Ziplineing!!!!

For those of you who know me well, you know when I saw in the USA today that there was a zip line tour in Hocking Hills, I said to myself "Heck Yeah!" So we signed up and on July 31 Rick, myself Micheal and my pal Renae all heading down to Hocking Hills Canopy Tours to do some zip lining.
We met up with our guide and got our harnesses,gloves and helmets. We did a little practice zip and then headed out in the jeeps to the course.
You hook in and do a series of zip lines and air bridges. The highest point is 67 ft and the fastest zip is 40mph.You zip through the canopy and along the hocking river. The guides were really great and very knowledgeable.Must of them were attending college at Hocking Hills getting degrees in ECO tourism. This was my guides summer job before he heads down to the Bahamas to spend the winter Scuba diving for college credits. I think I missed my calling. What an exhilarating experience. I thought it might be scary, but it wasn't at all! I cant wait to go back in the fall when the leaves change!

Michigan

For our trip this summer we went to Michigan. We spent three nights at Higgins Lake camping. It was the clearest lake Ive ever seen! We did some windsurfing and then rented a pontoon boat one day to just cruise around the lake. We cooked most of our meals over the campfire and after three days we were ready for some beds. We headed to Traverse City and beyond to Sleeping Bear dunes. The dunes are amazing! At one vantage point you can look down 450 ft to the shore line below. There is a trail down, but if you decide to go down, keep in mind you have to climb back up. With the incline it is a 1200 ft climb in loose sand at almost a () degree angle. People routinely hae to be rescued. If you decide to make the climb, be prepared for several hours of strenuous climbing and take plenty of water and sunscreen. Needless to say, we didn't do the climb.
After a day at the dunes we headed over to a river and rented some tubes. We spent 2 hours floating down the river on our rafts eventually ending up at loon lake. I think it was my favorite part of the trip! Unfortunately, we forgot the camera. :(
We spent the night in Traverse City and ate at a restaurant called Hanna's. The food and the atmosphere was just what I needed after 3 days of camping! We all took long showers and settled into our beds at the Hampton Inn. We headed up to SUST Marie the next day to check out the locks. Then we heaed home.

Mountain bikes

We love riding our mountain bikes at Alum Creek mountain bikes trails. They are very challenging, but totally fun. Make sure you wear a helmet!!!! Click to check out our video!

My Airplane my layovers

For those of you who have never seen my airplane, I fly on a Falcon Dalsault Jet. It seats 10people and can fly 8 hours nonstop. Here is a picture of the outside, and here is where I work and sit. This is the interior.
We end up all over the place. Right now I am in Bedford MA. Last week I had a couple of nice layovers. One night in Wilmington NC. I got up early and walked and had breakfast. There is a film studio in Wilmington and they were shooting a movie while I was eating. I walked around and did some shopping. Wilminton is located right along the Cape Fear river and has a really nice little river walk area with lots of nice restuarants and shops. It is really close to the ocean with some super beaches(so Im told), but I did not have the time to make it there this time.
The next day we ended up in Bar Harbour Maine. The weather was beautiful. We stayed right along the water at a holiday Inn. Once again got up early to have breakfast and take a walk. Unfortunately my camera was dying and I didnt get the pics I wanted. There were lots of loons out on the water and the veiw from the dock was amazing. I did get a couple of shots off. I didnt have much time, but then I hardly ever do>

red bull air races

So Ive really slacked on keeping my blog up to date, so this entry is from May. Rick Micheal and I attended the RedBull air races in Detroit. For those of you not associated with air shows ect., generally they are OK, but not the most thrilling of venues for me personally. This event however, blew me away! First of all, Ive always wanted to attend one of these races. If you not familiar, red bull sponsors these races all over the world. It consists of stunt planes flying around inflated pylons at speeds up to 250 miles an hour. The course is very small in scale so all of the maneuvers have to be done super quick and tight. The one we attend was held in Detroit, so at last I could get to one!!! We stayed at the gm building Renaissance, and had rooms on the 67th floor, overlooking right where the course would be flown on the Detroit river, between Detroit and Canada.
The first day of racing was cancelled due to high winds. It blew the pylons right off there mounts! But the 2nd day of racing was so exciting. We had great seats set up right down by the course and in front of one of the giant tv screens, which was very important because they would should the air speeds and the time for each plane as they flew. To win, you have to go through series of elimination rounds by improving your time, and being the fastest. If you ever have the opportunity to attend these races , I would go for it!!

