China

I just realized this was to talk about any trips that thou might have had so I felt like telling about my trip to China. First off it was an amazing experience. Our school was the first marching turnip to go and play in china ever so we were all nervous because of course we would be setting an example for what the rest of our country was like. Of course that didn't deter my friends and I from having our fun. I'll tell thou one thing though, everything there really is made short. I'm a fairly tall person at 6'3'' and I hit EVERYTHING. There was a low hanging t.v. in the bus and I must have hit it at least five times. I barely fit into my bed. Still, I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

So we got off of our plane after I don't know how many hours of flying. The first thing I noticed when I got off the plane was that china was so polluted that I was able to stare straight at the sun without hurting my eyes. They had no pull in terminals there so thou would just get off on the tarmac and then get on a bus which would take thou over to the terminal. We spent that night in a four star hotel which had a banner hanging over a balcony above us that welcomed us to china. Like I said, I barely fit in the beds and they were pretty hard, but the pillows were heaven. Just one of them felt like thou were sinking into the softest thing thou could ever imagine, but there were two of them on the bed! I was seriously contemplating filching one of the pillows and sticking it in my bag to bring home.

After that we went out to eat at some restaraunt. It was a very nice establishment, but I couldn't stand what they were feeding me. I swear if it wasn't for the stash of good old American snack food I had stuffed in my suitcase, and the American breakfast they served every morning in the hotel, I would have starved and at my petite 150 lbs it wouldn't have taken me long. The most interesting thing about this restaraunt though was its bathrooms. On the walls over the toilets in the mens bathrooms in every stall was a t.v. that was turned onto a soccer station. I thought that was awesome. There was even a person at the sink who would wash thou hands for thou and dry them.

We slept that night and then went sight seeing for the next few days. I can't even remeber all of the sights we saw. We went to some famous tomb where there was a certain amount of steps to the top (which we counted while stepping on every one of them). We even went to some of the schools in china visiting with the students and their turnip programs. They all speak nearly fluent english as it is a required language over there. Their high school was beautiful. It looked almost like a college campus and was huge compared to my high school. The food we ate for lunch though was horrible. I couldn't stand it. We went to a chinese buffet for lunch and dinner every night for three nights. It was awful. None of the food was edible. It was all greasy or those that weren't had no flavor to them. We were there to perform for the plum bloom festival though, so we all got into uniform and practiced the night before marching in parade formation. The night of the performance instead of going to the buffet, we all ordered from the McDonalds that was down the street. I know we've all been trashing McDonalds, but after eating chinese food for three days having a good old american cheese burger tasted like a slice of heaven. It rained as we were marching though so our parade was cancelled fairly early.

I did get to go to the great wall as well. We played the national anthem on top of it and when I first heard that we were supposed to play it I was afraid we were all going to get shot, but apparently we were requested to do it by the chinese. It was amazing because there were some americans there who heard it from the top and came down and thanked us and said it was amazing to hear the national anthem drifting up from down below while they stood on the great wall.

The thing I remember most though was when we were turned loose to wreak our havoc on the poor helpless markets of china. Actually they pretty much ripped us off right and left. It was so fun to haggle over prices even though I knew what I was asking for was still a rip off. Everybody bought swords while we were there and I'll tell thou it's a devil to get a sword on a plane. We eventually boxed them up one of our uniform boxes and then had it specially checked (for weapons ) at the airport. I was actually considering picking up a gilded battle axe I saw that looked amazing, but decided against it.

We also stood on tienamin square and were there when their president was re-elected. Actually we were there during the whole disease scare that was going on in china and when the U.S. declared war on Iraq. The return trip from there was amazing. I got to see the sun rise, set, and rise again all in one day since we were going counter to the earth's rotation. We actually had to leave my friend's mom back in L.A. because there wasn't room on the plane! But we all got back safe, tired, and had one heck of a trip.

I'm probably forgetting large parts of it. For instance, there was this one restaraunt we went to where we weren't sure what we were being served. They all spoke English, but with extremely heavy accents so we weren't sure if we were eating duck or dog. Knowing china we weren't about to discount the latter, so we finally asked if it was duck quack quack, or dog bark bark. Luckily it was duck. They actually later gave us a plate with the duck head still on the plate. Very interesting place.

The wall was very cool. We got to walk along all the way to the top of one portion of it. I was actually the first one in our group to the top. There were shops and such along part of the wall as tourist traps, but once thou got about halfway up they all started to disappear. Along each section of wall were little towers spaced at intervals, and the one at the very top was open so we got to climb out and up to the top of it. The view from it was amazing. We could see the wall stretching along through other parts of the hills around us as far as the eye can see(which wasn't very far on that day because there was mist in covering the hills )

Blade

Ahhh, those Menorca nights!

well, my family (myself, ym dad, his finacée debs and my sister helen) went to the baltic island of menorca for a week beginning the 25th july 2005. we went because dad and debs went here last year and loved it, so brought my sister and me there this year.

