Travel

I’ll never forget arriving at a luxury hotel in Napa to celebrate our anniversary only to find that half the hotel was under construction and that the gym and spa were closed for renovations. It was a hotel booking nightmare. Fortunately, there was copious amounts of wine which filled time I would have spent working out or indulging in spa treatments. I’m pretty thorough when researching hotels, especially in unfamiliar destinations. So what are the …

There’s one thing you should know about me. I don’t like cold weather. I mean, I abhor (and that’s a strong word) being cold. But when a destination calls that’s a bucket list experience, how could I say, “no?” So when the invite for travel to Patagonia came, I began ferociously reading everything I could get my hands on about a packing guide for Patagonia. One thing that was clear in everything I read? Pack …

Now that the kids are out of the house, my husband and I are always looking for easy weekend escapes and romantic getaways where we can totally unplug and relax. I haven’t spent much time in the Pacific Northwest, save for a quick trip to Seattle, so we decided to take a weekend trip to Whidbey Island in Puget Sound. Getting there is a bit of an adventure unto itself, taking a shuttle from the …

We’ve all heard those horror stories of travelers who have hotel room safety problems. I’m a pretty seasoned traveler and even I got caught off guard. While at a beach resort in the Caribbean with my husband, an employee gained access to our room and took our cash and some personal items. We broke the first rule of hotel room safety – we did not use our in-room safe. My husband is former law enforcement …

It seems like a lot of people are thinking about moving to Italy from the U.S. these days. I did it several years ago and it was a magical experience. I’ve had friends ask me what it was like moving to Italy as an American and it certainly requires a lot of patience. Families may be curious about moving to Italy with children. We moved to Milan when my children were 7 and 9 years …

Just like fashion, I’m prone to jumping on the trend of the moment. I followed the Paleo diet for the past couple of years because it lets me bacon at every meal. But the more attention I paid to my daughter’s vegan diet, and then reading about how it changed Bill Clinton’s and James Cameron’s lives, I decided to give it a try. Not to mention having the bejesus scared out of me by watching …