"T" is for Tagalog

Tagalog?  Is that a real word?  As a matter of fact it is a Language.  One that I am only aware of because of my loving wife.  You see, she is Pinoy.  (From the Philippines)

I do not speak Tagalog, however, I am trying to pick it up so I can listen to her brag on me to her friends.  I have learned the important words every husband knows.

Hintay--Wait.  (I hear the word as 'hen-day')

Backit-  Why?  (I hear the ward as 'bucket')

dali--Hurry  (I hear the word as DahhhLeee)


You all have a great day.

"R"-Reverence

It seems to me sometimes, there is no appreciation for reverence any more.  The last time I went to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery, the lack of reverence was on display.

This is a quite place, and the soldiers that guard the tomb, are extremely special.  Day and Night, rain or shine, they are present.  Showing the respect for their fellow soldier that has died on the battlefield.

Lets remember where we are and give the proper reverence when it is due.

If you are every in DC, this is a great stop over.  The Arlington Cemetery and the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

"Q"--Quarters

The end of this month marks the end of the first quarter of 2014.  How has it ben going for you?  Some challenges, and I am not referring to the great A to Z Challenge, have already presented themselves to the soft and fluffy author of Tronster.net.

Did you make a New Year's resolution?  Did it survive the first quarter of the year?

I once watched a football movie, Any Given Sunday, where the coach was talking to the team.  He explained the game is full of inches.  The game also has quarters.  For us in the United States, we get a Half Time for July 4th.  Kids get Summer Break. (Hopefully teachers do too).

As the first quarter of 2014 comes to a close, and the last week of the challenge is approaching, I hope to carry on with the Blog and read more of the blogs that have been a part of the A to Z Challenge.  Wach year I find new ones to follow and follow them until they seem to give up.  Let us not give up.  The game of football has four quarters, and the teams that plays all four, seem to be more successful.

"R"-Rome

One of our trips took us to Italy.  Being that close to Rome, we had to make a stop there.  What a city.  The historic markers and buildings are everywhere.  Any construction project has to have someone there looking for history.  They were working on the subway when I was there a few years ago and it was slow process, because they keep finding artifacts.

They path Sunshine and I took to get to Rome was from a Cruise.  We loaded the ship in Barcelona, and Rome was our third stop.  You do not actually dock in Rome, but Civitavecchia Italy.  It is about an hour bus ride from Rome.  If you decide you want to take a tour of Rome from a cruise.  You will have a choice to make.  You an either take a tour of the city, or of the Vatican.  I would suggest take the tour of Rome.  You will see much much more.  What I learned from the cruise was that every cruise line pulls into the area on the same day, and a trip through the Vatican is very crowded.  I must admit, if you think you will never be that close to the Vatican again, take the tour.  Just realize, you will not be alone.

I have visited Rome a few times.  Each time I have seen something different.  The squares and the parks are great.  For those of you who live in Rome and southern Europe, it might be easier than those of us who live on this side of the pond.

I believe Sunshine would like to visit again to see some of the other sites.  I cannot blame her, it is a great city with so much to see.



Okay bloggers from the A to Z Challenge,  We have just over a week left, keep up the good work.

"Q"- Queen

This was a difficult letter for me on this challenge.  I have not been to a place with a "Q" start.  I know they exist.  There is Queensland, Quebec, Qatar, and I am sure a few I have missed.

I could have talked about "Quick Trips".  Places close to home that Sunshine and I have gone too.  There is Great Falls, Mt Vernon, The Smithsonian, and many other locations.  I must say I will skip the places with "Q" names.

Although I have never been in the presence of the Queen of any country, although Sunshine is the Queen of my heart. I have seen the princess of Thailand once.

No, I am going to talk about a "Quick Trip" we took when we were in Ft Lauderdale FL.

