It is always interesting to check out what type of trip you want to take, whether you want to take a cruise where all you have to do is relax and enjoy yourself without having to think about dinner or entertainment, or to plan out where you want to go on land, where you are going to stay and eat and so forth.
For many the thought of a cruise is just the ideal way to spend a few days. There are opportunities to take the excursions when you are in port and see some of the country that you might not have traveled to any other way. You will meet people from all different areas with different interests and get to share experiences with others that are looking for a get-a-way similar to what you are seeking.
On the other hand, traveling on land you will get to see the beauty of the country you are visiting. It may be in your home state seeing what there is that you haven't taken the time to see before. Perhaps you would want to visit the state of Arizona but you aren't sure just what is available, where do you go to look, what is there to do? We suggest that you check out www.arizonabeautiful.com and choose the region you will be going to. On this site you will find each area has a number of attractions that you probably have never hear of before but look like an interesting way to spend your vacation.
If you are looking to go to some other state then just check that state out with the same type of URL, www.(state)beautiful.com and you will be able to find enough attractions to keep you busy for longer than your vacation will probably last! The United States has some fabulous places that you really should take the time to see.
Maybe you want to spend some time on a hiking trail or fishing or visiting museums of interest. All of these things are listed on the sites with enough information to know if this is where you want to spend your time and your money. Check them out, you probably will find that you don't have to travel very far to find places that are truly worth your time.
Planning your own trip, deciding when you want to eat and where you want to stay isn't nearly as trying as you may think it is, just relax and go with the flow. There are hotels everywhere, there are restaurants everywhere, both allowing you to choose the time of day you want to stop, eat, rest and make your plan for the next day. Enjoy the experience, see the country or the world. You only live once so take some time to enjoy it.
Those that are concerned about the cost should keep in mind that there are numerous places to visit that are FREE. There are museums that don't charge you to visit. There are lakes and parks that you can go to for free. There are mountains to climb or beaches to relax on that don't cost you a dime. These things can provide you with time to be with family and friends without anyone having to spend money they aren't comfortable spending.
On the other-hand, if you are looking for a pampered time, with all the service and amenities available you can take a vacation like that too. Choose the spot you want to visit, find the best rated hotel (not necessarily by rating companies but by comments from guests that have been there), book the room and let the relaxation begin.
If you are traveling overseas, make sure you are prepared for the country you are going to visit. Is it a 3rd world country or not? What should you be prepared for? Read the blogs, check out the US State Department comments, talk to others that have been there and then go, enjoy the experience. Just remember that you are in a foreign country, not the US so things will be different. If you don't want things to be any different than they are in the US then don't leave the US…if you want a new experience in new places with a different culture then go, enjoy yourself and ADAPT to the culture of the country you are visiting. Most other countries and cultures have been around a lot longer than the US. They may not do things our way, but they do things their way and you are visiting them there so enjoy it and don't complain when something isn't just like home! If you wanted it like home then you should have stayed home.
I will be taking a quick trip back to Iowa next month to do a presentation on IB. It was nice to get the email request and I look forward to seeing everyone in the group.
I get back the day before we will be leaving to go to our oldest daughters for her birthday and to stay to see the ultrasound of my newest grandbaby! It will be so neat seeing everyone, miss them and just saw them a few weeks ago! We will be going up more often so we can see plays, games, and other activities for the kids. Exciting to be so close and get to do those things.
Now it is time to go to Rotary where I will be joining my new club. Nice group of people with great ideas. Looking forward to being involved with them on their projects!
So they asked me to write about the most humourous vacation I've ever had, the list could be endless but since they also require you to take one of the cities they list it limited it somewhat. That means that I will be writing about a trip to Chicago not too long ago. We went in for the weekend to meet some college friends of my husband for dinner and drinks. We arrived a day early so we would have time to visit some of the clubs (at least one) and hear some great jazz and blues.
We went by cab to a club that we thought opened up at 8. We were wrong, it was 9 so we had an hour to kill. We walked down to a little park right next to the Children's Research Hospital. The park was so charming, lots of statues, benches and a fountain. The perfect place to sit and visit while we waited for the club to open.
