Bob Travel

On your next trip to North Carolina look out for the fourth garden, the Gateway Garden which should open in 2010.  The first phase was begun in May of 2009 and is located about one half mile from Business 85 and the I-40 near Barber Park.  The city of Greensboro has been planning this garden for over ten years and should represent everything learned from four decades of building gardens.  The master plan includes eleven acres on which you will find the Michel Family Children’s Garden, the Greensboro Heritage Garden, a Japanese Garden, a Rain Garden, a Rose Garden, a Visitors Center, and a walking trails that lead into the White Oak Forest.

I had the best Valentines day. I had been planning this for weeks and all I told my girlfriend was to take some vacation time off. Now and that I had a trip planned to last her a lifetime. I packed a bag for her and told her to dress for warm weather because when we hit our destination she was going to appreciate it, but I still wouldn’t tell her where we were going. She figured it out though because they announced it in the airport. I guess I didn’t think that part through all the way.

We arrived in Kauai, Hawaii a two days before Valentines day and can I just say, all we managed to do was go to the hotel and passed out we were so tired from the trip. We had gotten in late afternoon and the warm air, and having woken up early and flown across the continent, we slept all night. When we woke up the next morning I had a plethora of activities planned for us. We rented beach bikes and bought some cheap snorkels and rode along the beach to an area that didn’t have so many people. We got off our bikes and just swam around. It was absolutely gorgeous and she loved all the fish we saw. That evening, we we went to a huge Luau on the beach and met up with some other tourists who told us about all the activities in Hawaii. They had been coming here for years and had stayed on all the islands. Finally when we were too tired to think anymore, much less dance, we went to bed.

The next morning was Valentines day and I told her we were going for a hike. I was once told that Wailua Falls is the most romantic spot in the world. She said she would pack a picnic basket and that we could make a day of it. I hadn’t planned on that, but it seemed like a great idea to me. It really was the most romantic spot I’d ever been, and getting there was a beautiful little hike. It seemed like it was now or never, so I got on one knee and asked her to marry me. Everything was perfect and she said yes as long as next year it is on one of the Hawaii cruises so we can see all the islands next time.

This year is shaping up to be a fantastic year in Singapore for music.  It’s probably not a stretch to say that every year in Singapore is a good one, considering the wide variety of excellent entertainment that comes from the creative talents of the people who live here, along with the dizzying array of performers who make this one of their stops.  The city-state is a popular destination for musicians from Europe, the U.S., and also from all over Asia.  Singapore has been a world-class city for some time, drawing on its potential as a major trading port.  The exports and imports here are not just food and goods, but often takes the form of ethereal entertainments.
For a perfect evening of ethereal entertainment, one of the best bets this year will be the Sam Hui concert. This event is coming in late June, but is already causing small waves of excitement among the locals here.  It’s a perfect excuse to take a trip over, and enjoy an evening out, with dinner at one of the excellent Chinese food restaurants in town, and then get ready to see the show.  Audiences here are very discerning, and for events as anticipated as this one, they are also extremely generous, and not afraid to show their enthusiasm.   This is one way of getting in touch with the local culture, and also experience the world of global pop, with one of Hong Kong’s most beloved stars.
Sam Hui had retired from performing, and from his illustrious film career, years ago, but picked it up again in 2004.  This was very good news for the long-term fans, who can be wonderfully fanatical about this pop star.  He comes from very humble origins, making his rise even more meteoric than other stars who come from wealth and privilege.  His reputation has always been very strong as a voice of the people, giving the audiences what they want in terms of energy and enthusiasm, and in the process, keeping the spirit of hope alive for millions.

Now that the Superbowl is over, the great flux of visitors washing in and out of Miami, perhaps this is a good time to take a visit and really relax in the nation’s most South-Eastern state.  You’ll find here plenty of amazing beaches, great cuisine (of the Floribbean variety — part Caribbean, part Floridian, if you will), and any number of terrific museums and attractions.  One of my favorites is the Miami Art Museum.  I happen to be somewhat compulsive about museums; whenever I’m in a town overnight, staying in of the city’s hotels — for more information about that, visit this page — I want to see the local museums.  With the Miami Art Museum, there’s a number of interesting permanent and traveling exhibits.

Unfortunately, you’ve just missed the Miami-Dade County Student Artwork exhibit, which concluded on Valentine’s Day, February 14th.  However, there’s still an opportunity to see Carlos Bunga: Metamorphosis.  This work is two big structures made from perishable materials and the idea is to explore the connection between architecture and urban spaces.  A Portuguese artist, this is Carlos Bunga’s first U.S. solo exhibition.   It runs until February 28, 2010.  Also running until Feb. 28th, is a collection of works in an exhibit titled Space as Medium.  The art here combines work from those artists of the 60s and 70s of the last century with the work of younger artists to create pieces which “engage” with the pieces of the museum itself — such as its walls and floors and ceilings.

