It’s a lovely day back home in Lexington, Kentucky and it’s always nice to get home after a trip but I keep thinking about our lovely little house just a few steps from beautiful Tybee Island beach and I sigh thinking about just how lovely it was. We had worked with Mermaid Cottages before and they had provided us with a darling house that was a hot pink cottage near the beach so we both had high expectations for this new house they had arranged for us. We had made plans for our trip with Supriya Christopher who is the Director of Public Relations for Savannah and was simply wonderful in helping with our plans. She even met us for lunch one day and it was such a pleasure to meet her!

We drove into beautiful downtown Savannah with it’s lovely live oak trees dripping with Spanish moss and found the road to Tybee Island. The folks at Mermaid Cottages had kindly sent us directions to our house for the week and we only got lost once and had to call them for directions. We finally found our darling cottage and used their directions to open they key box and find a key for the front door. The air was fresh and clean with an ocean smell to it as we unlocked the front door and stepped into our clean and pretty house. for the week.

We fell in love when we stepped in and saw our lovely house for the week. There was a nice kitchen and dining area.

We were so excited to see the comfy living room with two couches we could spread out on. The furniture was all so pretty and comfy looking. We walked around and checked out the nice three bedrooms and were so impressed with how nice the beds looked and the nice two bathrooms we could use.

Tom was not really happy with his bedroom because it was so bright so he moved to the kids room with the bunk beds and had some great night sleeps. Next we found a perfectly lovely screened in porch where we could sit and enjoy the lovely cool breeze from over the ocean which was just a short walk away.

The house was beautifully decorated and perfectly lovely. They had put up a wallpaper border around the living room that we loved.

Tom was curious about the beach and how far it was so he took his camera and headed out to the beach to check it out. It’s really close to the house but a little too far for me to walk so Iet him take pictures for us. There is a doghouse in the back of the house and a nice little yard if guests want to bring their pet.

There is also a nice shady porch with a comfy area to sit and read. He cut through to the read beside ours which led to a lovely wooden porch and walkway right to the beautiful beach.

Tom said the beach area was perfectly beautiful and there were several families enjoying it. I think I might make my way down there on our next trip to Savannah and Tybee Island. We spent our week relaxing on Tybee Island and enjoying some wonderful meals at the great local restaurants which you must try! If you are planning your next beach getaway,Tybee Island should be it! Have as great a time as we did!

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We love travel. And we also love food at the many locations we visit. So it makes sense for us to look for great restaurants and to find people to share their fabulous eating locations with us. So, foodie tours were found on one of our many trips and we found that we love them! Have someone local walk around town with us talking and eat their local wonderful specialties – what could be better?

You can check out some of our fabulous foodie experiences here and see some of the fabulous food we have been scarfing down here – https://www.wanderlustwonder.com/foodie-reviews/ So when I was scrolling through Facebook one morning to keep up with all the fascinating news, I was thrilled to see that we actually had a foodie walking tour right here in Lexington.

Erin talking about Lexington,

We met at the old courthouse which was easy to find and our little group was all clustered together in one area and very easy to locate and join to start our tour. Erin spent some time introducing us to each other and talking about the variety of folks in our group. We weren’t the only ones who lived in the area and it was fun spending time getting to know the other travelers.

We headed out of the courthouse and walked to our first restaurant stop. Erin talked to us for the entire tour, explaining the history of each area and the different restaurants we visited. I had some problems with my back but there was always a place for me to plunk down and take a little rest so it was no problem. We stopped at our first restaurant and all headed inside to see the restaurant and to have a delicious and wonderful bite to eat. They had some food waiting for us on the tables and, as we finished, they brought out some more fabulous bites. Erin introduced the restaurant owners and they welcomed us to their restaurant. It was really nice and we enjoyed every bite!

Fabulous food!

After we finished eating, we headed out the door for another walk and a different restaurant experience. For the next couple of hours, we visited several different restaurants and walked all over downtown Lexington with Erin entertaining us the whole time. Tom has lived in Lexington his whole life and I came to the University of Kentucky and never left but we both learned more about Lexington that we never knew.

