KizaPark

Traveling through Texas takes a lot of planning, considering exactly where you want to stop and when, what time you want to head out to arrive at your next destination.  Many times, I found myself coming in from New Mexico, and through Lubbock, Texas, to get to where I wanted to go; it wasn’t until recently that I slowed down and actually found a place to stay the night that I appreciated the city’s real value.

Lubbock, Texas, after all, is actually a rock and roll icon.  The city is the birthplace of Buddy Holly, and the town embraces this with the Buddy Holly Center.  You’ve got to love a city that devotes museum space to honor the late, famed singer, even to the point of including his old high school bedroom suite.  The museum also encourages the growth and awareness of Texas Music and attempts to bring together art and music in a series of exhibits and events.  It includes, too, the Texas Musicians Hall of Fame, where you’ll find the aforementioned bedroom.  The center has outreach and educational programs, such as classes and workshops, even visiting artists programs.  For the casual visitor, though, it’s the museum itself that should aid one in learning more about musicians in Texas and their influence on the larger world.

If you’re traveling with a family, there’s a number of activities in town that would be ideal.  There’s an amusement park known as Joyland Amusement Park, for the kids.  If you’re traveling with adults, in addition to the Buddy Holly Center, you may want to check out the Silent Wings Museum, especially if you’re a World War II buff.  This museum is dedicated to the pilots and gliders of the World War II military glider program!  If you never knew the military had such a program, this is definitely the place to find out more.

Tommy really wanted Denise to move with him to Columbus, Ohio. It’s not that living in the city has always been a dream of his and he’s not from there or anything. He just recently received a great job offer from an architectural firm in Columbus and he feels as though it would be a great career move. He originally sent his resume just as a hopeful fluke and then when he was granted an interview he was almost floored. However, once again he didn’t believe in his chances but decided to go to the interview because he felt it would be good practice, or something he couldn’t remember now. The point is that the last thing he actually anticipated was to be offered the position, which once it happened he saw no logical way he could turn it down.

This meant that he and Denise would either have to engage in a long distance relationship or she too would have to move. Or of course they could break up, which neither of them wanted to do. Tommy talked Denise into going with him to visit the city. He needed to find a place to live and he hoped that she would fall in love with Columbus and they could find a place for both of them. Everything got off to a great start on their first morning as they woke up in the hotel room and the weather was perfect. They opened the door to the balcony and a beautiful breeze blew in that wasn’t too chilly.

They got ready and headed out to visit different neighborhoods and stopped for a late breakfast on the way. They happened to pass by Victorian’s Midnight Café and decided to try it. They sat out on the open patio and enjoyed a great cup of coffee before their breakfast plates came out. While they waited they looked around the place, which seemed to be a combination of eatery and nightclub. They noticed the stage and looked at the schedule of live bands and decided they should stop back by some evening. Just then their plates arrived and Denise had the buttermilk pancakes, which she thought were great. Tommy had the Vic’s breakfast with bacon and was also impressed. As they were paying their bill Denise mentioned she thought this could be one of their standard favorite breakfast spots and Tommy was encouraged as they set out to look at homes.

There was no way in the world she could have known about me the way that she knew about me, but she did, so I have to admit there is something important happening.  This is why I find myself here on a night like this, surrounded with several different kinds of cheese, wondering and waiting.  I don’t normally do this, not with cheese, but I do come to New York as often as I can.  There’s a great place to find excellent lodgings, and there are plenty of things to do, even if you come without plans.  But maybe I should recommend that if there are no plans, do not set foot in a place where they read tarot cards.

At least, don’t go where I went.  There are other ways of getting this kind of work done, and people like Shana who can do really good work without putting you through motions.  But this was maybe an unusual incident, and it had unusual repercussions.  I met this other woman at this other convention, and we got into a contest to see who could be the better reader of the other one’s soul.  It’s not something that people usually do at these things, but we clicked.  We had an energy.  And she had a collection of quartz crystal skulls that I secretly wanted to take away from her.

In between readings and meetings that turned into dates, and then back into readings, I forgot about wanting to steal anything, and started to get caught up.  She was starting to become a frequent character in my dreams, and it wasn’t the stupid and carefree kind.  She was playing archetypes, and also mothers, daughters, creators and destroyers.  The only way I could figure out how to muster up some deeper respect for her was to get to know her, and at that point, I started to fall into what I think might be a trance.  Others might call it love.  It’s certainly a spell.  And I’m putting one on her by scattering all of her favorite kinds of cheese around me.  She is going to be surprised.

Ben, our lovely friend who lives in Manhattan, cooked us a wonderful dinner over at his flat, which is on Park Avenue, not too far from Grand Central Station. He offered to put us up, but we’ve seen how small his flat is, and we thanked him for his very generous offers, and told him we had already made reservations at one of the top hotels in New York City. After dinner, we all planned to go to a movie, but we were treated to watching a movie being made as we were walking to the movie theater.
 
