Travel

Superclubs Resorts

rmiles7721March 11, 20082Travel

About a week after we got back from the Bahamas I was emailed a link from the hotel booking site I had used and asked to fill out a survey as well as leave a comment for other folks that might be going through it. We had such a great time I was more than happy to do so. Superclubs all inclusive resorts actually has several of them spread out through the Caribbean including Breezes in Nassau which is where we stayed as well as all inclusive jamaica resorts. I’ve seen pictures from the places in Jamaica and it really looks like a cool place to visit. Prior to booking the vacation in Disney for June I had toyed with the idea of flying to Jamaica and staying there but we decided on something a little more friendly for our five year old.

That’s the view of Breezes Bahamas from the beach at around 7 a.m on Sunday morning before we left to come back home.

The Superclubs all inclusive resorts are just that, all inclusive. That means your hotel room, all food, drinks (including alcohol), gratuities, transportation to and from the airport, sports activities, snorkeling and all kinds of other stuff is included in your booking price. Pretty sweet deal actually. If not for shopping in some of the duty free stores in Nassau I wouldn’t have spent a dime there. I do have one recommendation though and that’s that anyone that wants to do some site seeing either rent a car or scooter. The low-cost transportation we used was cool but it’s always nice to be able to just pick up and go.

There are actually nine all inclusive jamaica resorts that Superclubs runs, ranging from the family friendly to more exclusive adults only resorts.

That’s a shot of the fountain at the end of one of the pools, which is just off the beach as well. Behind where I was standing is the main restaurant, which is mostly buffet style but was still pretty darn good. Eat and drink and sleep by the beach, what else could you ask for 🙂

Lousy Rain…

rmiles7721March 4, 2008Travel

So I just made reservations for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe at Disney World on the last full day of our vacation. Most of the dining choices are actually owned by Disney and the wife made reservations for quite a few of our meals last night, but the Rainforest Cafe is separate and although they have a couple of locations at Disney, you have to call them directly.

We are all looking forward to the trip. It seems like lately all I do is whine about work, whine about not smoking, or talk about my next vacation. Hey, nothing wrong with that I suppose.

I also need to set a date for our trip to the Ren Fest again this year. Zonker met us there last year and I’m hoping to get some other bloggers to attend as well. Hey, you can’t go wrong. Alcohol and funny people to look at!

I had mentioned a few weeks ago that I had thought about going to the Midwest for vacation this summer, but I decided that although it will make things tight this month (and next) I wanted to go ahead and take the girls to Florida. I guess visiting some Branson property will have to wait until next time.

Just got home a little while ago. RePete was feeling a bit under the weather today so I picked her up from school early and then we took a drive so that I could drive through puddles. It has been raining pretty hard most of the day and now that it has stopped the wind is still blowing pretty hard.

I was hoping for a bit of nice weather on my one day off but it doesn’t appear that we are going to get it this week.

Vacation Plans

rmiles7721March 2, 20085Travel

Already?

I just got back from one and am already making plans for the next 🙂

I have to because of my job. I already have the dates for the entire year laid out for my whole organization simply because it’s too difficult to set up at the last minute.

Anyhow, I have broken down and made reservations for Disney World again. Six nights, seven days at the Polynesian resort. They let you pay in installments, which is a good damn thing because I am going to be working my ass off over the next six weeks to do it, both at my real job as well as online.

I’m looking forward to it and the girls are all excited about it. This trip will be slightly longer than the last one in 2005, which will be cool. The Marine is going to see if he can get any leave while we are there and fly down to hang with us as well.

We are going the last week of May, first week of June and while it will be pretty hot, I spent a lot of summers in Florida and June is actually not too bad. August and September are the worst.

Last time we went we stayed int he contemporary resort, so this will be a nice change. Also pretty convenient to the Magic Kingdom and Epcot since the Monorail runs through the resort.

Now that RePete is five, she should enjoy it a bit more than last time. Not that she didn’t have a great time, but some of the stuff was a bit over her head.

More Vacations…

rmiles7721February 23, 2008Travel

I think the wife and girls are going to be going back to Bluffton for spring break again this year. Our friend Niqui is going to be moving pretty soon. I think she may have found someone to buy the Art Cafe on Hilton Head and that means she and her kids will be moving to Cyprus. I don’t know if the South Carolina land for sale is doing any better than it is here, but the market has really slowed down in my area. There must be 25 houses for sale in my subdivision.

The bad thing about my job is that our vacations don’t overlap as often as I would like. We were lucky in that she was able to take and extra day while I was on vacation and they were all home on President’s day as well. That was nice. We also get to take one together at the end of May as well. I still don’t know if we will do anything since we are going to be redoing the bedroom, but it is our 20th anniversary.

