A bright soul has left this world. At the age of 30, my bellydancing teacher, Rose Champagne has left on the final journey into the unknown after a battle with brain cancer. She already beat it five years ago and had her whole life ahead of her. When I left New England, she had just gotten married and bought a new house. She had it all – a wonderful husband, a new house and a fabulous career doing what she loved. She was one of those shining stars, someone with a beautiful soul who kind of glided through the world. She was the kind of person everyone wanted to know and be around. She was someone who stood out in a room. She was kind, and loving and beautiful. I knew her but briefly and from afar, but she affected everyone she knew with her grace. I pray for her family that must go on without her.
To my teacher Rose Champagne. Rose, it is hard to believe that a spirit so strong and beautiful and full of light has left this earth. There is always a bit of emptiness felt in the world, when a light as bright as yours leaves this realm. I ask that your spirit be as free now, as it always was in The Dance now that you are free from the physical limitations of your body, which whirled with such grace and beauty as you walked among us for too brief a time. You taught us how to be free in our own dances and to let the ancestral spirit flow and sway with our bodies. You taught us how to communicate through dance and let loose. You gave so much to us all and I want to thank you and send you with gifts of the sweetest baklava and delicious dark Turkish Coffee, for the journey you have left to travel.
May you be at peace.
Did you know that you can plan your trip right here on Travelcloseup with just a few easy clicks? Just go to the Plan Your Trip page or you can just click below and check out what deals can be found by using Kayak! I am here to help you get your dream vacation plans started!
Sometimes junk mail is actually good. You know those pamphlets you get in the mail sometimes that give you little teasers about books, so you will buy the book? Well, recently one such pamphlet showed up at our house, called “Bottom Line Personal: The World’s Best Inside Information”. It had these really great tips about hotels! So I will share them with you so you are more informed for your next trip! Continue Reading »
First I have to apologize for my lax in writing posts these days! I have just been really busy with all of my projects – things are starting to have a way of just piling up! I just started this week my new job – teaching kids how to cook. So needless to say I have been exhausted upon returning home and this poor little blog has really taken the biggest hit! But stay tuned, I have a great little recommendation on its way!
We were very lucky to spend this last weekend in Ft. Lauderdale with our very dear friends Nicki and Lisa, Lisabeeen that is. If anyone had any doubt as to Lisa’s absolute dedication to really good espresso, the proof is in the picture. Here is Lisa, in our hotel lobby, about to go down to breakfast, HAND-grinding her fresh roasted beans to make at the table with her portable espresso drip pot. We love you girlfriend!
I am happy to report that I am the newest freelance travel and food writer for a local newspaper here in Ocala. I have to thank all the loyal readers of this blog for getting me to this point. All the support and comments have really helped me to keep pursuing my dreams!
If you dream big, you will recieve big! … and I am still dreaming.
I have a great announcement!
The food segments on this blog have become so popular and people have been making recipes I have posted on this site with such frequency that I have decided to start another blog that is entirely food related!
As everyone can see from this blog, I am very passionate about cooking, as much as traveling. So in order to not over run TravelCloseup with recipes and food related posts, I have decided to branch out. I have been working on the new site for about a month, posting recipes and getting it all ready for everyone to use.
The new site The Leftover Queen focuses on my passion for creative cooking. Basically looking at your fridge and pantry full of leftovers and deciding how you can put them together to make beautiful food fast, inexpensively and with an ethnic flair.
My hope is that it will become an interactive website where people will post comments about the recipes they tried on the site and how they liked them or changed ingredients so that other people can be inspired to try something different with ingredients they have.
I also share ingredients I feel are essential to have in your fridge and pantry so you are always prepared to make a delicious meal!
So starting now the Mediterranean Recipe of the Week will be on my New Website
But all restaurant reviews and food I come across in my travels will continue to be posted here.
The recipe this week is Pita Pizzas . Hope you enjoy it and enjoy what the Leftover Queen has to offer! YUM YUM!
It feels like restaurant week on this blog! But lately, I guess I have been trying to get out more, and talk to more people in the restaurant business. I suppose this is the second phase of trying to get my name out there as a Professional Foodie.
