Tag Archives: vacation

We Are Going To Florida Next Week

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We are going to Florida next week to see my two daughters, which is the only chance I get to see them every year, and as usual I am beginning to panic slightly.

As well as wanting to make sure that everything goes perfectly, gone are the days when I used to travel regularly for work, knew exactly what I needed to take, what clothing to pack etc.  The older I get, the more forgetful I get, the more aware I am of having A.D.D., and the more I fret about forgetting something important.

As well as the obvious items like passports, flight and car rental bookings etc, it’s things like the cameras and MP3 Player, making sure that these are charged, clothing, making sure I pack the right things.

Silly to fret about some of these things I know, but with money being tight I can’t afford to buy replacement items while we are away, and I can feel myself really finding it harder to remember things the last 3 or 4 years, which is worrying.

Even though our trip coincides with the Olympics in London, Delta for some reason are not flying direct between London and Miami for the summer, and so we have to change planes in Atlanta on the way out and Detroit on the way back.  A change of flight time has already forced us to leave Miami two hours early on the way back, and now we will have 4 1/2 hours in Detroit, which we are not looking forward to, especially as it will be late evening.

My other worry is whether Debbie will get held up in Immigration.  She is usually ok unless it’s Miami, where she always gets pulled over, even though she now has a 10 year visa in her passport. It’s a long story, but an interesting one that you can read about HERE if you have time.

But hopefully all will go well, and we are staying at the same condo in Hollywood Beach that we stayed at last summer. I know Hollywood pretty well, and we know the condo too, so that makes me more confident that it will be a good trip.

I am really looking forward to seeing my daughters, and will tell you all about it when we return mid August. If you want to see where we are staying and to read about last year’s holiday, it’s all HERE.

Tony And Debbie’s Florida Vacation – Part Six

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Part 6 of our holiday in Florida sees me injured while Ice Skating, doing a Belly Flop on the ice, and then continuing with a stormy week in Hollywood.  If you haven’t read the previous articles in this series, you might enjoy starting at the beginning HERE.

A Belly Flop On The Ice

On Tuesday of the second week I took the girls to Pines Ice Arena in Pembroke Pines, since they enjoy learning to skate, and hadn’t been there since I last took them 18 months ago.

We had a good time, until my eldest challenged me to a race, and seconds later I was headed flat on the ice in what can only be described as a belly flop!   Being in my 50’s and overweight, putting my arms out did little to soften my fall, and as a result 2 weeks later I am still very sore with bruised ribs and pulled stomach muscles. 

It’s hard to sleep at night because I can only lie on my side, and so I get woken up by a sore/numb shoulder and arm, which causes me to struggle to sit up, twist around and lie on the other side.   I still cannot pie on my front or back even after 2 weeks, it’s that painful.

I guess next time I take them skating I will have learned my lesson, and therefore absolutely no racing.  If they are skating better on their own too by then, I might just let them do more while I sit and watch.

Dragonflies

Swarms of Dragonflies over Hollywood Beach in FloridaWe took the next few days quietly, since I was hurting, and the girls spent lots of time in the pool while I tried to walk around in it, but found lifting my arms up too painful to allow me to swim unfortunately.

It stormed a lot the next couple of days as well, and before the rain on several days the sky was filled with thousands of dragonflies.  It was quite amazing to watch, and if you click on the picture here and look at the sky, those are not specks of dirt that you can see, it’s dragonflies.

A beautiful Dragonfly that posed for me at Hollywood Beach in FloridaFortunately they rarely came close to us, and we aren’t scared of them either, but if you were then it might not be too pleasant.  I did manage to capture one that was perched on a wall, which I posted to Fine Art America.  I wonder if I will get any sales?

Thunder And The Smurfs

One day we took the girls to one of our favourite places to eat, Sweet Tomatoes, and then since it was set to rain again, to see the Smurfs movie.

We opted to not see the 3D version, since neither of them really enjoy that, but managed to get good seats at the back of the theatre and settled down to watch the film.

