Reservation Hotels In Virginia Beach | "Visit Holiday Travel Park in Virginia Beach"

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Little Man At One Of The Many Playgrounds

We’ve been to almost all the other areas of Virginia (which is a great state to visit no matter where you’re at) so we decided we’d head to Virginia Beach this summer. I looked up Woodall’s and decided on Holiday Travel Park. The girl taking the reservation was very polite and was a good indicator of how well we’d like our stay.

We checked in Saturday night and even though they were busy, our check in was quick and easy. The site I had chosen was on the Eden Drive circle. This area is tucked away, but still convenient to get to all the needs of the campground. The sites were a good size and the one we had even had a nice deck to it.

Little Man at one of the many playgrounds
In a word, this is one clean campground! Holiday Travel has a wonderful group of people working for them who all seem to take pride in their jobs. No matter where were went in the park the staff was friendly and helpful. There are many comfort stations (restrooms) through out the campground and they are all well maintained.

The campground is well laid out with 4 pools and 5 playgrounds, it makes this large campground seem small and quaint.  We tried out 2 of the 4 pools. The main pool was our favorite since there was a 1 foot kiddie pool and the big pool started off at 2 1/2 feet (the other pool was 3 foot and Baby Girl was too sort to touch the bottom). The main pool is also where they host the DJ, so even when it’s hot as blazes, you can still cool off and enjoy the entertainment.

There are 2 very well stocked camp stores, one at the main gate and one in the middle of the campground. They’ve got everything for your camping needs, pool needs, beach needs and even some nice souvenirs.
The campground is about 1 1/2  miles from Virgina Beach. They have their own lot a block off the beach where you can park. We used this lot when we went to the beach at night just to walk around. Since we had lots of stuff to schlep to the beach when we went for the day we parked on the municipal parking lot right off the beach. It was well worth the $6. There’s also a bus that makes a loop to this campground, the KOA right up the road, the beach and the aquarium. You can buy an all day pass for the bus for $2 a person at registration. (little ones under 38″ are free) Speaking of buying passes from registration office, you can also get discounted tickets to all the main attractions in the area including Bush Gardens.

After I had booked our reservation, I had saw some reviews on the campground that were not favorable.  Those dealt with 2 main complaints, one being the jet noise. No matter where you camp in Virginia Beach, you’re going to have jet noise, the airbase is after all in Virginia Beach. But since my family loves things that are fast and loud, we were actually entertained by the jets flying overhead. The other complaint was this campground is bi-lingual. Many people from Quebec come here to visit. So if you’re a Chatty Cathy like me, then it can make it harder to strike up a conversation when you’re at the pool, but I wouldn’t say this made my visit any less enjoyable.

Little Man waiting to race his sister down the slides
All and all we really enjoyed our visit to Holiday Travel Park. The park offered lots to do for family camping. They try to make your visit to Virginia Beach as pleasant as possible. The campground offers many convinces. We saw all types of campers there, from retired couples, to families with teenagers, to families with young children. It really is a campground for all.

Virginia Beach Hotel Suites | "How hotels can score a fifth star from Forbes Travel Guide"

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It may not come as a surprise that California — a sun-splashed magnet for celebrities and big-spending tourists — leads the nation in the number of hotels winning five-star ratings from Forbes Travel Guide.

But winning the coveted rating is no easy feat. Only 58 hotels in the U.S. — with 12 in California — were awarded the recognition this year, including, for the first time, the Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Beach.

The resort, having fallen short in the past, launched a campaign to earn the distinction that included such measures as increasing training among its workers and executing internal audits.

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“From the top down, we all have one vision and that is to offer hospitality at its finest,” said the resort’s manager, Giuseppe Lama.

The Forbes five-star rating is considered more difficult to land than the five-diamond rating from AAA, which awarded its top ranking to 101 hotels in the U.S. this year.

Hotel owners vie for the Forbes distinction because it enables them to draw much higher rates. For example, the four-star rated Beverly Hilton recently posted average daily rates of $245 to $325, while the five-star rated Beverly Hills Hotel posted rates of $510 to $540.

With Forbes, that one-star difference is primarily the level of service offered by the staff.

“Graciousness, courtesy and thoughtfulness — it’s much harder to get that right,” said Mike Cascone, president and chief executive of Forbes Travel Guide, formerly known as the Mobil Travel Guide.

Forbes dispatches inspectors to stay at the hotels incognito for at least two nights and three days, using all the services, such as ordering room service and exercising at the gym. The inspectors rate the hotels on 500 standards, including accommodations and attitude.

Other guidelines for Forbes five-star hotels include:

• Arriving guests are greeted and assisted curbside within 60 seconds of arriving;
• Wake-up calls are delivered within two minutes of the requested time;
• Refills at restaurants are offered within 30 seconds of the guest’s beverage being empty;
• No telephone call is left on hold longer than 30 seconds without being offered a call-back.

Oceanfront Hotels In Virginia | "Samsung unveils Galaxy S4 smartphone with bizarre Broadway show"

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Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S4 smartphone Thursday. It has eye-tracking capabilities, gesture control, a 5-inch full HD screen and a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera.

That's not all there was to see.

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In one of the most head-scratching, bizarre tech product launches ever, Samsung staged an elaborate Broadway-esque show at Radio City Music Hall, where the S4 event was held, to debut the smartphone.

There was a tap-dancing kid. A ballerina. A bored housewife. A hot gardener.

PHOTOS: Tech we want to see in 2013

The spectacle was so over the top that it seemed to eclipse news of the device itself on Twitter and other social media.

"What in the name of jebus are my eyes seeing at this car crash of an event. #samsung #s4" tweeted @julescoleman.

