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Author: Aukse

Hotel Catalonia Las Cortes, Madrid, Spain – June, 2022

Hotel Catalonia Las Cortes, Madrid, Spain – June, 2022

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Hotel Catalonia Las Cortes came highly recommended from multiple sources and we stayed here from June 11-14, 2022.  If you’ve been following me, you will know that I prefer to spend my European trips staying at boutique hotels rather than large chains.  You typically get more personalized service, and almost always get more interesting rooms.  Well, the Catalonia hotels are a chain, and I can’t really speak to the chain itself, since this is the first and only Catalonia hotel…

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Willamette Valley, Oregon, August, 2016

Willamette Valley, Oregon, August, 2016

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Today, I’ll be telling you about my trip with two of my cousins to the Willamette Valley in Oregon back in August of 2016.  My cousin Irene and I have been studying wine for several years, and Oregon Pinots are at the top of our list of faves, so we just had to go there to visit and taste some amazing wines from the source.  We brought our cousin Vicki, who is not as much into wine as we are,…

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Vinitus Restaurant – Gran Via, Madrid, June 12, 2022

Vinitus Restaurant – Gran Via, Madrid, June 12, 2022

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Vinitus restaurant was our first lunch stop in Madrid on June 12, 2022.  After spending the morning walking around the Palacio Real, we walked over to the Gran Via to check out the cool architecture along the busy avenue.  Towards the southern end is a restaurant called Vinitus. This is a tapas place on the Gran Via, and I really try to avoid touristy places, but this restaurant was filled with locals as well as tourists, and the tapas were…

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Las Vegas With Kids, 2019

Las Vegas With Kids, 2019

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Boy, did I get a lot of raised eyebrows when I told people we were taking our two littlest kids, then ages 8 and 9 to Las Vegas, Nevada, but Las Vegas has a lot to do for people of all ages, and I’m here to dispel the myth that Vegas is only for adults.  The first time I was there was when I was 16, back in the mid-90s, when Vegas was going through a whole, “this is a…

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Palacio Real, Madrid, Spain, June 2022

Palacio Real, Madrid, Spain, June 2022

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The Palacio Real in Madrid is literally the largest palace in Western Europe with 3,418 rooms. The number of rooms that are open to the public are …. 29!  But, while you are seeing barely fraction of the place, you can really get a good idea of how ornate and beautiful the rooms were and continue to be.   We purchased the audioguide, which was very well put together with about 1.5 minutes of explanation in each room, which was…

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Reviewing RH Rooftop Restaurant, Oak Brook: A Charming, Upscale Dining Experience

Reviewing RH Rooftop Restaurant, Oak Brook: A Charming, Upscale Dining Experience

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Oak Brook is a western suburb about 20 miles from downtown Chicago, and Oak Brook Center is one of my favorite places to go at any time of year. It is an upscale, outdoor mall, offering a ton of great shopping, and also a very cool and luxe atmosphere. I have always loved coming here, even if I wasn’t buying anything, just for the beautiful surroundings. I get it – you don’t typically think of a mall as beautiful or…

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Jade Mountain Club, Jade Mountain Resort, St. Lucia, February, 2021

Jade Mountain Club, Jade Mountain Resort, St. Lucia, February, 2021

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Our pandemic trip to St. Lucia in February 2021 landed us at the all-inclusive resort Anse Chastenet, with a fabulous view of the famous St. Lucia Pitons.  One of the best things about our stay at Anse Chastenet was that it is a sister hotel to Jade Mountain Resort, consistently rated as one of the best resorts in the Caribbean, so we were able to eat dinner at the Jade Mountain Club for a $40 surcharge per person.  Even though…

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Rome, Italy July, 2019

Rome, Italy July, 2019

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My husband and I traveled to Rome with our teenagers, then 15 and 16 years old, in July of 2019.  I was not looking forward to this trip at all.  I typically prefer to go out into the country to explore, rather than staying in the capital cities, and going to Rome in July just sounded hot, crowded, and miserable. When you are traveling with kids, however, summers and breaks are the only time you can go.  Well guess what? …

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Eataly, Chicago

Eataly, Chicago

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So this is primarily a post about Eataly, Chicago, but I have to mention from the get-go that I have also been to Eataly, Las Vegas many times, and it is just as amazing, though with a much smaller dry goods grocery section and no produce.  The Las Vegas outpost is more of a grab and go food place, or stay and drink a glass of wine under a beautiful glass-ceilinged canopy, than a place you would go and get…

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Copal Tree Lodge, Punta Gorda, Belize February, 2019

Copal Tree Lodge, Punta Gorda, Belize February, 2019

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One of our anniversary trip stops took us to the Copal Tree Lodge in Punta Gorda, Belize for a week in February of 2019.  Punta Gorda is about as far south as you can get in Belize before Honduras, and is pretty rustic compared to other, more toursity places in Belize.  You have to take a small plane that makes several stops at towns along the way either via Maya Island Air or Tropic Air.   Punta Gorda is the…

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