vances's Reviews

Another business trip, another Holiday Inn Express. I truly enjoyed this one, owing to the attentive service. The desk clerk who checked me in was l…

Driving back to Houston last week from College Station I went past an old ‘scene of the crime’ and had to pull over to grab a picture. Though sol…
This review was featured on Friday November 20th, 2009

A departure from my usual routine of driving back to Houston Airport (from College Station) the morning of my return flight was to get the road trip o…

I’ve stayed here several times over the years but never written a review, so that oversight is corrected with this entry. The Aggieland Holiday Inn…

Needed a break from unpacking this afternoon, so I fulfilled a promise to my daughter to drop in at Tregembo Animal Park, touted as North Carolina’s…

Little did I know that my latest residence is home for the largest movie studio east of LA in the US. I’m pretty clueless about TV these days, but …

Oak Island hosts the most recent lighthouse built in America. The Oak Island Lighthouse was raised in 1958 to replace one on nearby Bald Head Island …

Inaccessible and hardly impressive, Price’s Creek Lighthouse is still a noteworthy beacon because of its history. Just twenty feet tall, the lighth…

So I've stayed at Microtels everywhere, man, and amassed a lot of free nights. I usually just apply the freebies for business travel, but redeemed on…

An inviting tidbit around our new home is that it is the native environs of the Venus Fly Trap and the plant only occurs in the wild within sixty mile…

Although very short and very flat (my trail guide indicated an elevation gain of seven feet, lol), the Basin Trail makes far a pleasant diversion from…

The family went on a field trip last weekend to a nearby institution, the North Carolina Aquarium. This is one of three state sponsored aquariums, an…
This review was featured on Friday September 19th, 2008

While attending the NC Seafood Festival we decided to duck into the Sanitary Fish Market, lured in by the unusual name. If I recall the history prese…

Seguin Island Light is a landmark Maine beacon for several reasons. Sitting two miles into the ocean at the mouth of the highly trafficked Kennebec R…

If you are serious about visiting Maine, I have a book recommendation that most folks would never consider a ‘travel’ volume. Kerry Hardy’s “…

Dunno if this is justified by the rate or not. A pretty crappy lodging experience, but relatively cheap compared to other options I had for Portland …

My wife and I stayed at this top rate hotel nestled in the North Hills Shopping “area” - I’m not really sure what you call these shopping malls …

The other restaurant we enjoyed in Savannah which warranted a review was Corleone’s Trattoria – a top notch Italian eatery that is right downtown.…

Located in Savannah’s Historic District far enough away from downtown to feel like a true neighborhood, Clary’s Café was a delight. The diner h…
This review was featured on Saturday August 8th, 2009

Our children get their first exposure to travel on their 13th birthday – they choose the destination for a long weekend that is within a five hour c…

This is a live review as I sit in my room - can't complain too much because I was just seeking a cheap place to crash near the Harrisburg Airport toni…

An excellent purveyor of Indian cuisine in Delft. We started with garlic nan, the first in years, and it was scrumptious! Kim ordered some tea that …
This review was featured on Saturday June 20th, 2009

Just a few blocks beyond the Anne Frank House in Jordaan lies a terrific place to enjoy the Dutch version of pancakes…but not for breakfast! The Pa…

The Bird Thai restaurant is a winner. It started as a take-away in 1993, but their tasty offerings led to success and a full service restaurant in 19…

We loved Citizen M’s newest location in Amsterdam. It is a bit outside of downtown, but near the Museumplein and right next door to the Amsterdam Z…

My wife surprised me with tickets to see John Pizzarelli perform this week and we reminisced about the first time we got to enjoy this talented jazz g…

My usual lodging when I visit Dayton for business, which I jokingly refer to as my "fleabag motel" (because it costs less than half of what everyone e…

Got stranded in Dayton this evening, so an opportunity to write a review while enduring sub-zero temps and waiting to catch a flight home tomorrow mor…

The premiere resort on St. John in the USVI is Caneel Bay. The resort sits within the boundaries of the Virgin Islands National Park on 170 acres and…

There is virtually nothing on the beautiful little British Virgin Island of Jost Van Dyke with the exception of goats, some lovely beaches and a coupl…

A great way to spend your Saturday morning in Charleston is visiting the Farmers Market in Marion Square (on Calhoun Street between Meeting & King). …

The family dropped in on Charleston last weekend, and our welcome to this fun destination was crossing the Cooper River on the splendid Arthur Ravenel…
This review was featured on Friday November 28th, 2008

Enjoyed a brief junket to Asheville, NC last weekend with my wife and it is a beautiful place. We will definitely return and I hope to provide furthe…

The return from Seattle last week was grim. The lavatories began leaking fluid and we made a u-turn a little over an hour after lifting off! Between…

Congregated with work associates on a business trip to Seattle last week and since we arrived Tuesday afternoon with no meetings until the next mornin…
This review was featured on Wednesday October 22nd, 2008

Perhaps some day I'll get around to composing a blog about my family's trip to Arizona a few years back. Of course one of the stops had to be the Gra…

My wife and I were looking for a quiet getaway before the over-scheduled Christmas holidays and found it at Litchfield Plantation in Pawleys Island, S…

Beaufort is a charming village along North Carolina’s coast, and Clawson’s is a fabulous eatery there. My wife wanted to bring us here to sample …

The current Bodie Island Lighthouse has been in operation since 1872, although this was the third one built to service this portion of the Banks. The…

A terrific light house. Unlike the other classic stations in the Outer Banks, this 158-foot light house retains its beautiful brick exterior with no …
This review was featured on Tuesday July 1st, 2008

The family enjoyed a pleasant outing to a sweet little village along the southern coast of North Carolina today. Southport sits on the mouth of the C…

I’ve been negligent in covering the ski scene in Maine, largely because we haven’t gone downhill since kids arrived (though everyone in the family…

Portland Discovery is a relatively new land & sea tour operator in these parts – when I lived here there was no regular service to Eagle Island. Of…

One of the most readily accessible jewels of Maine lies in Cape Elizabeth, adjacent to Portland. The jewel is Portland Head - Maine’s oldest lighth…
This review was featured on Sunday April 6th, 2008

For sure, the most awesome neighborhood in Portland, Maine is Old Port. The remarkable part is that I lived here when this was a decrepit warehouse d…

I try to avoid restaurant reviews because they seem so fleeting and I find it strange photographing my meal, lol (though I will confess TB is revising…

Portland Breakwater Light, more commonly referred to as Bug Light, is a teeny beacon in Portland Harbor. A 24-foot high granite tower built in 1875 (…

Please don’t confuse the Portland Observatory with astronomy. The octagonal tower atop Munjoy Hill in Portland was never intended to see the stars�…

Since you’ve ventured across the cribstone bridge, there’s no sense in stopping now. Continue winding through the delightful cottages of Bailey I…

During our latest return to Maine we were disappointed to learn that Holbrook’s, an incredible lobster shack on the water at Cundy’s Harbor, had c…