As we were sitting there I said to my husband, I thought I just saw a ground squirrel run across the sidewalk. After all, it's a park, it's clean and so what else could it be? Not so trusting small town person! It was a rat. Now, we aren't talking about just one rat we are talking about a bunch of rats running from one side of the sidewalk to the other. As I sat with my feet up on the bench we watched the procession.
There was a guy sitting on another bench who had his trusty bottle of beer in the ever so not noticeable brown paper bag. He announced to my husband that he couldn't have any (which broke both of us up since my husband really hates beer.) After being assured that he wouldn't be required to share his beer he went back to whatever world he was living in at the time. He spilled some of his beer and whoosh, here came the rat to drink the beer!
We truly were ready to go to the club when it opened but I couldn't help asking my husband if he thought the lab rats had gotten out of the hospital and we were watching the procession of escapees as they migrated to the "big city" from the confinement of the lab.
You probably won't get a chance to sit in the park where we did on a tour but you probably will see other things in Chicago when you take the Trusted Tours and Attractions.
Top of the Rock is another opportunity for you to see something different. You may want to check it out.
If you are interested in receiving more information you can get their newsletter. You can also check out their online travel guides for other ideas.
Driving through Fairfield, Iowa on the 5th of July, 2008, we were suprised to see a huge sign in the yard of a house on the main street of the town telling everyone not to hire a certain construction company. It was such a strange sight that we turned around and took some pictures to share. Now this is someone that is totally furious with a hired company and letting everyone know about it. 
Then we took a look at the house, seems like they have a right to be upset!
As we were driving toward the square we saw the sign of the company on the store front that houses the Elks Club.
It would probably be worth the companies time and effort to go finish the job to get the owners to remove the sign, can't be good for business!
It's interesting to hear the different perspectives on the same subject by different people. The news media today had different views of who did the best in the debate last night between Obama and Clinton, most saying that Obama tried to take the high road and Clinton went for the kill. Then there were those that said that Obama is afraid to say anything that will hurt him more than he is already hurting himself with his current and previous associations with people like his pastor and some radical bomber from the "old days". Then Hillary got good remarks for saying that she was sorry she lied about her experience in the Middle East and getting shot at.
Then, in came Steve to work and said how well he thought Hillary did. He thinks that she showed leadership, strength and just made Obama look like a loser.
It's all in the persective, I guess like a lot of things in life, the spin we put on things to make them fit our needs or desires work for us but probably wouldn't be agreed with by other people that aren't walking in our shoes. It's probably a good thing that each and every one of us has the right to think the way we do and to believe what we do (as long as it doesn't hurt other people) and move forward. I'd hate to see a world full of cloans.
Interesting, talk about presective, I just talked to Cyn and that's a subject that came up. She encountered different ones today at an assignment she has and it's always fun to hear same thoughts from someone else..like now.
Now it's time to get back to work on www.arizonabeautiful.com and see what new and exciting I can find to write about. Check it out, you from AZ, if you have any ideas that I should add let me know!
San Francisco is known for the beautiful bridge, the neighborhoods that are ethnically unique, Fisherman's Wharf and lots of hills. No one warned us about the fact that it rains, a lot!
We were visiting the city and wanted to walk around the downtown area and just look at all the buildings and absorb part of the culture of the people, including the hundreds of street people. We walked out of the hotel, headed down the street and two things became very obvious, it was cold and we didn't have jackets along and it was raining. Great! Fortunately there was a shop with both umbrellas and fleece jackets that weren't so expensive that you wanted to take out a loan to pay for them. The clerk told us that it rains a lot and everyone in San Francisco has umbrellas. Well, it never rains on the TV shows about the city and the song about leaving his heart in San Francisco doesn't talk about rain and cold!
Regardless, the city is beautiful, a great place to visit, take the wine tour, walk on the Golden Gate Bridge, Visit Chinatown, eat at Fisherman's Wharf, take a tour of Alcatraz and smell the horrid odor of the sea lions that hang out at the pier.