"Oh thank god it's over. I'm going to go bash my head into something hard over and over until I can feel feelings again," tweeted @SteveStreza.

And our very own Chris O'Brien tweeted: "Right now, if you are in Radio City Music Hall, there is no escape. None."

Samsung kicked off the 45-minute event with a rundown of the new phone's specs.

The phone, which comes in black and in white, is 0.31-inch thick and weighs 4.6 ounces. Wireless carriers AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon will offer it; a total of 327 mobile operators in 155 countries will carry the phone, which becomes available starting in late April.

"We have taken technology and innovation further to help us get closer to what matters in life," Samsung executive JK Shin said on stage. "We will imagine the possibilities, explore new directions and listen to you to understand what a smartphone should provide to us in our lives."

Then things got weird. To demonstrate the phone's new features, Samsung brought out a slew of performers.

One of them, named DeeDee, represented an older, bored housewife who was watching a video on her Galaxy S4 while sipping a glass of wine. Then a sexy gardener strolls onto the stage. DeeDee stops watching to gawk at the gardener. As she lifts her eyes away from the screen, the video pauses. When she finally turns her attention back to the screen, the video automatically restarts where it left off.

The S4 also has some nifty photo-editing capabilities that enable users to record audio that's synced to an image. Users can also delete unwanted details from a picture (sorry, photo bombers). At this point in the presentation, an actor joked that he could remove his mother-in-law from a photo but not from his life. Ha. Ha.

The phone also comes with hand-waving technology, so users who want to unlock their screens can simply hover a finger over it.

Samsung live-streamed the event on YouTube, and we've included a replay below (skip to the 40-minute, 30-second mark, when the show starts). More than 423,000 viewers were tuned in when the phone was unveiled.

Reservation Hotels In Virginia Beach | "Travel Without Burning A Hole In Your Pocket"

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You have just received the email from the HR department approving your annual leave. There is a sense of elation because that long-pending foreign holiday seems to be finally happening. But there are worries as well. How will you manage it within a budget when you know little about the country?

A little bit of advance planning is all it requires. And with some good research, things will fall in place. (COST OF CARRYING FUNDS FOR TRAVEL ABROAD)

Advance booking

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The easiest way to get tickets cheap is to book well in advance. If booking in bulk, you can negotiate with airlines and get tickets at cheaper rates, says Kishore Jaleel, executive director of Travelogics. Airlines block seats for cheaper rates and if you book in advance, you can negotiate. The booking system for these tickets might start as early as 9-10 months before the travel. So, if your plans are in place, it's better to book immediately.

Rashi Vidyasagar, a post-graduate student, who had been on a 20-day European tour in May last year, had booked her tickets five months before the trip to get good rates. "I had planned my trip well in advance. Though I got my visa just two days before my travel, my tickets were booked much ahead," she says. Another way to save on fares is to book an indirect flight rather than a direct one, says Karan Anand, head (relationships), Cox and Kings. For instance, a Delhi-Dubai-London return flight would work out cheaper by at least 15 per cent, compared to a direct Delhi-London-Delhi flight.

Group travel
One of the easiest ways to cut costs is to travel in groups. You can either book a package with a travel agency or organise your own group. The former will be slightly more expensive, but hassle-free. Organising your own group to travel (it could be people you know at work or your housing society or local sports club) will be more economical, provided someone is willing to take the responsibility.

If you are more adventurous, backpacking is a good way to travel within a small budget. It is best suited if travelling alone. But be prepared to share a room with several other travellers in hostels and forgo the comforts of hotels.

Local travel
After reaching your destination, travelling within the country can also be expensive. It is possible to book these tickets in advance, too, says Monica Bhatija, a freelance journalist. For her European trip, she booked train tickets about three months in advance, and got them at about £12. Against this, booking tickets on the spot would have cost about £60. "Since cancellation is allowed up to three days prior to travel, you can cancel if you need to," she says. If you have time, you can also travel by the local trains, which are cheaper but could take more time than Eurorail.

Vishal Suri, deputy chief operating officer (tour operating), Kuoni India, agrees that wisely choosing ground transportation could also help cut costs. "While travelling within the country, travellers can opt for rental cars, local taxis, bikes, shuttle or subway services, depending on the location," says Suri. For public transport, it is cheaper to buy a weekly pass, rather than the daily tickets, says Bhatija. For this, make sure to carry extra passport-sized photographs.

Accommodation
When it comes to stay, you can go through a wholesaler, who can help get rates at a discount because you will get these in bulk. Or, go through a tour operator. "You can get rates at 25-40 per cent cheaper if you book in bulk. But for this, you should be sure about the number of people travelling," says Jaleel. Most package group tours offer accommodation in three-star or four-star hotels.

Another advantage of booking through a travel firm is that you may get add-ons such as complimentary meals and transfers, free travel for children and so on, says Madhav Pai, director, leisure travel (outbound), Thomas Cook (India).

Anand of Cox & Kings says one option is to stay in a no-frills hotel in the suburbs, which would work out to be very reasonable, rather than staying in the central areas, which could be expensive.

While looking for cheap airfares and hotel accommodation, you need to watch out for 100 per cent cancellation charges, says Anand of Cox and Kings. Sometimes, while offering discounts airlines and hotels might say that in case of cancellation, the entire amount may be forfeited. But if you book at the full fare, it is possible you may get full refund if you cancel 24-48 hours before check-in or departure.

For those willing to give up the comforts of a hotel, hostels are a good option. These are much cheaper than hotel rooms and offer you the basic facilities in a clean environment. Those travelling alone can stay in dormitories or share a double room. You can even get private rooms in hostels if you travelling as a family.