If you want to see downtown Lexington and experience some wonderful restaurants, you should take this tour or one of the many others they offer. The are just getting started in offering some tours of the surrounding towns as well so ask about them as well. I hope you enjoy the tours as much as we did!

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We had lots of great choices for restaurants in Pigeon Forge and in nearby Gatlinburg but we had both been to The Apple Barn before and agreed it would be a good start for the first night on our little vacation. After a wonderful and delicious dinner at the restaurant located in Sevierville we headed back to our comfy hotel and got a great night’s sleep before we headed to Gatlinburg the next day.  Many of the things we wanted to were offered to us in our packet of goodies provided to us from Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. There were several things we wanted to do but one was the beautiful Aquarium of the Smokies. The aquarium took us a couple of hours to see and then it was time for another meal. We tried to go to The Peddler where we had been before but they we not open for lunch. Someone at The Peddler suggested we go to their other restaurant The Park Grill which was just about a block away and open for lunch. The food was wonderful and we appreciated the suggestion!

The next day we set aside for Dollywood and we thought it would take several hours. Neither of us was interested in rides but we thought there would be enough to do with all the shows and we were right. You can check out all the shows and make a schedule for what you want to see. We loved every show and you should try to go to as many as you have time for! It was a wonderful day!

Entrance to the different areas.

That night we planned a visit to Country Tonight. We had contacted the travel people in Gatlinburg and they had very kindly shared a packet of information for travel writers with us which included several passes for things we wanted to do including this show. We actually didn’t know a thing about it but it sounded wonderful and we were so glad we went! Everything was so wonderful and professional and the performers were all wonderful. We totally recommend them for a night out!

We would have loved to stay a few more days but we had only planned on a couple of days getaway so we packed up and got ready to head home the next morning. We enjoyed every minute of our visit and plan to return soon. You should check it out!

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First, he worked with a local hotel and set up a fabulous stay for the three of us. We headed for Sarasota with our car loaded down with all the vital things we needed for a week away and pulled into the wonderful Siesta Key Beach Resort and Suites. It is not a really fancy hotel but we were super pleased with our lovely room with an adjoining bedroom for the one girl in our group who can keep the rest of us awake with her slightly annoying snoring. There was also a small kitchen where we unpacked all our wonderful snacks and drinks to get us through a week.

The front of our comfy and pretty hotel. The Siesta Key Beach Resort and Suites.

Our nice and beautiful kitchen.

We were not actually right on the beach but it was a short walk anytime we felt the need to see the entire area.

Our kitchen overlooked the beautiful pool area.

We had a nice big living room with two queen sized beds for the two of us and another bed in the attached bedroom.

Plenty of room to relax and sleep.

Once we relaxed and unpacked, we decided to visit the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens and have a little visit to this beautiful area. Only two of us decided to visit the gardens and we were amazed at the beautiful and lush growth.

Beautiful and lush growth everywhere!

The next day, we took one of the many tours of the city with the trolleys from Discover Sarasota Tours which was absolutely wonderful and a great introduction to the city.

On this classic City Sightseeing Tour, learn where to tour, shop, and dine! Get an entertaining overview of Sarasota’s rich history, culture, and neighborhoods. The tour guides were wonderful and told us all about the city. Every day we had tons of choices about what to do and where to get our next fabulous meal. There are several museums and we managed to visit a few of them. One of the very best things we did was to visit the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium. There were tons of sea life and it was a great morning, just walking around and seeing everything.

Beautiful lion fish!

After the aquarium, visitor can choose to board one of the Sea Life Encounter cruises to see the area and the local wildlife.

Join a marine biologist on this approximately 2 hour cruise through Sarasota and Roberts Bays. Observe our Florida manatees and resident population of bottlenose dolphins while learning about the ecology, history, and folklore of the area. Your guide will lead you on a short nature walk on an uninhabited island followed by a unique opportunity to view pelicans, herons, ibis and egrets in their nesting habitat. The highlight of this trip is the collection of a sample of marine life with a trawl net. Observe and handle some of the curious residents of Sarasota Bay: puffer fish, sea horses, stone crabs, and cow fish to name a few.