Flying High Again….

rmiles7721February 22, 20082Travel

This is why I don’t like to fly. I know in theory that it’s safer than being in a car but take my manager that was in a car wreck two weeks ago. She was hit head-on by what they think might have been a drunk driver. The toxicology tests haven’t come back yet, so it’s entirely possible that he wasn’t drunk. Anyway, it completely destroyed both vehicles. He’s in a neck brace and may lose a leg. She had a compound fracture of one leg and broke the other in eight places, busted up her pelvis and punctured her spleen. She had at least two surgeries that I know of. It will be twelve weeks before she can even put any pressure on her leg and start some kind of physical therapy, probably the end of the summer before she could even consider working again, and even that will most likely only be for short periods of time. Her three kids were in the car as well but they are OK. She was very lucky.

Two planes hit head-on, there ain’t no OK, jack. You’re screwed. At least if I am in a car accident I am a bit closer to the ground.

American Airlines flight 862 was heading from West Palm Beach to Chicago and was diverted to Miami with nose gear trouble. They were lucky it was caught so early in the flight.


The flight back to Atlanta from Nassau on this past Sunday was really ugly.

The plane arrived in Nassau early on Sunday and the crew had it ready to go 25 minutes before scheduled departure. We were getting ready to take off when they figured out that someone with Delta had filed the wrong paperwork with customs and listed the crew and pilot completely wrong. They had to re-file the corrected paperwork with customs, so we left late after sitting there for 40 minutes. What sucked about it is that although all over the Bahamas you can smoke in places it’s not welcome in the U.S., there is no place in the Nassau airport to smoke. I have cut down, but sitting in the airport for two hours prior to the flight without nicotine had me somewhat jumpy.

The flight to Atlanta was pretty uneventful, almost peaceful. It was really cool (both flights) watching the coastline recede into the distance. If not for nasty weather I could probably get used to flying.

Anyway, Atlanta had some really ugly weather Sunday afternoon. Tornadoes in East Point, which is somewhat near the airport. Wind gusts of 25 mph, heavy thunder storms, that kind of stuff. We had made up quite a bit of time, but had we made it 40 minutes early like we would have if Delta hadn’t screwed up our paperwork we would have missed the storms and probably landed. As it is, they had a bunch of planes circling Atlanta.

We circled and circled for an hour or so and then the pilot came on to let us know we didn’t have enough gas to keep circling (this made me feel great) and we were being diverted to Augusta. It’s less than a thirty minute flight, so we got there safely and landed. Only problem is, they wouldn’t let us off the plane since we were an international flight. Forget the fact that we had already cleared TSA and customs prior to leaving Nassau and when we got to Atlanta we could get in the car to leave. For whatever fucking reasons you can’t get off the plane in an unscheduled landing. Either that or they don’t let international flights into Augusta normally. It was a pretty tiny airport. There were 10 other flights that had been diverted to Augusta as well.

We sat there until eight or so, finally got fueled up and returned to Atlanta in the flight that seemed to last forever. It was closer to an hour returning because the were going up and down and around the individual storm cells. Hell, until the captain announced what he was doing I thought we were in the worst of it. White knuckle stuff there for this big chicken.

Obviously we made it back OK. It’s not Delta’s fault that the storms were around Atlanta but it certainly is there fault that they filed the wrong paperwork in the Bahamas, so I am pretty pissed off at Delta for turning my two hour flight into one that lasted seven and a half hours. What did Delta have to say? Thanks for flying and hope you fly with us again.

bwahahaha.

You know what the sad thing is?

I probably will.

fuck.

Fire In De Hole…

rmiles7721February 19, 2008Travel

Walking through downtown Nassau we came across this in the window of one of the duty free liquor stores.

I didn’t know whether to drink it or fuck it?

Fire In De Hole Erotic Rum of the Bahamas. I didn’t buy it but somehow I have regretted it ever since. Although you are allowed to bring back two liters of alcohol duty free into the U.S. I wasn’t sure how that would jibe with the anti-liquid laws since all I had was a carry-on bag and no checked luggage. Anyone know how this would work?

Hey! If I can get everything to cooperate I am planning a new feature on here on Shadowscope. Drunk. Satan. Karaoke!

Whatcha think?

Friday in the Bahamas

rmiles7721February 19, 2008Photography, Travel

The trip down to Nassau was fantastic! Just what I needed but not nearly long enough. That combined with the nasty plane ride home was enough to slightly tarnish the trip. Oh yeah, and I’ve been fucking cold ever since I got home.

We dropped the girls off early at school on Friday morning so we could get down to the airport. The drive down wasn’t too terribly bad, we managed to get in the airport at around 7:30 Friday morning. It was actually very crowded and we had to wait through the line at security forever. Once we made it through the obligatory cavity search and managed to get to the gate I took one of the Xanax and settled down to wait for the plane. The ride down was pretty uneventful and I actually enjoyed it once we had been in the air for awhile. The Xanax didn’t do shit to calm me down but I seem to be getting a little better at flying. At least I thought so until the flight home.

