Our Caravan tour to Costa Rica

Just thought I'd share a few of the picures from our recent trip to Costa Rica that we took with Caravan Tours. Not only was the trip wonderful, the group with whom we traveled for 10 days was amazing! Not one whiner, perpetual latecomer or negative Nellie in the group of 43!

Golf and travel -- it's a beautiful thing!

Although I have subscribed to Golf for Women magazine for several years now, I just recently woke up to the fact that there are wonderful articles about travel in each issue!
This month (Jan/Feb) one of my favorites is called Personal Paradises. It is a compilation of “favorites” from some women who play golf but are not necessarily golf pros. Actress Cheryl Ladd, singers Anne Murray and Belinda Carlisle and cosmetics guru Bobbi Brown are just a few that fit in that category.
The article that actually caught my eye to start with was called “20 Tips for the perfect trip”, but when I read it I was a little underwhelmed at Stina Sternberg’s 20 golf travel “secrets”. None were anything I didn’t already know and recommend to my clients but, hey, she has to come up with an article each month so if her tips help one person, it’s worthwhile!
So what is my Personal Paradise, you may ask? Well, the highlight of my golf experience was the two times I got to play in a tournament at Pinehurst (along with one other time when I served as “hostess” for a city club team. Each time, I was the “D” player on the team and I each time I was the only female.
On a drizzly morning of the second year (which was the year after Payne Stewart’s victory there then his death the same year), I was walking up the 18th fairway to the green. Our team had all shot the green but the closest ball in the scramble was 50 feet from the pin! As I walked along in the peaceful drizzle, the church bells from the village began to play “Just As I Am”. Tears came to my eyes as I heard that wonderful hymn and caught sight of the statue of Stewart next to the green.
It was my turn at bat first on this hole and I could barely compose myself, but I lined up, took the putt AND MADE IT-- for birdie!!
This was truly my 30 seconds of fame in golf!

Excerpt from Fodors.com newsletter

This article was part of today's fodors.com newsletter and, no, I can't believe folks don't know these things about holiday travel!

10 Things Travel Agents Can't Believe You Don't Know About Holiday Travel
December 6, 2007

Before clicking the "purchase" button on that last-minute holiday vacation package, consider these tips from five professional travel agents (all members of ASTA -- the American Society of Travel Agents) and an Expedia travel expert.

1. Business class to Europe is deeply discounted. Business travelers tend to stay home for the holidays, notes Erin Krause, consumer public relations manager for Expedia, and that means that for a few hundred dollars more than what you'd pay for the seats in back, you "can get overseas travel tickets for $1,000 to $2,500 round trip. During peak summer travel season, when most Americans travel to Europe, these seats can be $6,000 to $9,000," Krause says.

2. Knowing "dead weeks" can lead to huge savings. Resting peacefully within the frantic Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Year's travel pocket are what industry experts call the "dead weeks," times when hometown commitments and trip fatigue keep many of us off the road. The "dead weeks" are a good time to take advantage of low air fares and discounts on hotel rooms. Expedia Travel Trendwatch defines the dead weeks as Nov. 28--Dec. 15 and Jan 7--17. However, Expedia and the travel agents interviewed for this story concurred that there's overlap. One city's dead week might be another's peak travel time: December 15--22 is also a potential week for deals, says Mike O'Malley, a travel agent with Diplomat Travel in Chicago. "Traditionally from Thanksgiving Day to right before Christmas, it's slower, but it also depends on when schools get out, which of course varies from city to city," O'Malley says.

3. Booking a package can save big bucks. Good dead week deals at Expedia over the next few weeks include trips to the Caribbean and Mexico, says Expedia's Krause. Other holiday sales from the site include an "Escape to Paradise" deal, which bundles airfare and hotel, a strategy she says is worth considering. "The one thing I would say for people going in the next two weeks (Dec 3-15) is book a package," Krause notes. Purchasing a package that includes at least airfare and hotel -- and not just on Expedia -- will save on average $200, she says, so during mid-December "or right after New Year's, you're going to find some great deals," she adds.

