The Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington D.C.

Omni Shoreham Lobby - Photo by L. Rivera

We stepped into the cream colored lobby, taking in the pillars supporting vaulted ceilings and chandeliers dripping in crystal throwing soft light down upon the gargantuan floral arrangements resting on gleaming tables.

“Wow,” my son said softly. Yes, the Omni Shoreham Hotel has that “wow” factor.

Opened in the 1930s, the Omni Shoreham has become a fixture on the Washingon D.C. political scene, hosting an inaugural ball for each president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, including one where then-new President Bill Clinton played the saxophone.

The hotel was in a fabulous location near embassy row, near plenty of restaurants, situated about a block away from a subway station and an easy walk to the National Zoo.

Our room was spacious and tastefully decorated in shades of cream, chocolate and green. We enjoyed amenities like in-room tea and coffee and a flat-screen television, and as members of the Select Guest loyalty program, which was free to join, we had free wi-fi in our room – a savings of $9.95 a day.

Hotel amenities included a large outdoor swimming pool and hot tub, a sauna and fitness room. There was a coffee shop serving snacks and goodies and a gift shop. We savored several delicious dinners and buffet breakfasts at the elegant restaurant just off the lobby.

It was the luxurious little details that made the the Omni Shoreham shine: the shirred drapes, the crystal chandeliers. Our first night room service brought complimentary milk and cookies to our room for the kids. In fact, a few weeks ago my husband was lamenting that you don't see shoeshine men anymore and my daughter piped up, “There was one at the Omni Shoreham!”

There was also the panache of wondering who we might be rubbing elbows with as important-looking people trooped towards the conference rooms and dining room. In the parking lot my daughter opened the car door too quickly and tapped the car next to ours – then we noticed the secret service sign on its dashboard. The rest of the day we teased her that an angry looking guy in a dark suit and sunglasses was looking for her.

Omni Shoreham Restaurant - Photo by L. Rivera

Sometimes your hotel is just the place you sleep at night, but for us, the Omni Shoreham was an integral part of our Washington D.C. adventure.

Omni Shoreham Hotel 

2500 Calvert Street NW (at Connecticut Ave.)
Washington, District of Columbia 20008
Phone: (202) 234-0700

Zingerman's Delicatessen, Ann Arbor, MI

Photo by Frank Roche

My daughter and I took a little day trip to Ann Arbor last week and lunched at Zingerman's, the best sandwich place in the world. Well, I think so, at least.

I love you, Binny's Brooklyn Reuben

Zingerman's menu boasts a long list of cleverly named sandwiches – Abra's Nutty Yard Bird, Lila & Izzie's Skokie Skidoo - but my favorites are the corned beef sandwiches. Zingerman's uses Sy Ginsberg corned beef, out of Detroit, and it is superior. The sandwich that has stolen my heart, though, is the Binny's Brooklyn Reuben. If you love reubens, you must try this one. It's created using Zingerman's phenomenal Russian dressing, sauerkraut and swiss cheese, but instead of corned beef and rye it's made with Sy's pastrami and a tasty, mild pumpernickel bread. These slight changes make a scrumptious difference. Try it. Trust me.

I discovered Zingerman's when I was a student at the University of Michigan. It was pricey, particularly on my student’s budget, but I considered it a well worth the splurge. At that time it wasn't unusual to see the owner sporting an apron and working behind the counter. I bet it's a long time since he's done that. In those days they'd just bought the house next door for extra seating. They simply emptied out the rooms and put dining tables in – it was like eating in a vacant house. Before long they remodeled it to look more restaurant-like, and within the past few years they've bought the house behind the restaurant and expanded into that space as well.

After eating our sandwiches my daughter and I wandered into the deli section of the shop, tasting cheese, marmalade and bread, before selecting a crusty sourdough loaf to bring home to the guys. Mmmmm.

Zingerman's
422 Detroit St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734-663-3354

Quartino, Chicago - Restaurant Review

Photo by Thomas Hawk

First it was bacon and sweetness– kind of like when your Sunday morning bacon gets a bit of pancake syrup on it – then the unexpected flavor of blue cheese hit me. Delicious. I'd had bacon-wrapped dates at a different tapas place before and loved them. The Quartino's dates were also stuffed with gorgonzola and drizzled with honey – a succulent union of sweet and savory.

The kids and I were dining at Quartino in Chicago. Quartino's is unique in that it has adopted the small plates – or tapas – concept for Italian food rather than Spanish cuisine. I love being able to experience a variety of scrumptious dishes in a single meal.

