If you’re an aviation buff, you might be interested in some spring break ideas that focus on the birth of manned flight. If so, you’d love a visit to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Kitty Hawk is located on the Outer Banks, a string of barrier islands off the coast of the Tarheel State that are popular spring break destinations. Four miles from downtown Kitty Hawk are some tall sand dunes known as Kill Devil Hills, where Wilbur and Orville Wright made their first flight, on December 17, 1903. One reason the Wright Brothers chose the site was because of the continuous winds coming off the Atlantic Ocean.
In addition to visiting the site of the first flight, there’s more for aviation enthusiasts to enjoy. At Kitty Hawk, there’s a museum that houses a replica of the Wright Brothers’ plane, along with other memorabilia. The buildings where the famous brothers constructed their airplane are also to tours by the public.
After touring all the aviation-focused sites, you’ll find plenty more to do on the Outer Banks. There are miles of beaches, maritime forests, and lots of great restaurants that serve fresh local seafood. You can also enjoy watching wild horses and many species of birds. Saltwater fishing, boating, swimming, and surfing are popular activities.
A couple of weeks ago my girlfriend and I failed horribly at flying. I take a fair amount of pride in being a ‘good’ air passenger. I get to the airport well ahead of the flight. I pack my carry-on with only permitted items. I keep my luggage well under the maximum weight, and my carry-on bag is a wonder of compact organisation.
So two weeks ago the missus and I were flying from Beijing back to our place in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, where we’re spending an extremely cold winter (I never knew -40 Celsius was a real temperature until now). Minutes before we caught the cab to Beijing airport we ran to Dashow Market for a little last minute cheap shopping, and my girlfriend bought a whole pile of cosmetics for a quarter of the retail price she’d find in Ulaanbaatar.
So, we jump in a cab and head to the airport, and in the process we just throw our purchases in our carry-on bags. It wasn’t until we’d checked our luggage and reached the security line that we realised we still had her cosmetics in our carry-on.
Now, the TSA regulations for carry-on baggage apply to most countries in Asia, including China and Mongolia, so I knew very well that I was only allowed to carry a TSA compliant clear cosmetic bag on board, with a few 3oz bottles of cosmetics. We knew we were in trouble.
We walked slowly and gingerly towards the security line, well aware that we were about to lose $100 worth of cosmetics. My girlfriend placed her bag on the conveyor, passed through the metal detector and waited nervously for the call from the security officer. As it happens, though, the carry-on was only subjected to a cursory scan, and the security officer didn’t even notice that we were carrying a ton of cosmetics. We rushed off down the concourse, relooping our belts as we walked because we didn’t dare wait near the line.
For some staying at a hotel with a gym, treadmill or at least some form of exercise equipment is a must. They’re used to either visiting their gym each day at home or going for a run and they want to maintain that routine while they’re away either on vacation or possible for business.
This can be tough to always accomodate especially if you’re staying in more rural areas where the big brand name hotels (Hyatt, Hilton etc.) aren’t always available.
However there are ways to take your fitness with you when you travel.
Exercise bands are an effective portable fitness system that you can take with you when you’re on the road for either work or pleasure. They fit in most carry on and checked baggage quite easily and you can get in a workout with just 20 minutes or so each day. Ab belts are another great fitness tool you can bring along with you. I recently purchased a Flex Belt and brought it on our last vacation. Was easy to use even on the plane.
If it’s running you’re into you can always supplement with a hike if the region your visiting suits that sort of thing, or you could consider just packing your running shoes and the right gear to get out for a jog in the area you’ll be visiting.
Something else to consider when if your planning your next trip, pending it’s a vacation and not a business trip, is if fitness and being active is a big part of your overall lifestyle then why not consider an adventure vacation? Why sight see all day when you could enjoy a back country hiking and camping adventure or mountain biking excursion.
Planning a Fitness centered vacation can be the easiest way to maintain your fitness levels while travelling and still get all the other benefits of vacation along with it.
The Philips Norelco 1280X/42 electric shaver is the ideal travelling companion if you just can’t do without your electric shaver when you’re away from home. It can be fully charged in one hour and will provide twenty 3-minute shaves so you can easily take this unit on a long holiday with you, without the need to take the charger.
The 1280x/42 has a travel lock so that there is no accidental power drainage in transit and it will recognize the correct worldwide voltage setting automatically. It also comes with a travel pouch that makes it easily portable. An indicator will tell you how much charge is left in the lithium-ion battery any whether any parts need replacing.
It is considerably more bulky than packing just a disposable razor, but I know there are many men (and women) who find using a ‘wet razor’ uncomfortable at best, and impossible at worst. This unit won’t add much to your luggage in terms of weight, as it only comes in at around the 1LB mark.
This unit gets rave reviews on the likes of Amazon. Buyers commend the unit’s close and irritation-free shave, noiseless operation, quick charging and its slim line, easy-to-hold design. It was quite difficult to find any negatives about this model, apart from the price.
When I was little, what I wanted more than anything in the world was to be a pilot.
My Dad had an aviation license to fly light-aircraft and at the weekends he would take me up from our local airfield, and we would spend half an hour flying over the town where we lived and along the coastline I loved.
If you have a little kid who is yearning to take to the skies, like I was, there are a few ways to keep them interested in aviation while they wait until they are old enough to take control of a plane for real.
The most obvious substitute is a remote control plane. This will develophand eye co-ordination and spatial awareness, while getting you both outside and into the fresh air.
