California

Miramonte Resort  and Spa is located about half way between Los Angeles and San Diego in the Coachella Valley about 30 minutes south east of Palm Springs. It is in the perfect location for anyone who can't decide if they want an active weekend getaway or one with breakfast in bed followed by relaxing by the pool topped with a relaxing visit to the spa. The simple answer here is you can have both... and it's very pet friendly, so there's no reason to leave your dog at home!

Breakfast Republic seems to be on the list of every foodie I know in San Diego right now. With lines on weekends that might you second guess stopping by, I know plenty of my friends have simply just passed it by but still wondered what it was like to dine there. Luckily, they continue to expand and now have locations in North Park, Liberty Station, Encinitas and recently opened in East Village San Diego. The menu here is exactly what you'd expect from a California brunch place and in particular one that's growing up in San Diego's modern food scene and we were thrilled to be invited to check it out.

Traditionally, our wives and girlfriends sit and wait for us to pick a hotel that they want for Valentine's Day - but why can't we turn the tables and do things differently? We scoured the internet looking for epic hotel ideas that will inspire romance this Valentine's Day in a completely different manner than the typical 4-star resort with breakfast in bed!

Each of these motels caters to fantasies or have themed rooms that will make your Valentine's Day that much more fun compared to a eewwey gooey, boring romantic night at a typical hotel with red roses and chocolates.

Anyone that's ever done the drive home from Las Vegas to Southern California after a weekend getaway can tell you how terrible the traffic is. This normally 4-5 hour trip can instead become 8-9+ hours of bumper to bumper rush hour traffic where you are forced to be at 100% attention on roads that would normally compel you to look around and enjoy the drive. So, instead of fighting that fight a few weeks ago, I decided to take the long way home and discovered a fantastic road trip that was a lot of fun to drive in the 2017 Flex that Ford gave to us for the trip.

It's time to celebrate the holidays with feasts, bright colors, drinking, and good friends. Thanks to the folks at Fogo de Chao, I was invited to check out their new holiday offerings and of course, I jumped at the opportunity! At most restaurants right now you're going to find a menu matching the winter weather that we're all starting to dread. For those in the Southern Hemisphere like our friends in Brazil though, this is the beginning of summer! This means that you'll find not only traditional holiday treats like sweet potato casserole but also fresh watermelon, pears, mangoes, and other fruit on the harvest table.

San Diego has more diversity in hotels than nearly any other city of its size. There are ultra-luxury hotels as well as small boutique hotels and then there's The Pearl Hotel. I've driven by this location dozens of times and didn't realize it was even there since it's one of those places that is literally hidden in plain site. However, after staying there a few weeks ago as part of our Beercation with Travelocity I can't believe I've missed this hidden gem.

When vacationing in an RV, you don't have to worry about where you're going to stay and adding those costs into your trip. In many cases, if you plan on a mancation involving the great outdoors, you'll be able to stay closer to nature when you bring along an RV.

Not all travel needs to be planned and sometimes the best escapes are the ones where you fly by the seat of your pants and boldly go somewhere and then figure out what to do. That's sorta what happened last week for Heather and I when we visited San Francisco. We were invited for a quick media launch event, but decided to fly in early and leave late the next day so we could see some sights and figure out if this was a destination that we wanted to come back to and spend more time in the future.

To many people, the desert is an inhospitable wasteland but to me it is an open canvas just waiting to be explored. Lucky for me, this romantic ideal is shared by others as well! For many years, vacationers have made the journey to the desert so they can bake in the hot dry sun and relax in the pool, play golf, and generally escape reality for a few days. With La Casa Del Zorro, Heather and I had the chance to spend four nights at the resort with the first two being just us (and Niki Belle) in one of their casitas with a private pool. 

June is California Avocado Month and so we were invited to help celebrate it with a fantastic dinner at the top of a mountain in a real avocado grove along side the farmer who manages one of the largest avocado ranches in California. A dinner outside under the stars is always special but this was over the top since typically avocados are a sort of mysterious fruit. Sure, we all love them in guacamole but where do they actually come from and what else can you do with them?

San Diego is the craft beer capital of the country as far as I am concerned. While there are many towns across the country where there are fine people brewing great beer, no town has a culture of beer quite like San Diego. With more than 100 breweries in the county, there is something for everyone from large breweries like Stone, Ballast Point, and Green Flash to tiny ones like Intergalactic you are sure to find one that matches your personality. While I dream of one day having been to every brewery in San Diego, last weekend I took two friends on a whirlwind tour of five of my favorites.

