Blue Ridge Mountains

Now if you remember just a short time ago we went to Georgia and hung out in the mountains. Well my wife was recently reading about other places we could go for an affordable price when she came across another destination in the Georgia Mountains. The Blue Ridge Mountains are some gorgeous paradises that you can explore all year round. Now last time we were up there it was snowing on and off and there was a lot of sleet in the rain. However now it’s beginning to get warm and the storms are beginning to clear up, so we decided we would head to these beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains for a relaxing vacation after our visit to Italy.

The resort we stayed in was beautiful; it had a warm countryside feeling with all the conveniences you would expect. We decided to drive up so we rented a Ford Focus from Budget while we were in Orlando. Now we have had a Ford Focus before so it wasn’t a stretch to get used to. We got to the beautiful mountains with no incident it was about an eleven hour drive from Central Florida.

This hills and mountains are gorgeous. Since all the snow started melting the rivers are overflowing with crystal clear water. To be honest it’s more beautiful than the Val Gardena we just visited in Italy. The resort where we stayed has these nature trails with beautiful bridges and waterfalls that are just jaw dropping. It rained once while we were there, but the most common thing was the fog. Well… I call it fog but truth be told we were just high enough up in the mountains that it was actually clouds flying in. When the clouds came into the mountains it just made the waterfalls all the more beautiful, it was just picture perfect moments one after the other.

There was a horse back riding school here and my wife and I jumped right in. They take you along the nature paths and down into the valley. My wife and I have done horse back riding a lot in the past so it was nothing to be worried about. I can tell you one thing though; it’s a lot easier going up hill on the back of a horse than walking it yourself. If you get the opportunity to go to Blue Ridge Mountains than do it, even if its just for a short period of time its an experience I wouldn’t mind doing again.

Val Gardena Italy

We have been considering this trip for over a year. As you know we usually stick to the states, however we have been getting a little ambitious about going out of the country. We were looking fro exactly what we wanted to do while we were in Italy. Now we had been there before and seen all the sites, all the capital buildings and the beautiful canals and we kind of just wanted to explore the outer regions of the country. My wife had talked about the more rural areas, the farm lands and such. So when we landed we rented a Ford Mondeo Chia and booked it out of the city to the countryside.

We headed for Val Gardena a large formation of mountains, and around this time of year rumored to be more beautiful than anything you have ever seen before. Apparently the heat is just starting to melt the snow off the slopes and the bright green of the trees are just peaking through the deep snow. The entire way up to the mountains you could see the Val Gardena looming in the distance, the beautiful mountains surround you on all sides when you get to the basin. Now the closest you can get to the mountain is the ski lodge, at least in terms of places to stay. Suffice to say we actually stayed at the ski lodge and the rooms were surprisingly very luxurious.

The Val Gardena is located in the valley known as the Dolomites and basically the entire area is dedicated to skiing and snowboarding throughout the winter. However with the snow melting most of the skiers and snowboarders were begging to leave. However, a lot of them continued to ski the slopes in the morning before the snow became very wet. I really can’t describe to you how beautiful the area was, we kept going on nature trail after nature trail all day long. The staff at the lodge continuously supplied us with interesting places to eat and fun little restaurants to dine in.

All in all the Val Gardena in Italy is a must for anyone who enjoys the great outdoors. We couldn’t have been more relaxed than our time in Northern Italy. If you get the chance to head up there I recommend enjoying sometime in the Dolomites valley its definitely worth it.

Visiting The Titanic 2010

One of my favorite movies of all time has always been “titanic” after seeing it for the first time as a child I was fascinated with the story behind such a large ship that was deemed “unsinkable”. After a quick search online I was able to find a tour company that was offering tours to the sunken ship. When I wanted to sky dive I was able to find so many friends that wanted to join me on my journey but now that I wanted to go to the bottom of the ocean there was almost no one that wanted to go with me! Aside from the fact that you are way below sea level in the coldest water you can imagine, the price wasn’t very low either. None the less I still found someone who was willing to go and we were more excited then I’ve ever been. It wasn’t just any journey we were making, we were doing a once in a life time expedition to the most famous ship wreck of all time, almost everyone knows what the Titanic was but very few get the opportunity to go down deep into the ocean and see it in person. We found a great deal on airfare that would get us from Maine to Newfoundland and Newfoundland back to Orlando for next to nothing, with such a great deal we decided to drive on up to Maine. Since we couldn’t just leave our car in Maine we decided to rent a car and drive it all the way up there and drop it off when we got there. We rented a car from the Avis at the Orlando International Airport and before we did anything else we were on the highway ready to make a move towards Maine.

