A Family-Friendly Florida Vacation

Florida has long held the title of Most Kid Friendly vacation Destination due to an abundance of theme parks and miles of sandy beaches. Ranging from the large theme parks around Orlando to nature oriented kid programs in the Everglades, there is so much to see and do that your kids will love! On your next Florida vacation, give your kids a little something out of the ordinary and experience all that the Sunshine State has to offer!

water parks

A great way to beat the Florida heat is to spend a day at one of the states many water parks. Adventure Island, located in Tampa, is a mid-sized park that caters to kids of any age. Parents and young children will enjoy the pool and beach area, Paradise Lagoon, where guests can relax and stay cool in the water. North of Tampa in Weeki Wachee, visitors will find Buccaneer Bay, the only spring-fed water park in Florida.

With water rides, mermaid shows, animal shows, riverboat rides, and scuba experiences, its sure to delight. Families will love Wild Waters in Ocala due to its natural feel with giant oaks shading the entire park. There is a kids cove for the little ones, a wave pool, and plenty of huge slides for older children and adults. Disney has two parks in Lake Buena Vista that offer totally different experiences but with the same kind of excitement.

Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon are both known for having the newest and most exciting rides and cater to preschoolers, young children, teenagers, and adults with lazy rivers, looming slides, and surfing rides. Floridas oldest water park, Wet n Wild, located in Orlando has plenty of rides, new and old, including an area where the young and young at heart can go tubing, knee boarding, or wakeboarding. There are also plenty of slides and pools for toddlers and small children.

There is also Rapids Water Park in West Palm Beach, Shipwreck Island in Panama City, Adventure Island in Jacksonville Beach, and so many more! The opportunities to beat the heat at one of Floridas water parks are endless and can be found just about anywhere.

Orlando Theme parks

An article about hot kid spots in Florida could not be written without mentioning the Orlando theme parks. It all started with Magic Kingdom at walt Disney World Resort. This charming park starts with a walk down Main Street usa with shops, restaurants, and street performances. This park is perfect for all ages with rides and shows catering to every age group. Younger children will love Mickey, Minnie, and all the other characters while an older crowd will enjoy the rides and roller coasters.

walt Disney Worlds epcot Center takes a trip through different nations with rides, performances, and hands-on activities. Disney MGM Studios is a backstage pass to see how and where Disney/MGM movies are made. Hold on to your seat for the Tower of Terror, watch the voyage of The Little Mermaid, and ride with Aerosmith on the Rock n Roller Coaster. The younger crowd will love Disneys Animal Kingdom with safari rides, animal shows, and Disney characters to share the day. Universal Studios and Universal Studios Islands of Adventure cover all the bases with rides, shows, good eats, performances, and great characters while letting their visitors experience the movies.

Enjoy the roller coasters at Islands of Adventure while Universal Studios takes you behind the scenes. Get lucky on JAWS, watch Indiana Jones save the day, and experience Earthquake-The Big One. SeaWorld Adventure Park will thrill the kids with tanks, aquarium, and exhibits about sea life and thrill the older crowd with rides and roller coasters. The Waterfront is SeaWorlds own seaside community with restaurants, entertainment, and shops. Enjoy Orlando: it is what childrens dreams are made of.

Kid-Centered Activities

Aside from water parks and Disney-centered Orlando, Florida has many other attractions that children of all ages will enjoy. For older kids and teenagers, make at stop in Tampa for Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. This park is full of wild roller coasters, exciting water rides, and shows. The draw for younger children, however, is the zoo-like experience with their exotic animals. Enjoy safaris and exciting train rides to see the gorillas, gators, giraffes, tropical birds, and beasts.

The Kennedy Space Center is a way for kids and adults to have fun while learning about the past, present, and future of space exploration. children of all ages will enjoy meeting astronauts, touring space shuttles, watching films in the IMAX theatre, and being able to touch a piece of the planet Mars. Head to Crystal River and Homosassa between November and March to swim with the manatees and learn about these prehistoric creatures.

If the family is looking for a laid back activity, look no farther than the Ichetucknee. This north Florida river is powered by a natural spring to give the perfect inner tube ride, complete with one of the best scenic views around. The Everglades are full of wildlife in its natural habitat. Shark Valley is a 15-mile bike loop that takes you past, not sharks, but alligators, big and small. Kids will love seeing the gators up close and, not to worry, they will not bother you as long as you do not try to feed them!

Looking for other adventures? Sail with pirates in St. Petersburg and Clearwater, look for scallops in the Gulf of Mexico in Keaton Beach, Panama City Beach, or Steinhatchee, or swim with sea creatures at the Theatre of the Sea in Islamorada of the Florida Keys.

On your next trip to Florida, experience all that the state has to offer its smallest visitors. With the worlds most popular theme parks, the nations most watermarks, plenty of natural habitats to explore and learn about, and great family-friendly vacation rentals, Florida lacks nothing for kids looking to have fun.

Caroline Brame writes travel articles for RentalsExpress.com. For more information on Florida travel, as well as, other vacation destinations, please visit http:// http://www.RentalsExpress.com.

Iyengar Yoga Teachers Directory

1 Hour Golf Practice Plan For Improvement

If you have an hour to put towards improving your golf game here's what I suggest you do to get the most out of this time.

When you arrive at the practice area the very first thing you should do is a few stretches to warm up and you should do this for anything up to 5 minutes or until you're warm.

Once you're loosened up the next thing you should do is to start off hitting a couple of wedge shots and then slowly go through each club in your bag, hitting a few shots with each one until you reach your driver. This should take about 20 minutes. When hitting these shots you should treat each one as though it's a real shot on the golf course. In other words, choose a precise target for each shot and then go through your normal pre-shot routine.

Once you've finished the 20 minutes of hitting full shots you should now practice pitching for 15 minutes and you should do this by hitting shots to all different distances.

What I mean be hitting shots different distances is that you should aim to hit one shot 30 yards, the next one 60 yards, one 75 yards, the next 40 yards etc, etc. And remember to treat each shot, as you would on the course i.e. pick a target and do your pre-shot routine.

Now practice your chipping and bunker play for the next 10 minutes and once again pick a target and go through your pre-shot routine for each shot. It's important that you treat each shot as a real one and not some practice shot that doesn't matter.

When practicing you should get yourself into the mindset that you have on the golf course. That way when you get to the course you'll be better prepared.

You've now got 10 minutes left to work on your putting. And I suggest you practice putts outside of 10 feet, concentrating on your distance control and then end the practice session with some short putts (e.g. 2-3 footers). You should do this so you leave your practice session on a successful note. Here's a summary of your 1 hour practice session:

1 Hour Weekly practice Session

==> 5 minutes of stretching to get warm.

==> 20 minutes of hitting a couple of shots with each club, starting with a wedge and then moving through your bag of clubs until you reach your driver.

==> 15 minutes hitting pitch shots different distances i.e. 20 yards, 45 yards, 60 yards, 30 yards etc. Never attempt to hit a shot the same distance during this 15 minutes period.

==> 10 minutes of chipping and bunker shots.

==> Final 10 minutes of putting, mainly working on distance control on putts outside of 10 feet and then finishing off this time with some successful short putts.

Remember To Approach Each practice shot As Though It's Real shot On The Golf Course

Nick Bayley is a professional golfer who has discovered just one golf swing fault that could be stopping you from ball striking consistency and success. But luckily for you, now you can take a simple 2 minute golf swing test to see if you have this swing fault or not. So don't delay! Go here to take The Golf Swing test now: http://www.yourgolfswingtest.com

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A Modern Fable

In this story you are an infant. One of your parents, lets say your mother, is holding you. (In a classic fairy tale you would be a golden haired princess and you would be being held prisoner by an evil witch, but were on a budget, so well do the common persons fairy tale.) Your mother is struggling with her personal issues and although she is doing the best she can, she cannot give you the attention you need. That means that she cannot hold you as securely as you need. Feeling insecure, you naturally wonder if she is acting like this because there is something undesirable about you. After all, if you were really valued she would treat you with greater consideration. (When the love that a child needs is withheld the child naturally questions her worthiness. It is in the nature of all of us, but it is acute in children.)

As your mother continues to struggle with her issues, the relationship between you becomes difficult. She doesnt mean to hurt you, but she lets you slip out of her grasp and you fall. Unfortunately, you land in a fresh cow pie.

Your initial feelings of not being good enough have just been strongly reinforced. Your mother picks you up but her preoccupation with her own issues prevents her from cleaning all of the manure from you. You look around for help from dad, but hes not there. Hes mostly at work and when hes home he is not emotionally available anyway.

