Joshua had such great hesitations about moving to Miami, Florida. That is, he had great hesitations about it at the beginning. His girlfriend of two years, they met during the junior year of college, had landed a great job there in an advertising firm and at first Joshua thought he could handled, and possible even enjoy a long distance relationship, but those feelings quickly disappeared after Jackie vanished from his everyday existence. Everything suddenly seemed dull to Josh, who had always been active, social and even the life of the party.

After a couple of months he confessed to his friend Steve that he was actually considering following Jackie to Miami and Steve warned him that it was a bad idea. He gave him the standard recommended and positive advice that he should never follow a person to another city but only move there if he found potential and possibility for himself. This didn’t sit well with Joshua who grew increasingly dissatisfied with his job and uncomfortable at home. He thought back to the initial trip he and Jackie had taken and their stay in one of the Florida Miami hotel resorts to find Jackie an apartment. The two of them had a great time on that trip and Joshua began to feel he could be happy in Miami.

Finally the opportunity arose, a restaurant management position became open and Joshua was able to request a transfer. He was nervous about making the decision, but suddenly knew it was right and confidently presented it to his regional manager. He then called Jackie and told her what he had done and she seemed extremely happy. She told him that he could stay with her while he looked for a place of his own. This kind of surprise Josh who had just assumed he would move in with his girlfriend. He immediately asked Steve about it who told Josh it was a good thing and that if he insisted on moving to Miami he had to establish his own life and friends there as soon as possible. Joshua didn’t think it would be much of a problem, though he had to admit that Jackie was the real reason he was going and he wanted to spend his time with her. However, he promised Steve he would branch out and find his own life, which Steve assured him was the only way his relationship with Jackie could make it.

Have you ever wanted to ride a bicycle across a high wire, thirty feet above the ground?  How about experience the gale forces of a hurricane?  You do both of these things without fear of losing your life at Tampa, Florida’s Museum of Science & Industry.  Known as MOSI, it’s a not-for-profit, educational resource for the community.  Inside its 300,000 square-foot confines, you’ll discover something for every member of the family, including Florida’s IMAX Dome Theatre.  In the museum, there’s over 450 exhibits that you can touch, hands-on, including a 12,000 square foot exhibition known as The Amazing You, which explores health and well-being in the various stages of life development: beginning of life, childhood, and adolescence.  The MOSI also contains the only plantation in Tampa — the Saunders Planetarium.  If you’re in Tampa, then for entertainment and education, MOSI should be number one of your list.  Take a look:

The High Wire Bicycle exhibit allows guests to ride a bicycle that’s placed on a steel cable, one inch in length, thirty feet above ground.  The exhibit has the distinction of being the longest high wire bike in a U.S. museum; I’m certainly hard pressed to name any others.  The guest is harnessed onto the bike; There’s a safety net beneath the bike, but apparently, because the bike is counter-weighted, it’s impossible for the bike to fall.  You’re perfectly safe, thanks to physics.  The museum also allows you to experience what 74 miles per hour hurricane winds are like, in an exhibit that encourages you to Get Smart, Get Ready for storms.

The MOSI also one of a few museums on the Earth to have on display one of the biggest articulated dinosaur ever discovered.  The Sauropod weighed in at forty tons, despite small brains.  These herbivores ate food from the tallest trees, which they reached with their long, long neck — necks that allowed them to stretch five stories tall.  The sauropods in the museum lobby have a height of three stories, and a length, combined, of about one hundred and fifty feet.

After a day of hurricanes, high wire bicycle riding, and encounters with Sauropods, you’ll want to check into one of Tampa’s hotels, basking in luxury and resting from a long, but rewarding day.

Perhaps the best part of the open will be the grand slam events where people get really fun and funky with their fashions, with everything from sequins to the tiniest skirts imaginable that might have caused some scandal back in the heyday of tennis when things were pretty proper. The colors are vibrant and just about everyone shows up at the courts where players are hoping to take the title during their last matches. Perhaps the coolest of them is Rafael Nadal and his bandanas that he has such a passion for, seen currently at the Australian Open. However, so far during the matches, things have toned down considerably in comparison to other years where the stakes were high both for a good tennis scores and a cute skirt.
Other ways in which tennis players try to mix it up on the tennis courts are seen in the likes of Roland Garros who loves to wear bright orange tops with plaid shorts during his games filled with fantastic Tennis Scores. Such combination in real life might not work, but on the tennis courts anything goes as you will be able to see during the Australian Open Tennis games.
Pehaps the look that caused the most scandal in the tennis world when it first arrived on the scene was the sleeveless look. Tennis was once an uptight sport full of rules and regulations, which though they still exist, are countered by the clothes its players can be seen in. Both men and women favor this look, and frankly, it is often a practical decision, especially when the weather is extremely hot. Though people show up for the games at the and other opens in the past, it is the fashion that is the cherry on top.

