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There is snow falling it is supposed to fall all day and into tomorrow. Leaving the Montreal area with 20 centimeters of snow which is about 7.8 inches. My husband went off to work today, he says where the company is located is sort of out of the way in an industrial area that is an up and coming artsy area but that it does not look like a place where snow plows go through regularly so hopefully he can get out to make it back to the hotel tonight. It is supposed to be 22 degrees today and tomorrow then drop off to 9 degrees on Friday, that's Fahrenheit by the way. As I look out the window the snow is really starting to come down now much more determined than the fluffy flakes that were falling when I was down stairs eating breakfast. I still haven't decided if I am going to brave the elements or not. I am not sure if there is anywhere that I wanted to go that is worth getting out in this weather. There is a Metro station just next door so I could go a lot of places. If I wanted I could just ride the Metro around town. There are many choices, I just have to make one. For now I am hanging out in the hotel drinking my coffee.

check out the Santas


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So, it is now official we are going to Montreal. Scott is working there for the week of January 4th. Chance can not go because even newborn babies need passports to leave the country now and since we have been lazy and not gotten Chance his own passport yet then he will have to stay behind with my mom. That is not really a problem for me because I could use a week off with Scott. Also it is going to be so cold I don't think he would have much fun anyway. I am flying to Montreal from New Orleans on Monday the 5th and we are both flying back together on Saturday the 10th. We have to drive to Fort Myers to drop Chance off and then drive back here to catch the plane. The company is paying for our tickets so that is why we are flying out of NOLA instead of Fort Myers.



Does anyone know anything about Montreal?



If so what is good to see and do there? I am looking for things to do since I will be alone most days while Scott is working. From what I have found on the internet Montreal looks like a beautiful place with a lot in common with New Orleans. I want to eat good food and buy lots of cool little souvenirs to bring home and give to everyone. I am so looking forward to the whole trip.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” - Mark Twain

I firmly believe this and that is the number one reason I want to take Chance all over the world. Hell that is the number one reason I want to travel all over the world. I have a love of travel that came from traveling as a child and being part of a family that traveled all over but I continue to travel and want to satisfy that urge to travel because I don't want to be in a small box. We all live in our own boxes or bubbles and some people's are very small making them narrow minded because they just can not expand past the walls of their box. I want my box to be big so large I can't See the sides so I travel to expand my world and to ward off the prejudices that creep into your head when you are not looking.

I am talking about Rahm Emanuel. He was recently chosen as Barack Obama's White House Chief of Staff. He is the first political person I have actually had lots of fun looking up their history. The guy mailed someone a dead fish. That's right he sent a dead fish to a pollster who upset him. I personally would never send a dead fish to someone but that is the kind of spunk I like to see in a politician. I have heard he is a bit of a hard ass and according to Webster that means he is a tough, demanding, or uncompromising person. Now that might not be the kind of guy I would want to be best friends with but as long as at heart he is a good guy he is exactly what we need.

I am sure that since Obama picked him he must be a good guy. As I type that I wonder how I can think that since I do not know Obama and can not say for sure that he is a good guy. I guess I just hope, and that is the catch to the whole thing we all have to put our hope in something or someone sometimes.

Sometimes seeing the world doesn't go as fast as one would hope. The one I am thinking of is me. This year I wanted to get remarried in Vegas and I wanted to go to Paris and maybe even work a train trip in there somewhere but I didn't get to do any of these things. In fact I did not go anywhere new this year. Ok wait that is sort of a lie even though I had been to South Carolina I had not been to Myrtle Beach and we spent ten days there in August/September so I guess that is somewhere new. Though after you have been to another country and after you have lived in South Florida for over 20 years Myrtle Beach, South Carolina doesn't pack much of a punch.
Well, I plan to do more good solid traveling next year. Why am I talking like the year is over? Because it almost is and because I don't see a way to get to any of these places in the few weeks that are left in the year.

Here is a new travel website I found that I like,l it is called Dave's Travel Corner.

I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they plan their lives. Perhaps that is because escape is easier than change. -- Jim Rohn

I found this quote on a travel site I had never been to before but find it very interesting. 1000tips4trips.com

I am currently debating a trip to Richmond, Virginia. Scott will be in Richmond for work form the 9th to the 24th of October and now I am just wondering if I should drag the baby over there and if so should we go by car or plane. As with before the plane is still more expensive but the car takes longer. With travel there is always a debate like that especially when money is tight. I'll let you know.

