201 Street

Author Dorthea Benton Frank’s books reflect her love of South Carolina’s Lowcountry and her respect for the Geechee (also known as Gullah) culture that dates back to 1670. Nearly half of the slaves imprisoned in the Atlantic slave trade arrived through Charleston Harbor in the 1700s. Today, far from slavery, the Geechee/Gullah culture is celebrated and revered in South Carolina. Readers of Dot Frank’s books have been flocking to Charleston for years to discover more. Find a comfortable place to stay in the present for a journey back to the past.

Known for their craftsmanship, buying a contemporary Gullah artisan’s sweetgrass basket is akin to purchasing a piece of southern history. First used on the plantations for rice cultivation, basket making became an art form for slaves unable to work in the fields. The community of Mt. Pleasant, located north of Charleston, is arguably the best place to purchase sweetgrass baskets made by Geechee artisans. Basket stands are located along Highway 17. If venturing out of Charleston is not an option, baskets are available for purchase on Meeting, Market and Broad Streets.

Also crafty in the kitchen, the Geechee people are heralded for their cuisine. Located south of Charleston, Dye’s Gullah Fixin’s in Hilton Head is an authentic place to sample Gullah grub. Dishes with unusual names like hoe cake, perlo and swimp and grits are staples. Swimp is not misspelled; it’s simply the Gullah name for shrimp. Geechee/Gullah is not only a culture, it’s a language. “Chillun” stands for children and “box-up” means closed tightly.

The Geechees also have a unique belief system. For example, hair that remains in a brush must be flushed away or burned, and fish will not bite during a full moon due to their sore mouths. No patterns for sewing should be cut on Fridays, and horseshoes can be hung above a front door for good luck only if they are placed to form the letter “u” ??otherwise the luck might run out. Gullah history includes the practice of uncommon medical treatments. Bandages made of spider webs were used to control bleeding and small pieces of brown paper, licked like postage stamps, were stuck on foreheads to stop hiccups.

For Dot Frank’s fans and anyone else curious to learn more about Geechee/Gullah history, Charleston is the perfect destination to discover more .

Decorating a house is a lot of work. Whether you are doing one room or the whole house, it requires a lot of time and patience. And as anyone who has ever done it them self knows, things are going to go wrong and it might not end up just the way you were imagining it. So this brings up the question of whether or not it you should hire a professional designer or attempt to do it yourself. You may be thinking that the answer is pretty simple, especially if you have never before attempted to decorate yourself; however, there are pros and cons to each.
I can probably guess what you are thinking right now, professional designers are expensive and are only used by those who have a lot of extra money to spend. Well, it is true that hiring a designer is not cheap and it is definitely something that you would have to save up for. On the flip side, you would end up with a beautifully decorated room, or house, that is completely finished and looking just like imagined or saw online .
On the other hand if you do it yourself you will receive the satisfaction of a job well done, even if it takes a while to get it finished. Although you are involved in the design process when you hire a professional it is not quite the same as deciding on the window treatments yourself or spending hours in the paint aisle looking for just the right shade of Eddie Bauer paint . By decorating yourself you get to add all those special touches that make your home unique. From the windows to the floors and everything in between, the look will be yours.
It is a hard decision, deciding how to decorate your house. For a small fortune a designer can give you that perfect look you find in the pages of Better Homes and Gardens but they will never completely capture you. That is something you have to create all by yourself.

London is a spectacular city.  It has all the appeal of a very contemporary metropolis, with fantastic art and live performance, and a generous selection of fine hotels.  Tourists seem to agree that it’s never waned in their hearts as one of the premiere travel destinations, where lively culture continues to set the pace for the rest of the world.  There are always plenty of things to see and do here, with a dizzying array of attractions and sights, ranging from the cutting edge to the deeply historical.  History has left some very deep marks here, with so many wars from all the centuries past, and the ghosts of World War II still haunting the city.

For some, there is no better chronicler of a post-war sensibility than the incomparable Leonard Cohen.  When he came here last year as part of his world tour, it was splendid enough to warrant a dvd and cd release of this spectacular event.  This tour was something that brought the reclusive singer-songwriter out of his meditative brooding, so that he could brood, and play fantastic music, for thousands of fans.  There were plenty of rumors that this tour was sparked by a need to pay a lot of debts, but the star seemed to be here only because of the debt that he felt to his fans.

The thing about Leonard Cohen is, he really does love to play.  It’s obvious that he has tendencies toward melancholia, and it’s also obvious that this is an arena that he is very comfortable in, and it cheers him up.  His dark and fatally-romantic songs have a strangely healing effect on the crowds, keying in on a layer of emotions that we all feel, but are often leery of entertaining.  For someone who began writing poetry inflected with musings on the holocaust, the move to international fame is somehow surprising today, but it makes a sense that’s only accessible when love and history start to dance together, showing us who we’ve been and who we will be tomorrow.

Aside from the responsibilities a property management company has to the owners of the buildings they manage, they have responsibilities to the tenants who rent those buildings. One of the basic elements of customer service is to not only meet the needs of customers and clients, but to anticipate them when that is possible, and to exceed those needs most certainly. People put their lives in the hands of the property managers when they rent. In some cases it is their home life and in other cases it is their business in which they gain their livelihood. In either case they trust the company with their “stuff”, in keeping their possessions safe and in keeping them safe and cared for when things break down.