Luckily we rented a 2010 Chevrolet Camaro so it was a fun drive all the way up, we used our radar detector the whole way and it felt like we were just zooming through states, by the time we got to main we were bummed, it was actually our first full night’s rest before our flight and I could barely sleep. When we got to the airport we boarded the plane and left quickly, it was nothing like the busy MCO or JFK airport, it was very laid back and relaxing and was probably the most stress free time I’ve ever spent in an airport. I tried not to eat or drink much on our way there because it was explained to us that bathroom access is very limited, but you cant complain when you’re 2.5 miles towards the bottom of the ocean. We didn’t waste any time, once we got to the hotel we dressed in our warmest clothes and went to the diving location. It was a pretty nice day out and I was sweating in all of the clothes I had on but it was all necessary because it would get really cold at the bottom of the ocean. We were among a group of about 15 and I was very surprised that other people were as fascinated with the Titanic as we were. We got onto a boat and the put us into submersibles and we descended into the bottom of the ocean. If you think you would like to go on one of these, make sure you realize that this trip is not for the people who get motion sickness because there is a lot of rocking around involved and its very easy to get sea sick.

Once we got to the bottom we couldn’t really see much besides a group of barnacles but once the light from the submersible shined brightly on it we were able to see the shape of the ship. Every one was taking a ton of pictures and we were all so excited to see what we’ve traveled so far for. After seeing the movie I can honestly say that this ship was almost an exact replication of the ship I could remember scenes of the movie just by looking at the ship alone! We circled around the ship and saw every piece of it from front to back. We were so interested in this ship but the time for the tour was running short and we had to ascend back to the top of the water, it got warmer and warmer the higher we went and almost no one wanted to go back up, everyone wanted stay but due to time and fuel that was almost impossible. After we got back we got a few briefings about the trip and we were all surprised at the interesting facts we learned about the Titanic. There was a lot of things about the ship that the movie doesn’t tell you but for the most part it was very accurate in portraying all that the ship has done. If I were to ever go on a submarine trip again the Titanic would be my first trip hands down.

Talkeetna Alaska Fishing Trip

We have been in Alaska for the past week and we have ventured as much as the Denali State Park as we could handle. Our legs were beginning to give way during the days walks and I am just getting to old to do this kind of stuff. We still have our Chevy Silverado from Enterprise and we had to learn quickly how to drive up here, but the views are fantastic. Now if you have read any of my other blogs you know how much I love to fish, and I mean I really love to fish. Anyhow my wife never booked a flight home; we decided we would leave when we got a flight. So when I asked the park ranger at Denali about the fishing here his eyes lit up and he gave me a phone number back at the lodge for a charter boat we could take.

The lake is called Christiansen Lake, it really isn’t that massive but the lake is gorgeous. Especially since the trees are just coming back green and the ice is receding around the edges of the lake. When we arrived we chartered a boat, it came as a real surprise to us when we saw how inexpensive it was. We always figured the people up here probably get very few visitors, but apparently that isn’t the case. We went out on the lake in a large pontoon boat; they took us from cove to cove where we fished for Salmon. We caught a bunch of them near where the melting snow was running off the mountains.

The best part about the whole fishing experience were the beautiful views, and as you may have guess my wife was taking pictures the entire time. The lakes were crystal clear you could see straight to the bottom in ten feet of water. We caught four trout, and three salmon, the guide said that was a small amount for a normal fishing trip. Thankfully they let us use their rods and reels, because I had nothing. If you remember we came to Alaska straight from New York so we were practically empty when it came to travel gear. We plan to head back to Florida tomorrow, going straight from the cold to the warm. If I ever head back up here I will definitely go fishing again I really enjoyed myself.

