My yearly Trip to the Bahamas

WooHoo, my yearly trip to the Bahamas is coming soon.  Already have the airline tickets just need to finalize the villa and start packing. I like to book my flights through American Express travel, because I can use my rewards points from my american express card for all or some of the costs. Price is almost always a couple of dollars within the price direct from airline.
One thing I'm glad of is that I waited a couple of weeks from when I originally priced airline tickets, because the price dropped about $50 a ticket so I jumped on them this time.
Haven't had a good "go away" vacation lately. Everything has been little day trips, so I'm looking forward to getting away and relaxing in the sun and sand.

Update
Villa is confirmed with the marina view. Countdown begins.
Club Landor, here we come. Now I know not everyone likes Club Landor and there are some maintainance fees that are high for owners, but the villa itself for a week in the Bahamas is perfect for me.

Places I've been so far.

I've been very fortunate to have a job that allowed me to do some traveling over the years. There isn't one of them that I didn't enjoy. Eight hours of work a day then rest of the time was for sightseeing, playing and relaxing. Below is a listing of places I've been to already, some were for work others for pleasure.

Work
San Francisco (4 times)
Chicago (5 times)
Seattle (Once)
Mobile (Once)
New Orleans (Twice)
Honolulu (Once)
Oklahoma City (Once)
Denver (Once)
Atlanta (3 Times)
New York (Twice for work, 3 Times personal)
Minneapolis (Once)
Orlando, Florida (Once)
Las Vegas (6 Times for work, at least 10 times personal)
Los Angeles, CA (Once)
Indianapolis, IN (Once)
Richmond, VA (Once)
Phoenix, AZ (Once, got to see football game from sidelines)

Personal
Paris, France (Once)
Paradise Island, Bahamas (7 Times)
Myrtle Beach, SC (3 Times)
Atlantic City, NJ (Too many to count)
Pennsylvania (Most of the state at different times, raised here)
Washington, DC area (My home of the last 27 years)
Naggs Head, NC
West Virginia (went camping there alot as a youngster)
Sandusky, OH (Cedar Point amusement park as a kid a couple times)
Baltimore
Charlotte, NC (Twice, went to NASCAR races)

Concerts this year

I'm a little behind again on posts, but we went to a couple of good concerts so far this year.

First was Rihanna in April at the Verizon center downtown DC. A little on the sexually suggestive side, but a good show. Sometimes the music was cranked up a little too loud making it hard to really hear the lyrics, but we had good time.

Next up was Bruno Mars also at the Verizon center in June. Great show, although I felt a little out of place cause it seemed our tickets were in the teeny bopper section. A lot of his fans were young teenage girls. He puts on a high energy show with influences of Michael Jackson and Motown era dance steps. I knew he played the piano but he also played drums and guitar very well. Was also pleasently surprised at how many of his songs I actually knew from the radio.

Soon to come is Jay Z and Justin Timberlake in August in Baltimore.

Fun trip to Maryland Live Casino

Hey All,
I need to get better with my posting, but a couple weeks ago me and the misses went to Maryland Live Casino in Arundel Mills, Maryland. MD has recently passed the legislation to allow live table games at their casinos, but won't be in place till spring.

I'm not a big fan of slots, but the misses is. They do have their own digital version of craps, roulette and blackjack but its not quite the same. So of course I'm anxiously waiting the live games start.

That being said I was pleasantly surprised to find a slot machine that I actually enjoyed this trip. It is a "Wheel of Fortune" 25 cent machine, with 2 sets of reels. 6 quarters is max bet that gets you max bonus chance also. The first set of 3 reels can give you the spin bonus feature and with that activated the 2nd set of 3 reels you can get bonus spins of another part of the wheel that are multipliers. You can get up to three of the multiplier spins with chances at 1X to 10X, total maximum of 31X multiplier (1X for the first reel spin and a possible 10X+10X+10X for the 2nd reel multiplier) of the wheel spin. I had always kinda like the "Wheel of Fortune" slot but this actually puts it into my definite play category. Even if you don't get the spin feature you still have two sets of reels to hit bars, cherries or the progressive wheel logo. I think the multiplier feature is a great, fun addition to this slot machine game.

