Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Destination Decided: Hollywood Beach, FL!

It is official - in just a matter of weeks we will be sitting on the sunny Hollywood Beach in Florida!

As I mentioned earlier in a blog post, we wanted to find a warm place right on the ocean where we can snorkel, paddleboard, and just lay on the beach for a few days. Hollywood Beach, FL came to mind! 2 miles of beach and boardwalk off the Atlantic Ocean in sunny southern Florida sounds wonderful!
Interesting enough, it was after I found a great deal on a cute hotel right on the boardwalk that something was brought to my attention. Holly, who sometimes is called 'Hollywood', will of been to both Hollywood, CA (last March we visited Hollywood for the day before taking a ferry to Catalina Island, CA) and now Hollywood, FL!

Saturday, January 15, 2011

The Travel Bug

I have the travel bug...BAD. It's time to start some travel planning! Where will 2011 take us?

Due to an unfortunate series of events that happened to us last September while flying through Atlanta, GA on Delta, we have $1200 in airline vouchers to work with this year! For our first trip, we are thinking warm sand, ocean, snorkeling, and paddleboarding....

Friday, October 15, 2010

Blog Action Day 2010 WATER

Blog Action Day is an annual event held every October 15 that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking a global discussion and driving collective action. The topic for October 15, 2010 is WATER.

What does it mean to you to have clean water?








To me, it means so many things. It means life and beauty and health. It means beautiful rivers and lakes and oceans to photograph and swim in. Unfortunately, there are many people on this earth that do not have access to clean water...890 million people, actually.



African women walk over 40 billion hours each year carrying cisterns weighing up to 18 kilograms to gather water, which is usually still not safe to drink. More than 3.5 million people die each year from water-related disease; 84 percent are children. Nearly all deaths, 98 percent, occur in the developing world. Clean water is a necessity for life and we should help all people have access to it.


Fortunately, there are ways we can help with the water crisis. Water.org is a Kansas City based nonprofit organization that raises money to build wells and provide sanitation education to people in developing countries. Their vision: A day when every person can have safe water. You can donate to water.org, and support artists and businesses that donate a portion of their proceeds to water. org. 


While the developing world faces a water crisis, we in industrialized countries use more than our fair share of water. Educate yourself on water conservation and keeping our rivers clean. What is one thing you can do to help keep our own water clean?



Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Lake Ontario

This past Labor Day weekend, Holly and I had the pleasure of visiting upstate New York and Lake Ontario. It was our first time to New York state or seeing a great lake! We stayed on the South Pond of Lake Ontario and witnessed a very windy storm moving over the lake. The scenery was beautiful and I enjoyed putting my camera to good use.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Catalina Island, CA



In March 2010, Holly and I took our annual mother-daughter trip to Catalina Island, CA. We took an inland tour on a Mercedes Unimog off-road vehicle, parasailed over the ocean, and sea kayaked right next to sea lions! In addition, it was our first trip with my new Nikon DSLR camera - There was gorgeous scenery everywhere to photograph.