When Raja Menon, wife Anuradha and son Yannick went on a six-month trip to South America, they stayed in private rooms in hostels. These can work out about 50 per cent cheaper than hotel rooms. The rates range between $20 and $70 per bed per night, depending on the country. "The private rooms were comfortable and had attached bathrooms. Since we were out the whole day, it did not matter that the facilities were basic," says Menon.

Menon and his family also used 'couch-surfing' a lot. Here, you can stay in people's homes for no charge. But you may return the favour by getting them a token gift or cooking them a meal. Vidyasagar says she 'couch-surfed' only if there were other girls. For the rest of her trip, she stayed in hostels. There are websites where you can register for couch-surfing. It is a trend is slowly catching on in India.

Food
Most of the hostels offer facilities to cook your own food, which is another way to save cost, says Menon. Eating at places where the locals eat can also help cut cost. One can also go to the local supermarkets and pick out readymade meals, which will include a sandwich, a drink and a packet of chips. This works out cheaper than eating meals at restaurants. Travellers can also opt for economical meals at fine restaurants during happy hours, says Suri.

Sight-seeing
It is better not to skip sight-seeing or visiting museums and monuments, since that is the whole purpose of a trip. In many places, entry for children up to 13 years is free. There are also some days in the week when tourists are allowed free or given discounts. You can keep track of these days through guidebooks or internet.

Bhatija says, "The regular entry fee at many museums is $20-25. But once a week, entry is either free or you can pay what you like. If you keep track of these days, you can save a lot of money." However, Menon and family avoided these days as a rule, due to the crowds. "Such days are packed; so, we used to avoid visiting the museums and monuments on those days."

It is possible to book the entry to these places online, too. Students get discounts here as well, adds Vidyasagar. Another expense that you might have to incur is for the guide, if you want one. Some tour packages include charges for a guide in their rates, while some might not. Check this before booking your package.

Money and forex
You need to convert a decent amount of money from your home country. You can do it while travelling as well, but that might not get you good rates, says Kotwani. "While you can take some amount in travellers' cheques, it is better to have some cash to pay for bus fares and water while travelling," she says. It is better to monitor the foreign exchange rates for a week prior to travel, says Anand. The best way is to purchase a part of the exchange in currency notes and the balance by way of foreign currency prepaid cards.

Most banks offer these prepaid cards, which you can load with a pre-fixed amount and then swipe while travelling abroad. These are safer than using your own credit or debit cards.

Suri says travellers often prefer to carry cash as it is simple and easy. However, carrying cash entails risk and, hence, it is better to opt for prepaid cards. These cards also hedge against fall in the exchange rate. This is because in case of prepaid cards, the value of the rupee would be as on the date funds are loaded to the card which, typically, would be before the journey date.

Shopping
It is better to avoid shopping in Europe, since it is expensive. But in case of the US, if you happen to be there during sales, it is a good time to shop, says Bhatija. "For souvenirs, I used to visit flea markets, since they are cheaper than the stores," she says.

Hotels In Virginia Beach | "Apple manufacturer Foxconn stops hiring workers in China"

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Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn Technology Group has frozen hiring at a Shenzhen plant that makes gadgets including the iPhone 5 and stopped recruiting for other factories across China, but said the move was not linked to any client.

Foxconn, which runs a network of factories across the world's No 2 economy that make products for tech companies from Hewlett Packard to Dell, sought to deny a Financial Times report that it had imposed a hiring freeze while it slows production of Apple's latest smartphone.

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"Due to an unprecedented rate of return of employees following the Chinese New Year holiday compared to years past, our company has decided to temporarily slow down our recruitment process," the company said. "This action is not related to any single customer and any speculation to the contrary is false and inaccurate." Like other Chinese contract manufacturers, Foxconn relies on migrant labourers across the country, who journey home for the most important holiday of the year. Many do not make it back to work, but Foxconn spokesman Louis Woo said this year up to 97% of employees returned.

Apple sold 47.8m iPhones, fewer than expected, in the final 2012 quarter, fanning fears of declineas Samsung Electronics Co and other manufacturers that use Google Inc's Android software gradually gain market share.Apple watchers often take cues from its component suppliers and manufacturing partners. In January, CEO Tim Cook took the unusual step of warning investors that it is difficult to extrapolate from limited "data points".

RBC estimates that just 70-80%of Chinese workers return to factories it tracks.

"This year we believe the return rates have been closer to 90%, which may minimise the need to hire," RBC analyst Amit Daryanani wrote in a Wednesday research note.

"Given the timing of the freeze, it may have more to do with higher return rates of employees versus what was expected by Foxconn and other supply chain companies."

Foxconn's latest statement contradicts another Foxconn spokesman, Liu Kun, who is cited in the newspaper on Wednesday as saying, "Currently, none of the plants in mainland China have hiring plans."

A check on Foxconn's recruitment website on Wednesday showed the company's Taiyuan and Hangzhou plants were hiring. But its factory complex in the southern city of Shenzhen is its single largest production base.

The Shenzhen plant "is not hiring at the moment because workers' return rate after Chinese New Year is very high this year, reaching 97%," Woo said.

"We replenish each year depending on the return rate."

Virginia Beach Hotels | "Samsung confirms smart watch -- wrist war with Apple coming"

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As fears mount that the smartphone market has become too saturated, a Samsung executive says the time has come to build a smart watch. If you think Samsung has concocted a wearable device just to counter the rumored Apple iWatch, the executive VP of Samsung's mobile business, Lee Young Hee, wants you to know that the company "has been preparing the watch product for so long."

