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While in Boston, our concierge recommended Stephanie’s Restaurant for dinner. We walked from the hotel on a nice, fall evening and had an absolutely wonderful experience along with a very tasty...
While in Boston, our concierge recommended Stephanie’s Restaurant for dinner. We walked from the hotel on a nice, fall evening and had an absolutely wonderful experience along with a very tasty dinner.
When you approach Stephanie’s, you walk through their expansive outdoor seating area on the beautiful and exclusive Newbury Street. Upon entering, you’re greeted by a very friendly yet professional staff member and visually treated by a roaring fireplace and soft, ambient lighting spilling onto luxurious dark wood surfaces. The staff member didn’t ask for our name when inviting us to take a seat in front of the fireplace to wait for a table, yet he got everyone seated in the order in which they had arrived and the wait time was so minimal it’s not worth mentioning. Stephanie’s is not the type of place where they’re yelling names out and creating chaos. Instead, the staff there is each a positive contributor to the adult ambiance. There are no “Happy, happy birthday!” songs being screeched out several times an hour! Thank GOD.
Our meal was absolutely flawless and our waiter’s exuberance was nothing short of delightful. I had THE best spinach salad I have ever had in my entire life! My fiancé had the Italian Sausage Orchiette which he said was fabulous. I was torn between the salad and the salmon, so our waiter suggested I have some salmon on top of the salad! Excellent!! The breads brought to the table to tide us over before the meal were also very different and delectable. My mouth is watering just remembering that meal!
Check out Stephanie’s web site http://www.stephaniesonnewbury.com/ where they not only have their menus, directions, reviews, etc, but also a virtual tour. Our concierge categorized the restaurant as “great American food” and Stephanie’s web site calls it “sophisticated comfort food.” I think they’re both right, but I simply call it “perfect”. Oh, how I wish we had a Stephanie’s in the Seattle area!
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Would you like to donate to a very worthy cause AND get a delicious meal in return? This Monday, September 25, 2006, Chili’s Restaurants are donating *100% of their profits* to St. Jude Children’s...
Would you like to donate to a very worthy cause AND get a delicious meal in return? This Monday, September 25, 2006, Chili’s Restaurants are donating *100% of their profits* to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the fight against childhood cancer! http://www.chilis.com/index.php?section=main
If you haven’t been to a Chili’s restaurant, you don’t know what you’re missing. Great food, big portions (I always get two meals out of my one order) and a fun atmosphere. And now they're serving up the opportunity to be a hero.
Find your local restaurant by putting in your zip code here: http://www.chilis.com/aboutus.php Treat yourself to a delicious lunch or dinner while feeling good about helping to spare our children from the ravage of cancer.
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If you’re in Boston, take a Duck Tour! A “duck” is “an authentic, renovated World War II amphibious landing vehicle”. Quoting their web site sums up the tour: “First, you'll be greeted by one of...
If you’re in Boston, take a Duck Tour! A “duck” is “an authentic, renovated World War II amphibious landing vehicle”. Quoting their web site sums up the tour: “First, you'll be greeted by one of our legendary tour ConDUCKtors, who'll be narrating your tour. Then you're off on a journey like you've never had before. You'll cruise by all the places that make Boston the birthplace of freedom and a city of firsts, from the golden-domed State House to Bunker Hill and the TD Banknorth Garden, Boston Common and Copley Square to the Big Dig, Government Center to fashionable Newbury Street, Quincy Market to the Prudential Tower, and more. And, as the best of Boston unfolds before your eyes, your ConDUCKtor will be giving you lots of little known facts and interesting insights about our unique and wonderful city.”
Our tour lasted about an hour and a half and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! Our conDUCKtor was Dr. Ima Quack http://www.bostonducktours.com/conducktors_25_imaquack.html and she was an absolute riot! Nothing beats a good tour guide and, sadly, you can only know the degree of truth in that statement if you’ve ever had a bad one (and we have). Dr. Quack kept us laughing through the entire tour while peppering the trip with salient information where appropriate; she even stopped the vehicle for photo ops (backing up traffic didn’t concern her greatly!).
