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The Temecula Valley is fast becoming one the best wine-making regions in Southern California. For the past ten years, the number of wineries in Temecula has more than doubled. The area’s reputation for making fine wine is on the rise as they continue to win major wine competitions.

Typically, Napa Valley takes the top honors, but this year at the California State Fair, it was announced that it’s Best of Class and Best of Show wasn’t going to a Napa, but to Temecula Valley.

What makes Temecula Valley an ideal region for winemaking is the hot air that comes from the Desert and the cool breezes that comes in through the Marguerita and De Luz passes. This perfect environment allows vineyards to produce a wide variety of grapes. Some of the wines produced in Temecula wineries are Zinfandel, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon.

The history of wine making starts back in the 1820’s when the first vineyard was established in Temecula at the mission. It wasn’t until the 1960’s when developers first started to create what is known as Wine Country today.

The first two wineries that opened in 1967 and 1968 respectively were Bella Vista Cilurzo Winery and Vineyard and Callaway Winery. Although considered a small wine-making region, Temecula is home to twenty vineyards. Each winery has its own distinct wine and style. Navigating through each vineyard alphabetically, at Alex’s Red Barn Winery, you’ll enjoy Cabernet Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah, produced in one of the oldest vineyards in the Valley. Baily’s Vineyard and Winery was established in 1986 and produces mostly Merlot, Meritage and Cabernet Sauvignon from grapes provided by four different vineyards in Temecula.

Bella Vista and Callaway Wineries are next both the oldest vineyards in the Valley and also both produce Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. Churon Winery is not only a wine making vineyard but also has accommodations in their charming French Style Chateau Bed & Breakfast. Wines you’ll enjoy here will be Merlot, Syrah and Chardonnay.

At Falkner Winery, you’ll be able to sample award-winning wines such as Viognier, Merlot, Syrah, Sauvignon Blanc and Amante. Both the Hart Winery and Keyways Vineyard & Winery produce Merlot’s and Sauvignon Blanc’s.

For a resort feel, South Coast Winery is a one-stop destination to indulge in your favorite wine or relax in your private villa overlooking the vineyards. Not far way is Thornton Winery who is best known for their Champagne. The Victorian style Maurice Car’rie Winery sits on 46 acres and has a large selection of wines to choose from.

Some other notable wineries in the Valley include Leonesse Cellars, Miramonte Winery, Mount Palomar Winery, Oak Mountain Winery and Palumbo Family Vineyard & Winery who produce 1500 cases of wine each year.

Rounding out the wineries are Stuart Cellars Winery, Wiens Family Cellars, and Wilson Creek Winery & Vineyard. Wilson Creek is known for their incredible Almond Champagne.

For those passionate about wine and wine-making, there is no need to drive up the coast to Napa when Temecula Valley has what you need and more!

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If you’re planning a weekend trip, taking in Nashville, Tennessee’s historical attractions can be an adventure. To help you along, Nashville offers an assortment of guided tours through some of their major historical sites.

Tennessee’s history began in 1796 when it became the 16th state of the Union. The name of Tennessee comes from the Cherokee name Tanasai, which was a Village in the area.
With the first arrivals of settlers in the 1790’s, such as Timothy Demontbruen, James Robertson and the Donelson Party, Tennessee quickly cut it ties as being known as the western part of North Carolina, and later The State of Franklin, and applied for admission into the Union. Within the next century, Tennessee found itself transformed from a trading post, frequented by fur traders from the Mississippi river to the Upper Illinois territories; to a thriving Educational and Commerce center.

In the 1840’s educator Philip Lindsay thought that Nashville should encourage the ideals of Classical Greek education, such as Philosophy and Latin and be known as the Athens of the West. Nashville would later be given a similar nick-name; Athens of the South.

One of the stops on the guided tour in Nashville is the Belle Meade Plantation Tour. Be guided by a knowledgeable tour guide garbed in 19th Century outfits. Highlights from the tour are the plantation house built in 1853 Victorian inspired Mansion, the 1890 Carriage house and stable and 1790 Log Cabin known as the old building in Tennessee. The tour will include displays of rare antiques from that era. The tour gives you a glimpse back into that time period and all its grandeur.

You can’t visit Nashville without visiting the Ryman Auditorium at the Grand Ole Opry. Country music fans will delight in the exhibits that display clothing from Ryman performers from past and present. For a special treat, you can take a backstage guided tour and get a rare glimpse through some of the dressing rooms. The Ryman self-guided tour will walk you through the legendary halls and offers a short film about the Ryman’s history from its early roots.

Enjoy a Civil War tour through Nashville. The guide will walk you through the very fields of the Battle of Franklin where so many soldiers perished. The tour is six hours and includes reenacted stories from soldiers from that time period and a visit to the Carnton Plantation to learn about its role in the war.