Our 45-foot pontoon boats, the Explorer V and Explorer VI, are Coast Guard-inspected covered vessels equipped with on-board restrooms, comfortable seating, cold drinks and snacks available for purchase. This trip is suitable for all ages. Reservations are recommended, and charters are available. Check-in is 30 minutes prior to departure.

The cruise was a wonderful experience and a great way to see the area and some local wildlife. The last couple of days we spent walking the area, and the beach which was quite wonderful. Every restaurant we visited was better than the previous one and we had wonderful food.

We enjoyed every minute of our wonderful visit to Sarasota and would love to go back. If you are planning a beach visit, check out Sarasota!

 

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Front of the Embassy Suites Chicago Downtown Magnificent Mile

Well, after specifically saying that I had never been to Chicago, never visited there, and never shared any wonderful adventures there, now I have been there several times.

But not too many! Each visit has been during a different season and with different companions and each one has been quite lovely and different.

This trip was different from the others as I traveled with some women friends and we really enjoyed being together for a few days. We stayed in one of the nicest hotels in Chicago and were able to really relax and get some sleep. We had stayed at the Embassy Suites Lakefront on one of our previous visits and we knew we loved Embassy Suites but the Embassy Suites by Hilton Chicago Downtown Magnificent Mile was quite an experience. Not only did they have their absolutely fabulous hot prepared to order breakfast every morning, it was an easy walk to just about anything we wanted to see. Breakfast was a completely lovely spread of food which included a hot bar where they made pretty anything your little travelin’ heart could desire. Which for me was an omelet every single morning. Every. Single. Morning. It was quite, quite lovely.

Parking is separate from the hotel in a different  area which is easy and close by. We pulled into the front entrance to the hotel to unload and were completely entranced with the wall art which runs along the entire wall. The art is composed of wonderful, bright colors and local kids from the area helped with the painting.

Just one section of the wall mural.

The lovely hotel people helped us unload our scads of stuff and directed a couple of our group where to park while the others in the group headed inside to wait on them. Then we gathered all our stuff and headed upstairs to our wonderful, wonderful suites. They were kind enough to provide us with two fabulous suites which worked and we had great night sleeps every night, then awoke each morning to prowl around and see the beautiful city.

We had a separate living room which was large and quite fabulous.

Fabulous living room area.

We were able to spread out and my sister-in-law was kind enough to sleep on the hide a bed couch while I sprawled out on the bed all to myself. Wonderful!

Fabulous bedroom!

We relaxed, got a great night’s sleep and then gorged ourselves on the wonderful breakfast. Then we grabbed an Uber to where we were supposed to catch a fabulous boat trip around the city to see all the sights. Marvelous! The Chicago Architecture Foundation River Cruise is a wonderful way to see the city and I wrote all about it on another article here. It’s a great way to spend your first day and plan where you want to return.

We took a bus tour the next day and hopped off anywhere we wanted which include a long shopping trip and plenty of other stops where we could hop off, walk around as much as we wanted, and hop back on.

We absolutely loved every minute of our visit to Chicago and got great meals every night which were mostly just a short walk from the hotel. The hotel people was absolutely wonderful and helpful and I got to meet Dan Techman who had arranged our completely fabulous stay.

We loved every single minute of our stay and would love to visit an Embassy Suites in whatever city we visit next. I totally and unhesitantly recommend them!

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So exciting! My photographer husband Tom and I were interested in viewing the annual fireworks display in Lexington so I contacted a new hotel downtown, the 21C Museum Hotel. We didn’t actually know where it was located since we hadn’t been downtown since it had been opened but we were sure we could find it. Lexington is not that big! We were thrilled when Brian Pulley, their Director of Sales and Marketing, kindly replied to my email and offered us a one night stay.