Everyone should have a neighborhood bar. It's one of those places that can be a home away from home where the bartenders welcome you warmly when you enter the door and you feel comfortable before you even have a chance to order a drink. That's what San Diego's The Whiskey House is to me, so when I got the opportunity to join them for a Glenfiddich tasting a few weeks ago I jumped at the opportunity. Then I discovered that they were opening a $4,000 bottle of Glenfiddich 40 year and I cleared my schedule for the rest of the evening!

Visitors to Coronado Island are typically familiar with the famous Hotel Del - afterall, it's one of the earliest buildings in the area and set the tone for the next 100+ years as a mecca for beachgoers. What I learned this week, was that just across the road is an even older building that was built a year earlier in 1887. Originally serving as the boathouse for the resort, it now houses a fantastic seafood restaurant that is part of the Bluewater Grill group.

If you haven't been before, this classic motor car extravaganza weekend gathers over 300 of the most elite car collections from around the world atop the bluffs of La Jolla Cove at the Ellen Browning Scripps Park. La Jolla means "The Jewel" in Spanish and we couldn't think of a more fitting place to experience these incredible vehicles than outdoor, overlooking the Pacific Ocean while surrounded by some of the most luxurious real estate in the world. While we know that there will be some amazing classic cars and modern luxury as well as sports cars, it's always a thrill to walk by something you've never seen before. 

A couple months ago, Heather and I visited The Headquarters in San Diego for a fantastic date-night. A couple weeks ago though, we had the chance to spend some more time there at a Chocolate and Beer tastings held at Dallmann Fine Chocolates.  This is just one of the fun ways to spend time at The Headquarters, which is located right downtown next to Seaport Village on Harbor Drive.

After recently spending the majority of a week in South Lake Tahoe, CA enjoying winter activities with family and friends, I find this quote below very fitting and can relate the experience we had at Heavenly Mountain Resort with the most simplistic interpretation. All the activities, amenities, and natural beauty that Heavenly Mountain Resort and surroundings have to offer is specifically designed to be an exceptional playground for adults and kids to experience and enjoy on a regular basis. Heavenly Mountain Resort will keep you coming back. It truly is a little bit of heaven on earth!

You don't always need to travel somewhere far to have the perfect romantic getaway. Sometimes, you will find something great right in your backyard that is an experience you will remember for a lifetime. That's what happened for Heather and I last weekend when I got a last minute invitation to be Kia's guest at the Kia Classic in Carlsbad, California. While this happened to only be 30 minutes from home it was the perfect getaway and since the Park Hyatt Aviara is pet friendly it made things that much better!

Let's just start out by saying that Heather and I had a fantastic time. This brunch cruise was an experience that really is hard to compare since it was three distinct things wrapped up into one happy package. For instance, raise your hand if you've ever done a booze cruise with someone you love? Keep your hand up if you've done a harbor cruise that involved a meal... Ok, now keep you hands up if that food has been great, the service excellent, and the experience was one that you can't wait to do again.  Yeah, not a lot of hands are up still, but that's ok! 

You probably haven't had the opportunity to sail with Flagship Cruises out of San Diego before. 

The company offers several different cruises ranging from whale watching excursions to sunday brunch, and even a jet boat. However, despite this diversity of types of cruises offered and my initial scepticism that they might be a jack of all trades and master of none, I can heartily recommend it and I will almost certainly go again. Heck, I'd even recommend their other experiences based on this one!

There's no shortage of restaurants in San Diego's Gaslamp quarter, but one category that seems weak (compared to steaks, Italian, etc.) is seafood. Osetra is one of the few in this crowded area, so when I got invited to check it out I was extremely excited for the opportunity. After all, we had already visited it's sister properties Greystone Steakhouse and Osteria Panevino and had fantastic experiences at both of them.

Osetra is owned by the same group as those others, but it is distinctly modern and almost chic compared to the other two, with features like a wine angel who "flies" up and down the two-story wine rack to pick out your selection, an extensive raw bar, and even sushi. 

I've finally found it! I knew that San Diego had to have a restaurant that was equally good at ambiance as it is in service, preparation, and presentation. Earlier this month Heather and I were invited to have dinner and check out Greystone Steakhouse - one of the older restaurants here in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter.

Greystone Steakhouse just recently celebrated 15 years of operation here and after the amazing dinner we enjoyed, I can see why it's been able to survive so long and I am sure they will continue to have great success for many more years to come!