The Hermitage Mansion Museum has a guided tour that takes you through the estate of President Andrew Jackson. The tour will walk you through this magnificent estate, gardens he and his wife kept, log farmhouse, and the outer buildings that supported the mansion that are still perfectly preserved today. You’ll discover how he lived and many new and interesting facts about the 7th President of the United States.

Start planning your weekend getaway and take advantage of the many historical guided tours Nashville has to offer.

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One of the biggest reasons why people move from one region of the country to another, other than for employment reasons, is to escape the weather. Either they have finally had it up to here with snow up to here, or they can’t stand living under a constant threat of tornadoes or hurricanes. There are few, if any parts of the country that can say they never have to worry about weather dangers, but there are some that are safer than others.

Atlanta, Georgia is one of the places that many of those seeking to move away from the risk of weather-related disasters choose. Atlanta can be subject to an occasional tornado, but it is by no means something that happens on a frequent basis there. If you’re moving from a tornado-prone area, you are drastically reducing your odds of being affected by a tornado by moving to Atlanta.

While Georgia does border the Atlantic Ocean, Atlanta is too far inland to suffer much serious damage from hurricanes. By the time the storms reach Atlanta, they have been downgraded to tropical depressions for the most part. That means sustained winds no greater than 40 miles per hour with heavy rain.

Rain can be a problem in Atlanta. Like most non-desert parts of the country, Atlanta can be subject to periods of heavy rainfall that cause flash flooding of rivers and streams. Low lying areas may be flooded for a few days during the worst rains. Choosing a home on higher ground away from flowing water will keep you out of harm’s way from flooding.

While it is possible to get snow in Atlanta, it is a rare event and should not be considered problem due to its rarity. On the other hand, because any significant snow or ice is so rare in Atlanta, every decade or so, when it does happen, the region will not be well prepared to deal with it. Expect that 90% of drivers in Atlanta have no idea how to drive in the snow, so if they are out on the roads in that weather give them a very wide berth. There will be a lack of snow removal capability within the city as well, so if there is more than a couple inches of snow the city will come to a grinding halt. Fortunately, Atlanta won’t stay cold enough for snow to stay on the ground for more than a day or so and it will quickly melt away.

About the only weather issue facing Atlanta is the possibility of drought. While Atlanta doesn’t face any significant risk of rampant wildfires to the extent of places like California, it can get dry for prolonged periods. In recent years there have been issues with lowered water tables and some water use restrictions put in place during the driest weather.

All in all, Atlanta has some of the more mild weather conditions found in the United States. It is at very low risk from most major natural disasters and those seeking to escape extreme weather will find refuge in Atlanta.

As business becomes more global, the need to host employees from overseas subsidiaries or parent companies is growing. Often, these employees are fulfilling a temporary assignment which may last from weeks to months to as much as a year at a location far from their home and from their permanent job location. That’s when more and more companies turn to corporate housing.

Corporate housing is provided by third party companies that specialize in providing fully furnished, apartment-like living quarters on a temporary basis. These corporate lodging specialists usually maintain an inventory of available units so that relocating employees can move right in, without a wait and without the usual difficulties involved in finding living quarters in a strange place.

The furnished apartments come complete with utilities already turned on, and a single central bill sent directly to the contracting employer. This eliminates the extra paperwork of hoarding and turning in receipts for reimbursement, and reduces the paperwork load on the employer.

By removing all of the petty, but time consuming details from the employee, the use of a strong corporate housing partner allows the employee to focus their full attention on the task at hand, namely whatever it was they were brought here to learn or do. The added efficiency and reduced learning curve provides further economic benefit to the hosting company.

Many of us have had to move from one city to another, and know the tremendous amount of work that entails. From making advance trips to find a new home, to making the financial arrangements, signing leases or mortgages, coordinating availability dates, arranging multiple utilities to be turned and switched over to our names, to learning our way around town. Imagine how much more difficult this would be if you are trying to perform all those tasks while moving to a foreign country. That would be a lot to ask from anyone, but that’s exactly what many employees with temporary assignments must do while also learning the ropes at a new job.

Choosing an experienced and customer service focused partner to provide corporate lodging, not only for international relocations, but also for employees on temporary assignment from other part s of the United States, increases efficiency, reduces overhead costs, eliminates stress for the relocating employee, and even saves the company money when all things are considered.

These days, most companies understand the need to focus on their core business and work to their strengths. If corporate housing isn’t your main business, why divert your energy away from corporate goals to handle these sorts of arrangements? Even worse is hanging an employee out to dry by making him or her make all the arrangements themselves. That’s a real morale booster.

Instead, let a company whose strength is corporate lodging handle all the details. Third party corporate housing vendors are available for almost every major metropolitan area and some even work nationally to handle all your relocation needs throughout the country.

