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Thursday, October 28, 2010
Kayaking Paddlefest in Corpus Christi
Looking for some weekend outdoor fun? Head to Corpus Christi for the
Halloween Paddlefest being held at Port Aransas from Friday Oct 29 thru
Sunday Oct 31, 2010. Kayakers from Texas area meetup groups will be
congregating at IB Magee Beach Park at Port Aransas for a weekend of
guided kayaking tours, demonstrations, BBQ, and campiing. New demo
kayaks made by Mayan Seas, P&H Kayaks, and TideRace Kayaks will be shown
as well as Greenland Kayaking. There will also be previews of the new
kayaking book by John Whorff, "Paddling the Texas Coast." Wish that I
didn't already have plans, this sounds like a great event for kayakers.
Headed
up by area kayak expert Ken Johnson, we went on one of his kayaking
tours last year and were impressed with his kayaking knowledge and
expertise.
His
guided tours which will be held over the weekend include:
1- Guided kayak tours of 1-Shamrock Cove birding refuge,
2- Historic
Lydia Ann Lighthouse,
3- Circumnavigation of Harbor Island to see
lots of dolphins,
4- Paddle along the Padre Island canal homes,
5-
Corpus Christi Bay around the city and the Lexington Aircraft Carrier,
and
6- Aransas River and Nueces River (the tour that we took).
Group
Camping is available for only $12 per night, with a nightly beach fire
with music and a BBQ Saturday night with Halloween costume contest.
For
details on camping see here.
Hotels
are also available nearby.
Register to attend the Paddlefest in Corpus Christi by contacting Ken
Johnson at johnsonkw@earthlink.net with the following information:
Will
you attend Corpus Christi Paddlefest 10/29-31/2010 this year? ____Yes
____No ____ people in my party
Which days do you plan to attend?
____Fri 10/29 ____Sat 10/30 ____Sun 10/31
Do you want to pay $10 for
a catered group BBQ dinner Sat night? ____Yes ____No
Do you want to
pay $10 per 2-3 hr lesson for Greenland kayak classes by Doug Van Doren?
____Yes ____No
Would you be willing to volunteer to help (lead tours,
assist other new first time kayakers, let others try your kayak)?
____Yes ______No
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Space, the travel frontier
In the planning stages for 2012 is the world's first space hotel. To be known as the Galactic Suite, the out of this world hotel will offer a three-night orbit in space after a four month training period.The pricetag? Oh, just over $4 million...
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
Tallest Hotel in the World
With great fanfare, the world's tallest hotel opened earlier this
year. The Burj Khalifa is located in Dubai, and was built at a cost of
over $1.5 billion. A marvel of modern engineering.
Here is a video
from the observation deck.
Friday, October 01, 2010
Where is the hottest market for new hotels?
So where are the most posh new hotels being built?
Las Vegas? Not
hardly. New York or London? Nope. Dubai? Guess again.
The place
to be is China. Leading the way with major expansion plans are the mega
hotels Sheraton
and Marriott. 
I
have been reading the book China
Road about an NPR reporters' 3,000 mile journey along Route 312 and
his adventures while living six years in China. He learned to speak
fluent Chinese and get to know their culture up close. Stops he makes
along Route 312 are as varied as a Hooters in Shanghai to modern
factories to personal interviews with farmers toiling in the fields the
same way their ancestors did. Interesting read to see how China is
progressing so rapidly to become now the second biggest economy. 
Need
to schedule a trip there one of these days....