All in all we got out of the house for a couple of hours, had a good time and best of all came home with more money than left with.

Talk Soon
Boom

What / Where Was Your Favorite Vacation?

I'm actually torn between 2 trips as to which was my favorite.
One was a company paid trip to Honolulu, Hawaii for 9 days.  The other was our 7 day trip to Paris, France.  Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed all my trips cause anytime away from home and work is a blessing but these are my top two.
Anyone have their favorite?
Talk Soon
Boomer

Next trip is scheduled - Paradise Island Bahamas

I know it is not until first week of August, but we booked our yearly trip to Club Landor, Paradise Island, Bahamas.  I know some don't like Club Landor, but we've been going for years now and enjoy it very much.  I don't need high class snob accommodations.  I like the quaintness of the small villa setting.

I know that technically this is the beginning of hurricane season, but it is rare that one hits the island, chances are even lower that early in the season.  We have gone in January, March, September and last year August.  January and March are still a little cool, especially ocean water temperatures (around the low 70's). I would still jump in but my friend was like "Hell No".  August and September can get really hot, but if I'm at the beach that's what i want.  Water temperature is also in the mid 80's making for a relaxing swim in the ocean.

Anybody else been that has a time of year they like better?

Trip is one month out. Can't wait to relax in the clear blue water. Starting to think about what to pack.

Late Update:
Went on my trip and we had a blast. Weather was great (hot, but great). I definately like this time of year (Early August) the best. Had direct flights in and out of Reagan National, 2.5 hours and was ready to hit the beach.
I did my best not to burn (white guy so I burn easily). Stayed at Club Landor with a marina view for a week. If you are gonna stay here I recommend the marina view room upgrade. You get to watch all the million dollar yachts come and go and dream of the good life. Rooms are quaint, don't expect 4 star luxury. But if you can't relax and enjoy yourselves here you are probably too uptight a traveler anyway, you're in the Bahamas, relax a bit.
Walked the marina and thru the casino to the beach almost every day. Went to the Atlantis Casino and gambled almost every night. I'm a craps player, my girl loves the slots. Actually came back winners on this trip.
Went snorkling on Rose Island with the Club Landor crew. All you can drink and eat included. Bought myself an Olympus underwater digital camera good down to 40 feet and I'm in love with it. Great photos in and out of water. Plenty of camera settings.
Club Landor has other daily activities but we didn't participate. This was like our 7th trip so we like to do our own thing for the most part.
Hoping to get my scuba certification for next year so I can do a shark dive with Stuart Cove.
Talk Soon
Boomer

Atlantic City Gambling and a Show

Just came back from an extended weekend in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  We stayed at Caesar's AC and had tickets to see Smokey Robinson at the theater there.

Drove up there Thursday afternoon (about 3.5 hour travel time), checked in and relaxed a bit in the room before heading down for a bit of gambling.  Myself, I like the table games.  Hooked on craps at the moment, use to be blackjack, also enjoy poker but I like the tournaments and I couldn't figure out times for any so I hit the craps table.  My better half loves the slots, so I gave her a kiss and wished her luck as she stopped at her favorite (wheel of fortune) and off I went.  Most of the craps tables were $10 minimum which was fine for me cause I like to build my bets up slowly.  Discuss or no?

We had a great time gambled a bit, room service a lot and relaxed.  Our room had a horrible view (see picture) luckily that didn't bother us cause we don't always need a view in order to relax.

  Smokey was there on Saturday night so we dressed up a bit and went downstairs to the theater.  We were about half-way back but luckily it is a fairly small theater so the seats were great.  And for 72 years old Smokey still puts on a great show.  He performed for about an hour and a half.  The audience sang along with him for most of the songs.  He sang a lot of his old hits and ones he wrote for others.  If you like Motown music I highly recommend seeing Smokey Robinson if he comes to your area.

We packed up and left after the show cause Sundays starts the busy week up again starting with church then work.  Got home about 4 in the morning and hit the bed for a couple hours.  Even though I didn't have gambling luck on this trip, we had a wonderful time.

Talk soon
Boomer