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Golf has been a gentleman’s (or gentlewoman’s) sport for hundreds of years. It is considered one of the more well-mannered sports- one not based on war games or one on one physical conflict. The word “etiquette” is often used when describing golf play; more so than in any other sport. Players are expected to be courteous, quiet, and respectful on the course to all other players and spectators.

Golf etiquette is about much more than just manners, however. The reasons behind most golf “rules of play” are there to ensure both smooth play and the safety of the golfers and gallery.

When first learning how to play golf, your instruction is likely to be focused on the mechanics of play, not the acknowledged expectations of behavior and play. Here is some basic golf etiquette for those who want to play without fellow golfers glaring at them:

Keep the flow of the game going. One of the most annoying experiences in golf is waiting on the group ahead of you to finish so that you can move on to the next tee. Make sure that you do everything in your power to not hold up the game for others. Be ready to take your shot when your turn comes up. Informal games often include the “ready play” rule which means that the order of play in the group doesn’t matter. Whoever is ready can play the shot. If you lose the ball in the brush and there is a group behind you waiting, either take the penalty and continue play or allow the other group to play through. This ensures smooth play and doesn’t hold up other players. If your group is slower than the group ahead of you and the group behind you is waiting, wave them through and allow them to continue.

Treat the course with respect. Above all else, follow the rules of the course. Some courses require that carts stay on the path and do not cut through the green. Whatever the club rules are, follow them. Be sure to replace any divots you create (and those created by others that you find) by tamping the sod down firmly back into place. Rake over the sand traps when you have finished the hole to smooth out footprints and ball marks. Basic rules of etiquette also apply to golf courses such as no littering and no defacing of property.

Always consider the safety of your actions. Be certain that you are out of range of any other player before swinging your club. On the flip side, make sure that you are more than a club’s-length away from another player taking a swing. Accidents do happen on courses and they are almost always preventable. If you take an unexpectedly wild shot and it is heading towards another player, yelling “fore” is the universal warning. It gives other players a head’s-up that there may be an incoming ball and to duck or move. Lastly, be careful how you drive a golf cart. Although they may seem like toy cars, golf carts can get up to a respectable speed and are easily rolled when they hit a bump or uneven terrain. It is possible to hurt yourself or other golfers. Every year, several golfers are injured in golf cart rollovers.

Practicing these rules of golf etiquette will make you a better- and certainly a safer- golfer on the course.

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When the housing market headed downhill as a precursor to the current recession, certain real estate markets were hit particularly hard. Generally, those markets that had been the hottest in the years leading up to the collapse, fell the hardest. While the median sales price has fallen over the last two years, there are signs that many of these markets, including Scottsdale, Arizona are starting to come back.

First, it’s important to remember that the regions that were the most in demand from home buyers before the current market difficulties were in demand for a reason. Scottsdale, Arizona, for example, has one of the most desirable climates in the country. A strong base of industry in the greater Scottsdale/ Phoenix area provides jobs for those moving to the area. The proximity of Scottsdale to some of America’s greatest natural wonders, like the Sonoran Desert, the petrified forest, and, of course, the Grand Canyon doesn’t hurt either.

The median prices of homes sold in Scottsdale has fallen considerably in the last two years. This isn’t only a result of falling home values, but is also a result of people choosing more modest homes when they do buy. People have a smaller appetite for big mortgages after recent market events, and this smaller appetite is matched by the reduced willingness of lenders to engage in lending with the same amount of leverage they did just two years ago.

The amount of inventory available in the market also helps keep sales prices down. Buyers have options, and if they can’t get a seller to meet their terms, they know that they can find another property. Sellers on the other hand are very reluctant to let a buyer walk away even if it means getting less than they planned for the sale of their home.

These factors are working not just in Scottsdale, but in many communities around the country. Fortunately, as prices do come down we are seeing the number of units sold start to level off and even increase in some areas, although the total dollar value of residential properties changing hands may still be on a downward trend.

Pricing pressures are also being exerted by the still relatively large number of bank owned properties in the current market. Foreclosures remain high and many lenders are holding a portfolio of properties that they are desperate to sell. While these lenders don’t want to take substantial losses on these properties, they do recognize that some may take years to recover their full value. The cost of holding the properties for that long is usually too great for the bank.

All of these factors add up to some strong reasons to enter the market as a home buyer. While the time may not be right for speculative purchases or house-flippers, it is certainly right for those looking to buy a home for the long term. For those looking to establish themselves in an area to pursue career goals, raise a family, or to join a particular community, the Scottsdale real estate market is a buying opportunity. Virtual every expert expects that in ten years time, housing values will be setting new records and this recession and housing collapse will be looked upon as a historical curiosity by some and a missed opportunity by others.