From the category archives:

Adventure, Travel & Tours

The Bat Cave. Ride a Bike There. See Hollywood. It’s Pretty Darn Fun!

Larry and I are not athletes. We own bikes, and ride distances that safely allow us to get home without physical trauma. But we’ll give adventure a shot, especially when it’s a good value. That turned out to include renting bikes in Hollywood to tour from Grauman’s Chinese to the Hollywood Sign. This was our [...]

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No Purse Necessary; Time For My Scottevest!

I’m not the backpack type. At my age, they look dumb. And they seriously tweak my back. For times that I want/need to carry a lot of stuff purse-free (like Paris), I’ve used my Scottevest trench coat. Yet what about hot, sweaty travel? Now I have THE RIGHT VEST.

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Ride the Metro Expo Line from Culver City to the LA Convention Center and Other Fun Spots

New Yorkers, don’t laugh. San Franciscans, no snickering. Atlantans, give us some pity. We Angelinos don’t know what to do with our Metro line. Is it a subway? Is it a train? CORN-fusing to natives addicted to our cars.

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Santa Monica to Carmel ~ Foodie Road Trip!

Nine hours – home to destination. Drive, stop, eat, shop, sightsee, gas up again, go! Print this post out. Tuck it in your “California road trip” file. Good eats on the horizon.

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“Think Pink” ~ Where to Stay in Carmel By The Sea

The Hofsas House is a boutique family-owned inn in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA, run by savvy proprietress Carrie, granddaughter of founder Donna. The inn is famously PINK, and a perfect destination for a girlfriend getaway.

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Why Girlfriend Getaways Are A Necessity

This is the first installment of a series inspired by a recent Girlfriend Getaway to Carmel-by-the-Sea with fellow food and travel bloggers, Dorothy of Shockingly Delicious and Erika of In Erika’s Kitchen.

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Gorilla Trekking in Rwanda. You Read That Right

That is a silverback gorilla. But he isn’t the entire reason I have the look of fear on my face. It’s because I am holding on for dear life to not slip down the mountain, basically how I felt all this day. Because, to be honest, we DID fall a lot. But that is part [...]

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Day in the Life of a Background Actor, Me!

My new hobby takes little to no talent beyond being able to listen closely and walk without falling. It’s open to all ages, ethnicities, shapes, sizes. I background act – does this street look familiar? I’m parked in Gaby’s Wisteria Lane driveway (“Desperate Housewives” now off the air) for a Halloween episode of an unrelated [...]

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While Harvesting Idaho Potatoes, A Killer CORN Recipe Also Showed Up

Waffle fries made from uber-fresh Idaho potatoes, above, were just one of a dozen ways we experienced the harvest. We food bloggers gladly devoured our way through the 2012 Idaho Potato Harvest via (1) salty chips, (2) baked, (3) O-Brien, (4) waffled, (5) three types of salads at the home of Hoffs Farms (four generations [...]

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Sister Sue is Vindicated + More Lessons From the 2012 Idaho Potato Harvest

To my big sister Sue, I take it all back. Apologies. Mea culpa. This is a post about my attitude adjustment and your instant potato flakes.

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Attending the Idaho Potato Harvest to Learn About a Simple, Fascinating, Delicious Food

It was the Idaho Potato Commission’s 2012 harvest tour – eleven food bloggers, including me, were shipped off to Idaho to get the scoop on spuds for our readers. Think potatoes are a simple veggie? It took close to four days to deep-dive into the topic enough to really, truly grasp “why” Idaho, “why” fresh [...]

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In Escrow ~ Saying ‘Bye to Favorite Neighbors

The girls of Westwood, I’ll miss seeing you. Marilyn. Natalie. Peggy. Farrah. Donna. Eve. Eva. When friends and family visited us, one of my fav spots to show them was this gem with walking distance. Now our house is in escrow, we’re downsizing to move closer to the beach! Sure, we’ll miss some neighbors, but [...]

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Why I Luv Hampton Inns

This gal has stayed at some swanky hotels from Paris’ Hotel de Crillion (twice!), to a six-room suite in a Ritz Carlton, and a good number of Four Seasons (thanks, fat-cat PR client Kahlua), … but now, I go on record: I luv Hampton Inns. We just hit yet another…