| AAA sees more December holiday flying | | Posted Wednesday, December 13, 2006 1:26:12 PM by Blog57 Team | | More Americans will travel over the Christmas and New Year's holidays than ever before, AAA predicted Tuesday, including 9 million by air. "Because hotel rates, air fares and gas prices have risen only slightly from this time last year, Americans will not hold back when making travel arrangements this holiday season," said AAA in projecting that nearly 65 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home. .... | |
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| | | Farmhouse stays offer a real taste of Italian culture | | Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 3:48:20 AM by Blog57 Team | | When my husband and I decided to take four family members from Ohio on their first trip to Italy, we wanted them to experience more than just the tourist sites in Venice, Florence and Rome. We hoped to share with them what we've always considered to be Italy's greatest treasures -- its culture, people and food. For this, we headed to southern Italy, where 80 percent of Italian-Americans have their roots -- including our family. Our relatives not only survived Naples, a city some consider to be one of country's roughest, but they loved it, mostly because they loved our hotel, the Pinto-Storey, a 16-room hotel in an 1878 building overlooking a square in the safe and relaxed Chiaia neighborhood near the historic center. Would we be as lucky for the next three nights at the agriturismo I booked in Molise, a rural region? La Sorgente was about four miles from Macchiagodena, a village between the cities of Isernia and Campobasso.... | |
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| | | Experience the Provence of Russell Crowe's New Film 'A Good Year' with HomesAway Luxury Villa Vacations | | Posted Thursday, November 09, 2006 11:27:45 PM by Blog57 Team | | (PRWEB) November 9, 2006 -- Imagine living the life of a Provence local, like Russell Crowe portrays in the new film "A Good Year." Speaking of his Provence experience on NBC's Today Show, Crowe said, "I could not imagine a place in Europe that is more family-friendly and beautiful than Provence. To shoot a movie there and bring my family along was superb. I encourage everyone to go there." .... | |
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| | | Donna Childs: When traveling for holidays, planning is essential | | Posted Monday, November 06, 2006 7:35:11 PM by Blog57 Team | | Not only is the holiday season hectic for shoppers, it's also a busy time for travelers. This is a time of year when many people take to the skies or hit the roadways on vacations or to visit family and friends. It can also be a time when the excitement of getting away can make for hasty decisions that could end up costing you. So, the Better Business Bureau offers you some planning tips to make sure you have a smooth getaway. The key to a successful trip is to plan ahead. Since the holidays are peak travel times, making arrangements in advance can help you get the desired flight, car rental and hotel accommodations at reasonable rates. You may also want to plan to leave a day earlier or later when the airports or roads aren't as crowded. .... | |
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| | | Amazing original off-price store arrives in Warrensville Heights | | Posted Friday, November 03, 2006 3:47:23 PM by Blog57 Team | | During childhood family vacations to Boston in the 1970s and '80s, the Old North Church, the harbor and the Back Bay weren't the only must-sees on our itinerary. There was one more location we never missed -- well, at least the women in my family didn't miss it: Filene's Basement. This legendary bargain haunt -- opened in 1908 in the basement of Filene's Department Store -- is where the off-price store was born, decades before T.J. Maxx and Marshalls were even thoughts in their CEO's heads. It has achieved near-mythical status through the years, with tales of tugs-of-war in the aisles and early-bird lines whirling around their amazing designer bargains, especially at the annual wedding gown sale. Ninety-eight years later, Filene's Basement is no longer a novel concept, and it's no longer even associated with Filene's (which is today part of Federated Department Stores' Macy's chain).... | |
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| | | Need a lift this season? Cabin fever is a good thing for Marin's ... | | Posted Thursday, November 02, 2006 1:44:02 PM by Blog57 Team | | Even though the temperature has been hovering around 70 degrees in Marin, now is the time for winter preparation. Dig out the skis, get new gloves and butter up that rich aunt with the deluxe ski cabin in Tahoe or plop down several thousand bucks for a seasonal rental. For those without connections or surplus cash, it might be time to check out one of Marin's three ski clubs. Ski clubs offer many benefits - often including accommodations - for a nominal annual fee. "What our club offers is a lodge that we constructed ourselves when we were just kids back in the early '60s, and we still use it today," says Barry Evergettis, a Kentfield resident and former Marin Ski Club (MSC) president. John Kerby-Miller, 76, father of San Anselmo Mayor Barbara Thornton and longtime MSC member, was 27 years old when the lodge was built.... | |
