Summer Travels

If you read my last post about This is Kirtland!, you know I said that the show ending wasn't really a sad event and that I was basically ready to move on with the next stage of life. Well, part of that was due to the travel plans I had!

After we had the cast party on July 22 and then did a cast recording session July 23, I got moving on my first leg of travel beginning July 26 and lasting to August 4. I left for Perrysburg, Ohio, where I visited my good friends Michelle and Julie, and my friend Amanda, who was visiting from Utah. My reason for visiting was that I was scheduled to sing at the Toledo Mud Hens baseball game on the 27th, so it was nice to be able to visit with Michelle, Amanda, and Julie and they were able to be at the game! As is always the case, singing the national anthem never gets old. This was not only my first time singing for Toledo, but my first time ever at a Mud Hens game (they are the AAA affiliate of the Detroit Tigers). Despite a slight delay for rain, the performance went well and the weather ended up being great! Even better was that because of the delay, most of the crowd was in the stands when I sang and it ended up being at or near a sellout of over 11,000. Even better, it was a fireworks night!

Ended up being a beautiful night for baseball after a rain delay before
it even started. It was my first time ever going to a game in Toledo! 

I was very happy with my performance that night, plus a lady sitting in front of us asked me for my autograph for when I "become famous". It definitely made me smile, and yes, I totally signed it. She even asked me to make it out to her personally. I got tons of other very nice compliments from people as I walked around the ballpark (I took a bunch of pictures and got some food too). One guy even told me that his friend was a season ticket holder and I was the best singer he's heard all season. Always great to hear. I'm hopeful to sing for another baseball game somewhere, but nothing is scheduled this point. This season, so far, I've sung for the Columbus Clippers (AAA affiliate of the Cleveland Indians), Akron Aeros (AA affiliate of the Cleveland Indians), the Cleveland Indians, and the Mud Hens. I'd love to sing for some other Major League teams, but so far, only the Indians have responded.

Amazing to think how far we've come and that we've known each
other over 10 years now!

Anyway, I had a great visit with Michelle and Amanda, and we spent several hours talking about everything under the sun and just catching up, staying up for hours and hours longer than we should have (it was totally worth it, by the way). I really enjoyed it, though it was only for 3 days. I left Sunday afternoon and continued west to visit my sister and her family in Indiana, where I stayed for a week.

While in Indiana, I had a great time just hanging out mostly with my sister and nephews and my brother-in-law when he was home from work. We did something every day, as simple as going to the library for a bit to going to Indiana Dunes State Park and spending the afternoon on the shore of Lake Michigan. I also went with Becky and the boys to the mall and the candy factory, and we had an adventurous time eating out one night at a restaurant in Chesterton. All in all, a wonderful week and tons of fun for me getting to spend time with everyone and help Becky out a bit with the boys during the day. It was also the first time for me having both carseats in my car. We have a carseat here in Kent that Becky bought a few years ago since they still lived in Utah and flew here, so bringing a carseat would've been more difficult. I brought that with me and then we took Ryan's carseat out of their car since David needed it for work some days, so that made things a tad easier than having to move both carseats.

"In disguise" thanks to Amanda :)

Being taken out of the park against his will

At the mall while Nate rode the carousel

Indiana Dunes State Park on the shore of Lake Michigan

Getting Nate in this far is somewhat of an accomplishment...
this kid is not a big fan of water

Venturing out...he was promptly knocked over by the
next wave, and yes, I was right there to get him out :)

One thing I did in Indiana was crack Nate's resistance to eating all his food at meals. Seriously, this kid would eat like a bird and hardly ever ate the little bit of food he had been given. Becky went so far as to "offer" $1,000 to anyone who could get Nate to eat an entire meal. Well, let's just say I'm owed $1,000. How? Somehow I figured out that using the timer feature on my iPhone would be a motivation for him. I would give him about 8 minutes, and he'd eat while he watched the phone count down. They were visiting Kent back in July right when I first got the phone and I remember he just stared at the countdown for a good 10 minutes in church when he was playing with it. Well, it worked and he ate every meal except the one we ate out (because he had way too much food on top of a larger-than-normal dinner). It was almost a game to see if he could beat the timer, plus we tried using the stopwatch to see how quick he could do it. I also "bribed" him with Jelly Bellies, but it was great because I could give him a whopping 4 and he thought that was a good amount, so I went with it.