Next came the mushroom risotto with all its creamy, mushroomy tastiness. We'd ordered the gnocchi once before and found it a revelation. They've changed the recipe. This gnocchi with green beans and arugula pesto was good, but not great. The piece de resistance was the melt-in-your-mouth goodness of the veal osso bucco. Yum.

Just about everything we had at Quartino was tasty. Except the pizza. I know, how do you mess up pizza? They managed. My son ordered it, and it was tasteless. And it was sausage pizza, too. I don't think I had ever experienced a flavorless sausage before, but I have now. No spice, no flavor, nada. And the sauce too. I have a hard time reconciling the pizza with all the deliciousness we experienced from that kitchen, so maybe it was a bad pizza day at Quartino's.

We finished the meal with coffee and an order of zeppoles, a sort of powdered donut my sister and I hadn't tasted since we moved away from New Jersey years and years ago. We'd enjoyed them straight from a grease-stained paper bag when we were girls strolling along the boardwalk of Point Pleasant Beach, so it was fun to see them dressed up on a platter, accompanied by honey and chocolate dipping sauces. They were even better than we remembered. Mmm, zeppoles.

Quartino

626 N. State St.
Chicago, IL 60654
P. 312 698 5000

Visiting a Casino in St. Croix, USVI

Beautiful St. Croix offers pristine beaches, interesting historical sites and great shopping. But what about the nightlife? If you like a little gambling now and again, you'll be happy to learn that there is a casino on tiny St. Croix.

I'm talking about the Divi Carina Bay Casino, the only casino in St. Croix. This is not one of your glitzy, humongous Las Vegas style casinos, but a smaller, more comfortable type. The casino offers a variety of gaming options, including poker, blackjack, roulette, craps and slot machines.

In addition to gaming, the casino hosts local bands on weekends, so guests can enjoy drinks, dancing and music in addition to gambling.

The casino is located in the Divi Carina Bay resort, so you might want to stay at the resort or just visit for the casino. The hotel's amenities include a beach, swimming pool and restaurant. Please follow the link before for directions, hours of operation and additional information.

Divi Carina Bay Resort

Boston Common

Before heading to Boston with the kids this summer, we reread Johnny Tremain, the classic children's novel about a young silversmith who finds himself entangled in the events of the Revolutionary War. In the novel, Johnny Tremain learns to ride a horse at the Boston Common, described as acres of meadows and pastures for grazing cows. Times have changed. These days the Boston Common is bustling with splashing kids, food trucks, street musicians and hand-holding lovers. We found the Boston Common at the beginning of the Freedom Trail, the 2.5 mile brick path that winds past several of Boston's most important historical sites. We'd set out at the site of the Boston Massacre and worked backwards until we arrived at the pretty expanse of green backed by the golden-domed Massachusetts State House.

At this point the kids had had enough of trekking through churches and graveyards, and were delighted to blow off a little steam at the Tadpole Playground. The playground opened in 2002 and features a play structure with slides, steps, ladders and a bar that my daughter spun round and round on, with a rubberized surface beneath it all to catch the kids if they fell.

A few steps away from the playground was the Boston Common Frog Pond wading pool, flanked by whimsical frog statues. We removed socks and shoes and waded in, splashing about a bit in the August heat while the jingling tunes of the Frog Pond carousel played in the background. In winter, the Frog Pond becomes an ice skating rink. With all that hiking, playing and splashing we'd worked up an appetite, and stopped for lunch at the pond-side Frog Pond Cafe – cheeseburgers for the kids and a turkey wrap for me.

We crossed over to the Public Garden, adjacent to Boston Common,home to the famed Swan Boats, which float upon the lake waters every year from mid-April til late September. The boats were inspired by the opera Lohengrin, in which a knight coasts across a lake on a boat pulled by swans to defend a fair lady. The swan boats feature several rows of benches for riders, and are mounted on pontoons and powered by an operator pedaling from his seat inside a swan. They've been a Boston fixture since 1877, with six boats currently in operation, the oldest dating from 1918. We glided past peaceful weeping willows, watching the antics of the ducks, geese and graceful swans that call the lake home. With fares of $2.75 for adults and $1.50 for kids aged 2 to 15, I thought the Swan Boats were a great bargain.


Dr. Newberry, Holland MI

Artprize Festival, Grand Rapids

Horses made of branches are frolicking in the Grand River, a crowd of kids maneuvers to get a look at the flock of faux penguins in front of the Gerald Ford museum and avant-garde oil paintings hang on the walls of the bank in spaces usually occupied by pastel landscapes. It's Artprize time in Grand Rapids again, when the city becomes one huge gallery hosting the art competition giving away the largest prize. The judges? Anyone over the age of 16 who registers (it's free).