Just a reminder to check the weather channel before you take a trip. It is in the 80's here everyday and most nights but in Albany, New York where my husband just flew on Monday a cold front went through and now it is in the 40's at night and low 70's during the day.

Travel is in your blood. It fills your life and if you do it right it fills your mind too. I feel this need to travel that I can not explain. When I do it I am happy. No matter where I go or what circumstance takes me there I am happy. That was so true in Troy, AL we were there because of hurricane Gustav but I was totally happy being there in a hotel for days with nothing to do. I had a wonderful time with my husband and toddler just finding things to do.

We spent a bit of time at a park right on Highway 231. You can't miss it, there is a huge helicopter on top of a pole in the park. We had a good time wondering around this park reading all the plaques and monuments dedicated to fallen veterans of Troy and Pike county dating back to the revolutionary war. A great place to let the little one run around and some shade can be found under a tree or in the gazebo. It looks like they may have small performances there of some kind.

We have evacuated to Troy, Alabama.


If you want to keep up on what is really going on in New Orleans and with its residence check this site often. I write for this site too and one of our authors stayed behind in his Restaurant in Uptown.

On our trip to Myrtle Beach a few weeks ago we took our 11 week old puppy which turned out to be a problem when The Company put us in a hotel that did not allow pets. We could sneak him in over night easy enough but getting him out during the day was difficult as the temperature seemed to climb higher and higher each day we were there. We tried to board him but being so young he did not have his rabies shot and so was not even allowed to walk through the door at most kennels. Finally after much searching we found Canine Command Center. Only a few miles from the hotel off of highway 707 it was a great location and best of all they were willing to take him for doggie daycare considering he was too young to receive his rabies shot they logically did not make it a requirement. You would have thought someone at one of the many kennels and boarding facilities I talked to previously would have figured this out but the nice people at Canine Command Center were the only ones willing to work with us. We dropped our little pug puppy off with them everyday around 8:30 am and picked him up just before 6:00pm when they closed. He played and had a wonderful time. By the end of the first week he was running into the building to say "hi" to the staff, we could tell he really enjoyed his time in doggie daycare.
I had heard of doggie daycare programs before we placed our puppy in the one at the Canine Command Center but it always seemed like they were trying to reach out to people going to work or school all day who left their animals home alone. This never made much sense to me for multiple reasons but a big one is the cost as an everyday expense, when your animal could be happily lounging in his own home but in a situation like we were in doggie daycare turned out to be a Godsend. This experience opened up a whole new world of places to travel with our pet. I encourage anyone and everyone to look into doggie daycare when traveling with your pets. Many kennels offer some type of animal daycare program. If you are ever in the Myrtle Beach area checkout Canine Command Center, they have a great facility full of friendly people and lovable animals. Two thumbs up, way up.

So on a complete spur of the moment decision I packed up the car, the baby and the dog once again and headed to Florida. My family is in Fl. and that is where I was born and raised, also where we used to live before moving to New Orleans. When Scott got called away on business I figured we would go for another little trip. At the time I made that decision I did not know there was a hurricane coming for the state but I do not think I would have changed my mind since it is only expected to be a Category 1 when it makes landfall. A Category 1 is nothing to mess with but when you have lived in hurricane prone areas all your life you learn what is doable and what is not, and a Cat 1 is totally doable. We have locked down everything that can fly away and now we are just waiting. I love storms. Really I love all parts of a storm, the part we are in now is the foreboding part. The sky is completely overcast giving everything a grey tint, it is just starting to mist outside, not full on rain just yet and everything is perfectly still. No wind, No birds, No bugs, nothing. You can actually feel the world preparing for the storm. Nature Knows.

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Here's our first travel podcast check it out here!!

Our trip home. We are taking lots of pictures and videos which I will post here and We will have enough video to start up our podcast when we get back home so look out for that too.




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As I mentioned before we will be driving to my family reunion in Kentucky. We dicided to leave a day early to give us some extra time to get there since it turns out it will just be me , the baby and the dog driving over. Here is the map of our journey I will not be able to update while I am there since I will not have a computer but will update you all as soon as I get back to the house on Monday.