The airport in Nassau looks like it was built around the time that JFK was hanging out in the Bahamas although they seem to be trying to update it. We had to wait awhile to get through customs but we did have these guys hanging out playing the entire time.

Nassau, Bahamas 002

Can’t help the graininess of the shot. I was afraid one of the security guys was going to stomp my ass if I turned the flash on.

Anyway, once we made it through security and out into the general terminal, Breezes has a booth there that directed us to a shuttle bus. They provide transportation to and from the resort as part of the deal.

I really regret not renting a car or scooter while we were there. The caves where the pirates used to hide their shit and the villas all along the coast were truly a site to see and I would have liked to stop and take more photos than I did. We spent an inordinant amount of time either walking or riding the bus and while it’s nice to let someone else do the driving, perhaps a taxi would be the best bet. A tad bit more expensive but at least they will stop when I want them to.

We got to the resort around noon and check-in isn’t until 3 so they stuck armbands on us and let us roam around to check the place out until we could get our room. We tried their native brewed, called Kalik. It pretty much sucked. If you like Budweiser with a higher alcohol content and more carbonation you might like Kalik. It was probably closer to Corona than Bud but it was still crappy piss water. I much prefer Sam Adams and Guinness as well as other dark, full beers. They also had serve-yourself daiquiri dispensers there so I settled on Pina Coladas. I didn’t drink much on this trip anyway. I wanted to make sure and enjoy the island in my own self-created stupor without adding too much alcohol to the mix. The water was too cool to get in, either the ocean or the pool, so we just sort of hung out. It was pretty overcast when we arrived and it had started drizzling shortly after we got there. You can see the rain arriving in this photo.

Nassau, Bahamas 004

Normally you can see clearly to Long Cay and to the right the coastline as well, that’s rain coming. It never did rain very hard unless it was while we were napping, which we did shortly after we finally got our room, which was closer to four rather than the three p.m. check-in time. It was actually starting to get pretty fucking irritating that they didn’t have the room ready. I think we were both crabby and tired.

After a nice nap we checked the place out some more and then had dinner. There are a couple of different restaurants in the joint as well as the buffet. We chose the buffet and the fare was actually pretty decent. Nothing to write home about but I certainly had my fill. We made a trip to the Crystal Palace Casino right down the street where the wife won $100 on the slots. Some of that was profit 🙂

After the Casino we hung out on the beach for awhile where they were doing a circus show. Two of the four acrobats couldn’t be there so it was OK, but nothing fantastic. After that we just hit the sack. Flying screws with my ears and we were both tired.

I will post more pictures and more about the trip later this evening. I’ve got a bit of house cleaning to take care of and then I have some work to do this evening as well. I have posted most of the pictures to my Flickr page if you want to see them before I post them here.

Eating’ the Conch Penis…

rmiles7721February 18, 2008Travel

First check out the video…

We went down to Potter’s Cay early on Saturday afternoon. Actually we left the resort very early on Saturday and spent the morning walking around Nassau shopping and eating. It’s beautiful down there. I’ll tell you one thing though, fuck the walking and buses. Next time I take my own advice and drive, call a cab or rent scooters. I enjoyed the sites and being able to take pictures but we wasted about four hours on Saturday just walking so by the time we got back to Breezes I was ready for a nap.

After walking forever we got down to Potter’s Cay. Here’s what it looks like on the dry side.

Potter's Cay

I don’t guess anyone had used this boat in quite some time…

Nassau, Bahamas 101

This gull flew by at just the right moment…

Seagull

These guys were playing dominoes right next to the conch salad booth where we stopped. I’ll tell you one thing, they take their dominoes seriously. NOT a child’s game at all.

Dominos

I guess because of where I was sitting in the shade and the fact that it was so bright everywhere else, the exposures in a couple of these were really crappy. I had my dark shades on and wasn’t really paying attention or I would have most likely noticed in time to fix it. This is the dude that made the conch salad. He’s in the booth right next to the domino players and was extremely happy to chat with us while he made the salads. I forgot his damned name or I would have posted it here and told you guys to go visit him.

Nassau, Bahamas 105

The guy has been doing this for seventeen years. He buys conch from fishermen in the morning and makes salads all day long for both locals and tourists alike. Just a few bucks for a Heineken and Conch salad and it took both of us to eat it. Think cole slaw without the cabbage and with seafood. It really kicks ass. This is how he makes his living though and as he was so gracious and the food kicked so much ass I figured I would tell ya’ to go see him.

