Your Moment is Now

Most parents with children under the age of 5 never think about traveling outside their locale or homes, mainly because they feel there’s nothing interesting for both parent and child to do together. Seattle’s goal is to change that mind-set by not only offering a great city to visit, but by offering parents and their children interesting free things to do. For example, parents who love a good cup of coffee, will be happy to know that there plenty of kid-friendly coffee shops. The parents can sit back and enjoy Seattle’s coffee while their kids play with a slew of new-to-them toys and all for the price of a cup of coffee. Check out ‘My Coffeehouse’; ‘Ballard’s Sip and Ship’; and ‘Mosaic’. These are just the tip of the iceberg of kid friendly coffee shops and parents will find them to be a haven for themselves and their children.

The biggest kid-friendly and free attraction in Seattle is the ‘Seattle Center’ . It’s the top visitor destination for a reason, it’s a total blast! Plus, the best part of all is it’s free, parents don’t have to spend a cent to keep their children thoroughly entertained, for hours! There’s a Sculpture Garden for the kids to wander around, or they can run around the fountain. The Seattle Center offers almost 500 free or affordable events and activities throughout the year. For June, there’s the summer fitness programs, some of which is free ice-skating lessons, ideal for an afternoon excursion. If parents do have a little they can spend, then check out ‘The Children’s Museum’ , tickets cost $7.50 a pop, and both parent and children will enjoy what the museum offers.

If The Children’s Museum went over well, then there’s two other great museum’s to check out. The Burke Museum, free for children under 4, has dinosaur exhibits that will thrill children of all ages and the KidsQuest museum in Factoria, is free for all ages on Fridays from 5pm to 8pm. This innovative and unique, hands-on museum is for children and families designed to keep children, infancy to age 10, engaged with art, technology, science and daily life experiences.

While in Seattle, parents can take their children to hundreds of free play areas, like the new Kids Cove in Bellevue Square, or the Pirate Ship at Bothell Country Village. If anywhere near the University Village, every Tuesday is Play-day and all programs and activities, like story-time is free for children 5 and under. Plus, before making reservations at a Seatle hotel , see if the hotels offers programs for children or even free babysitting service while parents relax poolside or at the sauna.

Summertime is almost here and with it comes door to door sales people. While many people have issues with door to door sales people, there are also many who have fond memories of being kids and being able to buy that tootsie roll bank , that first came full of tootsie rolls, or being able to purchase a really cool new book series. Unfortunately sometimes it was just within price range and other times it was nowhere near and on the limited allowance of a child, you can’t buy everything. There were of course also the boring sales people who were selling encyclopedias and such, which you didn’t care about as a kid, but parents usually weeded those out. The point is that while there are some annoying door to door sales people, and there are some people who aren’t really sales people at all, they are the few and far between, and most door to door sales people are very nice people.

If you are worried about sales people being legitimate, you might not have parents to weed them out anymore, but there are a number of ways you can tell while the person is right there trying to sell to you. Knowing that people are worried about this, some companies such as Southwestern Company will send their direct sellers with an identification card. You can also ask to call their company and find out if they are who they say they are, or find out if the company has a website and a way to look the seller up directly. Many of them will. Some companies will have all of that and more, such as a blog that you can read over, like this one by The Southwestern Company and find out what behavior the company promotes.

You can also contact the BBB or look them up on the DSA if you are still unsure. A legitimate salesperson will come back around if you ask them to come back later to give you time to check up on them, or if you ask them to, might wait around so that you know it isn’t them talking on the other end of the number they give you.

No matter what, don’t let the few bad people posing as salesmen to keep you from opening your door to everyone.

No matter where one wonders along the island of Corfu there are always some really great fresh dishes to be found. That is half the fun of being in Greece is the wonderful foods that are served up. Many of the great dishes that have originated in Greece are now found all over the world, but they some how taste better served up in their own environment.  

Get out of that fabulous hotel restaurant and see what the town has to offer up for dinner. When you are in Kontokali Greece you may want to check out Bistro Boileau for some amazing food. They have some wonderful wine choices, including their own vintage. They have live music on Friday and Saturday nights were they encourage dancing with your loved one. It is a rather casual friendly atmosphere with wonderful patio dining.  

For a sophisticated modern style of dining while in Acharavi you may want to check out Fuego . It has a great modern style decor and wonderful sunset views off the beach side patio along the coast. The menu is casual American style with Hamburgers, Pizza, Pasta and Salads. There are many local Greeks that come to eat here as well as travelers so it has a good reputation around town. It is also a kid friendly place with a menu designed for them as well as a chance for them to run along the sandy beach right along the patio while you sip on your wine and watch them play.  

There is always something really quaint about the restaurants in Greece especially one located in very old buildings. While spending some time in the small fishing village of Benitses you may want to check out a really traditional Greek restaurant called Kahmatapia . The dishes are based on the local fresh fish and wonderful traditional spices of the Greek cuisine. Everything is prepared daily with this family owned place filled with high quality pride. And taking a walk around the neighborhood of this old fishing town is a wonderful after dinner activity.

There are a number of famous personalities who have left there mark here in Las Vegas, a city that sleeps, but sleeps strangely. The effect of the neon lights is as strong as it ever was, suggesting that the glory days of the city are still lying somewhere in a distant future. These same lights gave endless inspiration and energy to the likes of Frank Sinatra, Wayne Newton, and countless Elvis impersonators, all riffing on old African rhythms that get reinvented to suit the times.

The times have been unraveling on the strip these days, where the downtown section is now looking more and more like the main strip, as if they were caught in an endless loop. Las Vegas is the ultimate simulacrum, mirroring a world that doesn’t exist anywhere else, except here, where a view out of a Las Vegas hotel might look like ancient Rome, or a miniature version of old Europe.

No one could make sense out of the absurdity and irony here better than Hunter S. Thompson , or at least no one could ramble about it in a way that made splendid nonsense out of the noise. It’s a hard place to get a grip on psychologically, especially if the whole is something that’s still seen as holding a possibility of grasping. However, it’s an easy place to enjoy the moment if the idea of sense and order is left tucked away in the luggage for later.

These sidewalks carry moments lost in time, but easily regained by re-tracing them, looking for a chance to experience something new in the middle of the afternoon or in the wee hours of the morning. It’s always alive. HST may not be around to enjoy the new face of Vegas, but it’s still difficult to know if he enjoyed the former masks. He certainly did enjoy thinking about the masks here, and investigated them until he eventually was caught staring at his own face in the fun house mirrors.