Dwayne

Bizzarro's Famous New York Pizza This place is literally a dozen steps off the beach in Indialantic. They sell pizza by the slice or the whole pie. I had a slice, and the slice is large enough for a meal. I liked it. Good, thin crust New York style pizza. The place is not fancy with half the seating in the shade outdoors. Half the customers are just off the beach - sand and all. If you are in the Melbourne, Florida area, take highway 192 from I-95 east. Go through Melbourne and across the bridge to the strip island hosting Indialantic. Walk in the sand or on the boardwalk, then stop by for a slice. A slice of pizza and a soft drink costs $4.50. ... read more

My wife and I stayed three days in Pigeon Forge to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. Pigeon Forge is just north of Gatlinburg which sits at the northern entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This area is in north eastern Tennessee south of Interstate 40. Overall: Enjoyable - I would love to visit again. Accommodations We rented a small cabin from Cabin Fever Vacations . I mention this rental service by name as one thing you notice between I-40 and the National Park are about two dozen cabin rental services. There are several thriving businesses making log cabins in the area. These "cabins" are machine-built homes that are typical of vacation homes in many parts of the U.S. They are covered on the inside with wood panelling instead of white sheet rock. The "cabin" ... read more

My wife and I walked up the Laurel Falls-Cove Mountain trail. This starts at the Fighting Creek Gap (don't you just love these names?) parking lot, goes a little more than a mile to Laurel Falls, then 3 more miles up to the crest where the trail intersects the Cove Mountain Trail. The route is four miles up and four miles back. We covered it in four hours. The bottom section is like a shopping mall. It is crowded, paved, and has an almost amusement park feel at the water fall. The next three miles has a drastically different feel. It isn't the steepest climb in the Smokies, but we ascended 1,500 feet in three miles. We returned to civilization at the crest where we found a ranger tower (closed to the public), a power line ... read more

I was in San Diego for a conference near the marina - downtown. I happened into the Grand Central Cafe for breakfast two mornings. I loved it. The Grand Central Cafe is on the corner of Broadway and India - near the old train station, hence the name Grand Central. The Cafe is on the first floor of the YMCA building - opened in 1924. This is an old building from a time when buildings had architecture, taste, and style. The building appears to have been remodeled in the last 10 or 15 years. It is clean, well decorated, and a pleasant place to be. Breakfast costs $10 to $15. I had two different omelets on my two mornings here. Both were excellent. The service is good - my coffee cup never reached the half-empty point ... read more

That's what was printed on the sign. I lost track of which sign as I saw it everywhere I turned. My heart sank each time with the first time being the worst. I was at Christ Church College. This is the most famous or at least the most famous sounding college at Oxford University. Oxford, so said something I read, is the oldest English-language university in the world - some 800 years old. I came around a corner with great anticipation. I had spent enough time in the cathedral at Christ Church that the January chill was mostly gone. I was ready to spend an hour browsing the shelves, looking through the card catalog (electronic or paper), trying to find some of my favorite volumes, and looking for that something that I didn't expect. That ... read more

Its Christmas time, so I am making my holiday visit to friends and relatives in Mississippi and Louisiana. I detoured to visit the Mississippi Gulf Coast. My family and I spent a week here in August - two weeks before Hurricane Katrina hit. Most of the news media has paid too much attention to the plight of New Orleans. The Mississippi Gulf Coast and other areas have been ignored. I was able to drive a ten-mile stretch of what once was Highway 90. This highway is on the water of the gulf. The beach is one step to the south and the homes are one step to the north. Except now the homes are gone. When I look towards where the homes once were it looks like a forest. There are plenty of trees. The leaves ... read more