Bruce Plotkin Photography » Travel

Our trip to Italy.

admin — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:04:53 +0000

Last week we had the wonderfully good fortune of vacationing in Italy, and spending some quality time with our daughter Molly, who’s studying in Florence for the semester. Never having been, everything about the trip was a visual (and gastronomic) grand adventure. Mostly in Florence, with a day’s trip to Rome and another to Lucca, staying at a great little Hotel Tornabuoini Beacci, we ate, drank, walked endlessly and saw lots of extraordinary art and architecture. If I didn’t before, I now truly have the travel bug in me, and can’t wait to go back. What follows is a little sampling of our travels, which I hope you’ll enjoy.

One final Napa story (then back to work)

admin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:16:00 +0000

Last but not least on our Napa vacation. The real secret to the success of our wonderful week away was the incredible research and planning that Liz had done, from picking the right places to stay to the best wineries to visit. My job was just to show up (and I did that quite well).

But a couple of days into it I started hearing about the “Calistoga mudbaths” and became very intrigued and eventually obsessed. I must admit I love to be pampered, huge fan of deep tissue massages, room service and drinks by the pool. So when I heard that Calistoga, just up the road from us, was the heart of mudbath land, it became obvious that this was something we simply had to do and of course it became my job to find the best place to partake. So on-line I went and discovered the attractive (enough) web site of the Roman Spa at Hot Springs Resort, made the reservation for two for mud baths followed by 30 minute massages and off we went.

And the lesson is: any one can create a nice looking website. The reality is not always the same. Mudbath in Motel 6, not quite what we had in mind. In spite of this, the mud baths weren’t so bad and the massages were actually quite nice.

More of our Napa trip.

admin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 01:23:00 +0000

If you haven’t been, Napa and Sonoma are clearly places that you need to put on your list. And so here are a few more snaps from our relaxing and exciting five days on the road.

admin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 01:20:00 +0000

Liz workin’ at it!

So Californian! The rest of us will eventually catch up.

Stranded in LA watching the Debate

admin — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 02:36:00 +0000

Heading home from Napa, very, very slowly. Our flight from SF to JFK was cancelled, seemingly because of the stormy weather in the East. With all other later flights fully booked, our only choice seemed to be to fly to LA and then catch the red-eye (hmm, sounds familiar, having just been on it a couple of weeks ago) home. So here we sit, killing some time, watching the presidential debate on our lap top (American Airlines terminal at LAX must be the only major airport terminal in the world without any tv sets in the lounges), hoping to take off on time and expecting to land in NY by 6 am and to then pop into the car and head to PA to visit Molly at Bucknell for Parents’ weekend. A little bit late, but we’ll be there, Mol. See you tomorrow.

Travelling in Napa

admin — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:56:00 +0000

When you don’t have a lot of time to take vacations, as we haven’t recently, you want to really pick your spots well. With much love and appreciation for Liz, who has spent countless hours planning this trip, we find ourselves in the most fabulous Napa Valley, California for five very special days of relaxation, wine tasting, massages, mud baths and tomorrow night dinner with dear old friends. A very special way to belatedly celebrate our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Thanks Liz

Notes from the sky

admin — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 01:35:00 +0000

How crazy is this, flying somewhere over St. Louis, heading to LA for Pictage’s annual Partner Conference (partnercon in Pictage speak) and actually on-line. I’d add a photo or two, but then the girl sitting next to me with the sleep mask on might not appreciate seeing herself on the world wide web at not her finest moment. So my brief words will have to suffice. Looking forward to catching up with some old friends, meeting some new ones and talking shop with the Pictage folks for the next couple of days. So if you’re looking for me and I’m not getting right back to you, patience. I’m recharging the batteries and hope to return with lots of new and exciting ideas and inspiration. See you soon.