Lovers of award winning wines and world-class art can now indulge both passions at the newly expanded Salerno Winery in the scenic hills of Ramona, CA, in San Diego’s East County. Continue reading
by Wendy Lemlin
(Published in San Antonio Express-News, 8/24/14)
At the Fairmont Kea Lani in Wailea, couples enjoy a blissful massage together Credit: Fairmont Kea Lani
To be perfectly honest, it’s darn near impossible not to feel romantic on Maui. Maybe it’s the soft kisses of the tropical tradewinds on your cheeks, enticing with a subtle moistness, languid and energizing at the same time. Maybe it’s the gentle perfume of plumeria, orchids, frangipani and other island flora, wafting on the breezes from gardens, arrangements on hotel tables, and leis around your neck. It most definitely has to do with the constant views of multihued blue ocean waters—here a sheltered cove of the quintessential clear turquoise, there a deep indigo, and out there, maybe a few whitecaps on sapphire waves. The humpback whales cavorting between the shore and the horizon are that much more of an added benefit, spouting great sprays of vapor, fluking their enormous tails, and raising massive heads above the surface. Even they feel the romance—they come to these waters from December to May to reproduce and bear their young, singing their plaintive songs which, if you’re really lucky, might circle around your ears from a distance as you and your honey snorkel hand in hand in the warm waters closer to shore. Continue reading
By Wendy Lemlin
When I think of Baja, I think in vivid Technicolor.
Vibrant cobalt on glassware rims … intense greens, yellows, blues, and oranges on pottery and tiles …the kaleidoscopic floral designs of textiles adorning pillows and table linens…staircases of geometric tiles…vivid stucco walls…
Ropes of crimson chile peppers and white garlic drying in the sun…gardens of red, violet, and pink bougainvillea cascading over ochre courtyard walls… … leafy vines heavy with purple grapes…. The colors of Mexico whirl around my brain like a fiesta of folk dancers.
A Hike on Kuchimaa, aka Mt. Tecate
by Wendy Lemlin
As I passed back into the U.S. from Tecate , Baja California, the Customs and Immigration officer asked why I had been in Mexico. When I answered that I was checking out the interesting places around the town, he looked at me incredulously and asked, “Really? What is there to do in Tecate?”
As Mexican border towns go, Tecate may be Baja’s best kept secret. Continue reading