Philippine Butterfly

Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

The one thing you cannot do in New York City is to be at a loss for something to do or see. That might be a silly phrase but it is also the truth. There is an endless offering of great stage shows on Broadway, Off Broadway and Off Off Broadway, which typically means everything else. In addition, there are a number of museums, galleries and other art exhibit spaces that present some of the best original works in all mediums. The music scene is another example of one of the city’s thriving cultural aspects and there are opportunities to see and hear the best of symphonic music, rock bands, as well as jazz, blues, country and any and all other genres of music.

If all of this bores you then there is plenty of shopping to do and some of the best department and retail stores in the nation. However, that might not last your entire vacation and you may want to start exploring some of the popular landmarks and attractions of the city. Be careful though, this could actually take up your entire vacation. You would be better off writing down some of the top attractions you would like to visit, such as Times Square, the Lincoln Center , The Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty among others.

And if you are being stubborn at this point and still haven’t found the exact right thing you would like to do then you probably fall into the category of people that loves a great meal. And what category is this? Well, it’s everyone of course, so there is almost no way it won’t include you and New York has some of the best opportunities for having the greatest dining experience of your life. And this is true whether you prefer a slice of pizza or a four-course dinner. From sandwiches to stakes, you are guaranteed to find something to love in one of New York’s restaurants, diners or street vendors. With all of this being said, the challenge remains for any tourist in New York to find themselves at a loss for something to do.

Are you looking into some of the great nightlife in Boulder Colorado? There are many places to go for dinner, cocktails and entertainment that have very different atmospheres and styles. Unless you find a favorite spot the first night out, you may be hitting a different scene each night on the town. To get the party started head over to the classic Johnny’s Cigar Bar this a great place to have that first martini while listening to some jazz or blues bands and enjoy a cigar if you choose. If you don’t like cigars, don’t let that stop you from enjoying the place, the smoking area is separate from the rest of the bar. It is a real class act place with some fine refreshments and music.  

To continue onto some dinner and even more entertainment, check out the Boulder dinner Theatre they offer up some really nice dinners from oysters on the half shell to prime rib and ending with a great piece of apple pie. Each dish has a real gourmet presentation and most have organic ingredients. While enjoying your dessert, the curtain will raise and one of the fabulous theatre productions will light up with lots of energy. They offer up some of the hit Broadway style shows that will make you forget about normal life for a while.  

Just check with your Boulder accommodations to help you find the way to another really great live experience. If you are into the opera or a good symphony you may want to check out the Boulder Theater . This venue offers up everything from feature films to touring concerts and symphonies. It is an elegant theatre that hosts some really great events most nights of the week. There should be something going on there while you are visiting.

When one thinks of Texas tons of things come to mind mostly the culture of rodeos and chili cook offs . If you’re planning to visit Dallas you should plan for a lot more cultural depth, The Kimbell Art Museum has a collection of works ranging in period from ancient works from Egypt to 20th century artists creations as well as Meso-American, Asian, and African pieces. The Kimbell Art Museum also offers classes in the arts for a wide range of students of all ages, and even offers courses for the deaf and those with a limited range of hearing, in hopes increased understanding of the arts will expand an appreciation for them

This is by no means the only museum or type of museum in the area. The Women’s Museum: An Institute for the Future is a place where people can explore the contributions of women throughout history. The Old Red Museum of Dallas County History & Culture is a restored courthouse containing exhibits relevant to the history of Dallas, Texas. Dallas Museum of Natural History has several fascinating exhibits ranging from an urban farm to an active paleontology lab.

Looking to explore Museums of other cultures? Dallas has those as well. The Crow Collection is a permanent set of galleries dedicated to the arts and cultures of Asia featuring pieces from China, Japan, India and Southeastern Asia, from as early as 3500 B.C. The Meadows Museum houses one of the largest collection of Spanish art outside of Spain.

There are even Museums dedicated to tragedies that have touched America as a whole. Whether you feel the need to visit The Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance, a museum dedicated to learning from the past and was started by survivors living in the Dallas area. Maybe you want to visit The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza and learn about that day in November 1963 the President, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated.

Next time you stop through Dallas pause and take a peek in one of these wonderful cultural centers and show appreciation for the history the people working within are keeping alive.

