Celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Dublin 2010

Since we were on a mission to go to a place that we’ve never been before, we decided to take a nice trip all the way to Dublin, Ireland. Of course it wasn’t just going to be any old trip. We were going to get up close and center to the St. Patrick’s Day Parade! I’ve been to many parades in my day and can not honestly say that I’ve been disappointed once. It’s always a great time every time a parade comes around! The only thing about this parade is, that we knew what it was going to be like but neither of us had a clue who St. Patrick was or what he did that was parade worthy. We figured that we would also be too embarrassed to ask anybody so we decided that we would do a quick Google search on the topic and see what we learned. We figured out a great amount of information about St. Patrick from a few websites and we came to the conclusion that he was a pretty interesting guy! After we felt that we did enough studying we decided it was time to take off on our trip to Dublin. If St. Patrick’s Day is the same in Ireland than it is in America then that means we needed to buy a lot of green articles of clothing because I don’t like being pinched and Cesar bruises easily. We went to a local mall and tried to find a bunch of green clothing so we were safe from evil pinchers during the parade.

We all got at least a T-Shirt from the mall and decided that we were prepared for whatever was in store for us. Out of the three of us, not one has been to Ireland or knew anything about it for that matter, but we didn’t let that stop us from making our journey across the deep blue to enjoy a festival of bright green. Of course we weren’t going to drive to Ireland, which would be impossible, unless a rental car company began renting out amphibious vehicles! We had to take a flight, in which I didn’t mind, even though it was 8 hours, all I really do is just fall asleep and wake back up when its time and even though it’s a horrible sleep in the most uncomfortable position for some reason I always wake up feeling fresh and rejuvenated. We loaded up our bags at the Orlando International Airport and boarded our plane. In about 9 hours we were ready to be in Dublin, Ireland! After about 8 and a half hour of on and off sleep we finally arrived to our destination. The first thing we wanted to do was rent a car, the closest renting location was one of my favorite companies, we really wanted to get a green car to celebrate even more, but I guess everyone else in Ireland had the same idea so we were left with a bright red Volkswagen Golf, but I didn’t mind at all.

I was actually at the dealership not too long ago looking at one of these cars about 2 months ago, it was very roomy for a car that looks so small on the outside. We took our rental car to the hotel as fast as we could so we could finally just sit down and get over some jet-lag. Once we were all relaxed and ready to go, we left and started to look around the city for things to do. At first we were wondering what all of the hype about the parade was because we did not see much besides elders, quiet music and very few people. Apparently that was just the spot we were in, when we were going down the strip we started to hear louder and louder music, and seeing more and more people. It was like something you would only see in a movie. I was amazed at how packed the parade was, I’ve been to many parades and only a few minutes into this one it was already on the top of my favorites list! Overall today has been a great day so far however I’m waiting for the real fun to start tonight. The roads in Ireland are pretty entertaining especially when you have a car that drives and handles such as the Volkswagen Golf does.

I think if I am able to get some time off work next year, I will definitely be coming to the St. Patrick’s day parade and part take in all the festivities once again. If you have only been to a St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the United States I highly recommend you go to one in Dublin, you will be able to see a huge difference and would probably have more fun than you can even imagine!

The USS KIDD

The USS KIDD is a massive fully functioning battleship that has been retired as a monument to the men and women who lost their lives during World War Two. The ship has been completely refurnished so that it looks like it has just come out of the shipyard. It’s currently floating just off the shore at Baton Rouge in Louisiana and we were reading about it in the paper while we were in Georgia. We really wanted to go see it and we decided we would take our Ford F-150 we got from Avis and head out that direction directly from our rented cabin.

So off we went speeding to Louisiana, my wife had camera in hand and it took us about two days to make the trip, we constantly stopped at restaurants and small attractions on the way, we figured we were in no rush and we just wanted to relax. When we arrived in Baton Rouge we got the opportunity to watch the USS KIDD sail into port. The ship is massive, absolutely huge, and the scary thing is that it was a smaller ship in the fleet.

Now the USS KIDD is a memorial to the soldiers, so there is a large stone wall in the city that holds all the names of Naval personnel lost during the wars. We decided to first visit the wall, and my wife wanted to find a few names of people she had heard about. We found one of the four she was looking for, and then headed to the docked USS KIDD.

You can purchase tours on this huge ship and so we purchased a guided tour. They take you across the deck and show you the guns, even empty shells that make you gawk at the size of the ammunition the guns fire. Heck, I don’t think I could have even lifted the thing. They take you below deck and you get to see all the rooms as well as the bridge, I mean this ship is huge. The narrow spaces and small quarters for the ships crew are kind of claustrophobic but we didn’t mind it to much.

If you get an opportunity to see the USS KIDD or if you’re in the Louisiana area it is definitely worth the drive. We loved every moment of it and we learned an abundance of information about the Navy and how a battleship functions, it was just astounding.