I have to say what I enjoyed most about being in Indiana was hearing Ryan talk. The things he says always make me laugh, plus the way he says them is even better. Just a few complete sentences here and there ("I want chocolate", though he says "chock-it"), but my favorite was when he wanted a drink "mm drink" or when he say candy and he'd say it really fast. What a character.

After I got home from Indiana, I had just under two weeks before the next trip, so I got to work on my main project, which was painting the back part of the house, which we call "the addition". The addition is basically a larger room and a smaller room with a bathroom (which I painted last summer) in between. This job was to paint those two rooms and the ceiling, which was quite the undertaking since we have tons of furniture in there and nowhere to move it. What I ended up doing is basically moving everything together, then moving it all again as I progressed around the different parts of the room. It made for a very cumbersome job, but there really wasn't any other way to do it. Outside of Sunday, I worked on it every day from Saturday until late Wednesday night (early Thursday morning). Not only did I have to paint, but I had to do plaster repair on several places where the drywall tape was coming off or had gotten wet from the roof damage (which was replaced recently). After that, I got some of the big furniture moved around as we decided to switch where the office area had been with where the TV had been. Because Mom and I were leaving for Nashville the morning I finished the painting itself, the room was largely a disaster, but I did manage to get the TV set up by moving the wiring for the U-verse and getting both computers set up while everything else stayed away from the walls. The rooms definitely needed painted not only for regular maintenance, but the paint had faded quite a bit to the point if we moved any of the pictures on the wall, you could tell where they went. Yikes!

Can you see where the pictures used to be?

Visual evidence that I did actually paint...

FINALLY removed the chalkboard that was a holdover from the
office days. You can see the original color of the room too. The white
strip on the side there is where I had to remove and later replace drywall tape
and plaster (see the debris below it).

Where the chalkboard used to be!

After a somewhat trying day where the ceiling had to be scraped in parts
due to earlier water damage that caused the old paint to peel off when
I painted over it. Oh, and my feet hurt like #$%&

After getting back from Tennessee, we've been working more on getting organized. Still not totally there, but making some big progress! It's exciting to see the changes, especially finally getting the chalkboard out of the room (the addition was built to house my grandma's tutoring business in the late 1980s, so it still had the basic setup of an office even though it hasn't been such in 20 years).

So, on to Tennessee. Mom came with me for this one as we went to get out of town for a bit and to celebrate my niece Evelyn's 1st birthday. We were planning on visiting Tennessee at some point in the summer anyway, so I decided it would be fun to come for the 1st. I'm glad we did because it ended up being a really fun week, especially for me!

Evelyn only recently started walking, so it was great to see her moving around. I discovered she's a daddy's girl too (NOT surprised!!). By the time we left, I'm pretty sure I was an acceptable substitute for her dad as she cried a bit when I handed her off to my mom when I had to go out to the car (we were hanging out while Heather got some of the cleaning done). What was funny was when I first got there, she cried since she didn't recognize me, but once she got used to me, hey, we were best buds! The last day I was there I went to the Nashville Zoo with her and my brother, and we had a great time even with the heat and humidity. She was a bit out of it because she was recovering from hand, foot, and mouth disease, which she came down with about the time we arrived (I first noticed her coughing that Sunday).

Mom and me (NOT "Mom and I") traveling to Tennessee. And yes, after
seeing this picture, I fixed that handle in the background!

Evelyn's actual first birthday with her favorite: spaghetti.
No shortage of pictures of this kid!

Cakes Heather made for the birthday. The little lady bug cake was just for Evelyn

Yes, she liked her cake!