Talkeetna, Alaska and Denali State Park

My wife and I were still in New York deciding if we wanted to head all the way home or just start our next vacation from here when we overheard a couple talking about their trip to Alaska. We kind of ease dropped and caught the words “Talkeetna” and the “Denali State Park.” When we got back to our families house where we were staying we broke out the laptop and started to Google some of the information. Suffice to say in just a few short days we were on an airplane headed for Alaska. We made reservations to stay in Talkeetna which is a small town just under the beautiful state park.

Unlike the rest of the U.S. Alaska isn’t constantly being industrialized, and the state parks up here are massive. We paid for a guide to take us out the first two days and show us the ropes, and the snow up here is just receding enough for the green to break through. We rented a Chevy Silverado from Enterprise; we figured the big truck would be perfect for the roads up here. When we got to the park we met with our guide and he gave us the grand tour of the lodge and a quick safety class. All in all we were out on the countryside in just a short period of time. The first day we covered nearly seven miles of flat terrain, the beautiful mountains on each side. My wife couldn’t help but stop and take pictures every couple of minutes. We saw a few deer but they were far off in the distance.

We are on our third day touring the park; basically we just start off at the lodge each morning and walk as far in one direction as we can until lunch time. At that point we have a meal under the clear sky and beautiful mountains and then begin our way back to the lodge. We saw a few bear, they got pretty close, the guide just simply kept walking, but my wife stopped him so we could take pictures. The countryside we walked was surprisingly flat, but the mountains are beyond words.

If you ever get the opportunity to head to Alaska and tour the State Parks then do it! The guide said they are pretty much all the same, so I suggest finding your way to one immediately, because it was just that great. We will definitely come back here at some point, we still have another day here but we are definitely enjoying it.

Niagara Falls Wedding

So we have been awaiting this day for a few months, we got a letter of invitation from a distant relative inviting us to a wedding. So naturally we said yes, and when we looked up the address for where the wedding was being held our jaws dropped. Now if you haven’t already read the title you will be surprised, because our distant relative booked his wedding on the edge of Niagara Falls. So off to New York we flew and ready we were for this fantastic experience.

We rented a Ford Fusion from Thrifty Car Rental right at the airport. The little car had a huge engine, I mean you could feel that thing rev up every time I accelerated all the way to Niagara Falls. We were talking to the groom about the cost of the wedding and he kept on joking about how easy it was. He said that they didn’t have to pick colors, they didn’t have to pay decorators and the only thing they had to pay for was the beautiful villa they rented for the wedding. All in all they were extremely satisfied.

The couple arrived in a limo, and the wedding proceeded from there. They walked the red carpet into the pavilion and then with the falls in the background they began the wedding. The reception was small but my wife was ecstatic, things a wedding can do to a women. Anyway we made plans to revisit the falls the next day.

Now our hotel was pretty close to the falls so in the morning the next day we returned and decided we would buy tickets to a boat. My wife was taking pictures the entire time; she must have taken over a thousand. The boat you ride on gets incredibly close to the falls, just far enough you feel safe but just on the edge where you can still hear the pounding water. We decided that if we every come back to New York we will be sure to visit the falls again, we really liked it.

If you get the opportunity to visit the falls, then don’t wait for a wedding. I’m surprised we haven’t done this before, it was really fantastic.

Looking At Ferrari Roller Coaster 2010

Going to a different part of the world to see a roller coaster can be considered an oddity, especially when you live in Central Florida! But since my brother in law is a roller coaster designer we had to make a trip to one of the most unexpected places in the world for the mew roller coaster! Now I’m always a fan for speed, it doesn’t matter if I’m in a car, boat, plane or on my bare feet. If it’s moving I want it to go faster! That was probably the key deciding factor in my decision to go to all the way to the United Arab Emirates to see Ferrari’s new ride that is said to be one of the fastest rides in history. Of course we weren’t going to be able to drive a car all the way over there so we had to get a flight. I’ve never been on a flight to that area of the world so I was unsure how long then flight was before I bought the tickets so I went and checked online, the flight time was about 15 hours and that was something I was not prepared for at all! I’ve sat in cars for that long but I’ve never been in a plane that long, but for the most part I didn’t really mind because I know exactly how it would go.

