Leisure … more than a word, it's a lifestyle

Space Shuttle Discovery over Cumbrian Lakes

Last night was yet again one of those occassions where it’s great to be alive and living in Florida. We got to see a terrific launch as Space Shuttle Discovery set off to the International Space Station. This time Discovery had on board the final set of solar arrays which are needed to complete the station’s complement of electricity generating solar panels which will help the station support the expanded crew of six people later this year.

For those of you interested in a great day out, Kennedy Space Center is a terrific place to go. Last May I wrote a blog that you might like to see again by clicking here  and I also created a pictorial of Kennedy Space Center of some of the things you can expect to see when you are there. Click here for more details.

This will be a bit of a weird post for some of you today but it’s time for our American friends to come to appreciate a little about the noble game of cricket. The reason I’m writing is because I’m furious about a completely shocking, abject and utterly disgraceful England performance against the West Indies this afternoon.

For those that don’t know anything about the game, this was the equivalent of a 100-0 thashing at American Football or basketball or even a 15-0 goal thrashing at soccer. All this from so called professionals…and what makes it worse, the West Indies are pretty much the worst recognised international team out there…save for perhaps Bangladesh!

Sure the WIndies used to be a formidable force in the 70′s and 80′s but this team is a shadow of it’s former glory and the way they disposed of England today was unbelievable. Going back a few years the Windies had a fantastic team and every Englishman amongst us always believed they could steam roller over us. They often did, once famously “black washing us” and bowling us out for 46…but this, this was something else.

It’s hard to believe that the nucleus of this English team was the same one that had beaten the all conquering Aussies in the Summer of 2005 but that seems light years away now. England go to Barbados next and let’s just hope they put on a better performance for the thousands of supporters following them out there from the snowy UK. After that, we have the Aussies again…and who knows what they’ll be capable of doing to us.  Shocking.

Anyway, this blog always trys to educate and inform so I thought I’d try and teach you the rules of cricket. Here they are:

If you’re currently staying in one our luxurious vacation homes in Orlando you’ll need something to do today because it’s very chilly out there. As I write this the temperature is 32 degrees and even though the sun is out it’s not going to get much over 54 degrees today.

I know some people in other parts of the country will laugh at this but this is serious stuff for us Floridians and we’re just not used to it. We’re seeing freezing citrus crops and that could be bad news for our fruit industry and while some of us don’t mind the odd cold day, this has been around for about two weeks now and enough is enough!!

Anyway, here’s some great things to do today. Places you can take your family and stay nice and warm.

The Charles Hosmer MORSE MUSEUM of American Art holds the world’s most comprehensive collection of the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany including Tiffany jewelry, pottery, paintings, art glass, leaded glass windows, lamps and the chapel interior he designed for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

The Holy Land Experience is the world’s first living, historical, biblical museum. It has many fascinating biblical exhibits and profound biblical presentations.

Old Town is a mini park with shops, restuarants and rides like “The Giant Ferris Wheel”, rotating swings, “Wind Storm roller coaster, tea cups, merry go round, go carts and much more. On Staurday’s there is the famous “Saturday Night Cruise” which features hundreds of classic cars as they cruise the street of “old Town”.

Orlando Museum of Art has a broad spectrum of art genres on display. It was founded in 1924 and its mission is to be an education institution for the local community.

Reptile World Serpentarium features snakes and reptiles including venomous snakes from around the world. gila monsters, aligators and more. No web link for this one but if you go east on US 192 around 20 miles from I4 junction on US 192 you will find it on the left when the road narrows to two lanes.

Fantasy of Flight is home to over 40 rare and vintage aircraft many of which have been restored to flyable condition. You can climb inside the cockpit of a Corsair fighter or take a spin in a state of the art hang glide simulator in the Fun with Flight area.

Ripley’s Believe It Or Not  For over 40 years, Robert Ripley– the modern Marco Polo and the real-life Indiana Jones– traveled the world collecting the unbelievable, the inexplicable, the one-of-a-kind.  All of it amazing and much of it extremely amusing.  His collection is housed in over 27 museums in 10 countries.  Each museum’s collection is 90% unique and different.