SUCH a daddy's girl!

Little E is cool with me too :)

Opening presents on her birthday (we did a larger "party" a few days
later when some of Heather's sisters could be there)

Grandma with the granddaughter

Another thing I enjoyed doing was singing in sacrament meeting in Andy and Heather's ward. I love to sing--no secret there--so I like to sing in different wards (congregations) outside my own whenever I get the chance. Since no one was scheduled for their ward the week I was going to be there, I figured why not? Not only do I get to do something I enjoy, but it's a great way for people to notice who you are and gives them an excuse to come talk to you, which can be tough when someone is visiting like me. I've done it in my sister's ward in Indiana and when I came back during my visit, people remembered me and later asked my sister if we could sing together again :). She likes to sing too, so now she'll get more opportunities too. Anyway, I was very happy how my song went and was most grateful that Heather plays the piano! She did great on short notice!

During my trip to Tennessee, I made a "trip-within-a-trip" down to Louisiana to visit my friend Will, who was a missionary companion of mine in Las Cruces, New Mexico from December 2002-February 2003. We've kept in touch over the years, but hadn't seen each other since 2008 when he was a student at the University of Maryland, College Park and my brother was living in the same area near Washington, DC. Hard to believe that was 5 years ago...it seems much sooner than that. I had intended to visit him last year when I was in Tennessee for Spring Break, but he got called out for work (he's in the Air Force) at the last minute (I was visiting another friend in Texas, so was in the area, but just went back to Tennessee earlier than expected). Will lives 8 hours from my brother's (which is how long it takes me to get there from Ohio), so it was a bit of a drive, but I enjoyed it. It was great to see him and to meet Megan (his significant other) and Brody (their dog) and just relax a bit. I had originally planned to stay just overnight and then head back to Tennessee, but Will convinced me to hang around an extra day, even though he and Megan would be at work on base for most of the day. I didn't mind since it meant I got some sweet solitude and really, as long as I have an Internet connection, I'm OK. Even without it, I'll find something to do. I told him "boring people get bored." But really, it was so good to see him and catch up a bit. He showed me the planes he flies for the Air Force (B-52) and took me around the base. Megan was a good sport with all our mission and Mormon jargon as we talked too. But yeah, it was good to talk.

I've been in the cockpits of retired planes, but never a live one outside this one
time when I was 6 and I got to see the cockpit of a commercial liner. This
is the cockpit of an active B-52 bomber. It was built in the early 1960s.

I guess Will is like a brother to me...we had a great time serving together
in Las Cruces, though hard to believe it's been over 10 years!

Me with Brody!

We stayed in Tennessee 2 days longer than originally planned, but that was because of my trip to Louisiana adding one more day and then after going to the zoo on Friday, I was pretty exhausted and had a headache, so we left Saturday. The only inconvenience was Mom needed to do the bulletin for church that coming Sunday, so we got it set up on my laptop and after much effort, got my Grandpa to send her the Microsoft Word file so she could type it all up. Once we got back to Kent, I set up a Microsoft SkyDrive account for Mom (cloud storage) so she can access all her files from any computer from now on. No more having to talk someone step-by-step through the process!

It's been a great summer and certainly eventful with This is Kirtland! taking so much of my time and energy through July. It was so nice to finally get away and just relax and enjoy some new sights, familiar sights, and being around people that I enjoy being around and enjoy having me around. And hey, those long drives are actually very therapeutic for me, so long as I don't have to deal with traffic problems (thankfully only minimal ones on all legs of the trip!). Still one more trip to come as Mom and I will be heading back to Indiana in about a week to spend time with everyone there, enjoy some local events, and help Becky out a bit. I found out while I was in Louisiana that she'll be having a girl in December, so I'll be getting TWO new nieces by the end of the year! Yes!

Second Verse Same as the First!

