Nobodyelse

This place has the best skyline of any city I’ve ever visited. be sure to go to Victoria Peak (we went both in daytime and at night for the view is gorgeous during day and night).

Did I spell this wrong?!

I’ve been twice and hope to go a third time on a cruise (didn’t cruise the first two times and it seems the better way to visit islands than wasting time in airports and running around from island to island on a plane or helicopter tour).

We happened to hit it lucky and be there for this event and it was fantastic! One of the best festivals I’ve ever attended anywhere in the world, and if you get tired of the crowds, you can go one street up from the carnival rides and take in an art museum all to yourself (the clock museum was better attended, but still not crowded at all; the sculpture garden was a bit farther of a walk, but nice and also not crowded). Our son loved the crew competitions and also watching young kids sailboating.

And try these snacks that are served like French fries but are soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside (not sure what they are called, sorry) – they were delicious at the first place (where they were soft on the inside) but not even edible at the second place (hard all the way through and so stale you couldn’t bit into them), so be careful where you try them, though!

We knew nothing about this place when we first went with our 2-year-old, and the waiter had on a t-shirt with some crude saying and our son read it (sometimes it is inconvenient to have an early reader) and asked what it meant, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, someone next to us ordered a dessert that came with a blown up form of birth control on top (and the kid asked about that, too).

Meanwhile, my brother got so ticked at the waiter’s jokes at his expense that he twisted the waiter’s pen into a knot.

But it’s a different place and the food was decent, so if you aren’t with young children or people who might take offense at, well, comments meant to offend (all in fun, though), go!

My parents have timeshares there and I started going from time to time (no pun intended) in 1985 and it took me till 2005 (I am a bit slow) to realize they have a bunch of activities and an activity card where you can do all sorts of fun things for free or next to it. I’ve traveled to 36 countries and 39 states and have had been fortunate to have had many excellent vacations, but one of the best I have ever had was in fall of 2005 when I used the Massanutten activity card to go to theme dinners (wine tasting, beer tasting, murder mystery), wine tours (think I toured four or five wineries that week between two bus trips), a craft festival (that also had beer and wine tasting and bargain seated massages), a wine seminar (okay, so drinking lots of wine that week probably added to the week being so fantastic!), craft sessions (I made: 1) candles, 2) weaved goods including a nice and colorful basket, tray, and lamp with holiday shade, 3) mini-scrapbook on my Massanutten vacation, 4) a stained glass kaleidoscope, 5) a fleece hat, 6) a hand painted mirror frame, 7) an etched beer glass, 8) a sun catcher with pressed leaves, and probably some other stuff I am forgetting; my son attended a craft session where he made me a very sharp – as in could seriously be sold at a nice craft fair – modern teardrop shaped ceramic necklace; he also attended the golf clinic and thought it decent), a movie (free popcorn and soda), a magic show (free appetizers that were decent), and so much more! And when my husband joined the family for the weekend, we played racquetball, mini golf, tennis, and ping pong as well as working in a nice hike. They recently opened an indoor swim park (like the water parks that are amusement parks but indoors) and very much enjoyed it (my husband especially liked using the surfing pool; we’ve never seen anything like that anywhere else).

So for anyone who goes, make use of the many features this place has (and I hardly touched on them, to be honest – they also have a playground for little kids, horseback riding, kayaking trips, skiing in winter, a chair lift to a nice view from above it all in the summer and early fall, basketball, volleyball, etc.).

There is plenty to do in Oslo (the only part of Norway I’ve been to so far) to keep a tourist busy for days. My son got to Northern Norway this summer and loved the land of the midnight sun and calm scenery there.

But in the 80’s, the Hyatt Regency Maui was so nice, I could have just lived there the whole week and been in heaven. I had a pineapple drink in the swim up pool bar there that was one of the best drinks I’ve had in my whole life.

When you can use the beach but be surrounded by snow capped mountains.

And a time when you can see the roof of the stadium open.

of Jimi Hendrix blaring through the wall I shared with my older brother!