Best vacation site

Would you be surprised if I told you that going away this weekend would give you the same benefits as a longer vacation? Think about what exciting things you were going to do this weekend? Maybe mow your lawn? Clean your house? Re-arrange the furniture?

When you stay at home, even if you are planning to relax, you are going to be reminded of what needs to be done and it will only add stress. Getting away from routine chores will help lift your spirits and let you recharge mentally and physically.

Taking a short getaway vacation is especially significant when you have a reason to celebrate such as a wedding anniversary, birthday or Mother’s Day. Taking a mini vacation is a great way to make the event really memorable. Do not just do the same old, same old, make the special occasion stand out, get away for the weekend and make it something you will always remember.

So how are you going to do it? Many getaways are available as last minute deals which save you money and time. Just choose your destination, pack your bags, and go! There are many last minute deals to be found on the internet. A recent search in Google for “weekend getaways” yielded more than 13,000,000 results, so you have no excuses.

So where can you go? If you live in North America, Mexico, Canada and US destinations are good choices. Other European countries make a great getaway for those living in Europe. Many cruise lines also have a three-day package available. Or you can stay closer to home, maybe really close to home and still get the benefits. An anniversary can be spent at a beautiful five star hotel 20 minutes away from your home and it can feel as though you are somewhere far, far away.

Some things to keep in mind; many hotels offer special weekend deals so keep your eye out for those. Often booking your airfare and hotel together as a package can also save you money. Stay flexible, as in the immortal words of the Rolling Stones, by booking last minute, you may not always get what you want, but you can get what you need.

So, whether you are taking the family or it’s just the two of you for a romantic weekend, get online, check out local hotels in your phone book or call your travel agent. You do not have to wait until the “perfect” time or until you have the money for that around the world cruise. You can go on vacation this weekend!

Snowboarding is fast becoming one of the most popular winter activities that you can participate in. What used to be a sport for the younger and hip set is now attracting both families and adults. Most of the ski resorts cater to both skiers and snowboarders alike so there is no reason you cannot find a snowboarding vacation package that accommodates your winter interests.

The easiest way to find a snowboarding vacation package is through your local travel agency. Typically they will be able to make your travel arrangements plus reserve any snowboarding gear that you may need. The convenient thing about a snowboarding vacation is you do not have to pay up front for a bunch of expensive gear. All the items that you need for snowboarding such as the board, boots and helmet are available to rent.

Other alternatives include finding snowboarding vacation packages from the on line travel agencies. You may get a better deal price-wise by shopping on the Internet, but for first-time snow riders, they may want a more personal experience that only an in-person agent can provide.

Transportation during your snowboarding vacation is generally not that much of a concern. Some resorts will actually pick you up from the airport and transport you to the slopes. Shuttle buses operate in most resort town to transport you from your room, to the slopes, back to your room, and to any shopping or needs you may have. If you choose to rent a vehicle or drive your own, most resorts have plenty of parking and for those areas where parking is quite a distance from the slopes, free shuttle buses will take you to the base of the slopes.

First time snowboarders should make things easier for themselves and take at least a day lesson. Nothing could be worse than getting hurt on your snowboarding vacation because you decided you could pick up the sport by teaching yourself. Like most things, it looks a lot easier than it is. A half or full days lesson is not that expensive and you will be able to get proper instruction so the rest of your snowboarding vacation is enjoyable.

Snowboard vacations that include children do not have to be a burden on the parents. Most ski resorts have family friendly programs for the kids, which allows them to learn how to snowboard, let the parents enjoy their own snow riding and keep them entertained for the day. Daycare is available at most ski resorts for those toddlers and babies too young to learn this great sport.

A snowboarding vacation can be an adventure that everyone young and old can enjoy. There are plenty of family fun things to do, teenagers get to participate in a cool activity and even adults will find the vacation to be plenty exciting. Snowboarding is no longer a rebel sport. The resort industry is now catering to the sport and has created magnificent snowboarding vacations to enjoy.

Having a relaxing vacation is the ideal way to forget all about the stress of our daily lives. It’s a chance to just sit back, relax and get our priorities back in order. For many of us, it’s also a great chance to reconnect with our loved ones. Whatever your reasons for needing to take a vacation, there are a few things you need to do to ensure that it goes exactly the way you envision.

The first thing you need to do when planning your perfect vacation is to figure out what you want to get out of it. Different people have different ways of relaxing. While one person might revel in a week of non-stop lying on the beach, another might find that idea incredibly boring. Plan a vacation based on what you enjoy doing and not what someone else thinks you should do. Look into the options that you think will help you relax.

Setting a budget for your trip is very important. You simply won’t be able to enjoy any holiday if you are constantly worrying about money. Spending more money than you can afford to on a vacation will only leave you feeling worried and guilty. Come up with a viable plan that will allow you to do the things you love without sacrificing your entire piggy bank. It will definitely be a relief not to have to come home and start working hard just to pay off your trip.

