Fuzzy Bus

There’s something about the place that’s almost secretly perfect, and profoundly collected. Key Biscayne has benefited from its unusual history, because when the discoverers were setting foot here, they found no gold and kept on going. If they had, everything would be different, but things have worked out well for the place. Some geographical areas might feel a little slighted by the rejection at the hands of explorers, but Biscayne never had gold to offer in the first place. Its real treasures were unobservable to their limited vision.

It’s not unseen by artists however. It actually hasn’t been unacknowledged by anyone who’s ever had the pleasure to live or visit here, where the natural beauty is abundant, and the city is fabulous and still manageable. But it takes an artist to see the metaphors, and make them visible in new and unimagined ways. Public art is a way of helping the citizens to enjoy where they live by revisioning the place. It’s not meant to replace daily vision with another way of seeing, but instead is like eye drops. It refreshes the act of seeing, and it is like beginning to look at the world again for the first time.

This is available to the locals who invest themselves in their city, and the visitors staying at the hotels Key Biscayne offers. Coming up soon, and under wraps right now, are new works by one of the regions most famous artists, Miami-based and Cuban-born Jose Bedia .

His extraordinary sense of place and displacement are all at work here, along with a certain gift for making the animal object into a metaphor for a spiritual and existential doorway for the viewer. The Village Art in Public Places board approved two new works that will bring the physical world back to the physical world. Cement platforms are already laid in place so that this art will be encountered by walking on it, a metaphor for a hidden discovery if there ever was one.

While many cities around the country have been doing their own First Night celebrations, these solitary efforts are part of a larger event, bringing together many places for the same cause. The cause is a simple one, and one that a good number of the population can get behind without argument, that of celebrating the calendar turning from one year to the next. In Salt Lake City, this has been a part of its own festivities for a number of years, but 2009-2010 saw something interesting happen.

Based on other models, like the Carnival de Quebec, Jeffrey Berke came in with a new idea, and one that might be the best local version of a winter event this side of the rockies. It’s called Eve , and it marks the coming of the New Year, but the idea is to make this much more inclusive. The earlier years’ parties saw adults participating in something that was able to unite a large portion of the population, but couldn’t include all, and that’s what Eve is setting out to do. It even has the potential to bring in people from out of town, come to enjoy a hotel Salt Lake is famous for, and see what the hospitality is like at a big public event.

It is a reasonable price, too, where $15 buys entry into the whole thing, including free transportation, that takes place over the whole city. There will be the usual counting down at midnight, to be sure, but what makes this one unusual is that party-goers don’t start gathering after dinner on the 31st, it begins on the 29th. It becomes a three-day affair, with lots of events and activities organized to bring together all the diverse communities that SLC contains, attracting people from all lifestyles, backgrounds, and points of view.

Any event that attempts to unite a community as one is worth applauding, but one that has the intellect and foresight to figure out ways to really do it, is one that’s worth attending.

Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872 with a signature by President Ulysses S. Grant, becoming the first national park in America. It spreads out over three states — Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho — and its the home of a great deal of fascinating wildlife — grizzly bears, wolves, bison, and elk. You’ll find inside its boundaries such national treasures as Old Faithful Geyser, a number of other amazing geysers and hot springs, and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

The Yellowstone region has been the home of Native Americans for at least 11,000 years; exploration of the area did not truly begin until the late 1860s, and while the U.S. Army first oversaw the park, control of the area was transferred to the National Park Service in 1917, a service that was created just a year earlier. The park is a place of intense study, with researchers examining more than a thousand archaeological sites.

The natural wonders of the park include Yellowstone Lake, one of the largest high-altitude lakes in North America, which is itself near the center of the Yellowstone Caldera, which is the largest supervolcano on the North American continent. Considered an active volcano, this caldera has erupted several times in the last two million years; most of the geothermal features in Yellowstone — Old Faithful, hot springs, and geysers — are the result of this volcanic system. The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is also here, the first large canyon on the Yellowstone River, which is downstream from Yellowstone Falls. This canyon is about 900 feet deep and a half mile wide. The park is also a terrific place for sight-seeing, featuring hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles, and offers to the visitor incredible scenery as well as opportunities to hike, camp, boat, and fish.

If you’re traveling across the country and looking for one of the best hotels America provides to its motorists, you’ll find it in West Yellowstone, Montana, at the Yellowstone Park Hotel at 201 Grizzly Avenue, just three blocks from the West Entrance of the Yellowstone National Park. By day, you can explore the park; by night, you can take advantage of 32 inch flat screen televisions and an indoor pool.