The competition is open to any artist over the age of 18, and with a prize of $200,000 many throw their hats in the ring. Critics argue that the decision to award such a prize should not be left in the hands of amateurs, and admittedly, some of the past winners have seemed to garner their honors based on crowd appeal rather than concept or technical skill. Case in point – in a city dominated by evangelical Christians, the 2011 first place winner was a giant painting of Christ. I think it's no coincidence that 2012 was the first year of the competition to offer a juried prize in addition to the publicly awarded one.

My all-time fave - from 2010.
Oh come on, you know it's awesome

But the real beauty of Artprize is to see this quiet, mid-size midwestern city brimming with excitement over art. There's a vibe, an excitement in the streets. And the art is everywhere -lovely, comical, bizarre or thought-provoking. Former festivals have brought us a Jules Verne-type giant pig in a parking lot, furniture on top of a bridge and the Loch Ness monster in a local pond. On the weekends crowds fill the parking lot of the BOB to see some of the biggest pieces and wait in line for access to the Grand Rapids Art Museum, which displays many of the entries and throws its doors open to the public free of charge during Artprize hours. Musical performances are also entered in the contest, and listening stations are posted in the Artprize area for people who missed the live performance. In coffee shops, hotel lobbies and around water coolers, people discuss the merits of their favorite pieces and urge friends to see this or that sculpture or painting.

Join the discussion – come see this year's Artprize.

Artprize takes place each year from late September to early October. Please consult the event website for exact dates.

http://www.artprize.org

Top Tourist Attractions in New Jersey

When I was a freshman in college, my dad was transferred and my entire family moved to New Jersey. This was particularly painful to me because my dearest wish as a high school senior was to attend college on the east coast, but a scholarship I couldn't refuse kept me in Michigan. And then my family, long-time Michiganders, moved to New Jersey.

Still, I spent my summer vacations in Jersey, spending weekends on the shore, driving to New York City and Philadelphia, going to the mall. Before that New Jersey had simply been a place we passed through to visit my grandparents in New York City, but now I was learning that New Jersey was fun, interesting and sometimes even... beautiful.

From dramatic lighthouses to the thrilling roller coasters, New Jersey has much to offer residents and visitors.

Cape May

Cape May was named for a certain Captain Mey, who explored the area around 1620. In the mid 18^th century the town began marketing itself as a vacation destination to Philadelphians, and by the 19^th century it was a popular vacation spot. Cape May holds the distinction of being the United States' first seaside resort. For generations it was the beach destination of choice for southerners and New Englanders alike. Following a devastating fire in 1878 a plethora of new buildings were constructed in the fashion of the times, and today Cape May city is known for its lovely Victorian homes. In 1976 the town was named a National Historic Landmark.

Visitors to Cape May can explore the town's lighthouse at Cape May Point State Park, view the nesting ospreys while zipping through the salt marshes on the Salt Marsh Safari boat tour, tour historic aircraft at the Wildwood Air Museum, and of course, lounge in the sun on the sandy beach.

Atlantic City

It's like Vegas, only with a beach and saltwater taffy! Walk along the boardwalk, play games and riding the amusement rides, popping in to check out the magnificence of hotel/casinos like Borgata and Trump Taj Mahal. There's the Ripley's Believe it Or Not Museum, the aquarium, an IMAX theater at the Tropicana and Storybook Land for the little ones. You can gamble too.

Six Flags Great Adventure

Great Adventure is located in Jackson, the town where my family lived. Back then Jackson was a lot of trees, a lot of houses, a few strip malls with pizza places and video rental shops, and Great Adventure. The park offers a nice variety of rides for little kids, big kids, water rides and plenty of thrill rides like the Kingda Ka and El Toro roller coasters. The park offers a number of snack stands and restaurants like Johnny Rockets or Panda Express for good eats when you're not screaming at the top of your lungs while plunging eight stories. There's also a Safari Adventure with bears, giraffes, lions and more, and guests can relax in a cool theater and enjoy song-and-dance numbers and other shows.

And one more...

My family's beach of choice when we lived in New Jersey was Point Pleasant. It had a great boardwalk with carnival rides and snack food stands, a great beach, and was quieter and more family-oriented than the boardwalk at Seaside. We'd buy a bag full of round donuts covered in powdered sugar called zeppoles, any by the time we were done the bag was covered with grease stains from the donuts. Those were the days. I haven't had a zeppole since we left Jersey. Mmmm, zeppoles.