The Oracle Recommends

Check here for the best of everything from where to stay to what to read!

  • Large white marble lobby, opening up to several floors

    The Six Best Hotels in the Mitten

    Welcome to this week’s Golden Pelican awards for the six best hotels in the Mitten! For a little background, we wanted to showcase the best places to stay in the world. But as we worked through our selections, we realized we were already at six before we even left our state! If you’ve never been to Michigan, it’s beautiful here. We have a: So grab your bags and we will show you the very best places to unpack them. The Inn at 97 Winder – Detroit Originally the mansion of philanthropist John Harvey and his family, it was known as the most expensive home in Detroit. It has been painstakingly…

  • Traditional German band, with tubas and bassoons and drums, at the Haufbrau Haus in Munich

    The Five Best Places to Grab a Beer

    The second category in our “World’s Best” is a bit less “high society” and WAY more our normal vibe. (Click here to check out our first award category, the World’s Best Cocktail Bars.) That’s right, this week we are going to spin you around the globe and take you to the five best places to grab a beer. So if you’re one for an icy cold afternoon repose, pull up a bar stool and let’s go! The Surf Bar – Williamsburg, NY We visited the Surf Bar as a first stop on the “Martin’s Best” pub crawl. Though they JUST opened and we were the only people there, it was…

  • Golden Pelican award displayed with his arms spread wide on a black stand.

    The World’s Best Cocktail Bars

    In honor of our third birthday, we thought we’d share our picks for the best of the best. This week, we will take take a deep dive into the best bars around the world. These bars would earn the “Golden Pelican” for having the best cocktails mixed with the best atmosphere. So pull up a stool and let’s visit the World’s Best Cocktail Bars. The American Bar – London, England The American Bar has been at the top of several “Best Bar” lists over the years. Since we were in London, we felt it we should have “just one drink” there to see what the hype was about. (For those…

  • Image of 4 people, silhouetted against the night sky. Before them is a body of water at "2025" illuminated in the sky, with fire works

    Finding Your “Why”

    Welcome to the first week of February! I have an important question for you. How are you doing on the resolutions you made for the New Year? If you’re not one for “resolutions”, how about, how are things going for the goals you’ve set? If you’re anything like the average human, 88% of us give up on our resolutions or goals by the second Friday in January. Let’s read that again…the second Friday of JANUARY!! This is called “Quitter’s Day”. In pondering this crazy fact the past couple of weeks, I’ve come across something that can be helpful for us average humans. It’s called “Finding Your “Why”. First Let’s Define…

  • Woman holding a book by Ernest Hemingway, smiling at the camera

    2024 Book Report: Must-Read Recommendations

    Besides a serious case of wanderlust and running ALL the miles, you may be surprised to know we LOOOOOOVE books. In fact, whenever we visit a new city, finding at least one independent bookstore is at the top of our list of things to do. We thought it might be fun to share with you all the stories we had the pleasure of reading this year. If you love books like we do, join us this week for our 2024 book report: must read recommendations. Non-Fiction Reads At least twice a week, I spend time reading non-fiction books. Since I LOVE listening to people talk about their lives, I picked…

  • Woman in a blue dress, holding a cup of ice cream looking up at a velocirapter

    The Very Best of 2024

    We SO love experiences and look for fun ways to remember everything we’ve done over the year. One of our favorites is tacking up things like theater tickets, paper wrist bands, and bar coasters on a corkboard. On New Year’s Eve, we place these mementos in an envelope and write about where we’ve been and what we’ve done. And since starting the Oracle, we take lots of pictures to share with you all. So as we wind down the year, let us share with you the very best of 2024! The Meal of the Year For my birthday, I had two big wishes. The first was to spend the morning…