They have two departure points: the Museum of Science and the Prudential Center. We chose the latter as it was directly across from our hotel. The cost of the tour is $26 per person, $23 for students and seniors and $17 for kids under 11. They take your photo as you board and you have the option to buy that when you disembark for $20. (Ours turned out pretty good, and I *very rarely* feel able to speak positively of any photo I’m in!) I later realized that, along with the 6”x8” cardboard framed photo, the 4”x6” photo and the two wallet sized photos, the package also included a 6”x8” photo of one of their tour boats in the Charles River at sunset with the city buildings in the background. A great plus!
Take the tour and don’t forget to tip your guide!
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We spent a week in this Marriott and I would give it a “C” rating. Unfortunately, most of my positive feelings for this hotel are based upon the concierge lounge, so if you’re not planning to pay...
We spent a week in this Marriott and I would give it a “C” rating. Unfortunately, most of my positive feelings for this hotel are based upon the concierge lounge, so if you’re not planning to pay extra to be on the concierge levels (28 & 29) or being upgraded to those floors as a Marriott platinum member, then I would recommend choosing another hotel when visiting Boston.
If you are planning on having access to the concierge lounge, however, I felt this hotel had a pretty terrific spread. An abundance of sliced fruit in the mornings, along with cereals and breads, and a nice offering of appetizers in the evening, along with a pretty full honor bar. Coffee, tea, water and soft drinks were available all day long, along with cookies and various whole fruits, nuts, etc. The area provided within the lounge was roomy, and they had additional tables and a second plasma TV outside the actual confines of the lounge, as well. There is a set of stairs bridging the 28th and 29th floors and they have tables and chairs set up on both levels (the actual lounge being on the 28th floor).
The one major plus for this hotel beyond the concierge lounge was the “Revive” bed! In my book, this is about the best thing Marriott has to offer, no matter what city you’re staying in. I’m an insomniac and, as such, have become somewhat obsessed about being comfortable in bed. I’ve never been in a hotel that had a more comfortable bed than the Revive bed that Marriott offers. Look for this in any Marriott you stay in! They have both down and fiber filled pillows on the bed (with 300 thread-count linens) and the comforter is a nice, lightweight (but warm) down. It feels like the bed has some kind of slight feather bed on it, but the web site http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/BOSCO says it’s simply a thicker mattress. Whatever—it works!
The location of this hotel was acceptable—in historic Back Bay with Boston Commons nearby on one side and Newbury Street on the other. The property is literally attached to two malls (with some very upscale stores) for those who seriously like to shop.
The noise level inside our room was very unacceptable. I believe this was due in part to being located directly above a set of elevators that went from the ground floor up to the 27th floor and the counter-weights made a continual loud racket. Additionally, there was an incessant buzz/fog horn noise coming from the AC unit, no matter if you had it on or not (and you needed it on to create some kind of loud, white noise). While a room not sitting atop an elevator shaft might have been less noisy, I doubt that the air conditioning noise would have been any less in any other room. Earplugs saved the day (or more accurately stated, they saved the *night*).
The room was cramped, and the bathroom was even more cramped. (The toilet also ran.) Shower heads and water pressure are a big deal for me when traveling and while I was dismayed when I saw the rain shower head, I felt it was sufficient for getting the shampoo and conditioner out of my hair.
In recent years, Marriott has become known to us—unfortunately—for their lack of cleanliness. In this room we had dirty hand and finger prints on the backs of the doors and around the doorknobs, and a complete dust outline left on the bathroom counter when I lifted up the tissue dispenser. Even so, compared to our past experiences, I considered this room to be quite “clean”.
The temperature of our room was essentially uncontrollable, which was very frustrating. The temperature gauge was completely inaccurate and it simply would not cool or heat efficiently. It would run and run without having a significant impact on the room temp no matter how low you set the thermometer.
Housekeeping seemed adequate, although I didn’t appreciate it when they broke one of my big hair clips and then reassembled it to look as if it wasn’t broken in two. A housekeeping manager rectified the situation in good time, however, bringing me several new hair clips and some sweets in a gift bag. I found that to be more than acceptable.