4. Holiday cruises are a relative steal. O'Malley also noted that decreased demand leads many cruise lines to lower their rates Dec. 15--22, a time when airfares to popular port states like Florida also drop. And since many cruise packages include entertainment and excursion costs, one of the "best values in family travel is taking a cruise over the holidays," says Frank Morgan, CFO of AMT American Express Travel in Southern California. If you're looking for a December deal as well as something novel, consider cruises to the Panama Canal or within the South Pacific, notes Scott Pinheiro, president of NorCal ASTA and a travel agent with Santa Cruz Travel. Many Panama Canal cruises begin and end in California and Florida, making travel costs to ports manageable. And while it's unlikely you'll wrangle budget holiday airfares to catch cruises that begin and end in Tahiti and Fiji, you won't pay through the nose in the destination. "Once you're there, the Fijian dollar is very good," says Pinheiro.

5. It pays to be persistent. If you're not a big planner and you're angling for a last-minute cancellation at a holiday hot spot, "keep calling and pestering the places," says Blake Fleetwood, a former investigative journalist now a travel agent with Cook Travel in New York. "You call the resorts directly and pester them. You're not going to get a travel agent to do that kind of work." Popular places have become accustomed to this brand of persistence and "you have to call them 5-6 times apiece," Fleetwood adds. "The squeaky wheel gets the room."

6. A travel agent might beat your best deal. Brokering and booking deals online is second nature for many travelers, but we don't necessarily think to pick up the phone and find out if a travel agent might be able to beat a Web deal or suggest off-line alternatives in our destination. Reluctance to incorporate a travel agent into one's research may be fed by an assumption that there are extra costs attached to engaging an agent's services, but the only way to find out is to ask: "Will there be an extra fee on top of any of the prices you're quoting me," says Kari C. Thomas, an agent with Will Travel, Inc. in Pennsylvania. "Any good agent will have no problem answering that." Travel agents belonging to ASTA are searchable online and are bound by a code of ethics.

7. Don't spoon feed your luggage to thieves. If your carry-on sails through a security checkpoint before you do, you could be susceptible to a scam, O'Malley notes: "One person will get in front of you and slow you down while his buddy will get your bag and take off with it. The TSA does not guarantee the safety of your bag going through the x-ray machine. I won't put a bag on the belt until I know I can walk straight through." And along those lines, Morgan advises "never put your address on the outside of your suitcase, because there are people who'll walk by, figure out that you're with your whole family, and go to your house." In an age of effortless reverse phone-number look-ups, your home phone should be kept off the tag as well. Morgan adds that his agency makes tags with just their client's name and the agency's 800 number.

8. Pack with the worst-case-scenario in mind. When traveling with a companion, O'Malley suggests a fiendishly clever strategy for anticipating the horror of a lost bag: "Split both of your wardrobes between two bags in case one gets lost." During the holiday season, the same logic applies to packing presents. Remember, too, that the TSA still reserves the right to open gift-wrapped packages in checked luggage -- all the more reason, concurred several travel agents, to ship your holiday presents ahead to your destination by UPS or Fedex Ground.

9. Surf the Web before leaving home. You can mitigate some of the anxiety of traveling to your holiday destination by doing a little Web surfing before you leave home. Check the average waiting times at security checkpoints on the TSA Web site. Check in early for your flight on your airline's site, and Krause suggests, use the Web to find out which terminals at the airport have restaurants, play areas for kids, and other useful services.

10. There's always next year. If you failed to book a last-minute holiday cruise, use the disappointment as incentive to book early for next year. The benefits are significant. For those wishing to book a December 2008 cruise, for instance, Pinheiro says to put a deposit down a year in advance -- $500 will hold a space, and it's less risky than paying your full passage in advance. Plus, you'll have most of the year to change your mind, if you have to. "With 90-days notice you can get it back: you don't have to worry about being out any money until the latter part of September or early October." Plus, reserving a year early will reap cruise lovers another reward, says Pinheiro: early booking savings.

---Paul Eisenberg

Beautiful, amazing Costa Rica

We have just returned from 10 days touring around Costa Rica. We visited San Jose, the capital plus the Tortuguera National Park, the Arenal volcano and the Manuel Antonio National Park.
My wish for my birthday was to see monkeys and, boy was that wish granted!We saw howlers, spider monkeys and white faced monkeys. We also saw crocodiles, sloths, tree frogs, snakes, lizards, toucans, macaws, lots of birds native to the area, giant spiders, scorpions, and so the list goes on.
While we got a little weary of riding on the bus, it truly was a great way to see the country. It's also hard to complain when the bus was a brand new Mercedes-Benz luxury motorcoach! We just used the time between stops to get to know some of our trip-mates.
I think our favorite stop in many ways was the Arenal volcano. The Arenal Springs Resort where we stayed was just wonderful. We could view the active volcano right from our bed! We also took a horse ride up the side of the volcano. The horses were so clean and well trained and our guide was great. One evening was spent at the natural hot springs where there are something like 11 different hot water pools. With only two days in the area, we weren't able to see and do everything so this is a place to which we would really like to return.
I will be downloading pictures later this week and, believe me, there are some great ones!

