My Blog

Holiday Recipe - Stollen Since my Mom passed in 2014 I have taken over the family tradition of baking Stollen at Christmastime. Stollen - as many of you know - is best described as a rich raisin, nuts, and candied fruit (I substitute dried cranberries for candied fruit and my family approves) yeast bread. It’s not a fruit cake, not a scone, not a quick bread/muffin…but is somewhere in this universe of baked goods! As my mother did and [...]

Last month I introduced you to The Points Guy for travel hacking knowledge, tips advice and ongoing updates/alerts/advice in their newsletter alerting you to travel deals and industry goings-on, whether air, cruise, train, hotel, airport lounges. I have another resource for you today TheDailyDrop.com and Travel Hacking 101 created by famous travel vloggers Kara and Nate, a couple from Tennessee that started their YouTube channel on a whim when they decided to take a year off and go travel in 2016. Nate got into doing [...]

Hi everyone, Today - a pro tip for travel planning… Check out this website The Points Guy. There is a beginner button at the top if you are new to all this. I recommend you sign up for their newsletter at the bottom of the landing page. That’s what I read all the time, choosing articles according to my interest as there is a lot of content! You don’t have to endlessly deep-dive and drill down as it can get [...]

In summer 2013 I took my kids to Paris. My son Alec was a Junior at Mira Costa High School and my daughter Devon a Sophomore.  Sounds glam, right? We had a great time, but anyone who tells you or shows you in pictures an Instagram perfect vacation is leaving out the “fun” parts! So this trip was not without its moments which in hindsight are all pretty funny. The first was my son's moment of FOMO…it clouded his [...]