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The Samsung exec also told Bloomberg that Samsung is "working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them." Samsung just recently introduced its first wearable gadget for 2013 in the S Band, a Fitbit-like wristband that will sync with the S Health application in the upcoming Galaxy S4 smartphone. A Samsung smart watch, however, would be able to do much more than tracks steps taken and calories burned.
MORE: 10 Killer iWatch Features
According to a separate Reuters report, the Samsung smart watch will perform many of the tasks of the smartphone, although the source wouldn't elaborate. If other smartphone watches on the market are any guide, such as the Martian Watch and I'm Watch, we would expect the Samsung device to make calls, offer some fitness functions, as well as deliver news and social updates at a glance.

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It's also possible that Samsung will court developers to make apps for its watch, which could help the brand be even less reliant on Google's services.
Meanwhile, Apple's watch is said to offer many of the same features, with Bloomberg adding that the iWatch could also let you check your map coordinates and monitor your heart rate.
Given that the stocks of both Apple and Samsung are struggling, the presumed hope is that forging into the smartwatch category could be a huge new growth area. In fact, Citigroup estimates the global watch industry will generate more than $60 billion in sales in 2013. And according to ABI Research, 485 million wearable devices will ship annually by 2018.

Family Hotels in Virginia Beach | "2013 latest car"

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If you live in a major city, you know that trying to avoid hitting pedestrians and bicyclists is tricky because in crowded city streets, they can be difficult to see, especially for distracted drivers, and will sometimes step or veer out in front of your car.

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Volvo will soon offer a new safety feature that builds on its current Pedestrian Detection system. Volvo announced its new Pedestrian and Cyclist Detection system at the Geneva Motor Show, and said in a statement it will be able to detect cyclists “swerving out in front of the car” and automatically apply the brakes to avoid hitting the cyclist. “The advanced sensor system scans the area ahead. If a cyclist heading in the same direction as the car suddenly swerves out in front of the car as it approaches from behind and a collision is imminent, there is an instant warning and full braking power is applied.”

CNBC’s Phil LeBeau says there are more people using bicycles for transportation and an increasing amount of bad blood between motorists and bicyclists. “I've seen people acting like morons when driving by cyclists and I've seen cyclists behaving like idiots when it comes to sharing the road,” LeBeau says.

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Volvo’s new Cyclist Detection system will join the automaker's lineup of innovative safety features. “Like Volvo's groundbreaking Pedestrian Detection system that came online in 2010 (as well as the automaker's current Adaptive Cruise Control and Collision Avoidance systems), this latest variation consists of a grille-mounted radar unit, a forward-facing high-resolution camera positioned ahead of the inside rearview mirror and a central controller that uses a constant data stream from both to monitor and evaluate the surrounding traffic,” Kelley Blue Book reports.

The Cyclist Detection system will initially be available in European Volvo models in the next few months, “with availability in the U.S. likely to follow,” Forbes reports.

Hotels In Virginia Beach | "A New First Couple in Sports: Woods and Vonn"

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With eerily similar announcements to a combined Facebook and Twitter audience of nearly 6.5 million, Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn confirmed Monday that they are dating, then asked for privacy because they want to live, in Woods’s words, “as an ordinary couple.”

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Woods and Vonn not only vault to the top of the list of sports couples in terms of lifetime professional achievements, but their relationship will also be a magnet for ceaseless news media attention just for its sizzle and startling inimitability.

Woods, 37, was a wunderkind golfer feted on national television at age 2 who became the world’s most celebrated athlete until his serial adultery was exposed, leading to a divorce and a spectacular fall from grace three years ago.

Vonn, 28, is a Minnesota-bred, suburban-sheltered ski racer who married her first serious boyfriend and led a tame, predictable personal life until she unexpectedly moved to divorce that first love 16 months ago.

They immediately stole the title of Golf’s First Couple from top-ranked Rory McIlroy and his tennis star girlfriend, Caroline Wozniacki. There are, in fact, few suitable couple comparisons to offer as precedent on the athletic level. There have certainly been potent athletic marriages, like Chris Evert and Greg Norman, or Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi. But it is rarer for two active athletes of such international acclaim to be romantically involved in or near their primes of their careers.

Between them, Woods and Vonn have 14 major golf championships, 76 PGA Tour victories, 2 Olympic medals and 4 overall World Cup titles. Woods may be the best golfer ever, something he still has a chance to prove unequivocally. Vonn may be the best female ski racer ever and could over the next few winters become the most decorated World Cup ski racer — male or female — in history. It is a match made for “SportsCenter.”

The best comparison might be Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe.

 “This season has been great so far and I’m happy with my wins at Torrey and Doral,” Woods wrote on his Facebook page, referring to two of his recent PGA Tour victories. “Something nice that’s happened off the course was meeting Lindsey Vonn. Lindsey and I have been friends for some time, but over the last few months we have become very close and are now dating. We thank you for your support and for respecting our privacy. We want to continue our relationship, privately, as an ordinary couple and continue to compete as athletes.”

¶ The post included four professionally composed pictures that were in the style of an engagement announcement or of high school prom portraits without the corsages. They look very normal — in a chance meeting sort of way. Except Woods and Vonn are two of the most renowned athletes in the world, traveling in contrasting, highly-scrutinized circles, who would not normally bump into one another.

“I guess it wasn’t a well-kept secret,” Vonn wrote on her Facebook page Monday. “But yes, I am dating Tiger Woods. Our relationship evolved from a friendship into something more over these past few months and it has made me very happy. I don’t plan on addressing this further as I would like to keep that part of my life between us, my family and close friends. Thank you for understanding and your continued support!”

