YouHaveToGoThere

Headed to Portland...need your help!

Headed to Portland, OR, May 21-26.  Looking for restaurant, hotel and activity recommendations so I can share them with all of you while I'm gone.

Tea Bar in Crystal River, Floirda

If you ever happen to find yourself in or near Crystal River, Florida, a must-stop is the Back Porch Garden & Tea Shop.  The place started as a garden shop with a very small selection of tea.  But the owners' love for GREAT tea and the customer demand for the same turned this quaint gardening stop into a large Tea Bar.  I was there Saturday and had the most fabulous Chai Tea - Marsala.  It's served with steamed milk, sugar and honey.  I had mine iced, of course and it was nothing like Tazo (Starbucks) or Oregon (everywhere but Starbucks).  Grandma and I enjoyed to tea with a freshly baked Cherry Scone.  Also the best I'd ever had. 

This place was perfect.  I WILL be back.  And next time, I'll enjoy lunch next door at Cafe On The Avenue. 

Planning a honeymoon or vacation?

Photo from Villagreenleaf.com

My husband and I were complete opposites when it came to selecting a honeymoon spot.  If it were his choice we would have been in a log cabin, built by us, in some undiscovered mountainous region surviving off freshly caught fish from a nearby stream.  Exaggerating?  Ok...maybe a little but he's a rustic kind of guy.  The thought of overcrowded tourist-y resorts made him cringe.  If it were my choice, we would have spent 2 weeks in Europe, most likely in an adorable bed and breakfast with gourmet meals, bike rides to local markets, and visits to every hole-in-the-wall authentic Italian restaurant nearby. 

So.  We settled on a place we would come to recognize as a dream vacation.  We spent one week at a top-rate B&B in the center of St. Croix island.   Space is limited so I'll get to the point of why you should make St. Croix, specifically Villa Greenleaf, your next vacation destination.

• 3-course gourmet breakfast every morning.
• 5 star quality rooms.
• A super friendly and incredibly helpful/knowledgeable hostess (Erica) - whatever restaurants she recommends, go there.  You will not be disappointed.
• Perfectly delicious food.  Ask the waiter what their best dish is and order it. 
• Top rated dive sites.
• So much do to on a small budget. 

I could go on.  Check out the Villa Greenleaf site for more information.  I'll share video from our travels as soon as I can get it posted!

Super cheap and last minute travel

                     

If you're anything like me, you have no real travel plans...just an itch to go someplace sweet as soon as the price is right.  Sure, I have a few places I'm dying to visit but most of the time I'm just looking to go where the airfare is ridiculously low and you usually won't find that out until several weeks, or days, before you leave. 

Last July, my mom and I made a very short trip to NYC.  I found an INCREDIBLELY low plane ticket from CMH to LGA...$102 round-trip after taxes!  We left Columbus around 6 AM on Monday, arrived in New York an hr-ish later, stayed one night and departed the next evening at 9 PM (of course there were some amazing restaurants and shopping between the arrival and departure!). 

My source?  Travelzoo.  I happened upon this site a few years ago when I was planning a vacation for some friends.  This site posts some incredible deals that were dug up and passed the test to make it into the top 20.  Every Wednesday these deals are emailed to Travelzoo subscribers everywhere and time stops as we all scroll down the list.  Many times, these deals sell-out within the hour so have your price and time-frame lined up when Wednesday rolls around!

Having trouble planning your dream honeymoon?  Beautiful beach vacations, romantic cruises, top rated resorts all over the world... you can plan up to the last minute with Travelzoo.  We did:)