Puerto Rico

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For Micheals spring break and my Birthday we went to Puerto Rico. Friends of ine have a house on the west side of the island in Rincon and let us use it if it is available and this where we stayed.
We really had a Jam packed shcedual, we only stayed 6 days. On the first day we rented boogie boards and headed to the beach all day. The waves were ferocious and we all ended up getting punded on the rocks. I spent the rest of the day on the beach with a book while the boys took there beatings in the ocean. Not a bad way to spend the day I must say. :)
The next day we drove to the rainforest. It was pretty cool, a lot of time in the car, but the veiws were amazing and a completely different kind of vegetation from anything you will see anywhere else on the island. Micheal had never been to a rainforest, so he was very impressed.That was on Sunday, which was also Easter. Somehow the Easter bunny new where we were and left us baskets in the morning. :)
The next day was Monday. We spent the morning on the beach, and then Rick, his brother Doug and I went Scuba diving, while my sister in law Liz and Micheal snorkeled above us. I love Scuba, and always so happy we got certified. We saw lots of beautiful cora as well as the remnants of a old ship. You could see the conans preety well, but everything else had pretty much been reclaimed by the ocean.
On Tuesday. which was my birthday,we started the morning out at at fabulous breakfast spot called the English Rose. The food was great! but the veiws were fantastic! then we went parasailing. We saw the goegeuos coastline and reef from the air as well as stingrays and some sea turtles!!
After that we spent our best day yet on the beach, (the water finaly calmed down so we couldl enjoy it) and the we took a 2 hours horseback ride. Those ponies were very fast!! It was alot of fun.
Later that evening we went for a fabulous dinner at The Lazy Parott. The food was fantastic! I had filet, Rick had lobster, michel and Liz had fish, and and Doug had a whole snapper. After the meal, rick and Doug combined their food carcuses to create the ferocious SnapLobster of Rincin. Silly Boys. When we got back to the house, our host, Doc, who lives on the bottom level of the house and is a dear friend of mine, had backed me a birthday cake!! Look out! We don't want to burn down the house with all those candles!

We flew home the day after that, which was made wonderful by the upgrades we recevied(gotta love medallion status!!) and our flight got home 1/2 hour early, which is always wonderful when you are flyinghome!!
A good time was had by all, I can't wait to go back.

Do you remeber Jiffy Pop?

Rick's 13 year old had never heard of jiffy Pop so we thought he better be innitiated. Jiffy Pop is fun. :)

winter storm 2008

Today Ohio got hit with a blizzard. It was awesome. Like 16 inches of snow! Rick Michael and I went for a looong walk over to his moms house and had a really great day. Its been awhile since we've had snow like this, but we were well prepared. We put on all of our ski gear and headed out!

Layover

So I ended up in Florida yesterday and Rick got it in his head he needed to come see me. Logistically this is a hard thing to do. I never know if I'm going to end up staying somewhere or not pretty much until I'm in my hotel room. i was supposed to be in SRQ overnight so Rick bought a ticket to MCO. Just as he was about to take off, I got a update and we were ferrying! OH NO!!!!!! Thank goodness we were only going to West Palm! Just a little bit further of a drive. So Rick pulled in about 1130pm and we hung out and ordered room service. We got up early and headed down to the beach for about 45 minutes. It was so pretty! We rushed back to the hotel and I got dressed and had grabbed some breakfast then headed out to work. Bye bye honey! Have a great day in Florida! I love that crazy wonderful husband of mine. :)

Washington for the weekend

This past weekend Rick and I caught a Netjets ferry flight and jetted down to Washington DC to surprise his brother Doug and sisterinlaw Liz. They were having a party and we thought it would be great to just show up unannounced.
So we hoped on the plane and picked up a rental car. When we got to DC we had sometime to kill so we stopped at the fish market. i love all the fresh fish. I wish we lived near water. All the recipes of the world were going through my head as we walked around. We grabbed some Maryland Crab Soup(it was really good, like vegetable with crab all through it) and then headed down to the museums. We went to Museum of natural history because I love the Gem gallery there. We went to see a IMAX movie and then headed over to the party. Boy were they surprised. It was awesome. We partied all night(sooooooo may bottles of wine) and then got up the next morning and Liz made us a fantastic breakfast. We went to check out their new boat and then Rick and i headed home in our rental car. It was a great weekend!