We’ve noticed that for the last two days, many of the streets had those orange cones out, which blocked many good parking spots. Ben, told us they were put there because a film was being shot in and around his area. Then that night, when we were having dinner at Ben’s place, we could see lights coming up to the night sky. We decided to take a look to see if that’s where the filming was taking place, and it was! There was a crowd of people standing and waiting to see the filming take place. It only took a few minutes for them to film the shot, but it took them a long time to set up. One of the preparations was to use a water truck to water down the streets, we heard one of the workers explain that many film directors prefer the streets to be wet, because that makes the place look fresh and clean.
 
There were many police and security around to make sure we all stayed back, we were even yelled at by one of them telling us to stay back because it’s dangerous, he was right, one of the crew trucks came barrelling down the wet road and slid into a sidewalk.
 
Later, we found out the movie being filmed was ‘A Couple of Cops’ with Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, it’s a comedy apparently. We really enjoyed watching the entire aspect of filming, from the setting up all the way to the action. We even forgot that we were supposed to go see a movie!  We all laughed saying that watching a movie being made was so much better than actually seeing a movie in the theaters.

Kevin was just leaving work one day and as he got into his car his cell phone rang. It was his best friend from high school Travis who he hadn’t seen in almost three years. And it just so happened that he was calling from a Los Angeles cheap hotel. “What on earth are you doing here?” Kevin asked his friend. It turned out that Travis’ wife Peggy, who Kevin had only met twice before, was attended a work related convention and Travis just happened to be have tagged along. “I’m on my own all afternoon tomorrow and would love it if you could show me around town a bit.” Kevin was completely taken by surprise and drove right over to the hotel where Peggy and Travis were staying.

They had dinner in the hotel lounge where they had started talking and just never stopped to make alternative decisions. So, there meal consisted of the happy hour offerings of the resort, which none of them even noticed until Peggy claimed exhaustion and mentioned that she needed to get some sleep. Kevin promised he would call in sick the next morning and be there around ten o’clock to show his old friend the sights of Los Angeles.

When Kevin arrived the next morning, Travis was ready to go and Kevin had to admit, he looked a bit like a tourist with his Disney Land cap and camera around his neck. “Are you really going out like that?” he asked, knowing full well that Travis didn’t care what Kevin or anyone else thought. In fact, the first place he wanted to go was to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather go when Peggy can come along?” asked Kevin. Travis said that Peggy wouldn’t be interested so Kevin didn’t hesitate and the two of them spent most of the morning looking at signatures and handprints up and down Hollywood Boulevard. Of course it was no surprise when Travis wanted to grab a star map and look for the celebrities homes immediately after.

When we think of smart cities from around the world we would probably say Hong Kong, Tokyo, New York, London or other big cities of the world. Huntsville Alabama may not be in your top ten at first but Forbes Magazine has people giving it another look. In a way it makes sense when you spend a little bit of time looking a the city. It is after all the center of the NASA ballistic Missile Program. Yes this is were even today visitors can come and see NASA’s missile legacy at the US Space and Rocket Center. It is also smart today because of its growing biotechnology business. This has helped the area not be hit so hard by recession. This are some of the reasons that many thing Huntsville is a smart city.

Visitors who stay in the hotels Huntsville has throughout the city will find all sorts of interesting things. The history of the city goes back a long way so there are many things that were featured here such as its roll in the American Civil War. It is the place of the Battle of Manassas/Bull Run which was the first major conflict of the war. Then it has a history of textile mills and cotton fields. Then came the Great Depression in the 1930s which it found a smart way of living through. Huntsville always has its eye on the best way to make it through the hardest times. World War II was the next phase of military influence and when the countries arsenal found a home. This naturally turned into space flight. Now the city is also a nice place to visit with its parks and recreation in the area. So if you find yourself visiting this city make sure you get a full experience by visiting some museums, shops, restaurants and Parks.

Guy had just broken up with the folk rock band that he had formed and found himself gigless, bandless and friendless walking along fisherman’s wharf in San Francisco. He had just returned from Sacramento where he told the other three that he could not longer work with them. He wanted to give the reason that it was due to the long commute he always had to make for practice and most performances but the truth had to come out. He felt it was a point of artistic integrity to tell his bandmates that he was tired of their lack of professionalism and he disagreed with their desire to take the band in a pop rock cover group direction.

He walked past one of the hotels San Francisco and remembered the time four years ago he had played in its lounge. That was a solo show and occurred about three weeks before he formed Hawkings YofT with the other three. The name of the band was his idea and was taken from Stephen Hawking’s book A Brief History of Time. It was Guy’s favorite book and he was a huge fan of Hawking. He had always wanted to name a band after him and the other three were originally against the idea but gave in because Guy was so insistent of it. As he walked past the hotel he thought to himself that his life had come full circle and he almost stopped in to have a drink in that same lounge, but realized he didn’t have any money.