RC planes can be quite expensive and you need a good deal of open space to be able to fly them. Take a look also at Air Swimmers. These are remote control flying fish balloons (or sharks). They are filled with helium and you can fly them indoors as they do not travel fast and don’t need a lot of air space.
You should also encourage good map reading skills and a healthy sense of direction. Letting your kid navigate on a road trip, or take charge on a hike is a great opportunity for them to develop the directional skills they will need to be a pilot.
By the time they are old enough to fly, your little on will be half way to getting their license already.
Traveling is something that most people would like to do more of. The problem is that it cost money, often, lots of money. The solution of course is to simply make more money but that can be hard if you have a job you can’t leave and don’t really have time for a second job. One thing you can do is to sign up for programs that pay you in prizes. For example, you can sign up for Swagbucks (check out my Swagbucks Scam review, not a scam by the way). What this program allows you to do is earn virtual money by doing certain things like searching using their tool bar, filling out surveys, answering polls, trading in used items, signing up for credit cards, etc.
When you accumulate these points, you can trade them in for things like gift cards and other prizes. Those gift cards can be used to buy items for your next traveling adventure. You can even earn tons of points by catching travel deals that Swagbucks announces every now and then. It’s like getting a bonus for booking a vacation that you were going to do anyway. This program won’t make you rich but it will give you some change here and there and over time, it can add up. Happy travels.
Our armed forces are as important today as they have always been, we may not be involved in World War as we have been in the past, but there are still small wars to be fought, or to be ready to fight. So even though it is not always that obvious, we still need our soldiers to be ready to fight when ever and where ever we need them.
This is primarily because we have to have a fighting force that is already trained to fight. In the advanced technological age that we live in, it is no longer a matter of just picking up a weapon and fighting. Our armed forces are specially trained in what they do. It is a bit more involved than using a simple machine such as the Brother Sewing Machines you can buy. No these new weapons take a huge amount of skill to be used successfully.
But as with all things, given enough time and practice our soldiers will all be trained, and this is why they are important, to act as a defence and a deterrent. The best thing we can do is support them from home, and help them in their job, this could be something as simple as remembering when they are away, especially over the Christmas period to send perhaps, a Playmobil Advent Calendar, just for a bit of fun.
Now I realize that Nicaragua may not be at the top of your list for your next vacation. But I’m hoping that after you’ve read the list of ideas and attractions below you’ll give the country a closer look. Nicaragua is very affordable indeed and tourism is on the rise. So if you want to experience Nicaragua before the world catches on, grab a travel pillow and book a flight as soon as you can.
Here are some of the attractions on offer:
The oldest continually inhabited colonial city in the Americas. Yes the charming town of Granada. Read more about it over at awiderview.com
Fantastic world class surfing. Lefts, rights, point breaks, beach breaks, it’s all there for the taking.
A volcano you can ski down. Yes you heard right!
Ometepe island: a rather unworldly island made up of two perfectly shaped volcanoes joined by a narrow strip of land. Something you wont see anywhere else in the world.
The hundreds of tiny islands (known locally as isletas) that formed in Lake Nicaragua (the 10 largest lake in the world) following a volcanic eruption from a nearby mountain. Great for bird-life.
The charming beach-side town of San Juan del Sur, set in a half moon bay. Famous for its glowing sunsets and easy going vibe.
Don’t wait for Valentine’s Day to give an I Love You gift to your wife or girlfriend. If your stuck for ideas for a gift that is warm and sentimental then you should think about a love figurine.
The first thing you should undestand about women and romantic gifts is that we love to show them off. Brag a bit if you will. That’s why we LOOOVE getting flowers at work. Everyone wonders who they’re for and then the florist walks toward OUR desk and everyone oohs and ahs. So it’s not a bad thing to give a love figurine that is work appropriate. An example of a work appropriate love figurine would be the world “love” spelled out. Both Jim Shore and Mary Engelbeit have beautiful examples of this kind of love figurine.
If you wife or girlfriend loves the super cute in everything, then give her a Precious Moments love figurine. If she prefers the sensual – and this is not work appropriate – then go for a cupid and psyche bronze statue. I’d say that this is appropriate for a private place like a bedroom.
The type of figurine gift you give a woman really should be based on the nature of your relationship, her taste and quite frankly your budget. One of the great things about giving a figurine as a gift is that you’ll also be able to find a great one that fits your budget. Unless she’s a figurine collector, she really won’t know it’s worth.
I’m not going to go into the gory details, but several years ago a man died while tubing in Vang Vieng, Laos. Since then hundreds of people have been injured while Vang Vieng tubing – not only due to the tubing itself, but also due to the multiple rope swings and dangerous slides set up along the banks of the Nam Song river.
Here’s the reasong for the danger of Vang Vieng tubing: alcohol.
Vang Vieng attracts thousands of tourists each year who come to go tubing down the Nam Song river. Almost all of these tourists are in their late teens and early 20s, and many of them are on their first trip away from home without their parents. Based on my observations of Vang Vieng, approximately 100% of these tourists a) can’t hold their liquor, b) don’t know when to stop, and c) are absolute idiots.
The result of this is that tubing in Vang Vieng has become an assault course. It isn’t a sedate ride down the river, but a mad dash to avoid drunken teenagers who have no idea how dangerous it is to mix alcohol with fast flowing water. The bars alongside the river make a living from keeping tubers good and drunk, so they’ll never cut off a kind who’s had too much for his own good. Vang Vieng tubing is one of the most dangerous activities a person can do in Laos. It’s great fun, to be sure, but the only way to stay safe while Vang Vieng tubing is to stay off the sauce until you get back to the safety of the town.