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Laura Lohr

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Temecula Wine Country by Limo

November 11, 2018 by Laura Lohr Leave a Comment

We got a family picture with the backdrop of the vineyards. Such a beautiful view!

It’s wonderful when things come together just right and a plan comes together! Recently, we had an opportunity to ride in a party bus limo and it just so happened that Mr. Bear’s cousin was in town from Arizona. We had lunch and took the kids with us to Temecula Wine Country. It was a perfect day—the weather, the company, the limo bus, the service—everything was fantastic!

Our limo bus arrived promptly, ready to go!

We live near wine country in Temecula and we enjoy visiting the different wineries nearby. We often bring our out of town guests to some of our favorite wineries when they come to visit. We’ve gone for many reasons: birthdays, bachelorette parties, anniversaries, reunions, conferences, meetings, and just because. Temecula Wine Country has become a great place for weddings and we are becoming a tourist mecca, especially in the spring and fall, when our weather is just right. What was great about this visit, is we had someone to drive us to place to place. I usually end up being the driver, as I don’t drink, so it was particularly wonderful to be a passenger and really enjoy the company of family and friends.

Abbey and Allie had to check all the snacks and drinks. They got first pick of seating.

AalI In Limo and Party Bus picked us up at our house at 10:00 a.m. The limo driver had a few wineries in mind and Mr. Bear’s cousin, Deann, a wine connoisseur, had some ideas of her own.  Our first stop was lovely Bel Vino Winery. Allie brought a friend and one of Deann’s sons came with us. The kids and I enjoyed some snacks and sodas, while the Mr. Bear and Deann indulged in some wine tasting. We were able to take our time and enjoy each other’s company, at our own pace. Our driver was ready to take us to our next stop at our beck and call.

Our first stop was Bel Vino. We were the first ones to arrive! It was a quiet start to a very busy day!
A family photo! We all had a blast riding in the party bus!

Our next stop was De Anza del Sol. There is a great gift shop at De Anza del Sol and I love to shop there. Sweet DeAnn bought this lovely sign and it was such a nice gesture.

Isn’t it Be You Tiful?

We grab some salami, cheese, crackers, and fruit from the store, then found a shady place outside to enjoy our nosh. The kids played their video games and chit-chatted while we got to visit and relax in the fair weather. We took a leisure walk along the vineyards, before heading back to our comfortable coach.

 

Cheers! Mr. Bear and his cousin, DeAnn with their tasters. Mr. Bear chose white and DeAnn chose red.

The party bus was spacious and fully stocked with all we could need. We were able to charge our phones, in between stops and listen to our own music. The kids stretched out and continued to snack. We had ample room and our driver made sure all of our needs were met. He kept in communication with us. He was knowledgeable about the area and gave us suggestions that he felt would suit our needs.

Allie and I grabbed a selfie at Wiens. It’s such a beautiful place!
The kids hanging out. The adults had one side of the bus and the kids had the other.

Our last stop was DeAnn’s favorite, Wiens, where she is a member of the Wine of the Month Club. She was able to get her wine before she headed back to Arizona where she lives. She used to live in Orange County, California, so it was great to get together.

We love when DeAnn comes out and takes our family photos in wine country!

We hung out outside and enjoyed some music and more snacks! It was time to go and time went way too fast. Our limo wine county tour came to an end. Our driver took us back to our house and we enjoyed a little lunch at a local restaurant.

Filed Under: Reviews, Travel Tagged With: destination, family, Holidays, limo, limo bus, Temecula, Travel, wine country

Happy Halloween with Bate’s Nut Farm

October 22, 2018 by Laura Lohr Leave a Comment

We got a rare family photo in front of the Bate’s But Farm store

It’s that time of year again! Halloween is one of my very favorite times of the year. I love when the cool nights begin. I love when the decorations come out. I love when the leaves turn. What’s not to like? I love it all!

Allie and her friend had a great time wandering around the farm.

We were invited to Bate’s Nut Farm in Valley Center, California. Bate’s Nut Farm has been open for business for more than 90 years. It has been family owned for five generations. It is nestled in the picturesque area of Valley Center, east of the San Diego coastline. Bate’s Nut Farm started as a walnut farm, but now features a variety of nuts, candy, souvenirs, specialty teas, sweets, and treats. Whether it’s fudge, rock candy, candy corn, truffles, sugar-free chocolate, chocolates, or chocolate covered nuts—Bate’s Nut Farm has something for everyone.

Lots of treats. Mmmm.

