I’ve been looking forward to this weekend for quite a while. Not because we had any big plans or were going anywhere special. I just was anticipating a leisurely three-day weekend (more for my husband than for me, since working from home means my work days can often be indistinguishable from weekends and holidays), with Valentine’s Day and the start of the Winter Olympics adding fun and excitement to the mix.

This year we decided to forego a nice dinner out at one of our favorite places and instead create a nice dinner in for Valentine’s Day. I think I’ve mentioned before that Harry is some mean cook, so I’m anticipating a meal of coconut shrimp, wild rice and asparagus with Hollandaise sauce and, of course, a bottle of wine or two. I’ll be contributing a yummy chocolate dessert — can’t have Valentine’s Day without chocolate! We’ll also take in a couple of movies this weekend (we each choose one, so there’s a nice balance) and just enjoy a few unhurried days together.

The weekend began with watching the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Games in Vancouver. Well, I will admit that I was reading a magazine and doing a few chores at the same time, as all of the coverage did not require my undivided attention all of the time. I did enjoy much of the visual spectacle, though. And, with the games being held here in the Pacific Northwest, we have an added interest in them. Having lived in the Seattle area and Washington state for two decades, we’ve visited Vancouver a number of times. It is definitely one of my favorite cities for it’s stunning setting, cosmopolitan atmosphere and cultural diversity. After observing all of the preparations over the last several years for this big event, it’s exciting to now see it all coming to fruition and to see the rest of the world’s reaction to this beautiful place.

I’ve always enjoyed both the summer and winter Olympics. I have very little athletic talent myself, but I really get drawn in to the various competitions and can’t help but admire and respect all the effort and sacrifice the athletes put forth to achieve their goals. A few peeves about the coverage, though. This one applies not just to the Olympics, but any sporting event: Please, do away with the pre- and post-event interviews with the athletes. The same old cliched questions are asked, and the same old cliched responses will be given. I like the pretaped background stories on the athletes’ lives, but not those stale bits that reveal absolutely nothing new.

I’d also like to to see the events in real time, not tape-delayed and broadcast during prime time (admitting that there may be options via satellite and such). For those of us living in the same time zone as the Games are being held, it would mean we don’t have to stay up ’til midnight to catch the finals of big events. I appreciate the editing which compresses time between preliminaries and individual performances, but too much manipulation takes some of the spontaneity and anticipation out of the viewing.

Finally, I just don’t like the participation of professional athletes, especially in the team events like hockey, basketball and baseball. I know all of the history, the political and economic reasons behind the change in the rules. I know that there are the Shaun Whites and Apolo Ohnos who have made a lot of money in their sports, too — more than most professional athletes in team sports. Still, especially in those team events, I think it makes for especially uneven “competition.” And who believes the 1980 Miracle on Ice victory would have been as sweet if the U.S. team had been loaded with pros? 

Ah, but enough of that. I’m just going to sit back and enjoy the rest of my weekend, and may you do the same.

– Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader

Last week, Dick Evans and I had the opportunity to check out new NYC hotspot The Standard Hotel, and the property is anything but standard. You know the one I’m talking about, with the upside-down signage. The Standard is part of the Andre Balazs Properties group, which includes three other Standards (two in LA, one in Miami), the hip Chateau Marmont (LA), the Mercer  (NYC and the site of the Russell Crowe phone-throwing incident) and Sunset Beach (Long Island). The NYC Standard is the the newest property, nestled in the city’s trendy Meatpacking District.

We were attending a cocktail reception at the property for Visit London. I was excited to finally catch a glimpse of the High Line, old elevated railroad tracks that have been converted into a park. Luckily for me, The Standard is built over the High Line, so the floor-to-ceiling windows in the event venue gave me just the opportunity I was looking for to check out the new park. The property has several meeting/event spaces, including a seasonal Biergarten, two Garden Rooms, the High Line Room and space on the top levels of the hotel, which has become some of the most sought-after event space in the city.

