Car Rental Information

New Orleans

noreply@blogger.com (Snow Bird) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:11:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Snow Bird) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:56:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Snow Bird) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:10:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Chandrapaul) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:32:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Chandrapaul) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:46:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Chandrapaul) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:31:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Dominiky) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:02:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Snow Bird) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:06:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Dominiky) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:30:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Chandrapaul) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:32:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Snow Bird) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:55:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Snow Bird) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:34:00 +0000

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.

Pre-Spring Break Vacation

noreply@blogger.com (Dominiky) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:03:00 +0000

So its almost time for Sring Break season to start; Since we are not too big on crowds, we decided to head out before the whole world rushes to Florida's beautiful beaches. I've been wanting to try Panama City for a long time, however due to the low temperatures we decided to head to south Florida. South Florida has stayed amazingly warm during these cold weeks that we've had in the Central Florida area. So why not South Florida to warm up and hit the beach? We have Ft. Lauderdale which is such a beatiful area with and so rich with history. This is perfect weather to head south. The temperature in the Ft. Lauderdale area will stay in the mid to low 70's during our trip, so it will be perfect to spend a nice day at the beach. We can bring out the shorts and t-shirts again, leave the jackets at home. We might bring a windbreaker jacket just in case it gets a bit windy during the night time walks on the beach.

There is however no better feeling than sitting at the balcony with some Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra in the background while you cuddle under the moonlight and watch the beatiful waves with the nice ocean breeze. Talk about a perfect post-valentines day adventure. This trip is sure to keep that fire alive between your partner and you. If the kids decide to come along, remember there are plenty of kid friendly activities around the area. Some of the hotels in the area have video game rentals available. So you could always keep the valcony door open and enjoy a night of "Rock Band" with the family. Dad's are normally best with guitars or drums lol.

Once we arrived to our hotel, we immediately drop off our bags, kicked off the shoes headed down for the beach. The water was actually warm, so we decided to stay at the beach for a while. The wife decided to stay at the beach and tan while I headed back into the room to get the a few drinks and our Ipod's. Relaxing by the beach is an unique feeling, it's so relaxing that you could sleep for days. We had dinner reservations for later that night so we stayed away from the alcoholic drinks down by the beach. Ft. Lauderdale has many nice restaurants and the majority have a very nice wine selection. About half an hour later we felt was enough tanning, we went to the pool for a bit, they had a basketball hoop right by the pool. We met a another couple by the pool and started a pool basketball game with them, after about fifteen minutes of play we came up a few points short of swimming away with a win. It was a lot of fun, during the game we found out that the couple was there on their honeymoon. They were from Colorado and had met in Ft. Lauderdale during a school trip a few years back, John(the husband) was down with his friends for an early start for spring break and Lisa(the wife) was there with the school trip, they met by the pool at the same hotel and 3yrs later they felt it would be romantic to have their honeymoon where they shared their first kiss.

This area is so wonderful, full of nice and friendly people. The tourists are all so excited to have a good time, everyone is just in a very pleasant mood the entire time. The wife and I ended up not going out for dinner, instead we had take out from one of the local restaurants and came back to enjoy it in our valcony with the beatiful moonlight and some scented candles(her idea). The remaining days of the vacation we spent down by the beach enjoying our youth.

Vancouver, Canada

noreply@blogger.com (Snow Bird) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:57:00 +0000

So we are still in Vancouver Canada and we got the opportunity to see a few more of the games, we even got moved closer to the city because our old hotel kinda kicked us out. Apparently they gave us a room that that was supposed to be occupied two days later, when they realized we were in the room they moved us t a Marriot hotel that’s twenty minutes closer to the big games, now it’s only an hour and a half to get there. We didn’t realize it till yesterday but the roads aren’t really clogged up. When we went to the Daytona races you couldn’t move twenty feet in ten minutes, here everything is moving pretty smoothly. There are long walks to the events but it really isn’t that bad.