Conch Salad Ingredients

Those are the fixin’s above. He was making them two or three at a time to save on wasted food I am sure but for the three he made while we sat there He took and entire onion, a couple of tomatoes and a bell pepper and diced them up small, as well as one slice from a jabenero or some other type of hot pepper and a bit of sea salt. I found a recipe at the Hot Sauce Zone that has more involved ingredients and it sounds pretty good as well. Anyway he also diced up small a couple of fresh (raw) Conchs right out of the water behind his place, popped a hole in the shell to release the muscle that holds it in and pulled the damned thing out and started washing and cutting. After mixing all of the up he stuck it in a bowl and squeezed the juice out of a couple of limes and an orange as well. It was pretty damn refreshing after a hot walk to get down there.

Bridge to Paradise Island

Here are a couple of shots of Potter’s Cay from the water side.

Nassau, Bahamas 109

That big ugly pink thing behind the bridge? That’s the Atlantis resort. It’s not as close as it looks, it’s just fucking huge.

Oh yeah, the conch penis. The dude making the salad brings out these wiggly looking clear things to us and the bahamian sitting with his girlfriend right next to us. The other guy says “Conch Penis, better than Viagra” and down the fucker goes. I don’t think it’s the penis, but I ate it whatever the hell it was because I’m a guy and you can’t let one guy eat it and think you’re a pussy or anything. I wasn’t bad actually, supposedly has plenty of protein. Work like Viagra? I’ll never tattle…

Here I Sit…

rmiles7721February 17, 2008Travel

…bored as hell.
Just got back from the Bahamas but unfortunately I am sitting on the plane in Augusta, GA. The weather is supposed to be really bad in Atlanta and we didn’t have enough gas to keep circling Atlanta for much longer.
Someone at Delta filed incorrect paperwork with customs so we were stuck there an extra 30 minutes, otherwise we might have beat the weather.
Hopefully I will be home soon.

REALLY Time To Go…

rmiles7721February 15, 20085Travel

I think I may have found the cause of my blog not wanting to rebuild the main page. It was the “most viewed entries” widget. You may not have seen it because the MT wouldn’t reindex the main page with it included in the sidebar. whoduthunkit.

Anyway, I did manage to squeak in a few minutes this morning. I woke up at around a quarter ’till four and the wife had already been awake for an hour. Pre-flight jitters or just looking forward to the weekend in the Bahamas? I don’t know but I have the prescription for Xanax in my overnight bag. Just as soon as I get cleared of security I’m taking one of those bad boys and as long as I don’t start chasing peruvian midgets through the airport we’ll be alright. If I do by chance see one, I have a call to make (and you know who you are).

I think the girls are looking forward to the weekend. Michelle is coming to look after the house and the girls and provided they don’t whine her to death they will all have a good time. Most likely they will be very good since she’s not their parent. That’s the way that shit works.

I can’t remember if I have mentioned it or not but this they have been planning on re-aligning the districts and their stores. It is a highly feared and anticipated ‘event’. It’s actually been about four years since they changed the stores around other than my promotion and I just picked up the same stores the last guy had. I almost feel as if I have dodged a bullet on this one. One of my managers has been promoted and while I am out of town this week he is running my stores. As of Wednesday he picks up the Mirror Lake store and my slowest store. That’s actually a good deal. I lose money on that one and the manager there is the one that hates my guts. I am keeping my busiest store. That’s the one where the girl is in the hospital. I am somewhat upset because they are most likely going ahead and putting her on leave of absence and putting another manager in there, probably the third district manager, who has been demoted. I am getting the Temple store back and one of the stores just to the west of we. Now all three of my shops are within seven miles of me and they are all money makers. Except for the fact that one of the girls has some serious issues I picked up the best district out of the three. I must have gotten seven phone calls last night about it after the meeting.

Enough about all that crap. I am off work for the next six days now and looking forward to it. Just as soon as I get finished typing I will go shower, shit and shave and start getting ready. Hell, I would leave now if I though I could leave the girls at the school. They would probably frown on two little girls standing outside in the Elementary school parking lot at 5 a.m. though.

So has anyone heard that Greene County is going to start segregating their schools next year? Not by race though, by gender. They will be separating the boys and girls and hope to see a drastic change in test scores as well as teen pregnancies. Here’s a tip you may not have heard. They’re not getting pregnant while they are at school. Doh! I know it’s unheard of but most likely it’s when they are skipping or out doing other things. Not only that but you know what they say about absence making the heart grow fonder. That and the fact that if you tell a teenager they can’t have or do something you are generally creating a reason to go looking for it. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a rise in more than the boy’s pants by this time next year as the rate of teenage pregnancies gets higher. Then again, what the fuck do I know, I’m not an edukashun expert like the people making these decisions.

I guess that’s all my ranting for today. Time to start getting ready.