That's What Jenni Said

Two weeks after returning from our weekend in Andorra, NoVA Travelers launched a trip closer to home - Philadelphia. The city is steeped in American history and it's always a pleasure for me to introduce it to members who have never visited before.     We piled into our carpool caravan and headed for Philly on an early Saturday morning. Our first stop was the lovely Hotel Palomar - a historic architectural gem in downtown Philly that has been converted to a Kimpton luxury boutique hotel . I enjoy Kimpton properties because they treat guests so well- complimentary coffee and teas in the morning (and I usually negotiate free breakfast for my group) and a wine reception every afternoon.     Once we'd completed check-in we set off for the historic downtown area to visit Reading Terminal Market. The market has been in continuous operation since the late 1800s and features more than 80 merchants and vendors including Pennsylvania Dutch farmers who come to sell their fresh baked go...

    This weekend I've been delighted to carve out the time required to complete the remaining trip reports for 2009. I find it valuable to chronicle our excursions with the written word and pictures to give them the respect of permanency. I hope also that my record of events have been useful to you either as a guide in planning your itineraries for the destinations I've referenced, a general encouragement to step out in adventurous faith and see the world , or at the very least as entertaining fodder to pass the time consumed by reading the entries.     I've mentioned flyertalk.com in previous trip reports. This is an online community of mileage runners like myself (folks with a hobby of calculating the lowest cents per mile [CPM] route on their chosen airline carrier and flying for the reward of attaining elite status). Infuse extroverts with a liberal dose of thrifty ingenuity and a penchant for flying around the world and you get a group that loves to attend parties on...

Without a doubt, one of the most memorable aspects of the NoVA Travelers Costa Rica Trip was the level of vulnerability of the organizer. Having just returned recently from a more-adventurous-than-originally-planned trip in Switzerland, I found myself racing to pack my carry-on bag for the Costa Rica excursion .Financially I was in a bind in that I had no cash nor debit/credit cards of my own (only my husband's credit card which I was borrowing to take with me since mine had been stolen a few days before in Switzerland and who knew if I could get by using his cards when they had his name on them). Also I realized I would not be authorized to drive the rental car we had reserved in advance from the Hertz in San Jose, Costa Rica. Add to the mix a current of underlying generalized anxiety over the theft and a jet lag and it wasn't pretty. Still, I'm the organizer and I have a responsibility to my group so I marched onward. Penny (a member accompanying me on the trip) volunteer...

NoVA Travelers spent the last weekend in August in the Colorado Rockies. We hopped on the plane to Denver Friday night and settled into the Curtis hotel in the heart of downtown to get a good night's rest before we embarked on two full days in the outdoors. This was the 5th upgrade in a row for me on the Delta flight, so in keeping with my gift policy to the group I gave it away to one of the members who sat in first class in my place while I sat back in coach.     Sat morning we stopped off at a well known cajun café (Lucile's - 275 S Logan St) in Denver for breakfast on our drive out to Red Rocks State Park. The food was good, and the homemade biscuits were massive (very tasty smothered in spiced country gravy).     Arriving at Red Rocks we found that it was a special event day- some sort of hippie fest basically. This meant that in between our scenic hikes we were treated to seeing a lot of stoned college students peeing in the brush. Just an additional entertainment factor...

The fourth weekend in August NoVA Travelers hosted a two-day Beantown tour, focused on the history and cultural attractions of Boston.     We flew to Boston on Saturday morning and made our way to our fabulous hotel - the Nine Zero. The hotel is literally on the path of the Freedom Trail so we had easy access to all the historic attractions we planned to visit.     Once we checked in, we meandered our way along the Freedom trail, visiting The Boston Common , The State House , Park Street Church , Granary Burying Ground , King's Chapel , King's Chapel Burying Ground , Benjamin Franklin Statue/Boston Latin School , Old Corner Book Store , Old South Meeting House , Old State House , Site of the Boston Massacre , and Faneuil Hall . Leilani served as our trip photographer, snapping photos along the way. She's posted many of them on facebook, so if you happen to be a member there, just friend me ( http://www.facebook.com/jenniparks ) and I'll point you to the Boston album. It...

NoVA Travelers made it to Vegas in October!     We arrived in Vegas the first Friday night in October just after 11pm and made our way over to Caesar's via airport shuttle. We checked in, having booked a simple classic room and with a smile and little persuasion were upgraded to one of the 1200 square foot executive suites. Last time we came to Vegas we were successfully upgraded to a bigger beautiful room than originally booked, but never anything this amazing before. I guess I am honing my persuasive skills each time. Our suite had a beautiful marble foyer, a baby grand piano in one of the main sitting areas (there are 3 separate sitting areas, a wet bar, a dining area, a master bedroom and 2 marble bathrooms with separate glass enclosed showers, tubs, and WC with bidets. We were very satisfied with our accommodations to say the least. After check in, we were hungry so we grabbed a quick bite at Augustus Cafe and then headed back to the suite to sleep.     Saturday morning we had...

The second week in Maine NoVA Travelers hosted a scenic lighthouse tour. I had not been up through Maine in roughly 10 years so it was really refreshing to lead the group on this trip.     The plan was to fly to Boston on a Friday afternoon and rent a car for our adventures and everything fell into place as it should. Since there were only a couple of members that signed up for this particular trip, I was able to insert a slight detour on the way up to Maine to stop for dinner with a college friend of mine. She was very gracious (Thanks Helen if you're reading this) and her enthusiasm for …well for just about everything…is infectious and joyful. She steered us to a great dinner spot and we had a lovely time.     Once dinner was over, we said our goodbyes, and headed for Camden - the furthest point on our itinerary. We made it to the Whitehall Inn ( http://www.whitehall-inn.com/ ) pretty late and found our room keys waiting for us at the check-in desk. This inn gained its fame thr...