Setting a budget for your trip is very important. You simply won’t be able to enjoy any holiday if you are constantly worrying about money. Spending more money than you can afford to on a vacation will only leave you feeling worried and guilty. Come up with a viable plan that will allow you to do the things you love without sacrificing your entire piggy bank. It will definitely be a relief not to have to come home and start working hard just to pay off your trip.

Sometimes we all need a little help. Don’t be afraid to ask for it. Enlist the help of a travel agent who knows about the industry. They can point out options and ideas you never even thought of. Not only that, but it helps to have someone else to make the calls and the arrangements. They’ll be able to help you if things start to go wrong. Their number one priority is your holiday happiness.

For many of us, taking a vacation isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity! A vacation allows us the opportunity to relax and take a step back from the busy world around us. It’s very important for our physical, emotional and mental well-being. After all, if you don’t have something to look forward to during the year, you might just be inclined to have a breakdown! Plan your vacation properly and reality will seem just a tad sweeter when you get back to it.

For a vacationer with a mind to escape life’s faster pace, there is snorkeling, scuba diving and sailing on the island of St John. If not solitarily soaking up the sun’s rays, vacationers can swim in the bay’s shallow waters and snorkel in the company of an occasional turtle and stingray among spectacular, colorful coral. Also just north of Cruz Bay, vacationers will find one of the prettiest shopping areas in the Caribbean, Mongoose Junction.

Whether coming to this tiny island for sunning, snorkeling, or even shopping, vacationers will find ample opportunities to enjoy all three and more on St. John. The island offers fully furnished vacation homes and villas, all with ocean views and breezes, some with pools, hot tubs, and air conditioning. St.John villas will suit any vacation style, equally luxurious and elegant in their own way, no other accommodations in the Virgin Islands can come close to what St John offers. Whether soaking up the sun on one of its many beautiful beaches, shopping in the downtown areas, touring historical sites, participating in local festivals, experiencing the adventure, enjoying the music and sampling the cuisine, vacationers have much to fill your days on the island.

THere are great things to do, places to see, private beaches, romantic mountain top views, day excursions to other islands, snorkeling spots, island bars, hiking trails, sunset spots, and much more. St.John today is recognized for its pristine beaches and conservation-minded residents who dedicate themselves to preserving the island’s natural and cultural resources.

St.John’s most famous beaches are strung together, fringed with tropical palms and sea grape trees. Visitors will have a chance to experience stunning beaches like Trunk Bay and Hawksnest. The island has numerous beautiful beaches where you can go hours without seeing another tourist. Also the island is littered with red roofed houses strewn about amongst rolling green hills with splendid views of beautiful white sandy beaches and crystal clear, turquoise waters.

St.John villas worth mentioning are found in Cruz Bay, a thriving town with a wide range of restaurants and bars. From luxury villas to affordable island homes, all offer commanding ocean views. St.John villas are often hidden in the most picturesque corners of the island so you can retain that sense that you’re getting away to your own private paradise. St.John’s villas are never too far away from a good restaurant or boutique. They are also convenient - often times the owners of caretakers of the villas meet you at the airport or dock and many even include car rental with a certain length of stay, allowing you to explore the island of St.John villas, making you feel like you’re right at home.

St.John is the perfect romantic setting for a most memorable vacation. From the most active to the most relaxed, you will be hard-pressed to find an island more beautiful, more peaceful, less crowded, or one inhabited by friendlier people. The scenery is the most beautiful I have ever seen. St.John is a jewel and with the island’s steep mountains covered in lush tropical forests, rimmed by white sandy beaches, and surrounded by beautiful turquoise seas, makes living very enjoyable. St.John, in the US Virgin Islands, is by far one of the loveliest, friendliest and most beautiful places in the world.

Thomas Wolfe is considered by many to be one of the giants of 20th Century American Literature. The Old Kentucky Home boarding house is one of American Literature’s most famous landmarks.

Hours of Operation

• April to October, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, closed on Monday
• November to March, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, closed on Monday

Thomas Wolfe, author, lived in the Kentucky Home boarding house, run by his mother, for ten years. He was strongly influenced by Asheville, his hometown, and by the boarding house itself. Thomas Wolfe’s writings were inspired by his childhood days in Asheville, North Carolina. The very realistic portrayals of Asheville, its citizens, which included Wolfe’s own family, prompted Look Homeward, Angel to be banned from his hometown library. Wolfe did not visit Asheville for almost eight years during the time his book was published. When Thomas Wolfe finally went home in the summer of 1937, he stayed in the boarding house with his mother and wrote the article “Return,” which was published in the Asheville newspaper.

