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Angry Birds Protect the Golden Egg at the Sand Hill Hotel

Where: 2825 Sand Hill Road [map], Menlo Park, CA, United States, 94025

Angry Birds FTW! This might be one of our favorite hotel pastry concoctions ever.

The pastry chef at the Rosewood Sand Hill in Menlo Park, Calif. created a special Easter display in honor of Angry Birds, the addictive iPad and iPhone time-waster app and video game. Considering that this hotel is in the shadow of Palo Alto and Silicon Valley, the Angry Birds were very apropro.

The birds were put out for the hotel restaurant's, Madera, Easter brunch where ducks, chickens, dwarf goats, turkeys, sheeps rabbits and yes, pot-bellied pigs frolicked on the lawn out front. Although the display is made of edible ingredients, guests were not allowed to get the Golden Egg, er, we mean, eat it.

Hotel Amenities / Hotel WiFi / Healdsburg Hotels / Northern California Hotels / Design Hotels / → All Tags

Hotel Healdsburg's Remote Controls Come With Instructions

Where: 25 Matheson Street [map], Healdsburg, CA, United States, 95448

Here at HotelChatter, we are simple souls. Technologically adept, and always looking for the latest innovations, obviously, but ultimately simple.

Which is why our heart sank when we entered our room at Hotel Healdsburg in the heart of California wine country this weekend to find a page of detailed instructions on how to turn on the TV through its two remote controls.

Fortunately, it’s not a case of technology gone mad – it actually enabled us to switch on in a few seconds rather than work our way through the various “menu” keys on other remotes.

The rest of the place is Design Hotel meets simple. There’s a chic little clock by the table, rather than a fat alarm clock. The bathroom is huge, but everything’s kept to a minimum (including the lack of a towel rail, which we’d kinda like). There’s a hint of rustic – a bare wooden chair at the desk, a plain pencil, wood floor and shutters instead of manky curtains.

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Healdsburg / Healdsburg Hotels / Northern California Hotels / Top Chef / → All Tags

'Top Chef' Hearts Healdsburg and You Can Too

Top Chef and wine country fans alike will be happy to hear this insider scoop we were passed along: This season's finale was shot in one of Northern California's culinary havens, Healdsburg. Those in the know have long been trekking to Healdsburg to eat at restaurants like Cyrus, which one of our close friends—a nearby Sonoma resident—counts as one of her favorite places to dine. It was at Cyrus that part of the finale was shot, according to our channels.

With all of this Top Chef love being thrown Healdsburg's way, we thought it might be an appropriate time to list some hotel options for foodies whose trips are centered around tasting, sipping, and even gorging in extreme cases.

We've heard a lot of good things about Hotel Healdsburg—once again from Northern Californian natives who know the hotel and restaurant scene well. It's the home of Dry Creek Kitchen, which where chef and TC guest judge Charlie Palmer has made his name. One of the biggest events that the hotel hosts is Parker's annual "Pigs and Pinot" weekend, set to return in March of 2010, and involves exactly what the name implies: a helluva lotta Pinot Noir and pork goodness, with real-life top chefs contributing to the benefit weekend. Booking early for the popular event is a smart call.

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Hotel Contests / Northern California Hotels / Larkspur Hotels / → All Tags

Larkspur Hotels Want To Hear Why You 'Need A Vacation'

Where: 125 E. Sir Francis Drake Blvd. [map], Larkspur, CA, United States, 94939

Casa Munras in Monterey, California.

Summer’s over, vacation’s done, the sun is gone, and everyone seems to be settling back into their cubicles or classrooms for a dreary autumn of work, but it already feels like we need another vacation. That is why the Bay Area-based Larkspur Hotels & Restaurants hospitality group is presenting the “I Need A Vacation Because…!” contest to mark the launch of new web sites for each of its eight high-end Larkspur Collection hotel properties.

Larkspur’s VP of Marketing, Richard Flores, says that Larkspur decided it was time to create new websites to “communicate each Larkspur Collection hotel’s unique personality, while creating a user-friendly, engaging website experience.”

This isn’t just a cheesy, “tell us what you think about our web site” competition, though. Contestants will actually get the chance to win a stay at one of the eight properties. Here’s how it works: first you have to go to Larkspur’s Facebook page and become a fan. Then in a wall post of 50 words or less, you have to describe why you need a vacation. So far, people have posted reasons including everything from economic woes to job stress, to an overwhelming need just to get away from the kids for a couple days!

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