In terms of property management companies , there are various websites that are dedicated to the anticipation of what people may need. They not only advertise the properties they have available for rent, but they do a bit extra. One of the websites is for properties located throughout the cities in Canada. This is a site where college students can go to find apartments that are in their budget. But that is not all that is on this site. The options that are also available on the site, inform young college students on developing study habits , how to go about finding jobs, and the best way to look for a roommate.

In years past, not only did college students have to look through the paper and the rental magazines to find a place to live, they had to ride around on their bikes simply looking for “For Rent” signs. And, on top of that, they many times found it necessary to simply run adds to find roommates, and search the adds looking for those who needed them. This is just one of the ways a property management company can go above and beyond in their field and in the practice of great customer service . It is why those companies who do, continue to stand out and continue to be the most trusted companies in the industry.

On most days, the idea is to keep your ship afloat, but on December 30th of 2009, right before the end of the decade, the ship known as the Sea Taxi was towed to a spot off Key Biscayne and sunk, simultaneously changing its name to the Ophelia Brian.  It became the biggest ship ever deliberately sunk to become an artificial reef in Miami-Dade County for the sport of scuba diving.  This ship was originally constructed in 1965, forty-five years ago, by J.J. Sietas in Hamburg, Germany.  The 210 foot vessel was christened Hoheburg, and has had a number of name changes over the years — the Marianne C., the Wilma, the Black Sea, the Ocean Breeze 1 — but ended its life above water as the Sea Taxi.  Today, the Ophelia will serve as an artificial reef, which will provide another place for recreational diving, for eco tourism, even for fishing to the locals at home in Miami and the travelers in that city’s hotels.   Previously, two other ships were sunk as artificial reefs — the Herbert Horn Type 458, sunk in 1984, and the Marie Horn Type 451, sunk in 1976.  Below the surface of the water, their names changed, too, to Ultra Freeze and Deep Freeze.

These deliberately created wrecks will last for decades, and furnish a home for corals and marine fish, in addition to the opportunities made possible for fishing and diving.  South Beach Dive and Surf is one of a number of sea diving companies that enable you to visit and explore these artificial reefs.  You’ll find the PADI Five Star facility in the center of the fashionable South Beach area and within an easy walk to restaurants and hotels and other popular tourist sites.  Established in 1995, they boast an experienced staff that will help you make your dives, according to your own level of experience.  If you’re into diving, or know someone who is, this is an excellent way to explore a side of Miami most people don’t get to see, the world of Miami underwater!

While I wanted a tattoo really bad, the trip we planned in Florida would’ve prevent me from doing any swimming or diving, so we left the tattoo parlor and returned to South Beach. We walked around Miami Beach, checking out all the Art Deco area and taking in all the cafes and restaurants. We were lucky that the sun was shining, because later in the day thunderstorms began to brew. We heard later that a tornado touched down only a few miles away from our hotel in West Florida!

While we were walking around South Beach, we were offered free money! We knew there would be a catch, and there was, it was a ‘Time-Share’ ploy. If we listened to a 90 minute talk we’d get $80! We thought what could it hurt, and it turned out to be better than we thought, after waiting for about 50 minutes, we were told there was no representative available to talk to us, so we got our $80 and a ride back to South Beach – easy money!

The next day, we rented a car and headed down to the Florida Keys. We stopped in Homestead, which is on the east section of the Everglades National Park, that’s when we heard about a hurricane heading our way, we decided to head down to the Keys anyways and if a hurricane happens, we’ll deal with it then. But, the authorities had other plans, they began to evacuate all the residence and the tourist from the Keys, so we had to change our plans.

We drove all night and well into the morning back to our hotel, we weren’t too upset because we’ve been to the Keys before. Maybe now it would be a good time to get that tattoo, since the hurricane has made it awful to go to the beach!

The Tempe Little Theatre has been a standard city institution since it was originally established in 1971. It is also the city’s only all volunteer non-profit company and was founded by people with a passion for theatre who wanted to establish an affordable, yet quality production company for the community. This original desire remains in its productions today and the theatre is popular with residents of Tempe and the great Phoenix area as well as with tourist who are in town and considering entertainment options near the Mill Avenue area. Information is available regarding great places to stay in Tempe and in turn the hotels should have information on the Tempe Little Theatre and the Tempe Center for the Arts in which it is located.

The theatre is located just north of the main old town attractions and is close to the Tempe Town Lake. It has a standard season structure of four plays per year and in recent years the company has focused on presenting a selection of classic comedies as well as musicals, which seems to be fitting for the times and continues to build a strong audience base. TLT is located near Arizona State University and students are frequently interested in participating in the production process. They also form part of the audience base.

One of the progressive elements of TLT is its commitment to the needs and interests of the community and to consistently offer quality entertainment at affordable prices. All members of the community, regardless of their extent of theatre experience and training are invited to participate in the production process. The company’s production of the hit musical Sweet Charity will open next month. And it will be followed by a production of the satirical comedy The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, by Charles Busch. This is scheduled to run June 4 through the 20th. Tickets can be purchased at the theatre’s box office an more information on the productions and performance dates can be acquired as well.

Thanks to Bob, My husband and I got to attend the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Plus, thanks to Bob, our Burbank hotel is great! He booked it for us, since we didn’t know which one would be the best. The Tonight Show was one reason we are here in California, my husband, for the longest time, has been wanting to see a live taping. Bill Maher was one of the guests and we had no idea who he was, but he was hilarious! We thought he was one of the funniest men we’ve ever seen, and he’s so correct with everything he says, we really appreciated how he says everything we were thinking, but he says out loud and with a good sense of humor.