¶ That is a change of heart from 2010, when Vonn mocked Woods’s staged, televised apology about a sex addiction. She said she wanted to host “Saturday Night Live,” so she could perform a skit imitating Woods’s statement.

“There’s something you don’t know about me,” Vonn said, mimicking Woods’s earnest tone. “Tiger, you’re like my idol, and I too have a sex problem. That would be freaking funny.”

Asked in the same interview how she would deal with sports celebrity and the tabloids and Web sites that can threaten reputations, she said: “Well, I’m married, so I don’t have that problem. But, um, I guess he is married too. I mean, I guess if you have secrets, you have an issue. I’ve kind of been open about everything.”

This is also Woods’s first public relationship since his divorce from Elin Nordegren in 2010. Vonn’s divorce from the former Olympic ski racer Thomas Vonn, who also served as her manager and coach, was finalized earlier this year. She has been linked to a few other suitors in the past several months, including Tim Tebow. In each of those cases, Vonn went out of her way to deny that she was romantically involved with anyone.

When reports of a relationship with Woods surfaced in December, she deflected them, telling The Denver Post that she and Woods were friends because her brother, Reed, had been a ski instructor for Woods’s two children on a visit to Vail, Colo., where Vonn lives.

Vonn, who for years has been open when discussing her personal life, turned uncharacteristically evasive in succeeding months when pressed about a relationship with Woods. That intensified the attention on the Woods-Vonn connection. Various European media outlets, who have been chronicling Vonn’s every move for years, reported that when Vonn seriously injured her right knee during a race on Feb. 5 at the world championships in Austria, Woods sent his private jet to ferry her back to Colorado for surgery. Tabloid reports also had the two spending time together earlier this month in Florida.

Because Vonn’s knee has been reconstructed and requires months of recovery as she prepares for the 2014 Winter Olympics, she is expected to be on crutches for another few weeks — something to which Woods, who had reconstructive surgery on his left knee in 2008, can relate. She also is supposed to be rehabilitating her knee with grueling twice-a-day, six-days-a-week sessions. That might be more difficult if she plans to hopscotch the country on the traveling circus that is the PGA Tour.

Now that the Augusta National Golf Club has admitted its first female members, perhaps Condoleezza Rice can clear space at the club — and in the spotlight — for Vonn during next month’s Masters tournament.

Virginia Beach Ocean Front Hotels | "MASS WEDDING IN SOUTH KOREA CONTAINED 2000 COUPLES"

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A unique ceremony in south Korea drew in an audience of over 20,000 church followers that wanted to witness a historic event. In a stadium in Gapyeong a massive wedding took place that included close to 2000 couples.

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This unique South Korean Unification Church held a mass wedding that helped marry over 2000 couples from 54 different countries in under a day. The founder of the church is Sun Myung Moon, he and his wife were there to participate in the mass blessing ceremony. Every married couple had holy water sprinkled upon them, completing the marriage ceremony.

The purpose of the mass marriage ceremony was to remove all religious quarells, ethnic boundaries, and nationality differences. The overall goal was to demonstrate a minor amount of success in world piece with a common causing and the thought of forming new families.

“This whole experience has been absolutely amazing. I mean really really happy to have met Lisun and really happy that we are together now and really look forward to years ahead and so getting to know her well,” said Chouchane Saemie.

The odd aspect of this mass marriage was that a good portion of the couples had just me prior to the ceremony and some didn’t even even speak the same language, but were married all the same.

Oceanfront Hotels In Virginia | "How Technology Has Changed the Way We Travel"

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For someone who loves traveling, I’m not entirely good at it. I have no sense of direction, speak only two languages, and have a tendency to forget essential items (like passports and underwear) when packing my bags. Luckily for me, I have an internet connection at home, and even when I travel, my smartphone is usually close at hand, complete with handy apps and pop-up reminders to pack my toothbrush.

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I know I’m not alone in this technology era. Millions of travelers around the world are now making full use of the conveniences that technology has brought us, whether it’s planning a trip or connecting with friends and family while on the road.

Just landed at a new destination with no where to stay? A hotel room is just a click away. Hungry for some local chow but don’t know where’s the best place for it? Search for reviews on your smartphone. Can’t communicate with the locals? Google translator comes to the rescue. We’ve long ditched the thousand-page paperback guidebook for our lightweight smartphones that are loaded with everything from ebooks to GPS.

Ease of booking flights/hotels
Long gone are those days of booking trips through a local tour agency. With thousands of online search engines in the market, finding good deals has become increasingly easy and convenient (and comes at no cost). There are many airfare comparison websites out there that will let you punch in your destination details and then fetch the lowest possible prices from different airlines for you. Our favorite site is Skyscanner, which compares airfares from every airline in the world (including budget airlines), as well as other flight search engines. For hotel deals, we find Trivago very reliable for hunting the cheapest hotel prices (it compares 148 websites).

Planning trips through recommendations

Travel planning no longer just involves taking out a map and vaguely drawing up an itinerary. Smart travelers these days go online and suss out hotels and museum recommendations, reading reviews from travelers and finding out what others enjoyed – and did not enjoy – about a place. There are many websites and forums dedicated to such discussions. Our favorite forum site is Lonely Planet Thorn Tree, be sure to also check out Wanderfly and TripAdvisor for recommendations.

Connecting with locals
If you’re traveling solo and don’t speak the language, don’t fret. Many people are happy to meet with travelers and show them around, chat, or even provide them with a couch to crash on. My brother and his roommates have hosted many travelers at their house in the past couple of months, and have made friends from around the world thanks to Couchsurfing.