Front of the hotel in downtown Lexington,

We made plans for our stay and invited my brother and sister in law to join us in visiting and watching the fireworks. We were so excited! This was the first trip we were taking in over a year! We weren’t going far but we packed our suitcase, snacks and any other sundries we might need for our one night stay, then headed downtown to our fabulous hotel!

Occupying the historic Fayette National Bank Building originally designed by McKim, Mead and White, award-winning firm Deborah Berke Partners embraced the building’s historic features to create 21c Lexington, where contemporary and historic meet and contrast. The owners of this hotel and others they own throughout the United States, wanted to use existing buildings and to share their wonderful artwork with the general public. The art displays throughout the hotels are all free and everyone is welcome to come in and browse.

With high ceilings and large historic windows, guests rooms feel residential and serve as, a comfortable respite from the thought-provoking art and activity that fills the museum galleries. Outfitted with custom-designed contemporary furnishings, comfortable beds, plush robes, and Malin + Goetz bath amenities, the spaces are designed to leave you feeling refreshed and restored. Blue penguins dot the hotel and are located everywhere from the front entrance to outside the hotel rooms. We left our car with the hotel representative and headed in the front door to check in and see everything.

Fabulous and lovely penguins!

Darling penguins!

We visited with the front desk woman and then headed to the elevator with our room keys and our suitcases with our belongings for the night. We were interested to see all the artwork throughout the hotel including the front entrance but waited for a tour of the area from our contact person. A beautiful glass sculpture hung in the entrance foyer and introduced us to the art in the hotel.

Beautiful art sculpture in the entrance foyer.

We made our way up to our room for the night, passing by all kinds of art displays. Our room was lovely with a beautiful view of downtown Lexington. We had a nice sitting area with a couch and a big, flat screen television.

Wonderful, spacious room.

The bathroom was large with plenty of bath products for us to use.

Lovely bathroom.

We settled into our comfy room and waited for the rest of our party to arrive. In the meantime, we got an email from Brian asking if we had settled in and if we wanted to get together for a tour. We replied that we were waiting for our friends but would then be ready for a tour. Finally, we all got together in the front lobby and Brian led us on a very interesting and informative tour of the hotel and the artwork, telling us all about all the hotels and how innovative they are with their art displays. It’s truly a unique and beautiful hotel and we enjoyed seeing and hearing all about all the artwork.

One of the many pieces of artwork throughout the hotel.

Brian showed us the restaurant Lockbox which has absolutely wonderful food and we planned to visit in a little while before the fireworks show.

View of the wonderful restaurant kitchen!

An original safe from the hotel’s bank background.

After our wonderful tour, Brian left us in the restaurant for our dinner. Which was wonderful! We all ordered something different and I totally forgot to take pictures of our great food so you will have to go sample it yourself!

Beautiful restaurant and even more penguins!

After our lovely dinner, we headed back to our room to rest for a while before we set out to find the perfect spot to view the fireworks. We crossed Triangle Park which was right across the street and passed by little shops and restaurants, heading to the ideal location.

Triangle Park

Beautiful downtown Triangle Park.

Nice shopping area.

We found the perfect viewing location and set up our chairs which we had brought with us. We people watched and enjoyed the warm, beautiful evening then enjoyed the wonderful fireworks show! We were so glad we didn’t have to deal with the traffic and just wave goodbye to our friends as we headed up to our beautiful hotel room for the night. How wonderful! We had a lovely relaxing night, then packed up the next morning and were home in just a few minutes. A nice change from some of the long drives we had had.

We had an absolutely lovely time and loved everything about our stay. If you are looking for a place to stay, we absolutely recommend the 21C Museum Hotel in Lexington. Check it out and you will love it as much as we did!

Our stay was provided by the lovely folks at the hotel and we really appreciate it!

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View of the fabulous beach from Echo, the in house restaurant

Because I have been so busy like everyone else, I have been really lazy about writing some articles about our last few trips. With the pandemic sweeping over the entire world, that has taken over so many of our lives, my husband Tom and I have stayed hunkered down in our house reading and catching up on television shows. But like all the many travelers everywhere, we are dying to go on a trip.

