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Planning a Trip to St. Lucia

October 18, 2018

Planning a trip to St. Lucia? These tips, ideas, suggestions, and pictures for hikes, attractions and food from our recent return visit will help!

Planning a Trip to St. Lucia | Pitons | Travel tips at FakeFoodFree.com

I realized recently that I’ve reached that point in life where I say things like, “Ten years ago, we were…,” and I’m still talking about my adulthood. Not my youth, or high school, or even college. It’s been happening all the time lately. Ten years ago we moved back from Brazil, were traveling in South East Asia, bought our last house in Kentucky, and…

…visited St. Lucia. 

I can still remember the first time we went to a resort in the Caribbean.

We were on our honeymoon and I overheard conversations of couples that were celebrating their 4th anniversary and of those that were on their 12th visit to the island. My thoughts, then were – wow, that seems like forever away. Now my thoughts are – wow, we blew right past all that. 

Back then, we designated our resort trips to the Caribbean as our true vacation. We see a bit of the islands we visit, but spend a significant time reading and drinking rum. All other trips are travel – we go, go and see, see. But these trips are reserved for no pressure, just peace. 

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Fairmont Orchid Hawaii

July 17, 2018
We recently returned from an 8-night trip exploring nearly every part of the Big Island of Hawaii. This is the start of a few picture-full travel recaps. If you are looking for what to do, where to eat, and where to stay on the Big Island. Look no further. On our last night, the Fairmont Orchid partnered with me to offer us a one-night stay while I got to photograph and enjoy the grounds. This post is about that excellent experience.

Vacationing in a Postcard | Fairmont Orchid - Big Island Hawaii | FakeFoodFree.com Travels

We pondered the idea for only a few minutes before our minds were made up. Once we were ready to book our flights to the Big Island we realized that it was more affordable to fly back on Sunday versus Saturday. We’d booked our lodging before our flights, like we normally do, so we had seven nights booked at rental houses, three in Kona and four in Hilo.

Flying back on Sunday would put us on the island for a night with no place to stay just yet, but we were too tempted by an extra night in paradise so we clicked purchase on the flights. 

We’d figure it out.

I started looking at resort hotel accommodations. We’d planned to be on the go for most of the trip, exploring the island and picturing what it might be like to own a plot of farmland in the middle of such a peaceful place.

But the idea of completely relaxing that last night with no hikes to take and no drives to dinner was growing on us.

At that, knowing a colleague had recently stayed at the Fairmont Orchid, I reached out to their marketing team to see if they might work with me for a one-night accommodation. They responded with a generous offer of a night on their beautiful Gold Floor.

I will admit we are not the types to stay on a resort for our entire trip when traveling to Hawaii. We don’t travel with family, simply as a couple without children. We take on a lot of exploration and pack light-ish, making a washer and dryer beneficial.

All that being said, we’ve already started discussing staying a few nights at the Fairmont Orchid on our own to end future trips to the island. I don’t know if it was the friendliness of the staff, the comfortable room, the grounds, or the food and drinks. Probably a combination of them all. It was so nice to wind down from an adventure inspired trip and completely relax a little while before heading back home.

This is a little bit of why we loved it so much…

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Remembering Food Photography in Rome

April 5, 2018

Today I’m thinking back one year later and reflecting on my experience with food photography in Rome at Meeta K. Wolff’s workshop. 

Italian Tomatoes | Food Photography in Rome | FakeFoodFree.com

 

People still ask me about the trip. It happened again just this past weekend. 

It’s been just about a year since I traveled over to Italy to take a food photography workshop just outside of Rome in Torri in Sabina. 

One thing you should know is that Italy was never at the top of my travel list. You see, I tend not to go for the places people gush over, especially in the food community. 

They seem too predictable. Too easy to like. I mean, Italy? Come on. It’s a given I’m going to like the pasta. 

More often I set my travel plans around places that are a little more unexpected to others when I get into “where have you been, where should I go” kinds of conversations. Places like Vienna (my favorite city in the world), Ubud, Berlin, and Copenhagen. Places people like and go to, but they don’t always rave about. 

Everyone raves about Italy and given my stubborn nature I went determined not to. 

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February in Photos

February 28, 2018

My February in photos shows a little bit of what I’ve been up to this month! I hope you enjoy the images!

February In Photos | FakeFoodFree.com

You might have noticed that it’s been a slow month around here in terms of recipes. If I’m being completely honest, it has a lot to do with a lack of inspiration. I’m feeling a huge drought in cooking creativity. I wish I could blame it on the winter blahs, but in Central California I’m not quite sure you can still use that excuse. 