If sleeping on someone else’s couch isn’t quite up your alley, you can still use sites such as Meetup to meet new people, make friends, and join gatherings with like-minded people (they organize meet-ups based on interest as well). Make sure to take a look at Mingle Trips, mmMule, and Eat With a Local.

Using technology while on the go
Once you are actually traveling, it’s easy to keep a smartphone in your back pocket for a quick snapshot, translating a sign you don’t understand, or looking up directions. However, consider using technology as a last resort on a few of your travels after you’ve done your planning – it can open an entire new range of experiences.

A Canadian friend of ours visited us in the Dominican Republic once and when we ran out of eggs for an omelette, she ventured out on her own to buy more. When she was unable to find any at the local store and couldn’t recall their Spanish translation, she theatrically mimed the action of a chicken laying an egg (complete with wing-flapping and squawking) to the storekeeper – and came home with a roll of toilet paper thanks to the error in translation. Despite her other adventures in the country during the visit, this story has endured the test of time.

Using technology is a personal choice while traveling, and different people will be comfortable with using varying amounts of it. Personally, on my next few trips, I’m planning on doing research before takeoff, then using technology only in moderation while traveling (my camera being the exception!). I want to plug into the possibility of unexpected adventures. Because after all, isn’t that what traveling is about?

Affordable Hotels In Virginia Beach | "Samsung gets a foot in at key Apple supplier Sharp with $110 million investment"

Source     : http://www.reuters.com
Category   : Affordable Hotels In Virginia Beach
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(Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co, with a $110 million investment in cash-strapped Sharp Corp, will broaden its supplier base, gain access to low-power thin screen technology and get a foot in the door at one of Apple Inc's key Asian display suppliers.

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The relatively low-cost deal will leave Samsung with a 3 percent stake in Japan's TV pioneer, making it a leading foreign shareholder alongside chipmaker Qualcomm Inc, which in December agreed to invest as much as $120 million. Shares in Sharp, which was bailed out by its banks last October, jumped on news of the lifeline.

It is also a rare cross-border technology deal between two rival countries and the first time the South Korean TV maker has taken a stake in a major Japanese rival. Japan's three big TV set makers, Sharp, Sony Corp and Panasonic Corp, are struggling to overcome losses as Samsung clobbers them in overseas markets.

Although Sharp is one of Samsung's smallest suppliers, its importance to the Korean company will likely grow as demand for large-screen TVs over 60 inches burgeons, analysts say. Preferential pricing could improve Samsung's competitive edge in TVs.

The deal could also niggle Apple by soaking up capacity at a plant that makes iPad and iPhone 5 screens. Analysts and industry researchers estimate that Sharp is Apple's second-biggest supplier after LG Display Co Ltd.

"An investment by Samsung will also prevent Apple from having exclusive access to Sharp," said Jeff Kang, an analyst at Daishin Securities in Seoul.

Samsung may also benefit from access to the Japanese company's screen technology.

SURVIVAL

Sharp, which got its start a century ago with mechanical pencils, makes high-resolution indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) screens that are thinner than conventional LCDs, require less backlighting, and consume as little as a tenth the power, giving mobile phones and other devices that use them longer battery life.

That could allow Samsung to focus more squarely on an alternative display technology, organic light-emitting diode or OLED screens as thin as a credit card. The company has yet to announce when it will manufacture OLED TVs, which its home rival LG Electronics Inc started selling in February.

Analysts covering Samsung also said it may want to tie up with or even acquire Sharp's solar panel business.

For Sharp, the deal bolsters its chances of survival not only by putting much needed cash in its coffers but by generating new business that will help it to utilize more factory capacity.

"Rather than the amount of investment, it is the partnership with Samsung that Sharp gains that is important," said Tetsuro Ii, chief executive officer of Commons AM, a Tokyo based investment fund.

"Sharp has an opportunity to use the Samsung platform."

The Japanese company has had to slash production of Apple's iPad screens at its Kameyama facility since the start of the year, sources with knowledge of its output plans told Reuters in January, as consumer demand shifts to the iPad mini, for which Sharp is not a supplier.

The deal also comes as a previous agreement for Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd to buy a 9.9 percent stake for 67 billion yen ($720 million) is unraveling, given a steep decline in Sharp's share price and a reluctance by the Japanese firm to cede any management control to the Taiwanese company.

Separate sources told Reuters last month that a bank-backed revival plan for Sharp was unlikely to include a capital infusion from Hon Hai, which last year bought a one-third stake in Sharp's LCD plant in Sakai, western Japan.

That plant is the world's only so-called 10th-generation display factory, which uses bigger sheets of glass that can be cut into large TV screens with less waste and lower cost.

A Hon Hai spokesman said the Samsung deal would not alter his company's cooperation with Sharp and that investment talks were continuing between the two.

DEBT-LADEN

Sharp is also relying on a deal with Qualcomm. The U.S. company made an initial investment of half the promised $120 million amount at the end of the year in a private placement of stock, giving the U.S. company a 2.64 percent stake after dilution. Payment of the remainder is conditional on Sharp posting a profit in the six months to March 31, after it reported a 388 billion yen net loss in the previous six months.

Through its Pixtronix subsidiary, Qualcomm said it plans to work with Sharp to develop new power-saving screens based on the company's IGZO technology.

To secure a $4.4 billion bailout last year from banks including Mizuho Financial Group and Mitsubishi Financial Group, Sharp had to agree to trim its workforce by 10,000 and mortgage its offices and factories in Japan, limiting its ability to sell assets other than overseas facilities.

