Waves Outer Banks

Our Waves Outer Banks trip was very relaxing. Being it was the out of season time, not much was happening. Many days I would go out onto the beach and be the only person for miles. Prior to our getting in OBX, there had been a storm that had washed a bit of the beach away and left a ledge that went for almost the entire length of the beach. It made for some interesting walks to say the least. Below is one of the videos I made of me playing on the beach.
as much too cold to go in..I did wade in ankle deep several times, but that was about it.

Outer Banks in November

The lovely Outer Banks is then next location where we will be venturing to in the not to distant future. Lizzie has a friend who is a Fireman(oops fireperson) in Chicago who invited us to hang with here and her husband for a little vacation. They are actually waiting to make reservations due to possible work obligations that could potentially show up between now and then.


Since November is not the peak season in the Outer Banks, finding a sweet deal should not be a problem.
Lizzie recommends staying out of the huge touristy areas like Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills and the like. She always likes to stay in the smaller communities like Salvo or Avon or any of the other smaller communities on Hatteras Island.

As the time for the trip approaches, and during the trip, I am sure I will be completing a few more posts of our Outer Banks trip.

Past Outer Banks Trips

Here are a few of the posts I did about some of our past Outer Banks trips.

• The Beach at Avon
• OBX to Convalesce
• A Salvo Beach Walk Video
• 
  

Maine Artist - Russell D'Alessio

My apologies to the Maine Artist, Russell D'Alessio for continually butchering his name, which I was continually plagued with...that is having my name mispronounced.

Last year during our visit to Bar Harbor, Lizzie discover and fell in love with Russell's painting, and for her birthday, she got to purchase one of Russell's prints. After several email conversations with the D'Alessios, Lizzie and I were invited over to Russell and Linda D'Alessio's home for wine and cheese while we were in Bar Harbor.

Linda and Russell's home is truly a work of art in itself. Russell's art work adorns the colorful walls of their country home, and Linda frequently says she comes home to find the walls have changed with the movement of his work.

Russell truly inspired Lizzie, because he did not start doing the kind of painting he enjoys until after their children left home. For years Russell made a living doing things such as graphic design, and painting Maine landscapes, which seem to be quite popular.

After spending several enjoyable hours with Russell and Linda, Lizzie and I left the D'Alessio's with a few additions to our D'Allessio art collection pictured above.

If you like contemporary art, check out Russell's site. You can also see Russell's work at the Pretty Marsh Gallery in Bar Harbor as well as other galleries within the United States.

Bar Harbor Inn

As part of our Maine Vacation, after my cousins wedding, we took a trip to Bar Harbor much like we did last year. This year however, instead of staying at the Ledgelawn, we stayed at the Bar Harbor Inn. Below is the video I took of our rather messy room.


I will be reviewing our fine dining experiences we had at Bar Harbor Inn, which included two dinners and two breakfasts, in another post on Thegrubhound.com.

Lizzie purchased a package which included two nights, two dinners, two breakfasts, and the cruise on the Margaret Todd, which is the four mast schooner that resides at Bar Harbor.

Bar Harbor is a great Maine tourist town which you should visit at least once. Bar Harbor is located on Mt. Desert Island and is surrounded by Acadia National Park. No trip to Bar Harbor is not complete with out visiting Cadillac Mt and Thunder Hole.

Things we Liked about Bar Harbor Inn

1. Great food. The crab cakes at Bar Harbor Inn got rave reviews from Lizzie and were named the best Crab Cakes for 2007. I myself will recommend any of their lobster dishes.
2. Cozy robes to sit on the patio while sipping wine.
3. Heated pool(didn't use, but its a great feature)
4. Spa(again didn't use, but if we stayed longer we surely would have loved a couples massage)
5. Beautiful view of Bar Harbor.
6. Large modern bathrooms.
7. Extremely helpful staff.

