So here is the deal. If you are hosting a giveaway or have a post about someone’s giveaway just leave a link. Make sure this link is to the giveaway post itself and not just the blog or it will be deleted. If you listed it last week but your giveaway is still open, list it again! Also your link must be to something family friendly or it will be deleted.
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Not only is it summer, AKA Vacation Season, it is also 105 degrees in Fresno as I write this. You understand as my mind wanders to somewhere lovely that I really want to visit again. The place that my heart really wants to go again is Hofsas House in Carmel-by-the-Sea. I got the opportunity to visit it a couple of months ago as part of the #llblognotaconf trip I took to Carmel-by-the-Sea and have found my new favorite area hotel!
I absolutely love the Carmel/Monterey area and have since I was a child. My mother was raised in Salinas because her father was stationed at Ford Ord most of her childhood. My grandmother still lives in Salinas and, as you might imagine, we were in the area all the time. I seriously only remember 1 childhood trip that was anywhere other than the Monterey! But Carmel-by-the-Sea was the fancy area. It is 1 square one mile of adorableness that is right next to Monterey and Pacific Grove. It is 15 minutes from Cannery Row but is also a small enough neighborhood in itself that you can walk to eat. That is where I would stay some day as an adult! Well, now I am a full adult and have found my perfect Carmel-by-the-Sea hotel!
Hofsas House is the most adorable little intimate feeling hotel! When you check in and meet the 3rd generation owner, Carrie Theis, you immediately immersed in a homey, welcoming, and relaxing environment. Carrie is so welcoming that she offered to come out and help me bring the bags in. That is the owner! That was just the beginning of a delightful stay.
One of the rooms in the suite I stayed in with a King bed.
This hotel boasts of 38 rooms and each one is a unique. There are a variety of sizes from ranging from rooms with one queen bed all the way to suites with kitchens. The design of the actual building is Bavarian inspired and each room has a Dutch door so you can capture that great Carmel weather!
The other bedroom with 2 Queen beds!
The rooms are generously sized. I was in a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom suite. What amazed me about the size wasn’t just the fact that we had a king sized bed in one room and 2 queens in another. Neither was it the bathrooms with the spacious counters. It was the extra space in the rooms! There was a table and chairs that you could sit at and another proper sitting area! This is great for people who come as a family or just a group of friends. I mean we all (at least those of us who go to conferences) have hung out in someone’s hotel room and the only place to site is on the beds! It is the little touches that mean a big difference to me.
There are also a bunch of other touches that make this hotel a hit for me! There is complimentary wifi and it is good wifi. I was able to use it when I was sitting outside, in the meeting room, and in the evening when everyone is there! Hofsas House also has off street parking, which is a rarity in a community like Carmel-by-the-Sea. There is also a great continental breakfast with great pastries from a local bakery. They also have a pool and a dry sauna! They even have a large room with a kitchen and fireplace that you could have gatherings or meetings (about 40 people). What can I say but I loved this hotel!
Can I make a confession? Do know why I think this may be my favorite hotel in Carmel-by-the-Sea? This can be my always hotel for the Monterey area. If it is just the hubby and I just want to get away it is romantic and quiet. But if we want to bring all 4 kids for a little beach and nature exploration it can fit all of us. If we want to take a group vacation with friends or family there are plenty of generously sized rooms. It would even be perfect for a girlfriend getaway for some shopping and great food. I love that it is so versatile because that is how you get to come often enough for a hotel to feel like a vacation home!
Have you been to Carmel-by-the-Sea? Monterey? What is your favorite local eatery? I am building a list of places to try now that I have a hotel!!!
(Disclosure: I was provided lodging at Hofsas House as part of the #llblognotaconf but all opinions and thoughts are mine!)
I hope you all had a great Father’s Day! I hope you took the time to hug all the fathers in your life!!
So here is the deal. If you are hosting a giveaway or have a post about someone’s giveaway just leave a link. Make sure this link is to the giveaway post itself and not just the blog or it will be deleted. If you listed it last week but your giveaway is still open, list it again! Also your link must be to something family friendly or it will be deleted.
So now you need to add your giveaways and go enter some giveaways! Let them know that Contesting Monday sent you! Make sure you share Contesting Monday with your fans and followers so that they can see all these fabulous giveaways!!
So here is the deal. If you are hosting a giveaway or have a post about someone’s giveaway just leave a link. Make sure this link is to the giveaway post itself and not just the blog or it will be deleted. If you listed it last week but your giveaway is still open, list it again! Also your link must be to something family friendly or it will be deleted.
So now you need to add your giveaways and go enter some giveaways! Let them know that Contesting Monday sent you! Make sure you share Contesting Monday with your fans and followers so that they can see all these fabulous giveaways!!
Is summer here for you or almost here for you? It is going to be 99 here this week and all our official spring events are over!!!
So here is the deal. If you are hosting a giveaway or have a post about someone’s giveaway just leave a link. Make sure this link is to the giveaway post itself and not just the blog or it will be deleted. If you listed it last week but your giveaway is still open, list it again! Also your link must be to something family friendly or it will be deleted.
So now you need to add your giveaways and go enter some giveaways! Let them know that Contesting Monday sent you! Make sure you share Contesting Monday with your fans and followers so that they can see all these fabulous giveaways!!
Happy Memorial Day!!! I hope you are having a relaxing weekend!