I'm back using the laptop again after I had some major problems getting it to start just before I left Utah.  It would turn on, but wouldn't get past the "Welcome" screen.  It also wouldn't shut down (I left it in "shutting down" mode and came back 3 hours later and the "shutting down" screen was still up.  After running the full Checkdisk (CHKDSK), which took like 8 hours, and then startup repair, it finally opened today, though it still has some problems.  I'm hoping the problems are software related and not hardware related.  I already have Windows 7 ready to install, which I hope to do this weekend.  I was thankfully able to get all my important files copied to my desktop (and will eventually copy them again to my external hard drive), so I can start over.  All I need to do now is get the license keys for Microsoft Office programs so I can reinstall them after I add Windows 7.  My laptop is an HP Pavilion tx2000z, a tablet PC, complete with fingerprint reader and touch screen.  I got it in late May or early June 2008, just before I started grad school, so it's coming on 4 years.  My desktop (Dell) is almost 5 years old (got it March 2007) and is definitely showing its age.  All the more reason to get a better job, so I can replace them when that time comes!  While the laptop was out and I wasn't home to use the desktop, I was able to use my iPod Touch to access most of the websites I check the most.  Mobile's great and all, but not all the time, especially for typing!

Another year, another run with This is Kirtland!

My laptop problem is my first major "event" of 2012, which began for me in Utah.  It was the first New Year's for me in Utah since I spent New Year's Eve 2001 in the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah.  It was great to be out in Utah with several members of my immediate family, and to have a change in the usual routine for Christmas.  As with any change in the year, I've definitely been reflecting on the past year, as most people do.  2011 overall wasn't a whole lot different than 2010 or 2009 in terms of progress.  That's not to say that nothing good happened in 2011, but it certainly wasn't as eventful in the areas I had hoped for when I looked ahead one year ago.  In many ways I feel stuck in neutral as far as finding that first full-time job and really taking off with life.  I'm still subbing and still at the same house.  There is some hope on the horizon, though, so at this point I'm cautiously optimistic that 2012 will bring some long-awaited progress in my life!  By the end of this year, there will definitely be some changes in any event in terms of employment.  Hopefully those changes will be an improvement over the current circumstances.

Singing the national anthem for the first time at a Major League game
was a total thrill!

The three biggest events of the year for me personally happened almost a month apart and were both unexpected events, or at least somewhat unexpected.  First was my surgery on August 25 to have my gallbladder removed. I had been having abdominal pains every few months and I just attributed it to indigestion.  The days leading up to the surgery, I had very intense abdominal pains that lasted a good 2 days and eliminated my appetite, not to mention made it somewhat painful to take deep breaths.  At first, there was fear of appendicitis, but I wasn't experiencing any of the symptoms.  After seemingly recovering from the stomach pains, I got extreme abdominal pains early in the morning of August 24th, so I had Mom take me to the ER in Ravenna around 5:30 AM.  There it was determined that my gallbladder was in need of removal, so I had surgery scheduled the next day.  It was the first time I've ever checked into a hospital and stayed overnight.  The surgery went well, but the gallbladder was so swollen it was ready to burst, so rather than going laparoscopically, they had to do a traditional incision that is about 7 inches long.  I still have a nice scar from that incision and the staples that were used to close it (and were removed about 2 weeks later).  Paying the whole medical bill is an on-going process, but thankfully I have been able to make steady payments to the myriad of bills!

Pre-surgery picture.  I was in the hospital a total of 4 days and 3 nights

My next biggest surprise was the first of 2011, when the Cleveland Indians called me on March 3 (the day after my birthday) and asked me to sing the national anthem at the game April 5th.  I had been sending audition CDs to the Indians for years, so it was nice to finally hear from them.  Even better was that (in an even bigger surprise), I was asked to sing again at the September 24th game too!  Both performances were great experiences and I hope to be able to sing for the Tribe again in 2012.  I also sang for the Akron Aeros again on Good Friday.  It was fun, but very cold and wet!