In the near future, you’ll be able to see a “Miami Point of View” on art from the museum’s permanent collection, displaying work from the 20th and 21st Centuries.  This exhibit begins on February 28th and continues.  There’s no end date given.  Another exhibit you’ll be interested to find is Carlos Cruz Diez: The Embodied Experience of Color.  Here, you’ll find an installation where lights challenge perceptions of museum patrons as they move in a world of shifting space and color.  This intriguing exhibition runs from March 20th until June 20th of 2010.

When people arrive at there fabulous hotel in San Francisco and get there belongings situated they call the concierge to see how to get to the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge is one of the top attractions in the bay. It is a magnificent bridge that is fun to see from any angle. On a very clear day and coming in from the right angle you may see it from the window of your airplane. As you make it into town you may see it off in the distance. From the top of Coit Tower you may see the bridge brighten up the entrance to the bay. If you are very lucky or persistent you might be able to sail under the bridge and see how truly massive it really is.

Here is a small about of information of the Golden Gate Bridge. Technically, it connects the San Francisco Peninsula to the Marin Peninsula and spanning over the strait that comes in from the Pacific Ocean to the San Francisco Bay. The bridge was completed in 1937 and at that time was the longest suspension bridge in the world. Now there are eight other suspension bridges that are longer than the Golden Gate Bridge. Joseph B Strauss was the designer and builder of the Golden Gate Bridge. He got one million dollars for taking on the project as well as a lifetime bridge pass. He had some other architects working with him, a couple, Irving F Morrow and Gerturde C Morrow. They were the ones to add the art deco and simple structures to the design. They also chose it’s color.

It was named the Golden Gate because an early topographical engineer named the strait that when he came through in 1846. It reminded him of another harbor located in Istanbul. The building of the bridge didn’t go without some dangerous situations. Thankfully, there was a netting that went along under the bridge for safety. It worked. Nineteen men were saved by this net when they fell of during the construction.

Lafayette is a gorgeous city in the middle of some of the more scenic places in the country.  Louisiana is a fascinating place, rich with histories and cultures that intertwine, disconnect, and meet up again further down the road to intertwine again.  It has all the mystery that a swamp should have, along with a very vibrant culture.  There are plenty of things to see in town, and plenty of inspired people.  That’s certainly the case with Sarah Mikayla Brown, who grew up here, and had some of the more formative years in the beginning of her wild and adventurous career.

It’s possible, then, to check into a cool hotel, and start poking around the city, finding little hubs of culture here and there that can be very inspiring.  It’s also a fantastic place to come to get away from a busier schedule.  The pace of life is different here, and the geography certainly does enter into the world view of the people.  This is the home of Cajun culture, after all, and the blend of hospitality and taste come together in a deep appreciation for the simply things in life.  For the artists, however, it’s never all that simple, no matter where you live.

As Brown certainly knows, to make a mark in the incredible competitive theatre market, it takes a lot of hustle.  She learned that she was apparently born with immense inner resources that would drive her to do impossible things.  She worked with Acting Up!, an improv troupe, in town, before moving to Chicago.  There, she she’s begun the Chicago Fringe Festival, which is no small feat in a world where the odds are very much stacked against you for these kinds of ventures.  Along the way, she’s also has the chance to work with Rude Mechanicals, Tantaus, and Corn Productions, among others.  It will be thrilling to see how this next year’s festival goes, and hope she gets all the credit she deserves.

Most visitors to Santa Monica come for the chance to hang out on the beach and maybe do a little star-gazing, and definitely a little shopping.  So it’s sometimes strange to be here in the middle of the night, looking for clues to the secrets of life and death, and a chance to wonder at why we are all here.  We also wonder sometimes what we are here for, and when the questions become too heavy, and when the night is too long, we remember how we dance, and we dance, at the edge of the water.  This is the place where the sea and the sand meet.  In other times and other realms, there are stories about the marriage here, and how they can no longer be together because they destroy each other.

It’s a hard lesson for the middle of the night, in winter, when there are no new birds yet to come calling to us and wake us out of our dreams.  Sleeping on the beach is a thing of the past, and today the hotels in Santa Monica are close enough to every direction we need to go.  We come here to enjoy the sun and the mystery, and sometimes we, too, go shopping.  We buy belts, we buy purses, we buy jewelry made of shells because someone say there are authentic and we think that’s so charming.  We drink chai on the sidewalk and we listen to Najite Olokun Prophecy, because of the connection to the mother and the father.

