Archive for March, 2010

International Boat Show in Miami

Travel | Posted by admin
Mar 30 2010

The Miami International Boat Show is an extremely popular event that takes place in the Miami Convention Center every year. The center is filled wall to wall with an amazing selection of boats and water sports gear of all sizes and accessory option levels. There are a lot of people that live in Miami that attend the event every year and they do this for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s because they just love boats and could spend a whole day or weekend gazing at the new models and designs. Of course a large population of attendees are in the market for a new boat as first time buyers or are looking to replace the one they have or add to their collection. The divers crowd, and of course many of them are tourists having a great afternoon in Miami, adds to the dynamic and atmosphere of the event.

A vacation in Miami can be an extremely exciting experience and it is never the same for any two people who are there. Events like the boat show appeal to a large number of people, though of course there are other who would just like to skip the show and spend all day on the beach or renting a boat for the day. And there are some tourists who are in the city specifically for major annual events like the boat show. Regardless of whether or not you stumble upon by luck or are specifically in Miami to attend it, enjoy or time and looking at these great marine vehicles. And maybe you’ll even be taking one home as a souvenir.

The show is produced by the National Marine Manufactures Association, which is the primary trade association related to the recreational marine industry. The event takes place in February of each year and this past show included a new location at the Sea Isle Marina and Yachting Center . The Convention Center housed over a million square feet of various boating features. Fishing boats, runabouts, personal watercraft and sport boats were just few of the options available. Equipment and accessories were also on display in large amounts. If you missed the show and are interested in purchasing a boat they are still available.

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Terra Cotta Warriors on Display in Washington DC

Travel | Posted by admin
Mar 26 2010

There are so many fabulous attractions and great things to do in Washington DC that choosing one or two on a single weekend can be pretty difficult. This is one of the problems that many people have encountered when they try to visit the city for the first time and think they can manage it on a weekend getaway. They may have the original intention of visiting the White House and the Capital Building as they settle into one of the great rooms in one of the hotels. And while this is well and good, and also one of the more popular things to do while visiting DC, most people quickly find out that they are just the beginning of the list of amazing things to do and important landmarks and attractions to visit.

This is why many of those same people recommend to family and friends that when they visit DC they plan to spend more than a weekend there if it’s their first time. After the initial survey exploration trip, then it is a great idea to spend a day or two in DC just to see one of the incredible performances, or to visit a particular location.

The National Geographic Museum is one of the great cultural establishments that soon lands on the agenda of most visitors after they arrive. It is also one of the places that is great to visit regularly so you can check out all of the touring exhibits and special events. The current exhibit visiting the museum, China’s Terra Cotta Warriors, will only be there through the end of this month. The collection of life size warriors was discovered in Xi’an in 1974 and is almost two thousand years old. This collection is one of the greatest archeological discoveries of the 20th century. There will be extended hours to this exhibit during its final two weeks at the museum.

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Vegetarian Mysteries

Food | Posted by admin
Mar 23 2010

The Sunday afternoon that things were starting to give way, when the walls began to feel more hollow than before, was that strange moment when it seems like things would fall apart, if they could. It was because of the sudden shifts that this would be recognized not necessarily for its first power, nor second, but somewhere in the long line of powers it was there somewhere. It wasn’t that we were scared of each other, it was that we were realizing that we had never really met each other before.

Every couple goes through it, surely, and sometimes it happens on a vacation, when you are both waking up after 8 years, wondering what this was really for. It’s not necessarily important that it be kept secret at this point, because you’ve certainly been talking about it, although in very metaphorical ways, but perhaps in a place like this , where there’s everything in the world you would ever want right on the menu, best to keep it friendly.

Both of us having recently taken an ahimsa , this would be a good place to eat, and it might also open up other possibilities. I was convinced that something was about to happen, and it was about to happen to us. It was also bound for occurrence right in this city.

It was in fact, ready to happen at any given moment. This was a new adventure. We didn’t know why, exactly, but we knew that it was immanent. This was a place where it felt like walking into an entirely different room than we’d ever seen, and it was already starting to feel more refreshing than anything had for a very long time. That was the moment that is was clear, and more clear than a rainbow , surely. This branch went this way, and that branch went that way, and it was like that for as long as anyone could remember.

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Visit the Dallas World Aquarium and Zoo

Travel | Posted by admin
Mar 20 2010

Opening to the public in October 1992 an old warehouse, in downtown Dallas near the Historic West End District, became the original site of The Dallas World Aquarium. Home to a flora and fauna from five continents, 14 countries, three oceans, numerous seas and rivers. Built in 1924, the empty warehouse was used for various industries, including Pioneer Steel Rule and Die and the Mohawk Rubber Company.The adjacent building was purchased in 1996 to expand the aquarium. Before the aquarium’s expansion the location was a rubber storage warehouse and then housed a restaurant/bar called Tejano Rodeo. The alley between the two buildings became a channel between the saltwater and freshwater ecosystems. In October 1997 the ORINOCO – Secrets of the River exhibit opened to the public; this exhibit features free flying birds and mammals, ranging in size from small Vampire bats to large Antillean manatees. The vacant lot behind the aquarium was purchased in May of 2000 and now, adjoining the aquarium, is where the outdoor South Africa exhibit and seasonally the Madagascar display are kept.

The Dallas Zoo , located in Fair park along side many other Dallas attractions, was founded in 1888, but now spans 95 acres making it the largest and first zoo in Texas. It is home to thousands of animals and conservation of species in captivity, as well as in the wild, is one of their primary missions. Many of their conservation efforts focus, but not exclusively, on the United States threatened species including all endangered North American felines with the emphasis on the Texas ocelot , developing the population of captive ocelots into a useful research model, and investigating nutrition of captive rhinos. among others. The Dallas Zoo also offers several educational experiences not just for families and summer camps for kids but also conservation lectures and even research outings for adult animal enthusiasts.

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Tampa Girl Scouts Celebrate Anniversary

History | Posted by admin
Mar 18 2010

March 12 was the 98th anniversary of Girl Scouting in the United States.Troops all over the United states celebrated the day their founder, Juliette Gordon Low, gathered 18 girls at her home in to start the movement that teaches millions of young girls nation wide leadership skills every year. Girl Scout Week is celebrated every March, starting with Girl Scout Sunday and ending with Girl Scout Sabbath on a Saturday, and it always includes the Girl Scout’s official anniversary. Today’s values of self-discovery and community service remain just as solid a part of the organization, as they were when the movement began. Girl Scout Sunday gives girls an opportunity to attend their place of worship and be recognized as a Girl Scout. Girls often perform a service for a place of worship if it is the group sponsor during these festivities. These are also days girls can use as an excuse to learn about and explore other faiths.

The SunTrust Financial Centre in downtown Tampa had green lights lighting it’s building March 7-13 to commemorate Girl Scout Week. Stiles Property Management, the building’s manager, agreed to light up the tower after Girl Scouts of West Central Florida contacted the company in February. The GSWCF spokeswoman had seen the 36-story office tower lit up for other special events and felt it would be a good way to draw attention to Girl Scout Week.

Don’t forget to support your local troops the next time you see them selling those delicious, and some what addictive, cookies; the proceeds go toward sending those girls on the camping trips and field trips the organization is famous for. In April the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida have many spectacular activities lined up. They will kick the month off with space camp and even go swimming with manatees at Crystal River.

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Pittsburgh Strip District

Travel | Posted by admin
Mar 16 2010

This is the point where the city comes alive, where the last remnants of the old Pittsburgh blend with the rest of the new. The old almost always wins out here, and it’s not just because of stubbornness.

There’s a general posture to Pittsburgh that has made it more interesting in recent years, perhaps due to its ability to point to the times, the signs of the times, and have the courage and the right to say that they saw it coming first. There is an old world here that continues and endures, but according to very different values than the old world that’s seen in television sitcoms, and plays that take place in living rooms.

There are still facets of splendor here, and wonderfully done, where for Pittsburgh, luxury hotels offer style with difference. This is a great escape from the social fabric, and the grains here make up an impressive force upon which we might wash our own sense of place in the world.

The gentry here were landed before the rest moved in, and the rest made up this city with sweat and wisdom, and an enormously underrated insecurity, that could sometimes take root in subtle new ways, and often with vengeance. The best forms of this take roots in culture, where identity is something negotiated in between the cracks between worlds. Here, for a turn away from the usual and toward the real everyday here, visit Jimmy Sunseri & Nino Co . This Italian grocery has more character than a thousand New York cabs, and more class than a roomful of Sunday school teachers.

It’s one of the most interesting places in the city on the weekend mornings, and few might be willing to try it. but staying through until the afternoon rush picks up can be an adventure in finding out who really founded Pittsburgh.

The constructions here are made on the backs of the elderly who walk the streets of downtown, and they also have the ideas that made things turn here. Some will claim this was once upon a time. Others will say that if you look in the eyes of the old, there are still more sparks, but you have to be willing to stop and imagine yourself in their shoes. The Strip District is where it all begins again, being that selfsame place where it all began.

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Charleston’s Main Mansion

Travel | Posted by admin
Mar 09 2010

Dating to 1876, the Calhoun Mansion at No. 16 Meeting Street in Charleston, South Carolina represents one man’s effort to restore pride and grandeur to post-Civil War Charleston . This is not the former residence of the legendary John C. Calhoun (1782-1850). Rather, the Calhoun association with this home is in the personage of grandson Patrick, husband of Sarah Williams, who inherited the home from her parents. George Walton Williams is the man who provided the vision and wealth that produced this magnificent structure. It sits on hallowed ground, having been one of the innumerable places claiming that “George Washington slept here.” In this case, Washington visited a previous structure on this site in 1791.

The Calhoun Mansion is the largest home in Charleston , with 35 delightfully painted and adorned rooms covering over 24,000 square feet of floor space. The Victorian-era mansion includes elements of the Charleston Single House with two-story verandas (locally called “piazzas”) located along its side, yet the home retains a formal front entrance. Inside there is a towering stairwell that rises 75 feet to a dome, a sky-lighted grand ballroom, standard 14-foot ceilings with ornate molding, and a seemingly endless collection of furniture, art, and antique decorative pieces. Though the rooms may feel busy, the ornamentation is captivating when you place it in the context of its owner’s interests and the time periods being portrayed.

Should you wish to stay somewhere equally captivating during your visit, charleston luxury hotels provides a range of choices. Hopefully your surroundings will be as lush and tranquil as the Calhoun Mansion’s grounds which offer an oasis of nature’s charm and man’s ingenuity. Artfully composed pathways flow through a formal garden, fountains, statuary and sculpted greenery. It is easy to forget that you are in a residential neighborhood and feel you have been transported to another time.

Having passed through several owners after Mr. Williams’s death, the home fell into disrepair. It was condemned for occupancy but saved from destruction by a loving owner and resident, Mr. Howe, who spent 25 years and millions of dollars to restore the home in the image of Williams’s dream. We are all richer for that beneficence. In 2004, the ownership shifted to Mr. Stahl who graciously reopened the Mansion and its spectacular contents to the public.

Only a short walk away is Battery Park which looks out over Charleston Harbor toward Fort Sumter, a good destination to charter a cruise to . We must remember to be thankful for sites like Sumter and the Calhoun Mansion that serve to instruct us in our history. Charleston is a beautiful city and the Calhoun Mansion is a gem to be cherished.

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