It was on the Jungle Queen IV.  basically it is a dinner cruise through the waterways of Ft Lauderdale.  They take a route and share some information about the city and the homes you may pass by when you cruising.  Sunshine and I had such a great time.  The serve a dinner, which is okay at best, but the environment is fun. They claim the island they are taking you too are isolated and loaded with exotic animals.  We saw some birds and a few others.  Then there is show after dinner and then they drive you back to the pier.

A great time was had by most of the people of the little boat.

Keep Exploring

"P"- Parade

Good Morning Bloggers,

Todays letter will be "P", and all though I have visited a few places which begin with the letter "P" I wanted to spice it up a little bit.  Those who have been following this blog through the month of April know that I love to travel. To some far off lands, and some that are not so far off.  One of the activities you can always participate in is Parade Watching.



 On our recent to Greece, they were celebrating their Independence Day.  The Greeks put on a great parade showing their First responders along with many other units in the military.  The people who attended the parade seemed to have a real good time.  The units that marched in the parade were regular military units.  They did not seem to have the performance down for the marching.  They marching bands from the military as well.  Unlike the parades you see in the united states, there were no floats.

The picture to the right is from one of the three Cherry Blossom parades I have attended.  These parades have many different sponsors.  In addition to community groups, floats, and performance marching groups, we also have high schools that get to march in a lot of our parades  The colors and the people are always fun.  Normally the Cherry Blossom Parade day is more pleasant than the Fourth of July Parade.  In our fine city, there are many parades throughout the year.  Two days ago there was a parede in Washington DC, however, I had to work. (So did Sunshine)

When we travel to the Disney parks, it is always fun to catch their parades.  They have professional dancers and singers, and you can normally good a seat along main-street.  During the summer, the Parade is pretty late.  I have not seen the Parade of Lights in the fall or winter. I think that would be really cool.

Some advice for you before going to a parade.  Do your homework and know the route.  Also when it will start. Then try to find a good place and get there early.  Know the time when the parade will start and carry some water with you.  Especially for the July parades.

Keep on Exploring!

"L"is Las Vegas

The first Hangover movie was based in Las Vegas.  Las Vegas is considered Sin City.  It is a very entertaining town.  I think the least expensive entertainment tickets can be had in this town.  Outside of the casinos, there is a lot of things to do in Las Vegas.  I do not drink or gamble.  So I will discuss a few of the other things you can do in the fine city.

There is a race track there is you are a NASCAR fan, you can catch a race.  I am almost positive there is a NHRA track as well, for all you quarter mile junkies.  One of my favorite places to visit was the Shelby Museum and factory.  Say what you will of Carol Shelby, his work on Ford Mustangs is AWESOME!!!

 I was able to see the history of Carol work, and see some of the new stuff he is putting together.  This was before his death.  I had such a great time.  I was not there for a vacation, but for work. Because you can pretty much fly to Las Vegas for very little money, I flew my Sunshine out there to meet me and show her around the town a little bit.  In addition, she has a cousin that lives there, so we met with her and she showed to some of the Pinoy hot spots.

 The Venetian Hotel and resort has a grand canal inside.  The replica is amazing.  Just walking through it is an experience.  If you want more, you can ride a gondola with a singer.  You can even get married on one of those things.  There are shops and restaurants on either side.  I think this is a must see in Las Vegas.

There are two Las Vegas strips.  The old and the New.  The Venetian is in the new.  The old Strip is pretty cool too, and I hear the payouts are better at the older casinos.  Very nostalgic part of the town, and not as crowded.

So if you like to gamble, or like to be entertained every night, check out Las Vegas.  The construction of the city in and of itself is very interesting.

We used is as jumping off point to go to the Grand Canyon.  And there is some great shopping, but you will have to ask my wife about that part of town.

On a side note, for all you Filipinos out there, there is a Jolly Bee in one of the grocery stores.

Have a great Day and keep Blogging.

"K" is For Key West

Okay friends, you may or may not know, but I am a US Navy Veteran. Many of my travels as a younger man involved being assigned to a US Navy worship.  When I decided not to re-enlist, I had decided I would not go on any other cruises.  Well, many years later I meet my great wife, and she wanted to take a cruise.  So we decided we would take a little three day cruise on Carnival.  This is how we learned a few things about cruising.

