On a recent trip to Asheville, we tried a new restaurant from the same folks as one of our favorite dining establishments, Curate. Nightbell is an American-style restaurant focused on using Appalachian ingredients. We made the reservation the night before, so we were eating early at 5.15!! 😉 Continue reading
This year, Sean and I purchased an Atlanta restaurant passbook filled with buy one, get one deals at awesome restaurants across the city. One of the first places we decided to check out was a midtown neighborhood pizzeria called Varuni Napoli that we’d been wanting to try for a while. Continue reading
I’ll start by saying that Osaka food is sooooo good. Not that the food in Kyoto, Tokyo or Kobe wasn’t because it was. It’s just food in Osaka kind of exceeded our expectations and we had some really memorable experiences, bites and flavors that started with a cooking class on Thanksgiving day. Continue reading
While in Osaka, Sean planned a day trip for us to Himeji Castle and the town of Kobe (where Kobe beef comes from). Himeji Castle is an enormous complex and one of the few original castles the Japanese did not destroy after their WWII defeat to show their break from the past. Continue reading
My mom went to watch the condo, dog and cat of her best friend in Chicago while he went to India and Sri Lanka for a month in January. He has a great place north of Uptown in this awesome, ethnic neighborhood. I took the long MLK, Jr. Day weekend to go up and visit for a fun mother-daughter weekend in the Windy City. Continue reading
We arrived in Kyoto on Monday evening after taking the Shinkansen high-speed train from Tokyo. Kyoto was incredible and I described all the beautiful sights and activities in my post on its temples, etc. This post is all about the FOOD. Kyoto is known as a “foodie” city and its reputation did not disappoint.
Our first night we discovered that the hotel included in our package deal was very far from the center of town – about 30 minutes by car! The room was also minuscule, with the bed again against the wall and almost no room at the end to walk around it. We made the most of our first night be first researching and booking a new hotel in the city center for the next 2 nights, and then finding somewhere nearby for dinner. Continue reading
I told Sean that one of the things I wanted to do in Japan was walk around the cities and wander into temples and gardens. I had this lovely vision of relaxing strolls, tranquil shrines and meditative scenery.
The reality was a little different. Namely, that the cities are HUGE and the temples can be far apart or even off-the-beaten path. Simply wandering around wasn’t going to get us where we wanted to go. So, we came up with a new plan! Continue reading
Headed south to sunny Melbourne, Florida to spend Christmas with John and Kathy. It was a wonderful visit. Enjoy the photos! Continue reading