We got a tour from Sherrie, who is the owner and has been involved with the farm since her grandparents were running the fam, when she was a little girl. She shared her memories of the old days, when Bate’s Nuts Farm still grew their own nuts. While Bate’s Nut Farm still sells, salts, and processes nuts the nuts they are famous for, they purchase nuts from around the world. This means that they are able to have a huge variety of goodies! They still make their own homemade goods, like a vast variety of fudge. Mmmmm. Fudge! We were able to sample birthday cake fudge, which is unique and fun!

The fudge case was my favorite selection.
So much goodness!

While at Bate’s Nut Farm, we enjoyed our favorites—fudge, cashews, candy, even lunch on the grass. There were so many gourds and we got to pick our favorite pumpkins from the pumpkin patch.

What kind of candy do you like? Salt water taffy is a favorite. There’s lots of variety!

The girls enjoyed the petting zoo and got to hold some baby chicks. Sheep, pigs, geese, ducks, an ostrich, and pony rides! There’s something for everyone to do!

Happy Pig!

We wandered through the corn maze. Mr. Bear and I walked leisurely through the corn maze, while Allie and her competitive friend rushed through the maze, assuring that they beat us. HA! They had a good time and the weather was nice. It is beautiful at Bate’s Nut Farm. It is surrounded by oak trees and it is nice to be out of the hustle and bustle of suburbia.

Gourds and Pumpkins Galore

 

Weekdays on the Farm

  • Pumpkins, squash, gourds—all shapes and sizes
  • Hayride: $2.50 each
  • Straw Maze: $2.50 each
  • Pony Rides: $8.00 each
  • Petting Corral: $3.00 each (9/29-10/31)
  • Farm Zoo
  • Picnicking
  • Farmer’s Daughter

All weekday activities are available on weekends too!

 

Weekend Activities on the Farm:

  • Face Painting
  • Live Music
  • Kids ‘n’ Paint
  • Bounce & Slides
  • Rock Climb
  • What’s Cookin’ BBQ
  • The Valley Center Optimist Tacos & Quesadillas
  • Ice Cream, Snow Cones
  • Kettle Corn
  • Cookies
  • Pizza
  • Funnel Cakes
  • Food Trucks

 

Family Fun Day Package: $80

2 Pumpkins ($15 value)

30 Tickets ($75 value)

Entertainment Package: $50

22 Tickets ($55 value)

Bates Pumpkin Package: $11

1 Pumpkin ($7.50 value)

2 Tickets ($5.00 value)

 

Upcoming Events:

East County Cruiser Car Show & Toy Drive

Saturday, November 10th

9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Christmas in the Valley

Friday, December 7th

3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, December 8th

9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Filed Under: Holiday Cheer, Reviews

Hollywood Hotel with Our Favorite Canine

May 30, 2017 by Laura Lohr 1 Comment

Me and my little pug, Jack. We loved our stay at the Hollywood Hotel!

We often go to Hollywood and play the part of tourists. As lifelong residents of California, we’ve been throughout Los Angeles and Hollywood, but we never tire of our adventures! My dad is a member of the world famous Magic Castle, which has afforded us many enjoyable adventures to Hollywood over the years. Typically, we get a pet sitter or board our pets. This time, we tried something new! We got to visit the Hollywood Hotel, which is a pet-friendly hotel in Hollywood.

The Hollywood Hotel didn’t miss a detail! Food bowls, treats, waste bags, bed, plush toy for the pug!

I was nervous about the prospects of bringing a pet with us on a trip. We’d never done it before and Jack the pug was a new addition to our family, which made me a little uneasy. This was a fantastic experience, however—one that I would do again and again! The Hollywood Hotel pulled out all the stops to make our trip with our favorite pug the most comfortable and enjoyable experience!

Jack the Pug and Mr. Bear in the lobby, waiting for our room.
The lovely lobby.
There’s a business center conveniently located in the lobby for guests

When we arrived at their beautiful lobby at the Hollywood Hotel, we knew it was going to be a luxurious and pleasurable stay.. The staff were friendly and quickly got us checked in. They gave us a tour of the beautiful grounds and we learned a bit about the history of this historic hotel, built in 1903. I had no idea how rich the history of the hotel was or the famous guests who have stayed, such as: Kristen Wiig, Drew Barrymore, Aidan Quinn, Jessica Biel, to John Krasinski and BJ Novak and Jason Ritter. The hotel has a comedy club downstairs, where these celebrities have performed during open mic nights! Pretty cool! Rudolph Valentino lived in the hotel, in room 264. The Hollywood hotel is where he met his wife Jean Acker and where they spent their honeymoon!