I’m a huge fan of old missions and old churches, and San Antonio was like striking gold for both! There are 5 missions within 10 miles of each other, and believe it or not, I had no idea about this until I arrived in town. I actually had time to visit all of the 5 missions, because I of what happened during my business meeting, which is the real reason why I’m here.

So, before my business endeavour began, I had time to see the Queen of the Missions – Mission San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo . This mission is the central mission of the 5 and the biggest. It’s also headquarters for all the San Antonio Missions. The best part about Mission San Jose was its grounds, because it has been fully restored to its original size. In addition to the church, there are all sorts of support buildings, like the housing quarters and the fortress walls. While I was there, I got to talk to the park administrator and he gave me the whole shpiel about the history, but the best part was his shpiel about the whole history of how the state of Texas was formed.

Then it was time to go to my business meeting in downtown San Antonio, and I was very lucky, because we met in the restaurant of the local hotel where I was staying overnight. My business meeting went better than expected, because, after lunch, I was telling my client about my visit to Mission San Jose and how I’ll be visiting the 4 remaining missions if time allows. My client was also an old mission aficionado, and said he’d be happy to take me to visit the other 4 missions and give me my own personal tour! Needless to say, I not only landed the deal for my business, I got to enjoy an intimate tour of the remaining missions, the last one being the famous Alamo.

Games provide excitement for everyone. Some prefer crossword puzzles and mazes, while others prefer roller coasters or Baseball. Fremont offers all of the above. This page will help you find hotels in the area close to whatever game you are in the mood for.

Mazes are great fun and keep your mind sharp. The most common way to play with mazes is on paper or on a game board. In Fremont, CA , you can walk through a real maze! The Maize is exceptional fun! This Huge five acre maze is made out of cornfields. Of course, since it is organic in nature, it is seasonal. Open for about two months out of the year closing after Halloween. It is a great family outing during the day. For those who would like a little more spook, visit during the evening hours for a real scare!

The Fremont Athletics have been put on hold. While the A’s are still playing in Oakland, plans for the move to Fremont have been placed on hold. It is a game of give and take with the community and the organization. For now, Cisco Field will have to hold on construction until a decision can be made. Nevertheless, a good baseball game always proves to be a good time.

Crossword puzzles seem to be a favorite among the older generation. They are a good way to keep the mind sharp and in shape. The brain is a muscle and needs to be worked out. It is also a lot of fun to challenge others, just make sure there is not cheating and using the internet to find the answers!

Board games are also a nice way to spend a quiet evening at home with the family. Take out a game and watch the friendly competition unfold.

Whatever the game, be safe and play fair.

This restaurant is where I will try to consider the things that have happened in the past 24 hours.  On the way here, I saw a boy who wanted to ask me for something, something very important.  He was hungry, that much I gathered, but the rest of it was lost in languages.  His small hat reminded me of one that I had bought for my son before his mother and I decided that we could no longer go on.  It is a source of grief that comes back only at the end of some of the longer days, and the rest of the time, it is only a given circumstance.  This restaurant, Italian and smartly designed, will reimburse my own sense of purpose in the world.

Before the boy, I was walking and thinking about traveling.  I don’t normally get lost in thought, but sometimes in Singapore, I remember that I am not from here.  This makes me want to draw the line back to where I was before.  In the streets in Italy, there were too many people who were hungry, not enough to remember that there was a war, and just enough to fill the empty spaces with a bottomless want.  These are the stories I will tell my son, when I see him again.  For now, it is this city-state, this restaurant, and the evening ahead of me.  I put my fork in front of me by the napkin, and wonder about how things sometimes fall into place, and how they sometimes need help.  It is probably for the best that one cannot smoke in here.

It was my obsession at one time to be considering the way the birds play in the park.  They sing to each other, they preen themselves and inspect each other, and they fight over food.  Here, I am thinking about the wife I once had, and the son that I miss, and when I have wine and salad before me, it is almost too much.  My dinner guest will be here soon.  In the meantime, there is enough, and in time, we all eat from the same bowl.

It’s hard not to love Singapore.  Even the most world-weary travelers perk up when they realize that they’ve just set foot in one of the most unique and lively places in the world.  The island city-state is a conglomeration of cultures, ideas, and attitudes, and they come together in interesting ways.  It also has a fascinating and rather complex history, that speaks of a major trading port that has seen a lot of the events and peoples of the world.  Today, it’s still a very active port town, and you can get most anything here.

