Written by When you visit a city the never sleeps, sometimes all you want is a really good nap. But, here in Manhattan, there’s not even a chance of that, there’s too much restless energy going through your pores and pumping your very being into a jumble of thoughts that can lead you to the brink of insanity. You feel you have to do everything that there is possibly to do in Manhattan.
Escaping the city is another possibility, seeing the forest for the trees, feeling the mountains ruggedness under your feet, finding sand in every parts of your body after playing in the ocean or encompassing the vastness of space. I love this city, I love my room at one of the New York top hotels, it’s like icing on top of a cupcake, but I’m so over-stimulated and frazzled.
At first glance, New York does overwhelm the senses, stimulates the possibilities, brings about a zest for life, and sparkles like diamond for the taking, but then it hits you and suddenly the urge to sleep or run pours in like Niagara Falls. I need calm, I need warmth, I need a friendly person to talk to, I need sleep.
I couldn’t sleep, so I took a walk to Central Park, I haven’t been there yet, so maybe, just maybe I find solace. I braved the park at twilight and with a threatening sky; as I entered, my first thought was: I found escape. The peace, the tranquility flowed through my garbled soul. The air was pungent with the scent of Night Jasmine, the horse-drawn carriages echo down the cobblestones. I felt sleepy and calm. Why didn’t I come here sooner? Central Park is an oasis in the concrete forest, it’s a balm on an open wound and saviour that grounds home a sense of being whole again.
I think I can once again take on the hustle and bustle of this spectacular city.
Monthly archives for January, 2010
Central Park is New York’s Remedy for the Weary
Festivals in San Antonio
Year round, the city of San Antonio celebrates its history and holidays. No matter what season you arrive and book a hotel, chances are good that there will be a place to enjoy yourself.
Starting out in January, San Antonio rings in the New Year on South Alamo Street, across from HemisFair Park. You’ll find here music and food as well as an amazing fireworks show blasted off from the heights of the Tower of the Americas. This is followed by the Michelob ULTRA River Walk Mud Festival, which honors not a new year, but the annual maintenance of the River Walk, which is done by draining a portion of the river. The festival, which includes a Mud Parade, an art festival and a Pub Crawl, also honors a newly crowned Mud King and Queen.
In February, there’s a sixteen day event known as the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo held at the Freeman Coliseum and AT&T Center. In April, there’s a ten day festival held all over the city in order to commemorate the heroes of the Battle of the Alamo, as well as the Battle of San Jacinto. This is all about the independence of Texas from Mexico, and there’s over one hundred events taking place at this time. This particular festival goes back to 1891 when the festival was just a parade of ladies in carriages tossing the blossoms of flowers at each other. In 1895, this parade had grown into a week long celebration, now known as the Battle of Flowers Parade.
Around Easter, you’ll find a Passion Play performed at the Cathedral of San Fernando, which happens to be the oldest cathedral in the country, and this production has happened every year for the last two hundred and fifty years.
In May, of course, Cinco de Mayo festivities occur in Market Street. In June, you’ll find there’s free theater at the San Antonio Botanical Garden with Shakespeare in the Park. There’s also a Texas Folklife Festival, four days that bring together forty ethnic groups in Texas to display food, music, crafts and folk dancing.
In November, you’ll find the Holiday River Parade and Lighting Ceremony which is held the day after Thanksgiving, which lights up the River Walk for the holidays with over 122,000 lights. In addition, there’s floats that move down the river, concluding with Santa Claus and Pancho Claus, the Latin variation on the mythic Christmas elf. In December, you’ll find the amazing Fiesta de las Luminarias along the River Walk, where people put out seven thousand luminarias; this ceremony is part of a tradition with Mexican-American roots and will continue over nine nights. This particular procession has been going on for over forty years here.
This brings us back to New Year’s Eve and another round of festivals begins.
Museums of Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale has much to offer in the ways of fun and good times in the sun, on the beach and in the water. However should you need a bit of time away from the sun and the sand there are three museums in the city that are well worth a visit. As mentioned in the travel pamphlets provided by the staff of most of the luxury hotels on the beaches of Fort Lauderale is rich with history, art and science. The African American Cultural Center celebrates and offers the public, a look into the lives of the residents of African heritage. The library located at the center draws researchers from around the world, as their collection of books numbers close to 80′,000. Many rare or out of print books are to be found in the library as well as an extensive collection of African American writers and the museum contains a rich collection of paintings and sculptures.
The Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art is also filled with works of art, on canvas or in stone and bronze, with as well, a vast collection of locally produced textiles and craft-work. There is a wide variety of famous works housed in the museum, and the touring exhibits change frequently. This is one of the museums you will wish to set aside the entire day for, as there is much to see, and much to photograph.
As with the previous two museums, the Museum of Discovery and Science (http://www.mods.org/) offers fun for the entire family, in fact it is one of the best attractions for children in the city. There are more than two hundred interactive displays and exhibits. There is even a small section of the museum which houses and cares for alligators, snakes and bats. There is a large nature trail filled with the fauna and the flora of the region, as well as the different levels of the Everglade forest. And, as with the bringing of the animals and reptiles inside, the museum houses a shark exhibit, which contains along with the sharks, the largest coral reef to be in captivity. From land to sea to the sky, the space exhibit will top off your trip. These are great places to escape the heat of a humid day, and great places to learn while having fun.
Sit in Greensboro
The history of the area surrounding fine hotels located in Greensboro, North Carolina is long and plentiful. There are many stories that can be heard from the Civil War times and into the more modern African-American Civil Rights Movement. Some freedoms were won in the early 1860 but the battle continues on for some areas of America. In the 1940s,50s and 60s African-Americans continued to fight for their place in America. They had a vision of everyone who lived in this country should be able to live, eat and be where ever they wanted. There were plenty of people who didn’t want that to happen.
In early 1960, when segregation of public facilities was still in full force, four black freshman from a North Caroline University decided to walk into a segregated Woolworths cafe and asked to be served. They felt that if they were going to spend money at the local Woolworth store on products, then they should also be able to sit in the stores cafe and be served lunch. The restaurant refused to serve them so they sat there until the store closed. For the next five days these same young men came in and sat at that lunch counter. Each day more and more protesters showed up until there were hundreds of angry protesters creating a scene outside. The efforts they made did lead to the desegregation of the F.W.Woolworths cafe counter. The store in Greensboro was eventually forced to close its doors but the chain is still active and has made its way online.
These young protesters were the first to start the sit-in movement, which was led by a group called CORE, in an effort to make peaceful protests to push the point that they deserved to be in the same pools, restaurants and other public places along with the white men and women of the country. Groups of African-Americans were to go to lunch in a white mans cafe, sit down and order. They were not to leave until after they were served. However, they had to follow a few rules. They had to be friendly at all times while sitting at the counter. They had to sit up straight and face the counter. They were not allowed to talk, laugh out loud or strike back at any attack that may come at them. The were also not allowed to block entrances. This movement turned into many other forms of non-violent ways of protesting to come.
Meanerings in New York City
Manhattan is best for non-particular meanderings; no plans are necessary. I just walked and explored the city, she reveals exactly what I need at just the right moments. Like my quest for a ‘good’ cup-o-coffee, not what’s being served here at every corner and calling it coffee, but an actual great cup of coffee. Through my meanderings, I stumbled across ‘Stumptown Cafe‘. It’s the first in New York city and is the brainchild of a completely obsessive coffee addict spouting that the bean varietals as just as important as the grapes used for wine.
Stumptown coffee is Superb! It takes me back to my roots in Melbourne. I feel like I’m now ready for anything New York City wants me to explore. There is nothing better for one’s spirits than a Superb cup of coffee! Nothing! Not even alcohol, nothing. With my latte in hand, I let a new days adventure begin. I traveled through some previously ignored boutiques, boutiques busting with originality! See how a good cup of coffee leads to an eye opening experience? I found one boutique where people watching was just as quirky as the clothes price-tags were.
My next day, was just as random as all the previous days, except for a quick stop by Stumptown. Fortunately, the top hotel I booked on-line from this site: http://www.topnewyorkcityhotels.com, to stay at during my trip wasn’t too far away from Stumptown, which is located on 29th and Broadway. It was Sunday and Sunday led me on a wild cheese-burger and fries chase through the Lower East Side. A place named ‘Pianos’ was spotted, so I went inside. I found it to be somewhat of a California atmosphere of laid-backness-beach-house type of bar. I sat up at the bar and ordered a cheese-burger with fries. Boy! Saying that was the best burger I’ve ever had is an understatement!
One of the best parts of being plan-free, is the truly unexpected happens, like as I was taking photos of myself via Iphone, Sarah Jessica Parker passed by me laughing! I quickly turned the camera phone around and managed to get a shot of her as she stepped into a taxi! So, next time you’re in New York City, don’t plan anything and be random and free. You’ll get to see a part of New York that isn’t on any tour package.
Great Estuary
When it comes to estuary’s the largest one in the United States is Chesapeake Bay of the coast of Virginia. Any of the hotels Hampton has to offer is a good place to start your exploration of the Bay. This bay is shared with Virginia and Maryland along the Atlantic Ocean and each state has a few cities along the waters edge. It has more than a hundred and fifty streams and rivers mix in with the Atlantic Ocean everyday. The area of the bay runs about 200 miles long starting from Susquehanna River down to the Atlantic. You could spend days boating in the bay in order to see most of it. The narrowest part of the bay is between Plum Point and Romney Creek and spans about 2.8 miles. The widest section of the bay is about 30 miles wide and is near the Potomac River. The bay varies in depths between 46 feet to 208 feet. It also has a few bridges built over it. One bridge is in Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and it crosses the bay from Sandy Point to Kent Island. The other is in Virignia, Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel will get travelers from Virginia Beach to Cape Charles.
There are many thing to do on the Chesapeake Bay. Boating and fishing are very popular. In fact, the seafood like blue crab, oysters and clams were the well known harvest of these waters. There is even a famous boat that is the state boat of Maryland called the shipjack. The shipjack is a sail powered work boat and the only one of its kind in the United States. The waters are not quite as plentiful with shellfish as it once was but there is still some a good business being run there. Visitors can even get out and to a little fishing and crabbing. It is still a great tourist attraction.
Search Engine Optimization and Reputation Management: The Keys a Good Campaign
Often when we think about campaigns and elections we think of rallies, shaking hands, holding babies, and endless commercials on television. While it is still important to get out into the streets and talk to people, we are quickly creating a more technological approach to campaigning. These days most politicians use Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites to keep their potential constituents informed about their policies and their progress on the campaign trail.
With an increasing number of people going online to investigate each candidate, their policies, and their history, it is more important than ever that politicians utilize online reputation management. It only takes a few minutes for the opposing party or an overzealous competitor to post derogatory comments or blog about a candidate and seriously damage their reputation and, potentially, their campaign. With established reputation management, damage control in such a situation would be minimal if at all. On the same token, search engine optimization services can help boost the ranking on the candidates personal and campaign websites. This will also help voters find the most accurate and direct information for each candidate. By properly ranking their sites, candidates can share with voters their policies, past terms in office, as well as their voting history if they served in the Senate or Congress.
The internet is constantly revolutionizing the way we live, work, and vote. As more information becomes available online, the more we use it to research and investigate products, services, and candidates. For candidates it has never been more important to stay on top of their campaign and what it being said about them. For voters it has never been more important to stay informed, but, on the other hand, it has never been easier.
John McEnroe: A Serious Tennis Player
The Australian Open is coming up, and with it, a renewed interest in tennis: its history and its players. Perhaps one the most polarizing people ever in the history tennis was not the groundbreaking Billie Jean King and all that she did to make tennis a more even playing ground for women to compete in, but the Superbrat. Named so by the British press for his nasty tantrums that included swearing and classic one-liners like “You cannot be SERIOUS!” John McEnroe has made a name for himself as a seriously good tennis player. His tennis scores and matches throughout the years prove it.
Often people tuned into the matches, people who were not normally fans, simply to wait and watch for one of his famous tantrums and shouting sessions. Nearing fifty, he has yet to cool down. And incidentally, his famous line actually turned out to do him some good use later on his life. It became a serious of commercials for the car rental company, National Car Rental, and when he wrote his autobiography, he did not have to look far for a title. In later years, he has branched out even further, doing an episode of CSI: NY.
Despite his flare-ups and seeming rudeness on the courts, he actually has deep respect for many of the people he has played against, but not so much for many of the calls umpires made during those matches. Bjorn Borg and he had a famously intense rivalry, but both hold an extreme reverence for the other a player, both during their heyday challenging the other to new heights and accomplishments.
He might be rude. He might have hurt tennis’s reputations. But there is one thing that John McEnroe never was or will be: boring.