So here is the deal. If you are hosting a giveaway or have a post about someone’s giveaway just leave a link. Make sure this link is to the giveaway post itself and not just the blog or it will be deleted. If you listed it last week but your giveaway is still open, list it again! Also your link must be to something family friendly or it will be deleted.
So now you need to add your giveaways and go enter some giveaways! Let them know that Contesting Monday sent you! Make sure you share Contesting Monday with your fans and followers so that they can see all these fabulous giveaways!!
So here is the deal. If you are hosting a giveaway or have a post about someone’s giveaway just leave a link. Make sure this link is to the giveaway post itself and not just the blog or it will be deleted. If you listed it last week but your giveaway is still open, list it again! Also your link must be to something family friendly or it will be deleted.
So now you need to add your giveaways and go enter some giveaways! Let them know that Contesting Monday sent you! Make sure you share Contesting Monday with your fans and followers so that they can see all these fabulous giveaways!!
Happy Mother’s Day!!! I hope you had a great day of cherishing your mom or being cherished! You know what can may this an even better holiday? Winning something cool;).
So here is the deal. If you are hosting a giveaway or have a post about someone’s giveaway just leave a link. Make sure this link is to the giveaway post itself and not just the blog or it will be deleted. If you listed it last week but your giveaway is still open, list it again! Also your link must be to something family friendly or it will be deleted.
So now you need to add your giveaways and go enter some giveaways! Let them know that Contesting Monday sent you! Make sure you share Contesting Monday with your fans and followers so that they can see all these fabulous giveaways!!
We choose to buy from specific companies for variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s because we love the origin story, sometimes it’s because the product is so phenomenal. Isn’t it great when you can both in one product? That is the story with the Carmel Honey Company. The the origin story of a 14 year old who has his own honey company is mesmerizing. But you don’t buy this honey out of charity, you buy it because it is phenomenal. I got a chance to meet the founder, Jake, and try some of his phenomenal honey at the recent #LLBlogNotaConf blogger getaway in Carmel by the Sea.
The Carmel Honey Company is run by a now 14 year old but it didn’t start that way. It started as a 5th graders career project in his class. They were all assigned roles and positions that would occur within a company. Jake was assigned the role of web designer. He created a fully functioning honey business site due to his already existing passion for honeybees. This project didn’t stop with just a website that he took that fully functioning website and used it to help create the Carmel Honey Company. Now Carmel Honey Company has a hundred and twenty-five hives. Our young entrepreneur owner had just come from the Food and Wine Festival where he was with Graham Elliot the weekend previous to the honey tasting I was at.
Jake has a serious passion for bees of all types he doesn’t stop with just running a profitable business. He also does non-profit work and going into schools and talking about bee culture and what we can do to help the bees survive because the bees help us survive! He is a very impressive young man!
You know that I love business, business education and young entrepreneurs. But that is not the real reason that I’m loving the Carmel Honey Company right now. It’s for the honey! The tasting that I attended we got to try 4 different types of honey. We got to try an orange blossom honey, a sage honey, a wildflower honey, and a meadowfoam honey. Now I’ve had a lot of honey. I come from the Central Valley, the land of produce, so of course I had some great honey from some great beekeepers. My personal favorite and standard honey I use everyday happens to be the Mandarin orange honey but I have to say that the Carmel Honey orange blossom honey is phenomenal! It has an extra tangy citrus bite that just isn’t there in a lot of the orange honeys that I’ve eaten. The sage honey was intriguingly savory yet still sweet and harmonious to the idea of using it in a great sauce over beef. Wildflower honey, which typically is my least favorite honey, was really good. But the honey that gave me the greatest pause was the Meadowfoam honey. I’ve never tasted anything like that.
I’ve tried a lot of other varieties of Honey (pomegranate honey anyone?) but I’ve never tasted anything quite like Meadowfoam honey. It is a single source honey and has a unique sweetness. It tastes like dessert. Like rally good vanilla marshmallows that have been toasted in preparation of a s’more. It’s rich and dense and everything that a great dessert should be. This isn’t a honey that you’re going to eat a lot of. But it is a honey that is going to satisfy that sweet tooth. I personally think that this will be great over a grapefruit or just when you’re rummaging through the kitchen going to need something a certain something and that will satisfy it. I think would also be great in any kind of dessert baking or any time you want to reduce the sugar but keep a luxurious sweetness. I am thinking of strawberries and marscapone cheese with a drizzle over the top. I’m sure that this is not the first Meadowfoam honey to exist but it was phenomenal and entrancing.
I love all the honeys that I tasted that day but the Orange and the Meadowfoam will keep me ordering time after time. So go support a kid who has started a very successful and thriving honey business and get some great honey. Now if you will excuse me, I have made myself hungry!
(While I was at the #LLBlogNotAConf and the honey tasting was an included event, I was not paid for this post. All opinions are mine and I did receive gift for attending the tasting.)
So here is the deal. If you are hosting a giveaway or have a post about someone’s giveaway just leave a link. Make sure this link is to the giveaway post itself and not just the blog or it will be deleted. If you listed it last week but your giveaway is still open, list it again! Also your link must be to something family friendly or it will be deleted.
So now you need to add your giveaways and go enter some giveaways! Let them know that Contesting Monday sent you! Make sure you share Contesting Monday with your fans and followers so that they can see all these fabulous giveaways!!