The staff seemed friendly enough and the site offered three restaurants and one lounge, a decent fitness room, an indoor swimming (lap) pool, sauna, etc. We had one meal in the lounge which offered a wonderful ambiance; the soup was good, the salad wasn’t.
We noticed after we were booked for the trip that this hotel didn’t have a very good rating in our AAA tour book. We tend to try to stick with Marriott as we have the most points with them and this site was convenient for a meeting nearby.
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Last year we went to Maui for a week. We’re “lucky” enough to accrue enough business travel to be at the platinum level with Marriott, so we chose a Marriott property for our stay and used points...
Last year we went to Maui for a week. We’re “lucky” enough to accrue enough business travel to be at the platinum level with Marriott, so we chose a Marriott property for our stay and used points to pay for the hotel.
The Kapalua Bay Hotel is a Marriott Renaissance property. It sits atop a bluff overlooking a beautiful bay and has access to a small crescent beach. Their pool (sadly, standard residential backyard fare) sits at the base of the bluff with a vast grassy area full of loungers spread out in front of it. The open air of the second story lounge area affords a terrific view of the bay.
The Marriott properties in Hawaii seem to all be converting into the Marriott Vacation Club (time share) and so it’s hard to get anything beyond a standard room when using points. We had one of only two “suites” on the property, both of which were on the ground floor. While being spacious enough, the suite hadn’t been updated in absolute decades. The carpet was so filthy, with spots and spills all over (most prominent in the bedroom) that it truly looked as if housekeeping had completely given up the effort of maintaining it years ago. The area rug was as dirty and outdated as the carpet and permanently rumpled under a heavy trunk-type coffee table (leaving a big ruffle to trip over when going to/from the bathroom).
The room was very dark with insufficient lighting sources. The furniture appeared dirty and mismatched, as well as awkwardly placed. The bedroom sliding door didn’t close all the way and therefore couldn’t be locked. The refrigerator didn’t work, neither did the air conditioning controls. There was visible mold growing on the walls and the air throughout was very musty. The shower had only one glass panel covering half of the opening which was a bad design as the floor became a big puddle with every shower taken. The feather bed actually scratched us to BLEEDING from the hundreds of sharp feather quills that poked through the cover (we had to lay out towels to sleep on). But the ultimate black mark for this hotel was the micro-ant infestation, which included the BED.
We came back to the room one night and it was literally full of cigarette smoke. The neighbors were out on their lanai smoking (which was immediately outside our bedroom with the sliding door that didn’t close). As it turns out, this Marriott allows people to smoke on the lanais of *non-smoking* rooms! Of course, this not only pollutes the air for the neighboring vacationers (who keeps their slider door closed while in an ocean-facing room in Hawaii??) but their own room, contaminating it for the next occupants. It took asking after this at the front desk a couple of times before we found out that this was their policy *unless someone complained*. But even after complaining, it would be hit or miss as to whether anything would be done. (The staff, unfortunately, was often less than helpful with one member, in particular, that was overtly obnoxious.)
We spoke to the manager and requested our points back. He agreed to refund them and moved us to a standard room. The process of waiting in our room for him to show up and then packing and moving our things to another room ate up one day out of our week. The new room, while much smaller, was on an upper floor and had a nice balcony and a wonderful view. It also, however, had the same ants in the bathroom. Thankfully, we found no ants in the bed. We still had to sleep on towels as the feather bed was only moderately less lethal. We had two neighbors smoking out on their lanais on and off without a significant effort shown by management to stop it.
It’s a shame that this hotel is so badly maintained and managed. If considering a trip to Maui, I’d recommend staying somewhere in Kaanapali.
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Chico's
Category:
Women's Clothing
600 Pine St
Seattle, Washington 98101
(206) 624-5549
I found a couple of skirts, some fun jewelry, a great belt and a scarf at Chico’s in Issaquah. My particular sales person, Gayle, was very helpful. Everyone there dresses in the store’s clothing...