I would board the plane, then the plane would take off and I would fall asleep no matter what, even if I got a full nights rest the day before. Of course we weren’t getting around by walking so we needed to set up a car rental, we decided to do that online because there was a huge language barrier and it would make it harder than it really was to rent a car. We found a great deal renting through Budget so without hesitation we booked right then and there; we just had to make sure that it was ready for us whenever we landed. Now the flight went just as planned, I went in, fell asleep and woke up in time to watch the plane land. As we landed I quickly got everything ready so all we had to was go to the nearest Budget location and rent the car. We rented out a Hummer H3 so we could have a lot of room for all the building materials and plans he would have to pick up when he went to his meeting. The ride was nowhere near done but I wanted to ride it more than I wanted anything else! The designs were flawless and I could not wait to hear people start talking about it because I could only imagine the top speed! After reviewing the plans and finally getting done with just looking at blueprints it was time to really sit down and talk about this, I found out more about that ride just then than I did reading about it online!

It’s supposed to go up to 125MPH when ready which is a little faster than another ride in the park. Overall it was a great trip the time we spent flying and going was probably the most painful but I didn’t mind because I’m going to have to do it again one day when that ride opens up so I could actually feel what its like to go 125MPH in open air unless of course I decide to buy a Ferrari Convertible sometime in the near future, which is highly unlikely by the way. On the way back I got to thinking about the rides in Dubai compared to these in Orlando, I was excited when Universal Studios came out with their new Hollywood Rip Ride Rock It because it went at a whopping 65 miles per hour but now that I think about it that’s nothing compared to the new coaster in Dubai which goes almost twice as fast! I can honestly say when they build a ride like this in Orlando I would be among the first people in line for this attraction and not being able to wait for my turn. If anyone is ever in the Dubai area I highly recommend going to the Ferrari build site even though its not done yet it’s a very interesting build site to look at, even though I don’t expect them to put any inversions in the coaster just the fact that it goes over 100 miles per hour is enough to win me over.

Georgia Aquarium

We were on our way through Georgia again on our way back home to Florida. My wife saw an exit sign that read “Georgia Aquarium, Seven Miles.” Now if you have read my previous blogs you know that my wife is a women that will put away all the plans to do something she thinks looks great, so we pulled off the interstate and headed towards this aquarium. Now we were still in our little Ford Flex which is still booking at great speeds and has a high mile per gallon engine.

This aquarium was huge… and I mean massive! We purchased a guided tour and the lady had an enormous amount of information to share with us. The most impressive part about the whole thing was the size, the lady kept reminding us that there was eight million gallons of water just behind the glass into the viewing tanks. Can you imagine an eight million gallon fish tank? Well here at the Georgia Aquarium that’s exactly what it was.

There were over 100,000 animals in their tanks, ranging from small school fish to large sharks. There are apparently over 500 animal species in these tanks, that’s just a ridiculous number. I kept thinking to myself “How could they remember all the kinds of fish they have in these tanks?” They had three beautiful beluga whales that were the highlight of our tour. My wife took a ton of pictures, it was well worth it, she got some incredible pictures of the sharks. Now if anyone knows anything about sharks you know that the whale shark is the biggest shark in the sea. Guess what? This aquarium had four of them! The Manta Rays were beautiful, we have seen them off the coast of Florida but never like this before I mean they were gorgeous.

If we ever get the opportunity to return to the aquarium we will definitely do so. Apparently it was started with a $250 million donation which doesn’t surprise me, the thing is massive. It has won award after award for its enormous size and quantity of see life. I am dead serious I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the largest aquarium on earth.

Camping in the Adirondack Mountains 2010

When it comes to going on vacation I usually like to relax and not rough it too much, mainly because I don’t see a point in paying so much money and you’re living worse than you do at home. Unfortunately today was a different story, my buddy Jerry and I decided we would take a trip up to the Adirondack Mountains up in New York and check out the wildlife. Anyone can tell you that you can’t check out any wildlife from a hotel room! You have to get up close and personal and actually live out of a tent! I’ve camped out a million and a half times before but never up north before so it was bound to be a new experience this time. The only fun of going up to the Adirondack Mountains is that we are from Florida, and there is almost nothing that one could even consider a hill, let alone a mountain. We already knew my front wheel drive car wasn’t going to make it up those slopes, and Jerry’s truck wasn’t large enough to carry all of our stuff so we had no other choice left than to rent a car. We went to Hertz and immediately decided the best vehicle that would fit our situation would be the Nissan Xterra which was a large 5 passenger SUV with 4WD so we had more than enough room and more than enough power to make it up those steep inclines on the mountains.