WonderWorks. If you like Ripley’s then you’re sure to love WonderWorks. The exterior of WonderWorks is Orlando’s most photographed building. It is packed with over 100 games and gimmicks used by science museums to teach basic principles of physics and it turns them into a highly enjoyable interactive amusement arcade for all the family.

It was 50 years ago today (3rd February 1959) that Buddy Holly was tragically killed in a plane crash at the age of 22. Buddy rapidly rose to fame and had only been recording for two years at the time of his death but he still had time to influence the world with such hits as “Oh Boy”, “Peggy Sue”, “True Love Ways and “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore.”

He was born Charles Hardin Holley in Lubbock Texas on September 7th, 1936 and began his musical journey at the age of eleven with piano lessons. Oddly enough, after only nine months of lessons and being applauded by his teacher as one of her top students Buddy, without explanation quit. He told his parents he wanted to play the guitar, and even though they were struggling financially they found a way to grant his request. 

During his teen years Buddy performed with close friend Bob Montgomery billing themselves as Buddy and Bob as they performed local events throughout Lubbock, Texas. It was only after opening a show for Elvis Presley at a local gig in 1955 that Buddy knew exactly what he wanted to do. Success, however, didn’t come until Holly formed his new group, the Crickets that consisted of Jerry Allison on drums, Niki Sullivan on guitar, and Joe Maudlin on bass. The Crickets recorded “That’ll Be The Day” in the Clovis, New Mexico studios of producer Norman Petty and the record hit the top of the charts in September of 1957.

in the fall of 1958, due to legal problems concerning royalty money, he split from the Crickets and Norman Petty. He married Maria Santiago and relocated to Greenwich Village in New York City.

In January of 1959, Buddy along with 17 year old Ritchie Valens,  J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson and other acts embarked on what was billed as the winter dance party.  From the very beginning, the tour was plagued with difficulty. The tour buses inability to stay running, a faulty heater, and the series of one-night shows caused many of the performers to display cold and flu symptoms. It was after a show in Clear Lake, Iowa that Buddy, tired of the miserable conditions, decided to charter a plane. He hoped that he and his sidemen Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup could wash their clothes and get a decent nights’ sleep before the next performance. The word quickly spread through the troop and soon both Jennings and Alsup were getting requests to give up their seats. J.P Richardson, the “Big Bopper” convinced Jennings to give up his seat stating that a man his size wasn’t able to put up with the cramped conditions on the bus. Ritchie Valens appealed to Allsups gambling side by proposing they flip a coin for the seat. Unfortunately for Valens, he won the toss.

Holly, Valens, and Richardson along with their pilot Roger Peterson took off from the Mason City airport on February 3rd at 12:40 A.M. All four men perished soon after when their four seat aircraft crashed after takeoff. The surviving members of the tour did not want to perform without their stars but soon succumbed to the pressures of the promoters and continued the final show. However, when Buddy’s band stepped on stage without their leader there wasn’t a dry eye in the audience. It was a terrible tragedy that took the musical community many years to realize. As Don Mclean hauntingly put it in his 1971 hit, “The day the music died.”

The problem with travelling or going on vacation is that very often one or two members of the family can’t come. Yes, I’m talking about pets.

It’s a dilemma that a lot of people face and the fear of guilt and the fear of leaving a beloved member of the family behind often overwhelms people so much that they choose not to go anywhere. It’s a distressing time for everyone. Family members become distressed leaving their pet behind and the pet also becomes distressed when going to unfamiliar territory. And then there’s the cost… it’s not cheap these days to board your cat or dog.

Some owners do solve this by taking their pets to one of the few hotels that allow them in their rooms but even this has disadvantages. Many pets become distressed at all the noises in other hotel rooms and in the corridors that are common in hotels. Most hotels have very limited space to walk a dog and very little space to feed your pets not to mention storing their food. Further, there’s also the chance that the house keeping staff will either let your pet get loose or stress them out with vacuum cleaners and the nasty chemicals they use for cleaning.

