Recently my girlfriend Sue Montgomery and I were off for a girls’ getaway to Palm Springs, the Southern-California city of luxurious, boutique hotels designed to pamper and emanate old world charm from those days of past Hollywood glamour and relaxation.

Palm Springs was a city of scandal and partying of some of the most well-known stars…

Memphis, we were looking for what was happening in your restaurant scene, and we found it! Recently a fellow writer and myself were lucky enough to learn firsthand what the food vibe was like in this city.

Good restaurants abound in Memphis, and one of the finest is run by a pair of great chefs who have been nominated for…

Sunshine you can count on, an Ice Cream Trail, a brew trail, historic Old Towns, and the oldest wine-growing region in the U.S. (surviving Prohibition)—these are some of the special treats awaiting visitors to the Northern California Tri-Valley area comprised of Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin, and Danville, on the east edge of the San Francisco Bay…

If you're hankering for the rich and elegantly prepared food of France but don’t have a plane ticket, you're in luck, because Southern California's San Juan Capistrano, just over an hour south of Los Angeles, sports the perfect venue for that succulent meal and sophisticated atmosphere.

Here Pascal’s Café is a café,…

“Hip” is the best word to describe The Kimpton Journeyman Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. But this hotel also provides lots of luxury, as shown with a giant chandelier, beautiful art, and a fireplace with plenty of seating to visit or just relax.

 …

All-inclusive resorts provide a unique experience and are wonderful for families with younger children or for adults who just want to “hang out” and totally relax without planning each day. My daughter, her husband, and my two grandsons, ages 16 months and 4 years, accompanied me to a wonderful vacation spot that could accommodate all of our interests,…

Door County is the vacation spot for anyone loving small, intimate lodging; water and boating; cherries; local shops; cheese; great cocktails and wine; fish boils; a traditional fish fry; and artwork. All of this is available in a small town atmosphere on a peninsula about three hours north of Milwaukee. On a recenttrip,…

How do you find out about all the hidden neighborhoods and history of a city? Three of us writers had a short time in the city of Milwaukee and wanted to savor as much as we could of the ethnic neighborhoods, architecture, and history.  We contacted Theresa Nemetz of Milwaukee Food and City…

As I unpacked my bags in my well-appointed room at the luxurious CasaMagna Marriott Puerto Vallarta & Spa, my eyes wandered towards the view of lush landscape and rolling waves of the Pacific. My…

If you want to know what the best places are in a city, ask a native. Here's the list I recently gathered from a group of Milwaukeeans who love their city, the largest city of Wisconsin: the Milwaukee Art Museum (top); Pabst Brewery; Harley Davidson Museum; Skylight Opera…

We were off to explore the Santa Maria Valley along the central California coast, and as I hopped into the backseat of my friends’ car, I was shown all the preparation they had prepared for the trip.  There was a tablecloth, a napkin, a bottle of Bellini and wine glass, the New York Times, and some snacks just in case I got…

By Linda Milks

The lush and tropical backyard of Robin Dohrn-Simpson and her husband Marc in San Diego was the setting for a tasting of a group of Kosher…

As I meandered along the tree-covered hills and winding roads leading to Rancho Valencia Resort in Rancho Sante Fe, California (U.S. News and World Report’s number-one resort in California,) my anticipation grew. I was not disappointed to see this lavish resort, set on 45 acres of gardens and olive…

The state of Washington consists of many diverse microclimates--from the rainforest of the Olympic Peninsula to the eastern portion of the state averaging around eight inches of rain.  The craggy Cascade Range separates the western and damper portion of the state from the eastern and drier side.  All of these microclimates provide…

The Hotel Del Coronado on Coronado Island, CA, opened its doors in February, 1888. It is known as the second largest wooden structure in the United States and it was at that time the largest resort hotel in the world. The Victorian resort has been listed as one of the Grand Old Hotels in our country. It showcases a beautiful beachfront with a storybook…

A long, curving driveway through the middle of ranch country led us to what was going to become a charming and serene couple of days full of natural beauty at Holman Ranch.



Each of us gathered our belongings and opened the door to our private rooms off the ranch-style patio complete with rocking chairs and artwork. Once inside, we found a hacienda-styled…

Are you looking for a unique town with houses varying in architectural style, lots of trees, bike trails, academia that enriches an area with art and music as well as unique, one-of-a-kind shops and restaurants without a big road trip on congested freeways? The city of Claremont provides just that. And through the end of the year you can get all this at a bargain through the Claremont Chamber of Commerce.

On a recent trip I traveled with some fellow writers to learn…

A table full of good wines to sample along with creative food pairings isn’t a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Luckily, I was part of the Occasional Wine Council blessed with this task.

Four Chardonnays were on our list of wines to sample. I do like a good…

Grand Cru, Medoc, St Émilion, Bordeaux Left and Right Banks - all terms of which I was aware, but wanted much more information. That’s the beauty of a river cruise with wine as its main topic (and the wine isn’t bad either, to put it mildly!). We were about to embark on an eight-day…

Who would have thought when I moved from Portland, Oregon, (home of amazing Pinot Noirs) to Southern California, I would be sitting in the backyard of a Cape Cod next to a pool at a long, umbrella-covered table in the quaint Floral Park neighborhood of Orange County's Santa Ana at the beginning of December sampling Oregon Pinot Noirs. Life couldn’t get…