Things to Work On

1. Wifi was not free. tsk tsk.
2. TV was not a flat screen and very small...sorry we are so spoiled.
3. Other than those two, I can not say anything else that we didn't find acceptable.
   

The Bar Harbor Inn is a great nostalgic place to vacation, and if you have the opportunity, we both highly recommend it the next time you are looking for lodging in Bar Harbor.

Auburn Hilton Garden Inn

This morning I awoke in our Hilton Garden Inn room around 730am wonderfully rested and ready to go. After going down to the ultra clean work out room where I did a measly 15 minutes on the elipitical trainer, I headed up to the room for a shower.

We arrived in Lisbon, ME Friday morning at 515am, after my bro drove the night through with only one stop outside of Boston for a facilities break and gas. Being it was so early, none of our relatives were awake so we headed down to the the T&A for some breakfast. Yea, you got to love the name...it doesn't stand for what you think it does. T&A's is a relatively new general store/dinner that is located in the old NAPA building in Lisbon. I chose to eat some of their fabulous blue berry pancakes and Lizzie had the regular pancakes. After we had just gotten our grub, my cousin Gary, who works at a Lisbon, ME Landscape Company, was up early to get some work done, showed up for some grub before heading off to work.

The primary purpose for our trip was for the Wedding of my cousin Scott's wedding. Since the reception was being held at the Hilton in Auburn, guests were encouraged to spend the night. Lizzie, just loves Hilton, so we reserved a room for both Friday and Saturday nights.

Impressions of the Auburn Hilton

Lizzie:
great view, clean room, comfortable...slept better at this hotel than any hotel in a very long time. excellent cookies at the front desk. Good shower...wonderful water pressure(oh she likes a minimum of 4 large towels and we only had three)...kitchenette was really nice to have in a hotel room.

Emperor:
Love the desk chair...comfortable bed...great shower...very happy with the exercise facilities.

Both: Had great sleep. Food was ok, but you would do better to go out in the surrounding communities for some fabulous local fare. Lobster anyone? Both glad that the WiFi was included which made keeping up with Plurk and email a breeze.
Two thumbs up.

Next Trip - Bar Harbor Inn

In just a few days we'll be heading up to Maine for a family wedding. We'll be driving through the night and arriving in the Lewiston/Auburn area on Friday morning. We are staying at the Hilton in Auburn ME with the rest of the out-or-town wedding guests. The wedding in on Saturday morning; the reception is immediately following the wedding.

Sunday morning, we'll be heading up to Bar Harbor for a mini-vacation. We went to Bar Harbor last summer in the height of the tourist season. We stayed at a bed and breakfast - the only one in the area that had a room. This year we'll be staying at the Bar Harbor Inn.

The Inn is right on the water. It's old and majestic. We did have dinner there last summer. They won the 2007 award for the best crab cakes!

When making our reservations at the Inn, I decided to do the Autumn Special. After I did the math, it appears that it will cost us far less with the special. It includes 2 nights lodging, 2 full breakfasts, dinner one night at the Terrace restaurant, a lobster bake the following night; then a choice of a 2 hour boat tour of the Harbor, a half day bike rental or bus tour of Acadia National Park; and $20 to spend at the gift shop. This package includes all taxes and gratuities!

The Inn At Bear Creek and the Dover Downs Casino

Wow, August has come and went and there has been no posting here since July.
Did we go anywhere in August?

Saturday, which was in August we went to the Dover Downs for a quick bite at Doc Moagrogans Oyster House. Lizzie had an itch to drive, so I talked her into going to the Dover Downs which we have wanted to review for some time.
So after our oysters(I had Oysters, Lizzie had the fabulous crab cakes) we went and hit the slots which is the extent of the Dover Downs casino. All in all, we ended up loosing about 50 bucks. I did win 18 on my first hand of video black jack, but then lost it all in subsequent hands. As a gentleman sitting next to me said, you can win, you just need to learn to walk away.