Here at Florida Leisure Vacation Homes we are helping to solve this problem and we are pleased to highlight some of the homes we currently have available to pet owners wishing to visit Orlando in 2009. You and your pet can enjoy an entire home with plenty of room to relax in. In a vacation home your pet will not become distressed as there are no other guests other than the people you invite. Your pet also has the luxury of a private back yard to walk and play. All our homes are located in vacation rental communities that have walking areas and little car traffic. This makes it safe for both you and your pet to get some leisurely exercise. The best part is our pet friendly vacation homes all have screened in private swimming pools for the family and pets to enjoy together. Some of our pet friendly vacation homes even have safety fences around the pools to protect kids and pets when they are unsupervised.

If you have a pet and you wish to vacation in Orlando this year, you no longer need to worry about where to house Fido while you are away. Simply bring your pet with you and enjoy your vacation. Please do note that there aren’t many of these types of homes in our inventory so early booking is a must. You can find them here.

PS.

Don’t worry if you don’t have pets…we have plenty of other homes available for you…and we guarantee that no pet has ever set foot inside them!

Some good news at last! Orlando is THE place to visit in 2009. While everyone else in the travel industry is in free fall, Orlando is bucking the trend. The first week of 2009 saw a 14.75% increase in hotel occupancy according to Smith Travel Research and here at Florida Leisure Vacation Homes we were in excess of 20%.

It seems Orlando is THE place to visit and there’s a long list of reasons for that. First we have the world famous theme parks. Walt Disney World with Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, then there’s Sea World, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Discovery Cove and hundreds of smaller places to visit to entertain the family.

We then have the beaches…within 90 minutes you can spend a day on the Gulf Coast or the Atlantic Coast. You can visit Kennedy Space Center and watch a shuttle launch or you can simply chill and do nothing.

Rounding it off, we have some world class shopping and a lot of really great dining experiences.

So while the rest of the country sees their numbers dropping, it seems now is the time to take a long weekend break and enjoy the sun and some down time.

We’re almost there… MLB Spring training that is!

At least five teams are hosting their Spring training within a short drive of Orlando this year and the action begins on February 24th and runs through to April 2nd. If you’re a fan of Houston Astros, Atlanta Braves, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies or Washington Nationals you’re going to want to be in Florida before long!

Not only is the weather great at the moment but there’s so much for you to do, see and enjoy. The team schedules are posted and you can see them here. If you’d like to know where is each team is going to be located here’s a full breakdown:

Atlanta Braves – Disney’s Wide World of Sports, Lake Buena Vista

Houston Astros – Osceola County Stadium, Kissimmee

New York Yankees – Steinbrenner Field, Tampa

Detroit Tigers – Joker Marchant Stadium, Lakeland

Philadelphia Phillies – Bright House Networks Field, Clearwater

Washington Nationals – Space Coast Stadium, Viera

Boston Red Sox – City of Palms Park, Fort Myers

New York Mets – Tradition Field, Port St Lucie

St Louis Cardinals – Roger Dean Stadium, Jupiter

Toronto Blue Jays – Dunedin Stadium, Dunedin

Baltimore Orioles – Fort Lauderdale Stadium, Ft. Lauderdale

Cincinnati Reds – Ed Smith Stadium, Sarasota

Florida Marlins – Roger Dean Stadium, Jupiter

Minnesota Twins – Hammond Stadium, Fort Myers

Tampa Bay Rays – Charlotte County Sports Park, Port Charlotte

Pittsburgh Pirates – McKechnie Field, Bradenton

Orlando is the perfect place to stay if you fancy taking in a few games and our vacation homes are perfectly located to get you there and back in good time. You can also enjoy the theme parks, the beaches, the shopping, the dining and best of all, your own home away from home. Orlando is the place where everyone is going this year… so don’t miss out!

Over the weekend I finally sat down and watched “The Dark Knight“. Colin (admin) had previously posted on this blog on 18th July (Click here to read)  how great Heath Ledger had been in the role of the Joker and having now watched the movie I can say that he was absolutely spot on! What a performance… and quite by chance, as I hadn’t realised the Golden Globes were on last night until my daughters turned on the TV, I was delighted to see that he posthumously got the recognition he deserved as best supporting actor.