 The other somewhat unexpected event of 2011 was that I got a new car.  Actually, I got 2 new cars, well, new to me.  In April, my grandparents bought a brand-new Ford Taurus and subsequently gave me their 2005 Buick LeSabre (the ultimate grandparents car!).  The biggest surprise there was that their new car was red, BRIGHT red, from two people who have owned mostly blue, green, or gray cars the last few decades (the LeSabre is gray).  I knew they had been leaning towards getting a new car, but I didn't even know they were looking until they had already bought the new Taurus.  Well, at that point I tried to sell my existing 1998 Oldsmobile 88 LS (which had a host of problems) and the LeSabre with hopes of using the money to get a newer, smaller car.  Well, I struggled to find anyone willing to buy either car, so I was resigned to just keeping the newer LeSabre and going for a newer (and smaller) car when I finally got a job.  Well, things were going well until my trip to Pennsylvania and New York in August and I ended up having to have the LeSabre shipped back to Ohio after the brake rods rusted through, which happened in New York City on the way back from JFK airport.  All that got the wheels going fast on getting a different car, one that wasn't going to completely bankrupt me by having problem after problem.  With my mom's help, we got the main problems fixed on both cars and tried to sell them on the open market, but that didn't work. The LeSabre was sold to VanDevere Buick in Akron for $7,000 and I traded the Olds in (for a whopping $700) when I got my new car at Park Honda in Akron. I ended up getting a 2008 Honda Civic EX, which so far I have absolutely loved.  It's obviously much smaller than my previous cars (major plus), has great gas mileage, and my most favorite feature is the power moonroof.  I took it on its first major trip in November (to Louisiana and back) and it did pretty well!  

First time in the new car...this was the day AFTER I sang for the Indians
and got horribly sunburned during the game!

My new car right after I brought it home!

I had my share of travels this past year, which I very much enjoyed.  My first trip was to Bowling Green, Ohio, to see Kent State play BG in men's basketball and to visit my friend Michelle.  It's always fun to visit, plus we got to see a great game (and a KSU victory)!  The interesting part of the trip to BG was that I took it during the week (Tuesday) even though I had work the next day at Roosevelt (which also happened to be my 29th birthday).  I got back to Kent around midnight and then went to work ay 7 AM.  Yeah, I was tired, but it was totally worth it.  Other travels included three trips to Nashville (March, August, and November).  The November trip to Nashville was for Thanksgiving and also included a same-day trip to and from Monroe, Louisiana, to visit a friend there.  The most adventurous trip of 2011 was the Ridinger family gathering in the Pocono Mountains of eastern Pennsylvania near the town of Bushkill at the Tree Top Villas. That included three trips into New York City, which was just under 2 hours from where we were staying.  I took a solo trip to Manhattan one day (which included parking in Manhattan for free!), the crazy trip to JFK to drop my sister's friend Natalie off at the airport (the entire trip to and from JFK took like 9 hours or something outrageous because of traffic!), and then a group trip to Manhattan with my dad, sisters, and brother-in-law.  The two sightseeing trips were tons of fun and I enjoyed where we stayed and the time we had with each other.  My other biog trip is what ended 2011: my trip to Utah to visit with my sisters, brother-in-law, and nephew for Christmas and New Years with Mom.  It was a lot of fun, plus I enjoyed being able to see a few of my old friends I don't get to see very much anymore.  Christmas with a 2-year old is rather entertaining as well!

2011 Ridinger family photo

Birthday trip to BG with Michelle!

March 5 game in Kent with Katie!

Christmas morning at Becky & David's

Nate liked the wooden train I got him (Mom found it; I financed it!)

And of course, no year would be complete without another appearance in This is Kirtland! which I did this summer for the 6th year.  2011 was my debut as Lorenzo Snow, a part I thoroughly enjoyed.