Do you know who has spent time near the Grand Rapids area? The funny man Tim Allen. It is always so interesting to me to know who has been in the cities I travel to. He went to college in Kalamazoo MI which is just south of Grand Rapids. Now here is a guy who has got the funniest life. At least, I hope so. I hope that his genuine smile is truly genuine. He it seems to me that he always wants to have some fun. The rolls he chooses are usually light and comical. He didn’t realize that a dare was going to turn into a career. One of his friends dared him to stand up at a comedy club in Detroit. He was immediately hooked. He then moved into TV commercials and then cable comedy shows.

He moved to Los Angeles and got involved with The Comedy Store were he appeared often. He then took his comedy to the late night talk shows and film. Home Improvement is the television series that became a big defining moment for him. He taped eight years of shows and now people by the tools that were made in his name. Then his film career to off with The Santa Clause. He hit the New York Times best seller list with his book Don’t Stand Too Close to a Naked Man. Some of the other projects that came his way were making the Toy Story character Buzz Lightyear come alive with his voice.

The adventures of Tim don’t stop with just comical laughs. Seems he has an need for speed as well. Mr Allen was able to create a new race team with Steve Saleen and driver Bob Bondurant and they called it the Saleen/Allen “RRR” Speedlab. They raced the Saleen Mustangs and Allen was one of the drivers to race in the SCCA World Challenge. He is still working hard today and I look forward to the new movies and shows he has in coming. If you are in a hotel in Grand Rapids, click here, get out and see what other famous star was born or lived near the area. I know there is also Judy Garland.

Many people come and fill the rooms of the quaint hotels in Gettysburg, click here,  to get even a small taste of the famous battle that took place in the Civil War of America. Many of the great military heads were there to fight for what they thought was right. General Robert E Lee was the great Confederate General and he marched his army into Gettysburg. He was considered unstoppable and many men would be shaking in there boots to come up against the Army of Northern Virginia. But Major General George G Mead had other plans. He was put in charge of the Army of the Potomac only three days before the great Battle of Gettysburg. He had a harsh personality and temperament and it was hard to deal with the man but he lead his army into the greatest battle ever fought to date and defeated his great enemy, General Lee.

Brig. General John Buford was commander of the cavalry division of the Army of the Potomac. He was the one who got the idea to stay over night and get the Confederates when they came through the next day. It was his choice they followed and is choice that lead them into the famous battle. General John F Reynolds was a highly respected Generals that served with the Army of the Potomac. He commanded the First Corps. He turned down the lead role, that went to Meade, and was sadly killed early in the battle near the McPherson Farm. His death was heavily felt throughout the army. A crucial play by the Confederate Lt. General James Longstreet would create some controversy about the battle. He was most trusted commander to Lee and he was in charge of the major southern attack on the last day of the battle. Then there was Major General Daniel Sickles with the Union army who was a colorful personality. He lost most of his men in the Southern battle as well as his own leg but was given the Congressional Medal of Honor. He, as a congressman, ended up sponsoring the bill that made the famous battlefield a national park.

Carl Laemmle Jr. was a professional. Development of the film industry was he wanted and what he accomplished. He was a large part of why the movie industry produces so many horror films today. He provided the way for the Wolfman, for the Phantom, for Dracula, and for the many terrors that still lie steeping at the bottom of the collective consciousness in the United States today, and parts of the world too. Wherever there is a ghostly sheet tacked up with some crooked nails and a projector, the oldest would do€, there can be fright.

The initial major horror picture he had a hand in concocting was  The Man Who Laughs , a picture about a boy carved with a permanent grin in face. In fact, it was his idea for Universal Studios to start making horror films, the same studio he would later inherit from his father at a young and tender age. The film starred Conrad Veidt and Mary Philbin, who would later go on to star as the beautiful Christine Dubois to the Phantom of Lon Cheney. It actually reconnected Veidt and German Expressionist filmmaker Paul Leni. Previously the two had made together a film called Waxworks. Veidt had to wear a painful prosthetic piece developed for him. Originally, the part Veidt had as the tortured man who laughs, was to go to Lon Cheney but due to contractual obligations, Cheney had to drop out.

Carl Laemmle didn’t have to go through the chutes and ladders to become the head of the studio. He looped around being an executive. Training was never to be a part of his career. But from the decision he made to start marketing horror films, it is clear he was above the kind of training others today in the film industry could benefit from. Where did his idea to start up a horror franchise originate? The horrors of WWII. People could not confront the sons and fathers and brothers who came back from the war with the kind of deformities that Frankenstein and Eric the Phantom and Gwynplaine the laughing man represented on the screens. Laemmle was just smart enough to provide them with a voice.

New York’s Central Park is one of the city’s residents’ most prized possessions. It is also enticing to the numerous tourists who visit the city every year, however, they could probably never understand how important and precious this 843 acre piece of land is to the city’s inhabitants. It is truly a natural paradise placed right in the middle of the largest city in the nation. With all of that concrete and skyscraper buildings, finding a piece of land with a few trees can be a rarity. New York residents use the park for jogging and other exercise oriented activities as well as entertainment and other attractions. Music concerts and staged plays are presented in the park as well as dances and other events. And while tourists who visit the city may stay in a hotel Central Park and enjoy the view and certain features and attractions of the park, they may not understand how fundamental to the lives of New Yorkers this precious park actually is.

