A mini vacation to "The Faraway Land"

A few days ago, Eric and I ended up in Nantucket, the little Island off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachussetts. Most of the summer residents had left the island, so it seemed deserted, which was fine with us! We arrived at our hotel - an adorable Cape Cod style building with pine shingles and a beachy, New England feel. That night we decided to go get some lobster at The Lobster Trap in town. We had seared scallops with Ginger, lobster, muscles and clams. yum! It was cozy inside the restaurant where we sat at the bar and enjoyed our seafood and drinks.

Later on, we checked out an old bar called the Club Car. The bar part of the restaurant is actually a train car that was part of the old Nantucket railroad. The town was quaint with cobblestone streets and street lamps glowing in the fog.

The next day, we spent the day in town, grabbed some lunch at the Atlantic Cafe and headed to the beach. Although it wasn't exactly beach weather, we enjoyed hanging out on the sand with a hot cup of coffee. It was a fun relaxing couple of days on the little island. Now, I'm off to Amsterdam and Portugal!

That was some wicked good maple syrup!

It had been a long time since I'd been in Upstate New York during the Fall. Although the leaves hadn't changed yet, I could start to feel the chill in the air at night. We had a few 90 degree days and some nights went below 40 degrees. It was a perfect time to go home to visit family and friends. Eric and I had the chance to see our nieces and nephews who are all getting so big and have hilarious personalities! It's crazy to see how much they change in a years time. While at home, we spent a lot of our time going out to our favorite Italian restaurants, and of course our moms were constantly cooking. Every morning we had a feast - homemade pancakes with fresh picked blueberries and maple syrup, or NY style bagels or french toast. We pretty much ate our way through New York and Vermont during our two week stay.

One of the last days in our hometown, Eric and I drove with our parents to the NY wine country (and of course we had to hit up an airplane museum). The photos below are of one of the many roadside stands in Amish country where you can buy fresh fruits and veggies, pumpkins, honeycombs and apple cider. One of my favorite photos is one my dad took of the Amish family getting into their buggy. That's not something you see everyday!

One day wasn't enough to explore wine country though - that is a definite must-do for our next trip home.

We also had a chance to go visit Sarah and Jarad in Vermont. Their place is adorable, nestled in the mountains near Stratton. It was so much different than our busy lives in California (we didn't have cell phone reception at their house and it was great!). We cooked out, had a bonfire in the backyard (they've actually seen moose back there!) and the next morning, we woke up to Jarad's homemade waffles and maple sugar lattes! Or second stop was to see our very good friends Ann and Travis in Plattsburgh! We got a chance to see their new house (finally!), hung out with Molly and Bailey
and even went cliff jumping of a 20ft cliff! It was pretty cold out the day we went but it didn't stop us. During our stay, we also visited a tiny little winery near the Canadian border. The winemaker had us taste some of his creations and walked with us around the vineyards, letting us taste the different grapes. It was especially cool because we were the only people there that day. We learned some interesting facts about making wine, but mostly we were excited to go home and drink the bottles that we purchased! Below is a photo of Ann standing next to the huge bags of grapes that were about to be pressed. It was great to be back in Plattsburgh where Eric and I used to spend so much time. We spent our last night in Lake Placid at one of our favorite restaurants and it was a perfect ending to a great couple weeks.

The search for lost luggage...

It was inevitable. All of these years of traveling and I had never lost a bag. I've heard horror stories of people going on vacation and to finally arrive at their destination with no underwear, toothpaste or bathing suit for the beach! Usually though when this happens, the passenger isn't in a position to literally go search for their lost luggage on foot. Here is how it went...

On Friday morning we left California bound for Venice, Italy. I was ecstatic because Italy is one of my favorite countries and I was going to visit one of the few larger Italian cities I hadn't explored yet. We were taking a famous female actress to the Film Festival and I was hoping that while we were there, I might get to see the likes of George Clooney or Brad Pitt. Of course, it didn't hurt that I was about to tour such an extraordinary city filled with old buildings and gondoliers rowing through the tiny canals.

When our passengers departed the plane, all I could think about was the proscuitto sandwich I was going to have for lunch and maybe even a nice glass of red wine to wind down my day. As our car pulled up to the plane to pick us up, I was noticing that everyone seemed to have a lot of luggage...everyone except me! I couldn't find my black rolling bag ANYWHERE and we realized that my luggage had gone with the passengers! At first, I didn't panic. It was quite funny thinking that this famous/rich actress would think that my shoddy Kenneth Cole REACTION suitcase would actually be part of their entourage. It really just didn't fit in with the Louis Vuitton baggage. One of the pilots called the broker to let him know what had happened so surely within a few hours I would have my luggage back in my hands (I was leaving for Spain early the next morning). I had no idea that my only day in Venice would be filled with stalking a movie star to get my luggage back! After a few hours, nobody knew where the passengers were staying. We didn't know the name of the hotel and the personal assistant was not answering her Italian phone. I knew that they were in press meetings and movie premiers all day, but I was getting extremely nervous. After about 5 hours of making phone calls, I finally found out what hotel they were staying at. We still couldn't reach any of the passengers on the phone to let them know we needed the luggage back, so we decided to head to their hotel! Of course, finding the hotel in Venice was not easy but we finally made it to the reception area. The captain and I tried explaining that one of their guests had my luggage, but when we told the concierge who had my luggage, he raised his eyebrow. Certainly he was thinking I was just part of the paparazzi or some crazy stalker that was trying to get close to the movie star. When he had told me he would "try" to see what he could do, I almost broke down in tears. AND THEN the amazing happened. Out of the elevator right in front of me was her makeup artist and hair stylist!!!! I was so excited to see them and said, "Oh my god I was hoping I would see you!!!!" and their reaction was, "Ohhhh Hi!!!!!! Are you staying at this hotel too????!?!"
When I explained what happened to my bag the makeup guy said that he had the bag in his room and was wondering whose it was. We went to his room and waiting patiently next to the door was my trusty black rolling bag with its little yellow ribbon tied to the handle.

Over a yummy Italian dinner, my crew laughed at the interesting day they had spent looking for my lost luggage. If we hadn't been at the right place at the right time, I'm certain that I wouldn't have gotten my bag back and what's a girl to do without a bathing suit in Ibiza?!

Aside from everything that happened that day, being in Venice made up for it all. Venice was by far one of the most magnificent cities I have ever seen. Every single corner we turned was so picturesque that it really seemed like I was walking through a movie set. I did take many photos, but there is no way to capture the the smell of the pizza shops at dinner time, or the clanking of wine glasses, or the conversations in Italian that echoed through the narrow alleyways and down the canals throughout the town.


I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!

For more photos of Venice, click below the last photo.