s perfect, especially me.

I think there is a misunderstanding that when someone sees a post of an amazing restaurant dish or fabulous handcrafted cocktail, they assume that we eat this way all the time. No, not true at all. By the same token when we post happy things on Facebook all the time it implies that our lives are perfect! Nope, not true either! Read on my friend…

A New York City Restaurant Recommendation That Came From Instagram

June 11, 2021May 7, 2018

How did I find a New York City Restaurant Recommendation from Instagram?

It seems that lately since the whole Facebook privacy scandal, social media has become more of a negative than a positive. There are certainly a great number of attributes I do not like about it, but there are plenty of things social media does well.

Using Instagram as a referral system is definitely a popular activity and many people (like me) use it as an important food and travel resource. Prior to traveling to a new city, I peruse the hashtags and check out the restaurant accounts and often find some pretty yummy things. Receiving a New York City restaurant recommendation from a reliable source and not just from YELP is a much better scenario. At least for us, it is. I do trust those sites, but when the Editor in Chief of Bon Apetít Magazine recommends a local, smallish, out-of-the-way little restaurant and says “It is some of the best food I have had in a while”, I listened!

A Japanese Dish You Have Never Heard Of ~ It’s Like a YUMMY Asian Flavored Tostada

February 28, 2020April 12, 2018

More food info today – I just can’t help myself. I have been introduced to so many delicious dishes recently that my inner foodie is doing cartwheels!

A delicious Japanese dish you and I have never heard of!

While in Japan we ate some ridiculously amazing food that I could really write about for days. I am spreading it out so as not to make you hungry every freaking time you come to the blog!

Anderson Cooper & I like the same new restaurant in San Francisco

February 28, 2020April 9, 2018

Che Fico is a new restaurant in San Francisco that is f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s and the photo above made it famous!

Fun Back Story ~

My traveling foodie friend Angela is currently enjoying a fantastic three-week trip to Portugal. She sent me a kind of cryptic message via Facebook that said “Do you know about this?” There was no link and just the photo of the pizza with no other references. It turns out that Anderson Cooper (Yes, that one from CNN) posted this enticing pizza photo on Instagram and raved about his friend’s new restaurant in San Francisco.

Japan is For Food Lovers :: Pack Your Bags & Go!

February 28, 2020March 29, 2018

Japan is For Food Lovers Everywhere!

Part of the fun of travel is to immerse yourself in the local culture. To visit the farmer’s markets, fish markets and fruit stands to see what is fresh and in season is always at the top of our list of adventures. Our trip to Japan with Collette Travel was no exception, we were treated to some fantastically prepared meals, visited charming local markets and ate like kings and queens.