All Blog Posts (7)

MARCH 27, 2009 TODAY: Walking & sunbathing for 2 hours in the morning on Magic Island at Ala Moana Beach Park. A 10:00 AM appointment for silk nail fills & a spa pedicure, finishing in time for a fabulous lunch at ASSAGGIO'S restaurant in the lower seaside level of the Ala Moana Shopping Center. A $25.00 lunch, including tip, was ASSAGGIO'S $7.90 seafood salad with a sweet, spicy creamy italian dressing. The salad had calamari & shrimp, with crisp raw pickled celery, green pepper,&a… Continue

I have Post-christmas & -snow days blahs. In Seattle it is the gray day time...when the temperature is just plain cold and the sky is just plain gray. I bet a lot of other people have the blahs as well. I have been thinking a lot about my new years resolutions and my marketing and business plans for 2009. Even as I think of new year resolutions, I admit I rarely ever accomplish any of them. Quick reveiw needed here for 2008: Last year I said I wanted to take off 15 pounds. As I weigh mysel… Continue

Every time I work up an itinerary for a client, I include the cost of travel insurance. If someone declines said insurance, I make them sign a waiver that I offered it and they declined it. I have been fortunate that most clients have either taken the insurance or had no serious situations arise when they declined it. I was just reading an article in the New York Times Travel section (I follow this on Twitter) and decided the article was worth a permalink here:… Continue

I have not had a chance to write about our trip to Las Vegas the first week of December! After arriving home and getting the TopDawg from the spa and settling in to catch up on the 300+ emails, I thought I would have time to write on the blog. But beyond “Twittering“, I have not gotten to do any writing at all. The snow storm came and then there was lots of catching up with the social networks of Li… Continue

Matzatlan 2008 My husband Jack and I arrived for our 10th Thanksgiving vacation in Matzatlan on November 29. We were met at the airport with a shuttle by the concierge from the hotel Marina El Cid. She gave us coupons for free drinks, a free breakfast (the time share owner update) for the next morning, and, a free evening city tour for the following evening. Upon arriving at the hotel, our daughter Michelle and her fiancé met us in the lobby. They had gotten in from Alaska the day before, to be… Continue

Through the summer I read about first the airlines, then the cruiselines and finally resorts charging their guests and customers “fuel surcharges”. Now every day I read where airlines, cruise lines and other suppliers of hospitality services are (with some guidelines) reducing, or eliminating all together, the fuel surcharges they initiated during the summer of historically high fuel prices. Travel agents were the front line recipients of consumer complaints about these charges. And travel agen… Continue

Welcome to TopDawg Travel's social network . I hope folks will want to blog about their travels, upload pictures during and after travel and share their experiences with/about their travels. Invite your friends and family to join the network also. Please write about your experiences while you travel locally or afar from home. Share the pictures of your home town, your travels, your experiences or your family. This is a very exciting time to be developing contacts around the world while travelin… Continue