I found a couple of skirts, some fun jewelry, a great belt and a scarf at Chico’s in Issaquah. My particular sales person, Gayle, was very helpful. Everyone there dresses in the store’s clothing and they’re all very well accessorized. This helps gives those of us who rarely accessorize an idea of what to do!
I think you get 5% off your total once you spend $500. I spent $500 my first visit and they gave me 5% off that order, which was nice. When you sign up to be on their mailing list, you get coupons with the catalogs, as well.
The one thing I very much didn’t like about the store, however, is that they don’t put mirrors in their dressing rooms. This is an obvious tactic to get you to come out to the communal mirror so that they can sell you more items. This is something that made me uncomfortable. Deciding what clothing I like and don’t like, to me, is very personal. That may be why I haven’t gone back.
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I’ve had good experiences with Coldwater Creek, both the store and the catalog. The staff is always friendly and helpful and the lines are never long. One thing I especially like them for is their...
I’ve had good experiences with Coldwater Creek, both the store and the catalog. The staff is always friendly and helpful and the lines are never long. One thing I especially like them for is their holiday sweaters, but I’ve found various other clothing and jewelry items there that I’ve really liked. I’m tall (5’ 9”) and I appreciate the length of their standard jeans.
The cherry-on-top for this chain, however, is their return policy: no-questions-asked. If you don’t like something, for whatever reason, for however long you HAVE it, they’ll take it back! I haven’t tested that theory out by returning things years later, but I never get to the mall, making my returns VERY late. No one at the store ever even implies there could be a problem with that. Everyone leads busy lives and having to fit in a trip to the mall within a 30-day (or less) window to return items sometimes just doesn’t work out.
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We called Kendall Appliances to have a refrigerator repair man come out and repair our ailing refrigerator. Even though the company was a 24/7 operation, they couldn’t get their repair guy to us...
We called Kendall Appliances to have a refrigerator repair man come out and repair our ailing refrigerator. Even though the company was a 24/7 operation, they couldn’t get their repair guy to us for a few days. By the time he arrived, the refrigerator had stopped working and we had lost all our food.
The repair man identified the problem as a faulty circuit board and replaced it. The bill was just short of $300, $140 of which was listed as a “service charge” although the invoice stated that the service call would be free with repair.
It took a while for the refrigerator to slowly cool down after the repair man left and we just thought that was the way it worked, having never had the problem before. We went out to the store and bought all new food; a $300 store total with much of that going into the refrigerator.
Unfortunately, the unit began to lose its coolness once again and we phoned the repair shop. No one called back. Each time I called, the office person said, “He *still* hasn’t called you?? Let me give him a call and I’ll have him call you right back!” No one called back, even though she “promised” that somebody, if even just her, would. I told her we had a restocked fridge and we were losing our food! Still, no one would call back. My fiancé called the next morning and got the same routine. At 5:35 that night, two full days after I began calling them, the manager finally called me back.
Morgan, the manager, proceeded to tell me that he thought he was doing a great job—he’d been working every night until 8:00 PM, he said, and here he was, returning my call! He asked me to describe what was happening with our fridge. He guessed at what he might be able to do to fix it. He was inconvenienced, he said, because our original repair guy, Jack, was on vacation and Jack was the one who lived close to their parts place in Tuckwila, bringing all the parts in to the shop for him. Without Jack to do that, poor Morgan was likely going to have to drive to Tuckwila to get our part. I had to essentially listen to him debate with himself about doing that while I thought about my food going bad in the interim. I asked him questions, trying to be absolutely clear as I wasn’t sure if I would ever be graced with phone contact with the man again, and he actually had the nerve to yell at me, “Why are you putting me through the grist mill??”
Morgan finally decided upon coming out the next morning to look at our fridge first to see what part he would actually need before going out to Tuckwila. (True light bulb moment, Morgan!) He came out and decided he needed to order a couple of parts and didn’t know when they would get in. He advised my fiancé to “call in to the office and let them know how it was going”..??? Why? So we could add to our own inconvenience?? Calling their office did nothing but provide more of that.
