Two years later my eighth grade English teacher gave the class an assignment to memorize poetry. Many of the poems seemed nonsensical to me and I had difficulty understanding my teacher’s passion for the subject, until I read The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. For some reason the final stanza of the poem resonated with my 13 year old mind, and it was arguably at that point in my life that I first heard the siren song of a career path of non-conformity.

It wasn’t until my college graduation nearly 10 years later when I was forced to choose a career, to choose a life, that the impact of Robert Frost’s words began to affect my future and ultimately influence my destiny. My college advisor had encouraged me to find a job in research and earn a PhD or apply to med school to become an MD. A few weeks before graduation with decision and application deadlines looming, I came across a classified ad in the campus newspaper, “How to Get a Job in the Cruise & Tour Industry.” The siren was singing in my ear again. “Take the road less traveled,” she said. And so I began to send out resumes to every cruise line on the seven seas.

I had only intended to take one year off, yet I ultimately gave up a career in medicine to build a career in tourism. It was my choice to take a gap year that led to my incurable travel addiction. In many respects I never really returned from my gap year, and one might say that I lead a gap life. I’ve now visited over 50 countries and nearly 50 states and often consider that it all started with one choice: to finish college and follow the traditional path, or to choose another path - the one less traveled.

There are many interpretations of The Road Not Taken. As with all forms of art each observer will find their own meaning. In fact, Frost describes the two roads as “equally lay” suggesting that one was not significantly less traveled than the other. Still for me the poem has always been a symbol of what life can become if you dare to choose the less conventional road, if you consider of all your options, not just those that are clearly laid out before you. The well traveled road is predictable and considered safe. The road less traveled is unpredictable, mysterious and seductive. You will often be amazed by the places to which it leads you. I know I am.

I am filled with gratitude for the places that the road of life has taken me, yet I often wonder where I would be now if I had taken the other road. Although I think we can all agree, I wouldn’t be selling Tupperware.

Here is a letter American Airlines just wrote to me about their situation with Expedia and Orbitz:

Dear Yvette Ulloa,

As a valued AAdvantage member, we want to clarify what you may be reading in the press. As a result of a commercial dispute, over the past several weeks there have been changes to how we sell our tickets. American Airlines last month removed its fares and schedules from Orbitz.com, and effective January 1Expedia.com stopped offering American Airlines fares on its website. Additionally Sabre, a company that distributes airline fares and schedules, made it more difficult for travel agents to find and select American’s flights by moving our fares lower in the display order than they normally would be listed.

While there is much misinformation circulating on these matters, rest assured that tickets for travel on American Airlines and American Eagle — including all international and domestic classes of service — are widely available through a number of outlets, including American’s own website, AA.com, which features our Lowest Fare Guarantee. Tickets, fares and schedules are also available through American’s reservations agents, thousands of travel agencies in locations worldwide, other online travel agencies such asPriceline.com, and travel search engines such as Kayak.com. For more information, please visit AA.com.

We are committed to working with all distribution channels, including traditional travel agencies, online travel agencies and global distribution systems. We will keep you informed of important updates on these developments.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to address this matter. We appreciate your business very much and look forward to welcoming you aboard soon.

Sincerely,

Maya Leibman
President
AAdvantage^® Loyalty Program

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We got a map of this wonderful trail and started walking.  It had rained for a couple days in a row and we finally got sunshine in California so it was the perfect day to take a walk and talk…away from traffic, away from computers, away from telephones…so with a map and two big smiles, we started to walk.

First and foremost, we couldn’t find the trail.  We walked along a paved road for a long time trying to find the entry to the trail.  Awhhh…after bordering the big golf course, we found the entrance to the trail.  But could it be?  There are so many puddles there all over the place…is this the trail or a small river?  Does it stop here?  Oh no, it’s just lots of puddles.  Heck, we have all day, and we are very adventurous, so we didn’t let the puddles stop us.  We kept on following the map, chatting, enjoying the quiet adventure, walking over more and more puddles, some we had to throw rocks in the middle to cross, or get creative and walk over plants.  The storm the night before “affected” the trail walk by throwing in mini-rivers for us to jump.

Quitters?  No way!  we are not turning back, I said, excited to follow the map.  We found a gopher which I was very excited about, had never seen one.  We even saw lots of birds…and wildlife was gorgeous.

