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A Day at Harpers Ferry Adventure Center

09 Sep 2012 By

On Sunday, during the Labor Day weekend, Dave and I spent all day zip lining and river rafting at the Harpers Ferry Adventure Center, which is 1 hour and 15 minutes away from our home. Harpers Ferry is a historic town in West Virginia. It is situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers where the U.S. states of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia meet (from Wikipedia). Harpers Ferry Adventure Center, formerly Butt Tubes, is located 3 miles south east of Harpers Ferry in Purcellville, Virginia and offers a variety of outdoor activities. It is a small place, but there are picnic areas with tables, charcoal grills, and a sand volleyball court for customer’s use. A souvenir store, a small food court and changing rooms are also avaulable. Here we are at the center. It was starting to rain a little.

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Cancun Day 2 – Swimming with dolphins

01 Sep 2012 By

Around 8 o’clock in the morning, Dave and I were picked up at our hotel by a minivan and we were on our way to the aquatic park Xel-Ha, which is located 110 km/68 mi south of Cancun. Xel-Ha is a natural park with an area of 86 hectares/212 acres, which is composed of a group of inlets, lagoons, cenotes and caves. This ecological park is the largest natural aquarium in the world and is an absolutely breathtaking place! We were told that according to the old Mayan legends, Mayan gods driven by their wisdom and love for ”amazing things”, created a place where the most beautiful natural attractions in the Caribbean are all gathered in one place. The ancient Mayans called this area Xel-Ha ”where the water is born”. Upon our arrival we confirmed our time for the dolphin adventure and obtained our locker keys. Here is the entrance to the dolphin area.

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Cancun Day 1 – Isla Mujeres

26 Aug 2012 By

Being at the El Embarcadero pier for the Observation Tower, Dave and I decided to take a ferry from there to Isla Mujeres, a small island about 13 kilometers (8.1 mi) northeast of Cancun. The island is some 7 kilometers (4.3 mi) long and 650 meters (2,130 ft) wide (from wikipedia). Isla Mujeres means Island of Women in English. The Spanish named it the Island of Women because when they first discovered the island in 1517, there were hundreds of statues of women along the beach. The statues were a gift to Ixchel, the Mayan goddess of love, fertility and the Moon. See the aerial view of the island below.

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Cancun Day 1 – Observation Tower

24 Aug 2012 By

Our first day in Cancun we spent enjoying the view of Cancun from the Observation Tower “El Torre” and visiting the neighboring island of Isla Mujeres after that. A little about Cancun. Is Cancun Mexico an island or a city? Cancún is a coastal city in Mexico’s easternmost state, Quintana Roo, on the Yucatán Peninsula. Cancun resort area is bounded on three sides by water: the Caribbean Sea, the Bahia Mujeres (Bay of Women) and the Nichupte and Bojorquez lagoons.

The word cancun translates to a nest of snakes in English. Built in a location that was named by Mayan people, long ago, for the large number of snakes in the area, Cancun has been carefully groomed into one of the most polished resorts anywhere. Long gone are the snakes and most of the mosquitoes that might have enjoyed the numerous lagoons. Few resorts in the world have the infrastructure and amenities that were built into Cancun from the beginning. The area, developed in the 1970s and 80s as a tourist resort, is known for its white-washed buildings, long stretches of sand, diverse shopping, and vibrant nightlife according to wikipedia.

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A week in Cancun – Itinerary & Arrival

22 Aug 2012 By

The second week of June Dave and I spent in Cancun, Mexico. At least one of my friends that I know of is going to visit Cancun soon, so I decided to put together our trip to Cancun itinerary. It might be helpful for someone else as well. 🙂 We booked our trip, which included airfare and hotel through expedia.com, since expedia offered non-all-inclusive option. I found booking.com a helpful and informative site for researching. This site provides detailed hotel descriptions, a wonderful interactive map (see screenshot) and reviews. We chose Gran Melia Resort:

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A Day at the Beach

19 Aug 2012 By

After skydiving we decided to spend the next day at Rehoboth Beach. By 7 am, after a quick breakfast at the hotel, we were driving to one of the clean Delaware beaches. On the way we noticed Tiki Murph and stopped to take a look. Tiki Murph sells beautiful outdoor entertainment products: custom built Tiki Bars and Tiki Huts, Tiki statues, wood and painted figures. Tiki refers to large wood and stone carvings of humanoid forms in Central Eastern Polynesian cultures of the Pacific Ocean (from Wikipedia). See for yourself.

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Skydiving is Fun!

06 Aug 2012 By

I’ve always wanted to try skydiving and scuba diving! This summer I was able to accomplish both. This post I dedicate to my first tandem sky dive. Let’s start from the beginning. After 3.5 hour drive from Washington, DC area, Dave and I have arrived at Skydive Delmarva located at the Laurel Airport in the state of Delaware. The main reason for choosing this place for skydiving was its close proximity to the Delaware Beach Resort Areas, which is where we were planning to spend next day, Sunday.

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Morning after the storm

01 Jul 2012 By

It was an interesting morning… With the temperature reaching 104 degrees around 3 p.m. on Friday June 29, 2012 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, a wave of violent storms swept through the Washington area on Friday evening. The storm knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses after a day of record-setting heat (breaking a 78-year-old record high for the month of June) according to USA Today. It was very hot for the past several days in DC metro area. Today, in the morning during our ride, my husband and I saw some results of the storm. We live in Alexandria, which is not far from DC (around 15 miles) and it seems like the storm did not hit us hard, but we saw some broken trees and knocked down road signs, not to mention leaves and branches were everywhere on the usually spotless roads. Just as we arrived at the Lee RECenter, we saw a tree broken almost in half.

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Along the Las Vegas Strip

25 Feb 2012 By

Las Vegas Boulevard, otherwise known as the Strip, encompasses 4 miles (6.5km) of casinos, hotels, and giant neon signs from the Four Seasons hotel in the south to the Stratosphere Tower hotel in the north.

Casinos in Las Vegas are centered around two main areas: the Strip and downtown. The Las Vegas Strip is home to some of the area’s best known hotels and casinos, each of which features its own collection of unique and extravagant attractions. No matter what time of year you are visiting Las Vegas, the Strip offers things to do at all hours of the day or night. The Las Vegas Strip is absolutely stunning at night.

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CityCenter Las Vegas

24 Feb 2012 By

CityCenter is a urban complex on 76 acres located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The ultra-modern CityCenter is the official half-way point of the Strip. CityCenter consists of Aria hotel and casino, Mandarin Oriental hotel, Vdara hotel and residence, Weer resedential towers and Crystals shopping center. The Harmon Hotel in the center of the picture below is a part of city center, but it is not completed and most likely won’t be according to the media sources.

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