Topic: Family

Family centric items – trips, things for families to do

Vacationing Luxuriousely For Less – It CAN be done! 0

Posted by on in Family, Food, Restaurants and Eating Establishments, Vacation and Get Aways





Vacationing Luxuriousely For Less – It CAN be done!

OK so you’re thinking of taking the family or perhaps your special squeeze or maybe just yourself on a much needed get the heck outta Dodge vacation. Good for you! Problem is, like many, you work for some (idiot) that doesn’t pay enough to make the bills, much less a vacation of any sort. So, how can you make this work? Well, here’s a few tips to help stretch those bucks and help you have a good time.

Plan ahead. This has to be the biggest number one tip I can give anyone. If you do your trips last minute you will pay and pay and pay. Hotels and fun places KNOW this and they hike the prices accordingly. So think and plan ahead. if ou’re a member of AAA go get their trip books, maps and talk with one of their trip advisors. This along could be worth the price of your annual membership with them. Plan what you want to do, where you want to go and when the best time to go – based on what you want to do and best prices. Also, once again, Google is your friend.

Watch for venu specials and promotions. Most of the places you want to visit know when the soft spots in their traffic flows are and they push promotions to keep the bodies flowing during those lulling times. Know this and work it to your advantage. The times I like are either just before or after a major holiday season. Between Thanksgiving and Xmas have been great times for me and the first half of January when the kids are all back in school also tends to be nice. Study the university schedules for when their breaks and major exam schedules are. Trust me kids aren’t going to be going on vacation in any large groups when they have final projects due and exams coming up…and neither are their parents. May is also a nice time for me as students are finishing up school work almost accross the board and places can be empty.

Shop your tours carefully. Tour vendors like Grayline can add alot to your trip with their local tours of major sites. Use them and other tour options strategically. Face it, you can get yourself from here to there faster and cheaper than a tour company can. So once you’re there, use them there for what they know and do best. Also you may get better deals if you book your tours for during the week versus the weekend. There’s usually less traffic and demand during the week.

Plan your meals and food wisely. Throw a small cooler in the trunk and use it for drinks, sandwiches, yogurt or whatever you like to eat. Many hotels offer breakfast as part of the deal.

Personally, I really like Hampton Inn’s for this as they are totally family and business friendly. I can a few pieces of fruit, yogurt, put together a trail mix, etc., and take it with me. Finding a small grocery on your travels is usually easy to do. Use that cooler strategically for drinks, sandwich fixings, etc., and you can save a small bundle of chow expenses.

Choose where you stay carefully. You can enjoy your stay and vacation just as easily at a place that is cost effective as you can at one that is woefully over priced and under delivered. There are some chains that are clearly marketing their name and have over priced their product and deliver the same if not less than much better priced options. Personally, this is one of the reasons that I tend to avoid Marriott facilities.

Watch for resorts and venues that offer more family friendly options. Some have special kid friendly events and programs that are specifically designed for kids and the family.

One of my preferred websites after the AAA site is nps.gov. This is the page for the national Park Service. You will find an incredible wealth of information here of places to go, things to do and see that are incredibly affordable and an incredible amount of fun. If you look at the park system, also give serious consideration to the annual pass. I can save you a tidy bundle on the parks with entrance fees. Also check you state web sites and counties for their park systems as well.
Read the travel sections of your local paper with a very discerning eye. Keep in mind that most of those articles you’re reading with all those nice pictures of places to see are probably written by somebody’s public relations group and printed as if they were a feature article. They’re little less than an over written advertisement. They CAN have some really good and useful information, but read them with a big eyes wide open filter.

I hope you do your research and have a great trip.

I’m Don Rima and that’s the view From Where I Stand.



Watching them as they go… 0

Posted by on in Family, Friends

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Watching them as they go…

This week two friends of mine lost one of their parents.  Another is going to lose her father in short order.  It’s the time in life when we become parents to our parents and for many it’s a transition they’re not ready or prepared for…not that anyone could ever be.

It wasn’t long ago that we looked out and saw our parents and grandparents in the audience as we performed in school.

Then later as we looked out it was only our parents…and then too soon they weren’t there when we looked out…

Now our kids look out to us as the cycle of life continues its ever churning spirals of reality.

Watch them closely, while you still have them in sight.

I’m Don Rima and that’s the view From Where I Stand.

Baseball! It’s opening day! 0

Posted by on in Baseball, Family, Food, Sports Events





Baseball! It’s opening day!

There’s really nothing quit like it. The feel of the crowd. The smells of the stadium. Popcorn, peanuts, crackerjack…and let’s not forget a really nice big fat juicy hot dog with
mustard and ketchup!

The boys of summer are back! It’s opening day! Pop a cold one, sit back, break out your glove and you may get lucky and catch one!

The crack of the bat brings with it jargon of suicide squeezes, double plays, the long one going deep and many other terms that once again put us in the annual cat bird’s seat of fun.

No matter how you listen to them or watch them, there’s really nothing like an afternoon or evening ball game to round out a day.

As a kid growing up in DC metro. I used to listen to the then Senators on WTOP or if there was an Orioles game on WBAL it took priority. With glee I would call up the scores recording line at the
Washington post in the mornings when I missed late games and eagerly listen to the recording tell me how the Senators had lost again and the Orioles had won. I used to cheer when
Big Frank Howard struck out and Boog knocked in another homer. Ah, the days of being a kid and the life of baseball. It’s almost 50 years later and I’m still a kid and hope I always will be.

So! Take me out to the ball game….take me out to the park…..

I’m Don Rima and that’s the way I see it, from where I stand…



Government – Don’t we have enough already? 0

Posted by on in Election, Family, Inside The Beltway, Self Respect, Socialism





Government – Don’t we have enough already?

I ran into this recently in a Facebook posting.  I’m not 100% true if a college professor actually made this claim and failed his class, but I have to submit that the concepts presented here are 100% on the money.

Given the current trends in Washington to tax us into oblivion, run our lives and socialize everything we do and think, I have to wonder how much longer things will last if people don’t have the want and courage to strike out on their own, to make goals and try to achieve them as a way of making themselves, their family and yes, their country a greater place because they had a goal and didn’t depend on mindlessly following someone else’s goals.

Our generation has little more than to look back at the Vietnam era.  Frankly, we bombed, burned and killed the heck out of Vietnam and Southeast Asia.  We had many immigrants come to the US either directly or via France, Canada or other means, many with little more than the cloths on their backs and a suitcase.  In less than half a generation these people and their families are land owners, they’re running their own businesses, they’re successful and their families are growing.  This happened because they had goals and went for them.  They didn’t sit back and complain that the government “owed” them something.  They SOUGHT opportunity and went for it.  That’s the American way!

So, I submit this for your contemplation and consideration:

Is this man truly a genius?

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama’s plan”. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A…. (substituting grades for dollars – something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

It could not be any simpler than that.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you’ll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

At the end of the day, this is a trend our country is heading towards that we need to stop, or we’ll become another third world country.

That’s the way I see it, From Where I Stand.