Bridget Beari Travels to Hotel Unique

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Hotel Unique: I love this hotel in Sao Paulo Brazil designed by Ruy Ohtake. The half pie shaped hotel is made of concrete and copper. The gives off this wonderful blue - green color.

Gorgeous interiors - big and bold like the belly of a ship. The details are stunning like the cut-out in the door.

Beautiful library!

The end rooms have this wonderful curved floor - how ingenious!

The round windows are like portholes.

An interior shot of those portholes.

This is the bar they call "The Wall" for obvious reasons. I love the scale!

A very unique hotel and well worth a stop or a visit. Check out this hotel and others from:

Design Hotels

Bridget Beari Travels to Luray Caverns

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Visiting Luray Caverns

We took a day trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and Luray, Virginia. This is the home of the natural wonder the Luray Caverns. I had never been there as a child and we had the nieces for the weekend. It was also cool  - a constant 50 degree temperature in the cavern which beats the 102 temperature in the city. 

I was actually amazed at out large the cavern is. I thought it would be one or 2 rooms but a full hour of walking through the caverns was impressive. I kept thinking about the show "I should not be alive" What if someone fell in a hole  - how far down does it go? The explorers found Native American bones down there - did she fall in? 

This is a shot from Skyline drive. 

The formations were amazing. They took forms of cake frosting, drippy sand castles, faces, ice cream cones. It was like looking at clouds. 

The caverns were founded by Andrew Campbell in 1878. I can't imagine exploring caves with candlelight.

Davey Jones beard from Pirates of the Caribbean? 

The reflecting pool! 

The wishing well was cool as well!  They donate all the money to different charities each year. 

The organ which played notes by tapping rubber mallets on the stalactites. 

We stopped at this country store for gas and refreshments! Love the bear! 

What is " moisturized Chicken"? Did they mean moist or basted? It just sounded gross but we were too afraid to ask the store owner as to offend them. In the chickens defense, it smelled and looked good! 

Happy Travels.....

Bridget Beari Travels to Faquier County

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A Day Trip to Faquier County

Yesterday I went on a day trip to Facquier County in northern Virginia about 1 1/2 hours from Richmond. If you follow me on twitter then you got the play by play. This road trip took me into the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Piedmont region of Virginia. It is beautiful country!

Our first stop was in Warrenton Virginia at the Red Truck Bakery. I first heard of them from a New York Times article and I have been following them on Facebook.

The Red Truck Bakery is the creation of Brian Noves and it does not disappoint. Even on my raw diet I was easily tempted to cheat and cheat I did! 

One of my favorite discoveries is Brian Noyes, the owner of the Red Truck Bakery in Virginia, who has a deft hand with pastries and an unerring sense of flavor balance.” -- Marian Burros
~ The New York Times

I love the remake of an old garage into a bakery. I have seen that done before for a restaurant and I love the idea. Of course there is a red truck! 

Everything looked delicious from the lemon chess pie, bourbon pie, horse cookies, apple pie, sconces and more!

If you can't travel to Warrenton then Red Truck will ship to you. Check out their online store! Local resident Robert Duval is a fan. 

They have other products too: honey, granola, jams, and nuts. I couldn't leave without purchasing some local honey. 

Ok so I cheated but here it is!  Excellent coffee and a orange, cranberry, walnut muffin. As Rachael Zoe would say "I die!"

Look at the inside - big chucks of walnuts. Just the right sweetness and flavor!

After my coffee break we headed on to The Plains, Virginia for the big Gold Cup Horse Race. It was a horse day for all with the Kentucky Derby on the same day. 

I've been to horse races before in Richmond at the Strawberry Hills Race. Usually it is party fever and you rarely see a horse. At this race it was easy to see horses from many vantage points. 

This is Member Hill  - love the view!

There was tons of fashion to see - hats and outfits!  Stacy and Clinton would have a field day on what not to wear. I saw - spanks showing, dresses that were too tight, odd hats, nice hats, and high heels in dirt. The drunker the girls in high heels became the funnier it was. I was working my hat, blazer and boots - very Ralph Lauren.

This was the corporate tent - decorated for the best tent contest. 

I wonder who Don is?

This is the worst part about outdoor events. 

Winner's Circle

A Scottish bagpipe parade!

Terrier Races!

The first horse I saw of the day.

It was steeplechase so hard to see when they are on the other side of the field. 6 races in all. I did not pick the winners - lost my bets! 

After leaving the races we stopped in Warrenton for something different - Cuban and Spanish cuisine. A late Cinco de Mayo celebration.

I love tapas because you don't have to order so much food. We tried the grilled calamari - very good. 

I had broccoli and black beans - excellent and of course a Mango Mojitos. One of the best I have ever had even better than Puerto Rico. As you can see there was not much left when I decide to take a picture. 

After dinner we hurried back to Richmond so we could watch the Kentucky Derby on the Telly of course. It was a horsey day!

Happy Travels.....