We went to Granville Island yesterday; you take a ferry over the water to this small island just outside the harbor. It’s a winter wonderland on the water, all these miniature houses covered in snow that you could walk in, and then have your wife clean your wallet out. Yea all these little houses decorated in Christmas lights (I guess all year round?) were filled with restaurants and souvenirs, the perfect solution for a day filled with me toting bags while she laid hands on everything overpriced. I began to wonder if they raised prices since the Olympics came around or if it’s like this all year round.

Anyhow we saw some women’s speed skating events and Ill tell you what they can fly. Watching them on television you can’t really see how fast they are going. When they fly by you in the seats and you can feel the wind on your face you quickly realize that their speed is crazy! We also got to see some bobsleigh racing, my wife took a ton of pictures, but the bobsled always turns up blurry. I didn’t realize that these guys and girls are going faster than some cars are even capable of. We got to meet a few of the Olympic participants in the crowd, although once again they just shook our hands, I don’t know if that means they cant speak English or are purposely avoiding drawing a crowd.

We are gonna hang out here for a few more days, the games are starting to get exiting as the days are winding down, and if I can keep my wife off that blasted island we might have enough money to get home in this Ford Focus were still renting; its nice on the icy roads.

Vancouver, Canada

noreply@blogger.com (Snow Bird) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:03:00 +0000

It’s quite simple to see why I agreed rather rapidly when my wife suggested we go up to Canada and get in on some of the Olympic action. So with only a few days preparation we had a full trip to Vancouver planned, however staying in that area would be almost impossible, there are just too many people there and prices have skyrocketed on all the hotels and places to stay. We decided to fly into Washington and drive up from there, just a simple car rental in Washington and we would be set.

We didn’t pack a lot, of course the camera was a must but truthfully we didn’t expect to do anything but watch the games. That and we were also told that the customs inspections would be ridiculous but we understand the reasons. We rented a Ford Focus from Budget, we set it up online and at the terminal we were handed our keys, a quick and simple exchange. Get across into Canada was a pretty long experience; they checked everything, although they seemed to dismiss my pocket knife so I am not sure exactly what they were looking for. The cool thing is that it is right on the boarder and they offer to mail things home if their in violation of their policies. Lucky for us there was nothing that they cared for.

When we go to our hotel we asked around about how to go about seeing the events and what was coming up. Well there was Curling and a Biathlon the next day, so, we decided to hit the hay and wait till morning to enjoy some of the sports. We had to get up early because we were about two hours out from the course, they searched long and hard through our bags, they even used something to scan my wife’s camera, and then they sent us in. We decided to watch the Biathlon for a few hours then go see the curling event. My wife got some really good pictures of the men; a few times she even got pictures with the flash of their rifles as they fired at the targets. It was the women’s event and some of the guys standing next to us at about the midway point were from the men’s team. None of them spoke English however, but one of them had a bronze medal on, my wife got a picture, were still trying to figure out who it was.

We went over to the curling event later in the day; apparently my wife had a friend back in college who was on a curling team. She explained just about the whole sport to me, otherwise I would be totally in the dark about how it’s played. The PA announcer was talking about how one of the women on the ice was three months pregnant, and I guess if you train for a year to be the best then being pregnant isn’t something to pass up the Olympics for.

We plan to hang out up here in the cold whether for a week or so. You might be hearing more from us if we can find another internet café, or if we return to this one.

Michael Jackson in Disneyland with Rafael 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Chandrapaul) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:35:00 +0000

I was never a huge fan of Michael Jackson, but my good friend Rafael is one of the biggest Michael Jackson fans that has ever existed. Since I was in need of a vacation and he really wanted to see Michael Jackson we decided that we would take a trip. Even though we could have just went to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Rafael decided it would be a much better idea to go all the way to California so he could visit the Neverland Ranch. I’m not new to driving from coast to coast, but Rafael has never been in a car for more than 4 hours. We wanted a car that would be able to pick up all of the “hot mommas” while we were in California because Rafael seems to love those California girls. We went to the Alamo located at the Orlando International Airport the first car that came to sight was the Chevrolet Aveo and without thinking Rafael immediately made his decision. He picked the red Aveo so it would match his Thriller outfit that he was so excited to wear. We couldn’t travel such a far distance on empty stomachs so we decided to stop and eat, the first place Rafael wanted to go was Macaroni Grill because he was in the mood for some “smokey macaroni” we had a great lunch at that restaurant and made our way in the direction of California. Rafael was in such a rush to see Michael Jackson he put the pedal to the metal and pushed that Aveo to the extreme, I actually don’t think he was physically able to go any faster in that car. We ended up in Louisiana before we even knew it; I actually fell asleep in the car and when we woke up in Missouri I asked Rafael if we were almost there and he replied with his signature “CorrectExactly.” We stopped in Texas for a few minutes and stayed at a nearby hotel. I usually hate to waste time by sleeping in when we have to be on the road so I woke Rafael up, instead of getting ready to go he shouted out “Excuseme?!” and went back to sleep. After pouring cold water on him, he finally woke up and we were on the road. I decided to drive this time and we were on our way. We zoomed through Texas and switched drivers in New Mexico. Rafael then again got excited and zoomed all the way through the state; I’ve never been in a vehicle traveling that fast without the intention to win a race or something. Unfortunately, we got an intense speeding ticket on the way there. The officer actually said he was debating sending Rafael to jail for his speeding. We then decided it would be a better idea for me to drive, we drove all the way to California in a few more hours and stayed the night because it was pretty late. We stayed the night with intentions of waking up super early in the morning to see Michael Jackson at Disney Land. The next morning we woke up ready for the day, we made our ways over to Disney Land and checked out this 17-Minute show the whole entire world was talking about. I’ve never seen pure epicness before until that point in history. It was an amazing film and I’m glad they brought it back instead of keeping it a secret. I would say it was honestly worth the drive even though I could have seen the same exact thing in Orlando but it was alright. After the show we went to Neverland Ranch it was kind of weird that Rafael was wearing the same “Thriller” outfit that he has been wearing for the passed few days but that’s okay. I won’t judge him for that. Overall it was a great trip; even through next time I would much rather fly to California next time or just go to Orlando and watch the movie there.

Ichetucknee Springs

noreply@blogger.com (Snow Bird) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:05:00 +0000

So we have kinda been on a relaxing streak since we got back from our New York trip and when we decided we wanted to do something stress free. We rented a vehicle from Enterprise; we chose a Chevy Malibu and headed north to Ichetucknee springs. Now the state park is where the spring is actually located but literally just across the road from the parks boarder is a large camp ground. Now we are getting a little to old for camping but the park offers several small cabins, each with two queen sized beds so we made reservations to rent one of these cabins. We had to wait an extra day for a vacancy but we got the cabin nonetheless.

The campgrounds are actually quite large and at this time of year there really wasn’t a lot of people there. We dropped our stuff in the cabin and made a walk about the campground just to get our bearings. Now on the Ichetucknee River or Spring you generally float down on tubes, so at the front desk or shop we had to rent our tubes for the next morning. We got a large three person raft and figured we would use the extra room to spread out. It was a good idea because I don’t think I could have sat cross legged for three hours… yes the ride is that long.

Don’t get me wrong, every minute of those three hours is filled with incredible sites and animals. We went down the river and saw an abundance of fish in all sizes. The plants and water are beautiful, and every corner presented a new photo opportunity, my wife was aggravated that we hadn’t taken the camera. But the fact that we were riding on water seemed too dangerous for her expensive camera. We saw a few otters and a few water snakes, not poisonous but still snakes none the less.

One you get to the end you can either return your raft or take it back up to the half way point and ride half way down the stream again. We decided that we really weren’t up to riding down again, so we returned our raft and hopped on the tram to return to our car. There was a food stand and we decided that we wanted some hot fries, so when we ordered them we sat down by the river and ate. Keep in mind that this entire time I wanted my fishing rod, the fish here are monstrous, and because the water has less oxygen than the lakes in the area the fish have to jump to collect it. But as far as I see it, the fish are just jumping to taunt me.

This is a fun and very inexpensive vacation for us. We only went down the river once but we think if we ever visit again we may try to do it three days in a row. And my wife is already online looking for a waterproof case for her camera, she seems really exited about going back, so it appears as if I will have to book another trip soon.

The Osceola County Fair 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Chandrapaul) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 17:53:00 +0000

Every year around the second week of February you can always count on the Osceola County fair to come by, from miles away you can see the bright shining lights on the 125 foot Ferris Wheel. In fact the Fair and Rodeo is such a big deal, everyone in Osceola County has been getting a day off of school for 66 years! This day off is called “Rodeo Day” sometimes when you get out of this small town and tell people you get a day off school for Rodeo Day they wont even believe you! They’ll think you’re making up your childhood or something, but there’s nothing made up about the Rodeo Day it’s probably the most looked forward to day in February for Osceola County. As long as I’ve lived in this county I have been going to the fair and rodeo, this year was no different. No matter how old the rides at the fair are, people will still ride them except for the select few who will always be afraid.

The day started off as just any other Thursday, my buddies Brock and Cesar were at work with me and we decided it would be a good idea to go to the fair, after we got off at about 8 o’ clock we headed straight to there. It wasn’t even a far drive from our office so that was the best part. Since Cesar had to get his girlfriend Brock and I went to a local Burger King and ate as we waited for the two. We finally got a text message from Cesar saying he was on his way so we finished up our food and made our ways into the fair where we met up with our good friends Danielle and Nicole. The first ride we went on was called “The Fireball” which is a huge loop with a train on it, the train swings back and forth and completes the loop, as we waited in line Danielle decided it would be a good idea to chicken out and not ride the ride, but it was okay we really didn’t need her to have fun, at that point no one really cared anyway-it was actually a good thing because we had someone to hold our stuff so it wouldn’t fly out during the ride! I honestly cant even remember the name of the second ride we went on, all I know is it wasn’t as thrilling as the first one, and for the record Brock and I have been on a popular attraction in Fun Spot Kissimmee called “The SkyCoaster” which is a 330 foot swing, we’ve done that about 5 times each and it has seemed to mentally scar us because we are no longer afraid of any rides, but that doesn’t stop us from having a good time though. One of the rides that people seem to hate is the Starship 2000 which can be described as a gravity defying spinning mechanism or the vomit machine. Luckily no one threw up this time around but that ride is infamous for that. Another ride that’s infamous at the fair is the “Zipper” you are put into a cage and flipped around as you go up and down, usually you are only supposed to sit 2 people in there and it was originally going to be Nicole and I but since Danielle “The Wuss” decided it was a good idea to not ride it, we crammed Brock in so he could join in on the fun.

The last ride we decided to go on was the Ferris Wheel, which is not really a ride it’s actually just a big spinning wheel but you can’t go to the fair without going on it! I got yelled at a few times for trying to stand up on it so that made the experience not so fun after all but its okay I feel like it was worth it. It was getting late and we decided it was time to leave and get a good night’s rest so we could come back on Friday and watch the Rodeo.

I woke up on Friday to the vibrating of my phone, over and over again. It turns out that my buddy who was entering his prized pig into the fair was having a hard time because his truck broke down and he had no way of getting his pig to the fair. There was no way I could fit it in my 2-Seater so I decided to do him a favor and rent a truck so we could tow the animal in a trailer. We rushed down to the Orlando International Airport and rented a Chevy Silverado from Hertz and drove back and attached the trailer with the pig and rushed off to the Rodeo, After all of that hard work he didn’t even get a prize for his pig but that’s okay because there’s always next year. Overall we had a great time at this hometown event and I plan on going as long as I’m anywhere near the Osceola County area!

Deep Sea Fishing

noreply@blogger.com (Snow Bird) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:17:00 +0000

So we got back home late last night with our Chevrolet Cobalt from Hertz and decided we wanted to keep it for an extra day, and then return it to the airport tomorrow. We always liked driving so we came down from New York via our rental car, snapped a lot of photos on the way and stopped at a few restaurants we had read about online. Now that we were back in Florida we just wanted to relax. However after a long time listening to the many messages on the answering machine I was devastated when I heard one message.

Unfortunately before leaving I had totally forgotten to check the calendar for the days preceding our return. Remember we went to Long Island for a few days? That was all unplanned and now we missed the biggest event of my year! We had chartered a deep-sea fishing boat, and the message simply stated that we had missed our boat, and to call about our money being returned.

When we called they told us that we there were two options; have our money returned or take the next available boat which happened to be the next morning. We wanted to rest but I convinced my wife that resting on a boat is better than on the couch to Nascar, so we took the boat the next day and we were on the water by 5am. Since we still had the Cobalt we took it. You have to get out of the channel as early in the day as possible, you spend two hours just getting out to “deep-sea,” so wasting your chartered boat hours on the trip is unnecessary. Besides we pretty much slept on the boat for those two hours, they had comfortable benches.

Our captain was a smart guy and about 7am he and I were going over all his instruments before he pointed out we were very close to his favorite fishing spot. Now I brought my own rod and he just laughed and told me to leave it, which was later understood when we caught ourselves a massive Tuna. I can’t remember how much it weighed but I couldn’t pick it up alone. Interestingly enough I must have fought this guy for thirty minutes, at one point I even handed the rod to our captain and took a three minute breather. We plan to eat this sucker tonight, and I definitely want to go out again. One of the guys on the boat with us caught two medium sized Kingfish and my wife got to real in a very small Barracuda, but she wouldn’t touch it.

If you get the opportunity you should really go fishing out on the ocean its great fun. It really isn’t as expensive as you would think and it’s worth every single cent you spend on it. I wonder if we got enough of the fish smell out of the trunk to the Cobalt, if not the next renter is in for a surprise.

UFO Sightings in London, England 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Chandrapaul) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:04:00 +0000

I used to have a friend that always used to say “out of this world” when describing something, but nothing was ever really “out of this world” so I’ve never had the opportunity to use it, until recently of course. We have been planning a trip to London, England as far back as I can remember yet I have never been able to convince my friends to go until this past week. We all took a trip to the United Kingdom just for fun. Unlike many of our other trips we decided it would benefit us more to fly there, instead of driving. Flying has its perks especially when flying somewhere far like London. For one, it would take forever to drive there if the car was an amphibious vehicle, but it wasn’t so a plane would just have to get the job done and we would just have to rent a car when we landed. We wanted to start as early as possible in the morning so we weren’t wasting time in the air because it is a long flight from Orlando Florida to London England. For about 10 hours we would have to be sitting for a pretty long time before we landed. But that was no problem I figured it would all be worth it when we got to the airport because we would just be able to rent a car and then drive on to wherever we wanted to go. Usually on flights I can’t help but fall asleep, this time it was a lot different, I couldn’t sleep until we were about 4 hours in. I was too busy reading this weird magazine and UFO sightings in London and it just captured my attention to the point where I could not divert it for anything! Not even the stewardess trying to give me a drink! After I got done with my reading I quickly began to doze off and had one of the worst nightmares of my entire life! We finally landed and I was feeling refreshed from my short nap, we quickly hurried to the baggage claim and went to go see a man about renting a car. The first rental car place that we saw was a Thrifty Car Rental; the car that caught our eye was a Jaguar X-Type from their Premium Line. Without questions we just went with that car because we figured if we’re going to be riding in London we’re going to be riding in style. Our hotel was not too far from our airport so as soon as we landed we dropped our bags off and went off to see what London had to offer, the first place we stopped was a coffee shop so we could energize ourselves before we went on some more adventures. At first we were wondering why everyone seemed to be talking to each other but we could not understand them clearly until one man invited us into the conversation, we then found out about the United Kingdom actually letting out files about UFO’s we were surprised because back home in Orlando almost no one believes in aliens yet over here everyone can vouch that they’ve seen one, it had already been late in the afternoon so we were getting ready to leave and as we were leaving we looked into the sky and saw a large flying disk! At first I thought I was just seeing things because there was no noise associated with this disk so it was just odd to see something so big just float across the air with no sound, and when it was floating it was going at the fastest rate I’ve ever seen anything move! It was a crazy sight and I wish I was handy enough to carry a camera at all times so I could have snapped a quick shot, but it was okay at least I got to see it with my own eyes even though no one will ever believe me. We have a few more days in London and I’m beginning to love it already!

Long Island New York

noreply@blogger.com (Snow Bird) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:35:00 +0000

We are still in Warwick New York, but we plan to visit some friends from our old church in Patchogue Long Island. So with our Hertz rental car a Chevrolet Cobalt we departed from our family and headed east to the island that used to be our home. It is still snowing really badly up here but the Cobalt is holding out just fine, and when we arrived in Long Island we realized that we didn’t have to warm her up in the morning. What I am trying to say is that as cold as it is I expected twenty minutes of heating the car up before takeoff.

The first thing we did on Long Island is go by our old house; it was interesting to see what the owners had done with it. It used to be a light blue color now it was a deep yellow. Deep yellow wouldn’t have been our first choice however it looked okay on the colonial house. They also removed the full wrap around porch, which was a real, real disappointment. My wife always liked the full wrap around porch it’s just what makes a 100 year old house beautiful.

Our old church is still standing, well still standing under hundreds of pounds of snow. A lot has changed inside however, all the pews have been upholstered and the entire building has been re-carpeted. There really wasn’t anyone there, the janitors and maintenance crew there knew who we were so they let us in. We are going to go to the Wednesday night service tonight, might write about it in my next blog.

We visited the harbor and it is iced over bad. That was fine for us though, I mean we would have enjoyed going on the boat, and I really wanted to go clamming but hey, it is what it is. Were staying at a friends house not far from the center of Patchogue, and we plan to spend the next few days just driving around and meeting our friends again, its going to be a good vacation if the whether allows.

Valentines Day at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Chandrapaul) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:16:00 +0000