We weren’t allowed to take pictures during the taping of the show, or even afterwards, but we did manage to get our picture taken with Jay Leno! The studio will send us the photo, we just hope it turns out well. Anyways, we had a blast and my husband finally got to see Jay Leno live. But, now he wants to find out where we can see Bill Maher live!

The next day we made it to Universal Studios, and this one we can thank Joy for, she purchased the ticket for us and mailed them to us before we left on our trip around the US. Thanks Joy! We walked around and saw so many cool things. I tried on a Sponge Bob hat and I thought it looked pretty cute, but where would I wear it? There was so many things to try we didn’t know where to start, so we decided to walk around the entire area first. Then pick what we wanted to do first. Our first pick was to go through the House of Horror, I got a little spooked, it was so dark in there. Afterwards we looked at sets from famous movies, like Notting Hill, Jurassic Park and Back to the Future.

We found an ice cream parlor and went in to get water and a scoop of ice cream, both helped cool us down, it was a hot day in Hollywood! Then we went on the Revenge of the Mummy ride, the ride was fun. We would have spent the whole day there, but we had to get back to our hotel and pack up, our next stop was up to San Francisco!

There were a couple of reasons I wanted to explore Nova Scotia. I had been considering moving there after reading so much about it, but had yet to experience it in real life. What interested me was that I had read that the live music scene was incredible, mainly the Celtic and Folk scenes. And the cities that are situated along the coast such as Sydney, Yarmouth, and Wolfville seemed to be calling my name. I had always wanted to live along the coast, so I was going there with intention of finding a great place to rent, and perhaps staying for a little while.

Food is another pleasure of mine and when I got into Halifax, I was overwhelmed with choices as there are more than four hundred restaurants, a very dense concentration choices. The city is very cosmopolitan. I had read that but I still had the idea that it would just feel older, more traditional, I mean the city is almost 300 years old. The Victorian architecture however is mixed in with many funky cafes and pubs, and the plethora of cultural activity gives that city a certain buzz that is modern and happening.

Each night Cape Breton Island has a couple locations where live music is played, folk legends such as Natalie MacMaster, Gordie Sampson, and the Rankins all got their careers going here while their friends, neighbors and families paid their support by dancing the night away. Other live music genres thrive in the city as well, everything from country to hip hop to roots and reggae.

This is a region that is extremely diverse and multi-cultural. I asked a fellow at my hotel for suggestions on how to go about looking for a place to live, as I had made my decision that I did in fact want to spend more time learning the history and getting to know the people of Nova Scotia. He directed me to a property management company called TransGlobe, and I went in and told them what I was looking for. Within a week I made arrangements to have things shipped from the States, as I sat in my brand new, older Victorian apartment overlooking the sea.

Keeping up with the latest trends for home decor is no easy task; some would even say it is impossible. Much like clothes, what is cool and trendy one year will out-of-date the next. With so many styles and designs to choose from it is hard to decide on just the right one; then trying to add that personal touch is enough to give anyone but the best designers a headache. While we all know, or should know by now, that shag carpeting is definitely out, we often feel at a loss when it comes to creating sophisticated modern decor.
The key to designing any room with a modern flare is simplicity. Most modern furniture and accessories that you find will consist of mainly straight lines and geometric shapes. For instance, a modern couch will most likely be a straight bench and backrest, perhaps at an obtuse angle, with simple straight legs. There is not much extra fluff or stuffing added for comfort. Another key design element for modern style is color. Most modern design is based on neutrals, such as black, tan and white; however, bold solids also work as well if they are kept to a minimum. Metallic silvers and golds also compliment the modern style well.
One aspect of modern design that can be particularly challenging is the window blinds. You do not want anything that is going to be so loud that it detracts from the rest of the room. Shades are good choice for a modern room because they are simple, they do not draw too much attention, and they are available in a variety of different colors. You can check out some examples at http://www.nextdayblinds.org/ or visit the Next Day Blinds design center for more tips, ideas, and suggestions.
With so many resources available in stores or online, you are only a few steps away from a modern design that is all yours.

So you get a flat tire. This is an inconvenience but provided you have good spare, and it is not the middle of the night on a lonely desert road, it is a relatively easy problem to solve. You may get a bit dirty, but you will be back on your way in no time. The question then becomes, do you buy a new tire to replace it or can you simply have it repaired or patched up. The answer to this question of course varies on what shape the tire is in, and what it was that caused it to go flat. Many antique tires have inner tubes, just like the tires of a bicycle, and if the tire was simply popped, the inner tube can be replaced.

On the tires of modern car makes and models, such as Nitto tires or Hankook tires, you may need to take the tire to a mechanic shop or a tire store and have the technicians assess whether the tire is too damaged to be repaired. Some times it is obvious, as when you experience a blow out or you see that the tire is gashed or torn. Also, if your tire was worn a bit in the first place, if the tread is shallow or it is showing cracks on the sidewall, it is best to just have it replaced. The best way to assess a tire that has been punctured by a nail or another smaller sharp object, it is recommended that you remove the tire from the wheel. Many times it is easy to the culprit. The shiny head of a screw or nail may be visible. At this time is good to check the rest of the tires as many times they too may have nails and have just not gone flat yet.

There are a couple of ways to fix a puncture hole in a tire. The best way is to take the tire to the shop and have them patch it. The patches work great, and at around $15 they are less expensive than buying a new tire. Another solution is to plug the tire, but this should always be acknowledged as a temporary fix. This is a convenient temporary solution however, as you do not need to remove the tire from the rim. However, once you get to where you are going, or have the time, the best thing to do is to take it in and have the plug replaced with a patch. A flat tire is a pain in the neck, but it does not have to mean the end of the life of the tire.