Bridget Beari Cruising the Caribbean

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We left Puerto Rico for a 5 day cruise through the Caribbean on the Silverseas Cruise line. Our ship was the Silver Cloud. I am not really a fan of cruises but this small luxury cruise line with only 200 people was better than the 3000 people cruises. 

By traveling on the smaller ships you can dock at the small islands. Our agenda was St. Barts, Nevis, Virgin Gorda, Prickly Pear and Jost Va Dyke.

Our cabin was spacious with a living room, bedroom and marble bath. Notice the welcoming champagne and beautiful white orchid. All rooms have balconies on this ship.

Leaving Puerto Rico at sunset 

After a rough night at sea ( I was sea sick all night - Yuck! ) we arrived at St. Barts in the French Virgin Islands. The bay and port was filled with very expensive and interesting yachts. The most unusual was the Megayacht "A" owned by a Russian Billonaire. It only cost $300 million and after researching it I found that it was designed by Phillipe Starck. Check out the video of the interior. It looked like a submarine and at night the bottom of the boat glowed with a blue light.

I loved the red roofs in St. Barts!

Lunch was at the surf side restaurant called Cote Port. I could practice my French by ordering a Salade Nicoise and a glass of wine. 

We found Shell Beach and had more drinks at the bar that overlooked the beach.  

Our view from the bar.

A little shopping spree where I found the most beautiful tops by Sabrina Crippa. My husband almost choked when he paid for it but it was worth the 5 compliments I received at dinner. It was in euros so how was I to know - Wink Wink! 


The next day was Nevis. Beautiful and not as much hustle bustle as St. Barts. No real shopping just beautiful rain forests and beaches. 

We found the Four Seasons Resort and sat on the beach for awhile enjoying the view. A few drinks at the bar - check out the bubble light fixtures.

Lunch at a local spot called Chevy's. I had grilled lobster and a Killer Bee rum Punch ( the house specialty) The service was not fast but the lobster was the best I had all trip. Bloated, a little drunk and filling out my bikini a little too much we made our way back to the ship. Everyone was super friendly!

The Beach at Nevis. 

Next stop was Virgin Gorda. The Russian ship followed us there too. Beautiful water - one side Atlantic and the other the Caribbean.  I noticed all the islands names from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

The Baths are worth the hike. Beautiful!

 

The best resort was Little Dix Bay. 

Picnic on Prickly Pear Island - Rum punch!  Definitely a sailors dream place. Not a lot of big yachts. A quieter easy going place.

The last stop was Jost Van Dyke - a small island with only a couple of restaurants and bars on it. It is suppose to the place to go for New Year's Eve if you own a yacht. 

We had drinks at Foxy's until the wee hours. 

Sort of like Key West with the garments hanging from the ceiling. 

Sir Richard Branson owns a couple of the islands off the coast of Virgin Gorda. Here is Nester Island - you can rent it for $50K per night!

Little did we know that wearing flip flops back to Virginia was a mistake since when we landed it was 19 degrees!

 

Happy Travels.....

Bridget Beari Travels to Puerto Rico

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Our winter vacation to the Caribbean started off in San Juan Puerto Rico. It was a place a had never been to before. We stayed at the El San Juan hotel in Isla Verde which is over a bridge from Old town  San Juan. The hotel room was very modern and brightly decorated. It had seen a little wear but considering it was free from my AMEX points,  no real complaining. The floors were tile and there were no rugs. No balcony and the view was Ok. You had to look over a roof to see the ocean but that was better than we thought we would get with free points. 

The first night we went to La Playita, a hotel and restaurant on the water. The service was a little off - after an hour no ceviche for appetizer? But the dinner was good and they did apologize. We had our first Mofongo - a potato type starchy vegetable that is molded into a dome shape. 

The best meal we had was at the hotel restaurant - Koco, an ooof! restaurant. The service was wonderful and the food delish! Grouper over coconut risotto, raw oysters,  pumpkin ravioli.

 

For breakfast we took Rachael Rae's advise and found La Bombonera, a pastry shop and restaurant founded in 1902. We had a house speciality, a Mallorca - the biscuit type pastry with powdered sugar on top.

A venture to the historic fort that protected the Caribbean seas for decades until of course the Americans took over.

While we were there the town was celebrating the end of the Christmas holidays or their San Sebastien's  days. The town was full of parades and parties well into the night. I was glad we were on the Isle because we had thought about staying at El Convento - that would have been a problem unless we- wanted to party until 2 or 3 in the morning.

Another dinner at the hotel for football - Brother Jimmy's. Here is the waitress making fresh guacamole. 



 

Another Mafungo at Plato's restaurant. 

 

Interesting architecture throughout the streets of San Juan. Row houses in a variety of colors: 

An interesting old remnants of old sea walls and gates:

All in all Puerto Rico was warm and fun! Too bad it was 19 degrees when we returned to Virginia and silly me still had her flip flops on.  Next I will post about our Silverseas Cruise to St. Barts and Virgin Gorda. 

Happy Travels.....