So there you are, soiled and smelly. Something is obviously wrong. No only are you feeling unloved and unworthy, you now have the stink to prove it. The other people in your family arent able to clean you up. They dont know how to get rid of their own manure, no one in the family does. Because of this. and the continuing non-nurturing aspects of the family, your feelings of unworthiness become substantially reinforced.

The manure dries, you grow up and having little choice, you become resigned to living with it. Who you are has become tainted with the aromatic flavor of something potent that does not belong to you. You do not deserve it, but the circumstances of your life have caused you to believe otherwise. You have become convinced that you deserve to be unloved, and there isnt much in your environment that contradicts that belief. Actually, theres quite a bit of negative reinforcement regarding your imperfections and failings, leading you to conclude that this must be what you deserved. You also resign yourself that this is what the rest of your life has in store for you. Your grandparents try to help you, because grandparents are immune to the odor of manure, but its just not enough.

In order to get by you start applying perfume in an attempt to mask the smell of your imperfections. Although it helps you to get by, you know that you are living a lie and you live with the constant fear that someone will pick up the telltale scent of manure and you will be exposed. Some people do pick up on the perfumed smell and shy away from you because they know that something funny is going on, even if they do not understand it. You end up feeling worse.

You, of course, must act as if the perfumed you is the normal you, while hiding your real self away under the mask. You treat the your real self as though she had leprosy, hiding her from criticism. You live on a tightrope, alone, cursed and unable to risk getting close to anyone who is clean for fear that they will detect the smell you and reject you. So you seek out others who are also wearing manure to have relationships with. You make an unspoken deal, I will ignore your manure if you will ignore mine. Then of course, the moment the other person gets scared or hurt, they immediately break the agreement and point to your manure as the cause of the problem. You of course, respond in kind. Soon you are engaged in a manure war with all sorts of manure flying around. Each of you becomes entrenched, busily defending your position. Little of a constructive nature is accomplished.

Wounded and despondent, you pull back from life and start looking for answers to your dilemma. The Church tells you that the manure is your fault and that you should be repentant for your sinful nature for having it. Your boss tells you that you are just not trying hard enough to overcome it. A therapist shows you how to behave as though the manure doesnt exist. A yoga teacher encourages you to achieve calmness in spite of the smell. New Age books and CDs show you that beautiful flowers grow in manure and that you need to surrender to your bliss. Some of what you learn is helpful, but you still smell badly and you dont like it. You know that it repels other people.

Unable to get real answers, and beset by a continuing series of problems, you pray to God for help. To your surprise, there is an answer. God says, Take off your soiled clothing and bathe yourself in love. That which is causing you pain is not yours. It does not belong to you, it never has. Conditioned by years of experience, the thought of giving up your life-long attachment seems impossible. But, you reply, I cant. This soiled state is all that I know. Its who I think I am. Besides, what would happen if you gave up your soiled clothing and there was nothing else for you to put on! You would be left alone in the cold and naked. It has felt that way in past lives and there is no reason to believe that the present situation will be any different. Feeling once again like a failure, you turn away, push on, and do the best you can.

Clinging steadfastly to your belief of unworthiness, life continues to cause you pain, but you persist. The lessons intensify. Eventually you are confronted with a crisis. Perhaps it is the painful end of a relationship or a business failure. Maybe it is a physical crisis, with the prospect of death or a considerably worsened physical condition demanding that you make serious changes to the way you have been in the world.

Whatever the obstacle, something will push you to the point that you can no longer sustain the beliefs you hold about yourself. You will no longer be able to sustain the facade. Pushed over the limit, your resistance breaks. Bruised and beaten, willing to surrender, you cry out to God for help. He says, I understand. And then He repeats, Take off your soiled clothing and bathe yourself in love. That which is causing you pain is not yours. It does not belong to you, it never has. With nowhere else to turn, a crack in the darkness opens and you begin to see that it is really not you, that it is the manure you have been carrying all this time that has caused your pain. God continues, The process you have experienced has been created so that you would come to see the truth about who you are. In the process you will heal the vulnerability that allowed the manure to stick to you in the first place. Your vulnerability gave the beliefs a place to stick. He then tells you, This is all part of the process we have created together called Life. He further explains that learning to accept the truth about who you are is an important step in your spiritual development. Since you have free will, it was necessary for you to come to this realization by yourself. He could not give it to you.

Copyright2007 blue Lotus Press

Ross Bishop is a shaman practicing in Charlottesville, VA. You can learn more about him and find more of his writings at his web site, http://www.rossbishop.com

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