One quirk that might creep you out a bit? The screens in the elevator, which showcase a fantasy/Alice in Wonderland-ish world. They certainly draw your attention; but the images, while colorful and bright, are a little on the weird side.

The food was fantastic. Dick and I particularly enjoyed the sliders. Other tasty options include mushroom quiches, mini lobster rolls, Ahi tuna, a full cheese spread, a bean salad, ham, prosciutto and pepperoni. Much to our dismay, there were no desserts on offer. The hotel’s restaurant, The Standard Grill, has become extremely popular since the hotel’s hard opening in September. Other on-site dining options include The Living Room and the Biergarten.

I didn’t get a chance to view any of the guestrooms, but I hear the views in each room are quite impressive. Of course, locals did not necessarily appreciate the views when the property first opened. The buzz about town was that many hotel guests failed to realize the windows were not tinted, nor were they covered. The whole situation certainly created a buzz for the newly opened property.

Next time you are in NYC, check out this hip new property.

– Kimberly Krol, eFlyer editor, circulation and public relations executive

In exchanging emails yesterday with my dear friend, Julie, in our former hometown of East Wenatchee, Wash., I learned that they are currently “enjoying” a weather phenomenon which occurs several times every winter there. When I first moved to North Central Washington six years ago, I heard a lot about the 300+ days of sunshine the area gets. No one talked about what seemed like the 30+ days spent under the cold, gray blanket of fog that smothers the area in the winter months. I found it ironic that I would be sitting on the “sunny” side of the Cascades in midwinter in dreary misery,  watching the Seattle news broadcasts gloating at the beautiful sunny winter days they were enjoying. (Note that, all you who believe it rains all the time in Seattle!)

This winter has taught me that the Rogue Valley here in Southern Oregon ALSO experiences weeks of fog during high-pressure inversions — the one aspect I’m not at all pleased my present and former residences have in common. It seems these things sweep in and clamp a lid over the valleys, trapping us under a gray, inpenetrable shroud, while just a few hundred feet up into the hills and mountains the sky is bright blue and the sun smiles down like a blessing. This is the worst time of year for such depressing weather, as we all hit the post-holiday blahs. Due to tighter budgets after all that December spending, new-year work that keeps us chained to our desks and weather that makes long-distance travel iffy at best, everyday life can seem pretty dull and bleak.

What are your solutions for the gray days of January and February? What do you do to cure cabin fever? Where do you go when you can’t escape for a week to some sunny beach somewhere but only have a day or two to leave behind the winter doldrums? Me, I just may literally head for the hills to climb above the current fog bank. Julie tells me she may trek up to Lake Chelan for a little retail therapy and maybe some winetasting, too. Sometimes it just requires throwing off that mental shroud and shaking things up a bit to get the juices flowing again. What’s your solution?

– Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader

Last year I vowed not to stay home for the New Year’s holiday this year, but guess what I did? Stayed home. I did some quick Internet searches, several times, on Orbitz, Travelocity and Kayak, but I found nothing that jumped out at me. I wanted to reach out to some of my client friends in the industry, but I was so bogged down with business and year-end work, I just never got around to reaching out.

So I was here the day after New Year’s, watching the news, when I saw that Hawaii is continuing a two-year downward slide. I happen to be a big fan of Hawaii and think it is a great destination. Many people think it is too sterile and too expensive, but when you go to Hawaii, everything works and the people cannot be more friendly. As far as the expense, I have a friend who refers to it as “Hawaii money,” and when I traveled there with my family, no matter where we ate dinner, it was always the same price. Expensive, but orderly, friendly and tasty; so definitely worth it.

But have you see a lot of promotions for Hawaii? Have you seen any spectacular marketing or advertising about the Islands? I haven’t. Additionally, Hawaii and its hotels cannot get their sights off the West Coast market. This is where they spend nearly all their marketing dollars. In case they haven’t heard, California is in the dumps, so perhaps they should open their minds and reach out to the less-recession-hit East Coast?