I try to stay away from doing reviews of chain restaurants. I much more enjoy the flavor and creativity of local places that are doing their own thing with food. However, we do enjoy going to Hops Grill & Brewery (route 200, Ocala, FL), and since we are not originally from Florida, we didn’t know until this past week that it is a chain! Continue Reading »
I am not even sure I know exactly what a Meme is - but Sognatrice asked all of her foodie buddies to join her in this. I guess I qualify, so here it goes!
1. Can you cook? If yes do you like to cook?
I can and I absolutely LOVE it!
2. When does your whole family come together to eat?
Well we live fairly close to our relatives, so we usually get together every month for a big ol’ family dinner. But immediate family, everyday, unless there is something special going on!
3. What do you have for breakfast?
Coffee! I just got a caffettiera, a little stovetop espresso machine and it is wonderful! To go with it I normally have something bready - like toast or an english muffin. On rare occassions I will have a smoothie. Hmm…maybe I should start thinking about an espresso smoothie! Continue Reading »
I have just created an Amazon Shop for Travelcloseup! Here you can shop for my favorite Travel Guides, Fiction and Non-Fiction Books that are Travel Related, as well as Cookbooks, Music, and Language Resources!
I will update it frequently, so make sure to stop by often!
(You can access easily by clicking on the “Shop” button in the contents above)
I told you guys about Lisabeeen, my friend who roasts the best coffee in the world? I just ordered some Mexican Chiapas and it is wonderfully smooth rich and chocolate-y. Her coffee is so good you don’t even need sugar… Well she is having a contest. If you can think up the best name for her new Spring Blend she will send you a free pound of fresh roasted coffee. See details here
Good Luck!
Wow, how great does my page look now??!?!?!?!!!!
Totally awesome!
I can say that freely without sounding arrogant, because it is not I who created it!
So here is a big shout out to Roberto for redesigning my webpage!
Molte Grazie!
Che Bella Tutti Frutti!
Maybe I need to start listening! Moving to Florida from New England has been a really big change. We left that North East culture and came to something totally different. We left a winter wonderland filled with ice and headed for the balmy breezes of the south. We left our jobs, Roberto’s girls and dear friends to start over and have a clean slate. We craved change and we decided to go big!
Whenever I move to a new place, I usually always have a job beforehand. This time, I just decided to wing it. I had some money saved and I thought it would be a breeze for me to find a job. Not so. Since I got here, I have applied for over 25 jobs in my field. I got called for 2 interviews, and neither place offered me the job. I got really bummed out. This was strange. Usually I get offers for most jobs I apply for….Had I lost my mojo?
During this same time, I started this blog in earnest, because it is my baby step towards the life I want to lead - as a world traveler and writer. Continue Reading »
The Food Network is becoming a more diverse place. Instead of just featuring so-called master chefs, iron chefs, executive chefs and the like, the Food Network has also started featuring just really good cooks.
One such cook on the Food Network is Giada De Laurentiis, otherwise known as “Sorriso a 64 Denti” in my family. Continue Reading »
Are you wondering if travel insurance is for you? Do you even know what travel insurance covers, or where to get travel insurance? If you want to know if travel insurance is right for you, check out the new update in the Travel Insurance section!
I heart Anthony Bourdain. He has been coined “the bad boy of cuisine”. His views and commentary is blunt and not at all glossed over. To me, he is kind of like my idol – what I want to be when I grow up. (Minus of course, the whole being a guy thing, and of course the smoking). Continue Reading »
It is time to kick start this blog again. I have just moved and that process took all of my energy. A big part of deciding to move was to start my travel blog up again. I needed the time to devote to this, and to make it a big part of my life. Something I didn’t have the time I wanted before. Traveling is my passion. Not just going to another place, but by entering another culture and being a part of another people’s way of life for a while. It has always taught me so much about myself, and so I think it is invaluable to our world today. Especially because our world is becoming so integrated. It is essential to have respect for all people, and one way to do that is to understand people from human being to human being. One of the best ways to do that is to stretch yourself and your personal limits through travel. Going to a different part of the world helps you to be able to relate to many different kinds of people. The more you do it, the farther out of your comfort zone you desire to go to. Continue Reading »
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