Category: Travel

Gluten Free Honeymoon in Ireland

- Meaghan Penrod

I always imagined my honeymoon would be in some tropical paradise where I’d lay on the beach all day drinking pina coladas and looking fabulous in a bikini, all while my new husband admired me….anyone else? lol  I didn’t really think of any other options…it never crossed my mind.  Everyone goes to a beach! But when I actually got engaged and we started thinking about our honeymoon, my soon-to-be husband suggested Ireland.  At first I was like no, absolutely not.  I love Ireland, but that’s not what I want to do for my honeymoon. What about the bikinis and tropical drinks!? … But then the more I let it sit, the more the idea grew on me.  Trips to the Caribbean aren’t too expensive.  We can find all-inclusive deals for a pretty reasonable price and go when we want (see post about our trip to the DR).  But a trip to Ireland? That’s way more expensive and special.  That’s a once in life time trip (unless you’re rolling in dough and can just travel at the drop of the hat…that’s not me). I started to day dream about driving through the Irish country side, laughing together as we sat at the pub, and exploring quaint little towns.  Suddenly the bikini and pina colada dreams started to be replaced by cozy sweaters and Jameson and gingers at the pub. This was absolutely the honeymoon that I wanted!

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Anniversary Weekend on the Connecticut Wine Trail

- Meaghan Penrod

It’s crazy to me that it’s been a year since my husband and I got married! It has totally flown by.  It was good timing though because a few months ago, I stumbled across an article about the most romantic getaways in Connecticut and found the Fitch Claremont Bed and Breakfast in Bozrah, CT.  It’s a lovely bed and breakfast located on a small vineyard….and when I read that the room came with free bottles of wine I was in! It’s about 10 minutes to the two huge casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, and it’s also about 15 minutes from 5 different vineyards! Sounded like the perfect romantic weekend getaway!

We arrived around dinner time on Friday and were TOTALLY starving.  We checked in and quickly headed out to Mohegan Sun for dinner.  We’ve always wanted to try Sol Toro Tequila Grill at Mohegan but I wasn’t sure if they had many gluten free options.  Turns out they have tons!! I made our reservation online before we left and added a comment that I had Celiac.  When we were seated, the waiter said “I’m having some tortilla chips baked instead of fried because I heard one of you has Celiac Disease.” How nice!? I haven’t been able to have chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant in soo long.  The waiter was fantastic and knew exactly what I could have that was gluten free and he won me over when he said “and the good news….tequila is gluten free” haha Whatta guy.  So I ended up getting the beef enchiladas and they were to die for!!

My chips and salsa, enchiladas, and margarita at Sol Toro Tequila Bar 🙂

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All-inclusive Traveling to the Dominican Republic

- Meaghan Penrod

I could start crying at any moment as I write this post because I miss this vacation SO MUCH.  Just know the DR is the reason for the teardrops on my keyboard (bad Taylor Swift reference…anyone?).

So senior year of college, all of my friends tried to plan a big spring break trip together.  As often happens, this large group could not actually decide on one thing and we all ended up doing our own things haha So my then boyfriend, Adam, and I decided to just go somewhere together.  I had gone to the Dominican Republic in high school and had a blast so I figured maybe we could look into that.  My sister had used a company called Apple Vacations when she was in college so she recommended it.  Let me tell you, that was the way to go! They do all inclusive vacations and you basically tell them how much you want to pay and where you want to go and they find you the best deals.  So I thought I had done a lot of research before calling them…this was my first time taking a major trip with celiac disease and I was SCARED. I spent hours googling resorts and reading people’s reviews.  Most of them said that resorts would accommodate if you just sent an email to them ahead of time. Feeling confident, I called Apple Vacations and set up our reservation for a resort in Puerto Plata at a great price! Then after getting off the phone, I emailed the resort about my celiac and told them when I’d be coming….their response? “We don’t accommodate any food allergies. We apologize.”  I. PANICKED.   Totally lost it.  I was NOT spending $900 (great price, right?) to be sick and starving for 5 days!!

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