Also amongst the honors were Kate Winslett who won best actress for “Revolutionary Road” and best supporting actress in “The Reader“. Mickey Rourke earned best actor for his role in ”The Wrestler“ while Bruce Springstein won best original song for his track in the same move.  

Most interesting to see was the fact that low budget movies seemed to triumph over their major studio rivals as romance “Slumdog Millionaire” won a leading four honors including “Best Drama”. “Slumdog” is the story of a young Indian man looking for love and money while competing on a television game show and it earned awards for director Danny Boyle, screenwriter Simon Beaufoy and composer A.R. Rahman for best musical score.

Also collecting four honors was “John Adams” which is HBO’s mini series about the second U.S. president and it was also good to see “30 Rock” collecting three honors for the talented Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin as the best TV comedy and best comedy actress and actor.

After last year’s writers strike it was good to see the Golden Globes back and although they are a bit self congratulatory and over the top at times, it’s nice to have a little bit of light relief for an evening. The part I enjoyed most was Steven Spielberg’s speech. I though his comments were very poigniant and his comments about the impluse to make movies for a broader audience during these tough economic times were interesting. He went on to say that “we can’t ever forget that we are also an audience of individuals, and without the kinds of movies nominated tonight, we would be in danger of losing the very thing that none of us can live without.”

That hit a mark for me. For the last decade we at Florida Leisure Vacation Homes have been trying to offer unique vacation experiences to our guests and while the temptation is to follow the crowd, Spielberg reminded us that it’s a dangerous path to chose. I’m glad he said what he said as it reminds us to stay focussed on what we are good at and to deliver special vacations for those staying in our vacation homes. 

The whole night also reminded me how great the movie business really is and that I really should spend more time watching some of the great entertainment they provide. And…maybe you should do that as well particularly next time you’re staying in one of our vacation homes as most of them are now equipped with big screen TV’s to give you the movie experience!

In 2009, the road to NFL greatness leads to beautiful Tampa Bay and Super Bowl XLIII. Tampa Bay is an  exciting place with year-round sunshine, white, sandy beaches and thrilling attractions. Best of all, it’s just about an hour’s drive from Orlando and Central Florida and that makes it a great day out if you fancy a day at the beach rather than at the theme parks or lounging by the pool at your vacation home.

This years Superbowl is on 1st February and kick off is at approximately 6.30pm at the Raymond James Stadium, Tampa.

One of the things we enjoy most about the Superbowl is the advertising and this year it promises to be different. It seems that Dreamworks Animation and Pepsi’s SoBe beverages are teaming up with NBC and Intel Corp. to create a 3-D ad break set which will appear at the end of the second quarter.

Apparently the commerical will include a 60 second advert for SoBe Life Water that features the popular SoBe lizards, who appeared in 2008 game, and also a trailer for the upcoming Dreamworks movie “Monsters v Aliens’.  The ad will include a modern interpretation of Swan Lake, the famed ballet but will also feature the players and creatures in a rhytmic effect as they are infused by the refreshing SoBe Life water.

So this year will be different as previously advertisers have generally focussed on themselves and their product. This time round it looks like they are deciding to try to work together. Now there’s a novel idea!

Whether you’re a Giants, Bears, Patriots, Cowboys or another team’s fan, February 1st will be an exciting day. If you can make it to Florida we’d love to welcome you to one of our fabulous vacation homes  but if not, enjoy the game and the entertainment provided.

All good things must come to an end so the old saying goes and one of these will shortly be the last pouring of the complimentary beer tastings at Anheuser Busch-InBev two theme parks Sea World and Busch Gardens.

Personally I think this is a mistake and it’s not going to help the company in keeping its customers loyal. I know big business has to look at the bottom line but the bottom line is made up by customers who pay admission fees to enter the park and this was one of the nice little extra’s that adults enjoyed during a hot day at the theme park.

The decision has been reached by Belgian based InBev who are the new owners of Anheuser Busch as they look to sell off the entertainment division to help pay the $52 billion acquisition they finalized last year. So from 1st February 2009 the complimentary beer tasting will stop and all we can hope for is that the entertainment division is sold off quickly and that the new owners come to realise how important this seemingly trivial part of a day out at Sea World / Busch Gardens really is.