My wife and I had been visiting a marriage counselor for the past six months. I’m no longer afraid to admit that though I have to admit that I used be a little embarrassed by this fact. Truthfully, I used to think that therapy was kind of ridiculous and I know that attitude might offend some people but I’m actually telling you the honest truth so that you can also understand my change of heart through the entire process of my attitude transition. Well, and there’s also the fact that one of the most beneficial therapeutic moments happened when I went with Joann on a business trip she took to Florida.

Okay, so it’s also true that she had only been asking me to go with her on some of these trips for the last five years, which also happens to be the length of our marriage, and I flat out refused every single time. And who could blame me? Who would want to go on a business trip if they didn’t have to? Well, it turns out they can actually be very fun. We upgraded the business class accommodations that her company provided and spent our time in a luxurious suite, which of course is romantic in its own right.
And one of my previous concerns was that I would be stuck in a hotel room by myself while she was working all day. It turns out that this wasn’t true at all though I could easily have hung out in the hotel Jacuzzi and they also had pool tables in the lounge, where I also could have spent a few hours.

However, while my wife was working I was down at the beach enjoying a beautiful day in the sun and sand. I enjoyed great views and delicious pizza while she worked hard throughout the day. Oh, I definitely got back to the room and was showered and ready to take her out for a nice evening every night, which I think was one of the keys to my continued daily outings. As it turns out I had a great time both day and night. I was able to dance with my beautiful wife well into the evening and relax in the sun during the slow afternoons. And guess what all of those great times cost me? Nothing at all, except the anger and resentment of my wife. She was so grateful that I had come along and was demonstrating some effort in spending quality time together in the evening, she didn’t even realize that it was all win win for me. The best cure for marriage problems is definitely to go with your wife on business trips. The end.

Find a great room with a spectacular balcony over the beach in one of the prestigious Malibu hotels presented here and get out the binoculars. If one would sit on the beaches of Malibu who would they eventually see? Who do fans want to see? How about Robert Downey Jr.. That would be so fantastic. I think is is a brilliant actor and am so glad he as been able to turn his life around and share is wonderful gift with the world once again.

He has been an actor for most of his life making his debut in one of his fathers films when he was five. He stayed busy in the industry every since. He was mixed in with the group of young actors of the 80’s called the Brat Pack in the film Less Than Zero. The official members of the Brat Pack included fellow stars like Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Judd Neson, Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, Anthony Michael Hall,Demi Moore and Ally Sheedy. In the 90s he put out some great performances with film like Chaplin for which he gained a nomination for Best Actor with the Academy Awards for his role playing Charlie Chaplin.

The last few years of the 90s he had a hard time keeping himself together which was heartbreaking. But his has triumphed over his demons for a while now and has come back with vengeance taking on amazing role of Iron Man were his performance was brilliant. Tropic Thunder was a crazy comedy but Downey’s roll was the one that really took on a maturity to perform correctly. He once again pulled it off. Sherlock Holmes was also a fantastic fit for him, he chooses his roles well. I am really excited about Iron Man 2 coming out and I sure hope that he can continue to hold his life in his own hands.

There are quite a few things I hadn’t thought of about brakes. I have been reading our two car repair manuals, just so I can talk a little more shop with my husband since he has become interested in maintaining our own cars. All car owners know that it is important to keep your breaks serviced. It says in the Pontiac Sunfire repair manual to remember to also check your parking break and actually walks through how to adjust the break itself. Each model’s parking brake is different I found out when I looked into it in the jeep grand cherokee repair manual for our other vehicle. I don’t understand most of the difference to be honest, but that is what I get for delving into something without understanding all the basics.

Another thing about the brakes I didn’t understand was why ninety percent of the brakes is in the front of the car. This results in the majority of the brake pads you go through are in the front of your car also. This was never the impression I got from watching commercials or listening to mechanics. I did gain an understanding of when the best time is to replace the brake pads however and it turns out I’ve been wearing down my break pads way too far. When you can actually feel like the car is having a harder time stopping, if you are hearing the breaks squeal, the brake pad is probably below 1/4 of an inch and could be damaging your car. It’s best to just look at the brake pads every so often and decide if they need replacing by the visual cues. This can keep you from having to pay for really costly repairs later. The break pads really should not get lower than 1/8 of an inch.

I do feel like I’ve learned a little in these past few days and I know my husband hopes that by us learning this we can save some money on costly repairs later. I really suggest picking up a repair manual for your own car.

As I write these words, it’s eighty-one degrees and sunny in Miami, Florida.  For the rest of the country, it’s quite a bit chillier.  In Hutchinson, Kansas, for example, it’s thirty-four degrees and snowing.  Even in Los Angeles, it looks like rain.  With Super Bowl XLIV behind us, hotels in the Miami area should be freed up for vacationers who wish to escape the colder climates.  If you go, you’ll find a surprising amount of things to do from the standard, such as great museums, to the bizarre, such as…  well, just read on and see!

