Dan Sorensen is a wanna-be-travel expert who enjoys vacationing in all its forms. When not traveling, he works as a PR professional in Salt Lake City, Utah. You can also find him on Twitter where he is known only as @sorensenpower.

My wife and I recently stayed a couple of nights in Miami prior to leaving on a cruise to the Western Caribbean. While there, we decided to make the most of the experience and do a little SCUBA diving.

It had been about three years since our last dive (living in the Rockies means you don’t get a lot of SCUBA opportunities). I reached out to a few guides and found Miami Scuba Ventures could both help get a good refresher and a good experience.

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You know that song, A foggy day in London town.  Had me low, had me down?

Well that song has a whole new meaning after having spent a few days in London.  It was certainly foggy, and rainy, but that didn’t stop us from seeing everything we wanted to. Most of the reason we were able to is because we bought tickets for a hop-on, hop-off bus tour.  This allowed us to see the city without getting soaked (we even got free ponchos!), but we also got to explore different areas or buildings, as we wanted.

There are two bus tour companies in London.  The Original Bus Tour and the Big Red Bus Tour.  We used the second company mentioned…for no particular reason.  They are quite comparable in price and value.  The Original Bus Tour may have nicer buses, but I can’t be sure since we didn’t actually ride in one.

The Big Red Bus tour covers all the major landmarks like Big Ben, London Bridge, and Buckingham palace.  There are more than 70 stops…but we didn’t get off at each one.  There are two bus routes, one with a pre-recorded tour offered in 8 languages and the other buses have an English-speaking tour guide. 

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Of the 58 National Parks in the U.S., many go unnoticed. Sure, everyone has been to Yellowstone and probably a few other parks throughout the country, but I’d bet not many of us have been to more than a handful.

I recently had the opportunity to visit Mesa Verde National Park and boy was I surprised. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, but after I did some research, I realized, “Oh, that’s where those Navajo cliff dwellings are.”

I’m sure most everyone has seen pictures of the famous Cliff Palace or other ruins in history class, but until you see it up close you don’t realize how impressive these structures really are. Another surprise is that there are over 600 cliff dwellings in the park as well – some which appear nearly impossible to reach, let alone build.
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Along with thousands of other visitors, our second day in New York City included a 6 hour visit to Liberty and Ellis Islands. As I mentioned in my first post, we have never been to New York and what would a trip to New York be without visiting the iconic Statue of Liberty? 
 
The sheer size of Lady Liberty is a sight to be seen. The statue itself is 151 ft tall – and that’s not including the pedestal on which it stands. After landing at Liberty Island, we set off to enter the monument (This is included in all ticket purchases, order ahead of time because daily allotments are limited). After going through a lengthy, but important, security process we entered the monument and began to learn about how the statue of liberty was constructed.
 
Afterwards we went to Ellis Island. I was extremely impressed by the amount of history in that little island. The museum and exhibit talk about immigration to the U.S. There are charts and exhibits that talk about how people entering the U.S. were screened for sicknesses, and disabilities. As the people would come in, they were filed through lines and screened to see where they would be useful.
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This month, my wife and I had the opportunity to score $200 plane tickets to New York City. Jet Blue was doing a promotion that featured discounted flights to various major cities – some for less than $50 each way. We quickly capitalized on this opportunity and last week we made the journey to the Big Apple.

Prior to this trip, I had flown with a wide array of carriers but never Jet Blue. I have always preferred Delta because of their Sky Miles program. I’m not sure why, but I always thought Jet Blue was the worst. I don’t know where this idea came from but I have avoided them at all costs. I have since realized the error of my ways. After flying with them, Jet Blue is probably one of my favorite carriers. Not only do they provide blue potato chips as a mid-flight snack, they also have TV’s in the back of all the headrests, the flight attendants were stellar and their seats had lots of leg room (as long as you don’t sit in the very back). All-in-all, it was a good experience.

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