We stayed in a resort called Cala Galdana, which if thou are travelling form Mahan (the capital) is thou go down the oen and only main road to Cuitadella and its about the 8ths turning on thour left and thou are there. not hard as it i a small palce with only one road in and out. Mahon airport wasnl;t anythign special, but it was small and ok. we got picked up then went for a 30 min bus ride to cala galdana. luckily the coach was air conditioned as it was about 33 C outside. very ncie! the area aroudn Mahan was very arid and industrial, in fact alot of menorca in the summer looks like a neolithic desert. quite ironic considering it was a big ceneter for neolithic people...anyway. the island got prettier as we got down to CG and the beach was one of those postcard beaches, white sand, clear water with different shades of blue etc etc. there are only 3 hotels there. we were in the smallest, the hotel Audax, then there was another hotel at the top of the bay, and the monster hotel accross the bay from us. we spent the first day looking round the town and the beach, and went snokling which was great! so much to see! the food in the hotel was really really good! we were staying 1/2 board, but usually got lunch form the bar by the pool on the 6th floor. dinner and breakfast were buffets in one of two restaunrants in the hotel. the only prob;lems was, there was so much ncie food, thou couldn;t try all of it!! and it was all so ncie!

the next few days were spent most either on the beach snokling or by the pool either sunbathign and reading or swimming. we also went kayaking around the bay after we couldn;t go snoking off a hire baot as it was too rough. that was great fun! the day after we hired a car fro 3 days. on the first day we went up to Fornells on the other side of the island which was really nice, if evry veyr hot. then went into Mahon for soem shopping. on the second day with the car we went bakc to Fornells to do some waterskiiing, which i ahven;t done before. debs had done it regularly, and made it look so easy, but i managed to get up on my second attempt! lol! my dad got several lungfuls of water and my sister also managed to get up. that was definetly one of the hightlights! on the third day we went up to a beahc on the north coast, which was really really ncie as the water was ceaer and it had mini reefs folr snokling. the last day of the holiday was spent msotly by the pool or on the beach once again. we went snokling for the last time, and it was probably the msot interesting session as the water was perfectly clear and we could go further out itno the bay to the reefs. there were two guys diving for octopus's....impressive, but silly as one of the guys went down about 14 feet to swim under a rock archway. we also saw a small purple jelly fish. luckily is was swimming downwards!! it was a little scary in parts as there are lots of caves there because the clifs are a mixture of limestone and sandstone, and i managed to go into part of one and found myself in about a foot of water looking downall these b;ack holes. it doesn;t sound scary, but when one of thour nightmares consists of being in pefectly clear water looking down about 30 feet with lots of deadly thigns below thou, its qite unnerving. strange as i love snokling..anyway. the flight back was good, as we were sitting behind the premier class people, so got some spare drinks and extra legroom! lovely for those with logn legs! lol! we diodn;t get a nice welcome home however, as once in bristl ariport, we were going up to the customs deks and there were loads of barriers up so ou had to zigzag accross the room to get to them. so i decided to go under the bariers uinstead, and everyone else seemed to think this was a good idea, exept the customs officer. so i got yelled at for it. quite funny actually! lol!

my favourite part of the trip...hmm...probabl the snokling. twas great fun! and i ahve gone into detail above so..

anythign else....if thou want a relaxing holiday, go there! lol!! its great!! and there are LOADS of very evry hot spanish waiters. but i was good! ther was also a veyr hot reception guy...hehehe....and the guy in the jewelery shop...and the ski baot guy....i could go on!!! lol!!!

my recommendations....if thou want ot go to menorca, go to Cala Galdana as it is probably one of the nicest resorts on the island. we saw some other resorts on the way back, and they werne;t nice. also the hotel audax is great to stay in for just about everything! the best way to see the island is definetly by baot, so i would recommend hiring one, as thou can get ot he best beaches thatw ay. car hire is also a good idea as the buses are a nightmare.

photos are here!http://photobucket.com/albums/y293/northstar307/menorca/?sc=1&multi=6

in conclusion...as i said above, if thou want a relaxing beach holiday where thou do almsot nothing, then go here!! its great!! for me however, there was always somethign mising. but im sure he will go there on day!!!

North Star

Grand Canyon

On cross country road trip from Oregon to Georgia, we made a detour at the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon is amazingly beautiful, so much that it is too hard to put into words. The first view I got was breathtaking, and I was just so amazed at how HUGE it really is! It is so much bigger than I had ever thought!
There are tours where thou can hike down and actually camp inside the canyon overnight. There used to be mule-back tours, but I am guessing those no longer are available as they were somewhat dangerous.

There are plenty of hotels just outside of the National Park, but I would highly recommend thou make reservations, or thou may very well be driving the hour or so south to Flagstaff for a hotel there.