For museums, you can take your pick of a number of outstanding choices: The Miami Science Museum, the Patricia and Philip Frost Art Museum, or the Gold Coast Railroad Museum.  At the Miami Science Museum, you’ll find exhibits that feature the Cabaret Mechanical Theater, a collection of current and past mechanized puppet-machines, some of which date back to the 1800s.  At the Frost Museum, there’s a host of intriguing art work, including an exhibit titled, The Fantastic World of Jose Gurvich.  This artist’s very life brings together a number of different cultures.  He pulls together images that bring together New York and Israel and Uruguay, focused on a pairing of the ordinary and the fantastic.  The Gold Coast Railroad Museum provides you with the chance to take a trip in a locomotive cab.  You’ll want to call to see that a) the trains are running, and b) to see about seating: there’s only four seats per ride in the engineering cabs, although the trains do run every half an hour on Saturday and Sunday from eleven in the morning to four in the afternoon.

What about the bizarre times to be had in Miami?  Check out the nearby Coral Castle located in Homestead, Florida.  It’s a series of structures built by Ed Leedskalnin, a Latvian American man who built this work in the middle of the last century, with over a thousand tons of stones, all perfectly balanced and precisely placed together.  It’s still a mystery as to how this man put this work together.  Get out of the cold and into the sun, and see a few museums and one man’s really intriguing accomplishment.

Tires are the symbol of the modern world. The wheel has been around a while, but tires demonstrate that change from things around for a while to improving on those things. Everything about tires are modern, from the synthetics that go into making them to the mechanical process through which they are made where hardly a single person touches them during their in utero state. The perfection with which they are designed is modern too. The grooves in them might look like some ancient language stretched out on a cylindrical scroll made of rubber for future generations to scrye from, but the grooves are there to make the drive smooth for the navigator and the passengers. But it is a kind of language. The grooves in tires are whispering to the road and telling it to make the drive smooth and good for their people.

Miranda Donne helped me to buy new tires . It was a couple of months ago. We had met at a local theatre production by some stray cats. It was a good show, but I forgot the name of the show but not the meeting. Miranda was perhaps the most fascinating person I had met. She was an auto mechanic with cherry bomb red nails. She was a theatre buff with a collection of trashy pulp films from the seventies. She was a vegan who celebrated Nation Bacon Day because according to her, you had to indulge in the bad at least once in while, or at least the slightly less than good: it was healthy for you. She can be pseudo philosophic like that a lot.

When we went to get my tires, she knew exactly what I wanted. That was really amazing to me because I didn’t even know what I wanted. But she was right. She found me the perfect set of tires and even installed them for me at her shop. I walked around and around my car until she told me stop because it was making her dizzy. She said it reminded her of the way tires start to whirl around so fast on the road you have a hard time reading the grooves. It made me wonder if the language of the road and tire was better than our language because it was so fast and that was what the modern is about: going harder, better, faster, stronger . We went to a play afterwards. Me with my dizzy walking and her with her red nails and oil tip manicure. I forgot that play too.

We started our day visiting the world’s largest McDonald located in Orlando, Florida. We had breakfast there, we are all huge suckers for stopping off anywhere that has the words ‘World’s Largest’, in it, so this was no exception. The Largest McDonald’s really doesn’t look that big on the outside, but when we went inside, we were impressed. There was a large arcade area, a painted jungle, that singing Mac Tonight, a 50’s style jukebox and of course food. We ordered off the bistro menu, which serves your food on an actual porcelain plate and real cutlery. We felt it was worth the stop.

We then headed off to Tallahassee where we had reservations at one of the better Florida luxury hotels for a night, in order to make it there to day we had to really push the 256 miles. We wanted to explore Florida’s Capital before we headed on to New Orleans. We made it into Tallahassee by 3pm and after we checked into our fabulous hotel, we checked out the downtown area and the Capital Building. We some how stumbled upon the Governor’s Mansion, so we took several photos and walk around the park nearby. We were tired for a long day of driving, and wanted to take full advantage of all the amenities of what a luxury hotel can offer. On our way back to the hotel, we spotted a Cracker Barrel, our favorite place to eat, but we pushed ourselves past the restaurant and forced ourselves step by step back to the hotel.

The first thing we did is go to our room and order room service, we ordered almost everything on the menu, and then we made an appointment at the spa tomorrow morning, for a full treatment.

Tomorrow, we have no real set plans besides heading west on I-10, all we could hope for is seeing more ‘The World’s Largest Something’ sign.

Vincent really needed a change. He had grown up in a small town in Wyoming and as will most people from that state he had strong ties to his hometown and loved the big sky country. However, he felt a strange stirring in his heart from a very early age and instinctively he knew that he would move on from his hometown as soon as he graduated high school. Fortunately for Vincent, buy the time he was old enough to articulate this desire he also realized that college would be just the ticket to get him out of town. He looked around for schools that he felt he would like to go to as well as cities that he wanted to live in.

During the summer of his senior year of high school his family took a trip to visit relatives just outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. It was a major family reunion and to be honest Vincent really wasn’t looking forward to going. Click here to see where his family and others stayed that summer. Once they arrived in Salt Lake Vincent felt a sudden calm come over him and a knowledge that this was where he needed to be. It was absolutely beautiful to him and he couldn’t imagine going anywhere else. At first it was the geographic beauty and the feeling that the city was nestled in among cradling mountains. He felt a little silly thinking that, but it was true. He would come up with a more masculine way to describe the sensation to friend however.

While his family was visiting, he talked his parents into taking him on a tour of the University of Utah campus. He loved the campus though he became a little confused, for the first time since his arrival. He knew he wanted to study law, and was greatly attracted to the S.J. Quinney College of Law, though he didn’t want to get his undergraduate and law degree from the same school. After a great deal of consideration, Vincent decided he would go to the University of Wyoming in Laramie and then apply to law school in Salt Lake. At last Vincent felt like he was headed in the right direction and his age old restlessness abided a bit.