CANCUN & RIVIERA MAYA

Don & I just returned from a short trip to Mexico to get an update on all the new and newly renovated hotels since the hurricanes 2 years ago.
We had detailed tours of 6 hotels in the Riviera Maya area.
They were:
Sunscape Puerto Aventuras
Riu Palaca Riviera Maya
Riu Playacar
Riu Tequila
Secrets Riviera Maya
Iberostar Paraiso Grand

We stayed in Cancun proper at the new Great Parnassus and used the facilities there as well as at the sister hotel, the Golden Parnassus. I will be writing some detailed informaion about these properties but, in the meantime, if you have questions, don't hesitate to contact me.

Updated photo from beautiful Oregon

OREGON!

Just a few weeks ago we visited a part of the world that neither of us had ever seen before -- Oregon!
We went expecting to visit some wineries and taste some great Pinot Noirs and dodge raindrops and gray skies during most ofour stay.
We were right on the first two expectations but came away with so much more!
Skies were blue, temps were great and the beauty of God's earth that we experienced was just astounding.
I have updated my profle picture with one that Don took of me amid the yellow broom in Astoria.
Here are a few others as well.

<

Didn't Sandee turn 60 graciously???

Do you think it was these????

Or these??
Or BOTH???
We DID have fun!

Back to reality

Last Monday was the culmination of a wonderful event -- a cruise on the Celebrity ship, Century, to celebrate my very best girlfriend's 60th birthday! Sixteen of us mustered for the event and had an absolutley fantastic time drinking martinis from the iced Martini bar, sucking down jello shots that I made in our in-cabin fridge, dancing the shag after dinner so the calories we had consumed wouldn't count and just plain having fun!
Sadly, as we left the ship to head our homeward ways - some to South Carolina and some to Ohio - we were greeted with the gruesome news of the tragedy at Virginia Tech. Talk about jerking you back into reality -- that did it.
In a separate post I will share photos and memories from our wonderful trip. Right now, I will just say how very saddened I am by the tragedy and how I pray for the lives of all of those affected by it. May God have mercy on all of you.

Having a dog

It's amazing how time flies when you have a puppy. Our little Poppy just turned 1 on March 10th and the next day she graduated from her first training class.
The first year with a dog requires lots of adjustments to a busy life style, especially when you have only had cats as pets for the past 20+ years! Dogs actually PLAY with you and want you to play back. They take walks, sit on laps, do really cute things (not that cats don't do this part) and show a great deal of affection.
In her first year, Poppy has travelled to Chicago and to South Carolina by car so she has been through West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana and Illinois. We haven't tried taking her anywhere by air yet. At 12 pounds, I'm not sure if she would be allowed in a carrying case in the cabin with us or if she would have to be "shipped". If it's the latter, there are too many horror stories published about how many pets die in transit on airlines.
We are so lucky to have Merry Anne, our wonderful dog sitter, as well as Tina, our faithful cat sitter. Poppy is lucky, too - Merry Anne lets Poppy sleep with her and she doesn't get that perk at home! It's just so good to know that when you travel as much as we do, your pets are being well tended.

<

A surprise!

This weekend we are in Chicago visiting our friends Barabara & Dan. We had several nice treats while here:
1 - a stay at the beautiful Fours Seasons Hotel
2 - dinner at NoMi
3 - tickets to the Bears football game
4 - an introduction to a new restaurant (to us) called Bin 36
5 - the wonderful Hart Davis Hart wine auction!

After all of that (in just 2 days!) we were headed to Dan and Barbara's new home in Orland Park and decided to stop off at Binny's, a liquor "super store" we like to frequent because of both the great prices AND the great selections.
While we were browsing through the single malts for some Auchentoshin, which I hadn't been able to find since our trip to Scotland, we came across the Bruichladdich special gift packaging which we had done with our very hands while at the Academy there in September! Nice to see the results of our hard work on the shelves in Chicagoland!

