Summer in Southern California!

We’ve had a great time in San Francisco, but we’ve moved on to our next stop in the “Don and Karla World Tour.”

Life is good.

We packed up our car two weeks ago and made the 400 mile drive down to Southern California.
We’ve picked Venice Beach as our “headquarters” for the next month or so, and we’re loving it. The Venice Beach boardwalk is this funky-edgy place with the funkiest-edgiest people you can imagine.

We had a little hiccup with our house that we had reserved for the month, so we’ve really been nomads for the past couple of weeks. Our first stop was an apartment right on Venice Beach. We then spent a week at a little bungalow nearby. The next 10 days were at a lux house in Marina del Rey (just south of Venice). Now, we’re a couple of blocks off the beach, between the Venice Beach boardwalk and super-cool Abbot Kinney Boulevard.

We bought a couple of beach cruisers and have been biking on the beach bikepath up and down the coast. We’ve been spending some of our afternoons hanging out, reading on the beach. Most of our mornings are devoted to our business.

Last Saturday we had about 30 of our friends and business associates from all over the LA area for a BBQ. What a blast!

May in San Francisco

Being "digital nomads" doesn't mean that we're always travelling. As a matter of fact, we haven't gone anywhere for over a month. We've been enjoying San Francisco!



The following are some of the highlights of the past month:


RN74
Michael Mina's newest, much-hyped restaurant. We had one of our usual looooong Friday lunches there. Good food, great wine, OK service and $200 later, we stumbled back to our place on Nob Hill for a loooooong Friday evening nap! ;)

Palace of the Legion of Honor
Strolled through what we consider to be San Francisco's most beautiful museum.


Bay to Breakers
Bay to Breakers is an annual "footrace" where runners "run" from the Bay to, guess what, the "Breakers," or ocean. This is an opportunity for the best and the weirdest to get together to celebrate all that this city is. Don and I spent the morning cheering the runners on from the curb along Howard street. The pictures say it all.

The Farmers Market at the Ferry Building
What economic downturn? Anyone that has any doubt that there still is abundance in the world should visit this market. It's like Whole Foods on steroids! Beautiful, abundant, organic.


Bhutan Exhibit at the Asian Art Museum
Absolutely stunning buddist and hindu art from small country of Bhutan.

Cable Car Museum
Fantastic opportunity to see the inner workings of the SF cable car system.

Don's Mom's 85th Birthday
We surprised Don's mom with a dinner party at Shalazar, a great Persian restaurant. Don's sister came from Texas, bringing her boyfriend, and we were joined by Harriet's long-time friends, Fran and Susan Doran, Carl and Terry.

Delfina
There is a reason why this restaurant is considered to be one of the best restaurants in the city. It's the food and the service, silly! Two of our great friends, Rhonda Swan and Michael Hamburger were in town and we spent a lovely evening at this gem of a restaurant.

Life in the City by the Bay

Gratutude.

We're feeling real gratitude.

This world is such a beautiful place. There is so much to see, to do, to go, to eat, etc., but some of the most beautiful places are right here in the good 'ol U S of A. One of them is San Francisco.

We're grateful that we live is such a beautiful country. We're grateful to work in a business and community that allows us the flexibilty to BE wherever we want, to DO the things we've always wanted to DO, and HAVE the experiences that most people only dream of.

We're having a blast here in this city by the bay. We've rented a little pied-a-terre in the Nob Hill neighborhood. We can walk almost anywhere in the city from here. Chinatown, North Beach, the Embarcadero, Fishermans' Wharf, Union Square are all very short distances from here, and there are literally a years worth of fabulous restaurants nearby.

Last weekend we went to Japantown's Cherry Blossom Festival. We loved watching the Taiko Drum Dojo, the Ichiban demonstration - Karla even made an origami swan. Here we are with two beautiful geishas.

We're here until June 15th, and after that Hawaii, so we'll keep you posted!

March 8 - 14 - ACAPULCO, BABY!

Seven glorious days in Acapulco!

We weren't sure how great this week was going to be. We've spent quite a lot of time travelling in Mexico, and we weren't in the mood for the usual "third-world-ish-ness" that we have experienced in the past.

Much to our surprise, Acapulco and the Fairmont Princess turned out to be wonderful.

We met up with about 1,000 other entrepreneurs at our company's Liberty Conference. For those of you that are new to this blog, our company hosts top-notch personal development conferences all over the world three times per year.

We spent the week masterminding with other successful entrepreneurs, filling our minds with new possibilities and have fun exploring Acapulco.

One afternoon, we hired a catamaran to sail about 100 of the top performers on our team around Acapulco bay. We lunched, sipped cocktails, danced and enjoyed a perfect sunset over the Pacific with the beautiful city of Acapulco as our backdrop.

OUR BIG DECISION

This has been a long time coming. For those of you that follow this blog, you know that Don and I love to travel.

So... we're going to take a year or so and TRAVEL!

We're spending the next couple of weeks in San Francisco to see if we want to spend a month or so here before we're off to Hawaii this summer.

We've rented a condo in a high rise overlooking the city's Financial District, the Embarcadero, the Ferry Building, the Bay Bridge and San Francisco bay. We're completely in love with the vibrant life, restaurants and things to do in this little jewel of a city.

We're off to Acapulco for a week shortly, then Hawaii this summer and then, probably the French Riviera for the fall.

We'll keep you posted!

Madrid - Art - Wine - Food

Our stay in Spain and Portugal is almost over... but we have MADRID to explore for the next few days!

We're staying at The Palace Hotel... the ultimate in luxury and service. It was recently voted the Best Hotel In Spain by the readers of Travel and Leisure Magazine. Our room is large for European standards, brightly lit and has a huge marble bathroom.