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| | | Couple's aid wins La Familia Award for philanthropy | | Posted Tuesday, October 31, 2006 11:34:28 AM by Blog57 Team | | Louie and Stella Sandoval met working in a San Jose apricot orchard when they were 13 and married right out of high school in 1973. When they set out to raise a family, Louie had one goal: He didn't want his children to have to work as hard as he did, growing up one of 14 in a migrant family. He wanted them to focus on their education. But while Sandoval, longtime owner of L&M Body Shop in Gilroy, made a comfortable home for his family, he soon started thinking that wasn't enough. ``As time went on and we watched our children, he would see other children who were in same situation he was in,'' Stella Sandoval recalled. ``He said, `I want to go out and work and give myself to helping and guiding these kids.' '' The Sandovals started taking 12 to 15 at-risk youths with them on family vacations to Disneyland in summer and Lake Tahoe in winter.... | |
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| | | New Website Gives People Their Own Time Capsules on the Net | | Posted Friday, October 27, 2006 3:20:12 PM by Blog57 Team | | A new website, www.myminuteintime.com allows people to buy their unique minutes in time, and to record them for posterity on their own pages. The minutes could be for any precious personal moments such as great events, memorable vacations, sporting or academic achievements, the birth of children or meeting the love of one's life. For a one-off, all-inclusive on line payment of around US$10.99* (GBP5.99), purchasers get the exclusive rights to their chosen minute in their appropriate world time zone and their own page on the site. This page can be used to log the details and significance of that special moment, and can include up to four pictures with file sizes of less than 1MB each. Content can be edited or added to at any time in the future. The purchaser has the option of making their page public, or, if preferred, restricting access by means of a password to close friends or family.... | |
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| | | Schools lose when kids go on vacation | | Posted Tuesday, October 24, 2006 7:17:13 PM by Blog57 Team | | There's money to be saved by taking vacations in the fall, but it can be at the expense of the educational system if children take trips without being on short-term independent study. Three out of five parents say they're willing to take their children out of school for a vacation, according to a new study published in the 2006 National Leisure Travel Monitor. Apparently there are more bargains to be had off-season, as well as smaller crowds and shorter lines. Fall, in particular, is becoming increasingly popular for family vacations and now accounts for 24 percent of all family vacation time in the United States, according to the Travel Industry Association. That's second only to summer, which accounts for 33 percent of family travel. AAA's travel vacation package bookings are up 9.3 percent compared to last year, according to the travel organization which recently tagged, fall as "the new summer." Ukiah Unified School District Superintendent Ray Chadwick said he hasn't noticed an increase recently in the amount of parents taking their children out of school, but he did say a number of families in the district, on an annual basis, return to Mexico during the holiday .... | |
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| | | Big Horn County leaders play poverty game | | Posted Saturday, October 21, 2006 7:12:21 PM by Blog57 Team | | GREYBULL, Wyo. - Thursday was not a good day for the Aber family. Al Aber lost his job, his son stole a neighbor's Social Security check and the family was evicted for not paying rent.The good news is that the Abers are not a real family, but a group of community leaders from Big Horn County taking part in a poverty simulation organized by educators from the University of Wyoming's Cooperative Extension office."This is not a game, but a simulation, designed to show you what it is like trying to live at the poverty level," said Patti Griffith, a UW Extension educator from Fremont County who directed the exercise.Similar to other programs used by universities and public-interest groups around the country, the simulation helps politicians, administrators and policymakers experience a small taste of the frustrations and complications of trying to work their way out of poverty.... | |
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