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I can’t believed how cold has been here in Southern California, we have rain last couple of days and you can see the snow in the Big Bear mountains. 

So what people in Santa Monica California do when they can’t go sunbathing at the beach?
They go ice skating by the beach !!!
Yeap ! it’s is true, I am not kidding.  These people from Santa Monica always find a way to have fun in any situation.
Some of us have turn into a Grinch with this bad economy and the sight of kids and family laughing and having fun make us feel uneasy.  On this Christmas there is nothing to be happy about. There are huge money losses, everybody is going out of business, worst bear economy, the sky is falling, money is everything, money, money, money. People is wisely cutting down expenses, and maximazing on savings and is advaisable that you should do the same in these uncertain times, but don’t over do it that will ruin the Christmas for your children and love ones. You don’t need a lot of money to enjoy the Christmas spirit.
There is a slight possibility that maybe, if you join them (the ice skaters), suddenly your Grinch mood will start to disappear, and you will find yourself smiling, perhaps will be the first time you actually have fun in all this year. For your love ones everything is more beautiful and wonderful when ”you” are with them.  Well? What are you waiting for? Just give it a try and come visit the city of Santa Monica.

The city of Santa Monica in association with some business continue with a tradition of installing a temporary ice skating ring in a empty parking lot for the fun and entertainment of local Santa Monica residents and any visitant. The rental fee is $10 and that include the skate rental and use of the ice ring, the facility also have some area where you can enjoy a hot chocolate or your favorite brand name coffee or hot drink.
The Ice skating ring is located exactly in the corner of Arizona Ave and 5th street right across from the U.S. Postal  Service so is very conveniently located if you want to drop off some packages at the post office and take the kids to ice skate across the street.

Just five blocks from Santa Monica beach and two blocks from the popular 3rd street Promenade, where you can find a great selection of good restaurants, top brand name stores, movie theaters, live street entertainers, popular bookstores, fruit name computer and electronic stores, al-fresco or patio restaurant and coffee shops where you can just sit down and enjoy the view and the day.

Celebrate Christmas and enjoy the holidays, come and have fun with your love ones.

Last summer at the beach I found myself hiding my guts and love handles with a t-shirt. Well I promise myself I got to do something about it before it gets out of hand.  So I usually do the running or walking by the beach, bicycle, inline skating but maybe I am eating too many carne asada burritos, and Mexican chips with hot salsa. I got to cut down on those too. My wife always said “watch what you eat” and I respond “I stare very hard to that hamburger before I eat it” She just roll her eyes and walk away. She won’t admit it but she loves me for my good sense of humor.
Anyway, I found something that you can do exercise at home and have fun at the same time, you can do exercise by yourself or with the whole family. And it happens to be one of my kid’s toys. Let me tell you that I don’t usually play with my kids toys, for real, I don’t touch their Star Wars action figures and nether the X-wing planes and none of that except that little helicopter that you can use with a remote control to fly it around the house. (We didn’t have cool toys like these when I was a kid) Anyway going back to my topic I discovered (drums roll) my kid’s Nintendo Wii video game consol. specifically the game called Wii fit.
The Wii fits use a Wii Balance Board, this is a pressure-sensitive, similar in appearance to a step aerobics board. Read more useful information in this article title “No more couch potato with the new Nintendo game WiiFit”
You have 4 categories to choose for your exercises
Strength training
Aerobics
Yoga
Balance Games
Times are very difficult now and we are cutting cost in anything we can, and like some of us who was enroll in the gym but never went to exercise except for the first three month of the year, we have to cut down on membership and have to look for alternative to exercise and since we found a good deal on this Wii system we might as well squeeze all the benefits we can get out of it. We try to get items that will be use for multiple purpose and the Nintendo Wii system is very flexible and versatile toy. Great gift for your kids for this Christmas.
Find yourself great deals on Wii fits for this Christmas and get your whole family in good shape.

We witness an historical event yesterday. Tuesday, November 4th 2008. Election day in the United States.

