After a quick 2 1/2-hour flight from La Guardia and a 25-minute taxi ride, we arrived at a little piece of heaven, 1Hotels South Beach on Collins Avenue and 23rd Street. The hotel was just weeks old when we visited and so taxi drivers knew it as the former Gansevoort that said, you'd never recognize it as such.

We had a few days when my family could all take off from work and take a long weekend in the sun. We had been to Grand Cayman during the school Winter Break, but longed for more sun and beach.

The capital of the Catalan region, Barcelona, is a global city, the major cultural and economic center of southwest Europe, and a place that welcomes innovation and transforms foreign influences. Gastronomically, food historian, Penelope Casas, in her book, Discovering Spain, informs us that By favoring stews and composite dishes featuring more than one main ingredient, and by joining the most unlikely and disparate elements, Catalans have created an imaginative, almost baroque-style cuisine.

Because of Barcelona's privileged location, its culture has been nurtured and influenced by commerce (textiles from the East), architecture (the Romanesque and Gothic styles were introduced here to the Iberian Peninsula), gastronomy (the Italian pastas that Marco Polo imported from China and the use of honey, fruits and nuts in composite main course dishes), the arts (Picasso and Dali, started here before moving to Paris and revolutionizing the concept of modern art), architecture (the structural innovations of Gaudi and his religious symbolism) , literature ( Garcia Lorca's poems and symbolic plays), all contributed to create a city that is vibrant and innovative, what has been called the Athens of Spain, a cultural center of creativity and invention.