The omelet bar was a wonderful surprise for our breakfast! I got an omelet with the works and it was amazing!
In addition to a full waffle and omelet station, there’s a continental breakfast, too!

The Hollywood Hotel had all the amenities we could have asked for! We had a delicious hot breakfast buffet downstairs in their lovely cafe. They had a chef on duty to cook us a tasty omelet of our choice of ingredients. I chose bacon, cheese, onions, and bell pepper. Mr. Bear had an omelet with everything. In addition to their cafe, they have a lounge with nighttime entertainment and a full bar, where Mr. Bear enjoyed a cocktail before we hit the town!

The spacious pool area was like a little oasis! It was hard to believe we were in the center of Hollywood on this private poolside area!

We enjoyed a dip in the pool and followed it up with a 20-minute sauna session. The hotel is just clean and beautifully well-maintained. The bed was so comfortable and the recently renovated hotel had a very modern feel, although they were very thoughtful about preserving some of its most charming historic charms.

We opted for the, “Pamper your Pet” package, which gave us all we needed for Captain Jack Sparrow, our one-eyed pug! Captain Jack was right at home! They provided us with: a plush and comfortable pet bed, a cute plush toy/stuffed animal, food and water bowls, dog treats, and pet waste bags. I was so grateful for that last one! I had forgotten to grab ours from home before we left!

Our pampered pooch was all tuckered out from the festivities and things to do at the Hollywood Hotel!
This is the luxurious bedroom and comfortable beds we slept in.

We found out that in true Hollywood form, you can make anything happen! Even if you don’t have a pet of your own, the Hollywood Hotel will provide you with a “Puppy Party” package! For an extra fee, you can have the pups come to you to cuddle! How much fun! It was $50 extra for the Pamper your Pet package, which was a steal for us! We usually have a pet sitter or board our pooches when we’re out of town. It was nice to have them with us and know they were well taken care of.

There were plenty of places to lounge around. Jack and Mr. Bear decided to hang out near the pool, in the shade, while I swam some laps.

The Hollywood Hotel is central to everything! The day we arrived, I realized I had forgotten my swimsuit. I saw the inviting pool and decided I must not miss a dip! The staff informed me that West Hollywood Gateway was just up the block. Thankfully, the shopping is nearby and I was able to get myself a new bathing suit and do a little shopping! SCORE! We took a taxi to the Magic Castle and even with Hollywood traffic, we were there in 10 minutes! The following day, we took a beautiful drive up to the Griffith Observatory and walked around at Griffith Park. It’s a stunning place to walk with your family and canine friends! We spent about an hour exploring before we trekked back home.

Here, Jack and I are standing in front of the Route 66 sign, in front of the Hollywood Hotel.

We really enjoyed our stay at the 130 room historic Hollywood Hotel. We know that we’ll stay again and make sure to remember our bathing suits, but if we don’t, we know that shopping is nearby. It’s a very reasonably priced hotel, especially for the Los Angeles/Hollywood area. It was great to be close to all the amenities we’ve come to enjoy in Hollywood. It was a great place to stay and met all of our needs! How great to be able to include our furry friends on our vacation!

Check out the Hollywood Hotel at:

Website: http://www.hollywoodhotel.net/

Instagram: @hollywoodhotel

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehollywoodhotel

Twitter: https://twitter.com/hollywoodhotel1

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/hollywoodhotel/

Filed Under: Reviews, Travel

Running the Holiday Half with Finess

January 16, 2017 by Laura Lohr Leave a Comment

As a runner, I have blunt conversations with other mother runners about bodily functions and things that are bound to happen on a long run. Since having my daughter, I’ve had the unpleasant experience of bladder leakage. It’s not fun to talk about and for a long time, I was really embarrassed. It wasn’t something I wanted to talk about with my doctor. I mean, bladder leaks were for old people! I wasn’t old yet.

In December, I ran the Holiday Half Marathon. Before the race, I met up with several of the women from the Moms Run this Town group. While we were taking selfies, the conversation came up about urinary incontinence. I was shocked at first, that the five of them, all under 40 (most of them in their 30’s) experienced bladder leakage since having babies. I could not believe it was so common! I talked to a friend later that week and had NO IDEA it was something she used to deal with often, also! In addition to our love for running, we all had experienced that embarrassing occurrence of bladder leakage, while exercising at one time or another. We all agreed that sneezes were disastrous! The truth is, one in four women experience the embarrassing symptoms of urinary incontinence.

