Ideas and reports for families on dining while traveling
I sent my crew — my daughter Mel and six of her college friends to check out Adventure Ridge — a veritable winter play ground at 10,350 feet atop the Eagle Bahn Gondola at Vail. There’s tubing. You can slide down the hill sitting on your big tube (couch potato style) or lay across it (Superman style). Couch Potato is scarier they declare.
We’re ensconced in a spacious two-bedroom, steps from the chairlift that doesn’t seem crowded even though my daughter Mel brought along six of her college friends. I love that the place is small — just 88 units ranging from studios to four bedrooms. I love that so many of the amenities are complimentary—from valet parking to WiFi to a bowling alley (that’s right a two-lane bowling alley)
We’re sitting at an elegantly set table for two in a private “tower” overlooking Sandals Emerald Bay pool which incidentally is the largest zero entry pool in the Caribbean. The fire pit—yes the pool has a fire pit—reflects light. We’re being served a special candlelight dinner. Our young waiter in white gloves tells us he wants to get an MBA in the United States
This is a most decidedly upscale Sandals—we even have butler service! It is kind of unnerving to have someone—especially a nice young man named Logesh Ambikapathy who is from India—to cater to my every wish. Lemon for my water? Coming right up. He even stops by the pool to see if we need anything. A pizza would be nice, we suggest. He brings it piping hot 15 minutes later.
The area east of where we staying at Bohio is apparently full of conch—our novice free divers get 10 in 20 minutes. We head to Gibb’s Cay, a tiny island where Trevor will prepare Conch Salad or Conch Ceviche while he hands out shrimp for us to feed the half dozen stingrays who swim around the beach waiting for their treat.
The Sitzman family (cousins of Eileen’s) from snowy Golden, Co., decided to let someone else decorate the tree this year and headed for Orlando, Fl. First stop: Universal Orlando and Breakfast with the Grinch!
Vista Verde Ranch , 25 miles north of Steamboat Springs on some 560 pristine acres at 7,800 feet above sea level, is a place to literally slow down and enjoy the scenery from the back of a horse or on snowshoes or backcountry skis away from crowds and cars
Welcome to Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in Destin, FL on the Gulf Coast about halfway between Pensacola and Panama City. You’re just a little more than four hours from Atlanta or Birmingham; five from New Orleans and eight from Dallas.
I’m traveling with my two daughters, Reggie and Melanie, my 15-year-old cousin Eva Weinberg, and my best friend, JoAnne Cagen. It is our last gasp of summer before the girls scatter back across the country to jobs in San Francisco, school in Colorado and Connecticut. The trip is especially poignant for JoAnne.
We’re at a restored picture-perfect farmhouse up in the hills of Lucca on the vineyard and olive groves that are owned by Piero Tartagini and Francesca Pardini, taking a cooking lesson from Zeela Rubenstein and her husband Mauro Gehigani