We drove our new rental back to our houses so we could load up with all the camping gear we could think of and then we were on our ways. We left Orlando and were in such a rush to get to Georgia, we figured that if we were going to drive for such a long distance we didn’t even want to make the shortest of pit stops in the same state! So we ended up in Georgia in record time, once we got there we were so surprised at how well this SUV did on gas, for a vehicle as large as it was and loaded up as it was, we barley used a full tank for that entire trip! We made it up to Savanna, Georgia and we spent the night. At first I though we were going to be like normal people and get a hotel but then Jerry insisted that since we had all our camping gear ready we could just go to a local campgrounds and put all our gear to use. Well even though it was no 5-star hotel, it was a lot cheaper and we didn’t have to go through all the hassle when checking in and out of a hotel. We woke up early in the morning and rushed our way up to South Carolina, the best thing about traveling with Jerry is that we never have to stop for food.

He always rides strapped with a bunch of food for our long journeys so not only did we save a lot of money on our trip we saved a lot of time as well, for the next few hours I fell asleep because I didn’t get the greatest 8 hours of sleep in the tent because it was so cold and the ground wasn’t as comfortable as a mattress. The next thing I knew I woke up and I was surrounded by snow capped mountains and we were among the Adirondacks, The one and only thing that I worry about while in the mountains is snakes but from reading a bunch of articles online I learned that around this time of year they are the least things you have to worry about because the weather is way too cold for them. The first animal that we saw was an Adirondack Mountain Lion, now I always thought that these things roamed free in these parts but boy was I wrong. Jerry was so excited when he saw it he stopped the SUV took a few pictures as it was running off and sent it to all his buddies. Apparently it’s a really big deal to find these creatures in the wild and with our luck it was the first one that we’ve seen!

We got to a small town and filled up our gas tank and told them about the sighting and an old man added a dot to his map, I guess he was interested in mapping the reported sighting spots, there was a lot less than I would have imagined for someone to see year round. We finally got to our campsite and even though we’re supposed to be living life on the edge and roughing it out a little a nearby RV offers Wi-Fi and if its free then I’m not complaining!

New Orleans

We were on our way back from Provost Skene’s House in Aberdeen Texas when we came within ten minutes of New Orleans. Now we are still driving my sweet little Ford Flex that we got from Avis after returning the Ford F-150. So when my wife said we should stop for dinner I was ecstatic at the though of driving my Flex for an extra few hours. So we pulled off to the exit and drove straight into the middle of New Orleans.

We found a little place called Chad’s Bistro, a small gourmet restaurant that serves steak and seafood. Now if you remember I love to fish and every time I hear about seafood I think about how proud I would be if I was the one that caught the fish. Anyhow we went in and ordered our meals. I got a steak and my wife got a lobster, which was some of the freshest and tastiest lobster I have ever tasted. The steak wasn’t bad either, and the shrimp and other appetizers were fantastic. The great thing about this was how inexpensive the restaurant was, at least for the gourmet food we were buying.

My wife wanted to go out on a river cruise of the Mississippi river before we left. So we decided to take a night cruise on the Natchez a fully functioning steamboat! They had live jazz on board and the peaceful and elegant cruise was about three hours long. It was really fun and my wife took a huge amount of pictures. Onboard we actually met another family from Florida as well, however they were visiting family, not making a side trip.

We ended up spending a night in New Orleans, we really didn’t want to drive home in the night. Besides it was a long day and our stomachs were full. We had to call the Avis dealer in Florida and warn them the Ford Flex would be a day late, and they just added it to our bill. New Orleans looks like a fun place were considering planning a trip to the area.

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.

