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After a rousing day at Universal, head on over to ‘Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville’ restaurant, which is a veritable mecca not only for Parrot Heads, but for anyone else wanting to continue the great fun they had at Universal CityWalk , but wanting better food. Margaritaville is the ultimate tropical setting, including a Tiki bar, a Volcano Bar that actually has a giant Margarita exploding volcano that’s timed to go off every hour spewing lava rivers of lime juice and tequila into a giant blender at the bar, a child’s playing area, ‘The Lone Palm Airport’ and an outdoor dining area called ‘The Porch of Indecision’, which is a place where patrons can sing to Buffett tunes, while socializing with friends and enjoying the daily happy hour.

The Lone Palm Airport is Margaritaville’s latest attraction featuring Jimmy Buffett’s very own seaplane, named the ‘Hemisphere Dancer’. This 60 foot Albatross has permanently landed at the airport next to the lagoon at Margaritaville. The ‘Airport Lounge’, offers a nice variety of drinks, fantastic bar food and plenty of relaxing outdoor seating. The Airport Lounge is kid friendly, there’s a parakeet beach area complete with plenty of things to keep the little ones busy while the parents get comfortable after an exhausting day at Universal and before heading back to their four star hotels in Orlando .

Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville’s food is outstanding, like the conch fritters, or the jambalaya, or an all-time favorite – key lime pie. Some say at first they come for the food, because it is excellent, but then they say, who even cares about the food when you’ve downed 3 margaritas? However, if not too tired after dinner, at night, the restaurant transforms into a hot nightclub where dancing is a requirement and live bands perform every night of the week. Making a stop at this restaurant is a must for anyone wanting to pack in more fun into their day and into their night. Located at Universal CityWalk, 6000 Universal Blvd. The only draw back about Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville is not coming to experience this amazing restaurant.

Seeking treatment for your addiction or for that of a loved one can be an initially confusing and stressful activity. And this is on top of the inherent stress and concern that accompanies treatment searches, regardless of whether they are for you or a loved one. And many times the stress and worry involved is actually greater when it is for someone you love than when it is for yourself, which frequently is more related to the fear of change and acceptance of the situation than the overwhelming aspects of beginning to understand the nature of addiction and how to approach treatment for someone else.

The good news is that there are many well trained and qualified individuals whose life work is to help families and individuals begin treatment. In addition there is plenty of information that is free and available on the Internet as well as directly from various detox and treatment centers as well as hospitals. And one of the common components of researching rehab options for your loved ones includes the need to stage an intervention .

Planning an intervention for your family member can be a vital component of their drug rehab seeking. And while it can frequently be the greatest gift you ever give to a love one who is suffering from addiction, it is extremely important to understand that only the addict can actually deal with their disease and they alone can change their life and are in charge of their recovery. With that in mind, you will also need to make your decisions about how you will deal with their response to the intervention and or treatment. In addition, you will need to decide who should be there and if you would like to have a professional present or do it on your own. Meanwhile there are certain essential components of a successful intervention and you should definitely do your research and be prepared before you even begin the event.

It is summer time and time to take a road trip. However, interstate road trips can get kind of pricey. Taking a short road trip through your own state can be fun if you do it right. Every state will be different but you can use the same method of choosing where you are going to go as the ideas presented here. This is a road trip idea for traveling through California.

Of course, first and foremost you will need a california map , for planning the trip and to make sure that you don’t get lost driving between cities. For each city you may even want to get some city maps because some of the California cities can be kind of crazy and it is easiest to find your way around when you have a sense of where you are compared to where you want to be. If you have a TomTom or a Garmin this can take away the need for city maps, but they are generally not as reliable for travel between cities and are not good for planning a road trip at all.

Not wanting to make the road trip take too long, you will not be able to go to all the cities that you may want to. Try to hit the major cities like Los Angeles, Oxnard, Santa Barbara, San Jose, San Francisco , Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Santa Monica and San Diego. Choose four or five activities, places or things you want to see while in each city and set out an itinerary. This will allow you to let your job know that you will be gone for a specific amount of time. If not your job, it at least lets your friends know that you will be gone for a specific amount of time. If any of those cities bore you, skip it and choose a different city. This particular road trip suggestion should take you from one end of California to the other, but there are other ways to travel California. There are themes that you can add to the road trip, or you can just go visit all of your friends.

What have you done for a road trip?
Do you have road trip plans?

Hauppauge, New York isn’t just a hamlet of the town of Islip, nor an place where Industrial parks reign, Hauppauge offers some of the best restaurants in Long Island. Such as the Butterfields Restaurant, located within walking distance from any of the major Hauppauge hotels and offers the best and freshest cuisine in town.

Butterfields is a beautiful restaurant with a cozy, elegant atmosphere, suitable for a romantic dinner or for families, but it’s the food and outstanding service that will win you over. Butterfields motto is ‘If we have the time and the ingredients to make it, you can always have it.’ They offer lunch and dinner, plus they cater for up to 140 people. This would be a great place to impress a potential business client, because besides the owners love and integrity, which goes into every dish, they also offer a great night of laughs, drinks and dancing at their 40 foot mahogany bar. A DJ hosts the dancing every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday night. Tuesday night is Wine night where you’ll receive a complementary glass of wine with each course, Wednesday night is ladies night, and Thursday night is live music from the top bands on Long Island.

The menu selection is superb, serving the freshest and finest New American Cuisine dishes around. They even offer a ‘price fixed’ menu at $21.95 that includes a 4 course meal. All the dishes are homemade and prepared fresh with the finest ingredients. It’s recommended to try the steamed mussels, or the pan toasted Cavatelli with shaved Prosciutto and Gulf Shrimp in a light tomato broth served with sweet onions, peas toasted bread crumbs and flat leaf parsley or try the Maple Pecan Crusted Atlantic salmon served with roasted sweet potatoes, broccoli raab, and a smoked bacon-apple-onion compote. If those descriptions makes your mouth water, then while in Hauppauge, visit Butterfields located at 661 Old Willets Path.

The legacy of Django Reinhardt is indeed live and well in the world, and Chicago is a very lucky place to be. The city is famous for its wide variety of ethnic neighborhoods, with their own culinary and musical traditions, making for a fascinating foray into culture with every visit. For those who live here, its a kind of constant feast that eventually becomes so everyday that they become accustomed to virtuosity. For visitors, it’s always a series of stunning displays. In Chicago, one can start to hear how good the music can sound in formal and informal settings.

But there’s always room for something even better, and every generation reinvents the things that they loved from the past. Of course, it’s likely that no one will ever be able to top what Reinhardt did, and his very tumultuous life, growing up in gypsy encampments and running from the nazis, made for a particularly soulful sound that no one could reproduce. On some nights, however, there are moments when Swing Gitan seems to be touching the source of the music. Led by the masterful guitar of Alfonso Ponticelli , Swing Gitan has been entertaining Chicago with a new Gypsy sound since 2001.

He studied the folk music for 10 years, and has also taught in the Django style. Behind the student and the teacher, however, there is a fantastic artist, and it’s worth going out of one’s way to get to hear them play live.

With its immense offerings of such a wide selection of foods and performance traditions, and a great selection of four star hotels, Chicago is a wonderful place to check in on the news of the world in terms of the cultural productions of today. Gypsy music might be a splendid introduction, or a superb endnote, or everything else in between as well.