So I began planning our next trip keeping in mind all the precautions we would have to take. I decided I wanted to share the wonderful King and Prince Resort on St. Simons Island with my husband who had never been there and would take some wonderful photos for me, I contacted them and they were quite wonderful about working together. But they wondered if I had written about the last trip I took there with my lovely sister in law in January. Had I written about that?

Uh.

No.

No, I hadn’t as I hadn’t done much writing at all. What a shame I had let those memories slip away and all I had was the wonderful memories of the few days we spent there and a few pictures.

I looked over the information I had from the trip and sighed at the beauty of where we had stayed. We had planned a girlfriends getaway and every place we stayed was even better than the last. And then we arrived at the quite lovely King and Prince Beach and Golf Resort. My sister in law and I had stayed here a few years ago but I had truly forgotten how wonderful it was. I expected them to put us in one of their nice hotel rooms but we were astonished and delighted to be given a wonderful beach villa with two bedrooms, a full kitchen, and a big, comfortable living room with an attached veranda. With great, comfy chairs and a view of the beautiful beach!

We tried to be cool and grown up when we arrived at our villa, opened the door and walked in. Then we squealed like a pair of Barbie dolls and ran out on the veranda to drink in our lovely view. It was stupendous!

Friends feet on the beach!

Of course, you can’t go wrong staying at the marvelous resort. Every type of room is wonderful and has great views of the area. It was a little too cool to swim off the beach but we enjoyed just hanging out and taking nice long walks on the beach several times a day. So beautiful!  We spent some time just sitting down by the beach and enjoying the warm weather and salty breezes off the water. We loved hanging out in our beautiful villa and spent time prowling around the island and checking out the shops at the pier.

Great shopping at the pier!

One day, I contacted Bud St. Pierre who is one of the head people at the resort and we had perfectly wonderful, long lunch one day. I wasn’t sure we would have enough to talk about but he was so friendly and so interesting, we had to tear ourselves away when lunch was over and he had things to do. We loved every single meal we had in the restaurant as each was better than the last.

We didn’t really do much on the island except drive around, shop, check out the local restaurants, and admire the views at every turn of the read.

Such a nice stay! I can’t imagine staying anywhere nicer when you are in the area. Everything was just perfect. I can’t wait to share it with my husband soon.

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We are stuck  in our house along with most everyone else in our city to try to keep the bug from spreading. Luckily, we were able to get in our trip up north to see the area and find some lovely snow. I know you all can’t get out to this area anytime soon but I hope you will save some of these articles for ideas for your next trip because we had an absolutely marvelous time and I would love you to see some of the areas we discovered.

Before carefully packing up all our goodies for the trip, we jetted over to Kohl’s to check out some special deals they had going on. They are one of my very favorite stores in our area and you can find just about anything you need from clothes for everyone in your family to furnishings for your house.  You can check their web page where you can find just about anything you need from clothes for everyone in your family to furnishings for your house. A good half of the items in my clothes closet to bedding, towels, etc. all come from one of their stores so check them out.

Once we got back home, we loaded up everything in our vehicle and headed up north to Sandusky, Ohio where we had read they had snow. It didn’t take long to drive into snow and it was wonderful to have the surroundings change from our warmer temperatures to icy cold snow. Snow covered the ground everywhere we looked and we were just thrilled with our wonderful stay at the Kalahari Resort. They have several places to stay in the area and we were astonished at the size of the resort and everything they had to offer from indoor and outdoor water parks to fabulous, comfortable rooms, to great restaurants where we had some wonderful meals.

We couldn’t believe all the water park areas both outside and inside the hotel and could see why people were checking in to spend time in the water.

Outdoor water park. So much fun in warm weather!