Our first stop on this cruise was Key West.  I thought that was great, I had never been to the most southern point of the United States of america.  This first stop gave me the opportunity.

The weather was great, it was late April, and we were able to walk around the small port town of Key West.  Ie also took a Glass Bottom Boat ride, but the seas were a little choppy, and we really did not see much on the trip.

The Key West Hard Rock Cafe was open, so we caught a bicycle basket ride from the picture above to the hard rock for lunch.

It was a short little visit, I think I want to go back and see more of the island.  If you have a chance you should check out Key West.

"I" is for Indianapolis

What a city.  I had the opportunity to work in this city in summer a couple of years back.  We arrived in the city the day after the Brickyard 400.  Which is one of the races in the NASCAR circuit.

July is a great time to visit the city, with its mild climate.  I was just doing some research and the Indianapolis means "Indiana City"  I thought that was interesting.

The downtown area of Indianapolis is very people friendly   What I mean by that is there are plenty of places to eat and entertain yourself, no matter what entertainment you are looking for.  There a restaurants at all price points, movie theaters and hotels.  The city was easy to navigate.  Which is odd, considering the person they called to help design the city.

Alexander Rolston was the designer, who assisted L'Enfant with the design of Washington DC.  By contrast one of the more difficult cities to navigate.

The city has also hosted the NFL combine for the last couple of years at Lucas Oil Field. (I believe that is the proper name).

I found the city to be very clean for a downtown.  The entire city supports the different events that happen there, even in my hotel, there were racing items.

These tires were in the lobby.  Right across the street there was a food joint called Bodacious Bar-B-Que.

The city hosts an Indy Car race also.  Maybe you have heard of it, The Indy 500.

Have a great day.

"H" Hydra,

Okay folks, I was going to write about Hershey Park.  A great family destination in Pennsylvania.  But I wanted to share another adventure from my recent trip to Greece.  From Athens, there are many destination available.

One of the methods for getting to one of the destinations is by boat.  Sunshine and I took a one day cruise.  We were required to be at the docks at 7 am.  So when we arrived on the dock, a I saw the boat above, I was not sure if we made the right decision.  It turns out this was not our ship.  The one day cruise was scheduled for three port of calls.  The rough weather and choppy seas forced us to skip the first port of call.  But then we arrived at Hydra.

The island is small island with a port city.  There are no vehicles, except rubbish trucks, allowed on the Island. The island was instrumental during the Greek Independence.  Well its fleet and sailor population was instrumental.  Causing problems for the Ottomans through out the Aegean sea.  During its high time, there were some 16,000 residents.  Now there are about 6,000.  

The port shows this monument, the Greek Admiral Andreas Miaoulis, he guards the port now.  During the War, he led the fire ships which inflected heavy damages on the Ottoman fleet.

Now the island is supported by the tourist, mostly from the Athenians, and some Americans who visited Greece this year.

Keep Exploring.

"F" Florence Italy

Continuing with the theme of World Exploration, Today I want to discuss Florence Italy.  Florence is the capitol City of the Tuscany Region of Italy.  In  my opinion, it is one of my favorite places in Italy.  I have had the opportunity to visit the city twice in my lifetime, and both were very enjoyable experiences.  If you are ever on a western Mediterranean Cruise, this is a place for a walking tour.

David, considered one of Michelangelo's masterpieces is housed in one of the many museums in Florence.  During our walking tour, we were only able to see a replica still on display outside.  Located in the Palazzo della Signoria.  This square is full of famous replicas.

Another Piazza is the Piazza de Santa Croce, which is right in front of the Basilica of Santa Croce. (pictured to the right).

The walking tour that Sunshine and I took, lasted about 2 hours and we hit all the major spots in town.  A brief history was presented to us about the city and the different sites we saw.  The city is crowded on the day the Cruise lines are there, however, it was still an enjoyable experience.