On Friday, we spent the night at The Inn at Bear Creek, which is a local ski resort which was bought several years ago by the company that owns Killington in VT. A lot of money has been pumped into the facilities, and it surely is a nice place to take a retreat. A more extensive review of The Inn at Bear Creek on this blog and on Thegrubhound are forthcoming.

Other than these two excursions last weekend, August was spent at home in the waters of our backyard.

Cheap Flights and Holiday Packages from Expedia Australia

I was asked to do a review of Expedia.com's Australian site. Checking out the Australian version of Expedia.com, I can barely tell that I am not on the US version. At Expedia.com.au, just like on the US site, you can create an account and maintain your itineraries. I also like the fact that the Australian site has Australian Travel Blog, unlike the domestic site which does not.

Much like the American site, the Australian Expedia also has lots of info about getting cheap flights from and to Australian airports such as Adelaide,Brisban,Melbourn,Perth,or Sydney. For example, I found a round way trip between Sydney and Auckland, New Zealand for AU$459.88. Sounds pretty cheap for a 2000 mile flight. Within Australia, the flights are even cheaper. For example, I found a really cheap round trip flight to Sydney from Adelaide, Australia for under Au$150.

In addition to all the cheap flights you can find on Expedia Australia, you can also purchase holiday packages that include both travel and accomodations. I know making holiday travel plans can be a real challenge, but if you go to Expedia.com.au, you can do it all in one place. Wow, I just found a package that includes 7 nights and airfair to Hawaii for under au$2000. That would surely be a sweet holiday package.

All this talk about Australia has me thinking about finding an Australian holiday package. Hmm, I wonder if there are any cheap flights from Philadelphia to Sydney?

Saddle Brook Marriott

Last weekend, we had the pleasure of attending a wedding that took place just inside the NY state line with the reception at the Tides Estate in North Haeldon NJ. The wedding guests were housed at the Saddle Brook Marriott, which sadly was undergoing some major renovations. I felt really sorry for the bride, since the Marriott staff assured her that the construction would be completed way before her wedding. I hope they compensate her for the inconvenience, which included:

• Guests were limited to use of one elevator.
• The hotel bar and restaurant were set up in small conference rooms.

Other than these two major problems, the accomodations were great. The rooms were very lavish and comfortable. I found the selection of provided toiletries was great(nice smelling lotion), and the bathrooms had

Oh, one major peeve I have is that the Wifi at the Marriott was not free, and it was a travesty of a connection at that.

Marriott's Ocean Pointe -Vacation Club on Singer Island

The Marriott's Ocean Pointe video was taken during the sales meeting we had to attend on 4/4/08 as part of our package deal. A really low pressure sales meeting, great beaches, a great condo, and great weather made our week on Singer Island a real vacation.


So for a beach that does not have a boardwalk, with really great sand, check out Singer Island. From the sales meeting we listened to, it seems that the island is going to be under a serious development phase in the next couple of years. So if your looking to get into a beach time share at the preconstruction phase, give our sales person Brian Simon a call at 561-882-3050. You can also check out Marriot's Ocean Palms website for more information on purchasing a vacation on Marriott's Singer Island resorts.

Tags: Singer Island, Palm Beach, Time Share

Singer Island Review

Now a little under a week since we have been back from Singer Island, I better get a post down or it will slip away and I will have nothing written. I was just looking for a review of The Bar Harbor Hotel were Lizzie had her best Crab Cakes of 2007 and I realized...duh...I had not done a review of it. So to not let this happen with any of the great places we dined at while visiting Singer Island, I want to do a quick list post of the places we ate and hopefully later I will be able to do more in depth reviews here or on our Restaurant Review blog, TheGrubhound.com, at which time I will link those posts to these brief summaries.
Tuesday we arrived as I wrote about in the previous Singer Island Trip post, so that is were I will begin.

Were we ate on the Tuesday of our Singer Island Trip.