Bike Week 2010

Temperatures are throughout the country have been relatively low. But Florida has made sure that despite the weather report, they heat things up in Daytona. Bike Week has been one of Daytona's main attractions since the late 1930's. Bike Week is one of the Worlds largest motorcycle events; This event hosts hundreds of bike clubs from all over the nation.

Daytona's Bike Week, showcases some of the wildest motorcycle designs ever seen. Once in bike week everything changes. It is no longer about who has the biggest truck or the fastest or most exotic car, no longer is it about how much you can bench or how many push ups you can do. It is time to let the bikes do the talking. Every biker that comes through bike week has their own special effect to showcase. Daytona has seen some of the most bizarre motorcycle designs; Bike week has also been home to some of the most beautiful and amazing bike designs ever seen. Now Bike week is not all about the Design of the Bike's or the exciting upgrades. Bike Week also has many bike shows and stunt shows taking place throughout the week. The grand Finale comes with the Daytona 200.

Daytona 200 is the reason bike week was even started. There was a period during World War II that the race was not held, however during this period bikers found time to leave all their problems back home and come down to Daytona and enjoy the beauty of bike week. Once the race resumed, more events were added to bike week. 2010 promises to be the best year yet. Every year the city allows new events to spring up during bike week. There is something for all ages available during bike week, from picture opportunities to modeling shows. Some of the kids even come dressed as the toughest riders out this side of the Magic kingdom.

The bikers and their clubs normally stay more than just one day, and are always welcomed in all of Daytona's amazing hotels. We decided to stay home this year and just drive up to Daytona during the weekend. It can be pretty difficult to find an available hotel room during bike week This year not only do we have bike week, but most colleges and Universities in Florida are having their spring break early this year. Daytona has welcomed their busy season with open arms; they have bikers and spring breakers visiting since the ending of February. Daytona will stay an active beach for the rest of the warm season. Once the bikers leave its time for the rest of the spring breakers to take over, and after that we will have the summer crowd starting to come in. However as soon as the summer crowd leaves, Daytona might see a few slow weeks before the bikers return during Biketoberfest, Which is another one of Daytona's main biker events.

Bungee Jumping in Idaho 2010

Going bungee jumping is something that I’ve been wanting to do for all of my life, now that I finally got some time off work I finally decided it would be a great idea to take that opportunity and turn it into a reality. First off we wanted to find a place to do it, there were a lot of places that we found online and most of them were out of the country! Even through they were pretty far away they looked so fun, but I just didn’t have the time to leave the country and it wouldn’t be so cost efficient to travel such a long distance just to do one thing. We wanted to go somewhere that is nationally recognized and fun but not too far away. Our first place that we wanted to go was all the way in California. Like always I was ready for an intense road trip but again time was a major issue in this trip and driving all the way to California would not be the best thing to do in such a rush. We continued looking online for the best bungee jumping attractions in America until we finally found one, it was in Idaho. Which was quite a surprise to the both of us because we always thought Idaho was just famous for its potatoes, but apparently we were wrong. Many people would tell you that Florida is not the place to bungee jump, the closest things we have to mountains are hills which people from the mountain areas would call flatland. We quickly scurried off the Orlando International Airport so we could rent a vehcile that could take us from Florida to Idaho.

We wanted to have something that would fit us and all of our baggage yet still be fuel efficient at the same time. Our choice was the Jeep Grand Cherokee. Brock was pretty thrilled that we got a Jeep because he used to drive one back in the day until a group of furious midgets’ car jacked him and left him with nothing but his shoes and some Oreos, he claims that it was a long walk home. To get back in the spirit of driving a Jeep I let him drive the whole way there, most of the time I love to drive but after getting the Doodle Jump App on my iPhone I decided I would sit it out and see if I can beat my friend Cesar’s Hi-Score. This drive was originally scheduled to be almost 2 days long! But luckily Brock brought his handy dandy radar detector and put his foot as far down on the gas pedal as he could go, to both get there faster and avoid running into those dwarfs again. We made our first pit stop in Tallahassee and quickly left, we were surprised at how cold it was up there. Neither of us like the cold very much so we did as little stopping as possible, we went all the way to Kansas without making a stop (other than for gas of course) we spent the night in a local bed and breakfast in Kansas and we woke up early the next morning to go on our way to Idaho. One of the nicest states I’ve ever been to was Nebraska there's just something about the snow coated roads and grasslands that just appeal to me. I took a bunch of pictures and uploaded them to my Facebook.