I’ve tried pads, briefs for urinary incontinence, and I’ve been working my kegels for YEARS, like it was my job. While wearing a pad works, it can be uncomfortable when I’m running for three hours. Wearing the briefs has worked well, but bringing a back-up on a three-hour run can take up precious space I don’t have when I’m running. Recently, I experienced a painful UTI and came to the conclusion that wearing a pad while running for three hours may have contributed to the bladder irritation.

Along Comes Finess

Coincidently, this conversation I had with the other women before the half marathon was the same day as my maiden voyage trying  the Finess product. Finess was a product I hadn’t heard of before, but when I learned about it, I was very excited to try it! Finess isn’t a pad. In fact, it isn’t like a pad at all! It covers the urethral opening and stops leaks before they happen. I have to admit, I was a huge skeptic. I took it out of the packaging and looked at the triangle-shaped device, thinking, “This will never work!” I’m happy to report that it took me 2 hours and 30 minutes of running to cross the finish line and I didn’t have a single drop of leakage! This was really earth-shattering for me! After years of doing the cutesy-leg-cross in preparation for a sneeze, this product prevented even a little leak without my signature move. I was able to bring another Finess with me and it fit perfectly in a small pocket of my running tights. Check out the  Finess Clinical Study  page for more information and for more details on how well Finess performed in clinical trials.

The hardest part of using the Finess was trying to figure out my anatomy. To be perfectly honest, I was completely clueless. In the instructions, it suggested using a mirror and attempting to place Finess when I wasn’t in a hurry. Both of these pieces of advice came in very handy. I did need to learn a little more about myself before I was able to place Finess in the right place. You can see more information about how Finess works here.

Yesterday, I just ran another half marathon and I used Finess. It worked perfectly! It stayed in place; there wasn’t any chafing that pads and other undergarments can cause. I think I have found a new running tool. I hardly noticed I was wearing Finess and of course, because it’s so small, it’s so very discrete!

Let’s face it, being one in four with urinary continence is not fun, but it doesn’t need to be uncomfortable. It’s good to know there’s alternatives out there and can help me forget about the little things and focus on running!

I was given a trial package of Finess and compensated for my honest review of the product. All opinions are my own.

Filed Under: Reviews

Star Wars Rogue One

December 15, 2016 by Laura Lohr Leave a Comment

Okay, I know what you want to know! Was it any good? Will I like it?

YES! YOU’RE GOING TO LOVE IT! I know you want to know if Luke Skywalker is in this one. Is Princess Lea in this one? What about Darth Vader? Well, I can’t tell you that in good conscience. You’re just going to have to go see it!

What can I tell you? It’s really good! I was sitting on the edge of my seat! I laughed—there’s some funny parts and as always—really great characters. You’ll meet some new characters in the Star Wars story and you will love them! There’s a new heroine, named Jyn Erso, who’s as independent as she is beautiful. There’s a new droid on the scene and his name is K-2SO. He’s a reprogrammed droid from the Imperial army. He’s completely loyal and loveable.

My favorite character was Chirrut, played by Donnie Yen. Chirrut is a blind spiritual warrior. He may be blind, but don’t underestimate him! His mantra is, “I am with the force and the force is with me!” Indeed, the force is strong with Chirrut! He’s a rebel fighter that believes in the cause of the rebels.

My favorite character, Chirrut!

This movie didn’t have as much character development as some of the other Star Wars films. This went right into the plot and packed some much into a little over two hours. I don’t remember any slow parts of the movie—it left me nearly breathless between scenes.

There are many twists and turns in this Star Wars movie.  This is where I learned more about the Death Star and why it’s called the Death Star. You’ll recognize some cameo appearances from a few of the original Star Wars staples. This movie filled in some of the gaps from the other movies and tied everything together nicely while leaving me wanting MORE, as the credits rolled. As much as it explained, it left me with more questions. “When will Princess Lea give R2D2 the Death Star plans?” as well as many other questions. I cannot wait until the next movie in the series!

If you’re a Star Wars fan, you’re going to love the movie. Even if you’re not a Star Wars fan, you’ll love the movie! This was my favorite of the Star Wars movies since the original series! Everything about the movie was fantastic, from the computer graphics to special effects, to the cast, to the musical score! I got chills watching it! Really well done!

Star Wars Rogue One opens in theaters this Friday, December 16. You won’t be disappointed!

Filed Under: Entertainment, Reviews

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About Laura:

Wife, mom, runner, geek, lifestyle blogger, fitness badass, world traveler, social media lover. San Diego transplant, living in Temecula's wine country.

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