V-A-L-E-N-T-I-N-E

Rick surprised me with tickets to the ballet. For those of you who don't know, I danced for 14 years so it happens to be something I enjoy, although it's been ages since I've been. It was a ballet met performance called Lovestruck and it was really good. The first dance was done to Bang Bang, originally by Sonny and Cher but it was a slow version and the dancers were very sexy. It really drew you in. The last dance was done to Bolero and it was amazing!
The first dancer came onto the stage with the stage covered in fog, then as the fog cleared she was revealed . she was wearing an all black dress and the four male dancers came onto the stage wearing only those big full pants. The all danced together and it was so entrancing. The music was amazing and the dancers were mesmerizing. We had such a good night. We got all fancied up then afterward we went to dinner at Marcello's. It was such a great night. And Rick didn't hate the ballet!

Atlanta

2 weekends ago Rick was going stir crazy and I suggested we go on a little road trip. Being as my friend Cindy had just moved and i wanted to see her newly downsized digs and i also wanted to see the Georgia aquarium Atlanta seemed like the perfect destinatin. It didn't hrt that we could get out of freezing ohio and and into 60 degrees and sunny Georgia either. We spent the night Thurday at an Embassey Suites where they upgraded us to the governers suite(gotta love those diamond perks!) and went to dinner at Fogo de Chao a supper yummy Brazlian resturant where we stuffed ourselved on delicious meat.Friday we spent all day at the aquarium and it was beautiful! then we met Cindy and Ernesto for dinner and ate at Taqueria Del Sol. I would eat tacos everyday if I lived in Atlanta. The Margarita are pretty darn good too. Then we went to the chocolate bar where Rick and i had a delicious butterscotch drink and a faboulous esspesso marshmello desert while poor Cindy watched us because she had given up sweets. Don't feel to bad for her though, apprently chocolate martini's don't count and she had one or two of those. We stayed with the Espinoza's on Friday night in their new Super cute 1 bedroom apartment and I was slightly jealous of their downsizing. Saturday we went with Cindy to Stone m ountain and did some hiking. the weather was perfect. Later after we showered and dressed we went for a walk to have some lunch and get some sunshine. We ate at Belly and it wa very good. On the way back we walked for like 3 miles and i said to Cindy"you don't have any idea where we are do you?" to which she answered with a laugh. I think I shall get her a compass for Christmas. We certainly walked off all of our glutenous dinners from the nights before! It was a beautiful day. When we got back, Rick and I decided to head back for Ohio. 9 hours later we walked through the front door. It was a perfect little get away.

The Mrowzie!!!!!

So I have to tell you I love this cat! We got him in September and now I can't imagine we didn't have before. He is very sweet. He loves to pounce his feather and climb on his TRee that Rick made for him. In the mornings he must snuggle us until we get up and give him his greenies. He is such a sweet little man!

Windsurfing

Honeymoon

Rick and I went to Hawaii on our honeymoon.We started out on Mauii and stayed at the Grand Wailea which was a marvelous resort. The grounds were beautiful, but fortunately we had used hotel points for our room, because if we had paid the 600 dollars a night for the room I would have been pretty miffed. We went to the top of Haleakala and then rode bikes down from 10,000 ft. Boy was it could at the top but it was a awesome bike ride down. Rick and I got our SCUBA certifications to some diving in Hawaii and did two boat rides then 1 night dive. The night dive was amazing! Our boat dives were at Shark Fin rock off the coast of Mauii. We spent some time doing the roadto Hana where we did some off roading inour Jeep at Honomanu bay.We did some hiking both at Waianapanapa Beach and also at Oheo Gulch.
We headed over to Oahu for the remander of our trip where we stayed 2 days in Honolulu and went Pearl Harbor as well as Hanauma Bay before heading to the North Shore where we stayed at Turtle Bay. we spent the last couple days of out trip laying around on the beach at Waimea and snorkleing at Shark Cove. We spent our nights watching sunsets and just hanging out.

here we go

My Friend Cindy has a great Blog. I hope my Blog is worthy. I am a flight attendant so most of my traveling is done via 10 hour turns in hotel rooms. My husband and I do quite a bit of random traveling however and I will try to keep current with my blogging. I feel that i have quite a bit of past blogging to catch up with so i will post some of my past experiences first so my current travels don't look totally boring.