It is not uncommon to pass a group of people engaged in a yoga class or workout or a single individual practicing Tai Chi alone near the fountain. Children play and adults toss Frisbees and footballs to each other. Afternoon or even quick lunchtime picnics are also popular park activities. Everything that occurs in parks in cities across the nation and the world also takes place in New York’s Central Park but on a heightened scale. Of course everything in New York occurs on a heightened scale. The park was designed by landscape artist Fredrick Law Olmsted and architect Calvert Vaux. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark and has existed as one since 1963. Some of the more popular attractions sought out by tourists include the Central Park Zoo and the Central Park Conservatory Garden. The Belvedere Castle, historic carousel and Delacorte Theatre are a few of the other main park attractions.

All around Fort Wayne there seems to be many ghosts who want to communicate with the living. What do you suppose make there soul linger with such unrest. What are they trying to tell us as we watch in amazement and disbelief. Take the 24 hour Walmart with its Scottish man playing bagpipes around three or four in the morning. What do you suppose the old guy is trying to say. Maybe he just wants to entertain everyone with is favorite Scottish tunes. Maybe you should check into a room at one of the fine hotels located in Fort Wayne and see if you can witness first hand one of the many ghosts that are looming around town.

Take a ride up Chapman Road and see what will happen if you park your car at the bottom of the valley and put your car in park. How long would you wait to see if some sort of invisible force pulls your care back up the hill? It would be even better if you waited a while, watched the sunset and then have it happen with all that built up anticipation. Wow. Now take a night drive to Crossroads cemetery. There have been some of the usual noises and faint lights moving reported here but there is some sort of strange feeling of being watch when you spend time near the stone in the tree. OK weak.

How about the never ending stairway to hell? Apparently, the old building that was once the Byron Health Care Center it was shut down and replaced with a new building but you can still go exploring inside. The word is if you walk down the stair case to the basement in the dark, no flashlight, you will never reach the bottom. You can see the bottom if you turn on a light but if you turn off the light and walk for a while you wont reach the bottom. However, when you freak out and want to go back up it only takes a couple of minutes to return to the top.

There was a certain magic in the whole evening, and some of the details, where there are the most important signs, I’m sure, are lost.  I hadn’t intended to become another casualty of a broken heart on a spring break in Fort Lauderdale, but it happened anyway.  In retrospect, if I had the chance to go back and change just one thing, I don’t think I’d touch a thing, because it’s a perfect memory.  I like luxury hotels.  Fort Lauderdale has a generous supply, and can offer something for even the most selective tastes, which I thought I had.  But there was so much more to learn, and there still is.

I like going to places that are famous for catering to tourists, and doing all the tourist things.  So I did go with my college friends to all the late-night spring break parties and bars, watched all the contests, and even managed to get my face close enough to the camera to get on the music station once.  At least, I think it was me.  I’m not hard to spot in a crowd, because I always have a ridiculous smile on my face, and I like to pretend that I’m dancing, but really, I can’t dance, and I don’t even know what I’m smiling about.  In Fort Lauderdale, however, there are plenty of good reasons, day or night, and there’s always someone around who can make you smile for a little while.

The night in question, however, did not begin with any smiling.  I’d just had a long phone conversation with my girlfriend back home, and by the end of it, we were no longer a couple.  I don’t remember the fight exactly, but it had something to do with me not being able to have a good time.  Of course, at the time she was wrong, but you know she was right.  In my misery, I found myself in the company of strangers, and that’s where I met my dream girl.  It turned into a very gorgeous night, and I was enchanted.  The next morning, my enchantment turned out to be literal, because she was gone.  No one else remembered seeing her at all, except for me.  Since then, I’ve been looking for stories about ghosts that haunt the coast, because I am pretty sure I will hear her story somewhere in there.

Characters like Al Capone and other major mobsters once drove fear through the hearts of many of Chicago’s non-made residents. And while few people romanticized the mob or its infamous personalities when they were dealing directly with the oppressive forces of their existence, individuals far removed from mafia threat certainly did. In fact, this has been a tradition of observers and followers of the mob for as long as the awareness of its existence has been established. Al Capone was one of the most infamous and widely sensationalized figures in the mob’s history. Many of the guests who are staying in one of the luxury hotels Chicago include a tour of some of the famous mafia houses and hangouts as part of their agenda.

Al Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York in January of 1899. His parents were immigrants from Southwestern Italy and Capone began his career as a gangster while still living in New York. He also had early work as in both a candy store and bowling alley, though he showed an early potential and interest for a criminal career. He was drawn toward the gangster Johnny Torrio, who became his mentor. He gained early experience with some small town gangs before joining the notorious, at the time, Five Points Gang. He worked for Frankie Yale who was a racketeer and bartender in Coney Island. He received the nickname Scarface while he was still in Brooklyn after having gotten into a fight with the brother of a woman he inadvertently insulted.

Ultimately, Capone saw opportunity in Chicago and moved there where he became the boss of the Chicago Outfit, which is what the local criminal organization was known as. His primary original draw was in the numerous bootlegging possibilities that arose after the institution of prohibition. The FBI followed, arrested and tried to imprison Capone for years before they were finally able to nail him on charges of Criminal Tax Evasion.