I've always wanted to explore the museums and culture of this major European city. I've been a student of art history since I was in college, so having the opportunity to spend time in one of Planet Earth's major museums is why I'm here!

We spent three days walking the city, visiting the Prado and, of course, sampling some of Madrid's best restaurants.

Restaurant highlights include Botin (world's oldest) http://www.casabotin.com/ for suckling pig (check them out!) and El Rincon de Esteban http://www.elrincondeesteban.com/.

HOLY TOLEDO!

Holy Toledo, WOW, Oh my gosh, HUH?, crikey, LOOK!

However you express astonishment... that's what we said when we drove into Toledo, Spain.

We were told that we should go to Toledo for game (partridge, pheasant, venison, etc.), but really... if you have the chance... go for the VIEW!

It's kinda like telling someone to go to Venice for the Bellinis!!!!!!!!!!!

View from our room at the Paradour!

Two days in this glorious place ... the Paradour was incredible... the food was terrific... but the real star was the TOWN.


On our first night we went out for Tapas. We can't believe we've been in Spain and Portugal for almost a month and haven't had tapas yet! And... wow... we went to an incredible place. El Catavinos was wonderful... vibrant... yummy... wine was great... food was perfectly presented.


We woke up on our second day, and our breath was LITERALLY taken away by the view. This town is so very, very beautiful... especially from the vantage point of the parador.



We spent the morning walking the winding, cobblestone streets. We visited the massive gothic cathedral and wondered at the architecture, art and beauty of that building. The town is filled with historic churches, synagogues and mosques.

We pooped out a just the right time to go to lunch for the afternoon. We always ask the locals, "If you have relatives visiting you (that you like!), where would you take them to eat?" We ALWAYS get terrific restaurant tips from that question, and our visit to Toledo was no exception. La Campana Gorda was wonderful. It's not the prettiest room, but we were warmly greeted by Fernando and Pedro.

We put ourselves in their hands, letting them serve us the dishes they felt best represented their restaurant. We had the absolutely best, hands down, aged manchengo cheese and jambon iberico that could possibly have imagined. We had their "Perdiz Estofada a la Toledana," stewed partridge and "Estafado de Venao." The venison was incredible. This was one of our best meals in Spain. Period.

The next day we checked out (sadly) from the Parador and made our way to Madrid.





Don's here have a joke at how much we've been eating!

Two More Glorious Weeks in the Costa del Sol of Spain

We've just spent two weeks in Southern Spain's Costa del Sol... Malaga to be more precise.

We're staying at our great friend's (Roger and Suzanne) villa, overlooking the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. The weather has been changeable as is wont this time of year, but we don't care. Roger and Suzanne are great hosts, and we had a blast.

Sherry Tasting at Tio Pepe

We spent a lovely day in Jerez, most famous for its Sherry. We visited the Tio Pepe bodega and sampled some of their fine wine...

The lifestyle here is wonderful. We get up... decide what we want to do for the day; which restaurant/where to explore and go. We've been to Jerez to visit Tio Pepe, on of the great Sherry producers, we've checked out the ancient city of Acquicenta and generally explored this part of the coast of Spain.

Here's Don at the local bull ring. HA!

We participate in the Spanish SIESTA everyday by joining the Spaniards at a long restful lunch from about 2-4 PM.

We return back to the villa after siesta to run our business. We spend some time working with our new associates and returning phone calls from people all over the world who are looking at what we do as a possible solution for their financial goals.

This is a picture I took while I was working... that's the Mediterranean!

There's so much more! Next, we're headed up north to Toledo and finally Madrid later this week. We'll keep you updated.... stay tuned....

Team Europe is En Fuego in Malaga, Spain!

WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!

That's all we have to say. Team Europe is ON FIRE after meeting up with about 120 fellow teammates in Malaga, Spain for a full day of training from the top income-earners in the direct sales industry - worldwide. Period.

The Altentejo Wine Region of Portugal is Our Next Stop

As a wine-producing country, one of Portugal’s great strengths is its diversity. At one extreme lie the fresh, light, zippy Vinho Verde wines from the damp, green, northern Minho, and at the other there are the rich, concentrated red wines from the hot Alentejo in the south, where we are headed now.

I read somewhere that (like Spain's Paradors - luxury accomodations in old palaces/castles/monasteries) Portugal has wonderful "posadas" as well, the best one located right in the Alentojo, specifically in Evora. So, it's no surprise that our next stop was to stay at this former convent. This luxury hotel is located in the heart of historic the centre of Evora, a city classified by UNESCO as World Heritage. The Pousada Evora, Convent of Loios, was originally a convent and one of Évora's most precious architectural buildings.

We had a glorious room, in this glorious city. Right outside our hotel were these Roman ruins!

One important note... for those of you that think that we're just "vacationing," you are WRONG. Our business is extremely portable, and we can "work it" from anywhere in the world. We are serious about having fun, eating well and great travel, but we are just as serious about our business and the business of making money. We schedule our days to make sure that we are attending to our business, and our visit to Evora wasn't any different. We spend everyday in Europe, between the hours of 4:30-ish and 8-ish attending to our business. See... here's Don "working."

That night, we visited a great restaurant "Fialho," and had "Black Pig." Wonderful food, great wine, great service. If you are in Evora, we recommend this restaurant. I had read about their "cepes" so we ordered them.... fabulous!

Monday was spent touring the great vineyards of Esporão, truly one of the great Portugese wines. This wine appeals to us, especially since we love the huge, fruity, "new world" taste of Australian Shiraz. Esporão is wonderful, they have a beautiful winery and a good restaurant.

Later, we stopped in at an old hill-top medieval town. See our pix...