• Hire a maid service to come in and clean your house from top to bottom the day before your vacation officially begins.

• Unplug your phone, and don’t give in to the temptation to check your work email.

• Eat out at a different restaurant every night. Explore new cultures through cuisine. How about an Afghani restaurant? Sit on floor pillows, and watch belly dancers while you feast on curried lamb and yogurt cake by candlelight. Other fun restaurants might include an authentic Italian trattoria (such as Buca di Beppo or Maggiano’s) where they serve everything family style and feature strolling opera singers, or an outdoor French street cafe where you can sip wine and eat baguette and brie while sporting Audrey Hepburn sunglasses and people watching.

• Pick up some brochures at your local visitors’ bureau and visit your own city as a tourist. Plan a fun activity every day. Go see a movie or a play. Attend a concert in a park or an outdoor art festival. Go to a gallery or museum. Take a long bike ride and stop somewhere beautiful for a picnic.(In Red Wing we enjoy hiking and biking on the gorgeous Cannon Valley Trail) Go to a local spa for professional massages. Have a candlelight dinner. Visit a local bookstore/espresso bar (our favorite is Barnes and Noble) and sip mochas while looking at your favorite magazines. Go to a wine tasting. Take time to reconnect with your love.

• Don’t do any home projects or anything work related. Pretend your home is a B&B. Sleep in, put your feet up, read a book or your favorite magazine.

• Look through family albums and scrapbooks together. Reminisce.

• Make sure you set aside plenty of time for relaxing. Take lots of hammock naps and bubble baths. Try some fun, new wines.

• Build a back yard campfire and roast hot dogs and s’mores for dinner one night.

• Visit a local tearoom and go out for an elegant afternoon tea.

“Ah, there is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.” -Jane Austen

Hello Friends!

This newsletter will wrap up my “Maui” themed week of blogs. I hope you have all enjoyed this little virtual vacation, and I hope you feel inspired with new ideas you can use in your own home and life.

As I said in my blog on how to decorate your bedroom in a Hawaiian theme, Jeff and I took a 10 day vacation to Maui in 2003. This is one of the best vacations I have ever taken. The island of Maui is rated one of the top 3 islands in the world to visit, and the beach where our hotel was located, Kapalua Bay, is one of the best beaches in the world according to Conde Nast magazine. Now that I have been there I can see why!

Before we left, someone recommended a book to us called “Maui Revealed” by Andrew Doughty and Harriet Friedman. If you are planning a vacation to Maui or any of the Hawaiian Islands, these authors have meticulously researched and written the “revealed” books for every island. We learned so much about the island we were staying on just reading this book. The authors include information on deserted beaches, hidden waterfalls, and scores of “secrets” that nobody else knows about the island. This is how Jeff and I found ourselves wading across a wide stream and rock climbing to a hidden waterfall called “Blue Pool” a few miles off the road to Hana. If we hadn’t read “Maui Revealed” we never would have known about this spectacular waterfall that turned out to be one of the favorite hilights of our trip.

Some of my other favorite experiences on Maui were :

Relaxing at our resort. DT Fleming Beach and a three tiered swimming pool were right outside our door. We had an amazing “Plantation Breakfast” every morning at our resort’s “Terrace Restaurant” that included macadamia waffles with coconut syrup, salmon and eggs benedict, freshly squeezed passion fruit juice and 100% Kona coffee. We the best seafood we have ever had at our resort’s beautiful open-air restaurant, “The Banyan Tree.” This five star restaurant is open to the public as well as Ritz Carlton guests, but don’t forget to make reservations!

Touring Lahaina, a quaint and very busy village on the coast of Maui that use to be a whaler’s village. I would say Lahaina is the hub of Maui. Definitely a great place to go shopping and enjoy some night life. This is where the fantastic “Feast at LeLe Luau” is held. The best luau on the island. Again, don’t forget to make those reservations.

Touring the Kapalua Coast and enjoying a sunset catamaran sail on the Kapalua Kai while sippin mai tais and eating an array of appetizers including thai chicken peanut chicken strips.

The Road to Hana. Don’t miss it! It is absolutely paradise on earth. There is even an arboretum and botanical garden on the Road to Hana called “The Garden of Eden.” This garden is where the opening sequence of Jurassic Park was filmed. It was like walking into a dream being there. We saw about 30 waterfalls, including the afore mentioned, “Blue Pool Waterfall.”

The Beaches. They are every shade of turquoise and blue and SO gorgeous. My favorites were Kapalua Bay, DT Fleming and Ka’anapali.
Having lunch at the Four Season’s Resort in Wailea
The Grand Wailea Spa in Wailea

Aloha!

Love,

Melissa

For the last 10 years Jeff, the girls and I have been taking a short road trip to Door County Wisconsin . This year we decided to make the trek in the summer instead of autumn. Two of our closest friends will be honeymooning in “the Door” the same month that we’re there. It is truly a spectacular place. “The Cape Cod of the Midwest” is just that. The first time I went to Door County I went to Cape Cod MA in the same year. I still have moments when I get the two confused.

The tiny inlet towns, the quaint gift shops, Leroy’s Waterstreet Coffee Shop, Wilson’s Ice Cream Parlor in Ephraim, our friend Franne Dickenson’s Toe Path Gallery in Ephraim, the magnificent views of lake Michigan, and the beautiful White Gull Inn Fish Boil in Fish Creek are just the beginning. The only way to truly experience this midwestern peninsula is to visit. You won’t be sorry. Let me know when you’ll be visiting and I’ll meet you at Al Johnson’s Scandinavian restaurant where goats eat their dinner on the grass roof that covers the building

Check out: www.doorcounty.com

xo,
Melissa