About halfway through we could hear what sounded like thunder, and although I thought at first it was sound coming through from one of the other 17 theatres in the location, we soon found out that it wasn’t, as we began to hear the rain pounding on the roof.

Then, as so often happens in Florida, the power went out, and we all sat in virtual darkness for about 20 minutes until they could get everything back to normal.  During this time we were making noises, sound effects, singing the Smurf song, and others in the audience were repeating it, so it was quite funny really, and the time passed quickly.

I wouldn’t say the movie was great, but it wasn’t awful either, kind of cute really.

The Last Night And A Full Moon

Full Moon over Hollywood Beach in FloridaIt’s funny isn’t it how the first part of a holiday goes slowly, and then as time goes on the days just whiz past.  So before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye to the girls and to fly home to the UK.

My youngest decided to go home to her Mom on Friday night, as she was feeling homesick, but my eldest stayed with us and helped us to pack on the Saturday morning.

Friday night there was a full moon, and we went for a walk along the broadwalk at Hollywood Beach as the sun was setting to catch a glimpse, but there were thick clouds along the horizon and it was clear that the moon would have to rise quite a lot before anyone could see it.

However, about an hour later I was able to catch some good pictures of the full moon as it rose through the palm trees.

Goodbye Hollywood Beach

Debbie and the girls at Hollywood Beach in FloridaAll too soon it came time for my ex to pick up my eldest, and for us to give the girls hugs and kisses and say goodbye. 

Then time to complete the packing, loading of the car, and to leisurely drive to the airport in Miami, return the car, and wait for the flight home.

With my ribs being sore, having to try and lift the bags in and out of the condo, the car, and a shuttle bus, then into the overhead bins on the plane, I was really hurting.

It was actually for once not so bad trying to spend the night sitting half upright instead of trying to lie down, but after landing at Heathrow airport, and lugging the bags on and off another shuttle and into the car, I was about all in.

I had to grip the steering wheel all the way home to try and take some pressure off my ribs, but fortunately with it being Sunday morning the traffic was light, and the journey took just over an hour.

Once home, a quick check to make sure everything was ok, then off to bed for a couple of hours, to try and catch up on a bit of sleep, and to prepare for the reality of going back to work the following morning.

Well that is the story of our trip to Florida.  I hope you enjoyed it, and if so any Shares/Tweets or a Google|+1 would be much appreciated.

 

Our Christmas Trip Is Finally Coming Together

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If you are a subscriber to our blog or a regular reader, you will know that whan I moved back to the UK from Florida at the end of July, I had to leave my two daughters behind (with their Mom), and since I am missing them terribly, like all Dads do, we decided to try and spend Christmas in Florida to I can at least see them for a week.

The problem with going to Florida over Christmas though is that this is high season, the time when flights and accommodation are at their highest prices, and also at their scarcest.

In the wintertime, South Florida is full of people from the East Coast of the USA and Canada, the “snowbirds” as they are known.   Some snowbirds spend a good three months in Florida to escape the bitterly cold winters up north, while others just visit for one or two weeks.  If you go to the beaches in South Florida over the Christmas period and look at the licence plates of the cars, at least 2/3rds of them if not more are from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and in the Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale area too from Quebec and Toronto.   Just listen to the conversations on the people on the beach too, and the all too familiar Hispanic voices are replaced by New York twangs and even more so by Canadian French.

Last week after much searching for a decent route at a decent price, we bit the bullet and purchased our flights.  The price was high, but not as much as we could have ended up paying.  It was actually cheaper than it cost to get Debbie over to Florida for Christmas two years ago, but we also don’t have direct flights, which I hope is not going to be a problem.   When taking a multi-leg flight, you need to allow for delays in schedule, and inbound to the USA as well for delays in immigration, where Debbie has already had issues, her last trip to Miami resulting in her being stuck in immigration for 15 hours!   But hopefully we will be ok this time, since we have a 3 hour layover in Raleigh/Durham before catching our flight down to Miami, and I also now have my USA Passport, which ought to help.