Usually Valentines Day has always been a stay at home and goes out to dinner type of thing but this year it was totally different, we went online to see some deals that they had going on and stumbled upon one of the greatest deals of all time! Now, you would think that a nice romantic getaway would be to the cobblestone streets of Italy or at a tropical beach in the Caribbean. We chose none of those; instead we went to a good old place called Phoenix Arizona. In Phoenix we booked a great package with the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa. There we were entitled to anything we could possibly imagine, including strawberries and truffles with more rose petals that one could imagine and champagne to our likings. The part that I enjoyed the most was the couples massage, even though I’ve never had a massage before I was looking forward to this more than anything else. Actually the best part of the entire stay was the three course dinner in any of the restaurants in the area, the food was amazing and I would honestly take another trip over to Phoenix just for the food at Ristorante Tuscany. Even though the vacation we had in Phoenix was mesmerizing we still drove all the way there from Orlando, Florida so it was quite the travel if I do say so myself. The overall travel time was a day and about 9 hours but for some reason when you are driving it always seems to feel either longer or shorter depending on where you are and who you’re with. This trip felt a lot shorter because we were just cruising through state by state and not worrying about stopping at all. Before we even left Florida we were amazed at how cold it was there compared to us down in Orlando. Unlike many of our other trips we used my vehicle instead of renting a car but as usual, something went wrong and we had to leave my car at the UWF campus and rent a new car up in Pensacola. We ended up renting an Infiniti M35 from Avis, having rented the car before I knew exactly what I wanted so I was able to save even more time just telling them! Usually when I’m on a road trip I make sure I stop every now and then to make sure that I’m able to roam around and enjoy the scenery but not this time, it was getting a little to cold for my blood so I decided the best thing to do was to keep on truckin’ as they say. State after state it felt like we were flying through each and every destination until we got to Texas. That’s when it felt like it took forever, but it didn’t bother me one bit, I love the way Texas looks and it would sure be fun to drive there anytime, except during the summer without air conditioning! We drove right through Texas into New Mexico were we stopped at Las Cruces to grab something to eat and stretch our legs for a bit, we were so tired of sitting down we ordered fast food and walked as we ate it! When we felt it was time to move on we quickly scurried over to Arizona, the weather was beautiful, it was about 71 degrees with almost no wind, it was my ideal day and could imagine spending every day like that for the rest of my life, but now that I think about it I would never want to live in Arizona because even thought it might be beautiful in the spring from past experience I know that the summer is brutal! We quickly made it to our hotel and checked in and that’s what began on of the greatest Valentines Day of all time.

Warwick New York

noreply@blogger.com (Snow Bird) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:05:00 +0000

We are back in Central Florida after a very long trip to Texas, where we visited just about every single attraction in the entire state. We even got to enjoy the All-Star game in Dallas from an abandoned parking lot with other fans, an experience I liked, but don’t ever to do again. Anyway now that were back I am really in the mood just to relax, and when we got a phone call from some family way up north to come enjoy ridiculously cold whether and their company seemed like fun. I mean I really like the concept of splitting wood and sitting next to the warm fire while it snows outside.

My family lives up in Warwick New York, a small town just outside of Poughkeepsie… yes that is actually its name. Anyhow, this time we decided to take an air plane, something we don’t usually do. When we arrived there was a Hertz right in the airport terminal so we decided to rent a vehicle right from there. We picked out a Chevrolet Cobalt, because of the small nature of the town we expected that they wouldn’t have a wide selection of vehicles, boy were we wrong.

Anyway the Cobalt suited us just fine and in no time we were on our way to our relatives. Now before I go on you gotta understand this area of New York. When most people think of the New York area they instantly think of Manhattan and the city… however, ninety percent of New York is beautiful rolling hills and rocky hillsides. This is the reason it is so relaxing, and when it’s covered in snow its even better.

Were up here feasting on deer and bear now, something they shot during the hunting season. I love the outdoors lifestyle but what’s even more fantastic is relaxing on a giant bearskin in front of the fireplace while watching a movie with family. Yea I’m getting old, but hey the enjoyment I get from watching my grandchildren is great.

Winter Olimpics 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brock) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:29:00 +0000

Shaun White is nothing short of amazing on a skate board and even better on a snowboard. So when I heard that he will be competing in the 2010 Winter Olympics I was stoked! Almost immediately I called up my friend Ryan and Cesar and we made plans for our long drive to Vancouver, Canada. While planning our trip we ended up having a problem with transportation. Our problem was that my truck was stacked with miles and wouldn’t make it to Canada, Cesar’s car could fit four, but did not have nearly enough room for the rest of our luggage and Ryan drives a two seater car and I’m not one to share seats. To fix this dilemma, we decided to run down to Avis and rent us a sweet new ride.

