New Camera!!!

Yay! My new digital camera arrived yesterday.

Not that I didn't like my original digital camera. Actually I love my original digital camera, especially the size, it's so compact and easy to use and I will continue to use it...but I wanted to explore the new "super" zoom digitals.

So after many months of trying to figure out which one I wanted I decided on the Panasonic Lumix 18x zoom. I haven't had time read the whole manual yet, but I've been getting familiar with all the options this camera has and let me tell you I think using this will be lots of fun and hopefully it will produce lots of great photos!

Here's to happy "snapping"!

Oh My God! Returning to Roma!

Buon Natale Roma 2008!!!!

Yup, that's right...tonight I took the plunge and hit the submit button on the Delta Airlines website and bought tickets to Rome for Christmas 2008. How could I pass up a decent airfare to the Eternal City! We are leaving Christmas day and return on January 3, 2009.

Well, I did say since this is my 4oth year I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate the year than starting it in Rome and ending it in Rome. Ok, so technically I was back here in the USA on December 31, 2007, but close enough!

I have also booked the hotel...yup, I am QUICK! We'll be staying at the Hotel Smeraldo (www.smeraldoroma.com), which is in the Centro Storico (historic center for those in the know!) and not to far from Campo de Fiori...let's hope we can get some of the great pizza from Al Forno this time!

So, 2008 looks like a chock-full travel year! I love this....it keeps me sane! Now not only do I get to plan for the France trip (mostly just the "extra" non-tour days in France) but a full 8 days in Rome...and this time no tour...it will all my own planning! I'm putting myself to the test!

Ahhhhh...Roma!

Ciao!

Nice Market Tour!

After reading about Les Petits Farcis on the Fodors website and perusing the website (www.petitsfarcis.com) I became very interested in the Nice market tours that they offer.

The woman who runs the company (Rosa Jackson) is a writer and food critic who conducts tours of the market in Nice with breakfast and/or lunch tastings. It seemed like a fun way to spend some time and get a more local perspective on the Nice market. And maybe good photos opportunities!

There are a variety of tours (and prices) to choose from. After mulling it over for several days I decided to contact Rosa about doing a Saturday morning market tour with breakfast tasting for the Saturday Morning we will be in Nice. I heard back from her and booked the tour.

This tour will be on the final group tour day, which really isn't a tour "day". The tour is really over the night before at the final dinner. Since we are changing hotels I thought it would be good timing to do the market tour on Saturday morning, leave our luggage at the tour hotel and then after the market tour it will time to check into the Hotel Grimaldi where we'll be staying for an extra 4 days.

Stay tuned to find out how the tour goes...of course, you will have wait until October!

New Passport!!

How could I have forgotten to post about this monumental event...I renewed my passport last month!

After returning from Italy on December 31, 2007 I promptly sent my passport renewal application in on January 7, 2008.

My passport was due to expire in September 2008, and you ask...why is she sending in the renewal 9 months in advance?

Simple my friends...after reading about all the chaos last year with the new entry requirements and the nightmare stories of people having to stand in line for hours at passport offices, and I mean people flew to the nearest cities with passport offices to stand in line for expedited service in order to not cancel travel plans, I was not going to be one of those people who waited to the last minute and be caught in a lurch. OK, so if you know me well, you know that I would never leave something like this to last minute anyway!

So I completed the application and sent it off with my passport. I did send it certified mail, but I did not pay the extra to have expedited service since my next forray into a foreign country is not scheduled until September 2008 (but I certainly want to be prepared if an opportunity presents itself!..but I digress here). I mailed the envelope off on January 7th as I mentioned.

Lo and behold less then 3 weeks later I had my shining new passport in my hands! Wow...what a difference from the stories I ready about renewals taking 3 months! I was overjoyed!

But I gotta say, I really don't like the look of the new passport pages...all the different photos/watermarks where the country stamps will go...you know how some of those stamps are so light and now with all the background photos on the pages, I'm willing to bet I won't be able to read some of the new stamps and afterall that's part of the fun of getting your passport stamped anyway, it's a reminder of all the interesting places I've visited, it's the verification that I was not dreaming that I actually saw the Colloseum, Eiffel Tower, Hong Kong Harbor, The Sydney Harbor Bridge...well that stamp and the plethora of photos I seem to always take.


I will just deal with it, at least this new passport has the new chip technology in it, whatever benefit that includes I don't know yet...but now I can rest easy for the next 10 years knowing my passport photo doesn't look half bad and I can jet off to the far ends of the earth on a moments notice!

2008 Rome Plans

The Rome trip plans for Christmas 2008 are on hold...stay tuned for more...maybe Rome, and maybe somewhere else!

I may be out of my mind!!!

With roundtrip airfare from Savannah to Rome under $1000 for Christmas 2008, and the dates I want are at the price I want, my finger is hovering over the submit button to purchase the ticket!

I spent time last night emailing a variety of hotels in Rome asking what room rates are for the week between Christmas and New Years. All but one have responded.

The first hotel to reply back has the best rate (100Euro per night) of all the hotels I sent inquires to. I even checked out the comments on Trip Advisor for this hotel and they all say the place is in THE PERFECT location, rooms tend to be on the small side, but honestly, how much time would be spent in the room...really just to sleep, shower and change clothes!

