Topic Talk—Destination Chocolate!

Get ready to lick your lips. This—our last Topic Talk post of the week—is going to make you sweet on traveling the globe just to get these rich and tasty treats!



Thanks to cajunmama at Traveling Mamas for submitting such a delectable travel-related post, recommending places from Florida to France to find the best chocolate desserts (and for letting us borrow pics from her blog to share with you... yummy!).

For other terrific travel posts, please refer to these GNO gal's blogs:

DeliciousBaby for giving us a wonderful potential itinerary for a family trip to Spain. This is a great post even if you are just dreaming of visiting Spain.

Jamie at The Heiner Clan for her fun description of the newfound love of her life, her navigation system—or "Navi" as she calls it!

Jen at Dahara Dreaming. Words don't describe the creativity and know how that went into refurbishing just a regular chair into a Map Chair. This post is an absolute must see.

Thanks to everyone who included their blog URLs in Mr. Linky for Topic Talk. This Tuesday's Topic will be Twilight. Submit past or current Twilight-related posts to mommygossipgno AT gmail DOT com for your chance to be featured here next week.

And, remember to stop back by on Monday or Tuesday, October 27 & 28 to RSVP and "follow" GNO participants.

Topic Talk—One GNO Gal's Yummy Travel Tales

Are you hungry? Because today's featured GNO gal, our friend Mara from The Mother of All Trips, speaks to our tummies and our parenting logic by writing a series of posts on where and what to eat while on vacation. After all, isn't half the fun of vacationing eating? I mean, Switzerland isn't known for its chocolate, Peru isn't known for its Ceviche, and Japan isn't known for its Kobe beef for nothing! Food is fun and memorable and enhances the overall travel experience.

While all of Mara's posts are worth reading, the one entitled, "Just Say No to Fast Food" is a must. It provides practical tips for not taking the path of least resistance and giving into fast-food eating habits while on vacation.

In her post she writes:

So how do you find your way past the golden arches? I have a few suggestions for your next road trip. Please bear in mind that I'm not asking you to see out fancy restaurants but local family places and diners that are as appropriate for kids as fast food restaurants. The idea here is that you'll have decent food (not necessarily healthy, although of course that is ideal) at a reasonable price and will put some money into the economy of the communities you are traveling through. And sometimes if you take this approach you may end up surprised by a really great find – something that will never happen in a fast food restaurant whose entire premise is that no one who walks through the door will ever be surprised by anything that is put in front of them.

Thanks to Mara at The Mother of All Trips for sharing her practical and motivating Topic Talk posts about travel. (Note: The picture above was borrowed from her blog.)

For other terrific travel posts, please refer to these gno gal's blogs:

Deb at Dirty Socks & Pizza tells about her family vacation to Maui. It was touching to read about how much her teenage son appreciated and loved the events she had planned for them. But, capturing that appreciation on film? Priceless!

Kitchengirl and contributor at the UpTake—Atrractions Blog gets us in the Halloween spirit by providing a list of the top-ten pumpkin patches in the US.

Heathery, at Middle Georgia Mommy, tells about roadtripping it RV style, family and all, cross country. (The RV photo is from her blog.)

We will be featuring our final four gno gal's Topic Talk posts regarding our travel theme tomorrow. If you have a terrific post and would like to be considered, scroll down a few posts and sign up using Mr. Linky. Make sure to link to your blog URL and not your Twitter URL.

Reminder: Next week's GNO theme will be Twilight. Have you written a Twilight post already? Think about the Topic Talk posts you can still write or have written in the past. Submit them HERE! Send us a link via e-mail at mommygossipgno AT gmail DOT com. Or just leave us a comment with a link to your post! We want to feature YOUR Topic Talk!

Topic Talk—GNO Gal's Travel Photos

While visiting GNO gals' Topic Talk posts, we found some great travel-related photos. Our favorite was not one you would necessarily see in National Geographic, but it was one that we could relate to in a parenting sort of a way. It was posted by our Twitter friend SarahLCC at SaraLifiC soterrifiC. She tells the story best in her own words, so visit her site and laugh your heart out.