Sharp, which in November said it may not be able to survive on its own, may sell its Chinese TV assembly plant to Lenovo Group Ltd and is in talks to sell its Mexico factory to Hon Hai, according to sources.

A junk rating from credit agencies has also made raising money in the credit markets an expensive proposition for Sharp. Standard & Poor's rates Sharp's debt as B+, a highly speculative grade, while Fitch Ratings has Sharp lower at B-. Moody's Investors Service withdrew its rating on Sharp in April of last year.

Those limited funding options have spurred speculation that Sharp, which has to redeem a 200 billion yen convertible bond in September, will resort to further stock sales.

Yet, any major share offer in the future is unlikely because of dilution worries, said Deutsche Securities analyst Yasuo Nakane. "It will likely meet its refinancing need through a mixture of cashflow generated from profits, capital injections and asset sales," he said.

Sharp's stock closed 14 percent higher at 341 yen on Wednesday, lifted by news that a deal with Samsung, which was announced after markets closed, was imminent. Samsung's stock rose 0.7 percent.

Reservation Hotels In Virginia Beach | "The Pros and Cons of Seeing Europe By Cruise Ship"

Source         : http://solofriendly.com
Category     : Reservation Hotels In Virginia Beach
By              : Hotel In Virginia
Posted By  : Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard


Is Europe on your travel bucket list? How many cities in Europe? Five? Ten? Thirty?

If you’ve got a travel bucket list a mile long that includes numerous cities in Europe, you may find yourself wondering how on Earth you can visit that many places with the week or two of vacation time you get every year. If you can only afford one trip to Europe per year, it could take you decades to see all the cities you want to see!

Perhaps one day, the light bulb goes off over your head: Why not take a cruise that stops in multiple European ports? You could see several of your dream cities in the course of a week!
Seems like the solution, doesn’t it? But is that the way you want to see Europe?

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This was the situation I was faced with last year when I decided to book a Mediterranean cruise. Having now tried the cruise experience after years of being an independent (land-based) traveler, I can honestly say I have mixed feelings about it. If you’re considering a cruise, here are a few things you may want to consider before you hit the “book it” button.


The Pros of Seeing Europe by Cruise Ship

1. You can maximize your limited vacation time. A week-long cruise will stop in 5-6 port cities, often in different countries. You can cover a lot of ground (so to speak).

2. It’s easy. You only have to unpack once. You sleep in the same bed every night. Instead of schlepping your luggage—and yourself–from city to city, your hotel comes with you. You don’t have to puzzle over train schedules to get from city to city; you just wake up and you’re there. I loved that part.

3. Most of your expenses can be paid upfront. This includes your room, food, and any add-ons you’ve chosen (trip insurance—highly recommended—shore excursions, even airfare and ground transportation if you’ve chosen to book that through the cruise line). You can also prepay tips if you’re unsure who to tip, or how much. For the most part, you’ll know what your trip is going to cost you before you leave.

4. Your level of independence is completely up to you. If you don’t want the hassle of planning, you can take the ship’s shore excursions. If you enjoy making your own plans, you can make your own arrangements in port. The choice is yours.

5. If you’re concerned about safety as a solo traveler, a cruise can be among your safest options.



The Cons of Seeing Europe by Cruise Ship

1. It’s a bit of a tease. It can be really frustrating having less than a day to explore a city you’ve been dreaming about forever. I loved that I got to see Sorrento and Positano, Florence, Marseilles, Avignon, and Cannes—but I only had a few hours in each! (Thank God I’d already been to Barcelona.) I would have loved at least a couple of days in each–and a week for Florence.

2. This is the opposite of “slow travel”. If you like to get to know a place in-depth, spend time in neighborhoods where people live, and mingle with the locals, you may find the cruise experience a bit shallow. You won’t have enough time to interact with locals in any depth, and you certainly won’t have enough time to get a feel for what it’s really like to live in a place. You’ll barely scratch the surface.

3. For the solo traveler on a tight budget, cruises can be expensive—even without a single supplement. Especially once you add in trip insurance, shore excursions, Internet access, etc. My Mediterranean cruise was the most expensive vacation I’ve ever taken. When I travel on my own, I have more flexibility when it comes to saving money.

4. You can forget about sleeping late. Ever. Even when I’m traveling, I still like to sleep in occasionally. That was impossible aboard ship. Every single day, the ship’s crew was on the PA system starting around 7am to make announcements about what time people could disembark, what there was to do in port, etc.

5. Be prepared to miss out on the local cuisine. If part of the joy of traveling for you is sampling the local cuisine, you’ll have limited opportunity to do so when you’re in port. You will usually be dining aboard ship, especially for breakfast and dinner (after all, you’ve already paid for it and you do want to get your money’s worth).



Conclusion

Independent travel will always be my first choice. I like having control over each component of my trips, and I prefer having more than a day to explore a city. But shaking up your usual travel style once in awhile isn’t a bad thing. I have no regrets about my cruise. As I was reviewing the past year recently, I was blown away by how much I was able to do and how many places I was able to visit during 2012. This was a great travel year for me. And one of the biggest reasons for this is because I went on that cruise.

Was it expensive? Yes. Do I wish I’d had more time in each port? Yes. Was it exhausting cramming so much into one week? Yes. Would I do it again? If the ship were traveling to several places on my travel bucket list, you bet I would.

Hotel Reservation In Virginia | "Sundial on Old Bridge"

Source        : http://www.europealacarte.co.uk
Category   : Hotel Reservation in Virginia
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Located a quick 30 minute drive from Kahului Airport in Maui, Lumeria Maui is a luxury wellness retreat tucked away in upcountry Makawao, Hawaii. The 24 room property is truly a place to unplug and nourish the body and soul.

Upon arrival you’ll be drawn to the registration building, with its calming water feature, flanked with lush, native Hawaiian landscaping. A hot hand towel and cold glass of lemon water wait at reception.

While cell phones do work on property, there are no telephones or televisions in rooms. Besides the meditation room and three spa treatment rooms, to the right of the office, the majority of the rooms are in a horse shoe shape, surrounding a vibrant, green meditation lawn.

Owner Xorin Balbes, an architectural conservator and designer, has taken great care with the selection of building and room materials at Lumeria Maui. From the use of Hawaiian names for each bedroom, to the river rock stones in the shower, a nod is given to Hawaii’s aloha spirit at this former plantation.

Pua l’lima 2C garden room at Lumeria Maui
Hawaiian heritage

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My room, Pua l’lima 2C, rented for $299 during winter season ($349 summer rates begin in May) and was one of 13 single king rooms. Additionally, there were nine rooms with double beds and two suites. As Lumeria Maui bills itself as an educational, adventure experience, there are daily yoga and meditation classes, weekly horticulture classes and aromatherapy classes where ancient healing secrets are explored.

Lumeria Maui courtyard rooms
Educational adventure experience at Lumeria Maui

In addition to water sport packages, Lumeria Maui features three treatment rooms for massage (additional fees apply.) I enjoyed a Hawaiian Lomi lomi hot stone massage. With the gentle Hawaiian breezes and recorded slack key guitar music, the hot stones, used together with long rhythmic strokes relaxed my body and soul.

What’s included at Lumeria Maui

The $25 daily retreat fee includes a light, organic breakfast, coffee, tea and fresh fruit (the apple bananas are fabulous) complimentary parking and wireless internet. The swimming pool, with hot tub, opens March 2013.

For an additional charge, guests are able to dine nightly (closed Sunday and Monday) at the on-site Harvest Café. The three-course meal consists of a soup or salad, meat, fish or poultry dish with local vegetables and sides, as well as a homemade dessert.

Hotel Reservation in Virginia | "Visiting museums: seeing things in a different way"

Source     : http://www.501places.com
Category   : Hotel Reservation in Virginia
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Posted By  : Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard



Have you ever noticed the different ways in which visitors to a museum or gallery take in the objects they are looking at? Have you seen how some people stand there, as if in a trance, transported into whatever place or time period they’re observing, while others read a sign, take a photo and move on?



A few months ago I visited Dennis Severs’ House, a highly original museum set in an ordinary Victorian terrace behind London’s Spitalfields Market. The experience is part-museum part-theatre, with visitors asked to pass through the various rooms of the house in complete silence in order to absorb the sounds and smells that have been carefully and often very subtly recreated to match the visual displays.

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The memory I took away most from my visit was the clear desire of the late Mr Severs that the house should inspire visitors to use each of their senses to absorb and appreciate their surroundings. I understand this to mean that when visiting museums or galleries I shouldn’t head straight for the interpretive description of whatever is standing/hanging in front of me. Instead I should stop, take things in slowly and try to make sense of what I can see/hear/smell/feel on my own terms, without the help of an ‘official’ interpretation.

Reading the Boards

As a philosophy it’s a simple one; quite unremarkable in fact. Yet it has stayed with me since my visit and I’ve been reminded of it in almost every old house or museum I’ve been to since. Perhaps I’ve been more guilty of this than most, but if I step into a room with objects that have text next to them my instinct has me heading straight for the text after giving the object little more than a cursory glance. There’s an inbuilt desire to know what I should be seeing before taking the trouble to look properly.

Having started to consciously take a step back and try to observe and absorb before reading the words of the curator or creator, I feel I’ve discovered a new pleasure in visiting museums (the good ones at least). It probably appeals to my fondness for puzzle-solving, but I like to work out what a picture is trying to say, what an object was used for, or what might have taken place in a room, before finding the ‘official’ answer.

Seeing through your own eyes

Perhaps I’m just a bit slow and the experience at Dennis Severs’ House has shaken me out of a lazy habit of letting others do the thinking. Perhaps it’s just me who has passed through so many places and taken little or nothing away as a result of not bothering to look properly.

But if any of this sounds vaguely familiar to you, perhaps you’ll stop and think when you’re next in a museum: do you want to experience it through someone else’s eyes or your own? The latter will require a little bit of work, but the rewards are almost certainly well worth the effort.

Virginia Beach Ocean Front Hotels | "Simon's 10th Kids Fundango Festival"

Source       : http://www.huffingtonpost.com
Category   : Virginia beach ocean front hotels 
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Virginia Beach Ocean Front Hotels

For 30 years, Regina Marscheider has been wowing audiences with her handcrafted cast of hundreds - from the most stunning marionettes and rod puppets to life-size walking masterpieces.  Join her for this wonderful family festival of great entertainment, workshops, games and activities - benefiting Stop Abuse, Inc., child abuse prevention. Stop Abuse, Inc. is an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for children and has performed marionette productions address child sexual abuse for more than two and a half million children, teachers and families throughout the United States and Canada.

Schedule of Events (All Workshops, Games & Activities will be happening all day from 10:00-4:00)
10:00-Event Opens; 10:30-WTKR's Kurt Williams; 11:00-Filipino Dancers; 11:30-Rhythm of Ireland Dancers; 12:00-Airotique; 12:30-Norman Foote; 1:00-Spectrum Puppets; 1:30-Kings Firecrackers; 2:30-Spectrum Puppets; 3:00-Norman Foote & Children's Choir; 4:00-End of Event