Category Archives: Jumping

A First At The Delta Sky Deck- JFK Airport, NYC

Jumping, Trip Reports, ,
T4
Final approach to the Sky Deck

Yesterday I was happy to share an unlikely encounter that I had while attending the opening of Delta’s Terminal 4 (T4) at JFK Airport. You can Read about it HERE.

Today I would like to share something that I did on the brand new Delta Sky Deck that I believe is a first. While checking out the new and incredible Sky Deck, I felt that it would be a great place for a jump! (Make sure to check out the photo below)

(For those of you that don’t know, I like to jump for photos at times. You can check out a sample of my jumping photos on Michael W Travels HERE.)

T4
Entrance to the Sky Club
When my brother and I got to the new T4, there were a couple of things we were really looking forward to seeing. At the top of our (and I’d guess just about everyone else’s) list would be a visit to the Delta Sky Club’s Sky Deck. Continue reading A First At The Delta Sky Deck- JFK Airport, NYC →

A Quick Visit To Garden of the Gods- Colorado Springs

Jumping, Trip Reports, ,
a man jumping in the air

While heading back to Denver from Colorado Springs we decided to stop at Garden of the Gods, a National Natural Landmark.

We were in Colorado Springs for the BoardingArea Conference aka BAcon. The conference was a great experience. I learned some new things which I will try to put into practice to improve the blog in the future. I also met many great people and fellow bloggers, the bulk being from travel blog aggregator site BoardingArea.

a landscape with trees and mountains
Garden of the Gods
a snowy mountain range in the distance
Pikes Peak
There wasn’t much time for our visit since we had to get back to Denver to catch a flight to New Orleans. The park was very busy and it was hard finding a parking spot. When we finally found a spot, we were amazed at what we saw.
The rock formations were really impressive. They had a nice orange color which reminded me of the Olgas in the Australian Outback. We could also see the snow capped Pikes Peak which offered another great view.
a woman and child on a rocky mountain
Kim & Lucas

After taking a few pictures of Kim and Lucas, it was time for some jumping shots.

I got to work, jumping right away and caused a few chuckles from other visitors in the process. I’m really happy with how the pictures came out!

a man jumping in the air
Jumping into the clouds

While heading back to the car, I saw a guy juggling. It looked really cool with the blue sky and the pins flying in the air. The pictures were so awesome that I offered to e-mail them to the juggler.

a man juggling with juggling clubs

If you decide to visit Colorado Springs, I’d definitely recommend a visit to the Garden of Gods. It’s probably a good idea to get there early since this seemed to be a very popular sight. I’d love to go back and have more time to explore the park in the future.

Garden of Gods is located at 1805 N.30th St in Colorado Springs, CO. You can read more about the park online HERE.

 

A New Look For Michael W Travels

Jumping, Travel News,
a man kneeling in front of a row of stone statuesThe old header image

I’ve been thinking about changing the header on Michael W Travels for a while now. The problem was that I am pretty much computer illiterate and I didn’t want to pay a fortune to have one designed for me.

I had a vision and some ideas of what I wanted the header to look like, but needed help to get it done.

About a month back I was chatting with one of my friends and he offered to design the header for me. He does 3-D imaging, graphic design and draws really well so this seemed like the perfect solution..
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A Visit To The First McDonald’s In Russia

Food, Jumping, Trip Reports, ,
a group of cars parked on a snowy street

During our trip I had to visit the very first McDonald’s to open in Soviet era Russia.The location opened in Moscow in 1990 and I remember it being major news due to the lines of people that went on for blocks, all wanting to get inside for a taste. This was one of the first stops we made during the trip. (Read a recap about our stay in Moscow HERE.)

I rarely eat McDonald’s at home but always try to check them out while traveling. One of my top things to do while abroad is try local food but sometimes it feels good to walk into a place and pretty much know what to expect both price and taste wise (plus McDonald’s pretty much always has free Wifi). One of the main highlights for me is seeing what items are offered that differ from the McD’s at home. I always try to get a menu item that seems  to have a local feel. Continue reading A Visit To The First McDonald’s In Russia →

Jumping By the Pennsylvania State Capitol

Jumping, Trip Reports, ,
a man jumping in front of Pennsylvania State Capitol

Last July Kim, Lucas and I headed to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania due to the Stay 1, Get 1 promotion from Club Carlson. We had a lot of options to earn our bonuses for Radisson and Country Inn.
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With not too many Park Inn’s around the U.S. we had to figure out which Park Inn was closest to home. We ended up booking two nights (one in each of our names) at the Park Inn Harrisburg West.

Pennsylvania State Capitol with a flag on top

Harrisburg isn’t exactly a glamorous city but we found plenty to do and had a nice time during our visit.

Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania so we had to stop by the Capitol Building to check it out.

a man jumping in front of a fountain

When we arrived, the Capitol was already closed for the day. I was hoping to get inside and do a tour but that wasn’t going to happen this time.

I was a bit bummed that I couldn’t see inside but still found the building to be really impressive. The green tiled dome, which I read is made of terra cotta was an amazing site to see. It is topped by a 14.5 foot statue called Commonwealth. The fountain at the back of the building was also really fun to watch.

The Pennsylvania State Capitol was worth visiting, even if we could only view it from the outside. It also made for a great place for a jump!

Jumping At The Bean- Chicago

Chicago, Cloud Gate, Jumping, Millennium Park, The Bean
a man jumping in the air in front of a reflective bean with Millennium Park in the background

On my trip to Chicago back in October the main purpose of visiting was to run in the 
O’Hare 5K Runway Run. Since I was heading to Chicago for the run, I decided to visit a few other sites. One of them I had been to on my first trip to Chicago with Kim a few years back. I had to check it out again.

