[February 10-12, 2012, Wheeling, IL – USA]
The problem with going to the same con for the five-hundred-millionth time is that it becomes the same old thing and picture taking gets relegated to, “Oh, crud, I forgot to take pictures.” The you rush and take a boat load. Or, just give in and forget it. Well, I took a few and here are the two better ones:
[February 2-5, 2012 – Orlando, FL – USA]
Sometimes I have a to do list of going somewhere for some reason. Well, my “home” hotel is the Miami Airport Marriott right next to the Miami Airport in Florida. Since I have been there for a while, I know a bunch of the staff there.
One day, one of the bartenders. Martha, moved to Orlando and transferred her job to the Orlando Airport Marriott. I missed her going away party in Miami by just one day – and that was last year, so I was trying to go visit her since then.
So, I was plotting my flights and I tried Miami and it was expensive, so I tried Key West ans it was worse and then I tried Orlando and the trip was cheaper than just flying to Miami (meaning the DCA – MIA – MCO flight was cheaper than the DCA – MIA flight).
So I went to the Orland Marriott and visited Martha. Luckily she was working the one of the days I was there in the cafe so we chatted. I brought a note Ira (another bartender at Miami Marriott) had written out and gave it to Martha. She said she missed the Miami Marriottt (where it’s much more live and busier). So, I got a note from Martha and I’ll give it to Ira when I hit the the Miami Marriott next time.
Martha at the Orlando Marriott
Martha at the Orlando Marriott
[January 26-29, 2012 – Key West, FL – USA]
So, this is the third annual Key West Food and Wine Fest and it’s the third time for me too. Great as always. This time I stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria The Reach which is right next to Waldorf-Astoria Casa Marina. The Casaa Marina is truly “Waldorf-Astoria” class but The Reach really isn’t. They ought to rename it “Hilton The Reach Resort” or something similar.
The Food and Wine fest has it’s Friday event at a different locale every year and this year it was at the Aquarium. It was a cool setting and the number of people attending made the place really hopping. Saturday was the “Duvall Uncorked” event where ticket holders walk from one end of Duvall Street to the other and stop by where ever the sponsors for that year are, from restaurants, shops, etc. to art galleries. I bumped into a couple, Tom and Lynn, along the way and we had a blast. Here are the pics:
[January 13-16, 2012 – Long Beach, CA – USA]
A steampunk convention was helf aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. The location was unique and the ship fit the steampunk them extremely well. This was a four day convention so it was nice and long. As with any ship I board, whether sea or air, I walked fore to aft, starboard and port. The more interesting parts of the ship were all blocked and locked off, which was annoying, but the open parts were interesting as it were…
There was a “con suite” but it was usually devoid of people. It seemed there were more people who knew each other than just broke off into their own little gatherings. Otherwise, it was basically just what was scheduled. There were no party rooms either. Of the pictures I took, a lot more than usual were blurry, so there aren’t too many pictures (sorry). The surviving pictures are below, click on the pic as usual to get more:
If these few pics of the Queen Mary intrigue you, you can get more information on the ship here queenmary.com.
[November 12-19, 2011 – Miami – St. Martin – St. Thomas – Bahamas]
Okay, went on another SinglesCruise.com cruise. This time I hit all the islands (St. Martin, St. Thomas and The Bahamas) that I have not yet been to, so that was a bonus. I think this was the biggest singles group I was with, something like 120 or so cruisers.
In addition, the NCL Epic has a “studio lounge” section where solo travelers can get a room by themselves and not pay the double-occupancy rate. There is an accompanying solo lounge and we also have our own ship’s solo cruisers gathering every night at 5:30 for an hour or two. We get our own cruise director, Natalie and our own bartender, Joyce. So that was an awesome setup. Skip the massive hoards of people on deck. (And the lounge turns into a breakfast area with Yvette in the morning so again, a nice quite private area in the morning.)
So between the SinglesCruise.com activities, Solo Lounge Activities, and my own island exploration, it was a hopping cruise. Here are the pictures from the cruise. I shot about 900 pictures and edited the list down to 453. (That’s a record number of pictures I took in a week). Even with 900, I still ha non-duplicated fuzzy pictures so I loaded those on the slide show too. Have fun!
