Cancun Travel

There are so many places that you can choose to go for a holiday. One of the more popular holiday places is that of Cancun in Mexico. This is a very beautiful country to visit. You will find that Cancun travel has may interesting things for you to do and to see. While you are in Cancun you will mostly stay in the hotel zone. This is the region in Cancun where tourists stay. Read more

Family Vacation Planning? How about a Cruise?

A cruise can be a great family vacation. Many cruise lines cater specifically to families so you have lots of options and choices.

Take your time and look for the perfect cruise line for your family vacation. Look for family friendly ones which offer built in kid’s play areas where you can leave your kids with qualified child care staff while you take a little time out for yourselves.

This great for both kids and parents alive. You get to have some time to yourselves, enjoying what you like to do and the kids get to be entertained and have some fun of their own. Another great thing about a family cruise is that you stop at many different destinations, you get to enjoy your travels to different areas withouth having to worry about whether or not your luggage made it to the same destination and trying to find it.

You get to enjoy the sites and sounds of your new destination with your family during the day and in the evenings you go back to your cruise ship. But the fun doesn’t stop there. There are lots of things to do, see and enjoy on board.

Here are just a few questions you’ll want to be sure and ask your travel agent when looking for the perfect family cruise:

Make sure the cruise ship you choose is family friendly and allows children of the same age as your kids. Some cruise ships allow children over a certain age only or only during certain months of the year. Also, ask about child discounts. You certainly wouldn’t want to find out a board time that they won’t allow your children aboard.

This would also be a good time to find out about on-board activities, child care centers, play areas, baby sitting, details and rules for acceptance of your children into the child care center. Also ask about vaccines, potty training and health precautions.

You may also want to ask about child care staff qualifications and staff to child ratio. Just to be sure your child will be safe while out of your site.

If you are going to be traveling with an infant or small child and will require a crib or cots find out if they are available, what the fees for them are, and if they need to be reserved in advance. You don’t want any surprises later.

You should also be sure of the size of the cabin, because you don’t want to cramp your family into a small space.

What about kid’s menus? Find out what types of foods are available and served for your children. If you child happens to be on a special diet find out if you can make any special arranges for him or her in advance. If your kids are picky eaters, like mine ask about foods or snacks you’ll be able to purchase on board.

Most cruise ships formal evenings. Plan ahead, if you don’t feel comfortable taking a toddler and baby along to a formal evening inquire about other dining options for your family.

Prepare and asking all your relevant questions. It will make it easier to choose the right cruise vacation for your family if you have all the information you need ahead of time. This way you can make a wise, informed decision as to your families vacation cruise.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun-3

Whew! I can’t remember when was the last time I had a REAL vacation like this!!

Wait, no, it was in 2006, when I went to Denver.

Pardon me, I did went to the Dominican Republic in December, but it was plainly more a business trip concocted with running all over, never resting, never actually having fun for more than a couple of hours at a time, jet lag, family crusading, and always worrying about the future.

I admit that I have been worried for the first 48 hours of my trip, worried if I’ll make it back alive and be with my beloved husband (who was in Austin, by the way, with the people at work too, hows that for an irony!), how will my family take it, if I’ll get my passport back on time, if I’ll have enough money to spend, if my plants will die before I get back…

Going to Washington, D.C. and seeing stuff one only sees in the movies, books or news — Like the White House, the Washington monument, the Lincoln monument, the Arlington Cemetery, JFK & Jackie O tombs, old, old buildings, and a million other things I will post here in pictures soon, makes me realize once again… There is only one life… and you have to live it at it’s maximun exempt as much as you can.

My great friend, Jenny, is one of the most realistic people I’ve met. Meaning she always gives her honest opinion to me about everything.

Then she says I’m a control freak, and I think she’s right.

I also think it is Ok being paranoid and a bit of a control freak… when that helps organize your trip, find the right train or bus, keep documents and money with you, have a good water supply near you to avoid dehydration, and a mini first aid kit near you in case of emergencies. However, it is also good to let go and have your eyes, your mind and your soul fill up with the things that you don’t see every day.

People, people, people! Black, White, chinese, hindi, dominican, salvadorian, spanish, mexican, women, men, old, young, punks, emos, hippies, drag queens, cristians, jews, musulmans, buddists, non believers, poor, rich, middle class… it is a little bit of everything in this cluster of streets, trains, buildings, cars and more cars that is New York.

My sight is not wide enough to absorb all the grandeur of my surroundings.

I stop for a second and I fix my eyes in the Empire State Building, which tonight has red, blue, and white lights adorning it. The Moon is in the background.

I exhale and think no more of money, war, diseases, hate, sadness, school, tests, work, sleep, Olympics, food…

I just stare into the lights of the night and realize that… it’s all worth it.

To Be Continued..

Girls Just Want to Have Fun: Part 2

Well, after months of trying not to think about it; weeks when I just couldn’t procrastinate anymore; nights of non sleep; and anxious about the alarm not beeping on the 13th; I arrived to the Airport. My husband drove me there and we parted with a kiss… He will be OK. He did all his laundry and I made him a big chili pot. I also put notes all over the house to remember him to eat, water the plants, go to his drs. appointment, and pick me up on the 20th. (Seriously!)

Plane # 1 was on time; I met a lady from Dublin who talked me into how she came to the USA to work for a year and ended up marrying her husband who was from Austin. Now they live 6 months of the year in each country and their daughters are going to college in Dallas and Lubbock.

This has been going for more than twenty years now and it actually gave me some good prospects : ).

Plane # 2 was delayed and I noticed how the war for the top benches to put the carry-on baggage is never ending. I was lucky to jump out of the plane anyway as soon as we landed and run to get plane # 3. Those seats were making my but literally square by the time they finally announced we were preparing to land in New Jersey!