Several years ago, Hawaii won Best Domestic Tourism Destination from the readers of Global Traveler. When I reached out to the CVB, I received a less than “aloha” response. I was a little shocked. Not only did they seem not to care, but they were not interested in coming to the awards ceremony or responding to me as if they were honored.

Now they think President Obama’s trip to Hawaii is their best marketing tool. This is the same guy who told travelers not to go to extravagant meetings and not to travel (the AIG effect), which resulted in the loss of 100 meetings in Hawaii. Companies canceled their meetings in fear of what these meetings would look like in the AIG effect-hungry press. In my opinion, Hawaii could not have picked a worse spokesperson.

Hawaii is obviously misguided and has no idea how to get people back to the islands. It was an easy out to blame the economy. Perhaps the CVB needs to talk to some of the people who check guests in at hotels, who serve the meals and who attend to your needs while in Hawaii. They are the people that make Hawaii great. The guys at the Royal Hawaiian’s Tiki Bar have better insight on the true Aloha spirit than anyone at the CVB.

To all our blog readers, subscribers and friends of Global Traveler, a Happy New Year!

– Fran Gallagher, publisher and CEO

Right now, as my daughters read the title of this blog, they are cringing. I will happily admit that I get a bit of wicked pleasure in embarassing them with goofy antics and purposely dreadful/playful attempts to drop modern slang and references into conversations with them. Actually, they know what I’m up to and play their part in this little interaction, rolling their eyes and shaking their heads in mock horror at my blatant lack of cool. We all enjoy this teasing aspect of our relationship, and it’s one which I don’t get to indulge in as much as I’d like, with both of them living in the Chicago area most of the year. Some of the body language and timing is lost over the phone lines (even with Skype) or in emails, an immediacy that only being physically together actually satisfies.

This last week, then, was a completely pleasurable one for me as both girls (and son-in-law Dan) were home for Christmas. We had plenty of time to catch up on just being together without going anywhere particularly special or doing anything terribly remarkable. (Well, I take that back a bit; Sarah, Dan and I took a quick afternoon trip down to the redwoods, which Jenny, Harry and I had seen together last summer. As I wrote in my blog at that time, that is a VERY special and remarkable trip.) After a Christmas Day in which all of us spent the day in pajamas, we took in the George Clooney film Up in the Air. It was the one we all (including my mother-in-law) could agree on seeing together, and we all enjoyed it. As Kim mentioned in her blog a few weeks ago, I’m sure it holds moments to which most of our frequent-flyer GT readers could relate.

After hearing our raves over the past several months, our guests insisted that we take them to two of our favorite places in Central Point: the Rogue Creamery and Lillie Belle Farms (I’ve also mentioned each a few times in my blogs). Located next door to each other, the businesses serve up amazing cheeses and chocolates, respectively, created from local raw ingredients and appreciated (and awarded) internationally. After sampling several Rogue cheeses and an assortment of other producers’ cheeses from the creamery’s case, we forced ourselves to narrow our purchases to a few exquisite choices and then trooped next door to Lillie Belle. I could almost be satisfied with just walking in the door and inhaling deeply for several minutes, but why stop there? The rest of our party agreed, and after another opportunity to freely sample from chocolatier/owner/wizard/artist Jeff Shepherd’s heavenly concoctions, we each chose some goodies to take home and gift to friends and relatives not lucky enough to be with us that day.

Another evening we chose to forego more football games and Christmas movies on TV and visited the local bowling alley, Lava Lanes, for a few games of not-very-competitive play. Thankfully, my level of fun was not at all in proportion to my score, which was truly abysmal. We also spent some time in the adjoining video arcade, where I had my first introduction to Dance Dance Revolution (that could become addictive; I may have an idea for next year’s Christmas list!) and the kids enjoyed blasting aliens in “Area 51.” 

In between our jaunts around town, we collectively completed a few jigsaw puzzles and laughed over old home videos from the girls’ early years. Nothing special, as I said, but also utterly delightful. Yep, there’s nothing better in life than hangin’ with my homies (cue the eye rolling and head shaking).

 – Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader