Mother’s Day. What images come to your mind when you hear those words.
For me, I conjure images (like this one) of my own mother, wife, and granddaughter. Further, I feel a twinge of pain as I think of my dearly departed mother-in-law and grandmother.
But most of all, I think of it as a special day to celebrate the lives of the mothers in our lives, and it further presents us with a delightfully grand chance to spoil them rotten.
Here are a few delights we have gathered to help you absolutely pamper your mother in luxury:
Mother’s Day Specials for Friends of The Roaming Boomers®
While we were putting together our list, a few of our friends decided to add a special little something for the friends of The Roaming Boomers®. To get these extra special deals, just let them know that you are calling for the Roaming Boomers Mother’s Day Special.
Pan E Vino Ristorante – Ask for the Roaming Boomers Mother’s Day Special and you will receive 15% of your total check! Plus, all moms get a glass of champagne and a free dessert on Mother’s Day. This is our favorite Italian restaurant in the valley!
Four Seasons Scottsdale Spa – When you mention the Roaming Boomers Mother’s Day Special, and purchase their Healing Harmony Mother’s Day Package, they will throw in a complimentary 25-minute treatment (Express Facial or Swedish Massage).
Joya Spa at Montelucia – Mention The Roaming Boomers Mother’s Day Special and you will enjoy 20% off your own treatment when you book at least a 50 minute service for mom. Make certain you ask about their Mother’s Day Pamper Package.
Roaring Fork – Roaring Fork honors Valley Mother’s with a gourmet Mother’s Day Brunch with a rugged western edge by Executive Chef, Bryan Hulihee on Sunday, May 8th from 10:00am to 2:00pm. The buffet style menu offers a bread table, savory cold & hot item station, egg & meat carving tables as well as a tasty dessert station. $19/person.
Spotted Donkey Cantina – Spotted Donkey Cantina “kicks” it up a notch for Mom’s this year hosting a festive Mother’s Day Brunch on Sunday, May 8th complete with a create your own bloody Mary bar, and specialty á la carte brunch menu by Executive Chef, Patrick Boll.
Latilla Restaurant – The Boulders’ Signature Restaurant, the Latilla invites guests to indulge in a Mother’s Day Brunch featuring a variety of seafood, salads, fruits, carving & omelet stations and dessert buffet by Chefs Michel Pieton and Stephen Jones. $75/person including champagne.
The Palo Verde Restaurant – The Palo Verde Restaurant hosts an a la carte menu that includes culinary delights from the Southwestern region in celebration of the Mother’s Day holiday.
Talavara Restaurant – a special four-course tasting menu on Mother’s Day from 4 – 9 p.m. $80/person.
Crescent Moon Restaurant – featuring delicacies from the carving station, seafood specialties, and a variety of soups, salads
and desserts – will be held Sunday, May 8, 2011, with seating times from 11:00 a.m. – 7 p.m. The cost is $68 for adults or $78 with Champagne; children ages 12 and under cost $35. A Mother’s Day breakfast buffet also will be available in Crescent Moon, with
seating from 7 – 10 a.m. at a cost of $27 per person
And, if this isn’t enough to get your stomach rumbling, here are scores of options from Open Table.
Now, get those reservations made before your favorite sells out!
A few days ago, the Department of State updated and broadened its Mexico Travel Warning for US citizens considering travel to Mexico.
Sadly, 110 Americans were killed in Mexico last year (up from 35 in ’07) causing the Department of State to issue a stronger statement.
When traveling outside of the United States, citizens should always visit the Travel.State.Gov website to check for situations that might make travel to a particular country unsafe.
The Department of State issues two types of travel notifications:
A Travel Alert – “We issue Travel Alerts for short-term events we think you should know about when planning travel to a country. Examples of reasons for issuing a Travel Alert might include an election season that is bound to have many strikes, demonstrations, disturbances; a health alert like an outbreak of H1N1; or evidence of an elevated risk of terrorist attacks. When these short-term events are over, we cancel the Travel Alert.” (via Travel.State.Gov website)
A Travel Warning – “We issue a Travel Warning when we want you to consider very carefully whether you should go to a country at all. Examples of reasons for issuing a Travel Warning might include unstable government, civil war, or ongoing intense crime or violence, or frequent terrorist attacks. We want you to know the risks of traveling to these places and to strongly consider not going to them at all. Travel Warnings remain in place until the situation changes; some have been in effect for years.” (via Travel.State.Gov website)
The Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) is a free service provided by the U.S. Government to U.S. citizens who are traveling to, or living in, a foreign country. STEP allows you to enter information about your upcoming trip abroad so that the Department of State can better assist you in an emergency. STEP also allows Americans residing abroad to get routine information from the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.
Dear reader, please don’t bury your head in the sand when it comes to your travel safety. Be aware, and register with the Department of State when traveling outside of the United States.
Grand Hyatt Kaua’i Resort and Spa -This visit will mark our first ever stay on Kaua’i, and we were very excited to explore this tropical paradise.
Kaua’i is Hawaii’s fourth largest island and is sometimes called the “Garden Isle,” which is an entirely accurate description. The oldest and northernmost island in the Hawaiian chain is draped in emerald valleys, sharp mountain spires and jagged cliffs, aged by time and the elements. Centuries of growth have formed tropical rainforests, forking rivers and cascading waterfalls.
The Grand Hyatt Kaua‘i Resort & Spa is a luxurious 602-room resort, recognized by the most respected travel publications as one of the top resorts in the world. Located on 50 immaculately-landscaped oceanfront acres, the resort is elegant, yet casual, capturing the classic and timeless essence of the islands. With open-air walkways opening to courtyards and lush gardens, the design blends with nature. Its architecture is reminiscent of Hawaii in the 1920s and ‘30s, creating a romantic “sense of place”. The resort is built into a hillside overlooking beautiful Keoneloa Bay. Blending into the verdant mantle of green mountains, the resort gently slopes down to meandering lagoons, a white sand beach, and the sea. The four-story low- rise design which conforms to the island’s quaint building code: (“no buildings can be higher than the tallest coconut tree”) is open to spectacular ocean views and soft island breezes.
Just take a peek at some of the awards they have garnered:
TRAVEL + LEISURE, TOP 500 WORLD’S BEST HOTELS 2011: Readers rated Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa as the best on Kauai. (Also ranked from 1997 – 2010)
CONDE NAST, GOLD LIST 2011: Chosen by readers as one of the best in the world for excellence in accommodations, service and amenities. (Also ranked from 1998 through 2010)
AAA, FOUR DIAMOND AWARD 2011: Twentieth year the resort has received the award, recognizing high levels of hospitality, attentiveness to detail, upscale design in lodging, restaurants, and amenities. Dondero’s honored as well for its accomplished staff, menu creativity and complexity, presentation and fresh ingredients.
One of the best places in the world to chill out!
Our Fondest Memories
Walking the beautiful 500 yard white-sand beach
Chillin’ on the beautiful beach
Watching whales swim by from our ocean-front patio
The Anara Spa, and especially the Hawaiian Lomi Lomi Massage!
Exploring the stunning, immaculately-landscaped 50 acre grounds
Hanging out at the freshwater swimming area which featured a quiet pool, a meandering river pool, waterfalls, a 150-foot water slide, and Jacuzzis. Nice!
The saltwater lagoon with its beautifully landscaped islands
Listening to nightly entertainment, sipping island drinks as the sun was setting
Having seven different restaurants spread around the resort to choose from
Sushi in Stevenson’s Library
A smile from everyone on the property
Proximity of the Poipu Beach resort area for shopping, the farmers’ market, and exploration
We can’t say enough about our visit to the Grand Hyatt Kaua’i Resort and Spa. From the moment we were wowed with the open ocean-view lobby, to the moment when we sadly looked in our rear-view mirror as we left, we were touched with enchantment.
Disclosure: A portion of our experience was provided by the kind folks at Grand Hyatt Kaua’i Resort and Spa. Thanks! Further, a portion of our travel expenses were provided by the kind people of the State of Hawaii through their Visitors and Conventions Bureau. Thanks Hawaii!
Capitol Hill Baptist Church – The fourth day of our trip to Washington, DC happened to be Easter. Therefore, being a bit of an armchair theologian, I decided to visit the historic Capitol Hill Baptist Church.
“On a late November evening in 1867 on Capitol Hill, a group of people came together to pray about the vision of seeing a church planted in their midst. That church, founded first in the prayers of its future members, would one decade later exist as the Metropolitan Baptist Church, registered in 1878 with 31 members. The current facility stands on the same ground as the original chapel.
Years of steady growth followed, and in 1912 the church completed construction on the new main hall under the direction of Dr. John Compton Ball. Dr. Ball would go on to serve forty-two years at the church and lead it through the trials that accompanied the Great Depression, two World Wars and numerous changes in city life. Known as a gifted teacher, Dr. Ball oversaw an increase in church membership that numbered in the thousands by 1950.
Always doctrinally conservative, the church continued to draw visitors through the 1960s. Yet the years of feast did not continue uninterrupted. Famine soon followed in the form of urban decline and sometimes spotty leadership which caused the church’s attendance and membership to spiral downward in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. Surprisingly, unlike so many evangelical churches at this time, the church held fast to sound doctrine and even included in its ranks one of the key twentieth century evangelical thinkers, Dr. Carl F.H. Henry, who taught Sunday school.
The congregation hit a low point in the early 1990s, when attendance dropped to around one hundred people. In 1994 CHBC called its current pastor, Dr. Mark Dever, freshly graduated from Cambridge University and possessing the pluck and skill needed to revive the flagging church. Dr. Dever, the sixteenth man to assume the pastorate of CHBC, now serves both our church and the broader evangelical community as a writer and speaker.” (via CHBC website)
There has been a resurgence of Calvinism over the past few years (Time Magazine Article), and theologian Mark Dever is one of its very popular champions.
On this Easter Sunday morning, Dr. Mark Dever concluded a months long exposition of the Gospel of Mark, which you can listen to here, if you like.
After this lengthy Easter service, we hoofed it over to Massachusetts street to catch a cab back to the Mandarin Oriental where we had a quick bite of lunch, filmed our highlights video, and then we were off to Dulles Airport for our flight back to Scottsdale, Arizona.
This was a splendid four days in Washington, DC. We certainly only touched the tip of the iceberg, and look forward to another return visit to discover all that our nation’s capitol has to offer.
The Roaming Boomers
Mother’s Day. What images come to your mind when you hear those words.