Sometimes the mysteries are large, like a woman who disappears when she tries to leave the ground and touch sky, and a plane is found.  Sometimes the mysteries are much softer and simpler.  We wonder about the meaning of things, but we also sometimes wonder what the skin is asking for, and the answers are always different, and always the same motion toward eternity.

Augusta Georgia famous for The Masters golf tournament held every year. Which brings in many famous people both as players and spectators. They flock in to the rooms at the fabulous hotels around Augusta click here and add flair to the game festivities. I am sure the economy of the town gets a nice boost from the event. While that spectacle only brings in the rich and famous for a couple of weeks there are some rich and famous that were born here. From the early developers of the country to the modern entertainers of the world, there are some interesting notables that came for this town.

How about Woodrow Wilson, the twenty eighth President of the United States, as a native to Augusta. The current Federal Reserve chairman Ben s Bernanke is also from this quaint town. There were some big time military men that came from here like Archibald Butt who was the military aid to Presidents Roosevelt and Taft. He died on the RMS Titanic and there is a the Butt Memorial Bridge in Augusta that is dedicated to Major Butt. then you have Montgomery C. Meigs who was a Quartermaster General of the US Army during the Civil War. He was also an engineer and built some military forts and other impressive monuments.

Then there is the musicians that were born in Augusta. James Brown tops the list of household name musician. Then you have jazz trombonist, Wycliffe Gordon and singer Sharon Jones. Amy Grant started her life in Augusta then moved to Nashville where she blossomed into an amazing singer and songwriter in the country pop music field. Steve Morse is a musicians musician guitarist who is the founder of the fantastic Dixie Dregs. He was also the guitarist in the band Deep Purple. His work can be found on over eighty projects during his long career as one of the greatest guitarist in the world.

Oh my gosh, okay so I totally forgive my family for being embarrassing nerds and actually love them. We just had the best time in Atlanta and I can’t wait to go back again. We visited for a week, well actually we were visiting my aunt who lives in a small town just outside of Atlanta, but we went in to the city for a couple of days and stayed in one of its fancy hotels. My two sister and I had a great place to sleep at both the hotel and my aunt’s house and there was never any complaints about space. Oh, and my aunt is a great cook and has two cats and a dog so that was also nice. We don’t have any pets, well except for a goldfish, at my house.

While we were in Atlanta my dad asked my aunt what she would like to do. She suggested taking the family to Six Flags White Water. That immediately caught the attention of all of us, my mom included who seemed to have a look of concern. My brother and sisters were all excited and so was I and we really didn’t even know what Six Flags White Water was. But anything that could put that kind of a look on mom had to be fun. After very little discussion the adults decided that we could go to Six Flags the next day as long as we were all behaved. Now, that was a difficult thing to arrange with four kids, but we all made an effort and there were no problems the rest of the day, even when Jill caught Mike stealing a french fry.

The next morning we woke up early had a small breakfast at the Original Pancake House. My mom was worried we would upset our stomachs at the Six Flags but also wanted us to have something in them. She was always contradictive like that, but I love her. There were really a lot of amazing looking rides there that I was too small to go on but I definitely want to go back every summer until I’ve ridden on everything. We had a great time on the Lizard’s Tail and the Banzai Pipeline. Well, we had a great time on everything we went on. My favorite though was definitely was the Mutiny Chute. I could go on that a hundred times.

The beaches in the state of Virginia are wide, well maintained, and expansive.  All of the beaches are protected by life guards throughout the summer season, from the months of May through September, and many vendors offer their goods along the coast, from boogie boards to umbrellas and chaise lounge chairs.  When staying along the beachfront there are many wonderful options when it comes to best Virginia hotels, many of them with their own private beaches, close to rental companies where you can take a tandem bicycle out for the day, or rent a pair of roller blades for a trip along the boardwalk.

Along the 3 mile boardwalk one will also find a plethora of restaurants and cafes overlooking stunning beachfront views, and during the summer months there are many family oriented activities planned, such as the Art Show and Festival Weekend, the North American Sand Soccer Championships, and Sandstock: The Blast from the Past.  Two other options for activities with the children include the Aquarium and Marine Science Center of Virginia and the Virginia Beach Oceanfront Waterpark.

For those who are in love with nature, there are many state parks worth visiting in Virginia.  The Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge and the False Cape State Park will offer a remote and peaceful look into the plants and the wildlife that live in the woods and on the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean.  One of the most popular beaches along the Eastern coast is the Cape Charles Beach.  There are virtually no waves, and the waters are shallow, providing the perfect swimming spot for families traveling with small children.

There is also the pier, aptly named the Town’s Fun Pier, with amusement rides and entertainment, located close to many of the wonderful restaurants just off the coast.  Many of the beaches on the coast of Virginia are calm throughout the year, and with the various annual festivals, one can be certain that while they will be relaxed, there will always be something new to experience in the state of Virginia.