Las Vegas

Since I got back from Vegas, people have asked what I thought of it. Answering is sort of like trying to describe a crazy aunt who steals food at family gatherings and wears fur coats in the middle of July. You've got to see it for yourself.

Vegas is like nothing I've ever experienced. The only thing that's close to being similar is Disney World. Everything is massive, expensive and irrestible for tourists. And we started at the top. We spent our first two nights at the Wynn, one of the world's only five-star hotels, because it was the site of a social media conference I'd registered to attend (the reason we'd first decided to go to Vegas). We stayed there for two nights, at the discounted rate I got by going to the conference, and it was hard to leave. Not because of the gorgeous view from our room or all of the four-star restaurants, but because of the bathroom. Which had a TV in it. Yes, a TV. Which meant that both mornings, as I got ready, I had Matt Lauer, Meredith Viera and Al Roker to keep me company.

Anyway, the conference ended at noon on Friday, and that is where our real Vegas experience began. For the weekend, we stayed at the MGM Grand, a hotel with more than 5,000 rooms and much lower rates than the Wynn. It was a decent hotel. Nothing stood out to me, but the important thing was finding a reasonable rate and a clean room. Hotels for us are a place to sleep, not hang out.

Before I forget to mention this, you should know that every hotel in Las Vegas is a mini city. You can eat, shop, gamble, drink, party and sleep all without leaving one place. It's pretty amazing, and you could probably spend days wandering around all the hotels in the city. Besides MGM Grand, we spent most of our time at Mandalay Bay, Caeser's Palace and the Bellagio.

At Mandalay, we ate at Burger Bar (one of the places Giada DeLaurentis visited when she filmed the Vegas episode of "Giada's Weekend Getaways"). It's a simple menu but here's why it draws people - you can design your own burger. You choose it all: the type of bun, meat, toppings. It can be overwhelming and at the time, I almost wished they gave you a few of their own creations to get your mind thinking. But my beef-pepper jack-jalapeno bacon-guac combo worked just fine. Also at Mandalay, we were asked to watch a 45-minute TV pilot and take a short survey, which we decided to do even before finding out we'd get paid $15 a piece for doing it. The show, "All Rise," was a relatively predictable legal drama with a few twists that kept it exciting. At the very least, it added some extra gambling money to our wallets.

Gambling, by the way, is something I didn't plan to do, beyond playing one hand of blackjack, one of my favorite card games. I've always been thrifty and the idea of shoving money into a machine with the likelihood of not getting it back did not appeal to me. That is, until Vegas seduced me. It's just too easy to throw your money away. I exercised restraint but saw plenty of others sitting mesmerized in front of a slot machine peeling one by one from a stack of bills. For the record, I did win. Also for the record, the most I won was $1. Brett won $40, then lost the same $40. Addicting, see?

Anyway, Friday night, we'd made reservations for Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill in Caesar's Palace. We both ordered a New Mexican spice-rubbed port tenderloin, which was served with a sweet potato tamale that was out of this world. It tasted like cornbread but better. Our waiter was personable, and we learned that what we thought might've been a VIP room that overlooked the main floor actually used to be a rotisserie for chicken. We stuck around Caeser's that night. One of the neat things about Vegas (and I'm assuming Nevada in general) is that it's legal to walk around with an open container of alcohol. So combined with these massive city-like hotels, it makes sight-seeing a lot more fun. Especially when you're "shopping," because the shops aren't what we see in Ohio, they're what you'd see in LA. Gucci, Chanel, Prada, Givenchy. Ha. I wish.

So, still at Caesar's, we also decided to see the club scene in Vegas. After receiving VIP passes to Pure nightclub, which one might assume would give you exclusive access to the club, we waited in line for two-and-a-half hours (with a front-row view of Pussycat Doll dancers performing on stages above game tables of the same name) to enter a multi-story, dimly lit club. Unless you're on "The Hills," your time would be better spent elsewhere.

