Getaway to “The Land of the Sky” – Asheville, North Carolina

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Jan Ross

ILL-AshevilleNCIn 1876, author Frances Tiernan wrote a book called “The Land of the Sky.” Located between the soaring Smoky Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains, this moniker was adopted as Asheville, North Carolina’s nickname and is still used today.

     Our first visit to The Land of the Sky was actually a happy accident. On our drive from Lexington, Kentucky to Savannah, Georgia, we found a place about halfway in between to stop at a small city in North Carolina, and that just so happened to be Asheville. It was a serendipitous event that introduced us to this lovely, kitschy, fascinating little town that often draws visitors back for return visits. It quickly became obvious that this was a place we too would return to again and again.

Read the rest of this article on Travelhoppers HERE.

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Photo Friday: Snowy Trail

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Jan Ross

We discovered snowshoeing last winter and love it. Tom got this shot of a snowy trail through the woods as we traversed it.

Snowshoe Trail

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Enjoying the Snow at Boyne Highlands

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Jan Ross

snowmanPress Trip

 

 

Although a good chunk of the United States has been moaning and complaining about all the snow this winter, we actually wanted more snow and headed to Michigan to find it.

We discovered the beautiful joy that is Michigan in the winter last year and considering my love for warm, tropical beaches, it’s pretty ironic that I love it just as much as my husband.

We were invited to visit Boyne Highlands for a long weekend but Tom is not quite as enthusiastic a traveler as I am and we had just returned from a trip. But I was not about to miss another visit to Michigan and Boyne Highlands looked completely amazing – which turned out to be quite accurate.

As enthusiastic as I was about the trip, I wasn’t enthused about driving all the way by myself so I invited my other favorite travel partner, my sister-in-law, who immediately agreed. Boyne Highlands kindly agreed to me bringing a guest, turned our press trip into a girlfriends getaway and even threw in a spa treatment. We decided we loved Boyne Highlands before we ever arrived.

And, once we arrived, the love was even more extensive.

Boyne Highlands is located in the gorgeous mountains near Harbor Springs, Michigan which is itself an amazing destination with plenty of little shops and restaurants right on the harbor which we will have to check out next time before we never managed to tear ourselves away from the resort. And why would we?

Entrance to the Main Lodge.

Entrance to the Main Lodge.

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Categories: Accommodations, Girlfriends Getaway, Michigan, Resorts, Skiing, Spa, United States | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Cruising Southern France with Viking Cruises

Posted on March 2, 2015 by Jan Ross

viking_longships_1Somehow, in the course of becoming a travel writer and traveling the world, I have become a person who casually announces that we are going to France.

When I was a kid, our big vacations involved piling into a station wagon, the kids in the way back with no seat belts because seriously, who had heard of seat belts?, and heading to Pensacola, Florida to visit my grandmother. There wasn’t much money for fancy vacations with four kids but we never knew any different and the white sands of the beautiful Gulf Coast were very satisfactory to us.

Years of family picnics on that sugar white sand made indelible memories, so much so that years later we took our children to the same location for vacations.

So, even though we have been steadily traveling to an astonishing variety of amazing places for the last few years, I have not yet become totally jaded.

So, yeah.

We are going to France!!

Strangely enough, we have actually been to France before. We were in Europe a couple of years ago and ended up in Paris for the last few days of our trip. People say things are surreal all the time but this was truly surreal. Were we actually climbing the Eiffel Tower? Eating French pastries in a sidewalk cafe? Cruising on the Seine? Yes, yes, and yes we actually were in Paris.

But Paris is all we have seen of France so we are pretty excited to be cruising with Viking Cruises on their Portraits of Southern France cruise in May. 8 days, 6 guided tours, one country. Oh, yes. We leave from Avignon and arrive in Chalon-Sur-Saone a week later and in the middle we will see castles and palaces and wineries and cathedrals and this is a run on sentence but oh the excitement!

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Photo Friday: Snow Covered Branches

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Jan Ross

It’s always amazing how the snow clings to every single surface. Tom got this shot on our recent Michigan trip.

Snow covered branches

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Savoring the Amazing Offerings with Food Carts Portland

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Jan Ross

Food CartAs huge fans of local foodie tours, we will often make a foodie tour of a city our first priority when visiting. It gives us a chance to sample some local restaurants and make a decision about whether we would like to return to enjoy a full meal. In this manner, we have explored Seattle, Scottsdale, San Francisco and lots of other locations.

But truly one of the most unique foodie tours was one we participated in just recently in Portland, Oregon. Long before food carts or trucks became a phenomenon spreading throughout most major cities, Portland started the incredibly popular craze that other cities are now trying to emulate. Always a place on the cutting edge of culinary daring, Portland is the perfect place to check out the food cart scene.