I am constantly battling my brain with "should I go?" or "should I not go?", if I go, it puts a big dent in the savings account, on the other hand, life is short I may as well enjoy myself while I can. Plus I can't think of better way to end my 40th year then a week in Rome, especially since that's the way I started my 40th year!

Stay tuned for my final decision!

Altar Boyz Booked, Another walking tour to consider...

After trying to find "reasonable" priced Broadway show tickets mom and I decided to take a gander at the Off Broadway offerings.

We found the show Altar Boyz (http://www.altarboyz.com/). The reviews we've read are glowing and it's been running for 3 years. We bit the bullet and booked tickets for the Saturday matinee when we will be in the city. I'm really looking forward to it, the little snippet I listened to, of the music sounded great! The ticket price was "right-on" too...only $35...much better then the $178 for the Jersey Boys Broadway show! After all, it's not like we've never been to a Broadway show before!

Thanks to a gal my mom works with we found another tour company called Big Onion Walking Tours (http://www.bigonion.com/). They do a variety of walking tours throughout NYC and it appears they are history based. The Saturday we will be in the city there is a Brooklyn Bridge Twillight walking tour scheduled. We decided to give it a try since I've never walked across the Brooklyn Bridge before and there is no requirement to reserve in advance, the price is only $15 for a 2 hour tour...not too bad. So we are putting that on the "agenda" and hopefully we will be able to squeeze it in. I'm glad this tour doesn't require reservations in case we get interested in something else, we have nothing to lose!

And the travel planning continues!

So Many Travel Plans...and I have to work...Uggh!

Just a quick post which I will hopefully expound upon later.

Plans for the NYC trip in May have come together nicely and we have Off-Broadway theater tickets booked! And another potential walking tour in the works with Big Onion Walking Tours...more on all this later.

Research for the France trip is starting to get underway and I've found an interesting web site on food/market tours in Nice. This is for a possible half day tour during one of the 4 extra days we have at the end of the RS tour in October.

And just for grins yesterday I checked out airfares to Rome for Christmas 2008 and the price was VERY reasonable...less then we paid this past year...so now thoughts of a week in Rome for this coming Christmas are dancing around in my head.

I'll post more about each planning "event" later when I have more time...oh, and work has been BUSY, so much so, that I've been working a few hours on Saturdays...trying to fit everything in is driving me nuts...Thank God I have trip planning to keep me sane! :)

Shopped Til We Dropped!

The trip to Atlanta last weekend was great fun. Ok, so maybe waking up at "0 dark 30" wasn't fun, in actuality it was only 5am and we were out the door by 6am-ish, went to the Starbucks drive-thru and we hit the road shortly after 6pm.

We arrived at the Trader Joe's in Sandy Springs just after 11:30am and boy was the shopping cart overloaded...but how could you pass up a case of wine for $30! :)

After depleting Trader Joe's of quite a bit of their stock we were off to the Perimeter Mall...wow! We hadn't shopped at a mall like that in years...they even have a car wash and detail center in the mall parking garage!

We got to the mall at around 1pm, we parked near Nordstroms and remembering there is usually a nice cafe in Nortstroms we found it and had lunch...we were starving. We each had a panini sandwich and while having lunch Regi called. We put our evening dinner plans together and since we were now fortified with plenty of food, it was time to hit the stores!

The first stop after lunch was the Clarks shoe store, and lucky me they were having a sale. I got 2 pair of Clark shoes for $90...a good deal since that is generally the price for one pair.

We found Sephora (mom had never heard of them) and put a dent in their Philosophy supply! We also found the round gratin dishes she had been looking for, for a long time!

When 6pm rolled around, we thought is was time to go check in the hotel. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express on Hammond Drive, the perfect location between Trader Joe's and the Perimeter Mall! Once we checked in I called Scott and he said he would pick us up around 7:30pm. We were going to meet Regi and Darlene at the Buckhead Diner.

Darlene suggested the Buckhead Diner and we are so glad she did...we loved the place. Of course being a Saturday night and in Buckhead, even with a 9pm reservation we waited, but we got there early (as Regi recommended we do) around 8pm and it was standing room only. We got some wine and within 45 minutes we were seated.

We had such fun and laughed like we hadn't laughed in a long time. Thanks to Darlene and Regi they are such a hoot...Scott too, but he graciously accepted being the designated driver so the rest of us could drink as much wine as we wanted! :)

The food was wonderful. We started with the calarmari...To Die For! and a house special of a plate of potato chips with blue cheese and bechamel sauce, sounds weird, but tasted GREAT!

Now even though the name of the place has "diner" in it, it is definitely an upscale "diner"...think diner with white table cloths! I had the meatloaf and it was deliscious. Everyone's meals were excellent. The waiter Michael was lots of fun, but maybe that was because we were such fun!

It was the perfect night out!

Sunday morning we got up and went to the Cheesecake Factory for brunch. Mom had never been there, and I think the food there is good. Our breakfasts were so big (hold onto your hat), I decided not to have cheesecake! My reasoning was because I had a feeling we would be back in Atlanta, since we had such a good time on this trip.

After brunch we walked around Macy's for a little while and then went down the street to Borders. By the time we ended our browsing in Borders it was just after 1pm and time to hit the road back home.

We had such a great time and now I remember what it's like to have good stores to shop in!

Here is Regi and Scott at the Buckhed Diner

Here is Mom and Regi at the Buckhead Diner

Here is Darlene and Me at the Buckhead Diner