Thomas Wolfe lived only to be 38 years old, and is perhaps the most overtly autobiographical novelist in American Literature. In his short life span, he produced four novels which are:

• Look Homeward, Angel
• Of Time and the River
• The Web and the rock
• You Can’t Go Home Again

Thomas Wolfe, novelist, also wrote numerous short stories, novellas and plays. The Old Kentucky Home boarding house has been a memorial to him since 1949. It is currently open in North Carolina as a State Historical Site. The visitor center features exhibits about Wolfe and his family as well as an audio-visual presentation about the life of Thomas Wolfe and his writing.

Tours of the Old Kentucky Home

Available for tourists today are the guided tours. During his lifetime, Thomas Wolfe, foresaw the future of his mother’s boarding house. He wrote his second novel, Of Time and the River, that foretold how the “old dilapidated house had now become a fit museum.”

A fire in 1998 later discovered to have been intentionally set almost destroyed the historic Old Kentucky Home. Intensive restoration to the historic house and the surviving artifact collection enabled the Old Kentucky Home to reopen to visitors in May of 2004.

Directly behind the historic Old Kentucky Home boarding house is a modern visitor center that opened in late 1996. The visitor center is located at 52 North Market Street and features an exhibit hall with the personal effects from the Wolfe family home, Wolfe’s New York City apartment, and his father’s stonecutting shop. Every hour, an audio-visual program on the life of Thomas Wolfe and his writing is presented. The guided tours of the boarding house begin at the visitor center. This building also features a gift shop.

Visitor Center Hours

• April to October, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday
• Sunday’s beginning June 3, 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., November through March, and closed on Mondays
• 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday and closed on Mondays

For more information you can call 828-253-8304

Current Events

At the time of writing this article, an upcoming event at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Historical site on October 27th features “Witches, Haints and Booger Tales,” Spooky stories at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial. Hours are 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Source: Thomas Wolfe Memorial Online

Important Disclaimer: The URL address in the resource box of this article is not associated with Central Park in New York. This article and the web site are offered as a resource for formulating vacation ideas.

This article is FREE to publish with the resource box.

© 2007 Connie Limon All Rights Reserved

The Lincoln Home Historic Site is located at 426 South Seventh Street in Springfield, Illinois. It is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily except January 1st, Thanksgiving, and December 25th. For a guided tour, you must see the ranger at the Visitor Center desk for a free ticket. Tours are only ranger guided.

All visitors are encouraged to support the park through donations that can be made in the Visitor Center and in the backyard of the Lincoln Home after your tour.

Parking is in the visitor parking lot on a daily basis. The fee is $2 per hour payable at a self-operated fee machine.

In the Visitor Center you will also find orientation film, temporary exhibits, a Museum Shop, Springfield area information and restrooms.

Exhibits located within the historic Lincoln neighborhood include:

• “What a Pleasant Home Abe Lincoln Has” Exhibit in the Dean House that focuses on the Lincoln Family’s life in Springfield
• “If These Walls Could Talk” Exhibit in the Arnold House that focuses on historic preservation.

The historic Lincoln neighborhood consists of four blocks in which you can stroll through to see the houses.

Abraham Lincoln’s hometown of Springfield, Illinois sits between two tributaries of the Sangamon River, with Spring Creek to the north and west and Sugar Creek to the south and east. Abraham Lincoln and his family lived in the house at Eighth and Jackson Streets for 17 years.

The Lincoln Home National Historic Site is a 12.28-acre unit of the National Park System. The Lincoln Home was constructed in 1839 and restored to its 1860 appearance as part of the Site’s Historic Zone that includes 17 other historic structures. The entire historic zone, especially the area immediately adjacent to the Lincoln home, is being restored to the appearance of the neighborhood as the Lincolns would have known it.

By 1860, there were five in the Lincoln family living in the house, Abraham, Mary, Willie and Tad, Robert was away at preparatory school for much of that year.

Abraham Lincoln was born and raised in a one-room log cabin and not very well educated. His wife, Mary Todd Lincoln was born and raised in a fourteen-room house and was educated throughout her life. They were of opposite backgrounds, but despite there opposite backgrounds, they met one night at a dance in Springfield, Illinois and began courting.

Mary’s eldest sister, Elizabeth and her husband, Ninian disapproved of Abraham. The young couple broke up and avoided each other for over a year until mutual friends brought them back together. They dated in secret and were married on November 4, 1842.

After their marriage the couple went to a single room on the second floor of a rooming house where they spent their first year of marriage and where Mary gave birth to their first child, Robert Todd Lincoln. They rented a small house and then purchased their first and only house. Abraham, Mary and Robert moved into a one-and-a-half-story cottage, which they expanded into two stories and continued to raise their family for seventeen years.

Source: The Lincoln Historic Site Online

Important Disclaimer: The URL address in the resource box of this article is not associated with any of the attractions mentioned in this article. This article and the web site are offered as a resource for formulating vacation ideas.

This article is FREE to publish with the resource box.

© 2007 Connie Limon All Rights Reserved