After returning to his apartment Guy’s friend Corey called and said his company was looking for entertainment for a convention they were sponsoring. Corey asked if Guy still performed solo gigs as they only wanted a guitar player who could sing. Corey felt Guy’s solo songs were perfect for corporate shows and always tried to encourage Guy in that direction, if for no other reason than it was good money. Guy had always turned him down and preferred playing in clubs and festivals. However, on that day, the phone call and offer couldn’t have come at a better time and somehow indicated to Guy that he had done the right thing and was better off on his own. He accepted the gig and sat down to right some new songs. It was a great day in San Francisco.

You don’t have to know a lot of technical details to be successful in the world of high finance, but you do need connections.  In fact, I’ve learned that connections are even more important than knowing basic math to calculate percentages.  Maybe it’s a little more than some basic street sense, because I’ve discovered that the ones who really spend time getting to know the city have the most advantages in any kind of business situation.  Knowing when to be friendly, and when to play hard are instinctual, and the college that figures out how to teach that will have something special to offer.

In all my years, though, it’s not the best deals or the biggest killings that stand out in my mind.  I don’t consider myself to be particularly romantic, and definitely not sentimental, but there are some memories that play out in my head like the sweet scene in a Scorcese film.  My favorite of all of these took place in one of the Manhattan business hotels, where I was only there for a few days to have a meeting.  It was one meeting, and the whole trip revolved around this ten minute conversation, and then I was supposed to be out of there.

This was at the end of a particularly bad winter, where the streets are covered in snow that’s been turned black and gray, all the white melted into the sidewalks that looked like they’d never be clean again.  I didn’t have much time to prepare for the meeting, and I was tired enough to sleep for the extra hour, but against my better judgement, I decided to go out for a stroll in the city before turning in for the night.  Mid-town is large enough to get lost in for years, and many people do, but I was lost in thought so it wasn’t until I got to the upper west side that I even looked at anything.  At the entrance to a subway station, I heard her voice, and before I caught my breath we were playing pool and talking about our favorite films.  She said she liked Raging Bull, and she said a million other things.  I didn’t get the deal.

When visiting the state of Virginia, one must make their way down to Virginia Beach Park.  There are many activities to take part in in the spring and summer months, perfect for those interested in a bit of outdoor adventures and the world of the sea.  There are many whale and dolphin watching excursions, and most of the best Virginia hotels offer packages for families and groups, which include not only the stay in the hotel, but a cruise out on the waters.

There are many tours that are guided by the experts and the marine biologists of the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center.  These tours offer not only rare glimpses of some of the most powerful and beautiful creatures on earth, but the knowledge of their lives provided and narrated by the scientists.  The fin whales and the humpback whales are the most common to be spotted just off the shores of Virginia Beach, and while these creatures can be seen in the aquarium, there is nothing like having a chance to witness their activity while they are in their natural habitat.  The whales quite often will swim right up next to the boat.  These tours are just about two and half hours in length, and offer the most of photographic opportunities.  Various water birds are also often spotted such as the northern gannets, cormorants and brown pelicans.

When you return, should you still have the energy for discovery, the newly renovated Virginia Aquarium offers a look at four very different natural habitats that were once found throughout the state and the country as well.  More than three hundred and fifty different species are housed at the Aquarium including the newly acquired and ever mysterious Komodo Dragons. To top off the wonderful day, you can find a delicious meal at one of the local seafood restaurants near by.  In all, it is a day of adventure, of beautiful sights, many things to learn, and a fine meal to rest up and rejuvenate in the end.

In 1875, the Red Line trolley ran from Los Angeles to the Santa Monica Pier.  The city of Santa Monica was officially founded that year as well, but its roots stretch back another hundred years when the Spanish first camped near what one day would become Wilshire Boulevard.  Along that trolley line, there was a stop named Bergamot Station, named after a type of mint flower that grew in the area.  In 1953, the trolleys stopped running, and the station’s warehouses were given over to a celery packing operation.  Over the years, place kept transforming, from celery packing to ice-making plant, even to a company that made water heaters.  The city of Santa Monica considered making the place into a station stop again, but when the plans for light rail were halted, the place sat empty.  Eventually, though, Bergamot Station found a new life, and its name is now synonymous with one of the more interesting art galleries and cafes in Santa Monica.

This complex of galleries was officially opened in September of 1994, sixteen years ago, and is now a destination point for travelers both nationally and internationally.  If you’ve come to stay in a Santa Monica hotel and wish to spend a day seeing art, the Bergamot Station is an ideal choice.  For years, this site seemed to be a well kept secret, one of the pleasure you might find when driving around Santa Monica, but the secret has leaked out, and the station now sees perhaps six hundred thousand visitors in a year.  It’s the largest art gallery complex in Southern California, taking up eight acres, which contains not only contemporary art galleries, but architecture and design firms, a frame shop, and the Santa Monica Museum of Art.  It also has a terrific little Gallery Cafe, perfect to stop in, have lunch, and see any one of thirty plus galleries.  While closed on Sundays, the cafe is open from nine to four (Monday), nine to five (Tuesday through Friday) and ten to five (Saturday).  The cafe address is the same as the station: 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90404.