Most people think of the best places to vacation in Italy as the famous cities of Florence, Venice, or Rome. However, let me pass along to you a second-class city that rates as a first-rate destination that you might find more enjoyable than all those famous destinations. Located in the Tuscany region, it is in…
We had an adventurous day in both tasting wines and eating. Our day started with wine tasting along Foxen Canyon. We had gotten the tip about the Fess Parker Winery from the hotel and started tasting there at 11. That might seem a little early for wine tasting to many people, but we were far…
Now to the main event. For the last several year, the wife and I have visited California in the winter in order to have fun sightseeing and stocking up our wine reserve – and accumulating miles on Alaska Airlines to maintain our dual status (stati?). Our Northern California adventures have been documented here and here. …
Lots of people want to escape the winter blues and California is a great place to do it. The wife and I tried going to Sonoma Valley for wine tasting the last two years. The first year was fantastic with 72 degree weather and sun the whole weekend, but last year, as many of you…
Sorry for the long break gang, having a bust life gets in the way of blogging all the time. Finishing up on our trip to Budapest today. If you missed the previous posts, they are here, here, and here. St. Stephen’s Basilica is the largest Catholic church in a Catholic nation and thus “spectacular” does…
Continuing on from yesterday’s post. The Buda Castle grounds are very extensive and offer some spectacular vantage points for great photos. The original castle was built around 1000 AD and barely withstood the Mongol invasion a couple of hundred years later. Along came the Renaissance and the enlightened King of the time, Matthias Corvinus, built…
On our first full day in Budapest it was time to get out and see both Buda and Pest. Yeah, just like Minneapolis-St.Paul, Budapest is actually two cities on either side of the Danube that they eventually combined with one name. Whenever we travel to a big city for the first time, we like to…
The wife and I finally got away for a real vacation and spent four great days in Budapest. I already wrote about staying at the Ritz-Carlton which was really nice. Quite by accident, we found the Ritz to be a prime location in the center of the old downtown which made for an ideal base…
Continuing on from yesterday’s post. Sapphire Hill Winery in Healdsburg was a great value. It was $30 for a wine tasting for two, but there was a food pairing for each of the five wines and we got an extra three samples of wine and an extra sample of food so this really turned into…
The wife and I had a great time a couple of years ago wine tasting by flying into Sonoma, CA (STS) via Alaska Airlines. It was great getting out of the D.C. cold and into 72 degrees and sunny California weather. So we decided to try it again this year. Unfortunately, as most of you…
