The absolute # 1 thing that I love most about working for myself is the FREEDOM that it provides.  But with all of that freedom, it can sure leave you exhausted after back-to-back trips.  Over the past 30 days, Kristin (my wonderful girlfriend) and I have been to Chicago for 6 days, Boca Raton for 5 days, and on a cruise for a week.

Since this is the ‘just for fun’ section, I thought I’d share some photos of our recent travels…

Let’s start with our trip to Florida.

I was flown to Florida to meet with a very well-known and brilliant marketer.  His name is.. err… ahhh well, I… can’t say. What did we talk about? Well, I can’t really talk about that either.  But what I can do is show you some photos we took during our ‘fun day’ we took because I didn’t have any meetings to go to.

We took a TON of photos to keep our dream houses, cars, boats, etc. right in front of us at all times.  If you’re not dreaming big and you’re not going after anything… what’s the point?

The famous “A1A”… Ice Ice Baby.

Just so happens that my yacht was docked when we were driving down A1A. Oh wait a second… I mean that this is the yacht that we’ll soon own.

Here we are having a cocktail at the Ritz Carlton in Palm Beach, Florida.  Everything was perfect… except for the fact that we were driving around in a convertible all day up and down A1A without sunscreen.  Ouch.  As you can see… Kristin got a little burned.  You’d think we’d know better living in Houston!

Here’s a house that was added to the list of “must own soon” houses. Talk about a nice back yard, huh?

While driving I noticed a little path that lead to the ocean on the side of the road.  We turned around and pulled over to go check it out since it was getting late and our feet hadn’t even touched the Florida sand yet.  We were lucky to see someone running down the beach who was kind enough to take our picture.  Thankfully he couldn’t run very fast and I was able to get our camera back just 100 yards down the beach.  (kidding.)

This little tiny white house is one of the most expensive in the area.  And yes, it is for sale.? I believe it was around $30,000,000.00.  If you plan on buying it, let me know so I can quickly get my Florida Real Estate License.  A 4-5% commission would earn a cool million.

The next week we found ourselves in Chicago to attend a marketing event with nearly 1,000 people.

I wish that I had more photos of Chicago to share with you, but this was our only day out.  I was attending a conference for several days learning all of the ‘marketing secrets’ I could cram into my head.

Plus… you really CAN win in those little ‘fish bowl’ drawings!

I put my biz card into one of the fish bowls a company had out.  On the way back to our house from the airport in Houston I checked my voice mail and to my surprise… I won!  And what exactly did I win?  I HUGE 75 pound flat screen TV!  It actually just arrived today and it still sitting in the hallway.  I have no clue what I’m going to do with this thing.  Any ideas?  Use it as a computer monitor?  Put some legs on it and make it an interesting table?

I’m not one to watch TV - plus I already have one.  So if you have any ideas… be sure to click the ‘comment’ button at the end of this post.

We get back from Chicago in enough time to get the dry cleaning taken care of and a week later we’re on our way to the cruise ship.  Oh… and sadly we had to board our “dogter”, Buttercup.  Cruise ships still don’t allow dogs.  Wonder why?

Here’s Buttercup all dressed and ready to go to her “Doggie Daycare and Spa”.  And yes, of course she got her own private room with a flat screen TV that plays Animal Planet on it 24×7.  Sounds crazy, I know… but you should see the other rooms that this place has.  Swimming pools… waterfalls… you name it.  I was shocked when I took the tour.  (And even more?shocked when I got the bill when I picked her up!)

So now we’re off for a much needed vacation to the Caribbean.

Here’s Kristin and I on the top deck waiting to set sail on a warm beautiful day.  Note that this is the only photo that you’ll see from day one because of a little delay.  The ship had some sort of a problem and we were delayed leaving the port by a good 2 and 1/2 hours.  Of course we’re all up on the top deck getting a lot of sun and they just kept feeding everyone drinks to stay cool.  And believe me… they put a LOT more than just an umbrella in those drinks!

It’s funny.  I’ve seen other people’s photos when they’ve gone on a cruise to the Caribbean and everyone always takes a picture in front of Senior Frogs in Grand Cayman.  So I think I’m now part of some secret Senior Frog Club now…

Kristin and I having fun on the first formal night.  You know, this was my first cruise and I never knew how many pairs of everything you needed to bring.  You’re changing about 10 times a day when you’re on a cruise.  (Yeah, and eating about that many times too.)  ;)

And speaking of eating… you can see me in the back there with my arm up in the air.  That was my reaction after they gave us the dessert menu that was to be eaten after you’ve already had like 30 desserts after your meal.

But thankfully they let you off the ship so you can burn off all of the food you ate the day before.  Here I am on a jet ski in Jamaica.  Interesting story about this… when Jason (Kristin’s brother) and I rented these, they quickly got him on his way and zooooom - he was off.

The guy trying to start my jet ski was having problems and called others over.  They finally figured out that there was a TON of water in it and had to bring it on shore and drain it.  They then said I was good to go - ‘no problem, mon’.  I asked if it was going to take on water again and he said, ‘most definitely, there is a crack in the bottom.’

…. and why am I getting on this?

He then told me to ‘go fast and don’t stop - you’ll have no problem’.  Sounded good to me.  So I’m off and we’re out in the water for about 25 minutes.  (We had rented them for 30 minutes)  All in a sudden I went from being able to go 45 miles an hour to about 10 m.p.h.  I noticed the jet ski was driving strange and the engine was not sounding too healthy.  I thankfully made it back to the shore while going a strong 4 miles per hour.  A minute longer and it would have sunk!

And yes, we did get a chance to go to Hell while were in Cayman.  So for those of you who told me to go there while I was growing up… I’m proud to let you know that I did - and I had fun!

In case you were wondering what it looks like (no joke… the photo below is really what they call “hell” there):

Strange. I know.

And finally, here we are celebrating Kristin’s Birthday.  (Shhhhh… a little early.  But they didn’t have to know that.)

We truly had a blast on the Cruise, in Florida, and in Chicago.  And I can tell you one thing… I’m BEAT.  If I knew how much a cruise could take out of you, I would have scheduled a few days of R&R for when we got back.  Whew!

We took over 300 photos on the cruise - so if you’ve never been on one and you’re planning on going on one - be sure to get a larger memory stick for your digital camera.  Oh, and guys… if you’re going with your girlfriend or wife, be prepared to spend another $100 on the ship on photos that they take of you.  Even if you take 1,000 photos, the $40 photos that they took of you the night before always catch their eye.  ;)

So what’s next?

Las Vegas to the big VMD meeting and a weekend at Richard Kall’s house the first week of June.  I think what I may do on this website is start a new page, “Where’s Rob” instead of Where’s Waldo and I’ll just post a new photo each week and let you guess where I’m at.?  Seems like we’ve been on the go constantly. :)  Boy, freedom keeps you busy!

Until next time!

Rob

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 9th, 2007 at 11:18 am and is filed under Just For Fun. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.