• We ate bagels from WaWa on the way to my bros who drove us the PHL.
• PHL airport Lizzie got us a Stromboli to share on the plane.
• We were shopping at a Palm Beach mall and ate at The California Pizza Kitchen...good cheese cake, and friendly waitress recommended some stuff to do while in Palm Beach.

Were we ate on Wednesday of our Singer Island Trip.

• Our Marriott's Ocean Pointe Concierge directed us to the Southern Kitchen Homestyle Cooking Restaurant off of Federal Highway in Lake Park, FL for the best breakfast in the area....good breakfast...huge biscuits. They also had 3 Geeks Web Design mugs for coffee...that is a pretty cool marketing idea. Mugs at restaurants...hmmm.

• Having a late start, we skipped lunch and had an early dinner at The Brass Ring Pub, which was also off of the Federal Highway, for several of their delicious 1/2 lb hamburgers and unusually good but different tasting chicken wings. A warning for anyone who would like to follow in our footsteps, this is a bar that the locals hang out in, so don't over dress.

• We then did a bit of driving, and went to the Hilton on Singer Island to check it out. We were considering eating at the Hilton the following night, but chose otherwise. We did however have a nice little drink at Coconuts on The Beach, which is the Hiltons restaurant/bar.

• After the Hilton, we ended up driving our convertible Spyder around Palm Beach looking for dessert. We ended up at the West Palm Beach Cheesecake Factory for two pieces of their great desserts. Lizzie had a piece of peanut butter cookie dough cheese cake and I had a piece of Chris' outrageous Chocolate Cake.
  

Where we ate Thursday of our Singer Island Trip.

• Today we used Google and went to TooJay's in Palm Beach for breakfast. Great bagels, and desserts. We also got a piece of their famous Killer Cake to go.

• We ate lunch at the Marriott's Ocean Pointe Pool bar.

• For Dinner our concierge made reservations at Charley's Crab in Palm Beach. Great Seafood can be had at Charley's Crab, which is part of the Muer Seafood Restaurants. See the video on Thegrubhound review.

Where we ate Friday of our Singer Island Trip.

• For breakfast, we thought we would check out Johnny Longboats Tropical Grill, a local place we noticed on our travels. Johnny Longboats Tropical Grill has a great atmosphere, and I wish we had more time, as I would have enjoyed sipping a margarita on their deck.

• For lunch we ate ate the pool pub again for lunch. The previous day, I noticed they had both hot dogs and sides of coleslaw on the menu, so I ordered up a Slaw dog for lunch. They will be added to my slaw dog list since it was a great big 1/4lb hot dog, but I would order the slaw on the side next time and put it on myself instead as it was a little too juicy for the roll.
  

• For dinner, foolishly, we went to Carrabbas in West Palm Beach. Lizzie's pasta tasted like Tuna Helper, and our waitress was really terrible. I believe Lizzie only tipped her 15% instead of 20%. There were several good things about our meal at the Carrabbas, to include the bread at the beginning of the meal(love the spices and dipping oil), my salad, and the delicious bruschetta appetizer. We may have to try another Carrabbas to give a fair review.

Well that was about it for our Singer Island and Palm Beach dining experience. Saturday, we got up and had a muffin from the Marriott's Ocean Pointe grocery store, and also grabbed something at the airport.

Technorati Tags: Singer Island Restaurants,Singer Island,Palm Beach Restaurants

Flickr Tags: Singer Island Restaurants,Singer Island

Singer Island - The Trip To Singer Island

We got to Singer Island yesterday around 4pm. Our USAir flight went very smoothly. Lizzie was amazed that check in went so quickly. I was amazed that PHL didn't loose my bag again. Our flight landed in PBI(Palm Beach International Airport) right on schedule.