The New York - Manhattan line was really a sight I’ve never seen before and suddenly all the anxiety and preparing for this journey was worth it, if not gone completely. All I can say is I am happy I get to do this now… because for what I hear around, unless one is carelessly rich and duty-free one doesn’t really get the chance to hop on a plane for a week of fun… and since Fall is almost here, I better squeeze the fun as much as I can!

My friend Jenny, Master of Relaxing under the most stressful situations and whom I haven’t seen in years, picked me up and we drove for a million tangled streets filled with the cutest scrunched houses and… scrunched cars. Apparently it is a miracle if you find a free parking spot on the wee hours here.

But not only did we; she took me to a Dominican little restaurant and I had the best meal in months: dominican-style fried chicken, tostones, white rice, mofongo, and a beautiful piece of arepa that I am saving for today’s breakfast.

I forgot, I also had a country club merengue soda, bottled in New Jersey. It was delightful.

Then we took some pictures with the Manhattan skyline as a background. I can’t wait to develop them!

We arrived to her house, I unpacked and tried to sleep…

Today: Dominican Embassy to Renew Passport, New York, NY.

Tomorrow and Saturday: Washington, D.C.

To Be Continued…

Steroid nasal spray eases mild sleep apnea in kids

Reuters - The corticosteroid drug
budesonide, given as a nasal spray for 6 weeks, benefits
children with mild sleep apnea, a study shows.

Read the original here:
Steroid nasal spray eases mild sleep apnea in kids
(Reuters)

Summer Sales

photo credit: johnkoetsier

Available at: See below
What I think: This is a terrific time to take advantage of all the summer sales around because the prices are low and the selections are still good.  Here’s just a partial round-up of some of the sales on now….

View post:
Summer Sales

Dollar-Savvy Beach Finds

photo credit: Hans Vink

Keep cool with these thrifty beach finds

View original post here:
Dollar-Savvy Beach Finds

Kung Fu Panda prompts soul-searching in China

Reuters - More than just a box-office hit in
China, animated Hollywood comedy “Kung Fu Panda” has led
Chinese artists to find fault with their own film industry and
call for fewer government controls on culture.

Go here to read the rest:
Kung Fu Panda” prompts soul-searching in China
(Reuters)

Kate Moss hair extension sells for 805 euros in eBay: report

AFP - A blonde hair extension that British supermodel Kate Moss reputedly lost in Berlin has been auctioned on eBay for 805 euros (1,264 dollars), Bild newspaper said on Friday.

Read more:

Kate Moss hair extension sells for 805 euros in eBay: report (AFP)

Cruise Control

If the Good Lord had wanted us to eat sensibly this time of year, he wouldn’t have invented the cruise ship. It must have been divine compulsion that drove my family and a couple thousand of our closest friends to set sail recently on an after-Christmas cruise in the Caribbean. It’s not that we wanted to sail around the sea for a few days eating everything in sight. We certainly didn’t choose to arrive home after our gluttonous voyage weighing about the same, in tonnage, as the boat we came in on. So we must have been on a mission from God.

The human psyche is a funny thing. Despite having inhaled enough calories during the holidays to keep Paris Hilton alive into the next millennium, when presented with limitless amounts of food on board ship, we fell to eating as if we were famine victims. We ate and we ate. And when we were bloated and seemingly unable to cram in one more bite, we ate some more. 

Naturally, we needed drinks to wash down all that “free” food. Fortunately, there were always smiling attendants nearby to bring us round after round of beverages that were definitely not free. Then we poured more money into the cruise line coffers by visiting the casino and the onboard shopping mall, and by that time, we’d worked up enough of an appetite to devour platefuls of food at the midnight buffet.

The next day, after a hearty breakfast, we stuffed our bodies into bathing suits and rolled on to the deck, where we sunned our globular flesh, careful not to fall overboard lest we be mistaken for well-fed sea lions. After a few hours, just when we were beginning to feel hunger pangs, the ship’s staff roused us for a hairy chest contest.

When you are cruising with thousands of your closest friends, you are bound to discover that quite a few of these friends are sporting furry chests, many of which are accompanied by bald heads and very round bellies. An astonishing number of these, er, hunks took the stage for the contest, every hair bristling with excitement.

That’s when the cruise director began to look for the “lucky” woman who would be required to select the best bushy chest. Luck was certainly not a lady to me that day. I never win anything – not the lottery, not a makeover, not even at bingo. But, sure enough, I “won” the right to judge the shaggy strivers before me. Each man was encouraged to strut his stuff, wriggling and jiggling his chest and various other body parts for my enjoyment. It was almost enough to ruin my appetite. But I managed to select a winner, and then my family and I headed back to the buffet.

That night, we donned formal wear, leaving the zippers open, and went to meet the captain, a dashing and slender man who gazed upon us the way I imagine Captain Ahab must have looked at his prey, the great white whale in Moby Dick. Then – surprise, surprise – we sat down to a sumptuous dinner and shortly thereafter, we had pictures taken to commemorate our nautical adventure. When we visited the ship’s portrait gallery to order reprints of a picture of my husband and I, the young man who waited on us referred more than once to the picture of “you and your son.” Each time, I corrected him, speaking between clenched teeth and glaring at my highly amused husband – who, I must point out, is six months OLDER than I am.

My spouse foolishly took to calling me “Mom” for the rest of the cruise. Now that we are home, he’s sleeping on the couch, not only because I’m mad at him but because, for some reason, I need a larger portion of the bed.

  © Jackie Papandrew 2008

www.jackiepapandrew.com