When you want to plan your trip to San Francisco you should go to the site which is the home to Trusted Tours & Attractions and let them help you plan it. You will be glad you did!
There are other cities that you can get a great tour set with when you go to the site of Trusted Tours & Attractions, one of them is San Diego zoo.
When you know that you love the breaking waves in the ocean and the warm sun, fine sand, peaceful existence that is available in some of those favorite vacation spots (such as the Cayman's, Anguilla or Rocky Point) and then you drive into work and look at the snow that is in the shape of breaking waves and the temperature is 5 degrees F, there is just something wrong!
I thought I would share those beautiful sights with you today, just so you can see what we drove into work fighting this morning. 
Now, if you try real hard you can see how this resembles the waves breaking…..it's just not supposed to be this way!!
I took pictures of some interesting things on the way home from AZ that I should post.
We were looking forward to visiting the Shakespeare Ghost Town on the way from AZ into NM, sounded like something that would be fun, even in the wind and cold. Well, the town that the Ghost Town is outside of isn't a whole lot better off than the Ghost Town. Really appears to be a depressed area, run down double wide trailers, houses with stoops in really bad condition and no one out and about.
We drove over really nasty roads to get to the ghost town, winding, bumpy and not well marked, but since it was the only road that went the way the first sign indicated we took it. Yes, there it is. Umm, doesn't look like much, but maybe we will be suprised. Not to be! 
We looked at the buildings that were supposed to be where Billy the Kid hung out during his criminal days and the law was after him. 
The office looked more like something that has been around long enough to claim some history.
Obviously we didn't get a tour. There was no one around, the pick up was parked but it also didn't look like it had been driven for awhile. Oh well, on down the road.
We got to White Sands the same day and were blown away with what we saw. I guess we really hadn't given any thought to what to expect. It was really neat, from the introductory video to the drive through the sand dunes, which really look like snow but reminded us of the beach in Cayman.
People were sledding down the sand, just like it was snow. There is a huge picnic area but since I've already loaded these pictures I won't enter that one. It was really pretty neat, had it been a little warmer and the wind now blowing we probably would have gone for a short hike.
As we continued down the road we saw huge lines of wind generators across the state. They actually are pretty neat and if they help cut emmissions then great, although they are more expensive to build and operate than a standard generation plant. 
As we continued on the road (and I can't remember if this was before White Sands or after) we came to a border patrol stop. I asked Greg if I could take a picture of the guard but he told me NO, so, I didn't. 
Then it was on to Santa Rosa for the night and home the next day. Neat trip, three audio books and we were home!
This is the weekend that I have to be at church camp for a meeting on Saturday morning (some are going over Friday night and spending the night at camp). I am driving over in the morning, which means I will be on the road by 6 to get there for the 9 am meeting. Then lunch and I am back on the road.
We are meeting a friend of ours and his girlfriend Saturday afternoon for the harness racing at Prairie Meadows. Since they are fun with someone else and boring as watching an infection heal when you are there by yourself we should have a good time Saturday night.
Since we have been there and our friend never has, we called him today to see if he wanted to go tonight to get familiar with how things run so he can be an "expert" for his girlfriend on Saturday night. He was all about that! He doesn't want to look like a rookie at the races, even though he will be but he should know how to talk the talk some anyway.
I have just looked over the new travel site that offers discount airline tickets which was just released to see if it is, in fact, less hassle then some of the other sites that I use all the time. What I found was an easy to use site with a little more information available than some of the others. It will give you travel tips for any type of trip you are taking, cruise, air or whatever.
Now, I book all my travel online, it's faster and more convenient than going to a travel agent, since where we live there is just one and it isn't a place I choose to do business with, so that leaves online. In all the travel we have done we have encountered a problem just once. It could be that this new site would have been able to help us too, the one we used did the best they could.
I will bookmark the site, check back with it often when I am booking travel and if it provides the information and rates that are right for us I will use it. Time will tell, but it's nice to have another option.
