Category: Travel

From here to there…a change of plans


View from Gilchrist Park, Punta Gorda

Travel:

Verb, -eled, -el·ing or (especially British) -elled, -el·ling

Noun, adjective verb (used without object)

  1. To go from one place to another, as by car, train, plane, or ship; take a trip, journey–to travel for pleasure.
  2. To move or go from one place or point to another
  3. To proceed or advance in any way
  4. To go from place to place as a representative of a business firm
  5. To associate or consort: He travels in a wealthy crowd

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about traveling. Not sure why, but suspect it has something to do with the impending holiday season. I cannot believe it; we are five weeks away from Christmas. The days are barreling through, toward the end of the year, at the speed of lightning, scary.

Anyway, I have been talking about traveling in “my mind” and that has set my brain in motion—I am now looking at every place I go to as a “travel” destination; convenient, actually. There is a good chance you will be reading more of these stories, as the year-ends; because I will be moving from one point to another very often.

Let the work begin!

Yesterday morning I got up early, thought I would head out of the house–with the intent of going to the park or the beach; take some pictures of birds, the water, boats—or whatever got my eye’s attention; then come back home to write a blog post or two. Well, that was the plan. Before I could get going, I heard some noise outside the door, peeked through the window to see what the racket was and suddenly—there it was, a change of plans. The County, in its infinite wisdom had decided to replace the aluminum culvert pipes around our neighborhood, with concrete ones, and today was our turn. That is fine, but could they have let me know ahead of time?

We need to move...

Not being one to miss an opportunity, I quickly got my Canon out; took some pictures, and went out to talk to the work crew, let them know I might be talking about them in my blog. The men were a good-natured bunch—all they said was “as long as what I had to say about them was good, it would be okay with them”. My response—“it would be all good—as long as I could get out of my driveway”. No problem there, they graciously moved all the heavy trucks and equipment, and I was on my way—to the spot I originally had in mind.

It is beautiful out here,,, the birds agree!

It was a beautiful day, at Gilchrist Park, sunny and bright. There were people out having lunch and reading books under the pavilion. Others were just sitting around enjoying the weather. I got into easy conversation with a woman who reminded me that there will be music on the park Thursday night. I made a mental note of that and went back home.

In addition, I now have added respect for the job those men do every day. It was nearly 90 degrees outside, while they plugged away at their duties. Tough job, but somebody has to do it, right? Glad it is not me.

Life is good!

On any given day, life throws surprises your way, especially in our neighborhood. One day you step outside to find turtles sunning in your backyard, and yet another day you see a bobcat chasing some other animal. Nevertheless, you take it all in stride; life is what you make it, so you learn to enjoy it!

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Traveling to far away places…


Article first published as Traveling to Far Away Places… on Technorati
Last week I had the distinct pleasure of traveling fifty thousand miles around the world; to places such as Namibia-Africa, Madrid-Spain, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, The Alps in Switzerland, and finally–the island of Barbados. As you can imagine, I am still jet lagged—but so happy to have taken this trip. Were you following along this adventure? I was traveling in my mind, again. This time tagging along with NBC’s Matt Lauer of the Today Show, as my guide.

 Me, being one of those people with a champagne taste and a decidedly beer budget, take my pleasures whenever I can get them. Traveling to far away places is something I dream of; a big part of my bucket list. So when NBC announced the popular “Where in the World is Matt Lauer” series was back this year, I waited with giddy anticipation to see just “Where in the World” Matt would show up. I was not disappointed, this year’s offerings were spectacular, fun-filled and very much a lesson in history and geography. The countries visited were breathtaking. The culture angles (my favorite) taught us all about the people, languages and dialects spoken, the music, customs and traditions, traditional dress and of course–the food, there must always be food.

I’ve followed this series over the years and always take something away from it; each place visited offers an opportunity to see how the rest of the world lives. Fascinating. For example the Swiss Alps, looked beautiful and inviting, but all I could think of was “it must be cold out there”. I lived through twenty years of winter weather in New York City, and even though I love this city, winter is not the time I would chose to visit.

I come from a warm, tropical weather country, Panama, but still prefer temperatures that fluctuate somewhere between 50 and 85 degrees. Not always attainable, but preferred nonetheless. Case in point? We currently live in SW Florida, enough said.

 With that in mind, my two favorite of the featured countries this year were Madrid and Barbados; with Kuala Lumpur following right behind; they have all now been added to my bucket list. I constantly barrage the hubby with travel ideas “torture” as he calls it, but my travel dreams include visits to Greece and Rome too. A few years ago I managed to land a 3-week trip that took me to London and Paris; it was part of a global perspective class I took at Eckerd College, where I completed an undergraduate degree. It was a glorious experience, one I will never forget, and the best part of it? It was a “real” credit class with lots of writing required to document the experience.

Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris

 We spent two weeks in London, where we visited the essential sights: Westminster Abbey, the Globe Theater, Buckingham Palace, the National Portrait Museum, and many more. In Paris, where we only stayed five days, the most memorable sites include The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Musee’ D’ Orsay and Notre-Dame Cathedral. Of course; in both places we experienced fabulous and delicious cuisine as well as enjoyed daily tours that informed the mind. Charles Dickens‘ home comes to mind.

This trip took place five years ago but I will forever relish the memories. The mind is a powerful tool, it serves to keep snapshots of points and places in time. Taking lots of photos, helps too.

 If you missed “Where in the World is Matt Lauer” last week, here is a link: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/45285715#45254966

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Art is all around us in SW Florida


This mural greets visitors outside CHEC's parking lot
This weekend, it was difficult to decide what to do, and where to go for entertainment. The SW Florida sun coast was bubbling with all types of art events and festivals from Sarasota to Fort Myers, and places in between.

Since we live in one of those in-between places (Charlotte County, FL) I took the easy way out and opted to attend “Art Sensation ’11”, an annual celebration of local music, art and culture; an event  sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Council of Charlotte County, held at the Charlotte County Event and Conference Center (CHEC).

Naomi Pringle proudly displays a copy of her book, "Ginga Root Tea"

This year’s Art Sensation had an impressive list of participants who boasted many talents: jewelers, painters, historians, and many other artists and performers; but for obvious reasons, this writer gravitated and connected with the writers in the house. I had the opportunity to meet and talk to James Abraham, Roland Edwards, and Naomi Pringle, three of our community’s published authors; who generously shared their knowledge and insights about the publishing world.

Roland Edwards author of "Who do you say I am"

They related writing experiences, talked about upcoming projects and invited me to attend upcoming writing workshops, they made me feel welcome in their literary midst.

James Abraham, the Book-broker and writer

This is only the beginning of “snow bird” season” in SW Florida; so I suspect I will be getting busy checking out venues until the end of the year. I will be on the lookout for things to do and will keep you posted; especially, if they are free!

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Travel–if only in your mind…


This summer, I attended a business conference held in National Harbor, MD; I did not recall hearing about this city before, at least not that I could remember.
Nevertheless, I quickly signed up to attend the summer institute conference. National  Harbor as it turned out, was all-good; especially because of its proximity to our nation’s capital, which I had the opportunity to visit during last year’s  conference.

Aside from the obvious reasons we attend job-related  conferences, there are some not so obvious benefits. One of the things I look for is location, location, location! When conferences are held in places I have  never been to before, (and that includes many), I jump at the opportunity; quickly  launch into a Google research project, and then get excited to learn all I can to begin plotting what to do when the workshops breakout for the day.

I love to travel, explore and see what the city I am in is all about. This morning I was looking through the picture gallery in my Droid with  the intent of deleting old files to free-up some memory. I came across a few pictures, taken during my two most recent business trips and instead decided  to share them with you. I will soon file them away in that digital album on the desktop I rarely ever go back into.

Washington, DC

The Washington monument was looking magnificent on the day I  took this picture. I could not ask for a better shot, and was truly amazed to see that it came out of my cell phone camera. I am by no means a photographer, but I hope for the best and expect the camera to see what I see, when I point and  shoot at an object. It is always a crime of opportunity; I may or may not have  the camera with me, but the cell phone? That is another story. LOL!

The sculpture shown here both took me by surprise and  creeped me out at the same time when I first saw it at National Harbor. I thought, what is that  all about? Its location made me

The awakening in full view

think it was making some reference to the sea gods and it looks intense and scary, at least to me it did. I have since learned it  is “The Awakening”, created by J Seward Johnson in 1980 and first  displayed in Hains Point, MD (another place I never heard of), for 27 years,  it was then relocated to National Harbor in 2008 when the sculptor sold it for $750,000! It must be nice!

I lived in Brooklyn, NY for more than twenty years, during  that time I visited every “must see” tourist site there was to see in NYC and even  some you would not want to see. Every museum: Brooklyn Museum, Children’s  Museum, MOMA, Guggenheim and places such as Madison Square, Empire State  building, Rockefeller Center, the Statue of Liberty–any and all major  attractions were part of my weekend itinerary, along with regular visits to  Macy’s for shopping and FAO Schwartz to ensure the kids did not complain—I was  a very smart mommy!

The point is this, there is so much to see anywhere you live  that you should not let the moments of your life go by without taking advantage  to enrich yourself. Gather some knowledge and share it with others. There are  no excuses accepted these days since Google can take you places you have never been before. I know, it is no substitute for being there, I agree; but  a “virtual trip” does not hurt anyone and if you ever get the opportunity to visit in person–you would already have an idea of what to expect when you get  there.

Bon Voyage!

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