About an hour and a half into our trail walk, it started dripping a little bit of rain.  Oh how it reminded me of the jungles and hot rainy days in Ecuador and Honduras…except it wasn’t so hot and the rain wasn’t as pleasant.   I had my sweatshirt on with a hoodie — great protection from the drips of the rain I thought, Dave had a hoodie too.  After about two hours, I kept on trying to look at the map and reference the hotel which we had lost sight off by now.  Our 2 mile hike turned into a 5 mile hike…and the rain kept getting stronger.  Finally, we find a map of the trail, and it was completely different than the resort map, and we could not find  a “you are here” spot.  When we finally found the washed up spot, it said that the trail we were looking for was temporarily closed for winter.

Uh-huh!  Lesson number 1, do not hike trails in the winter even if in California unless you check if they are open!  We had walked for about 2 and a half hours and I did not want to turn around in the heavy wildlife trail under the rain which was getting stronger.  Dave and I kept on walking and saying to ourselves…it’s not the destination, it’s the journey, so we started enjoying the rain some more…

All of the sudden we find a tall freeway (tollway bridge) and the trail ends all of the sudden.  No idea, the streets do not show on the map.  We are off the map.  Where are we?  I have never climbed up a mountain all the way to the top of the freeway.  Now I know how homeless people feel when they live under tollways.  Yippee no rain there!  But we couldn’t stay back there too much longer, we were ready to come to our beautiful five star hotel.  It seemed soooo far at this point…

But wait – “Dave, honey, did you bring your cell phone so we can call the driver to pick us up?”  ”I didn’t bring mine because I didn’t want to be near my “crack-berry.”  Says Dave:  ”Oh no honey, I left my Iphone because I didn’t want to be around technology and wanted to enjoy our walk.”  So I responded:  ”Cool, no worries honey, did you bring some money for a cab?”  Says Dave:  ”Oops, no I left my wallet because I didn’t know this trail walk would be so long, I just thought it would be a walk around the hotel.”

LOL  in CAPITAL LETTERS At this point all we could do was smile and enjoy the adventure.  God set it on our path for a reason.  Sometimes we are in difficult situations that we don’t chose and we HAVE to enjoy the journey.  We hiked up the mountain and ended up on top of the tollway.  It was a dead-end tollway which was under construction.  Not a soul there to ask.  It started raining heavier and all we could do is keep walking.  We knew if we found the place that would start going down the mountain and follow the streets we might find our hotel.  No money, no phones, and a wet map.  Dave looks at me and smiles and we know it’s about enjoying the journey.  We curved around and walked fo about 45 minutes in the rain…and finally found a street that sounded familiar.  It was a dead-end on one side so we figured to find the other side and we might end up close to the hotel.

Finally, the hike turned into an almost six hour adventure.  Wet, muddy and hungry by this time…and with achy feet, we decided to celebrate that we found our way back with no money and no phone.

A nice bubble bath later, a romantic dinner at the restaurant, and we talked about magical moments we experienced through our adventure.  Sometimes when we are hit with challenges we fail to see the gifts that are delivered during that challenge.  Spending six hours without phones and without traffic and noise was priceless.  Kissing Dave with our hoodies in the middle of the rain was priceless.  Getting our tennis shoes dirty with mud was priceless.

Sharing this story with you…priceless.  Thank you for letting us share our adventures with you…

The rooms are very spacious and no matter where you are placed you have a great view of either the golf course or a peaceful view of the landscape. Desert Spirngs is in desert land so the weather is unbelievable from october until March.  Where most place you need to bring your winter coat, scarf, and gloves during the winter time in Desert springs we actually tanned at the pool and went for a dip in December.  Where else can you say you can do that?

We had a great time at the Marriott desert springs hotel

Another WOW factor that the Marriott Desert Springs hotel delivered was having fun with some exotic birds that they have on display in the main lobby area.  If you are an animal lover like me, you’ll be tempted to stop and speak with african grey’s or the parrots.  In this area you also have the option of jumping on a small boat and be taken around the resort in the man made lake that surrounds this gorgeous property.

If you like to have a drink, the Marriott Desert Springs hotel has a huge center bar where you can watch the ball game or just relax and have a nice glass of wine.  Where ever you are you feel like a VIP.  The Marriott Desert Springs hotel is definitely worth the price and what’s amazing is that it’s not all that pricey.

In our reviews we always like to give it to you like it is.  The truth, and nothing but the truth!  Convenience and luxury all in one place when you come to the Westin San Diego.  There are 25 floors of guest rooms feature panoramic views of the San Diego Bay, Coronado Island, and the downtown cityscape. Convenient to business and shopping, and the location is within walking distance of the San Diego Convention Center, Seaport Village, Little Italy, the San Diego Gaslamp Quarter, and a variety of shopping options. What we love is that the major attractions are close by, such as the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, Old Town, Balboa Park and Museums, the USS Midway, and the breathtaking scenery of San Diego’s stunning sandy beaches.

