Category Archives: Trip Reports

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Priority Pass Restaurant Review: The Pasta House & Schlafly Beer at St. Louis Airport (STL)

I’ve been traveling internationally for the past couple of months while Priority Pass was busy adding restaurants to their lounge network, but I finally had a chance to visit one of their new partner restaurants on my way back to Colorado after the holidays! Flights were much cheaper flying through St. Louis than directly from Detroit to Denver, and with a three hour layover, I was pretty confident that I would have enough time to visit The Pasta House and Schlafly Beer at St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL) even with a winter flight delay.

For those with a Priority Pass card, included with a number of premium credit cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve, a visit to partner lounges is free and restaurants offer up to $56 off your meal and drinks (if you bring a guest; solo travelers only get $28 off).

Since this was my first Priority Pass restaurant visit, I don’t have much to compare it to other than Priority Pass lounges, and let me tell you – I would rather go to a restaurant any day! My boyfriend and I were both able to order off of a fairly large list of food options and he got red wine while I drank a local brew. Between the two of us, we ordered a salad and pasta. Neither were anything to write home about, but were better than most domestic U.S. lounge offerings I’ve seen.

a bowl of pasta with sauce and cheese

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Hotel Review: Charming Boutique Creekside Inn in Palo Alto Near Stanford University

Updated 12pm PT on 1/8: FTC Disclosure: This was a hosted stay, but all reviews and opinions are my own.


Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  Last week, I wrote about my recent stay at the boutique King George Hotel near Union Square in San Francisco.  The hotel is part of the Greystone Hotel Group which has a few boutique hotels along the West Coast.  Recently, my girlfriend and I stayed at the Creekside Inn, another Greystone Hotel, down in Palo Alto, a short drive award from Stanford University. We stayed there Friday night in mid December and the property was very scenic and quiet.  Here are some photos from near the hotel lobby.  As it’s name would imply, the hotel is near a creek and there are a few bridges that cross over the dry creek.  Check in was very quick and we drove our car closer to our room.

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Shelli’s Top 10 Most Popular Posts of 2017

This past week, the travel blogosphere was abuzz with all kinds of stats from 2017. Bloggers wrote about miles traveled, best/worst flights and elite statuses renewed. Grant kept it simple and took a look at his popular posts of the previous year. The jet lag I’m working through does present me with some quiet early morning hours, so why not pull up my most popular posts of the year, since I do have a year’s worth of posts to consider! There were some surprises. I’ve been enjoying Vancouver since their World’s Fair in 1986. That’s a long time to have a love affair! I see from my posts that a lot of other people want to enjoy Vancouver as well. It’s also good to see that readers are interested in a variety of airline and lounge information. You never know what will be popular, though from both my list and Grant’s list, I’d say TWG readers are a practical, strategic bunch who expect insights and information they can put to good use!

Date Title Pageviews
5/28/2017 See, Eat & Drink: The Perfect Long Weekend in Vancouver, Canada 5,106
2/1/2017 PSA: Renew your TSA PreCheck, Global Entry, NEXUS or SENTRI Membership Early 3,857
9/29/2017 Southwest Refundable Ticket Changes: Refundable No More 3,278
6/1/2017 A Pleasant Surprise at the Priority Pass Lounge in Rome (FCO) 3,154
6/28/2017 How are you Feeling about American Express Centurion Lounges these Days? 3,007
6/21/2017 PSA: Southwest Airlines Travel Funds can Only be Used by the Passenger Named on the Ticket 2,995
12/5/2017 Hawaiian Airlines Announced New Routes from the West Coast 2,047
2/16/2017 5 Ways to Keep American Airlines Frequent Flyer Miles from Expiring (Without Getting on a Plane) 1,820
12/5/2017 13 Hacks for your Southwest Airlines Flights 1,807
6/8/2017 My Simple Currency Exchange Rate Philosophy 1,801

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My Top 10 Most Popular Posts from 2017 & Top 10 Posts Ever Written

Good afternoon from rainy San Francisco.  My girlfriend said I should write a blog post highlighting the top 10 most popular posts from 2017 and then look at the top 10 posts even written, so I decided to log into Google Analytics and see which posts were the most popular.  I looked at data from January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017 and here are the top 10 posts written in 2017.  I am always surprised by which posts are the most popular.  Some of the posts I thought would do very well weren’t very popular and some of the posts that I wrote quickly and didn’t think much of turned out to be very popular.  Funny how that worked out.

Date Title Pageviews
7/11/2017 Send Money to Friends (or Other Bank Accounts) Instantly with Zelle (Formerly Chase QuickPay / clearXchange) 13,864
3/27/2017 How to Redeem your World of Hyatt Free Anniversary Night Certificate 8,529
6/17/2017 PayPal Adding Faster Withdrawal Option (with a 25 Cent Fee) & Accepting Venmo Payments (Effective July 27, 2017) 6,646
1/30/2017 Fast Track to Southwest Airlines A-List Elite Status (Keep with 3 Round Trips before April 30) 6,520
4/23/2017 Join Robinhood & Receive a Free Random Share of Stock Worth up to $150 (+ Free Shares for Referrals) 6,244
6/4/2017 American Express Car Rental Loss & Damage Insurance Coverage Changes (Effective September 1, 2017) 5,595
5/19/2017 My 4 Favorite Airfare Deal Websites: The Flight Deal, Fare Deal Alert, Exit Fares & GTFO Flights 5,535
5/28/2017 See, Eat & Drink: The Perfect Long Weekend in Vancouver, Canada 5,106
7/26/2017 Walmart.com Orders Instantly Cancelled? Try Walmart’s Online Chat 4,825
5/28/2017 Great First Experience Calling American Express Platinum Concierge for Restaurant Reservations 3,864

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Here’s the Scoop: 4 Delicious Gelato Making Classes in Italy

If you start talking about gelato, a huge smile will come over my face. I just adore gelato, BUT it has to be really good gelato. And I’m picky! When I was in Italy this past year (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3), I asked around to see if there were gelato making classes. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to take one, but I realized I forgot to share the classes I found out about. So here we go… let’s make some gelato! In general, these classes are 2-4 hours long, held either at gelato shops or at cooking schools, and can be taken by kids, too.

Near Venice, in Padua, Mama Isa, the owner of Mama Isa’s Cooking School, offers a four-hour private gelato-making lesson at her house. She has family recipes that she teaches you, and lunch is included. The fee starts at 130 euros per person.

a collage of food on a table

Image source: https://isacookinpadua.altervista.org

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