Archive for the Travel category.
Posted on March 10th, 2010 by Sandy in
Travel Like London and Paris, Washington, D.C. is an earthly paradise for both art museum geeks and casual visitors alike. The overwhelming challenge is deciding which treasure trove to visit. You must decide among such wonderful gallery possibilities as the Hirschhorn, Freer, Sackler, Corcoran and numerous other public and private collections within the compact 60 square miles that is Washington . To quench a thirst for incomparable expressions of beauty, culture and history and to satisfy international tastes, starting a D.C. art tour at the National Gallery of Art is a must.
The National Gallery is housed on the National Mall in two buildings of strikingly different architectural styles –works of art by themselves. The open-air Sculpture Garden was added in 1999 to provide a venue for larger works and temporary exhibitions. The original, neo-classical West Building, dedicated in 1941, was joined by the modern, I.M. Pei-designed East Building in 1978. The complex offers paintings and sculpture dating from the Middle Ages to the present. Both venues offer collections owned by the National Gallery as well as exhibitions loaned from other collections around the world. In planning your trip, check ahead for available rooms at the best washington hotels and to see what special treasures await you.
Current exhibitions in the East Building include Spanish paintings and sculptures from 1600-1700 (through May 31) and the abstract expressionism of Mark Rothko (until January 2011). The Sculpture Garden, surrounding a central fountain that serves as a skating rink in winter, includes 17 works from the national collection as well as loaned works.
Beginning with the Mellon collection and his endowment of a new building, the National Gallery has been the beneficiary of numerous gifts from collectors. Paintings and sculptures in the permanent collections include the works of Botticelli, da Vinci, Durer, Rembrandt, Goya, Delacroix, Rodin, Degas, Monet, Van Gogh and many more familiar to anyone who has enjoyed exposure to art history. Works from the Chester Dale collection, bequeathed in 1962 and covering impressionism to modernism, are on exhibit until July 31, 2011 in the West Building.
Cafes and comfort stations are generously available in the museum complex along with free cultural enrichment. This is your National Gallery. Enjoy!
One of the standard expectations of almost everyone who visits San Diego, California is to visit the beach at some point or many times during their stay. In fact, the beautiful beach with the golden sand and silver blue waters are almost irresistible to most people and are part of what San Diego is famous for. Tourists can be found in an around the water enjoying a variety of water sports and surfers and boogie borders are usually on the resigning wave horizon. Great beach resorts are full of information on where to rent various sporting equipment as well as city entertainment and cultural events.
In addition to having plenty of coastal beach stretches, which is reflective of the water sports and general beautiful view potential, there are also great opportunities to learn certain water sports such as surfing. San Diego has surfing lessons available for eager students of all skill levels, even when that means you’re starting out with zero experience. In addition to skill level acceptance, students of all ages are welcome, from children through to adults. If you have the ambition and courage, they will teach you.
And learning to surf is not only a great way to spend some time on the ways and keep yourself fit, it also increases one’s sense of self worth and confidence. Keeping your feet on the board is not an easy task and once a person is able to navigate the waves it provides not only a sense of accomplishment and even victory but there has also been described a unique sense of oneness with the ocean and air that comes from surfing. Also, can you imagine a better souvenir than returning home from a vacation in San Diego with the skill of surfing? So, if you have a wetsuit, bring it with you to San Diego. And if you don’t have, don’t worry about it, you can get one there.
Our life was not supposed to be such a movie, not the kind that it turned into. It started off as a light romantic comedy, but toward the end it had crossed over pretty cleanly into a surreal hallucinatory film based on the theories of Lacan. But there were some good moments. Everything has ups and downs, and beginnings and ends. The beginning of this was spectacular, and the middle was perfectly coordinated to convince us both that we could rest now, that the dangerous part of the trip was well over, and this was the moment that we took a vacation to Rockville. The hotel we had was perfectly organized, and had layers of charm and elegance that were worth writing home about.
In fact, writing was exactly what caused the end to come too quickly. I would like this to be a story of how, like when a man loves a woman, her illness gets revealed in the second act, and then it’s about how I deal with it, and try to save her, and then learn that I can’t save her. Because she must learn how to save herself. And we would overcome our troubles and walk into the sunset, or maybe into the fog, depending on the time of year. Some sunsets there were better than others, is all I’m going to say. The town looked beautiful, charming, and interesting. It would have been nice to have explored it a little.
When we arrived, however, we saw that there were some postcards in the room. I decided I would write to my family back home. It seemed like a sweet gesture. Some people have it, and some people don’t, and apparently I’m in the category that does have it. When I sat down to write the first one, it felt fine. But so fine. Enough that I thought I should write my brother. And then my best friend. Some people can’t stop writing because they have a lot to say, because they love to write. Some people can’t because they just can’t . It’s a disorder, for sure. We left and I had to get to a stationery place, but there was only the gift shop, so I stopped there for 10 more and we went to get a coffee, and I wrote the whole time, and even bought their cards. By the end of that night, I had 150 done and the same amount to go. Long story short, she left, and I’m still here, still writing. You might be getting a postcard soon.
She called them my Lou boots, named for Lou Reed, the lead singer of the Velvet Underground, along with a number of other projects that were immensely important because they involved Lou Reed. I didn’t like the boots until she said that. They were fake Italian, and I didn’t really think I’d have them for more than a week. I traded them for a couple of records, the vinyl kind, and wore them home. The next day there was one of those holes you get when the shoes don’t fit right.
So I was going to get rid of them, but the following week I was taking a trip to New York, boutique hotel included, and I wanted boots because I always thought that you should have boots when you’re in New York. But I wasn’t thinking it all through because you need nice shoes for all the walking that you do. If these boots gave me the sore foot from one day, a whole week might be really nasty for me. It turned out not to be so bad. My foot had healed a bit and so there was a callous forming, and they were fine.
Walking was easy enough, and they turned out to have a nice cushion to them, but I did notice that my button on my jeans was coming off. I had to tighten my belt a little, but then I saw that my shirt had a hole in it, and my sunglasses were bent. By the time she started calling them my Lou Reed boots I was already irritated with everything in the world. But the way she said it made me laugh. It was enough of a laugh in fact that it did make me think about sangria in the park, and how this was turning out to be all right.
Where can you go to a museum that not only displays its exhibits but flies them? Try Miami and its superb Florida beaches for the Wings Over Miami Air Museum. bout twenty-four years ago, a pilot named Kermit Weeks kept his vintage collection of aircraft available to the public, serving as a kind of aviation museum. However, in 1992, just six years later, the Weeks Air Museum was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew. It crushed the hanger and ruined most of the planes. Undeterred, he rebuilt the museum and kept it in place until he moved the expanding collection to Florida’s Polk County, where he created the “Fantasy of Flight”. This left South Florida without an aviation museum, and caused four plane enthusiasts of military and classic aircraft to join forces and transition the hanger Weeks left behind into the museum we have today: Wings Over Miami.
The museum is meant to be a tribute to aviators and veterans who were pioneers in the history of military and civilian aircraft. It is, in fact, one of the few museums where the exhibits are not only displayed but flown. The idea is to share the history of flight with the public and provide a legacy not only of the aircraft themselves, but a glimpse into the lives of the pilots who were in the cockpit.
Recent acquisitions include vintage planes, military trainers, and jet aircraft manufactured and flown during the era of the Cold War. As you stroll through the museum, you’ll see people working on planes to maintain and renovate them, a reminder that this is literally a flying museum. If you’ve arrived in Miami to enjoy its hotels and Florida beaches, you should know this museum is open only Thursday through Sunday from ten in the morning to five in the afternoon. It’s closed Monday through Wednesday, and has a cost of ten dollars for adults, seven dollars for seniors sixty and above, and six dollars for children twelve and under. There are group rates available. The museum is located in Miami at 14710 SW 128th Street and may be reached at (305) 233 5197.
Posted on February 20th, 2010 by Sandy in
Travel This is a strange time for art, any kind of art, whether it’s visual or plastic or even more ethereal than performance, or as concrete as a glass owl. It’s always difficult to be an artist, and in certain parts of the world, it’s next to impossible. Of all the arts, theatre is probably the least lucrative operation anyone could venture into, where the overhead and production costs will always outweigh any profits a production might bring. Even if it does take in a little money, after the producers are paid, there’s probably not much left for the actors, director, or the writer. These days, then, the more economically sensible thing to do in this country is to find a musical that’s based on a bestselling novel or film, and add a zombie twist to it.
These are strange times, indeed, but there’s still plenty of reasons to find one of the top hotels in New York, and settle in, prepared for an exciting time seeing live theatre. Because there are plenty of new works about zombies. Lots of revivals. Lots of large-scale productions that are running for weeks. In this current atmosphere, there is also StrangeDog, and this might be some of the best news for awhile. This New Jersey-based company is doing works for NY/NJ audiences, and it’s interesting drama and comedies, and the kinds of works that people like to talk about.
In the midst of all of these larger companies taking in some revenue, and smaller theatres just trying to stay afloat, no one would recommend to anyone that this is time to start a new theatre company. But that’s exactly what these young men decided to do. It’s a dream that lots of young actors have. You find yourselves about to graduate, looking for a theatre to work with, and realizing that the one you want doesn’t exist. You have very few choices here, ranging from panicking in a state of vertigo, or making your way on your own. Raw theatre might not be a money-maker, but it’s something that a culture needs to survive, and get through a dark time, so these folks deserve a lot of karma points to make their trip around the wheel of fortune as splendid as it can be.
Posted on February 18th, 2010 by Sandy in
Travel Have you been on one business trip after another? Are you feeling a little wound up from all the responsibilities of life? How about getting out of the bigger cities and spend some time in a smaller one. There are some really nice rooms at one of the quaint hotels in Grand Prairie Texas waiting for you to come and enjoy the relaxing area. There a few fun things to do in Grand Prairie even if you decide to bring the kids along. However, the golf courses in this little city have become quite the place to loose yourself but not the hole.
Tangle Ridge has a good rating with it’s 44th Best Municipal in America according to Golfweek in 2009. Dallas Morning News rates Tangle Ridge 16th in the state of Texas. Texas Golfer thought this course was the Best of Texas in the year 2005. Don’t just rely on the golf news like Avid Golfer to tell you what is good about this course. Go play a few rounds and find out for yourself what makes this course so desirable. Could it be that the course itself is always in good shape with a challenging layout. It is going to keep you engaged no matter what level your games is on any given day. It could also be the great amenities they offer.
You can come and see if there is a tournament to play in. There are also some PGA Golf Professionals available to assist you in making the best out of each swing with either private lessons or clinics. You can work on you short or long game with the driving range, putting green, chipping green and practice bunker. When you are ready to take a break there is always a friendly staff member there to assist you in the pro shop. One can’t forget the refreshments with the great food late afternoon cocktails.
Posted on February 15th, 2010 by Sandy in
Travel Jenny was telling Marge about the great weekend getaway she and her husband Ralph took two weeks ago. She talked about the great hotel, about which you can find information here, where they stayed and also about some of the fabulous meals they had. Marge loved to hear of great new places to travel to as she was one of the most mobile individuals Jenny had ever met. She also had a somewhat annoying habit of always knowing the best places to go to for this and that and seemed to be a virtual expert on almost every city and country. What made it annoying was the fact that she was almost always right and everyone came to her for advice. That’s one of the reasons Jenny was particularly pleased to be telling Marge about the trip. When she revealed that their destination had been Palm Springs, California she expected her friend to be a bit stunned.
Marge quickly jumped in, “Oh, of course, darling. If you were in Palm Springs I’m sure you went to that place at the bottom of the mountain.” She had to be kidding. “Spencer’s Restaurant, that’s what it’s called. Oh it’s simply marvelous, did you go there?” Jenny was stunned. “No, uh, we missed that one.” And then Marge spent the next half hour telling her about the great restaurant at the base of Mt. San Jacinto with absolutely fabulous food. She described it as American fare with influences from the Pacific Rim and France. Jenny couldn’t believe it, she spent five minutes introducing this amazing trip she and her husband took and Marge spent a half hour telling her why she didn’t do it right. Jenny had to admit though that the lobster potstickers and the crab cakes sounded pretty good. Marge also talked about the wild mushroom ravioli and the panko crusted northern halibut. That’s the extend of Marge’s dining experience at Spencer’s Restaurant though the way she described it should be a crime to visit Palm Springs and not go there.
Posted on February 11th, 2010 by Sandy in
Music,
Travel Hartford is one of the truly great towns in the U.S., with a very lively and diverse population. There is a lot of rich history here, and a lot of contemporary historical moments, and it’s a great place to visit. It’s possible to visit to see historic sites, hang out with old friends, and also to get in touch with the local communities. There are many different hotels in Hartford that cater to many different tastes, and with great hospitality and style. It’s one of the classic east coast cities, and now boasts one of the largest Puerto Rican communities on the mainland of the United States.
It makes perfect sense, then, that a conglomeration of identities here would find a home in the music of the local hero, Notch. He’s one of the more prominent reggaeton artists given airplay these days, and if you’re visiting for any length of time, and anywhere near the regions where popular culture might reach, then you’ll certainly run into his sound. His particular music, however, was only formally exclusively reggaeton for a short period. His recent hit, Hay Que Bueno, follows in this category, but he jumps in and out of categorization with a great fluidity.
He himself is a confluence of cultures and traditions. In his background there is Portuguese, Cuban, Jamaican, French, and Native influence, and he calls his style of singing Spatoinglish, a combination of Spanish, Patois, and English. This is a very powerful combination that makes for a musician who is absolutely captivating. He commands attention through the force as well as the sweetness of his music, and it’s a delightful thing to hear when you are on the dance floor, and want something that will make you move, even when you are exhausted.
Posted on February 9th, 2010 by Sandy in
Travel If you find yourself in one of the nicest towns in the heartland of America than you must be checking into a fabulous Bloomington hotel. This is the home of Indiana University which in its self is a main attraction. It ensure there are at least 40,000 students living in town for the winter. It is the largest campus in the state of Indiana and is considered the most beautiful in the country. Most of the the university was built out of the limestone that comes from the local area. Bloomington is also the home of a few other universities such as the Jacobs School of Music, the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University Maurer School of Law-Bloomington to name just a couple.
Other reasons that bring visitors to this town are some of the big employers that are here. The Bloomington Hospital, General Electric, Otis Elevator, Hoosier Energy and Baxter BioPharma Solutions have work being done here. While people may be coming for some of these big reasons there are some small and quaint things to see and do while in this area. One of my favorite things to do in new areas that I visit is see if there are any good beer or wine companies. Well, I don’t think of Indiana when I think of wine but there are a couple of fine winery’s in the area. Oliver Winery and Butler Winery both seem to have some really nice bouquet’s. Then there is always some history to learn about an area and Bloomington does have some museums to search through. A rather unique one would be is found at the Indiana University Department of Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design, the Elizabeth Sage Historic Costume Collection is just exquisite. So when you pull yourself away from the antique shopping stop by and see this wonderful exhibit.