So instead, I’ll blame so few posts in February on focusing on other things like a few client projects and our first trip to Joshua Tree National Park. Some of my favorite photo highlights follow. I hope you’ve had the best February and if spring hasn’t already come your way, I hope it gets there soon!

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Food Photography Workshop in Italy

June 9, 2017
Food Photography Workshop in Italy | A recap on Fake Food Free

If you work as a creative in any form, you know what I mean when I say that sometimes you need the artistic version of a swift kick in the pants. 

Things grow stale. You lose inspiration, struggle to find new ideas, and become sluggish both mentally and physically. 

You need something to ignite that spark again. Not the spark that says, “Let’s do this!” It’s more of that spark that says, “My goodness, look at the beauty there. You must capture it and then recreate it!” 

I’m familiar with that physical motivation spark. It’s gotten me through almost a dozen half marathons. But that creative spark is new territory for me. I often feel it is much, much harder to ignite once it begins to fizzle. 

So I went to Italy. 

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Hawaiian Products to Buy at Costco Kauai

May 2, 2017
Hawaiian Products to Buy at Costco Kauai | Fake Food Free Travels

If you’ve traveled to just about any island of Hawaii, you know what I’m talking about. The plane lands, you grab the rental car, and head straight to Costco. 

You will randomly hear folks talk about it around California – we just stock up on food at Costco. Saving money by having your own snacks on hand or grilling at your condo’s shared picnic area is a common practice. I really didn’t realize how common until we were browsing the aisles of Costco Kauai and we saw at least 3 other families that were on our flight from San Jose. (We also all ended up at Kauai Beer Co.  You can read about that great place in my recap of what to eat in Kauai.)

This type of post is a little out of character for Fake Food Free (I picked up some fresh fruit, too, don’t worry), but after finding some really great Hawaiian products and realizing that a lot of people search for info about Costco Kauai, I really wanted to share what we found. It didn’t get really exciting until we stumbled into the local products section towards the front of the store. That’s where I may have gone a little crazy. Crazy meaning we ended up bringing back some unopened packages due to overbuying. 

The best part is that many of these things are great for hiking, which we did a lot of to stay active in Kauai. From jerky to macadamia nuts, we found so many great things to try.

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What to Eat in Kauai

April 27, 2017
What to Eat in Kauai | Fake Food Free Travels

 

I heard it so many times before we left. Then even from locals when we arrived.

“Kauai really doesn’t have the best food,” they would say. It was quickly followed up with a listing of all the things that Kauai does have the best of – beaches, vegetation, hiking, wildlife. 

It’s probably my fault. When you work in food, people know you travel for food. I think they were just looking out for me; trying to save me from disappointment. 

Truth be told, though, I really didn’t think it was that bad. In fact, we managed to scope out some really good food. Enough that I felt like I should share a bit about what to eat in Kauai. 

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Four Favorites October

November 10, 2016
Four Favorites October | Brand, Book, Blog, Break | Fake Food Free

I’m running a little late with my four favorites from October, but there were too many great things I enjoyed to skip over this monthly tradition. I restocked one of my favorite balsamic vinegars, read one of my favorite types of books, had a little time to be inspired by entertaining and design blogs, and spent some quality time with elephant seals over my birthday weekend. 

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3 Things to Do in Irvine, California

September 8, 2016
3 Things to Do in Irvine | Travel | Fake Food Free

 

Irvine is one of those California towns that is surrounded by so many other action-packed places, that it often gets overshadowed. Drive your car a few miles and you are headed through Costa Mesa, on the beach in Newport or Laguna, or sitting in the heart of L.A. 

After visiting for the first time last March for the Women In Travel Summit, I learned that this overshadowing is most certainly undeserved. That’s why I decided to reach out to Destination Irvine when I learned that my husband’s Dave Matthews Band concert agenda would take to Irvine in August. 

The fine folks there helped us organize our weekend and as a result I have three things you must do if you find yourself there in the near future. 

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Sacramento: Seven Places to Eat and Drink

August 9, 2016
Insight Coffee Roasters, Sacramento | Food and Drink Travel | Fake Food Free

It only took a stop in one coffee shop for me to wonder why I’d not made Sacramento a higher priority on my California travel list. Things appear to be changing rapidly in this city and that means it is ticking all the boxes of a top food and drink destination.

There are coffee shops that make you want to pull out the laptop and sit a few hours, craft beer lists that represent the state’s growing number of breweries and beyond, happy hours with bites that combine comforting favorites with trendy twists, and vegetarian food that I could easily pick over a meat treat any day of the week. 

I was in Sacramento for 4 days at the end of July to attend the International Food Bloggers Conference. It was a fun few days catching up with old friends and making new ones. The conference did an excellent job of tying in so many of the wonderful foods and food companies that Sac has to offer.

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