Islay, Scotland

Once we had completed our work at the Academy at Bruichladdich (and had smapled LOTS of their wonderful Scotch whisky!) we were ready to see more of Scotland.
One day while staying at Bruichladdich, we went to the Port Charlotte Hotel for their oysters. Our classmates had told us how amazing they were and we couldn't wait to try them.
The Port Charlotte hotel is a lovely little treasure just a few miles down the road from Bruichladdich. We arrived there around 4 in the afternoon, ordered our Scotch and asked for 6 oysters each. The barman told us that the kitchen normally only prepares the oysters at lunchtime as they get too busy in the kitchen after that. We grovelled and begged and said how we had made the trip from America ONLY to have their wonderful oysters. He soon took pity on us and convinced the chef to prepare some for us.
These are no normal oysters, mind you. Each one was the size of a large pierogi. And they were so sweet and delicious! When we finished, we went outside and took some lovely photos of the area around Port Charlotte. Ree, our cook from Bruichladdich, then came to pick us up.

Poppy is growing up!

I thought it was time for an updated photo of Poppy, our little Papillon. She is now 8 months old and is almost a "dog" instead of a puppy!

More photos of the Scotch making process

Mixing the mash


Adding the Yeast to the fermentation tank









Filling the barrels




Checking the alcohol level at the Spirit Safe

Making Scotch Whisky

PEAT THAT HAS BEEN CUT & PILED TO DRY DIGGING THE PEAT

It's hard to believe, but in a matter of days, we learned how to make Scotch whisky. We did this while attending The Academy at Bruichladdich distillery on the island of Islay of the western coast of Scotland. Islay lies just north of Ireland so with the combination of the Scots and the Irish, whom I both think of as people who know their whisky, it's easy to see why Bruichladdich does all right in that location!
There are six students in the academy at a time. Don & I were the only Americans. At the beginning of the week everyone is divided up into pairs to learn the various processes involved in making the Scotch. Don was paired with Patrik from Sweden and I was paired with Johann,also from Sweden.
We did everything from going to the peat bog to cut the peat for the toasting of the malt to a visit to the water source, milling of the malt, making the "mash" from malt & water, fermentation with yeast of the "wort" or sweet water that is the runnoff of the mash, distilling the whisky and filling barrels, storing barrels, bottling the whisky and shipping it off to its destination. Whew! If you think that was a long sentence, you should be there actually DOING all those things!
The pictures attached represent each step of the process.

Beverly Hills - a break from Scotland

Since we are taking a little break in Beverly Hills, I thought I'd use the opportunity to write about something different today.
Having never been to Beverly Hills before, I decided to join Don on his trip here for a meeting. It has been most interesting.
By far the most unique shop on Rodeo Drive is Prada. Nowhere is there a sign to tell passersby what store it is. All you see from the sidewalk are the glass covered caverns with displays of luggage, handbags and clothing. If you "know" your Prada, I guess you would be able to identify the store from that. I'm not so astute -- I had to go in and look at a label!
One surprise about Rodeo Drive is the Village Gallery. We found some Michael Godard items there for less than we have seen them elsewhere. Apparently, that is because of the large volume of sales the gallery has.
My favorite restaurants are the Grill on the Alley and McCormick & Schmick's. Dining outside at M & S is great. Not only do you sit at the top of Two Rodeo to see al the shoppers there but you also look down on the Beverly Wilshire and their outdoor tables.
Monday we were treated to a great Studio tour at Sony Pictures, courtesy of Stephanie, the daughter of one of my golfing buddies. After the tour she also took us to the private dining room on the lot at Sony. What a treat!

Exceeding Expectation

Before I go into all the details of what we learned about making Scotch whisky, I want to interject a comment about our experience in Scotland overall.
When I put this trip together, it was for my husband Don. I wanted to surprise him with something great for his birthday as a way of saying "thanks" to him for all the great things he does for my life.
I was "going along" to someplace I had never really been deeply drawn towards because I wanted to see his delight in the experience. I expected to see gray, rainy skies and temperatures that would require a great deal of layering to be comfortable -- especially coming on the tail end of a nice warm summer in Ohio.
As you can see by the pictures here of Islay, I neither needed my raincoat nor my heavy sweaters. The only two days it rained were the day we arrived and the day we left. The rest of the time the sky was vibrantly clear and the temperatures were in the low 70's. The water looks like something from the Caribbean or Hawaii.
As if the weather wasn't enough to win me over, the PEOPLE of Scotland were such a delight! From the first stop at our B & B with Val and Keith, through the Bruichladdich experience with Ella, Andy, Adam, Alan, James, Peter I and Peter II, David, Budgie and so many more, though our new friends in Glasgow at Whisky Live and right up until our final dinner where our waiter offered to take our picture and did a fantastic job of it, everyone was delightful!
I only hope that in my travel planning profession, I am as successful at exceeding expectaions as of of these folks were for me.

