SAN DIEGO: QUITE A TOWN!

With its fabulous Balboa Park, Old Town, and Heritage Park, San Diego is quite a town!

The world-famous San Diego Zoo, located in the northern section of Balboa Park is home to more than 4,000 rare and endangered animals representing more than 800 species and subspecies.  The San Diego Zoo is a world famous conservation organization where visitors view exotic animals in habitat environments. Zoo guests may view rare giant pandas, cuddly looking koalas, reptiles of various shapes and sizes and many more interesting species. 

GIANT PANDA AT SAN DIEGO ZOO

LA JOLLA: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AT ITS BEST

BY: JANET STEINBERG

Brush up your Spanish before heading to this coastal California town for dinner.  La Jolla is pronounced La HOY-uh, meaning “the jewel” in Spanish.

La Jolla is a many-faceted, picture-postcard jewel hugging seven miles of California coastline some 25 minutes north of San Diego.  Sunny days and legendary sunsets are a daily occurrence in this picturesque village.

 

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE IN LA JOLLA

VOLOS: A CITY OF ANCIENT AND MODERN CONTRADICTIONS

BY: JANET STEINBERG

WELCOME TO VOLOS, GREECE

"Kalispera" (kal-ee-speh-ra).  Good afternoon.  It’s a beautiful day in Volos, a popular cruise port on the Pagasitic Gulf.  Volos, nestled beneath the majestic Mt. Pelion, is a lively, little city of approximately 71,000 people.  A city of ancient and modern contradictions, Volos passed from Turkish rule to that of Greece in 1881. 

GOING COASTAL: CALIFORNIA’S CELEBRATED COASTLINE

BY: JANET STEINBERG

From castles to cable cars, big surf to Big Sur, the California Coastline is one of the world’s most celebrated coastlines, and the liberating drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco is one of the most spectacular drives in the world.

Starting our trip in the Greater Los Angeles area we chose the beach community of Santa Monica for our first home base.

And what better home could one ask for than the Casa del Mar? The Hotel Casa Del Mar, prominently positioned on the sun-drenched beach of Santa Monica, is one of the few luxury hotels in Greater Los Angeles that is nestled right in the sand!

If the walls of this grand hotel could talk, it would tell tales of the goings on, when it was the most glamorous beach club in Southern California from 1926 to 1941. Subsequently, the US Navy claimed the building for enlisted men in WWII and, from the late 1970s until 1997, Nathan Pritikin (the weight-loss guru) turned it into his renowned Pritikin Center.
 

HOTEL CASA DEL MAR

  

THE TRUE TURKISH DELIGHT

BY: JANET STEINBERG

While locum, the sweet jelly-textured confection may be officially known as Turkish Delight, it is the bold pulsating patterns of the Turkish carpet that truly dazzles and delights the shopper in Turkey.  While reflecting the culture of its people, the attractive colors and designs of the Turkish carpet also convey artistic messages to people of other countries.

THE OFFICIAL TURKISH DELIGHT