After a show, from Brenda Ebie

And lastly, I finally rejoined the Kent Historical Society in October and started putting my love of local history to work. I'm in charge of planning a 90th anniversary of the Davey school building (the original Roosevelt High School), to take place this coming September.  It's been great working with everyone at KHS and having my excitement for local history appreciated! It was enough to get me to start my newest blog, Happenin' History, and share what I'm learning about history even more.  I've learned so much more about Kent's history than I ever imagined (especially the schools).  Joining the Facebook group "You Know you are from Kent if/when...." has been a lot of fun and educational!!  Now, here's to hoping 2012 is a good one!  Oh, and I just noticed that this is my 200th actual post on this blog!  Wow!

Tree Top Villas

Front view of our unit at Tree Top Villas

I'm pretty sure this is my last post related to the big family trip to Pennsylvania, but I did want to post a little about the place we stayed for the week we were there.  One of the great things about the web tracker I have on this blog from Feedjit.com (it's on the right column a little ways down the page) is not only telling me where my blog traffic is coming from, but many times it tells me why they came to the site in the first place.  When you click on "real-time view" you can often see what browser the reader used, what time they visited, and if they came via a weblink, what website that came from.  If they came from a search engine, it will usually say what search term they were using that my blog came up under.  As a result, I wanted to make this post for those who might do a search for the resort we stayed, the Tree Top Villas in Bushkill, PA.  That's why I did my recent post on the whole AT&T U-Verse thing too; just in case it could be of help to someone searching the world wide web!

Rear view of our unit

As I said in my recent post "Five-year photo", my grandma selected Tree Top Villas about a year ago after my sister had looked through every available property we could go to and evaluated the nearby attractions and resort amenities.  We had 18 total people (though had a friend of my sister for one night before we took her to JFK) and had 4 total units.  The unit I stayed in with my 3 siblings was a 3-bedroom unit, which apparently are fairly recent additions to the complex.  We had 6 people in the unit (7 for one night) and it had 6 total beds, though it can comfortably sleep 8 people in the beds.  The master bedroom has a king-sized bed and one of the upstairs rooms has a queen-sized bed.  The third bedroom (where I slept) had 2 double beds and then there's a loft area overlooking the living room that had 2 twin beds.  There was a couch bed too, so total, it could technically sleep 10 people if absolutely needed.  In addition, we also had 6 family members in an adjacent 3-bedroom unit (it was right next to ours and was simply a mirror-reflection of it), 2 in a 2-bedroom unit not too far from us, and then my grandparents were with an aunt and uncle in a 2-bedroom unit on the opposite side of the property from us.  I was never in either of the 2-bedroom units, so can't really comment on them.  My grandma thought theirs was difficult for people their age (my grandparents are in their 80s) because it had a lot of stairs.  Their unit, according to my aunt, was also much older and not in the best of shape.  The other 2-bedroom unit, from what I heard, was newer and in better shape but was the same basic floorplan.

View from the front door

I can comment on our unit, though!  Overall, I liked it.  The layout was nice and open and as soon as you walk in, you're greeted with a nice dining area, an open kitchen behind it, and a very nice staircase going up to the bedrooms.  The loft overlooking the living room was a nice touch, though I'm not really a big fan of the beds being in the loft.  I'd much rather have the beds be in an actual bed room.  One feature that our unit had that the adjacent unit did not was a few extra windows.  That was because our unit was on the end of the group (there were 4 units together), so it could have a few side windows instead of just on the front and back.  For someone like me, that was an added touch, plus the window we had at the top of the stairs provided me with one of those "memorable moments" from the trip.  I was opening the mini-blinds to it one morning and my  20 month-old nephew was coming up the stairs with his mom (my sister) and saw me opening it.  His face lit up and he said "Windows!  Yeah windows!" and went over to look out.  I like windows too, but I've never seen anyone get that excited for them!  Just think, if we had been in the adjacent unit (which obviously didn't have a window at the top of the stairs like that) I wouldn't have been able to experience that fun moment.  Anyway, there were quite a few windows on the front and back, so you could have your privacy, but still let lots of natural light in.  All the rooms had a ceiling fan too, which I very much appreciated!  The furniture was good enough and having a washer and dryer (and dishwasher) was a nice touch.  I never used the washer and  dryer, but my sisters did.

