What We’re Reading at January’s End

Ah, the weekend. As January comes to a close, and for the first time this year, we’re not packing or unpacking, digging out of a storm, or rushing off to one event or another. Nothing but quiet time, glorious quiet time, at home. Besides sleeping in a bit, what’s on the agenda? We’ll be catching up on some of our favorite blogs, reading some new ones that we’ve bookmarked, and daydreaming about more weekends spent doing pretty much what we’ve been doing so far this year. Minus the “digging out of a storm” part.

So, now that we have some free time to read, here’s what’s on our tablets this weekend:

Things to Do in Istanbul (Hey…that kind of rhymes!)

Mike’s Travel Guide: Things To Do in Istanbul – Visit the Harem at Topkapi Palace

Wow. Just…wow. Istanbul has always intrigued us but, somehow, never risen to the top of our Must See list. This article is certainly pushing the timeless city up the ladder. It’s part of a series on things to do in Istanbul, and all of the posts are worth reading, but the photos in this one literally made us stop in awe and saw “Wow.” Out loud, even. We have seen various parts of Topkapi Palace and the Harem on blogs and television shows, of course, but Mike’s visual tour includes several rooms (and details) we hadn’t seen before. Having never been there, this was as real treat.

Mama Lee the Cruising Dancing Queen

You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life
See that girl, watch that scene, digging the Dancing Queen
–Abba

Although her story has been floating through the interwebs for a while now, we just got caught up in it thanks to a mention by a friend and a few blogs. If you haven’t heard of Mama Lee, she’s a retiree living THE life at sea. Her story is awesome and inspiring, and has given us a new retirement goal. Check her out on…

• Penny Haw: The chronicles of a cruising dame (Scroll down to Sunday October 9, Livorno, Italy, to meet Mama Lee. Then read the rest of the post; it’s really good.)
• Hello Giggles: 86-year-old woman just lives on a cruise ship, because she’s figured it all out (So true!)
• USA Today: Woman pays $164K per year to live on luxury cruise ship (Wouldn’t you?)

Coffee Beer! Because we don’t live on travel alone.

LA Times: Coffee beer gets a new twist with barrel-aged beans

Craft beer made with coffee is nothing new, but San Diego’s Modern Times Brewery has a new twist that sounds heavenly: Barrel-aging coffee beans before adding them to the brew, rather than aging the beer post-brew. We’ve had barrel-aged coffee beans in coffee, but now in a beer? Yes, please! Since we can’t find this brew around home, it looks like we’ll have to plan another trip to San Diego. Darn!

Is Doubletree Double Fun? Looks like it!

Mapping Megan: 10 Highlights of our Doubletree DTour

Two things we are not very familiar with: Central/South America and Doubletree Hotels. So, we really appreciate Megan’s wrap up of a two week adventure staying at Doubletree Hotels throughout Central and South America. We love seeing people having a great time while traveling, and it seems like her trip was tons of fun – especially the bit about the cookies. Mmmm…cookies… Megan posted this a while ago, but we just recently found it from her Twitter feed (@mappingmegan). It’s a quick read with some really fun videos to check out.

That’s our weekly Must Read List for the end of January. What have you been reading?