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If you’re hankering to start traveling again but not ready to hop on a plane or pay out for multiple tanks of gas, consider a staycation at the beautiful Grande Lakes Orlando’s Ritz-Carlton or JW Marriott.

The resort always has something going on for kids and adults. You can read about some of the planned events in its current summer newsletter.

And of course it has swimming pools, spas, paddling on that Lake that’s so Grande. And restaurants, including Knife & Spoon, Primo by Melissa Kelly and the new Knife Burger.

In August, the JW Marriott is offering savings of 30 percent off regular rates.
Minimum two-night stay and prepayment required. Rate range is $230-244. (Having just paid $800 and $1000 per night for rooms in Europe, I can tell you that’s a great, even Grande, deal without even getting out my calculator.)

I wonder what Papa would make of it all.

As legend has it, Ernest Hemingway was a regular of a Key West bar that would eventually become known as Sloppy Joe’s. According to the website of the newest Sloppy Joe’s, at Orlando’s Icon Park on International Drive, it was actually Hemingway who suggested the name. And today he is very much a part of the brand image, with his likeness on cocktail glasses, annual look-alike contests and, here, his quote above the bar (which has a large mirror with “Papa’s Pilar Rum” on it) that reads, “I drink to make other people more interesting.” (The quote has his signature but I don’t think he really signed it.)

LONDON – I’ve just boarded the Eurostar, headed to France after a too brief stay in London. Even after many visits, I find there are new things to do each time. This trip the first-time experience was the Chelsea Flower Show on the grounds of the Chelsea Hospital. It’s a massive exhibition with millions and millions of flowers, shrubs and other various flora. And by my count there was one person per flower petal there to gawk at them.

Afterwards I went to Wilton’s on Jermyn Street. I told you about The Wolseley, also on this trip; apparently I’ve been to London enough times to have made it to the Ws.

STRASBOURG – We left London on Eurostar and traveled via the Channel tunnel, also known as the Chunnel, to Paris. But instead of jumping immediately into the City of Light, we hopped from the Gare du Nord to the nearby Gare de l’Est and boarded a train to this city, the capital of the Grand Est region, once known as Alsace.

Because of its proximity to Germany, Strasbourg, over the centuries, has been claimed by both countries from time to time. Because of that, there are French and German influences in language, culture and, of course, cuisine. (Strasbourg today is firmly under the French flag but is also the formal seat of the European Parliament.)

Over the two nights that we stayed, we had two wonderful yet different dining experiences.