The best way to explore Hawaii is to have a good amount of time to spend on each island. Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe and the big island of Hawaii all have some really beautiful and fun things to see and do accept Kahoolawe, which is in recovery from being a bomb testing island. There are some volunteer groups spending time on Kahoolawe to replant the vegetation and restore it to a more beautiful island again.  

For those who are looking for the most primitive island experience check into a stay on Lanai. The only way to get around is to rent a four wheeler and drive the sometimes unpaved roads around to the uncrowded beaches. There are plenty of places to hike that take you to ancient ruins. There are some golf courses, horseback riding opportunities and enjoying the traditions of the Hawaiian people. Endless time can be spent on the beaches and in the water with snorkeling and diving. The Dolphins love to hang out and the island itself is a really true island experience.  

Find the best resorts hawaii has to offer on the island of Maui. This island has a great mix of island beach time and night life town time. Take a tour of the Maui Gold Pineapple farm there you will learn that even the pros can’t always tell when a pineapple is ready to eat. This is a 100 year old company still producing the best sweet pineapples in the world.  

Oahu is were the famous Waikiki Beach is located and it happens to be the most populated island. This is the island were visitors can see the Lolani Palace in Honolulu as well as the world famous Pearl Harbor which is the grave to the crew members still trapped in the USS Arizona Memorial ship that was sunk in the harbor in 1941. They have prepared a nice exhibit explaining the attack on the island by the Japanese.

St. Simons is the 2nd largest of Georgia’s 18 barrier islands and encompasses 31 square miles. This barrier island is the mid-portion of the sandy barriers running from South Carolina to the mouth of the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida. As you walk along the beaches of St. Simons, you’ll get to discover many changes. Look inland from the surf, you’ll see several interdependent, and unique natural communities, each with its own animal and plant life.

The active areas at St. Simoms are between the beach and the offshore sand bar is called the ‘surf zone’. It’s best to prepare spending a whole day or even a week in order to witness what is called ‘Sand Sharing’; this happens when a storm wave break on the beach and as the wave washes back out, it takes sand with it, depositing that sand offshore on the sand bars and shoals. Then, as the shoals build, waves break over them before reaching the beach, the weakened wave carries sand back to the beach, hence the term ‘Sand Sharing’.

The inter-tidal beach is where the ocean meets the beach. Inter-tidals are usually made up of hard-packed, wet sand, which is covered during high tied and then becomes exposed during low tide . You could spend hours, at low tide, watching all the activity happening in a tidal pool, and each tidal pool will have its own dynamic activities, because they all have some different sea-creatures making for fascinating observations.

At the St. Simons Island, you’ll also get to explore the primary Dunes , which are considered the ‘deserts’ of the beach. These dry and sandy areas are located between the inter-tidals. The dunes build-up, shift, then become stabilized by sea oats. The primary dunes protect the beach meadows, which nurture a variety of woody plants, flowering weeds and grasses. In addition, the all the natural activity on the beach, St. Simons has a Salt Marsh, the Maritime Forest, a Fresh Water Slough, and when in season, you’ll get to see the Loggerhead Sea Turtles and Whales. You can contact a hotel St. Simons offers it’s visitors to find out the best time to come for whale watching and Loggerhead Sea Turtle observation.

Tuscaloosa is a gorgeous place. A big city with a lot of heart, and even though there’s a pretty delightful metropolitan atmosphere here, there are also plenty of reminders that it’s always Alabama. In that way, it can provide a sense of home while also being a gateway to the world at large, which really is the best of both worlds.

For those who work in the television industry, especially in any kind of creative capacity, there are more worlds out there than could ever meet the eye, and this kind of spirit is fostered in the place. That’s how it worked with Tom Cherones, born here in 1939 and raised here, and after a little time away, it’s where he returned.

During the time away, he did some work on General Hospital and My Sister Sam, and eventually landed a gig directing News Radio. That show is considered to be a kind of holy grail in some circles, one that was under-appreciated in its life on the small screen, but had its fans that were absolutely wild about the show. Then Cherones went on to produce and also direct more than 80 episodes of Seinfeld . Perhaps you’ve heard of it.

It’s a wonderful life, and he’s been there for some of the most iconic moments of this new media generation, and it’s a wonderful thing that he’s back. Now he’s teaching at UA , where students can learn from someone who’s certainly familiar with the ropes. His teaching style is very much oriented on the students, and helping them to fulfill their visions, which demonstrates a great generosity of spirit.

In a city where there are some very old houses, and at the same time some very contemporary hotels, Tuscaloosa shows that many things can exist simultaneously, and that the blend of old and new, past and present, and student and teacher, can make for some very lovely times.

For some people working on motorcycles is their passion. While it can’t always be something that is done all the time, it can be done whenever there is a motorcycle to fix. For some that happens more often in the summertime, for others it happens more often in the wintertime. Those people who don’t have enough motorcycles to repair will often work on a blog or some other form of internet activity that helps them work on their motorcycle passion. There is one such blog that is fairly interesting and has a lot of good information. Dan’s Motorcycle Repair and Engine Repair Information Guide is a great website with Dan’s blog or as he calls it Blob in addition to the regular website.

Being a retired motorcycle repair man and having run his own motorcycle repair shop Dan really knows his stuff. As he puts it a lot of what he knows he found out from breaking some very expensive part. Part of the guide is really to make sure that other young repair fanatics with their motorcycle manuals don’t break too many important and expensive pieces. Do it yourself can be very dangerous, but at the same time very rewarding and he has the right idea that this will help people to repair their own cycles. He makes a good point that what he has learned about these engines though can be used for most engines and the kid who is trying to work on his truck using a service manual might have a little harder time following him or just figuring out where the part is in the different engine, but they too can be helped by some of his advise.

Based on the fact that he only repairs motorcycles in the summer it could be assumed that it gets too cold where he is for it to be a viable option to try to repair the motorcycles in the cold either because of a very cold winter there, the fact that no one rides in the winter, or because it hurts too much for some reason. Whatever the reason he has found a great outlet for those months and is helping a large number of people find out a little more about their own bike experience. He probably wishes he had something as cool and useful as the internet when he first started repairing motorcycles.

There are few places in the United States that are really dedicated to sculpture and artwork the way Santa Fe is. One of the few places that might that might come close however is Houston. It isn’t just one or two exhibits that you have to go see if you are interested in seeing all the great sculptures there are in Houston, or even all the types of sculptures that there are to see in this town. If you are staying in one of the best hotels in Houston the first place to go in your art journey is along Gallery Row which will have in it artists of all types and all mediums, but still has a healthy number of sculptures. Thornwood Gallery in particular has a number of nice sculpture pieces, with a little bit of something for everyone. They do a new exhibit every month, so things are always changing. Overall, Gallery Row may be one of the best places to get a glimpse of great Southwestern artwork which takes some talent to fall into that category.

When you are done there you will want to make sure that you don’t miss the Monumental Sculpture exhibit presented by the Texan-French Alliance for the Arts it is a nine month exhibit in Hermann Park. The pieces are not all together so you will have to walk through the park to see them all, but it is more than worth it. Each piece is no less than 2 times the size of a person and for the most part they are abstract pieces. On average they are around thirty feet tall and being made out of steel they weigh around twelve tons.

If there is still more time in your trip, try to get down to the Devin Borden Hiram Butler Gallery. This gallery is mostly a garden and a small cottage that has been converted into a gallery. Darryl Lauster and Dean Ruck, two famous Texans show some of their work here.

One thing about the city of New Orleans, okay there are actually endless points of interest about the city of New Orleans, which is actually the point of this sentence, there is never a dull moment to be had. And while in recent years the city has been making news primarily due to the devastation caused by hurricane Katrina, and other smaller hits, oh and the Saints recent Super Bowl win, the standard cultural aspects of this city continue to go on in spite of it all. New Orleans is well known for its great southern Cajun food and the numerous jazz and blues clubs that are found throughout the city. The French Quarter is one of the most famous neighborhoods in the country and it is also the location of some of the great clubs and restaurants that were just mentioned.

So, if you plan to visit this southern Louisiana city, regardless of the specific neighborhood or hotel in New Orleans in which you will be staying, you will definitely want to experience some of the great jazz and blues clubs and of course some of the home style cooking that the city is equally famous for. And once you have that covered, there are many other attractions and city elements that you’ll want to explore while you are there. The Contemporary Arts Center and the New Orleans Museum of Art should satisfy your artistic palate, as should the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

If you’re more of a nature lover then you will definitely want to explore the Audubon Nature Institute. This incredible organization is a series of institutes that were established for the purpose of park and nature preservation in the area. Some of the main attractions of the institute include the Audubon Zoo, the Aquarium of the Americas as well as several parks and recreational facilities.