Budget Rent-a-Car

After getting our bags, we went to budget rent a car to pick up our reserved economy car. At the Budget counter we were offered an upgrade special. So we ended up driving a Spyder convertible for only $15 a day extra, which really thrilled Lizzie...she has always wanted to drive a convertible. So we head out to our car, which was suppose to be a white Spyder, but turnedout to be orange when we picked it up. It took us about 10 minutes to get situated, and find out how to take the top down. I made a video while taking the top down if you care to watch it and learn how to take the top down on a Spyder.

Following my GPS, we easily got to Singer Island and Marriott's Ocean Pointe at Palm Beach Shores within 20 minutes, and within 10 minutes we were in our Marriot Ocean Pointe room.

Laptop LCD Screens & Traveling

We do a good amount of traveling for our business and that requires traveling with our laptops. Traveling puts additional stress on the computer – especially the laptop LCD screens. When we're in the office, we're able to better care for our computers, but in and out of airports, hotels and business meetings – there is less time to care for the LCD screens and other fragile parts of the laptop.

Also while traveling; our laptops are at the mercy of the friends and colleagues that we're visiting. And, even with the best intentions when others use our laptops they may not be as careful as we'd like. This is part of our business and we need to plan accordingly.

The better quality the LCD screens of the laptop seem to be, the more want to touch the screen. There are some products that can be used to clean the screens, but they never are fully the same as before the fingerprints. We are fortunate that we can use our laptops as a business deduction and any repairs or replacements are part of doing business.

Our next trip – Singer Island, Florida - is rapidly approaching and we'll take the necessary precautions to care for our laptop LCD screens and other essential components that can easily be damaged.

Holiday Inn Grantville

I recently had to stay at the Grantville, PA Holiday Inn when my son's hockey team participated in the Hershey Jr Bears Post Season Hockey tournament. See the post on the Reading Jr Royals Hockey blog for details of the hockey tournament and my evaluation of the end of season tournament.
I say I had to stay there because in the tournament rules(which were really bogus) the team had to stay at a selected hotel, and if team members where found to be staying at another hotel, they would be kicked out of the tournament...sound like BS to you too?
So begrudgingly, I told the coaches' wife to make the reservations for Saturday night only. Since this was the end of the 2006-2007 hockey season for my son, it would be kind of like the end of season party.
The Holiday Inn in Grantville has both and indoor pool and outdoor pool, a game room, banquet facilities, a bar, and a restaurant. It is also located within 10 miles of the Hershey attractions as well as within a mile of Penn National Race track and a new casino.
The hotel as it turns out is a fine hotel for families with kids. My son and two of his team mates who staid with us had a splendid time. I on the other hand, had a terrible night due primarily to the uncomfortable bed. In addition to the substandard bed, the room did come with what they called "High Speed Internet", which consisted of a cable that was long enough to only allow my lap top to be used on the bed. Sadly, had I been staying here for an extended time, this limitation would have really annoyed me.
My overall rating for the Grantville, PA Holiday Inn would be 2.5 stars out of 5. It is an ok hotel to stay if you have kids, and you don't mind a mattress that offers weak support. Two things to improve the hotel that I would suggest...in room wireless and memory foam mattresses.

Singer Island - Our Next Trip

Its been a while since Lizzie and I have gotten away, I believe our last trip was our Atlantic City Getaway.

Whats been happening?

• We are in the middle of buying a house, and we are also selling our current house, so there is quite a bit of time involved with these transactions.
• Our Online Marketing Business has been growing by leaps and bounds, and requests for proposals, and actual new accounts require a lot of the time that we would usually be using for travel. (this is temporary)
• Other family obligations(not temporary)
  

Our next Trip

Lizzie and I will be traveling to Singer Island West Palm Beach, Fl at the beginning of April for a short little trip. We have an appointment to watch one of those time share sales meetings at the Marriott Ocean Pointe Resort. Other than going to the Time Share presentation, Lizzie and I are planning on doing little more than hanging out. This trip will be primarily R&R, but some blogging will occur as well of course.

