Stir up your vacation at Mohegan Sun of Uncasville, Connecticut

Who decided that playgrounds are just for kids? Today you will find out that Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut is your new playground. Bring your friends and enjoy live entertainment, authentic food, great shopping, relaxing spas, rousing parties, and best of all… gambling. Don’t worry about leaving your job behind for a few days because Mohegan Sun offers to fully organize and host your next business meeting.

This week the Mohegan Sun Arena features Boston and Styx and Nine Inch Nails. Having a different music group perform every night, you are guaranteed to find a concert you will enjoy. You can’t get more variety when Chris Rock, Motley Crue, and Pink Floyd are all performing in the same month. Tickets average to about $40 per person and can be purchased online or by phone. Grab a quick bite to eat at one of the Mohegan Sun cafes or throw on your finest attire for a more exquisite dinner at, for example, Pompeii and Caesar. Bring the entire family to the Sunburst Buffet or a few close friends for an exciting night at one of the many bars and night clubs. However you want to eat, Mohegan Sun caters to you. It won’t be hard to have a prime shopping day with Cache, Boccelli, Swarovski, Godiva Chocolatiers, and many other specialty stores. Wrap up your shopping day with a visit at either Casinos of the Sky or Casinos of the Earth. In addition, Casinos of the Wind will open in October of 2008. After all the excitement, rejuvenate yourself with a facial or grab your significant other for a Couples Massage at the Elemis Spa. At a 34-story hotel with either a king or two double queen beds in every room, it’ll be hard to say “no” to a Mohegan Sun vacation. Check out the special packages for great deals and make reservations or if you’re that interested start planning your wedding with Mohegan Sun of Uncasville, Connecticut. 

Camden Opera House: A Maine Musical Stay

The Camden Opera House hosts a thrilling occasion for the musically enthused. Scheduled for the summer of 2008 are several showings varying from Deathtrap! to Seussical the Musical! The atmosphere is equivalently pleasurable as the highlighted shows. What additionally makes the opera house exquisite is the recently renovated Victorian style together with grand chandeliers, a horseshoe balcony, and antique moldings. The 500-person capacity and three distinct function rooms cater to all performers any size. And better yet, a quality seat stands at a sheer $16.00 per person; so don’t hesitate to see more than one show. Settle down after a show to elegant and romantic ambiance not even a half a mile down the road.

Innkeeping comes with surprises

As soon as Jim and Ibby Cooper crossed the covered bridge to Jackson, New Hampshire, and saw the Inn at Thorn Hill, they knew they wanted to buy it. Hospitality is in Jim’s blood, being from a family in the business and working for 20 years for various hotels. Ibby was a teacher whose skills would be applied to training staff and developing programs.

Yet there were surprises to come. the Coopers had three children in college and one in seventh grade when they bought the inn, and shortly after, Ibby became pregnant with their fifth. Their new son was popular with their guests, as Ibby waited tables with him on her back.

“I thought I could do this for five years,” Ibby says, “but it’s now been 16 years. New England was an adjustment, as we’d lived before where it was warmer. But we’ve learned to enjoy the four seasons.”

An even bigger surprise occurred on October 13, 2002, when a fire destroyed the inn. All guests and staff were safe and sound, but the Coopers faced a decision, whether to walk away or rebuild. They chose to build a new inn like the original but with a long-range vision for growth.

Now the main building at the Inn at Thorn Hill and Spa has 16 guests rooms (up from 12), an award-winning restaurant, a wine cellar, a cooperage, and a spa with exercise room and dry sauna. After more than a year, the inn reopened on December 22, 2003 to welcome new and previous guests.

Jim and Ibby see their warm and attentive hospitality, which they instill in their staff, as key to the fact that 35 percent of their guests have been there before. “They come back to try different rooms, new menu items, and the various seasons here,” Jim explains.

The Coopers were among the three inns in northern New England that founded DINE. The group encouraged Europeans with their long vacations to come to the U.S. and stay at all three inns. The DINE idea grew, and now guests (like you) from anywhere in the world can plan a vacation with stays at Distinctive Inns throughout New England.