We made our way down to Avis and discussed with the sales man what the best type of rental car would be. Since we were going to a world wide event and we were going to be seen by many people around the world we figured that we needed to roll up in style. This being the case we decided to rent us an Infiniti M35. Oh baby this car was sweet. This thing came with a Bose sound system, air bags and would get up and go when you hit the gas. I was excited for our drive up to Canada.
We packed up our bags and put the peddle to the metal as we made our way up to Vancouver. I decided that it made the most sense to make as little stops as possible on the way up there. We did have no stopping in mind, however we did think that it would be fun to stop in New Orleans, Louisiana and see what the new super bowl champ city was like. While driving up to Louisiana I had only one thing in mind, Bourbon Street. We wasted no time and headed straight for the famous street to investigate the cool things that we constantly hear people talk about.

We made our way down Bourbon Street and investigated every little store and shop that caught our wandering eyes and discovered some pretty interesting stores. After a few hours of investigating the scenery we worked up a killer appetite. As my stomach was cursing and growling my eyes found their way to the Hard Rock Café and I immediately knew it was going to be great. We walked in, got a table for three and sat down. I must say that Hard Rock lived up to their well deserved reputation and we enjoyed one of the best meals we have ever had. We paid our dews and walked back out onto the street. It totally slipped our minds that we were in New Orleans right at the time of the Mardi Gras festivals and oh man were we in for a wild night.

I had always heard that you aren’t living until you have experienced one night at Mardi Gras and it was nothing short of a great time. With crazy parties, loud music, beads, women and drinks it was a successful night. With every great thing there always has to be an end and this unfortunately was one of those times as we had to get to bed. With a late night and an early morning we were all running on a few hours of sleep and an excessive amount of Red Bull. I decided that I would drive first and I put the peddle to the metal as we made our way up to Canada. The Mardi Gras event ended up taking up much more time than expected so we were not able to stop at all except for gas and food.

After countless hours of driving, Red Bulls and pee stops we had finally made it to Vancouver and I was psyched to finally get to see some Olympic action. We made it there just in time to see the opening ceremonies and man was it impressive. My favorite part was for sure the gaffe heard ‘round the world. Even though there was a slight mechanical error, I thought it was noting short of amazing. With the opening ceremonies being so great and Shaun White representing the US, I know that this is going to be a great year in the Winter Olympics.

Dallas Allstar Basketball

noreply@blogger.com (Snow Bird) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:35:00 +0000

So we were in our Saturn Vue on our way home when my wife hopped on her cell phone with a friend. She was talking to one of our friends up north when I heard her say something about “Oh I wish I was there.” When my wife told her about all the stuff we had done and that we were just now passing through Dallas on our way home I clearly heard the words: “Oh I thought you guys were there for the All-Star Celebrity Game.” Now I almost feel bad for what happened next, because I slammed on the breaks and pulled of the nearest exit and headed back in the direction we came.

We talked it over… or I ordered her that we had to see this. She argued that all the seating will be taken but I promised her that there had to be a way for us to get up closed and at least view it from a block away. Besides one of my favorite things about big sporting events are all the trailers outside selling teams merchandise. All the hype is up now and we had to get another room, but were in town and I plan to get every ounce of basketball out of this situation that I can.

We just got back to our room after browsing around town, and we asked a few of the fans how they plan to watch the game. Apparently there are a few areas in large open fields where a bunch of fans have set up large screens and projectors and are gonna camp it out and watch, true fan style.

So we are with a group of basketball enthusiasts and were gonna do the whole bring a hotdog or burger package, chips and dip and just join in the entertainment. We have never done this kind of thing before. It’s more unnerving than it is entertaining, but if it gets me a shot at standing outside the stadium and watching the game, then I’m ready for a tailgate party. We met up with a nice family that brought their kids, and were anxiously awaiting game night.

Well tell you if we survive the night, but I’m kind exited and nervous to see how this tailgate party deal works, can’t wait to get in on the game. Were heading over to the trailers now to check out some of the merchandise, see if I can find some of my favorite players gear. Well check back in when we check back in, as for Dallas, it’s crowded!