Before we knew it we were in Idaho. It was pretty late in the night and boy was it cold, of all people to go bungee jumping in the cold it had to be us Floridians. Honestly, who in their right minds would leave nice warm sunny and hot weather to face some of the coldest weather in North America racing against them at a rapid rate of speed as they fell to the ground, and flew up multiple times. We got a good nights rest and got to the bungee jumping place in time for our appointment, after all that driving we were pumped for this event so we made every minute count. As soon as I jumped from that bridge there was no turning back, it as an awesome experience and I can not wait to try it one more time. We didn’t feel like we could handle the drive back home so we just easily returned our cars and took a plane. Our buddy Cesar was supposed to pick us up but once I told him I beat his hi-score in Doodle Jump he locked himself in his room and didn’t talk to anyone for days. We still got a ride and ended up back home in just enough time to catch the sunny weather before the sun set!

Blue Springs

Were back to the springs, we just got back from Vancouver and we decided we needed to do something close to home. So, we decided to go down to the springs because our friends were just there while we were gone and said that the manatee were everywhere. Now if you remember our visit to the last springs my wife swore she would buy a waterproof case for her camera the next time. So guess what came out of my credit card? The second we got home it was ordered and now it’s going to get used.

We rented a canoe at the springs and went riding down the river, unfortunately the water in Florida is very murky, so we couldn’t take any pictures where they allow us to canoe. The algae only grows where the water is warm, and the water coming out of the spring is freezing. So for hundreds of feet the water is crystal clear, and then the water progressively gets murkier. So we got out of the canoe and started to walk up towards the spring, with camera in tow we got about half way up before the water was so powerful we couldn’t go further.

We saw what we thought were large rocks just up ahead so we pushed our way through the water to stand on them. I’m glad we didn’t because they were some of the biggest manatee we have ever seen. It is illegal to touch them so we just stood off to the side and took an abundance of photos. There must have been fifteen of them, apparently they love the cold water, and I guess the moving water might be enjoyable also.

After we had gotten tons of photos we climbed out of the water and followed the nature trail to the large balcony above the actual spring. You can get a lot of great pictures from there, and it’s really a beautiful view. We plan to come back here in the future, it’s a really fun way to enjoy Florida.

Olympic Closing Ceremonies

So we are still here in Vancouver with our Ford Focus, the closing ceremonies were spectacular, this blog is just going to be paragraph after paragraph of how amazing this was. We got tickets for a ridiculous price but now looking back on it, it was worth it. It took us almost eight hours to get to the stadium, which was massive, and then find our seats, about 2 hours later the closing ceremonies started. We were starving by then so we bought these cinnamon sticks and chowed down while we watched the show.

We didn’t really know till later that the massive poles that they set on fire to present the Olympic torch were actually made out of real ice. We were amazed by the light shows; every bit of it was absolutely perfect. When the flames shot up the poles the stadium erupted into screams and shots, our ears hurt so bad that we had to buy ear plugs. What I am trying to say is that we weren’t prepared at all for this and they made money of people like us.

We got some fantastic pictures of the snow board dancers. They came out right after the torch was lit and hundreds of them danced around the ice pyramid. They spelled words and made symbols it was just incredible how organized the kids were. There was a lot of music and nations national anthems, most of which you couldn’t understand. A few of them had the words on the screen translated, others just had videos. Each country had their own opportunity to present themselves, either by song or entertainment of their choice. Some used skaters, others used dancers and some just simply sang with light shows.

They had all the Olympic participants on one side of the stadium and all the productions were directed directly at them, it was a cool little way of honoring their hard work. A lot of the speakers spoke of the young man who died during practice just before the sports started, it was a sad story but the crowd applauded for him all the same.

Were heading back in a few minutes so this blog will reach home before we do, sadly. But if you ever get the opportunity to go to the winter Olympics you definitely should, I wish it was here in Vancouver every year, well see if we can do it again in four years, I am already making preperations.