This is very true for seafood, of course, and lots of other fresh ingredients, and that makes it a great place for a good Japanese restaurant.  There are lots of opportunities to try fantastic food, and the Japanese influence on local food here is very strong, and it’s a wonderful way to get into the rhythm of the city.  If you’re coming in the spring, you may want to time your trip with the Richard Poon concert.

This singer from the Phillipines is a Chinese crooner who has wowed audiences all over the world.  His father is a restaurant owner, and his mother is a big singer in Taiwan.  He’s been impressing people with his ability to make very sweet sounds in the tradition of the classic singers like Sinatra and Martin

My mission this week is to eat as many different kinds of curry as possible, and to not think about her.  So far, it’s working out very nicely, and she has not once crossed my mind.  I’ve been in Singapore for only a few hours, but have found an Indian restaurant that has already made me feel a little swoony.  It’s one of the benefits of having taste buds that are extremely sensitive, because smell is something that affects how we look at the world.

Nostalgia begins with the nose, literally, and that’s where I like to go whenever I’m here, because Singapore has memories that have nothing to do with her at all.  And we never got the chance to eat at an Indian restaurant, which is no loss, and even better because now I’m here and I can do this and not even think of her.  Onions remind me of being here before, long before I met her, when I discovered that Indian food is not mostly about heat or spice, but about subtleties.  Someone mentioned to me once that the Indian food in town is sometimes considered to be even better than what you can find in India.

I believe that.  I also believe that it’s possible to drown your senses in new sensations, and that can affect how memory behaves, and how it creates past events.  Maybe we are all made up of pieces of what happened before, but it’s true that in the moment we can rewrite how we think about the past.  She used to like to do that with me, where we’d be talking about childhoods with a conscious effort to retell it in a way that we liked.  It was one of the best ways to spend an afternoon and I just broke my promise to myself, and suddenly she’s everywhere.  It will be all right.

While you are staying in one of the fabulous hotels in the middle of Augusta you are sure to enjoy the nice amenities offered. They have some refreshing pools and spas. There is always room service for the hermit that just needs to not be disturbed. But there is a beautiful world out side to enjoy a bit of fresh air. There are plenty of little parks to walk in. There is Augusta Common which is a area of green that connects Broad Street with Reynolds Street. It is a peaceful place with a statue of James Oglethorpe. He was the founder of the state of Georgia. He came as a British general and philanthropist in hopes of creating homes for Britain’s poor.

There is also the Augusta Canal which holds it’s own in the history of the city. It is a park walk along the old canal that still provides power to the near by textile mills. It is the only canal in the country that is still doing what it was originally built to do. It was designed by J. Edgar Thomson  and was built under the supervision of Henry Cumming. It is now purposeful and a nice walk.

Albany is really a beautiful place and has tons of parks. I visited Albany in May, my friend Rita and I went to Albany to spend our time during the Memorial day holiday. Before we left, we made reservations for our hotel on-line, click here, I’ve always reserved hotel room online, because I can check out all the different hotel rates, accommodations and amenities. Since Albany is the capital of New York, we managed to find a hotel that we could afford and on that was centrally located.

Our first day in Albany, we visited Washington Park and really enjoyed ourselves very much, it’s a very beautiful and cool place. Our hotel also provided us with a number of things to do. We checked out a restaurant they recommended and apparently it was a famous restaurant and bar. They had great food and great drinks; we sampled many different drinks. The next day, after sleeping off our hang-overs, we went to the Tulip Festival. There was mostly food there, which seemed to be one of the main attraction besides music, we thought it be all about Tulips. We stayed for the whole day, listening to great performances. The area had long trails for hiking, jogging, biking or walking.

We made it back to our hotel loaded with items we bought at the festival. We didn’t know how we get all of the stuff we bought into our luggage. The hotel had a great suggestion for us, they told us to mail the stuff back to our home. They helped us with getting the items bundled up enough to mail and they told us we could leave our package with them and they will hand it to the postal worker. They even provided the printed out stamp, which them charged to our room. What a wonderful staff! I’m going to have to remember this hotel site where I booked our room, I’ve never run into better service.