As many fellow citizens were arriving to their polling place to deal with several important issues and cast their vote.
Many of them were carrying high hopes to elect a new leader. One who will bring relief to the working class and who have been hit hard in this slow economy.
There were some key events in this important election that was a turning point for the direction America is going to take.
 1st there was Hillary Clinton who took a shot at been the first woman who could become president of The United State. She was an excellent candidate and her fight opened the door to all women to aspire for the presidential seat.
2nd Many people thought they will never see in their lifetime a black man in the white house. The world was watching if America was going to decide by the color of the skin or race of the candidate or his qualification to lead this country.
3rd McCain a very popular candidate with a remarkable record of serving this country and with the election of Sarah Palin as a vice-president was a very tough couple to beat in this election.
4th The economy, with record braking, high gas prices, increase in price of all consumable goods, laid-off, the crash of the housing market, and the losing of value in their retirement accounts. Those are some of the problems that the low and middle class families have been enduring these pass years. The backbone of America can’t allow these problems to continue damaging many families, friends and fellow Americans without looking for practical solutions.
This was a very important election and the new president will face many challenges and difficult problems to resolve.
On January 20th 2009 the new elected president will take power and will have to immediately deal with the following subjects.

• Recession
• Create confidence in the US economy
• Find a solution for this war – preferable peaceful solutions
• Health care
• Ways to help homeowners avoid foreclosure - Create accountable measures for the Banking and Real Estate Market
• Cut down our dependency on oil and support alternative fuel technologies
• Better future for our children

All of issues are not easy to resolve, and required many sacrifices and tough choices but we hope that with our new leader we can all work and find solutions for the common good.
Great Sunny Beaches salute our new president, vice president and all the people who voted yesterday for a better America.

I can’t believe how hot the weather has been this past week here in Los Angeles, California area
I guess some people got tired of surfing the internet and getting so depressed about the stock market, the recession, and the financial slum we’ve fallen into, that they grab their surfing board instead and headed for the beach.
Everybody seems to have the same idea than me because the Santa Monica beach was crowded. My kids mentioned that they want to see the kitesurfers again so we headed North in Pacific Coast Highway toward Malibu beach. (See my previous post kitesurfing at Malibu Beach California)
This seem to be the only place that this sport is practiced because I have not seeing any kitesurfing practiced anywhere but here. From San Diego, through Orange county and South Bay beaches, but I might be wrong and just happen that when I was visiting these places there was nobody kiteboarding at that time.

As we watched the beautiful colors and designs of these kite boards, we talked with some of the surfers and inquired what are the features a good kiteboard should have and they mentioned that they expect their kite to: turn faster, jump higher, loop tighter, and hang longer

If you want to try and learn more about this sport there are some instructional DVD for kiteboard training so you can become familiar with what is required for kitesurfing. Get to know the masters of kiteboarding names like Chris Moore and others professionals that practice and master kitesurfing.

Kitesurfing is a very physical demanding extreme sport and some of basic physical condition you must have as a surfer also applied to kiteboarding and they are:
· You must have good swimming skills
· Good balance abilities
· Upper body strength
· Legs and calves strength
· Endurance
· Ability to think and react quickly to a split second changing conditions.

If you think you can do it, then you must do your diligent research for the best brands, prices and quality. Sometimes you can find in Ebay great bargains in used or new kiteboarding kit and equipment.

Here are some of the popular brands and styles of kiteboards that are sold on Ebay
2007 16m Bularoo complete with kite bag and pump
2008 13 m waroo kiteboarding Waroo pro 11 meter
Slingshot machine 17.5m kite
2008 cabrinha convert 9m kite
Gk globe kites sonic 14m kite complete

Kiteboarding in a exciting sport to practice when you visit some of the great sunny beaches of Southern California

Halloween is here and some people in Southern California are looking for Halloween costumes for children or adults.
Saving money on Halloween costumes
You can search several ways of saving money on a Halloween costume for example you can make your costume yourself. All you need is creativity and imagination and look around for items and clothes you already have at home. Read a story here of how some kids made their videogame character costume. Other way is researching at Ebay or other costumes stores for unexpensive costumes or great deals for your money.
Cool places to look for Halloween costumes

• Dark and scary costumes for adults
• Children, pets, kids and adult costumes
  To continue with my beach theme what more appropriated costumes than a beautiful mermaid from costume kingdom, or a Hawaiian Luau costume, beach dud, tourist, tropical dressed girl. Well you got the idea.
  If you don’t like to wear a costume but you still like to get scare, here are some tips for you.
  Read the economic news. (Some people are having a great party with your bailout money and they don’t seem very worry about the financial crisis.) So don’t spoil the fun for you and your kids.
  Another great thing to do for Halloween is visit Southern California Amusement parks
  Knott’s Scary Berry Farm (The original Halloween haunt park and one of the favorite places to visit Knott’s Berry Farm)
  Mickey Trick or treat party (come and celebrate Halloween in Disneyland with the whole family)
  Halloween Horror (Universal Studios)