  Another famous spot in Florence is the Ponte Vecchio.  This bridge covers the river Arno.  Apparently the people of Florence have had kind of a love/hate relationship with the river.  It has been a key part of the history, provided a path for commerce which has helped the city to grow and become wealthy.  At other times, it has flooded and caused damage to the city.

The bridge is loaded with shops, for gold mostly.  This is a must see in the old town.  This bridge has been flooded out many time.  But the people keep coming back.


The A to Z challenge is moving right along.  Some visitors may be wondering all the pictures I share do not show more wide angle shots.  It is because all the photos I share, I took myself.  While walking around the different places.  It is more likely what will be seen while you are there, unless you take a helicopter tour.

Tonster

"D" is for Disney

This A to Z challenge is going well.  I hope everyone is in enjoying the challenge as much as I am.

For those of you with children, and those of you who are kids at heart, a trip to Disney World might be in your future.  I little advice about central Florida in the summer.  It is hot.  Just a word.  Sunshine and I do not have kids, But we are kids at heart.  Last summer we took a little trip to Orlando.  In July.  It was hot.

Fighting the weather, and enjoying out time together with family and friends.  We went on all the cool rides.  Using the new ticket system they have in place.  You get get a ticket early and return during a designated time to enjoy the rides.  We purchased the 4-Day, 4 Park tickets.  So there were other stops on the Disney campus.  I also enjoy Magic Kingdom.

The Parade at the end of the day is always great.  And there is a fourth of July theme, which is great.  If you are every in Orlando, check out the Disney complex, and enjoy some time.

On a side note, there was an individual who sued Disney because he was stuck on the "Its a small world after all"  Just saying, I kinda like the ride.

Have a great day.

"C" Cherry Blossum

My wife and I love to travel.  We have been to few exotic locations.  But one of the places we go every year is to the Cherry Blossoms in Washington DC.  A little closer to home, but a fun time. The northern VA home base locations give us a launching point for our visitors.  We typically have friends visit every year about this time to see the Cherry Blossoms.

Sometime around the end of March or the beginning of April is the peak season for Cherry Blossoms.  This year it should occur in about a week from now.  The entire reflecting pool is covered with Cherry Blossoms and the area is alive with pink and white flowers.  I think only the pink are Cherry Blossoms.

 In 1912 the Mayor of Tokyo presented the USA with 3000 Cherry Blossom trees.  Over the years gifts have been exchanged between Washington DC and Tokyo.  In 1915 Washington DC gave Dogwood trees to the people of Japan.  Then in 1981 Washington also presented cuttings from the Cherry Blossoms to Japan to replace trees that were destroyed in a flood.

There are parades and culture events through-out the city during the festival.  If you every have the chance to stop by DC during the festival, you should come and see the scene.  Some years are cold, some years are warm, but all the times we have visited the festival, we have had a good time.

Have a great day.

How would you answer?

There are several little phrases that I like to use that seem to make people laugh.  I have decided to share them with you, the reader, who might need an intellectual break from reality today.  This is one of the warm up posts for the upcoming A to Z Challenge.

Q:  How are you?

My Answer:  Finer than frog’s hair.  That’s pretty darn fine.

Q: Do you want some Ice cream?

My Answer:  Really depends on the mood, I could respond with “Does a fat puppy poop?” or “Does a bear crap in the woods?”

Q:  Is it raining outside?

My Answer:  Like a cow peeing on a flat rock.

Q:  Does it have a lot of miles? (normally some one referring to my old truck)

My Answer:  Not compared to the space shuttle.

Q:  Is that very difficult?

My Answer:  Like herding cats.

Just a few of the sarcastic comebacks I have for my friends and co-workers.  I pick them up from movies or other friends.  But these always get reactions.  Some good some bad, many “what did you say?”

Moving right along, enjoy the evening and come back again.

2013 A to Z Challenge

I am number 574.  Welcome to all the participants.  Enjoy your time here, leave a comment, look around, even follow me.