Revisiting The Bean (Cloud Gate) in Millennium Park ranked very high on my list. There were a couple of reasons why I had to go back.

  1. I loved the sculpture the first time around. It’s a really fun and interactive sculpture due to the reflective surface it is made from.
  2. I had to go back to The Bean to get some jumping photos.

There once was a time when I didn’t take photos jumping all over the world. (I know, hard to believe, right?) My first visit to Chicago was during that time.

Here are some photos from my recent visit:

a group of people standing around a large reflective object with Millennium Park in the background
This reflection shows the park side of The Bean. You can see that it is inside the park due to the red trees (a bit hard to see) and lack of big buildings.

In the jumping photo at the top, you see the reflection of the street side and all of the huge buildings. 
a man taking a selfie
Almost as clear as a mirror
a group of men climbing a large reflective surface
Trying not to let go!
The next couple of photos are what I call Skydiving at The Bean.
a group of people in a city
Free falling
The best part of visiting The Bean is having fun with the varied photos you could take. With a little effort and help from the reflective surface you can have a great time. 
While doing some jumps, we started trying some different things. Instead of facing the camera, I faced The Bean and jumped. With a little timing, these were the results. 
It looks like I was free falling or sky diving in the photos!
a man jumping in the air
Coming in for a landing

A couple of more interesting photos:

a close-up of a metal object
The bottom of The  Bean
a group of people standing around a large reflective object with Millennium Park in the background
Side View

Find out more about The Bean and Millennium Park on the City of Chicago website HERE

Highlights: Day 2 of the NY Times Travel Show

Jumping, Travel News,
a man standing at a podium with microphones
Andrew McCarthy

I had another fun, interesting and long day at the New York Times Travel Show.
On Friday I attended Travel Industry Day (read about some of the highlights HERE).

Yesterday I returned for the first of two General Public Days. There was a much larger crowd which made it harder at times to get the attention of the travel representatives, but overall it was not too bad.
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During my visit, I attended a couple of seminars, chatted with representatives of various tourism boards & travel companies and also learned about some new travel- related products.
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We were running late in the morning so I ended up missing a travel seminar featuring Seth Kugel, the NY Times Frugal Traveler. We ended up making it (a few minutes late) to a seminar given by Andrew McCarthy.
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Continue reading Highlights: Day 2 of the NY Times Travel Show →

A Visit to the Vienna Beef Factory Store

Food, Jumping, Trip Reports, , ,
a sign in front of a building

While planning my trip to Chicago this past October, I came across a tour that I really wanted to take. However, there were a couple of problems.

  1. The tours are only given on Wednesday mornings and we were arriving Thursday night
  2. The tour was booked up through winter 2014

The tour that would elude me was a visit to the manufacturing facility of Vienna Beef.
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If I couldn’t get to learn about how hot dogs were made at VB, I decided to do the next best thing- visit the Vienna Beef Factory Store & Cafe.

Jumping By The Elephant Cave- Bali, Indonesia

Jumping, Trip Reports, ,
a man and child running in front of a carved stone structure with Goa Gajah in the background

While in Bali over the summer Kim, Lucas and I visited many interesting sites.
(Check out my SE Asia trip recap HERE.)

There was one site that I wanted to check out- mainly due to it’s name. (Definitely not the best reason to go out of your way to visit a site!)
When I first heard of the Elephant Cave, I immediately added it to my list of places to visit. I did a little more reading about the site and decided it was worth a stop. I wasn’t really going to visit just based on it’s name!

a sign on a building

The Elephant Cave (Goa Gajah) is a short drive from Ubud. From what I read, it dates to the 11th century. It’s name comes from people believing the face at the cave entrance resembles an elephant. In my opinion the face looks nothing like an elephant. According to Lonely Planet the entrance to the cave is actually the mouth of a demon.

a man holding a baby in a carrier
Inside the cave- statue of Ganesha

After paying the entry fee we were given sarongs to wear while visiting the Elephant Cave. To reach the entrance to the cave we had to walk down a bunch of steps and then pass by some bathing pools which had some interesting carvings.

a group of black statues with red cloths
Lingam

The Elephant Cave wasn’t a busy site which was really nice. However, we still had to wait to get photos at the entrance without other visitors in them.

Inside the cave there wasn’t much to see. We did a quick walk inside and saw a few small statues. According to my Lonely Planet guide-one was of Ganesha and another of lingam- ” the phallic symbol of the Hindu god Shiva.

a person walking through a stone tunnel
Exiting the cave
a man holding a baby
a woman jumping in front of a carved stone structure with Goa Gajah in the background
Nice Form!
The main purpose of our visit to the Elephant Cave was to get to jump by the entrance.
I wasn’t disappointed stopping by to check out the cave and get some fun photos! I felt that visiting the site was well worth it to see such an old and amazing carving. I’ve seen many old sites but this one was pretty unique and it was pretty cool that we could go inside the cave.
a man and woman holding a baby in front of a carved rock structure
The Michael W Travels Team

Jumping By the Home Run Apple, Queens, NY

Jumping, ,
a man jumping in front of a large apple

A couple of weeks back I got to take Lucas to his first Mets game. I wrote a post about it here. With baseball being my favorite sport, I had to get him started early.

Right outside the main entrance to Citi Field is the Home Run Apple. It used to be inside of Shea Stadium (the Met’s former home), behind the centerfield wall. At Shea, each time a Mets player hit a home run, the apple would pop up from the hat it rests inside of.

While the Mets were building Citi Field there was a lot of worry as to what would happen to the apple. The Mets decided to replace the original apple with a brand new one. This upset many fans but at least the original would be displayed at the new stadium!