February marks a time of HEAVY hearts

Posted on February 2, 2012 by jamiegall1930

Welcome to February and my new feature throughout the month on Thursdays!

February is Heart Awareness Month!!

Did you know that heart disease is the Number 1 killer in women?

And that it’s up to us to take control of our health and our lives?

I especially need to pay attention to this because heart attacks run in my family, and that is how we lost my grandmother.

The first thing you can do to honor Heart Awareness Month is by WEARING THE COLOR RED Tomorrow.  Each February the first Friday of the month represents heart awareness for women.  So, bring out that color RED and wear it proud.

Each Thursday I will be talking about a different issue related to Heart Disease, or bring awareness to another Campaign related to Heart Awareness.

It’s my hope for us to learn as much as we can about heart disease, and the steps we can take in our lives to prevent it for our future selves.

Happy Heart Awareness Month, will you be wearing RED tomorrow?


Categories: Life | Tags: , | 8 Comments

Take me to CHICAGO!

Posted on February 1, 2012 by jamiegall1930

The thing I love about Chicago is that everyone’s visit is different, and it truly feeds into everyone’s traveler inside them.  To me, it is one of the better cities to visit in the US.  I said better, not the best 😉

I love that it’s right off one of the GREAT LAKES.  I’m a Minnesota Girl and I love the GREAT Lakes.  Granted, I’ve only seen two of them: Lake Superior and Lake Michigan.  The two biggest lakes of the 5, and to me, the best 😉

The city gets windy because of being directly by the lake, and I got a taste of that when visiting there.  Of course, because when I travel, I’m a tourist traveler, I took advantage of the Chicago CITY Pass, where for one price you buy this, and you’re allowed entrance into all these Chicago base attractions for 7 days straight.  BINGO.

So, where did I visit?

Shedd Aquaranium

Field Museum

Adler Planetarium

John Hancock Observatory

and The Museum of Science and Industry

And we walked along Navy Pier

The first stop was the Museum of Science and Industry.  To this day, I don’t remember a whole lot about it other than the city replica of Chicago they created within the museum.  I’ve always been a fan of pieces such as this, as I love the architectural design of buildings, and cities.   This museum is huge, and we literally spent an entire day there.

The following day we visited the part of town that had the Shedd’s Aquaranium, Field Museum and Adler Planetarium right there.  We took to our feet and walked from our hotel room in the city to this part of town.  The day started out nice and sunny and beautiful, but by the end of the day the wind set in, and it began to drizzle, and it got COLD.  A huge wake up call to what the weather could be in a matter of a day within Chicago.

I’m a huge fan of DOLPHINS and the Shedd’s Aquaranium had a dolphin show.  The thing I loved about their show was that you saw the water, but the backdrop was Lake Michigan.  It made for a truly beautiful environment.   And it was a fun show to watch as the dolphins did jumps and dances from the entire audience.

But my ALL TIME favorite enjoyment of all of Chicago was:

The Adler Planetarium.  Minneapolis had gotten rid of their Planetarium years ago, so this was my first time in years visiting space again.  I browsed there for hours on end, and loved every minute of it.  They have great Planetarium shows throughout the course of the day, and other demonstrations that made the entire place a lot of fun.

The Field Museum was down the block, and there we got our history on from seeing dinosaurs to ancient ruins.  Although it wasn’t my favorite place, there was still a ton of great stuff to see there.

From the distance we could catch the view of  the Bears Football stadium, and then we walked 2 miles to check out the Navy Pier.  It was during the winter so none of the attractions were really on, but we browsed the shops and restaurants inside then headed back to the hotel for a few hours to rest up and TRY some Chicago Deep Dish Pizza!  Thinking back to it, the taste is still savoring in my mouth today ;0

And then that evening we headed over to the John Hancock Oberservatory to see the entire city in all its glory!

Years prior to this trip, I was fortunate enough to take a field trip out to Chicago with my french class in high school to check out an exhibit at the Art Institute.  It is, by far, one of the best ART Institutes in the US, and for any art enthiusiast, it is truly worth a visit.  I didn’t want to end this blog without mentioning it.

And the other thing about Chicago is the food.  They are known for their Chicago Dogs, and their deep dish Chicago Pizzas, but there are a lot of wonderful eateries around town.

For those that have been, what are some of your favorites?

 

 


Categories: Travel | Tags: , , , | 15 Comments

What kind of TRAVELER are YOU?

Posted on January 30, 2012 by jamiegall1930

In the last month I have been fortunate to attend 2 travel shows within the Los Angeles area.  Although they were very similar, they were very distinct too.

The Long BEACH Travel and Adventure show had a variety for regional travelers and also international travelers.  I got to listen to Andrew Zimmern from Bizarre Foods speak, and grab as many brochures and travel guides as I could about California and the surrounding regions.

The LA Times Travel Show truly specialized in International Travel, and this is where  I learned what kind of traveler I truly wanted to be.  I got to hear Adam Richman from Man V. Food speak, and learned pretty fast that I’ve found a new celebrity crush for myself 😉

I realized that my desires to travel are to keep it in the United States.  There are 50 states.  That is a lot of ground to travel with a plethora of cities to travel to which all offer something.

It’s funny because when I was younger, alls I wanted to do was international travel.  I wanted to go to London, England.  I wanted to visit Barcelona, Spain.  And it was my dream to visit Paris, France.   Paris is still on my list, but my desire to go outside of the US has really faded.

But I realize I’m in a select few.  A lot of people do want to travel internationally.  Perhaps it’s because I had my International Travel experience when I was young when I took a 3 week journey to Australia and New Zealand, or perhaps it was because I realized the true beauty that could be found in all 50 states, but my one goal in life is to visit all 50.  I’ve only hit 22 thus far 😉

There are also those that travel to taste the food, those that travel to visit the stadiums and those that travel to see as much as they can wherever they happen to go.

I am one of the latter.  When I go to a place I try to take in as much as I can because I just don’t know if I”ll ever get back to that place again.  I don’t think much about the food, which, I realize now, I need to start thinking about it and appreciating it more than I do.

So, that leads me this question, what kind of traveler are you?

 


Categories: Travel | Tags: , , | 21 Comments