Cohutta, Georgia

Some of our friends recently went to Cohutta a small town in Georgia and rented a lodge up in the mountains. When they returned they couldn’t stop talking about their adventures into the beautiful landscape and the long walks up and down the mountains. They kept telling us about the animals and the beautiful cabins and the landscape and whatever popped into their minds. So we finally gave in and decided to look into this whole Cohutta deal and found a cabin in a secluded area of the mountains for a reasonable price.

We decided to go online before hand and make sure we got a cabin near nature trails and see how far from town we actually were. The thing about the mountains is that if you want a simple item from the store it’s not just a drive away. You have to take an hour out of your time to drive all the way down off the mountain and then into town where you can find local grocery stores or whatever you’re looking for and get your stuff. Suffice to say we packed everything we needed to try and avoid long trips for simple items like toilet paper and kitchen utensils.

We rented a Ford F-150 pick up truck from Avis and figured it would be beneficial up in the mountains. We got four wheel drive just because we weren’t sure what to expect in the way of steep inclines. The drive up was scenic and long, but when we got to our destination it was well worth it. The Cabin was beautiful, it overlooked an entire valley, there was a leak in the ceiling but nothing a simple bucket couldn’t fix. It was simple, a kitchen, a bathroom, a bedroom and a small living room. The kitchen and living room had huge windows that overlooked the valley and my wife was snapping pictures the whole time.

The nature paths in Cohutta are gorgeous they cover all the hillsides and valleys and you can just walk for hours. Animals are everywhere in fact we saw a few bears that we quietly avoided after taking a few pictures. The raccoons were a pest at night buy overall the trip was a fantastic success. A little bit of snow and rain here and there made the entire trip kind of muddy, but other than that the mountains in Georgia are worth the trip.

Loggerhead Turtles in North Carolina 2010

Many people don’t know this about Rafeal but he is quite the turtle enthusiast. No matter what time of day you catch him in, he is always talking about a Turtle. He has all of the random facts you need to know about turtles memorized and isn’t afraid to share them with you. According to what he claims, the Loggerhead Turtle is becoming one of the most rare turtles in the United States. Even though 91.5% of these nearly extinct creatures live with us down here in Florida, Rafael insisted that we go all the way up to North Carolina where the population is only about 1% so he could do some extensive research on these creatures. Usually I’m not much of a turtle fan, actually I’m not a turtle fan at all. The only turtles that I’ve ever had were two small pets that I used to have when I was a kid. They were pretty boring to tell you the truth, but I’d never let Rafael know that I had turtles at pets or I would get the “You are holding wild animals captive” talk with him and I was not ready to hear him. So I quickly gave in and we both decided that we would make our way up to North Carolina to part take in the wild sport of Turtle Watching.

We started off renting a car in Orlando Florida at the Orlando International Airport. There are always so many options to choose from at this location but I can never seem to make up my mind when I go! Usually when renting a car I figure out what I need and go to the first rental car kiosk I need, this time since Rafael got to choose what we “needed” for our trip. Usually we decide what kind of car we want based on the size of the car or the “ball-a-bility (how much we could show off in front of girls) this time Rafael chose the car with two requirements, 1) it must have the same figure as a turtle, and 2) it must have an iPod connection so we could listen to a song by his favorite band ironically named “The Turtles”. We got a gold colored Ford Focus that reminded Rafael of the light brown complexion of the Loggerhead Turtle’s skin, Budget Rental Car is probably one of the easiest places to rent a car from, before we came I checked them out online to see what kind of deals they had and to my surprise they claimed that you could rent a car in 60 seconds! I can’t even tie my shoes in 60 seconds!

After renting the vehicle we made our way up north. The only stop we made in Florida was up in Jacksonville where all we really did was eat a quick meal and continued on the road. I was surprised at how economical this car was, we almost made it through Georgia without having to fill up! Unfortunately we got lost for a little because Rafael typed the wrong address into the GPS so that burned a little gas. Now South Carolina was a different story, we made it through that state without even having to think about filling up, but we stopped in a small town called Whiteville right outside of the state line. We were originally going to go to Plymouth, North Carolina but we heard from locals that North Myrtle beach is the place to go if we’re looking for Loggerheads. Once we got to the beach Rafael got in his SCUBA suit and put his flippers on and took a dive into the water with his camera in hopes to capture a Loggerhead turtle on film before they go extinct and he may never be able to see them again.

