Wine and Spirits Travel

  Sanctuary at Camelback I know it’s been a while. I think it’s pretty obvious that I haven’t been doing much traveling. Like everyone else in the world, I’ve mostly been sheltering in place. I did manage to get in two short, socially distant trips over the past six months that I will be posting soon. In the meantime, I thought I’d do a roundup of some ideas for those looking to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Romance deserves more than one day a year. February is the month that you’ll see most of the deals for it. That’s not different in this crazy time. What is different is the options to do things from a distance – if you’d like. Here are some ideas from places I have been to and enjoyed. Stay healthy. Wear your masks. I hope we’ll all be hitting the road in the near future. Marcia Frost Heart-Shaped Chocolate Cake? Of course! The chocolate cake at Portillo’s is one of my favorites ever. In honor of Valentine’s Day,, they always have a heart-shaped one available. This yea...

My first trip to Titletown in Green Bay, Wisconsin , was winding down, but we still had a few things left to check out on the final day. Rich and I had enjoyed breakfast at  Lodge Kohler's  Leaps & Bounds Café the day before and decided to go down and see what else we could try on the menu. The thing I like most about Leaps & Bounds was that there were quite a few things that you rarely find on menus, certainly not on the menu of a hotel coffee shop. For our Sunday morning, I chose the West Coast Wrap, with egg whites, avocado, spinach, tomato, inside a whole-grain wrap spread with a light herb cream cheese. It was delicious. Rich had the Breakfast Sandwich. It has scrambled eggs, cheddar and arugula, with a bratwurst patty on a toasted English muffin, a combination he enjoyed. We shared an order of the Classic Beignets, which had an unusual twist: they were served with a spiced chocolate sauce and an apricot-ginger jam.  I thought ...

My introduction to Titletown was a good one (especially the spa treatment at Lodge Kohler ) and I was ready to enjoy day two with my friend, Rich. We started with breakfast at the hotel’s Leaps and Bounds cafe. It’s far from a hotel coffee shop and has a very unique menu. Everything sounded great, but I had to go for the eggs with popovers. It reminded me of a restaurant I worked at while in high school, called 1890 Dining Car. They were known for their popovers and I haven’t had very many since. They were as eggy, light, and scrumptious as I remembered. Rich shared them and also had a frittata with sausage and mushrooms. After breakfast, we took advantage of the free, local car service Lodge Kohler offers to go to the other side of Lambeau Field, where our tour of the stadium was to begin. The Green Bay Packers offer many levels of the Lambeau Field Tours . If you have the time (2-3 hours), take the Legendary Tour we did. It includes some extras, and en...

I am not a big football fan, so it seemed odd to many that I would be so anxious to explore the Packers’ Titletown, but when I had the opportunity to spend the weekend checking out this new section of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and stay at a new Kohler hotel , I was ready, willing, and able. Titletown just opened last summer and will continue to add venues, all directly across the street from Lambeau Field. The idea is to give visitors something beyond the game to enjoy when coming to this area of town. I took an early morning flight to Green Bay and arrived just three hours later, even with my plane change in Chicago. My first stop was my home for the weekend and the anchor of Titletown: AAA Four Diamond Lodge Kohler . I’ve stayed at The American Club at Kohler , Wisconsin, so I knew how luxurious this brand was, but I wasn’t quite sure until I arrived how they fit that in the football phenomenon of the Green Bay Packers. Since my friend, Rich, wasn’t joining ...