Last night we also bit the bullet and booked a place to stay.  It’s not a luxurious hotel or resort, it’s a typical family owned motel on Hollywood Beach, and although it cost a lot it will hopefully work out best for us.   The few reviews that we managed to find for the motel sounded more good than bad.  There is no pool or hot tub, it’s above several restaurants so it could be noisy at night, but it is right on the boardwalk and we will be able to eat and walk along the beach at night, instead of being stuck in a hotel away from the beach in the evenings.

There really were not many choices for hotels unfortunately, since prices are sky high, and most places are already fully booked.  Left are the hotels close to the airport in Fort Lauderdale, those on the interstate, and some high and low end places that are either too expensive or in a bad neighborhood.  Of the three places on the beach, one was $250 a night, way out of our price range, a second was $100 a night but in the middle of being renovated and with some horrible reviews.  The place we picked was about the only choice.

My biggest fear is that because we don’t land in Miami until 9:30pm on Christmas Eve, is that everything will be closed, and it will be 11pm at the earliest before we get to where we are staying.  Since few places open in Florida on Christmas Day, we could end up without any essentials like bread, milk, juice etc for a day.  However staying right on the beach, there ought to be some shops and restaurants open at least.  It’s going to be a different Christmas with no turkey and trimmings I am sure, but hopefully a good one.   Getting up on Christmas Day is going to be tough, since by the time we get to bed it will already be 5am UK time or later!  Probably a good day to just spend relaxing on the beach or the terrace.

Now we need to find a good deal on a rental car, which I hope is easier to sort out.  There appear to be plenty of choices at least from all the car rental companies, but even that is expensive.  I must remember to use my AAA (equivalent of AA/RAC in the UK) discount to save some money, but since we will be taking the girls out we need to have transport.  

I doubt that we will be spending many days on the beach, but at least we will be right there in the evenings, plenty of opportunities for walking, either on the boardwalk (promenade) or along the waters edge.

So wish us luck!  Hopefully the flights, immigration process, accommodation and weather all work in our favour.  Will post updates and photos later, also a video or two maybe…

How To Get What You Want In Your Life by Oscar Del Ben

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Do you believe you can get anything you want in your life?

Do you believe that our mind can produce astonishing results if we really want to?

It may surprise you to know that the answer to these questions is YES!

We, as human beings, have the extraordinary ability to achieve phenomenal results in life if we really want to, and we see examples of this everyday.

Let me tell you a story…

There was a guy who grew up in a foreign county where he didn’t speak English.

He left school at age 16 to go to work to put some money aside.

After two years, he took the money he saved and went to America searching for opportunities.

He didn’t know a single word of English, but he was determined to learn it and he did.

He went from work to work while learning how to live in America and he met a lot of people.

He finally found an opportunity one day and he was able to start a small business with the limited knowledge he had.   Eventually the business went well and he sold it.   Now he is a happy guy enjoying life and living his life at the best every single day.

What was the secret of this success?

Experts say that when people are totally committed to something, they’ll almost certainly find a way to have it.   That was the secret of that guy and it is the secret of other millions of people in America.

So how do you actually get what you want in your life?

The first step is always to clarify what your goal is.

Do you want more money?

Why?

Do you want it to go on vacation with your partner, or to buy a new car?

Make a plan to get what you really want and do something every day to realize that goal.

Don’t be afraid of asking too much if you are really committed to it.

On the other side, don’t ask too many things when you can realistically accomplish only a few of them.

This is a powerful technique to achieve what you want in your life and many successful people are using it every day.   It doesn’t matter if what you want is double your income, visit a foreign country or have a new car.   Everything is possible if you can focus your energies on it and you do something every day to have it.

Oscar Del Ben is a professional writer, entrepreneur and programmer. He writes about personal development at www.freestylemind.com