For the unitiated, food carts are basically just mobile kitchens from which food is served to pedestrians passing by. While food carts are technically mobile, those in Portland are set up into pods all over the city and are stationary. Food carts are amazingly versatile, offering an incredible array of goodies, and appealing to an astonishing variety of customers from businessmen on a lunch break to families of all ages to students.

Read the rest of this article on Epicurean Traveler HERE.

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Jetboating Hell’s Canyon with Un-Cruise Adventures

Posted on February 23, 2015 by Jan Ross

desert-canyonWe had an absolutely amazing time on our Un-Cruise Adventures cruise of the Columbia and Snake Rivers in Oregon and Washington. Every single thing was perfect from our roomy cabin with an outside door to the spectacular food to the fascinating fellow passengers to the fact that we had a massage onboard included in the cruise rate.

That’s right.

A massage for each guest.

Yes, you should immediately book this cruise. Because it was awesome.

And the massage is just one of the reasons for the love because the biggest reason as far as we are concerned was the amazing trip we took up Hell’s Canyon on a jetboat. We really didn’t know what to expect of this shore excursion that was listed on our itinerary (all shore excursions are included in your cruise rate. I know, right?) because we had never heard of Hell’s Canyon or of jetboats. After experiencing it for ourselves, I have one thing to say.

We now know exactly where to go in the event of a zombie apocalypse.

Because this place is truly isolated. It is possible to get there over the mountains as Native Americans did for hundreds of years and there are a very few roads, but boat travel is the most common. And, as we all know, zombies can’t swim.

But discount the possibility of running into any zombies and this is truly a paradise, albeit a paradise without any running water or electricity because it’s just about impossible to get those out here. So those gorgeous cabins we saw? Yeah, they all have an outhouse.

Totally fabulous in every way. Except for no electricity of indoor plumbing.

Totally fabulous in every way. Except for no electricity of indoor plumbing.

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Photo Friday: Snow Covered Tree Trunk

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Jan Ross

Tom got this interesting shot while walking around the Maumee Bay State Park in Oregon, Ohio.

Snow on tree stump

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Relaxing and Rejuvenating at the Lovely Treetops Resort

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Jan Ross
Hosted Accommodations

 

I’m not sure exactly when we fell in love with the quite wonderful Treetops Resort. It might have been when we saw the cheerfully decorated welcome sign in the blowing snow.

Welcome to Treetops!

Welcome to Treetops!

Or it may have been when we first saw the lodge in the middle of a snowstorm.

What a welcome in the snow!

What a welcome in the snow!

View of the lodge.

View of the lodge.

Or it might possibly have been when we saw our luxurious suite, when we met the amazing people who work here, when we visited the relaxing spa, when we snowshoed through the amazing landscape…OK. Possibly we fell in love several times.

Let me tell you about all of them and you will understand.

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Learning to Ski at Crystal Mountain

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Jan Ross

skiingHosted Accommodations

 

 

Last winter, we visited Michigan for the very first time and fell in love.

In love with the astonishingly beautiful snow which I’m sure gets really old to those who live there and have to shovel their driveways and scrape their cars but we ADORED, in love with the friendly people, and in love with several locations that we visited, including Crystal Mountain.

We loved every single thing about our stay at this gorgeous, luxurious ski, golf, and spa resort but one of our very favorite things was our charming cottage at the Water’s Edge complete with a fireplace. Could accommodations possibly get any better than this?

Why, yes. Yes, they can.

Because we just spent a few days there and stayed in one of their Mountainside townhomes and can I just say that it is lucky they got us to leave? Because we would have cheerfully moved in for the entire winter. The Mountainside townhome we stayed in was truly amazing. With a huge kitchen, great living room with a fireplace, plenty of bedrooms and bathrooms, we could really spread out and relax after a day of skiing. This home even had a ping pong table and a foosball table in the bottom level along with comfortable seating and another television – perfect for a family with kids!

Our cottage last year was really convenient and in the middle of all the activities but our townhome was quiet and private so it’s impossible to say which we loved more. In fact, Crystal Mountain has an amazing assortment of accommodations to fit any need so we will just have to keep returning until we try them all out!

Oh, yeah.

Gorgeous Mountainside townhome! Photo courtesy of Crystal Mountain.

Gorgeous Mountainside townhome! Photo courtesy of Crystal Mountain.

Last year when we visited Crystal Mountain, we tried out pretty much every winter activity they had to offer but the one thing I thought we would never be interested in was skiing. Ironic as this is a ski resort in the winter but they have so  much else to offer, it’s not a problem. And yet one of us decided after that trip that they would like to try skiing.

Anyone who knows us at all will be surprised to learn that it was Tom and not me who was interested in skiing. I am the one who can ice skate, kayak, participate in Yoga, and have pretty excellent balance. Tom is the one who kept tipping his kayak over in 12 inches of water and who, after determinedly trying to ice skate, finally gave up when he couldn’t stand on the skates. But we met with one of the instructors of the Retired not Tired (excellent name) ski classes when we were there last year and Tom was intrigued.

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