Twenty years ago already, I was living in a cowtown, and against my better judgement I let my friend have access to my key to the university’s black box theater.  I’d been living in Phoenix before that, and saw a rise in alternative art, and was fueled by it.  In this unnamed cowtown, there wasn’t a lot going on with alternative anything, except for music, so I was hungry to see interesting people doing interesting things.  My friend had a group of collaborators who liked to get together in cowtowns and spend weekends creating large events with unusual art, and of course unusual people.

This was a lot like a happening, except a version 20 years later, and there wasn’t much formal training.  Not that they needed it, because the aesthetic was supposed to be rough and chaotic, and it certainly was.  Some people read new work out loud, there were couples performing in front of video screens with live music, and people dancing while tearing pieces of plastic off the walls.  It was pretty great.  I was getting ready to read a poem, and one of the L.A. artists told me that poetry was dead.  At the time, it seemed like an ironic quotation of something we already knew, because we were all participating in something that had been done already, only not in this particular combination.  So, when there are events in Phoenix that are worth looking into, and sound as inviting as a luxury hotel, Phoenix is the place to be.

Who knows why, but the alternative art scene here never died, and neither did poetry, although you might have to dig for it.  The 2010 Annual Poe Show is one such event, where some of the most essential experimental artists in Phoenix and Tempe will be coming together again for an evening of dada poetry in performance, as a birthday party for Edgar Allen Poe.  Some of the town’s most iconic artists, including Robert X. Planet (still edgy), Trish Jus Trish, Jeff Falk, and the Klute, will be there to demonstrate that poetry, performance, and Poe might all indeed be dead, but that’s not stopping any of us.

We headed down the turnpike and went around Miami going south. It was a beautiful day to travel. We stopped at the Visitor Center at Key Largo and stopped at one of the resorts at the Keys and on one was at the gate, so we drove in and found a place to park by the sea. We found a Gazebo with which to have the lunch we packed for our journey, it was nice a quiet by the bay.

While eating we read one of the brochures we picked up at the Visitor Centers and we learned that Henry Flagler built a railway line in the 1920’s down here to Key West, he needed a port that would enable him to bring in all the cargo necessary up from South America. But, after a few hurricanes the railway was pulled out and replaced with a road. So, all these small islands are linked by two way bridges and the longest, just south of Marathon is approximately 7 miles long.

The beautiful water is a light blue color and it’s calm today. There are houses and several Florida West hotels that are strewn all the way around the outside of the islands. Some seem to be 2 to 3 miles long and some about a mile long. We arrived to one of the better Florida West hotels and checked in. After unpacking, we went straight for the pool. It was nice to know that some parts of the US is receiving snow while we’re here soaking up the sun.

We then drove into downtown and walked about. We came across Mallory Square right at sunset. There were a few street performers, one doing acrobatics and another doing a one-man band show. There was a very large cruise ship in the harbour, plus catamarans and sailboats all bouncing delightfully about as the sun began to disappear. It was a spectacular site and one we were glad to have witnessed.

There are some haunted places in the Texas city of Austin.  If you are anything like me, part of taking a trip to a new destination involves the learning of and the searching out of such haunted establishments, and understanding the people through their myths and their legends.  On of the noted luxury hotels of Austin with reputation of being haunted by spirits, is the Driscol.  Upon finding that there were many stories surrounding this hotel, my friend and I booked a room there for a few nights, hoping to meet up with some of the players in the ghost stories.

One of the spirits we were expecting to see was that of a young girl who fell down the stairs.  Legends of the city state that sometimes, throughout the night, her laughter can be heard seemingly coming from the bottom of the stairs.  A bride who was distraught when her bridegroom canceled their wedding, died in the hotel as well.  Many guests of the hotel have reported seeing a woman in a wedding dress roaming through the halls.  And on any given night, should you see a man walking through the halls smoking a cigar, you may just be catching a glimpse of a long time resident of the hotel.  Upon his death, many people will see the cigar smoking man, on the grounds as well as inside.

While my friend and I kept watch, we saw no spirits the few nights we spent in the hotel, but we did find an spooky plot of land where an old school once stood.  In 1990, construction workers encountered many strange occurrences and accidents when they tore down the Metz Elementary School. There machinery and bulldozers would simply stop working, their tools would constantly disappear, and many of them suffered falls from ladders.  We walked through the open area and felt certain indescribable feeling.  I thought it felt a bit like restlessness.  But my friend told me that I was always feeling restless.  We have toured many of the legendary haunted places in the Western United States, and I have yet to have had a feeling such as I did that day in Austin, but I also have yet to see the misty, mythological beings that many claim, still walk the world of the living.

Kelly graduated from law school three years ago and had been working in small time offices as a law clerk when she finally had the opportunity to interview for a larger firm and as an associate. She planned her trip three weeks in advance and continually double-checked her plan reservations as well as those for her room in one of the luxury hotels DC. Sure it seemed a little extreme that a poor law clerk could be splurging on luxury accommodations, but Kelly felt like treating herself to the best she could afford. Well, by afford she meant charge. She felt that a day in the resort’s spa would help her to perform her best during the next day’s interview.

She also wanted to celebrate the fact that she landed the interview in the first place. And on top of that it was going to be a symbolic introduction to the rest of her life, which she hopped would begin in DC. Kelly invited her good friend Callie to go with her and Callie readily accepted. The two of them were going to have one fabulous time in DC, and maybe even tour some of the neighborhoods and pick out a small condo or apartment for Kelly to eventually move into.