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Ok we just discovered one thing not to do in Myrtle Beach. Go to the Children's Museum. I do not know the situation that puts the Myrtle Beach Children's Museum in a strip mall next to Office Depot but I do know that the items they have inside are not worth paying the $7 per person charge to get in to see them. We come form a big city, New Orleans with a really great children's museum which is one of the few children's museums I have ever been to and definitely the only one I have been to repeatedly so I fully admit that I am not an expert on museums for the kiddies but I do know one thing very well. We pay $7.00 to see three floors of play area in New Orleans with a separate toddler room and here in Myrtle Beach we paid the same price for three rooms, no separated toddler area, old equipment and a bunch of sandboxes which although enjoyed by kids are a breading ground for germs especially when you have a bunch of kids playing in the same sand all day.

Now lets move on to the good stuff. Although I do not recommend spending your hard earned dollars at the Myrtle Beach Children's Museum just yet I do want to tell you to keep your eye on them. The Museum has a new facility in development and from the sketches I saw it looks like the new place will definitely be something you will want to check out. Before you go check out their website here.

I hate to tell people not to visit local museums but on this one I would wait for the new facility to be built and if you live in Myrtle Beach then by all means get out there and donate funds or time or whatever you have available to make your local children's museum all it can be.

So we have been staying at the Hampton Inn on 75th Avenue here in Myrtle Beach. It is a nice location. We are just two blocks from the beach, great walking distance. I like being off the beach when staying in a town like Myrtle Beach, there is too much crazy tourist foot traffic when you are right on the beach. On top of that when you are on the beach the extra sand that gets into your things is hard to manage sometimes. Also, we are a couple miles out of the really touristy area which I also like. We are close enough to have anything we might need but not so close that we are over run by crazies. My might notice I think of your run of the mill do everything brochure tells me tourist as a "crazy tourist" by crazy I mean they do everything they do at home (yell at the traffic, shop at the mall) but because they are in a new location they expect a different outcome. This is more like insane but I like the way the word crazy rolls trippingly off the tongue.

When traveling with a family especially with a really little one, like, say...a 19 month old little boy it can be hard to find things to do that do not cost an arm and a leg. Sure you could spend a bunch of money taking him to an amusement park (Hard Rock Park) or fancy dinner theater (Medieval Times) but if they are not old enough to really enjoy those things then do not waste your money. When in a new place I want to get the most out of my money and my time while really getting to know the area I am visiting. I get the feeling that people think this type of traveling goes by the wayside when you have children but that is simply not true. One of the best places I have found to meet local people is in a neighborhood park these can usually be found on the local government's website such as this one for the City of Myrtle Beach's recreation department. So, far we have visited two local parks and these I found from just driving around, no website needed.
The first park we visited is at the Oceanfront and 54th Avenue. This park is known as the Myrtle Beach Woman's Club Gardens By The Sea and was built by the local Woman's Club. It is a great little park with a playground and landscaped walkways including a boardwalk to the beach. Baby, Puppy and myself enjoyed this park I think the baby enjoyed walking back and forth over the boardwalk to the sandy beach most of all then digging in the sand with some of the shells he found. Since it was after 5pm we took the puppy too. Animals are not allowed on the beach between 9am and 5 pm May through September. I also got the opportunity to talk to a local mom for some recommendations on what to do in town.
We also visited Chapin Park on Highway 17 business at 16th Avenue North. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed when streets do not have names but only numbers however it is actually pretty easy to get around here since the numbers actually work the way they are supposed too and by that I mean go up as you drive out of the city center. This park has a large playground area surrounded by a World Wall for Peace and lots of shade. Along two sides of the park there are front porch style swings hanging in the shade which is where I spent most of my time while the baby and the puppy ran around. While here we talked to a couple guys that looked like they spent a lot of time in the park. They were very friendly and reminded me a lot of New Orleans.
Pic 1 - Children's Walk at Myrtle Beach Woman's Club Gardens By The Sea.
Pic 2 - Peace Wall at Chapin Park.

Ok so I am going to guess you like traveling because you are taking the time to read this and if this assumption is true then you should check out a contest that is taking place on the Indie Travel Podcast. They are giving away a Lonely Planet guide and what you have to do to enter ranges from super easy to as hard as you make it.
There are three ways to enter: