So, I’m officially back from vacation (one day later than planned)! We had a great time at North Myrtle Beach, even though it was cold. We stayed in the Prince Resort, which afforded us a 3 bedroom/3 bath suite for little more than $100 a night (November – February is the slow season for the beach, and you can even rent suites by the month for as little as $500-600), and we had an awesome ocean-front view. Click here for tons of sunrise pictures.

Now, for today’s review, we have the Pentel Tradio Energel Body. While the ink refill is one that we know and have grown to love, the body is a different critter altogether. The Tradio brand is originally a fountain pen with a plastic nib, allowing you to create various line widths, but in this instance from JetPens.com, the Tradio body has been redesigned to fit the Energel refills.

The body is smooth, and while the color is listed as grey, it’s really more of a slate or grey-brown. It literally is still the same as the original Tradio body, down to the window showing what normally would be the plastic fountain tip. The grip is a semi-transparent plastic which is grooved and actually relatively comfortable to use, even though it’s hard and not gel.