After about a half hour of him swimming around underwater he popped up and said “I got something!” he showed me a 30 second clip of a Loggerhead and after that video he was satisfied and wanted to go home. I still cant believe that we drove almost 11 hours to see a 30 second clip of a turtle, but that’s okay because if that’s what he likes to do then that’s what he likes to do. Overall, even though I thought the entire trip was pointless because we rarely did anything fun, I still had a good time taking a nice relaxing drive all the way up to North Carolina to see some new sights and meet some new people. Rafael was extremely happy with his footage and uploaded it to YouTube immediately; by the time we got home he had over 20,000 views. He was happy there were other enthusiasts just like him!

Panama City Spring Break 2010

We decided it would be a great idea to go on a spring break vacation this year and one of the top destinations is the one and only Panama City, Florida. Now the funny part about Panama City is its about 6 hours north of Orlando and the weather in Orlando wasn’t near its best for the last few days and for some reason we imagined that it would be a lot colder up north. The cold weather hasn’t stopped us before and it didn’t stop us on our way to spring break. Even though a short 6 hour drive is almost nothing compared to our other destinations we still decided to rent a car so we could show off a little for the ladies because my car hasn’t been washed in about 4 months and Brock cries like a baby when it comes to putting miles on his truck. Cesar also drives a small car so it would be nearly impossible to fit all of us and our stuff and bring it all to Panama City. Well we rented out a nice 2010 Cadillac Escalade from Avis at the Orlando International Airport and made our ways up north. Of course it wasn’t quiet on the way there, we were all excited and we could not wait to get there. We all made up lies so we could trick the ladies.

For example we were all child prodigies and made it through college during our first years of high school. The professions we made up are as follows: I was a surgeon, Brock was a Dentist, and Cesar was a Celebrity Personal Trainer. We were all neighbors in our south beach mansions and came to Panama City for very important business meetings. That was our story and we were sticking to it. By the time we got to the beach it was late afternoon and we all wanted to sleep, the weather wasn’t all that nice. In fact it was pretty gloomy and ugly but that’s okay because people from all over the states came down to party in Panama City and the weather was not even bothering them the very least bit. Once we stepped out of the car we no longer wanted to sleep. There was only one thing on our mind and that was living life to the absolute fullest, and that’s just what we did. In no time we were on the beach in cloudy weather with a slight drizzle but that’s okay there was music blaring from a nearby restaurant and everyone was just having a good time. It was getting pretty late in the night and the rain cleared up so we went to the hotel and started to change into our nightlife clothes to check out some of the clubs and local area attractions.

We had a great room on the beach where we had a clear view of the sand and the road across the street so we watched visitors slowly fade off the beach and watched the road become crowded with more people little by little. At night we were so excited to see what everyone was doing. All of the clubs and lounges were jam packed and we couldn’t even decide where we wanted to go first. Honestly we were having fun just walking up and down the street and driving around in our Escalade we had nothing to worry about. We didn’t really find much to do that night but it was okay because we were still kind of tired from all of the traveling. We woke up the next morning to the sound of music and fun, it seemed like people just weren’t ready to slow down all they wanted to do was have fun! And that was the best part about the day, for the rest of the day we spent time on the beach doing nothing else but partying and having fun. There was a lot of filming going on but it wasn’t anything like I would imagine MTV’s Spring Break to be. We are spending a little over a week here and we cant wait for the days to come and so far we don’t want this to end!

New York 2010

One of my favorite places to go is New York, because no matter what time of year it is it’s always so nice. I was pretty surprised at the weather there this weekend because I was expecting it to be extremely cold, but it was almost the same exact temperature than it is here in Florida. Friday was just like any other day besides the fact that we had a ton of last minute running around to do on our two day trip, my entire family has been procrastinating for 3 months! It was okay though because we got everything done anyway. We all usually just take my dads truck to the park and fly that is only about 5 minutes from our house, the only problem is that this time we had to rent a car because the battery was dead and we were so short on time. One thing we didn’t know this whole time is, sometimes you end up spending less by just renting a car instead of hiring a taxi or going through park and fly! Well in this case we only ended up saving about $4 but it was a two day trip and the savings could have possibly skyrocketed on a longer vacation. We rented a green car because we weren’t going to use it for long and we weren’t planning on bringing any suitcases because we were all loaded with hand luggage. Our Ford Fusion was such a comfortable ride we didn’t even want to get out! Well as we got to the airport we were kind of running a little late, but returning the car was so fast and easy I couldn’t even believe it! We ended up walking to the gate just as they began to board the plane so we didn’t miss a thing; the best part about our flight was that we were flying JetBlue so we had the in-flight televisions. The 2 hour and 15 minute flight felt like nothing whatsoever. Once we landed I was expecting a cold wind chill to freeze me but apparently that was not the case, it was only 4 degrees colder than it was in Orlando! I made it outside and was picked up by an uncle. My parents stayed at a hotel and I stayed at my uncles house, the first thing I did when I walked through the door was head straight for the bed. I woke up the next day in the afternoon and was ready to explore. I ate some lunch and we left to go see some of my family. The whole entire reason we went to New York was for my grandmothers 75th birthday. Since it was such a special occasion they were holding it at a banquet hall and the event started at 8. After we got dressed and ready we made it to the hall at about 8:05, people weren’t to happy that we were late but its okay because my grandma didn’t care and that’s all that really mattered anyway. We spent the entire night having fun and we finally left around 2 a.m. and went right back to my uncles house. We went right to sleep as soon as we got home just to wake up early the next morning for the most pointless meal of the day…breakfast. No one really wanted to go but my dad’s friend invited us over and we couldn’t just blow them off. After about an hour and a half of complete boringness we went to go meet up with some of our other family members from the other side of the family, we spent most of the day doing that until it was about 7pm and we left for the airport to get on our flight. Overall it was a pretty fun trip even though we didn’t really do much.