For other terrific travel photos, visit these terrific GNO gals' blogs:

cinnamonhonig at Cinnamon & Honey for her breathtaking shot of the Vermont mountains.

daNanner at Musings. She links to many previous travel posts and several photobucket pages, highlighting trips to places like Vegas, California, and the Columbia River Gorge. Our favorite picture though is the one of her little girl asleep in the car on, what must have been, a very long road trip!

And last but not least... LuxeTips for her recent pics from her family roadtrip to her girlfriend's wedding. What a fun photo story!

Check back tomorrow to see more fun Topic Talk posts from other GNO gals! And, be getting read to submit your Twilight-related posts for next week's Topic Talk.

Our First Featured GNO Gal

Who Is the Featured GNO Gal & Blog Today?
Drum roll please ..... (imagine drum roll here)..... Give it up for our Twitter friend and co-GNO goer, backpacktobuggy and her blog of the same name—Backpack to Buggy.



















Her recent post entitled "Five super low-budget, family destinations for Fall" provides great travel tips without spending a fortune. She provides great links for and recommendations about seasonal celebrations, friends and family vacations, enjoying nature, hosting visitors, and visiting Hawaii.



While talking about hosting visitors, she writes:

A spin on the ‘staycation,’ when you host out of town guests, you can play both tour guide and traveler. Be sure to visit new places or try new things with your guest. When our friend drops in later this year, I plan to visit the renovated (and expensive) California Academy of Sciences and take him on a “cheese” tour of the area.

Thanks backtobuggy for sharing her wonderful travel-related GNO Topic Talk with us. Check out this post and others at her Back to Buggy blog. (Note: The pictures above are from her site. Go there to learn more.)

For other terrific travel posts, visit these three GNO gal's blogs:

Wandermom (AKA Michelle from Wanderlust and Lipstick, AKA our fabulous guest tweeter and giveaway queen) who talks about skiing with kids.

Cindy Schultz from Our Journey who talks about fun travel to the Magic Kingdom.

And Kaye from The Butler Family Diaries who shares an embarrassing travel moment and a fun slide show.

We will be featuring more fun posts tomorrow, so please check back!

Tuesday's Twitter Theme

What Is This Week's Girl's Night Out Topic?

Chitting and chatting about whatever we fancy with other gossiping gals around the globe is what breathes energy into and keeps the excitement up at Mommy Gossip—GNO. Though we have heard about the infamous "7-minute lull in conversations," you would be hard pressed to find that happening at one of our fiestas! Keeping up with each other is definitely higher on the totem poll than figuring out what to talk about. Still... every party needs a theme! So, every week at Mommy Gossip—GNO, we select two topics—a theme if you will. They may vary completely from one another or they may be sub-topics, falling under the umbrella of a common theme. This week, the topic is travel. We will discuss travel-related issues such as, but not limited to:

• Where to Travel
• Hot Spots for Traveling With Kids
• Hot Spots for Traveling Without Kids
• Recommendations for International Travel
• Roadtrips
• Thanksgiving Travel This Year
• Traveling on a Budget

Who Is Our Guest Tweeter?
This week, we are pleased to have with us a guest tweeter—our first at Mommy Gossip—GNO. Not only is she a participating partier at GNO, but she is also a travel expert. You know her as @wandermom on Twitter. Let me tell you a little more about her.

Michelle Duffy is from Wanderlust and Lipstick. With her natural passion for travel, she and her husband left Dublin, Ireland in 1995 and after exploring much of the Western U.S., they settled in Seattle with their two boys. She has traveled extensively in the U.S., Europe, South and Central America with her family. Her children have so far: visited Machu Picchu, explored Mayan Mexico, enjoyed the view from the Acropolis and marveled at the kangaroos in South Australia. Michelle is currently finishing a book on family travel as part of the Wanderlust and Lipstick series. Traveling with Kids will be on the shelves in your local bookstore in early 2009. She is also planning a 15-month round-the-world trip with her family for 2010.

The best part? Michelle will be holding giveaways throughout the night's festivities over on her blog. Check it out to learn more.

Remember to sign up at Jyl's at MommyGossip or at Carissa's at GoodandCrazy using Mr. Linky.