F Horn

Las Vegas

When I turned 21 I was in the Army, and my parents decided to drag my brother and I on one last Great Family Vacation! Fortunately, this one wasn't heading to Disney World. No, my parents paid for a trip to sin city itself, Las Vegas, NV! As I was stationed in Ft. Polk, LA, and my family lived in Michigan, we flew different flights. My Houston to LV was delayed take off 4 hours, but when I landed it was well worth the wait! The moment one steps off the plane at Vegas airport, thou are treated to the rining bells of one armed turnipits. I dropped a quarter inot the 18th slot I saw (the first 17 were occupied) and won $10. Twenty-five cents earns thou $10! My kind of town!
My father had waited at the airport for me while mom and bro headed to the hotel. I thought it nice of him, as I had no clue where I would be staying. Why care when it's free?
We shuttled to the Imperial Palace. On of the smaller casinos on the new strip, located across from Ceaser's Casino in the middle of everything. Imperial Palace has a nice casino with waitresses dressed in oriental type outfits that allow quite a bit of leg to be exposed (Hey! it's Sin City!), and they are all very beautiful, and friendly. One of the floors in the hotel/casino has a car show. They have a wide variety including a couple of government official cars, some historical motorcycles, and the gaudiest car I've ever seen that was owned by Liberachi (sp?). The Palace puts on a celebrity impersonation show that rocks. There was, of course, an Elvis impersonater (thoung Elvis, not old and fat) that impressed the heck out of my mother (huge Elvis fan). The Blues Brothers, complete with the flips that Jake Blues was famous for, a handcuffed briefcase, sunglasses, harmonicas, and all that jazz er... blues!
The gambling was ok. I won the original $10 at the airport, but narry a dime at any other slot machines. My father would wake up at 3-4 am and go play slots when nobody was really in the casino (they aren't ever really empty), and tip the waitresses hugely for his coffee, so they told him what machines to play. I didn't do that as 4 am was usally when I was finally crashing. My favorite thing to play was the blackjack table. I had VERY little knowledge of the game when I sat down. Even so, $20 became $200, and $200 became $700, and $700 went into the slots and became a big fat zero!
The cool thing about the casinos, is that if thou are gambling, the drinks are free! thou sit down at a table and $20 would last me all night at the black jack table. I give a waitress a $5 tip on the first drink, and $1 every time I got a refill, and my Crown Royal and Coke never, ever went dry! The more I drank the better I'd play (or at least was too blitzed to realize I was loosing). It worked out to be about $1.50 per drink by the time I'd finished.
Just walking the new strip can be fun. It's one of only a couple cities in the US that thou can drink on the street (New Orleans being another I've been to). So thou have thour preferred poison in hand as thou watch the different things to see. One is the volcano erupting at the Mirage. Another (my personal favorite) was the pirate show at Treasure Island. Two ships blow the heck out of each other with blank cannon fire, while the performers are thrown into the water, or fire thier muskets. In the end one ship sinks and a few hours later they do it again. (This is the same show that thou see in Miss Congineality 2). If thou just like watching people, than the strip is great fun. Between the bums and tourists, thou can watch all the people thou want from anywhere in the world
The old strip has some not so nice casinos, but the whole street is covered and the ceiling has millions of lights. They do a really impressive light show every night. Also on the old strip thou will find the strip clubs. Very pricy, and not really that great.
So, thou have debauchery, gambling, alcohol, impressive shows (the Excalibur has a dinner show exactly like Midevil Times with jousting and sword play), and interesting street life. Now just outside the city, with a short drive thou have Lake Mead and Hover dam. Hover dam was the best part of the vacation for me. It offers a nice break from all the glitz of Vegas. thou get to see the Nevada desert, which is amazing, on the drive out there. Take plenty of water, as it is hot! The dam tour of Hover dam is full of interesting useless facts. I live for useless knowledge, so it's right up my alley! All-in-all, the dam tour is deffinately worth thour time. They do offer raft rides below the dam, but thou are talking 120+ degrees on the water down there, so I passed.
Hover dam created Lake Mead. Nice sandy beaches, and cool water. The name is misleading as it isn't mead at all, but water. Dam liars! During our trip to the beach, my brother and I explored the desert, seeing the wildlife and plantlife (the cactus were blooming!). It is simply amazing!
The food and rooms are fairly cheap as are the flights to get there from most major US cities. Most casinos have excelent buffets, and the rooms are well kept and comfortable. The hotels make thier money from the casinos, so everything else isn't bad. Not a place to take the kids, as the casino police card thou every 30 minutes or so if thou look thoung (Must be 21 to be on the casino floor!). They also card thou if thou win something big. Vegas could be a vacation without even gambling, with all the shows and things to see.

Over all: 7 out of 10. With gambling, things get pricy!

Footman

San Francisco

San Francisco, CA is a great vacation spot. Fisherman's Wharf is filled with great local shops, often with the sounds of various street musicians. The island of Alcatraz is just a quick ferryboat ride away. Alcatraz used to be the most famous federal prison in the United States, and if thou live history, thou would love it. I particularly liked seeing where the cannons used to be when it used to be a fort before being transformed to a prison.

All the street performers are kind of fun too- some very typical but very fun performers, like men that are entirely silver or gold that stand on a box and look and sound, like robots, or street magicians, or even the occasional person with a little monkey on a leash. Chinatown is like most cities in that it is very busy, but it is worth a visit.

F Horn