It’s been five days since Morgan was here and he has not contacted us to let us know anything. We’ve lost all of our food purchased after his repair man “fixed” our fridge. We’ve had no safe food to offer out-of-town guests. We’ve gone eighteen days without a refrigerator. We’ve decided to just buy a new fridge, but I’m waiting to find out how long it will take for anyone from Kendall Appliance to *ever* call us. If/when they do, I will be insisting on a refund of the money we have paid them. If they don’t call within another week, or if they call and refuse to refund our money, I’ll be filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I looked them up on the BBB after the fact, unfortunately, and found they already have one open complaint against them.
Kendall Appliance seems to be as big of a lemon as our five-year-old, $1500 Maytag refrigerator/freezer.
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Last year I wrung my hands as my fiancé’s birthday approached; not knowing what in the world to get for him. I decided to surprise him with a hot air balloon ride and he loved it!
I purchased...
Last year I wrung my hands as my fiancé’s birthday approached; not knowing what in the world to get for him. I decided to surprise him with a hot air balloon ride and he loved it!
I purchased passage for two on a sunset flight from Over the Rainbow Balloon Flights in Woodinville. The tickets were a little pricey at $125 apiece (as far as my memory goes—they don’t appear to list any pricing on their web site) but worth it! They offer two flight times per day, sunrise and sunset. I believe their sunrise pricing is less expensive.
The company has you meet outside of a little restaurant in Woodinville, then they transport you in their van (towing the balloon) to the launch site (a school’s field nearby). They ask a couple of the passengers to help them pull open the balloon to get it filled up with hot air. It’s highly recommended that you dress appropriately; meaning closed-toe shoes, flat heals and pants or shorts.
Once the balloon is filled, they have everyone climb into the wicker basket—not necessarily the easiest of tasks and you have to do it quickly! Our basket held eight people plus the pilot. Another balloon had gotten airborne before us and we loosely trailed it throughout the trip. (This made for great photos!)
We soared right above the very tips of the trees! It was exhilarating! We could feel the cool rush of air coming up out of the forest, which was heavenly as the temperature in the basket can get rather warm with the repeated firing of the burner to heat the air. (A hat would be helpful if you draw the short straw and have to stand next to the pilot and the burner!) The flight time was about an hour to an hour and a half.
We had a rather unceremonious landing that actually was a little scary! Our pilot didn’t feel he could make the standard landing spot (a big, open field of grass), where the other balloon had descended. He seemed a little frantic, looking for a place to land, and we ended up in a quarry! Our basket actually plowed into a little hill! The pilot had us hunker down before it happened and seemed thrilled that the basket didn’t dump over! (So were we!!) All in all, it was a wonderful trip!
The van comes to the landing spot and they load the balloon and basket into the trailer and the passengers into the van and then transport you back to the restaurant. I was expecting that the company would have a little spread put out with appetizers, etc, but was very pleasantly surprised to find that they had an actual sit-down dinner waiting at the little restaurant. The other balloonists were already nearly done with their dinner and they all couldn’t wait to hear what had happened to us!
It was an experience I’d highly recommend! My fiancé was so surprised and enjoyed it so much; we talked about it for weeks afterward. If you’d like to check out their web site: http://www.letsgoballooning.com/Home/home.html
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We came across Fleet Feet in Sacramento prior to a marathon and were very impressed with the staff's knowledge and dedication to getting you fit with the right shoe. Much like what other JB'ers...
We came across Fleet Feet in Sacramento prior to a marathon and were very impressed with the staff's knowledge and dedication to getting you fit with the right shoe. Much like what other JB'ers have mentioned about Super Jock 'N Jill, Fleet Feet will run through several steps to find out what your particular issues are and then advise which shoe would be best for you. Like Jock 'N Jill, they also suggest you bring in your old shoes so they can check out the wear pattern.
Wherever you go, make sure they also determine your arch type. We've found out that it makes all the difference in the world to get a shoe that's made for your specific type of arch.
The closest local store is in Bonney Lake/Sumner. It's a bit of a drive, but if Jock 'N Jill doesn't work for you, or you find yourself out that way, I thought I'd offer another suggestion! http://www.fleetfeet.com/storeprofile/88/
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