Our review of the Westin San Diego hotel is a must stay. If you like traveling in class but don’t want to go broke, this hotel is a must. The rooms themselves are not the largest however the bed is the most comfortable that we’ve ever slept in and we travel a lot. It’s always nice to go to a place where they know how to add value. We received a 15% discount at “The Coffee Bar” upon arriving at the Westin San Diego. We got a free water because we are a rewards club member.  Today’s Westin San Diego hotel review is the first of many reviews we will be doing on the Westin chain as we can’t say enough about their impeccable service and ambiance.

NOTICE:  There are two Westins in San Diego.  This is the Westin by Little Italy, address 400 W Broadway in San Diego.  The other Westin is in the GasLamp District.

YES!  The beds are truly heavenly and we feel like we are home.  It is walking distance to Little Italy where we had an amazing dinner with the family at Mimmo’s

Here is our true review of the room in our amateur video.  Remember, we always tell you what the others won’t, so you can experience what the others don’t!  Travel blogging true ‘dat!

As we were looking around for restaurants we noticed that four blocks away is Little Italy in San Diego and so we wanted to find one of the best Italian Restaurants.  What a difficult choice!  So many menus, so many beautiful restaurants, so much charisma in this Little Italy town in San Diego!

After carefully looking at various menus and locations all throughout Little Italy in San Diego, we decided to experience what some said was one of the best Italian Restaurants: Mimmo’s.  Located at 1743 India Street in San Diego California 92101, it is a charismatic restaurant decorated in typical Italian decor.

As a matter of fact, for a moment we forgot we were in San Diego and thought we were in Rome!  Mimmo’s offers a wine bar and a beautiful scenery while you dine.  The restaurant looked like it might have been very expensive from the outside but we were pleasantly surprised that the price was very accommodating for a family of five.  As a matter of fact, our total amount for five people was $101.00.  No wine included, sorry folks, tonight was not a drinking wine night as we have to wake up at 5:30 am to get ready for the Marine’s Graduation!

Prices on the Mimmo’s menu were great!  Some of the examples are:  some very big subs were only $9.00 dollars for a very large portion.  Salads were extra large.  I ordered a Greek Salad and it was only $7.00 for a full size.  The bread was not the best part of the menu but the risotto that came with the salmon was to die for.  We loved the atmosphere as it was very quaint and although casual nice, you still felt like you were transported into a different part of the world…at least for a minute.  Until the waiter came back to tell you that he didn’t really know what was included in the soup lol.

The service was a bit slow and the waiter was not as knowledgeable but he made up for his lack of knowledge with a smile and a good heart.  He was definitely not Italian.  But it was still a great experience.

$101.00 dollars later our family of five left content, full and with a half chicken parmigiana in a box.  Dave my husband was not impressed with the chicken parmigiana, but the whole experience was great overall.  We give this restaurant a 6-7.

Here is their website if you would like to make reservations:

Mimmo’s Restaurant

Our travel blog was created to tell you the good, the bad and the ugly.  If you like to drink adult beverages, this is where  your bill can increase.  We had people who paid between $500 to over $1000 in drink bills!  Since you don’t pay until the end, they just add it to your bill and SURPRISE!!

Our best travel tips include:  you can bring your own water (save lots of money), pack lightly and remember that at the end you should tip the cruise staff so bring extra money for that.  Additionally, if you are a first time cruiser, remember to bring a formal outfit (tuxedo, suit, fancy dress) for the captain’s dinner night.

One of the best parts about our cruise was the fact that you can order — in one  meal — one steak, one lobster, one chicken and every dessert on the menu!  You have to try it one time to say you did it.

Here is a short video of our experience in Cozumel…we created a theme party for our group – so you will see the BLUE PEOPLE lol.  My hubby created this amateur video…ENJOY…

Here is our cruise review:  We give this cruise vacation package a 7, on a scale of one to ten! Ten is:  bling bling on a string, ta dao how you like me now.  One is doo doo brown (I know, it’s a very sophisticated rating system.) They delivered much higher value for the price…although the quality of the food was not that good.

Warning:  the spa will get you by upselling you at the end.  You are relaxed, get a full massage…and at the end these wonderful girls come and push and push product to try to get you to buy.  Destroyed our spa experience lol…but it was still a great cruise.

Carnival Cruise to Galveston – enjoy the bloopers!