Deltona

So bikeweek was amazing, unfortunately we were unable to stay until the very end. Since we were not quite ready to be home just yet, we decided to make a stop by Deltona. We found Blue Springs which is somewhat of a reserve for manatees. It's located just outside of Deltona in Orange City. Very nice small town of Florida. Once we arrived and went through the paperwork to get on this amazing cruise through one of Florida's natural reserves. It was beautiful, just allowing yourselves to submerge in Florida's natural beauty. The water was very calm, the sun was shinning, the temperature was about a beautiful 72 degrees. We brought our digital camera on the boat in hopes of some unique picture opportunities. We sure enjoyed the tour. The tour guide was very in touch with his surroundings we did not get to see any manatees during our tour, but we did see a few wild animals and we were able to snap some pictures of them. It was a magnificent experience.

After the tour through the Manatee reserve, we decided to stop by one of Deltona's local restaurants. Had the most amazing steaks ever, and they had their own brand of lemonade store made, and it was all so delicious. Deltona is definitely a small town with big heart and great taste for food. On our way back home from Deltona we also Decided to stop by Wekiva Springs, since it was later in the day we were unable to do much. We did however take the opportunity to take some pictures in their amazing park. Orlando has is so much more than just theme parks, the Greater Orlando area offers such a wide selection of State parks, there's something available for everyone in the family. Some have fishing, playgrounds, swimming, they even have boat rentals so that you may head out to the middle of their lakes to fish and even just to relax while enjoying the beauty of their nature trails. It is definitely a great way to stay active and keep healthy.

Some of our tourists love to come down to Florida and just run around the strip. Tourists love our beautiful weather, while the northern states have snow and below zero temperatures we are lucky enough in Florida to have the warmer temperatures and constant sunshine. Us Floridians get to enjoy our beautiful beaches almost everyday of the year. Yes the Central Florida residents still must head down to South Florida in order to enjoy the warmer temperatures during the summer but its only a few hours of driving or thirty minutes flight. Nothing compared to what our neighbors to the north have to travel in order to get away from their snow days. We might get rain every now and again but almost never get rained in. I encourage you to go out and explore your backyard, During these tough economic times you can take a trip to the theme parks and enjoy Florida resident discounts. There are many companies that will help you save money if you want to vacation in Florida. If the theme parks is not one of your favorite things to do, you can always go horseback riding. Go out and explore, enjoy yourself, stay outdoors as much as possible.

Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame

We were recently browsing through the news on a website and learned about the works of a man named Paul Allen. Paul Allen is the co-founder of Microsoft, and to put it lightly, he’s loaded with cash. So what does one who has that much money do with his time? What would you do with that much money? Well Paul Allen has invested in some of the most popular props and remakes of famous Science Fiction shows and movies.

Of course once you have all these fantastic items do you just hide them in your closet? Absolutely not, that’s why Paul Allen has built a full museum to showcase his fantastic arts. So in a matter of no time… well after convincing the wife… and then in a matter of no time we had a Chevrolet Aveo from Avis and we were speeding towards Seattle. We rented a hotel online and when we arrived it only took a few minutes to be in our room.

Now we didn’t come all this way just for the museum, my wife has some plans of her own, mostly in the way of shopping. But I really used to be into the Star Trek shows back in my day and now that I have the opportunity to see some of their gear… well lets just say I am a little exited. So when I arrived inside the museum to see an enormous showcase of hundreds and hundreds of props related to the show, I nearly had a heart attack. Paul Allen is also a fan of rock music, so it isn’t just a museum it’s also a hall of fame for some great music. The whole time we were looking around the speakers were playing some hit music.

We saw an abundance of different props; we saw a metal arm and skull from Terminator, the robot from Lost in Space and the captain’s chair from Star Trek. My wife took a ton of pictures, however I was to busy drooling to care too much. This was a fun and interesting experience… can I say thank you to Paul Allen on a blog? Well be in Seattle for a little while longer, my wife wants to finish her part of the bargain.