The columns as seen from the front door

There were a few things that I didn't care for, most of which are quite minor and cosmetic.  First, the way the unit was designed had these stylish columns right along the main hallway when you came in.  I like columns and all, but these were placed in such a way that they narrowed that hallway considerably.  While it seemed they were structurally necessary, I could see that they could've easily been placed further out or not used at all without compromising the structural integrity of the 2nd floor.  The master bedroom has an unusual layout too.  It has its own bathroom with a shower, but it also has a whirlpool and sauna that are actually part of the bedroom.  I just found it odd.  While yes, for the most part the people using the master bedroom will be the only people using the whirlpool and sauna, that's not always true, plus it makes the whole bedroom humid and steamy when it's being used.  I would much rather have that be part of the bathroom (which was a separate room attached to the bedroom) than part of the bedroom.  The other thing I was disappointed with was that many of the technology things, like the TVs and phones, were pretty dated.  Each bedroom and the living room had a TV (the one in my room would not change channels at all), but they were older TVs with the old 4:3 format instead of a widescreen.  I could understand the bedrooms maybe not having new widescreen TVs, but just putting one in the living room would instantly update the room without changing anything else.  The TVs weren't just old-looking, though, they were starting to look fuzzy and have picture quality problems too.  I know, the TVs don't make or break it and we certainly don't come out there to watch TV, but sometimes it's nice to sit back and relax while watching TV or a movie, so having a TV that's in good shape (and at least CLOSE to as good as what I have at home) is much appreciated.  The light switches were also in somewhat bizarre places for some of the rooms and the fans were controlled by those round dimmer switches from the 1980s.  The bedroom doors have closers on them, so the only way I could keep the door open to prevent the room from being absolutely freezing from the air conditioning, was to prop it open.  I didn't really understand the point of having the doors do that, and it was only the bedroom doors, not the bathroom doors.  

View from the loft

My biggest complaint was the Internet service there.  The resort has access to wireless Internet, but only via AT&T hotspots, not a wireless network of its own.  As a result, if you don't have AT&T at home you can opt to pay for Internet service to access the hotspot, or like us, you can log in using your AT&T U-Verse account.  While it worked out for us, even so the entire complex was using the same hotspot.  As a result, Internet was very slow, and that was after the headache of just getting online in the first place!  For the amount of money people are paying to stay there, decent Internet service isn't too much to ask.  Again, like TV, it's not why we come there, but it's how most people stay in touch and connected these days.  My brother, for instance, still had to work while he was there, so he needed Internet access.  It's not that expensive to set up a simple wireless network that can properly handle the traffic from the complex, and they could even add a small fee to the bills and no one would even notice or care.  Instead, it was like stepping back in time about 15 years to the days of long-distance (there was even a charge to make local calls!) and slow Internet (the speed was almost as slow as dial-up).

Master bedroom with sauna, whirlpool, and fireplace

The complex had the amenities I expected.  It's built around a golf course, so those that like to golf were happy.  There was at least one miniature golf course there as well.  The pools were decent.  I only went swimming twice, but when I did they seemed adequate.  I believe there are 4 pools total.  Each is in an indoor-outdoor pair and then the one closest to us had a hot tub.  I did like how the pools had towels to use so you didn't need to bring your own (though we figured that out after we brought our own).  With each pool complex was also a game room with a few video games and some other game options too.  I obviously had plenty to keep me occupied outside the resort, so I really didn't use a lot of the amenities to really evaluate them.  Compared to other places we have stayed, they were right what I expected.  Nothing glamorous or exciting, but not in bad shape or awful either.  

Living room with aforementioned TV

Breakfast area...window on left was one of
the "extra" windows we had because the
unit was on the end of the row.

Living room looking into kitchen and breakfast area

Stairway above the dining area.  I loved the curved railing!

Upstairs.  The door on the far right was where my room was

Loft area overlooking living room

The room I stayed in