The next day, we did something I read about in an article about the top seven things you should do if you've never been to Vegas: eat at a hotel buffet. We ate at the Bellagio's, which based on price, is probably one of the nicest in Vegas. And from what we saw, is probably one of the biggest too. It was the oddest combination of foods I've ever eaten at one time but great, nonetheless. Normally, I don't like buffets. But this was nice, plus after a late night and some drinks, nothing gets you back on track better than some good comfort foods. The funny thing is, despite the fact that they served everything from sushi to smoked salmon, the ones that tasted best were the buffet classics: french toast, pancakes, eggs, pizza and cake.

That afternoon, we visited the Titanic exhibit, which was on display at the Tropicana - right across from the MGM Grand. It's similar to the Holocaust museum in Washington DC, in that at the beginning, you receive a bio of someone involved in that part of history and at the end, find out what became of them afterward. In my case, I was given a third-class passenger's name. Because she was female, I knew she might've had a chance of survival, being that they loaded women and children onto the life boats first, but I also knew that many third-class passengers weren't allowed up onto the top decks of the ship until it was too late, or in some cases, not at all. I found out at the end that she didn't make it. Neither did the second-class passenger whose name Brett got.

The exhibit is a neat collection of artifacts recovered from the ship, and the goal of the exhibit is to preserve the piece as they are, including any damage caused by the sea (an important part of their history), and to prevent any additional damage from being caused. One of the most interesting pieces was a set of dishes, found at the bottom of the ocean, stacked neatly next to each other as if they were resting in an invisible dish rack. The reason for their position - and their immaculate condition - is that they sank to the bottom inside of a cabinet, and as time went by, the wood cabinet completely dissolved, leaving the dishes stacked just how they were inside.

That night, we had tickets to the "O" Show - the Cirque du Soleil show at the Bellagio. But first, we had dinner at Todd English's restaurant Olives, which from what we read, he first opened in Boston then later opened a second location in Vegas. The flatbreads were what caught our attention; I'd never seen combinations like these before: sweet potato and caramelized brandy sauce, chicken sausage and ricotta. Great stuff, plus it comes with thick homemade bread served with olive pastes, one black and one green. Maybe we'll check out the Boston location in September when we're there.

After seeing some live music at the Fontana Bar, we took our seats for Cirque. It was something I'd been excited to see, both because I'd never seen it before and was curious and secondly, because people rave about it. I knew we'd picked a good one to see, because it was the only show that combined water with the typical Cirque performance. It was beyond worth the money (tickets were $125 each). The "stage" was a circular pool and throughout the show, people were diving, dancing, flipping, jumping, you name it. It is something I can't find words to describe, but leave it to YouTube to help me out.

We flew back to Cleveland after getting two hours of sleep and as we left the hotel at 5 a.m., we passed group after group who were just coming in from the night...just a reminder that this city never sleeps.

Upper Valley, Vermont

Needless to say, I don't travel enough to fill this blog, so I invited some guest bloggers to step in, starting with my friend Kristine, a soon-to-be marathoner who stays busy playing tennis, skiing, running...you get the idea. She's into adventures. So at the end of February, she and her husband Dan jetted off to Vermont to hit the slopes. Read on for their take on this East Coast travel spot.

Dan and I decided to take a much-needed vacation to Vermont in February. Vermont in February, you ask? Isn’t there a lot of snow in Vermont in February? That was the hope, anyway. For us two snow bunnies, nothing sounded better than a snow-filled skiing trip. Yet even if skiing isn’t your thing, there’s plenty to do in Vermont – specifically the Upper Valley, which comprises central Vermont and New Hampshire.

Because Dan and I do love to ski, we spent five out of our six full days skiing. We hit up Ascutney and the Quechee ski hill (a private hill we were able to access because my aunt and uncle are landowners in Quechee Lakes, where we stayed for the week), as well as Killington and Sugarbush. We spent two full days at Killington – the largest of the resorts with more than 200 trails. Conditions were ideal at most of the resorts due to a storm that dumped more than 12 inches while we were there. However, East Coast skiing conditions are notoriously icy, and we skidded and slid down Ascutney all day. I’m not sure I would have enjoyed East Coast skiing as much as West Coast skiing if it weren’t for the record-breaking amount of snow in 2008. Our favorite resort definitely was Sugarbush (see photo at right). The view from the top of Mt. Ellen was breathtaking. On a clear day, locals say that you can see Mount Washington in New Hampshire and Canada, which is a few hundred miles away.