While they were there they both wanted to tour the White House but they were surprised to learn that all of the tours were completely filled up. They found out that they could have scheduled an appointment for tour up to six months ago and that they should have at least scheduled one thirty days ago. Then they couldn’t believe that they didn’t assume as much or at least check it out in advance. Oh, well, they decided there would be plenty of time to make the tour once Kelly lived there and Callie could visit anytime she wanted. As expected, when they arrived at Capital Hill reservations were required for that too. They suddenly laughed at their lack of preparation and enjoyed walking along this symbolic stretch. Fortunately, they knew they would need tickets for the Kennedy Center and would be able to attend the ballet that night.

With arts programming constantly under threat of being radically under-funded, it is always inspiring to see young, and old, artists who are willing to continue doing the work at any cost.  It’s always a labor of love to make a career in art, and is often tantamount to a calling of an almost spiritual dimension.  No one in their right mind considers make art, outside of film and television, to be a potentially lucrative career path, so when we meet artists with intelligence and a few years’ experience under their belts, they usually have something important to offer the culture at large.

It’s even more exciting when one discovers that the work is, indeed, splendid, according to many definitions, and to see work that speaks to a local as well as a global audience.  These are some of the reasons why Philadelphia has risen up in recent years as a place to watch.  Rather than scaling back and doing fewer works, and safer works, the art scene here seems to be producing lots of exciting new things.  When visiting Philadelphia, cheap hotel prices make it even more attractive to stay longer, and it’s possible to really get connected to a wonderful community.

If you have the opportunity to see work by the local Headlong Dance Theatre, by all means, take it.  This is an exciting group that does consistently excellent work.  They were groundbreaking over 15 years ago, and they still are.  Those years of accomplishments have also honed their ability to tell edgy and interesting stories that spin contemporary culture in simultaneously absurd and necessary directions.  If you have the chance to see them in the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, that’s even better, because there’s hundreds of other exciting acts performing stunning new work that might make you decide visiting the city is not enough.

Laura Robson is easily a favorite for the Australian Open Tennis coming soon because of her roots: she has Australian blood through her family, though her accent gives away where she was raised—the United Kingdom.  Her family has deep ties to Australia due to the fact that her great grandfather was president of the Australian Rules Football Club, for which the grandstand they hold is named after him.  Her uncle also has something to do with sports in Australia: in the seventies, he helped in the Premiership win of South Fremantle.  With athletics in her blood, she will be playing with Andy Murray, a favorite for the Australian Open too, which coincidentally is the initial event for the grand slam.  The whole thing starts on a Monday.

However, though these two are favorites, especially among the Australians because of Robson’s heritage, they do face some heavy opposition and the games up until the tennis open and during it may provide them with fiercer opposition than either of them suspected.  While he won against Sabine Lisicki and her partner Philipp Kohlschreiber (who is placed in the twenty seventh rank), both representatives of Germany, it was not the easy wins for which people know him for his impressive skills.  It was 2 to 1 win, which forebodes that Robson and Murray might need to put in more effort and time than previously expected.  Yet Robson is an impressive player, even after a few false starts during some of her games, as Sabine Lisicki commented on when playing against the talented fifteen year old.

Due to her age, Robson does not qualify for all that the Australian Open offers.  She can only play about twelve games with 3 wildcards.  If she ever wants to play against the primo players of tennis, she will have to  improve upon her ranking even though her talent on the court more than qualifies her for greater fare.  She is someone to watch out for as a young, up and coming star of the courts.

The summer months are the best time to visit Seattle Washington. So start your search for a room at a great hotel, Seattle awaits. There is plenty of things to do while you visit this quaint city. You could start with a great view of the city and surrounding areas by spending some time in the Space Needle. It is the defining landmark of the city. It was built for the 1962 Worlds Fair in the cities center. It stands 605 feet tall and for the year it was built it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. It was built to stand tall even with 200 mile per hour winds and 9.1 magnitude earthquakes. It would have survived the 1700 Cascadia Earthquake, so they thought. Oh and if you look hard enough you can see the 25 lightning rods on the roof to protect it from the lightning storms.

In the summer time on a clear sunny day visitors can take a 43 second ride to the top and grab some cocktails in the rotating SkyCity restaurant, which was originally called Eye of the Needle. The floor will move you around in slow moving circle while you enjoy a featured dish. Every table has a great view so you don’t have to worry about getting stuck in some dark back room. With in an hour you will have been on a full rotation and been able to see every view from its towering, central location. See the city below, enjoy the Olympic Mountains as they light up with a sunset or enjoy watching all the fairy boats come and go from the near by Vashon or Bainbridge islands. For a breath of fresh air and continued enjoyment take your martini out onto the observation deck.

This wonderful building has been featured in a few movies and television shows. The animated show The Simpsons has mentioned or shown the needle at least five times as well as SpongeBob SquarePants making their version call the Sea Needle. It made it’s movie debut with It Happened at the Worlds Fair in 1963 with Elvis Presley. Then made an appearance in The Parallax View in 1974 with Warren Beatty. Most recently, in the 1999 Mike Myers smash hit, Austin Powers: They Spy Who Shagged Me.

Ever since its inception, the internet has had far reaching implications for every aspect of society.  It has changed the way we communicate.  It has changed the way we think.  It has changed the way we do business.  The recent fiasco with sports figure Tiger Woods is perhaps a great example of this.  Though he plays sports, his name has become a brand.  He has numerous advertisements that he does and tons of money from doing them.  His name and fame have made him a fortune.