Arrival at Islay International airport!



The drive from the Islay airport to our "home" for the next 5 days at Bruichladdich's Academy took about 30 minutes. We passed through Bowmore and saw the three peaks of Jura in the distance.

Our Academy mates were already settled in when we arrived so we met them right away. There was Jim from Scotland and Patrik, Johan and Bertyl from Sweden. The two ladies that would be feeding us and taking care of our rooms were Ree and Mary.
Our first meal consisted of Asparagus soup, ham steak, potatoes, cauliflower, cooked cabbage and salad. We had a wonderfully decadent brownie pie for dessert then an assortment of cheeses and coffee and tea. There was always plenty of beer, wine and, naturally, Bruichladdich Scotch for everyone.

This evening we learned who our work partner for the week would be and were given our schedules. The schedule was broken down into Mashing, Milling, Fermentation, Distilling, Peat cutting, Water supply,Warehousing, Filling, and Bottling hall. We would report to work at 8:30AM and work until around 4:30 with a break for lunch. It was only when we saw the schedule that we also learned we would have an EXAM at the end of the week! Yikes!

Our "welcome gift" at Bruichladdich

More on Scotland

PHOTOS OF THE DRIVE FROM GRANTON-ON-SPEY BACK TO GLASGOW



The next morning we rose early (and also caused Val to do so to prepare our breakfast!) so that we could have plenty of time to make it back to Glasgow for our 2:25PM flight to Islay. Armed with new directions from Keith, which would help us avoid the traffic between Stirling and Glasgow, we headed out following our final wonderful breakfast in Granton-On-Spey at An Cala Guest House.
It was a beautiful morning and we were treated not only to lovely scenery but even a few rainbows enroute! Our route took us past Loch Lomond but we didn't take time to look around as we feared missing our flight. Had we called ahead, we would have learned that we had plenty of time since our flight had been cancelled and we were now booked on the 5:00 flight! Bummer! Even worse, we had to wait in a long line to get the ticket reissued. British Airways did, however, give us a meal voucher so we had lunch and a beer (or two) at Garfinkels in the airport.
We still had about 2 hours to kill so we wandered the airport a bit. Found that the duty free shops in Scotland give samples! :>)
We did finally get on our way to Islay by about 5:15 and arrived there about 6:00. Two of our three bags did the same. The third naughty little red bag had separated itself from us and we would not see it again until the next day.
Tomorrow -- all about Islay!

Scotland continued

After leaving Ballandollach, we headed for Cardhu distillery. While Cardhu itself seems quite tiny, it is a part of the enormous Deagio (sp?) chain which is the parent for a great number of both single malts and blends, such as Johnny Walker. The tour at Cardhu was the equivalent of $8 US but it was applied towards the purchase of their whisky. Our tour guide, Debbie, signed a bottle of Craggenmore for us since her dad works there!
From little Cardhu, we headed (amongst even more pheasants) to Glenfiddich. Glenfiddich is an enormous operation -- perhaps the very largest distillery in Scotland. The comparison of them to Cardhu reminded us of one to T Vines vs Mondavi wineries in Napa! There is no charge for the tour at Glenfiddich and they still give you a "wee dram" taste after the tour.
That evening we had dinner at the Garth Hotel in Grantown-On-Spey. A few unique things about the restaurant service in Scotland: First, they don't fill the restaurant and try to "turn tables" as in the US. Instead, they have maybe a third of the tables filled at one time so the staff can more effectively serve those tables. Second, when you arrive, you are seated in a comfortable lounge area while your table is prepared. It is there you are offerd drinks instead of at your table. I personally liked these concepts a lot. It seemd to make for a lot more relaxing dining experience.
This evening Don had a smoked salmon appetizer followed by Garth's famous chicken which was stuffed with brie then wrapped in puff pastry. I had a vegetable crepe to start then their "Mussel Extravaganza". Delicious! Some restaurants offer an "early bird" discount. At the Garth we received 25% off our bill by eating at 6:00PM.
THe day had been very sunny and pleasant but the clear sky made it a bit chilly that evening. Still, we had a nice walk back to our lovely An Cala.