Glory Tuesday

While visiting the city of Stockholm Sweden you will want to head over to see the ship of King Gustav II Adolf from the Vasa Dynasty. They named the ship after the family name and it is a major heirloom to the city today. When Gustav inherited the throne there were three wars going on one with Russia, Denmark and Poland. This king needed the baddest warship he could build. And so came the Vasa.

After two years of hard work the ship left the dock for her maiden voyage in August of 1628 but ended up sinking in the middle of the harbor only meters away from the dock. There were some things salvaged from the bottom of the harbor over the next few years but mostly it just sat on the floor until the mid 1900s.

By 1990 the ship had been removed from the bottom of the sea along with many of its contents and had been restored. It has become Vasa Museum that takes visitors back hundreds of years in culture and maritime design. So while you are staying at one of the Stockholm hotels you really should go see some wonderful, well restored, displays of Swedish history.

The Art Institute of Colorado , located in Denver on 1200 Lincoln Street, has students come from across the country and around the world to attend the Institutes excellent art curriculum. These students strive for excellence in art and are dedicated to learning all aspects of art. Faculty members, by bringing in their professional experience into the classroom, teach a broad range of creativity, knowledge and techniques. The AICs staff is also as dedicated as the students by contributing numerous support services. Put all three together and an atmosphere of discovery, adventure and experiencing new challenges in applied arts is achieved.

Students learn from professional artists in a hands-on environment. They will also get the opportunity to make career contacts as well as making lifelong friends with similar interests. AIC asks their students to take an active part in their education by taking responsibility for their education that involves becoming fully engaged with eyes and mind wide open.

Evening and Weekend option are available at the Art Institute of Colorado for students who cannot attend during the day. A degree can still be earned during evenings and weekends, with an online and on-ground format.

If you’d like to find out more, book a room at one of the Colorado boutique hotels nearby and attend their Open House on September 11, 2010 to see what they can offer you in ways you thought could not be achieved in the field of art.

There is a great afternoon and evening waiting at Miners Landing on Pier 57 in Seattle. This pier is also a historical area of the city. Schwabacher Wharf was the original name of this pier when it opened in 1872. It was the center of ships coming and going so it was caught in the middle of many of the interesting events of Seattle’s history. It was one of the few places to survive the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 and it was at the forefront of rebuilding the Seattle we know of today.

The pier is easy to get to from the best seattle hotels and currently has lots of places to walk, shop and eat in the sea side town, Miners Landing . You will find some of the countries best seafood at one of the many restaurants like The Crab Pot, Fisherman’s Restaurant, the Salmon Cooker and the Alaskan Sourdough Bakery.

Send your kids over to the Seattle Waterfront Arcade while you browse the handful of shops. Take a ride on the vintage Carousel that is indoors. If you are planning a special family or business gathering you may want to check out Miners Landing as a place to host your party. All in all it is a great day hanging out long the historical wharf of Seattle.

Music is generally accepted as the main concert attraction in Las Vegas though comedy shows are also extremely popular and are frequently the favorite of many of the city’s tourists. Major names like Joan Rivers , Rita Rudner and Penn and Teller are some of the biggest names associated with the Vegas stage, though there are numerous other celebrity performers that will perform regularly, semi regularly or with a basic series schedule each year. Las Vegas continues to be one of the top places to see great comedy shows as well as music concerts. The Las Vegas hotels are full of, gambling opportunities obviously, some of the top names in all performance fields and comedy is one of the favorites.

Performers like David Spade will present a specific series of shows and these are always popular with tourists. Some people travel to the city to see a particular person they know will be performing there while others look for these major names who also appear in town. Louie Anderson , Jerry Seinfeld and Adam Sandler are other top names who have performed and some even are currently scheduled for shows in Vegas. In addition, the city has great local comedians that perform in smaller clubs and there are numerous sketch comedy groups and events that are popular as well. The Second City is one of the most famous improvisational groups and it is one of the favorite spots for many tourists to visit while they are in town.

There are so many great historic landmarks in the city of London that deciding where you want to go can be a difficult process. The Globe Theatre is one of the most popular attractions and is also one of the city’s most significant landmarks. It exists on the exact location of where William Shakespeare originally built his theatre, though the current building is actually a reproduction of the original theatre, which had a few unfortunate occurrences, and I’m not talking about bad performances or stinking reviews. The contemporary reproduction version draws huge crowds who just want to see the building and even more who want to watch an actual performance.

The Globe was originally constructed in 1599 and it was built using the wood from the company’s former theatre, which was simply called The Theatre. It was only thirteen years later that the Globe saw its first tragedy as it erupted into flames during a performance of Henry the Eighth. The theatre was rebuilt the following year though later in 1642 the Puritans would raze this theatre and the others when they closed them down and made the art illegal. Shakespeare had long retired and had passed on by this time.

The contemporary Globe Theatre exists in the same location as the original on the west side of the Southwark Bridge Road. The modern version first opened to audiences in 1997 and has been bringing the bard’s productions to the new stage on a regular basis since then. It can be a thrilling event to see the plays performed on a stage that is almost identical to the one used by Shakespeare and is in fact in the same location. Romeo and Juliet, A Mid Summer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night continue to be popular audience hits. The new theatre seats approximately three thousand people, which would have been similar to the original house. It includes both balcony seating and the floor or standing space, which was traditionally reserved for the penny groundlings. This is one of the favorite things to do for guests in the great hotels in London .

Los Angeles may not be the first place you think when you’re hunting for a fun family get away that might be educational for the whole family. However, the City of Angels is actually home to several gems where kids of all ages can find something interesting to see or do.

The most obvious things to do as a family that comes to mind is the studio and theme park tours. These actually can hide some nuggets of wisdom and are probably conveniently located if you’re staying in one of the many five star hotels Los Angeles has surrounding them. At Disneyland they can learn about the history of animation since this is where it all started and Universal Studios still has a special bungalow on site that was where Alfred Hitchcock lived while filming his famous movies. You won’t believe what happened to the Munster’s old place.

For somewhere a little more frugal there is always the Hollywood Walk of Fame where you can scan the star plaques on for favorite stars’ names or pose for pics with look-a-likes hanging out in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater dressed as your favorite super heroes , villains, and other film characters. If you feel like splurging you can even see a first run movie before all your friends back home can get a chance.

For history not linked to the film industry there’s the La Brea Tar Pits to see the relics millions of years old still trapped in the muck. Continuing on the dinosaurs and fossils topic at the George Page Museum kids can experience the What It’s Like to be Trapped in Tar exhibit, and when a certified tour leader is on hand they may even get a chance to hunt for fossils themselves.

Key Largo – Food – Wine – Festival, put these five words together and what could be more perfect? Well, to make the Key Largo Food Wine Festival 10 days long! Beginning July 30, 2010 and running through August 8th, Key Largo, the gateway to the Florida Keys, becomes a paradise for foodies and wine lovers. So, if you haven’t planned your summer vacation yet, make your reservations at any of the Florida four star hotels , and they will be glad to accommodate you during this popular festival.

Come on down and enjoy all of the tasty temptations as Key Largo’s culinary experts show you what this resort town has to offer by presenting almost 30 tasty food, wine and spirits events; multiple wine tastings, where you’ll get to try some of your favorite wines, and find some new treasures for 9 days. You’ll also be treated to cooking demonstrations, wine dinners, progressive wine dinners, food and wine pairing classes, cook book signings, wine and arts shows, wine and cigars, and as always: Key Largo’s famous sunsets, shopping, scuba diving, snorkeling and you’ll have a great time doing every single one of these activities.

The Key Largo Food Wind Festival was the vision of the local business people to increasing tourism, not that Key Largo lacked tourism, but to put Key Largo on the map for hosting one of the best Food and Wine Festivals in Florida, which they have succeeded. New this year is a popular favorite, a ‘Whodunit’ murder mystery night, that is guaranteed to entertain. Also, champagne brunches, all-American barbecues with summertime wines, authentic Greek dinner with European wines, sushi with a sous chef, and everyday wines with lobster prepared every way possible. Finishing off the event on Sunday, the last day, is a Festival complete with brunch, bubbly and dancing.

Thanks to my friend Meredith Alford for the guest post.

RV Travel

There’s nothing quite like hitting the highway in the RVand traveling America’s highways. Even though our RV has many great amenities, such as some of the best hd cable deals and a large family area, it’s always nice to stop at off the beaten path type of places.

Theme Parks

Our family loves theme parks. We buy annual passes to save money and try to visit at least once every couple of weeks during the summer. With so many to choose from in such close proximity, it never gets old. The kids love water parks and we always make a day of it.

Geocaching

Geocaching is great fun for kids and adults. It’s like playing a giant game of hide and seek. Plus, you never know what you are going to find at the end of the treasure hunt. It is a great way to get outside and enjoy fresh air and nature with your family. The only thing that it costs is gas and you will need a handheld GPS unit.

The Beach

There’s nothing quite like feeling sand between your toes and the feeling of salt water on your skin. You can surf, sun bathe, or build sand castles. We have at least one weekend trip to the beach every summer!

Summer in New York is something that holds a great deal of promise, and for weary world travelers, cooped up all winter, the idea of a summer getaway comes looming at all hours of the day or night. Traveling and wanderlust are things that can work their way into the nighttime dreams, and can also start to make daydreaming more necessary. When the days and nights get confounded, New York is the perfect remedy, because there are times when it’s hard to tell what time it is.

At an event sponsored by Surreal Estate , the art collective in Brooklyn, this is especially true, because the events are something out of a dream. It could be something as interesting as an afterparty for an anarchist book fair, or something with an obvious appeal to daydream tendencies like a Madhatter Tea Party. It’s hard to imagine a vacation more exciting, where one can leave their New York hotel to hang out for awhile with some of the young and radical artists in the city, along with some pretty exciting international guests.

Surreal Estate is a fairly large collective, with about 35 people at any given time, and for any group of artists this large, organizing isn’t always a strong suit. They seem to have it down, however, taking their multiple perspectives and points of view, and finding things to agree to focus on.

The history of the art collective in the city is very long and complex. For some, it reached its zenith at the end of the 1960s, when this was the preferred way of creating new work. For theaters, it was an obvious leap, where the connections between communal living made sense when people were working intensely for hours at a time. For other art collectives, it had advantages particularly in combining resources for rent, as well as sharing other artistic resources, like minds. This tradition lives on in the city, and it’s a great opportunity to see how it might work for the next generations.

Hawaii has so much to offer, containing a brilliant past within its present, and there are glimpses of a future here that are also equally bright. Visitors coming to Oahu can have the opportunity to visit the Hawaii of their dreams, where the images from films and songs come to life. It’s even better than anyone could ever imagine, and the beauty is complemented by an enormously delicate ecosystem. With better ideas about responsible travel, it’s possible to enjoy all the islands have to offer, and an Oahu vacation package is a perfect way to get introduced to the magic of the place.

Waikiki is a beach that has a lot of weight in contemporary culture. There are countless songs that reference it, and one visit is enough to see why. This is the legendary place where surfing became an international phenomenon, taking an ancient past time and turning it into a modern sport. Perhaps many of the players in the surfing game have changed, but the legacies are still here. The Waikiki Beach Boys are still around, actually, although their glorious past might not be known to everyone. From the 20s to the 50s, they were very popular with visitors, and anyone staying in an Oahu hotel would come to know who they were.

Now part of a more organized Canoe Club , they were originally water sports experts who spent a lot of time at the beach. The visitors back then stayed for longer periods of time, and they got to know each other. The Beach Boys would teach them about surfing, canoeing, and any number of water activities. Today, guests in Hawaii spending their time in Oahu rentals might get a better chance to get to know what they’re doing these days, but even a short stay might get to know them as they work as lifeguards and firemen, and sometimes take part in paddling events. Old traditions here don’t ever really go away, with a past every bit as deep as the water.