Unfortunately, the way in which he handled the extramarital affairs scandal has affected that brand name he has worked hard on producing and cultivating.  Proper reputation management would have helped him out immensely, rather than the silence he chose for those few days after the allegations came out.  His brand took years to build, but yet had been destroyed in a matter of days.  Some could probably argue hours.  Bloggers and other social media sites tore him down, and his silent approach only fertilized their efforts.

Good online reputation management could have prevented all that.  It helps a company to protect its brand and name from customers who have no real grievances: there are times when a company has done all it can to help a customer out, but that customer simple has a chip on their shoulder.  However, in instances where a company has fault, online reputation management has a more difficult job of fixing things, though not an impossible one.

There are certain things to track and keep an eye on, namely, everything about your company.  The employees, your services, your products, your customers, and so on.  After all, online reputation management can only do so much if your company has a bad rep for a good reason.   You should also know your competitor and information related to your industry and what you do.  There is also more monitoring to consider: news feeds, search engine keywords, message boards, groups.  The point of monitoring sites like this is to see where your company stands on the internet.  Then from there, you can understand where you need to take your company or what you need to do to maintain it.

There are some dream experts who say that whenever you are dreaming about a house, that the house is a representation of you.  This is usually the case when there is something very significant about a particular house in a dream, not where it’s an incidental setting.  Some of my favorite dreams are about a house.  It’s not a house I’ve ever lived in, and I’m pretty sure it’s a house I’ve never even really seen.  But it’s always the same house.  Sometimes the dream shows me that there is another section of the house I’ve never even set foot in, and this makes me inexplicably happy all day long.  When I check this against the interpretations of dreams, I see that I’m not insane at all, at least not as far as the dream is concerned.

When a house opens up like this in dreams, revealing more rooms than before, it means that there’s a period of growth going on, that you’ve passed through some major life incidents, and are ready for the next part of the journey.  This excites me, and it’s sometimes hard to explain to my friends why I’m suddenly feeling this way, because it’s based on a very internal event that has no visible effects in the world.  I do get the same excitement when I make changes to my house in waking life.  When I got new blinds, I had a feeling that something wonderful had just happened, and I really couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen next.

In this case, my friends thought my excitement was very well-founded.  They saw the difference and appreciated it as much as I did.  It was certainly the same house, and it was the same rooms, but suddenly the entire feeling was different.  With Next Day Blinds, criticisms are very minimal, and that’s very good news for dreamers like me, who see the possibilities in the spaces I live in, even the ones that only get to visit late at night, when there’s no one around except for me, and the houses I live in.

Forte dei Marmi is a wonderful waterfront resort town that is was once the shipping aid to the popular marble that came out of the Apuan mountains. This old jetty was quite the spot for trade in long past but is now filled with colored umbrellas and beach towels accommodating the many visitors it gets every year. In 1788, Leopoldo II finished an outpost that protected the port town from any pirate or military adversaries that loomed on the waters horizon. Almost all of the early European nobles where protected by this outpost. Diplomats, business man, artists and famous people had their villas here under the amazing mountain range.

Now the area has become quite the resort vacation town. The early monuments and ruins have become tranquil gardens leaving man to enjoy nature and let his mind wonder of the early history that played its roll here. The town itself is lined with calm sandy beaches. Check into one of these Forte dei Marmi hotels along the beach and have some lunch while you read your favorite novel.  Take a stroll into the village and hit some of the local shops and cafes along the old streets. You might even catch a wedding on the pier.

There are many people who come to vacation here because of the opportunity in sports. There are the water sports of course surfing ( when the weather allows), fishing both of the pier or boats, swimming and scuba diving, windsurfing and sailing are also popular. Then there is the mountain activities. The Apuan Alps offer up some great sport too. Climbers of all styles come to test their mountain climbing safety talents against the cliffs. Hikers come to get the conquer of the mountain top feeling and there are also some old forgotten villages hiding in the forest that are really great to walk into. There is even the possibility to see the marble mines.

I have a friend who lived in Los Angeles. He would often take a drive out to Santa Monica to get away from the city and get some fresh air. He was walking long the Santa Monica Pier and saw the famous actors Owen and Luke Wilson walking along the boardwalk. Of course being a great fan of theirs I was jealous to not have been there. That would be so cool to have seen them just enjoying normal life. Are they as funny and cool as they seem to be in the films they have done. My favorite of Owen Wilson was Shanghai Noon. Hilarious. Anyway, I wondered who lived in the neighborhood so if I visited I could keep my eye out for a night time stroll of the rich and famous.

There are a number of famous people who are now from Santa Monica like Christian Bale. Did you see him as a child actor in Empire of the Sun. Wow, it was fantastic. Oh an Marcia Cross, I love her in Desperate Housewives. Anjelica Huston is an amazing actress. Sean Penn and Toby Maguire are a few more great actors. Then there are some musicians to like the poetic Bob Dylan.  Suzanne Vega who is one of my favorites from the 80s.

If you are into sports there are some famous sports figures that live there too. Skateboarders Jay Adams and Tony Alva live there. Baseball’s famous Sean Berry and Ryan Braun. Braun is a little far from the Brewers isn’t he. There is a long list of rich and famous who live in Santa Monica. Make sure you can recognize their faces because you just might see one on the pier or shopping. Make sure you get a room with a balcony at one of the hotels Santa Monica has waiting for you and keep your eyes open for you favorite faces.