Travel

New York Hotels

rmiles7721September 9, 2007Travel

RealTravel is a site that uses the newest technology to help you find the best hotel deals. Finding New York Hotels with a great deal is a cinch using their web site. You are able to compare.and find the best deal by using Google maps that are integrated into your search and check availability through the biggest travel sites and find attractions and other amenities such as restaurants nearby.

I’ve been to New York City one time back in the eighties and had a great time. From what I understand though, the city has really cleaned up and although New York culture will always remain the same I would like to go back and check things out. When I visited we were actually staying across the sound in Connecticut so just took a day trip into the city. We stayed at the Plaza Hotel briefly and had dinner there as well. I would be nice to go back now that 20 years have passed so that I can see what has changed. I would be interested in spending more time and visiting some of the sites that I missed the last time.

One place I wouldn’t mind staying is the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square. If I booked early enough I could probably even get decent rates for New Years Eve. I know it’s hugely overrated but just once I would like to be in Times Square to watch the ball drop. That has to be an amazing site with all of the people.

Pigeon Forge

rmiles7721September 2, 2007Travel

A few years back when my parents still lived in Virginia, on one of our vacations we took a little over a week and first went up to Gatlinburg and stayed for a couple of nights, drove to Alexandria and spent the weekend with my parents, and wound up in Hilton Head where we spent a day or two with our friends down there. It was a pretty exhausting vacation really. I needed a vacation just to recover from the vacation. One of the things that we didn’t get to do while we were in Gatlinburg was go to Pigeon Forge. The wife didn’t seem real interested and I didn’t press it.

I have a friend of mine who lives right outside out Gatlinburg and she says that Pigeon Forge is beautiful and that we need to make the trip, particularly in the fall when it’s not so hot. I have been seriously considering getting a Pigeon Forge cabin rental and staying for the weekend to at least check it out. It won’t be this fall as I have already reserved a cabin in Helen Georgia during Oktoberfest (the blog meet) but maybe in the spring before it gets too terrible hot.

Photo Hunt Saturday

rmiles7721September 1, 200717Travel

This weeks PhotoHunt Saturday theme is Dirty. She’s not sure if she likes this sand stuff or not…

Hilton Head 196.jpgTechnorati:

This is also my Open Track-Back Post for Labor Day Weekend 2007.

Morning…

rmiles7721August 30, 2007Parenting/Family, Travel

I think I am starting to really like the way that I have the twitters set up as one-liners in between the entries. With the Google News is really was a bit much but a lot of times even when I am at home I get a fleeting thought and it really isn’t something I want to waste the time to write an entire blog post about (although that has never stopped me before) but I do want to get it down and share it.

The wife and oldest daughter have dentists appointments today. I know how much fun that is. I haven’t had to worry about it in years since I have dentures. I have been seriously considering getting implants though, but I am not sure how much my insurance carrier will cover and the thought of someone jamming metal sticks into my gums and jawbone also lends a flavor of serious fear and loathing to the entire prospect. I’m not sure that is an ordeal that I really want to go to.

Obviously I managed to get today off as well since I am here writing. No scheduled posts, that’s the rest of the week. I haven’t had two days off in a row in four weeks and was getting pretty damned stressed out about stuff so I need the break. After today I have to go until Saturday the 8th before I get a day off, then I work four more days until my vacation. As I mentioned in the last post I just reserved a car, actually a mini-van for the trip. Since the boy and his gear will be coming home with us we needed to make sure we had plenty of room for him to stretch out. I’m not sure if he will want to spend the trip home eating or sleeping. Probably a combination of both.

Trinidad and Tobago

rmiles7721August 30, 2007Travel

…I don’t even remember what it was I was watching but there some action flick on last night before I went to bed and the location was down in the Caribbean, which of course got me to thinking about where I want to go on vacation in January or February. My September vacation is locked in already since the boy is graduating from boot camp we will be spending at least half the week in Beaufort, SC. As a matter of fact I just finished reserving a mini-van for the trip this morning and booked rooms last week.

Anyway, after Christmas it’s so dreary around here and that makes it the perfect time to go for a vacation in the Caribbean, perhaps in Trinidad. The weather that time of year is great. From what I understand, the temperature ranges from 70-85 degrees in January, neither too hot or too cold.

If you know your history you will know that Columbus discovered the island in 1498 and claimed it for Spain. Since there was no gold as there was in other parts of the Caribbean it wasn’t settled immediately. He also sited Tobago (naming it Assumption) but it was pretty much ignored until the 1600s. By the time a few years before the American Revolution there were only 800 inhabitants on the island and spain started offering incentives for people that were Catholic to immigrate there, whether spanish or not. By 1797 when the British took control of the island the population had grown to over 16,000 which included 2100 white Europeans and 4500 free Africans.

Since there were so many non-white land owners in Trinidad Britain granted the island Crown Colony status, which meant that the residents were denied the right to vote and kept them out of the political process. Trinidad finally gained independence from Britain in 1962 and Trinidad and Tobago together formed a republic in 1976. One cool fact about Trinidad is that it was the first country in the world to recognize emancipation from slavery.

trinidad.jpg
Like most of the Caribbean Trinidad and Tobago are blessed with warm blue seas and beautiful sunsets. It is the home of Carnival. Even though it is located just off the tip of Venezuela it is not considered part of the South American continent.

Melbourne

rmiles7721August 25, 2007Travel

One other place that I want to go at some point is Australia. Some of the flora and fauna there is so different than what I am used to as to be almost alien to me, which is part of the attraction I suppose. It’s also a very beautiful place, although parts of Australia can be pretty unforgiving. Most likely I would stick to the cities for the most part anyway and visit Melbourne and Sydney and perhaps Brisbane.

Since Melbourne experienced a huge Gold Rush shortly after it was settled it grew very quickly and the wealth in the area allowed for beautiful architecture which still remains such as the Royal Exhibition Building…

RoyalExhibitionBuilding_MEL_U_Photographer John Karmouche_78892V_345x150.jpg

Hotels in Melbourne are pretty reasonable so once you get past the airfare it’s pretty easy to have a wonderful time on a budget. There are all kinds of museums and guided tours of the city and it’s surroundings that are easily accessible. Being a sort of a history buff I would love to go check out the Old Melbourne Gaol, which is one of the oldest buildings in Melbourne.

If you go east along the coast about 720 miles you can get to Sydney. It seems like a bit of a drive but along the way there are beaches and national parks as well as beautiful lakes and wildlife, not to mention great food. There are several popular resort towns along the route including Merimbula, Batemans Bay and Lakes Entrance. Hotels in Sydney are also easy to find and book but it’s better if you do it ahead of time.

800px-Sydney_opera_house_and_skyline.jpg

Everyone is familiar with the Sydney Opera House in Sydney Harbour. Photo by Matthew Field.

A little farther north in Queensland is Brisbane. Any visit to Australia isn’t complete without checking out the sites around Brisbane such as the Windmill, which is the oldest surviving structure in Brisbane.

530px-The-Windmill-1.JPG

The Windmill was built by convicts in 1828. It was built for the grinding of grain and as a punishment for the convicts that manually operated the grinding mill. It was also the place where the first TV signals in the southern hemisphere were transmitted from in 1934. The broadcast from the Windmill until World War II.

Brisbane has generally been considered a smaller city than Sydney and Melbourne and thus hotels in Brisbane are generally a bit cheaper and easier to reserve although the population gap between the cities has been closing in recent years.

West Palm Beach

rmiles7721August 24, 2007Travel

One of the things I had mentioned at another site a bit earlier is the fact that when we eventually retire I might start looking at homes in Florida, perhaps somewhere along the coast. One of the ladies that I work with has family and some property in South Florida and it would be really nice to look at West Palm Beach Real Estate. It’s close enough the the Keys to go if I want but an extremely nice area and if I have to get out to go anywhere else it is pretty convenient. I spent a great deal of time in the area when I was younger and really enjoyed it there.

save our homes

Time To Start Planning

rmiles7721August 24, 2007Travel

As often as I work y’all get to hear me whining about vacations and days off quite a bit I suppose. With the year starting to wind down I have to go ahead and start planning next year’s vacations. With my boss, the other two district managers and three managers of my own each getting three vacations a year I have to get my requests in early because none of us can overlap. That’s 18 vacations to schedule in 13 operating periods, or 12 months.

It actually isn’t that difficult because I can overlap my managers with the other districts and division but just can’t overlap any of them myself. I was looking at Caribbean Cruises a couple of days ago trying to decide if I would be able to find child care for the week and if I even want to.

European Vacation Guides

rmiles7721August 16, 20071Travel

A good blogger friend of mine is going to be spending some time in Europe this fall. I am very envious of him. I will eventually get the chance to spend time overseas but until then I can keep writing about it and dreaming.

One of the places I would like to go is the Netherlands. Amsterdam is a beautiful city and the people I have met that call Amsterdam home are extremely nice and polite. I was looking at the Amsterdam Hotel Guide and came across a place called the Holly Hotel Carlton. Just looking at the picture makes me want to visit. In addition to Amsterdam one of the European Cities that I want to visit is London. The pictures in the London Hotel Guide just cannot do it justice.

800px-Tower_bridge_London_Twilight_-_November_2006.jpg

That’s the Tower Bridge, in London. One of the things things that are so different in the U.S. as opposed to most European countries is that they are steeped in centuries of history and it shows in the architecture as well as the stories.

All in all I wouldn’t mind having a couple of months free time to just wander around Europe and site see. Once the kids are gone perhaps the wife and I will really get a chance to grab a Europe Hotels Guide and just hit the road for a few months.

Aside from Amsterdam and London I would eventually like to see Paris, parts of Bavaria, Ireland, and would really like to visit Russia/


Technorati : , , ,

Asian Blog

rmiles7721August 9, 2007Blogging, Travel

Since I post quite a bit about vacations and different places I want to go, I also frequent a few sites that specialize in that genre. One of the sites that I have come across is the Asia travel blog. Blogasian has Asian news on travel and hotels, and has nice thorough descriptions and some pictures as well, and we all know that I prefer pictures any day. They have several photos accompanying the blog posts which is a must for me. I like to be able to get a visual to go along with what I am reading.

There is everything over there from a guide to Taj Mahal to the Top 5 Ways to Spot Lady Boys in Thailand, one of those skills that you need to have if you ever go spend time in Asia. The Lady Boys post is particularly funny. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Regarding the Taj Mahal post, here is what they have to say

Walking up to visit the Taj Mahal,
you approach the main gateway onto the grounds, the rest blocked from
view by a wall, which surrounds it on three sides, the fourth blocked
from easy access by the Jamuna river. Through the gateway, you’ll
immediately see the elaborately laid out gardens, with reflecting pools
in the center. Through the archway to your left sits a mosque, and to
your right is, what they believe, may have been used as a guesthouse.
Of course, immediately ahead of you beyond the gardens is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the tomb itself.

It is actually a much longer post but I really enjoyed reading the description and history of the Taj Mahal.

I would like to eventually go visit several places in Asia and as with anyplace else I always read up on the cities and towns that I want to visit, to get a feel for the place. I know nothing is a substitute for experience but it’s always nice to have at least a little bit of knowledge about where you are going before you get there.

Blogasian is a fairly new site, but I have bookmarked it in my RSS reader to see how often they update and to go back and check it out again. With as many sites as I like to visit I like to know if they’ve updated before I go to the page itself.