We settled into our beautiful room and unpacked what we needed for the night, then had a great night’s sleep. In the morning, we had a wonderful breakfast, then headed out to see the area and meet with our Lake Erie Shores and Island representative for lunch and some information about the area and what we should try to see. Jill Bauer was our contact person and she treated us to a wonderful lunch, then shared some ideas of what to do with our afternoon.

First, we drove to one of the beer locations in the area thinking we would take a tour, buy some beer to take home and just enjoy ourselves. The area was beautiful and I’m sure is really lovely in other months but the heavy snow had ground everything to a standstill. We make our way through the snow and ice to the front door of the place but it was silent and deserted. Not even open. Oh well, there goes our idea of a tour and buying some beer. Maybe on our next visit which was becoming more real the more we tried to see the area.

Beautiful beer location

Another area we wanted to see was some of the lighthouses so we spent a little time finding one of the lighthouses on the lake. Again, everything was quiet and deserted and we were the only visitors in the area.

Marblehead Lighthouse

The lighthouse was right by the water and it was a gray, cloudy day so the water was dark and unappealing.

A gray and stormy day at the shore

We finally admitted defeat in our quest to see the area and headed back to our lovely and cozy hotel. The weather and the snow had made this not quite the appealing trip we had envisioned so we made up our minds that we would return when the weather was nicer and see some of the area that we had missed on this trip. We talked the rest of the way on our trip about our next visit when the weather was nice and everything we would see.

No bad weather to deal with. Sounds good, right?

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We had just driven for several hours from Florida and were ready to relax in our room at the Drury Inn in Nashville where we had been offered a couple of nights. We pulled up to the front of the hotel, parked, and dragged ourselves into the lovely lobby to check in. Where they had no record for us. No record of our stay. But I was sure…wait. Maybe there was more than one Drury hotel in Nashville…and indeed there was. We were at the wrong one. They checked for us and found that we were all set up at downtown Drury Inn. Which, luckily for us was not a far drive at all. We loaded our tired selves back in the car and headed for where we actually supposed to lay our tired bodies down.

The Drury Hotel Nashville Downtown was absolutely as fabulous as the one we had just seen and we had no problem getting ourselves checked and getting our stuff upstairs to our lovely and wonderful room.

Drury Hotel Downtown Nashville

We had just gotten ourselves in comfortable clothes and started spreading out when there was a knock on the door. They had just realized who we were and wanted to  know if we would like to be moved to a suite where we should have been settled. I hesitated, wondering if it was worth getting packed up and moved and said I would just take a look at the other room and we would see if it would be worth the trouble to pack back up and move.

So, barefoot and in my sleeping pants, I followed him to a suite and oh.my.God.

Yes we would definitely move.

This deluxe two-room suite features a quiet bedroom separated by a door from the living area, which includes a pull-out queen sofa sleeper. In-room amenities include free Wi-Fi, two TVs, a microwave, refrigerator, iron and ironing board, hairdryer, coffee maker and in-room safe.

The wonderful, sprawling suite spread out into two rooms and was absolutely huge and wonderful. We quickly packed up all our belongings and settled in our new space, very pleased to be made over and moved to a much more fabulous suite. Our wonderful Drury person helped us to move all our stuff and this made it even easier.

Perfectly lovely living room

Huge bedroom with a great view out the window

Fabulous bathroom

We had a fabulous view of lovely downtown Nashville and were perfectly, perfectly happy with our wonderful suite.

We spent the next day touring all of Nashville (after eating our delicious and beautiful breakfast which was included) and enjoying every minute of our visit. We found a wonderful place for lunch and relaxed, just enjoying the beautiful weather and our wonderful day. Finally, we made it back to our gorgeous hotel and fabulous suite and collapsed into lovely afternoon naps. After our naps, we headed down for the (included) fabulous supper and then relaxed, watching tv and just not doing much of anything except enjoying our wonderful room.

We were so sad to pack up and leave the next morning as we would have enjoyed a few more days in our wonderful suite and the beautiful hotel.

What a great stay!

The post A Few Days in Music City, USA (Fabulous Nashville!) first appeared on WanderlustWonder.

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