In preparation for the trip, I will be doing some research which will include:

• Where to eat on Singer Island
• What to do on Singer Island
• Surf spots on Singer Island
• Cheese Cake on Singer island
• Good desserts on Singer island
• Other places to stay on Singer Island
• The History of Singer Island

If you have been to Singer Island or any of the communities in close proximity to it, please leave a comment and let me know. Feel free to leave links to any related sites or blog posts as well.

Updates:
I just found a groovy post about places to eat on Singer Island on Chowhound(love the name).

Do You Use Hotel Glasses and Cups?

I was on Matt Charron's blog, and watched this video. I had heard about this sometime ago, but had never seen a video about the hotel industry's practice of not actually washing the room glasses. I'll have to remember to bring a travel size dish soap when staying at a hotel.

Pretty gross huh.
Do you drink out of hotel room glasses?

Luggage - Lost Luggage

I just made a video about my red Ricardo rolling suitcase that has been lost by the Philadelphia airport(PHL) two times. The first time they lost my bag was when we were coming back from Las Vegas, and the second was when we went to New Orleans recently.

Has PHL or another airport lost one of your bags? Leave a comment and tell us how the airlines treated you and your lost luggage.

Tags: luggage

Lucy of Margate

On Saturday morning of our Atlantic City trip, after breakfast at Annette's, Lizzie mentioned that there is a huge elephant in Margate, NJ. So we had to head just a little south to Margate to see Lucy the Elephant, which happens to be a National Historic Landmark. To say Lucy is big is an understatement. Thankfully she is not a real elephant, because she would be as big as a dinosaur if she was alive. Perhaps this summer I'll have the chance to visit her and take a video of inside Lucy.

Lucy is currently closed, but reopens in April. For more information about Lucy, see their site LucytheElephant.org.

Atlantic City NJ - Flagship Fantasea

Our trip to Atlantic City made for a good getaway last weekend, that was much needed. It has been quite a while since we got away, so this little vacation was much appreciated.
With the assistance of my Garmin Nuvi GPS, we got to the Flagship with out any problems. I really am amazed at how easily I got used to using the Nuvi in our travels. But that is another post.

Flagship Fantasea Resort

Our room was on the 30th floor and it faced the Marina. The picture above was taken from our balcony on Friday night.
The room had what they said was a queen sized bed, and a queen sized sleeper sofa in a separate living area which included a kitchen with a sink, microwave, 2 burner stove top, and refrigerator.
The hotel also has a swimming pool, game room, lounge, restaurant, fitness center, business center, and activity center for young children. Even though Lizzie and I did not use all of the facilities of the Flagship Fantasea, we would still recommend staying there for both families and couples.





The Viddler Video was recorded Saturday night and Sunday morning of our Atlantic City trip.
To read about the places we ate while in AC, check out TheGrubhounds Atlantic City Dinning post.

What places in Atlantic City would you recommend?

Atlantic City NJ

Atlantic City NJ is going to be the destination we will be traveling to next, and as it turns out, that will be this coming weekend. Lizzie has been working way too hard, and this weekend seems like the perfect time to get away.

Bellagio Casino not in Atlantic City, but one of my favorite casinos.

So Lizzie went on Hotels.com looking for a decent place to stay. Last time we were in AC, the place we had was easily the worst hotel of 2006. I won't give the name out, but suffice it to say, it earned its one star rating.

This time Lizzie has made reservations for the Flagship Fantasy Resort, which is a 3.5 star Atlantic City hotel, which does not have a casino, but is on the boardwalk and within walking distance(I will let you know for sure) of the major Atlantic City boardwalk casinos such as Trump, Caesars, and others.

We have arranged to have a room with a queen bed and a queen sofa bed as well, since my brother may be joining us tomorrow evening.

I'll have to send Tripit our Atlantic City travel plans to see if there are any activities that we may be interested in doing.