When we went to Arizona last year on vacation, we learned a lot about light pollution. It was the first place we had every been in a long time that at night it was truly dark out. When you live as close to Chicago as we, you forget that people can actually see the stars in other parts of the country (actually, in other parts of the state they can see the stars — just not where I live). When Bill’s friends came to Green Bay for my wedding, they were in awe that you could actually see the stars from my parent’s driveway. I’ll be honest, it makes me sad that my kids won’t see the stars as I did when I was kid.
This is the purpose of the Dark Sky Festival in Harmony, Florida – to expose the general public to the marvels of the night sky. We forget what we can’t see. We forget that for astronomy you need a dark sky — the darker the better. Wildlife needs the dark just to survive. We also forget that poor outdoor lighting design wastes $10 billion in energy a year.
This event is on April 25th from 6 PM – 11PM and is FREE. Yes, free — free admission and free parking. They do encourage you to bring blankets and chairs for lawn use in the amphitheatre area, so you can be comfortable.
I hope more communities take a stand and offer great events like this one.

I’ll be writing shortly about our trip to Disney (we spent most of it in the hospital with Madison, so it’ll be a short bunch of posts). However, we are talking about heading to FL again. Next time, we will most likely be staying in Kissimmee. I am pretty sure that is where we stayed when I was a kid when we went to Florida. There is just so many things to do in Kissimmee. The great thing is that not everything costs you an arm and leg either. I personally would love to check out the Reptile World Serpentarium. It is an exhibit showing 60 different species of snakes, including cobras, mambas, rattlesnakes, alligators, iguanas and more. Now, Bill is afraid of snakes, so I am not sure how keen he would be to go there. I have already been to Gatorland, but I do think the kids and Bill would love to go there. I still remember watching them make the alligators jump to grab chicken to eat. There’s snakes here too (but I just wouldn’t tell Bill that). Kissimmee is also close to all the theme parks (SeaWorld, Disney, Universal, etc) which makes it a great place to stay.
I know this sounds like a place I’d love to stay again. How about you? If you are looking for a great giveaway, the prices are great here. They are offering a contest right now that you have to enter. Kissimmee is giving away three (3) weekend getaways (3 days/2 nights) for two (2); and two (2) weeklong vacations for four (4). Drawings will be held on or around 4/15/09 and 5/21/09.
Good luck, and I hope you plan a trip to Florida!

This is a hotel I have to recommend that you never ever stay at. If you are young and in Miami Beach to party, it may be okay. Beyond that, this hotel is your worst nightmare. Rated as a 4 star hotel, I was expecting luxury. What we got instead was a dump. The employees were rude, the walls are paper thin, and the parking is nonexistent. Let me tell you my story.
Check in is at 4 pm. We got there to find that there is no parking anywhere. You have to use their valet parking whether you like it or not and I think it was around $26 a day. Instead of saying hello to us, the guy at the front desk barked at us “license and credit card”. No hello. No please. It was customer service at its finest. NOT. The person I was staying with gave him her stuff and they proceed to copy it and put both on the same page! She asked them not do that. She has had her identity stolen and was a bit leary having all of that information about her photocopied on a piece of paper and stuck into an unlocked file cabinet! She had to argue with them to get them to black out her address and other identifying information on the copy of her license and her credit card number too! With the information they had copied on the same sheet, an identity thief would have a field day. Their response? The front area had a camera on it. Of course, we don’t know how good of a camera it was or anything. The first room they gave us was next to the bar. We marched back to front desk and explained to them again that we were here for business and not partying. They then gave us another room on the other side of the bar. After this, the bellman quit carrying our luggage. That’s how bad the situation got. They told us about the suite they had that had a pullout couch and a double bed. We didn’t think that sounded too bad. However, instead of giving us the keys to that room, they gave us a room on the third floor above the bar. We asked the bellman if we would hear the bar, and he told us we would. He also informed us that not only was it a bar, but it would have karaoke the next couple of night. It’s bad enough to have to listen to music all night. Bad music would be even worse! We went back to the desk and asked about the suite they told us about. A different guy said to us that they did have a suite, but they wouldn’t be offering it to us. He didn’t know why the other guy even told us about it. Yes, he really did say that to us.
Besides their lack of service, let me tell you about the rooms. They were tiny. We would have no place to put our suitcases at all. The bathroom came from the 1960’s and was tiny. Their website says they have free wifi. Guess what? They charge you for it once you are there. There were no phone books in the room. The walls were also paper thin. When we were trying to decide what we were going to do, a cell phone went off. I looked at my roommate and she looked at me thinking it was the other person’s phone. It was in the room next door. It sounded clear as day. There also were no closets or irons in the rooms.
Needless to say, we left. It was bad. I would highly recommend staying as far away from this hotel as you can. The rooms and the customer service were both crappy, and you can do better than this expensive hotel. I have stayed in one star hotels that were better than this!