What's the most beautiful place in the USA?

  It's Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan, according to a vote by viewers of Good Morning America.

check out USA Todays article *here*

and ABC's video *here*

I just talked to a friend/ client up there that said business is booming in the wake of the news.

Cool Gear: The Hover Bike

Mark this day.
This is the day when cool gear has reached its pantheon.
What you see here is the hover bike. You can read more about it *here* but really this is all you need to know.
I want one. I want one. I want one.
When I saw it I… I wanted one. Later I thought about it I wanted it more. Much later I was still thinking about it… I wanted it more.
I goes over 170 mph, 10,000 feet and screams awesome.  Sure the Girl thinks I’m nuts but lets face it, I am. Hell I even kind of like the way she doesn’t even sugar coat it. The Hover bike is awesome. Sure its not out yet, but it will be. If not I will just make one. I am not kidding, I will have one.
Is this the future of travel? Maybe. I will I have one? Definitely.
PS: I thought about it some more: I want one.

While we are all here freezing

Pictures from the girl are in trickling in like this one of a orange tree behind a gate in Malta.

Proving that studious behavior does have its benefits.

Tou bedroom kandough

Last night I met up with some friends in town for the holidays. L, who is Philly born but now lives in So-Cal, thinks it’s hilarious how we say things here… like when I was talking bout a property that happened to mention a “Two bedroom condo”. She giggles every time I say it because there is a little bit of the north in us…. So sometimes Condo comes out “Kan-dough”. It got me thinking… you never really realize you have an accent because you are from where you are, but there it was. I could even see it (or hear it ). So I decided to look and sure enough here is a list we, as Michiganders, say funny:

Click *here* or the link below:

http://www.michigannative.com/ma_pronunciations.shtml

Take some time when you are bored. Read the article. Laugh a Little.

Its funny because the further north you go the more Whiskaansony your accent can be don’t cha know. That is how I see it anyway.

From the list my favorite has to be:

"Wuds": Woods. Be careful in the wuds... it's deer season, an' ya got 30,000 unemployed auto workers, drunk off their ass, armed ta the teeth with high-powered weapons.

A perfect storm of slowness …. A tale of getting to the airport

Mix one part Summer festival, one 5k run blocking off streets to the neighborhood… a dash of car show … a nearby air show and road construction from hell and what do you get? You get a trek to the airport that makes a Tolken adventure seem like a walk in the park.

Seriously if I had tried to think up obstacles to place in the path of my successful attempt to get my family members to the airport, I could not have come close to the putting all this crap together on one Saturday morning.

After going around and fighting our way though the pylon swam, and past the dark guards to the neighborhood, past the orange barrel swamp… to the airport they arrived on time.

It was only getting back to the office that was going to be challenge, one that in the end proved to be too much. Not on time anyway.

I can not say that no one got hurt, I might have strained some vocal chords yelling on the final stretch into the land of the office condos…. the Chevy truck going 40 in a 50 mile no passing zone while talking on the cell phone for a 10 mile strained my patience to the breaking point.

In the end I guess it was an adventure and I should be happy that everything went off without much of a hitch. Besides what would I have to complain about if everything went as planned this morning, right?

Vanishing Point

For some reason this makes me want to take off for a while.
To bad that is not in the cards for a while.
*sigh*

The Ann Arbor Art Fair Starts tomorow!

I am not even sure I am going to make it over there this year.

If like me you are not going to make it you can click *here* or *here* to see some live web cam action.

It really does not give you much of the scale of the three fairs that take over down town and attracting over 500,000 fair goers not to mention the vendors and support people and the general mayhem it creates....

Maybe I will go just to see some of the debacle.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Country

The girl checks in from the nations capital with a text to her mother:

Im sitting in front of a big beautiful fountain for lunch today and this is my view. And its 80s and sunny but not humid so its pretty much perfect today!

Cool Gear: Rooms with a great View:

If you are like us, you don’t get to get away as often as you like. When you do get away, a great hotel can make or break your time away from home.

That is why roomswithgreatviews.com is so awesome.

Its pretty self explanatory and such a good idea, I am not sure why it was not done before.

I saved this one for future use myself. You know for those vacation days We have all been saving up.

Thanks lifehacker for this one.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Planet

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Planet...

While we are here freezing, the girl's (note: girl not Girl the little g denotes the Girl's girl...) studies have taken her to St Petersberg, Russia where she too is likely freezing, just literally half a world away.

She is truly a traveler and her grades allow her scholarships and programs not offered to many, one of which she is taking advantage of right now.

I know this church is on her itinerary, and I wish I could say this is a live picture, but I will have to thank Flickr user Gargaro for the great shot. I guess internet access for here is pretty skech over there so communication in general will be a challenge for a few days until she gets settled.

Lucky girl.

Happy Monday....

Happy Monday....

Apparently where you live makes difference in just how happy you are.

Per Click on Detroit.com

Mich. City Makes 'Happiest Place' List

Holland, Mich., Ranks 2nd In Gallup Poll

POSTED: Monday, February 15, 2010

UPDATED: 2:50 pm EST February 15, 2010

Gallup Poll

www.well-beingindex.com

DETROIT -- Holland is known around Michigan for its annual tulip festival. Now, it's being nationally ranked as one of the happiest places around the country.

A Gallup poll that asked more than 350,000 people about their jobs, physical and emotional health and finances, has ranked Holland second in America for overall well being.

I don't always put to much stock into these polls.

Michigan is rated the worst unemployment in the nation, has one of the worst housing markets and could be described by many... well lets just say as the exact opposite of happy.
I have to admit, I have not been to Holland in a long time, and The Girl was talking about going to the tulip festival this year. Maybe we will have to check it out this year after all.

Cool Gear - Skype + Webcam

For those of you who do not travel in the geeky circles that I do you may be unfamiliar with SKYPE.

Skype is basically VOIP (voice/video over internet protocol). Online voice and video calling software that works over a broad band connection.

For the price of a cheap web cam (we got two Microsoft vx3000’s at Amazon for $42) you can video call any Skype user for free anywhere in the world.

Since I close member of the family will be in France for 6 weeks, this is awesome.

Its *FREE* to make calls to another Skype user and its *cheap* to call a landline in any of 34 countries. (I will let you go to the site and check out all the details)

With 3g phones coming soon (June 6^th 3g iPhone) and bandwith jumping up allover.

I have seen the future, and its Skypolicious!

Paul's Family Cabin

Here is the ride into the cabin by quad, from about 1/2 way from the main road. Click on the link and enjoy.