During our off day, Dan and I decided to check out some of the local attractions. Finding recommendations was easy. The locals were more than accommodating and offered fantastic advice. We began the morning in Hanover, New Hampshire, home to Dartmouth University. The quaint town was reminiscent of Athens, Ohio – which just happens to remind me of New England...Go figure! We ate breakfast at Lou’s, a local diner on Main Street. Breakfast was great. Dan ate an omelet atop a biscuit, and I had a bowl of homemade granola with fruit and yogurt.

We drove around the town and campus a bit, and noticed many bookstores, a Gap, restaurants and an art museum. Next we were off to Simon Pierce in Quechee, Vermont (our hometown for the week). Simon Pearce is an upscale glassblowing and pottery factory, store and restaurant. (You definitely wouldn’t want to bring an unruly toddler into Simon Pearce. One accident could set you back thousands of dollars.) The merchandise, ranging from lamps to wine glasses, is exquisite. Watch men working in the factory downstairs, which is powered by the dam next to which Simon Pearce is located. The lunch and dinner menus looked just as fancy as the merchandise. I would definitely consider dining at Simon Pearce for a special occasion.

Everything was going fine until we were on route to our next stop: Sugarbush Farm in Woodstock, Vermont. My aunt and uncle served us cheeses from the farm when we first arrived, so Dan and I decided to check it out. Turns out our non-four-wheel-drive rental car had other ideas in mind. We got stuck on the access road on the way to the farm and would have had to call for a tow truck if not for the generosity of Ralph, a local who drove our car up the huge hill and gave us his advice for driving on snowy roads without much traction: “Drive the car like you stole it.” (In other words, haul it!)

No cheese in hand and a bit shaken up from our back-road debacle, we high tailed it to the main road and continued on to the town of Woodstock, Vermont. I personally would move to Woodstock in a heartbeat. It’s the quintessential New England town – tree-lined, snow-covered streets, a covered bridge and boutiques, restaurants, inns and a general store. We walked around the town and stopped inside Mountain Creamery to split a brownie a la mode sundae. The brownies were baked fresh that morning, and the vanilla ice cream was nicely melted, thanks to a heaping dollop of hot fudge. Turns out the server at Mountain Creamery is a neighbor of Ralph (our local hero!) We pointed to our rental car across the street and asked her to keep an eye out for us this week.

Here are some other highlights from our week in Vermont:
- Grab a “Vermont pint” (23 ounces) and a bite at Long Trail Brewery in Bridgewater Corners, Vermont. The brewery is ranked one of the top ten in the nation by USA Today and we could see why. The staff was friendly, and the beer and food is fantastic. We tried a sampler, eight of the brewery’s beers on tap. My favorite was the brewery’s name-sake, Long Trail Ale; Dan’s was the Double Bag Ale, a full-bodied ale with an alcohol content of 7.2.
- The closest damn thing to a slice of New York pizza I’ve found in a long time came from Monaco’s pizzeria (listed as Ramunto’s in the phonebook) in Quechee, Vermont. Having been born and raised on Long Island, my family’s biggest gripe about the Midwest is that it doesn’t serve New York-style pizza. I don’t think Dan was an enamored as I was when it hit my lips, but if you’re craving the real deal, hit up Monaco’s.
- Enjoy a cozy dinner at Fire Stones in Quechee. A wood-burning oven and log-cabin-inspired decorations made this the perfect setting for dinner after a long day of skiing. I warmed up with a spiked apple cider. Dan enjoyed a pulled pork sandwich and sweet potato fries while I dined on Mediterranean pasta. The food was delicious and the prices weren’t bad.

VegiTerranean (Akron restaurant)

I'm not a vegetarian, nor am I a vegan, but I do try to make and eat healthy dishes, including my fair share of veggie and soy-based burgers. So when I read about Chrissie Hynde's new restaurant, VegiTerranean, I wanted to go. And I knew my mom, who just lost more than 60 pounds on Weight Watchers, would be the perfect accomplice.

For those who don't know, Chrissie Hynde was the lead singer of The Pretenders, but before she hit it big, she was living in Akron, Ohio (where I grew up). And from what I read, she decided to open VegiTerranean so she'd have a place to eat back home that would support her lifestyle. (An animal rights activist, she once was arrested for protesting a department store's use of leather.)

So along came the idea for VegiTerranean, which caters to vegetarians and vegans by not serving any meat, eggs or dairy products. It opened last fall in the bottom floor of a brand-new condo complex across the street from one of Akron's most beloved Italian restaurants. Competing with a hometown favorite (VegiTerranean's slogal is, "Vegetarian Fare.....Italian Flare") takes guts, especially when your menu is peppered by foreign words like Rawmesan and Gardein Steak. To be honest, I'd say Chrissie Hynde's fame is part of what fueled the restaurant's popularity among both veggie- and meat-eaters.

Though I was already clued into the restaurant's success from local reviews, the point was hammered home when my mom and I got to the restaurant. It was a quarter till 5, we were one of a handful of people in the restaurant, and yet we were told, apologetically, that they were completely booked for the night. Luckily, we were invited to eat at the bar.

And eat we did. We started with an appetizer of whole grilled artichokes and shaved Rawmesan served with a lemon herb dipping sauce and roasted red pepper sauce. The next course? One of the daily specials, all of which featured arugula (a peppery salad green). The one we ordered was a warm mushroom salad atop a bed of arugula and toasted pistachios. Our waitress also brought us still-warm, homemade bread served with a bean-and-tomato spread spiced just right. For the main course, my mom ordered fresh linguine with a portabella and wild mushroom ragu. I ordered another of the specials, a hollowed eggplant stuffed with quinoa, corn and Rawmesean, with sun-dried tomatoes.

In short...this meal was so good that my mom said she might've gone over her Points limit - and added that she didn't care.

Maui

As I said in my post about Mohican, Brett and I took our honeymoon (and got married!) last summer. For the honeymoon, we spent five days in San Francisco and a week in Maui. This probably goes without mentioning, but it was a fabulous trip. Before we'd even left, we were already figuring out when we could go back. Anyway, because I knew of two other people who were planning their honeymoons in Maui, I jotted down some notes about our favorite restaurants and activities when we got home. Since then, I've been asked for these tips a few times, and I thought I'd post them here for anyone who's Maui-bound:

Trilogy – a GREAT tour company. We booked a snorkeling trip to Molokini with them, and the trip was from 8 a.m.- 2 p.m. They took us to two spots for snorkeling, fed us breakfast, lunch and snacks, and then since we were on a sailboat, gave us a taste of sailing. The people, food and experience was fantastic.

Manana Garage – this is in Kahului, and we read about it in Frommer’s. It’s a little hard to find, but it’s a really nice restaurant that doesn’t attract all the tourists. We had jalapeno cornbread and really good fish (they have red meat and chicken too). Worth the drive!!

Kimo’s – very romantic. If you decide to go, call ahead and ask for a seat with a view. We ate here our first night and got a table on the second story overlooking live music on the first floor and beyond that, the ocean. The food was probably the best we had on the island too.

Mama’s Fish House – this is really expensive (everything in Maui is, but this is particularly expensive). We liked the food at Kimo’s a little better, but for a honeymoon, Mama’s is an experience. It’s right on the beach in Paia, and there are no walls or windows on the outside of the restaurant, so you’re just breathing in ocean air. Plus, if you like fish, you’ll love their menu. It changes daily, and they tell you who caught the fish you’re eating and where it was caught. If you go here, definitely make reservations in advance.

Flatbread – this is a little pizza place in Paia (a little hippie town that’s a fun place to go to walk around and shop for a couple hours). We ordered a large pizza to split, half a BBQ pork and half santa fe chicken. They brought it out, and it looked great, but the chef was unhappy with how crunchy the crust was, so she made a whole other pizza. So basically for $16, we had food for quite a few meals.

Comfort Zone – this was a little sandwich shop that’s on the highway just north of Lahaina. We stopped here for lunch one day and had some sandwiches and split an order of garlic fries. The food is really fresh and healthy (except the fries), and there’s a huge selection…sandwiches, salads, big plates. It’s good.

Broke da Mouth cookies – we read about this place in Frommer’s. It’s a small bakery in Kahului, and as soon as we walked in and told the owner we’d never been there before, she gave us samples of every single cookie they sell. We left with five bags of cookies, and believe me, it is well worth the trip. They are crunchy, and come in standard flavors, like chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin, and they also come in more “island-y” flavors like almond macadamia nut.

David Paul’s Lahaina Grill – This was much more elegant than the other restaurants we went to. When you’re inside, it doesn’t really feel like you’re in Maui, more like you’re in some fancy restaurant in a big city. But the food was quite good. We each had a macadamia-crusted pork chop, which was heavenly. It was one of the few times I didn’t eat fish on the vacation. Overall, we liked Kimo’s and Mama’s Fish House better in terms of a fancy, expensive meal, just because their atmospheres were much more relaxed. Their menu is online, so you could always read the menu before you go to see if someplace that you’d want to check out.

Loudonville, Ohio

Although my husband is quick to remind me that it's only been five months since our honeymoon, he knows I've been itching for a little getaway. So as my Christmas gift, he booked a two-day trip to Loudonville, Ohio - the home of Mohican State Park and Landoll's Mohican Castle - for Jan. 17-18.

As I mentioned, he's a whiz at finding bargains, and he found a half-price deal for a room at the castle (see photo at right). However, the reason the castle offered such low rates is because it's off-season. Which means most tourist spots are closed and most activities are off-limits (though if there's enough natural snow, you can cross-country ski on trails through the woods at Malabar Farms).

But hey...that's no reason to let a good vacation go to waste, especially when you're staying in a deluxe room with heated bathroom floors and a fireplace operated by a light switch. So on Thursday, after a failed attempt at exploring and dinner at the Mohican State Park Resort (where we had the entire restaurant to ourselves), we swung by Gribble's IGA for snacks and two bottles of Lonz's blackberry wine (which in case you find yourself in a similar situation, does NOT require a wine opener, just a twist of the wrist).

Our Mohican adventure continued Friday morning, when we got side-by-side massages, which were done by two people (we assumed they were husband and wife) who were contracted by the hotel. It was my second massage and Brett's first. We both loved it. If you've never had a massage, it is WELL worth the money. [Side note: for you fellow Clevelanders, try the Brown Aveda Institute, a cosmetology school that offers upper body massages for just $17 and full-body massages for $34.]

Other than walking down to the castle's restaurant for lunch and dinner, Brett and I spent the rest of Friday sipping wine and watching season one of the TV show, Friday Night Lights, a totally addicting show that you'll love even if you aren't into football. We took our time coming home Saturday and couldn't resist popping into Grandpa's Cheesebarn, which is located just off of Interstate 71 in Ashland. Luckily, we went hungry. There are three rows of cheeses, dips, spreads and other goodies, many of which are available for you to sample. We bought a loaf of sweet iced cherry bread and a couple homemade chocolate chip cookies, which were almost raw in the center and crunchy around the edge. In other words, perfect.

If you decide to venture to Mohican in the off season, here's my advice:

Do:

• Bring along a handful of movies or, like we did, a season of a TV show (Brett usually just gets them from the library), or throw a few games in the car. This is your chance to do nothing and have a damn good time doing it.
• Stock up on snacks and drinks. Yes, they have a grocery store and gas station. No, it isn't close to the castle or the resort. You'll end up spending more on gas driving to buy it than you would on the drink.
• Strike up a conversation. Brett and I found out about Gribble's from our bartender at the State Park Resort and got directions back to the castle from our waitress. Everyone we met went out of their way to help us out.

Don't:

• Expect to be entertained. You won't be. If you're not the type of person who appreciates the country, this isn't the place for you.
• Forget to bring Dramamine or Tylenol. All of the twists and turns of those back roads will leave you feeling a little queasy if you get motion sickness easily.