Treat or treating all you want with your family and friends and have a safe and happy Halloween

This pass 4th of July long weekend was excellent, we all needed a brake from our routine.
The temperature here were so hot that everybody was heading to all those places that have “Water” and places like Raging Waters, Soak City, Hurricane Harbor and Wild Rivers in Southern California was the favorite place to be for kids and adults. Of course that local lakes, beaches and rivers were very popular spots to be with family and friends.
A lot of people where so anxious to use that brand new grill they just bought. They were waiting for a special occasion like this pass holiday. They put on the grill everything they could find, hamburgers patty, chicken, shrimps, hotdogs, vegetable you name it. Even the hamburgers that some of my folks created were as delicious as the one in In-and-Out restaurant.
While I was resting and swinging in the hammock next to the water, I was kind of daydreaming about “why not create my own personal independence day”
Well? Of What I need to have an independence from? To begin with I have compiled a list of things that I need to get my independence from so here it is my own personal list:
 

My own independence day

• Financial independence - continue working and researching my home-based-business and other opportunities while I still have a job. Don’t give up, some day my efforts will pay off.
• Independence from debt – Cut down or completely eliminates expenses. Doesn’t use Credit Cards, use a ATM/debit card instead.
• Independence from misery - Live my life at plenitude – Be happy, enjoy the moments with my children and wife. Live and enjoy the present.
• Independence from oil – Oil price $125.00 per barrel and no top on sight, somebody must be swimming in a pool of dollars. Is there something I can do to lower my consumption and dependence on gas? First I will try to get the maximum benefits in every car trip I make, and use the car only when necessary. Also use alternative transportation, public bus, metro, bicycle, car-pool, whatever I have to be creative.
• Independence from taxes - Create my own Boston Tea party, find way to reduce taxes, I already try my two dependent tricks but I did not do well, I love my kids anyway so that don’t matter if I spend more than what I can deduct. Maybe I will try to get my home base business profitable so I can legally allow some expenses deductions and tax deductions.
• Independence from bad politic -vote on November 08. Select the people who will contribute for the good of our country and not the deterioration of our states.
That will keep me busy for a while.  But for now I will go and see the 4th of July fireworks instead.

California Theme Parks
Well. Summer is here and the kids are out of school on vacation. They will be at home for about 3 months !!
One thing for sure is, that I don’t want they spend the whole summer playing video games and watching TV. So we are making plans on activities that the whole family can enjoy. We will do a research in all the amusement parks in Southern California and we will check if we can get any cheap or discount tickets.

We want to have fun but we also want to save as much money as possible, if we are required to take a soda can to get a discount, cut coupons or search for good deals on California amusement parks on the net, we will look for way to save money in anything. We want to get the most fun for a buck, stretch our dollar value, make our dollar worth something. Otherwise with the high cost of gasoline we will be spending more than we can handle.

Theme parks in Southern California
Disneyland
California Adventure
Knott’s Berry Farm
Soak City
Universal Studios
Six Flag Magic Mountain
Six Flag Hurricane Harbor
Sea World San Diego 
Legoland
Raging Waters

Sometimes you can find deal that are called parkhopper for example Disneyland sometimes they have a deal that for one adult admission to Disneyland you can come next day or any other day to California Adventure park located next to Disneyland park. You can find the same deal of the parkhopper in other similar theme parks like Knott’s Berry Farm and Soak City or Six Flag Magic Mountain and Six Flag Hurricane Harbor. They don’t have this offers all the time so that is why you have to research for this and other good deals these themes park have, and you can get your hand on them and save a bundle.

If you are visiting Southern California, make sure you take your family to any of this parks, and your kids will remember all those special happy moments that you share together and that will last a lifetime.

4th of July celebration at the beach
This coming Friday we’ll be celebrating 4th of July
And a lot of people will be heading to the Great Sunny Beaches of Southern California
You can enjoy a beautiful day at the beach, where temperatures will be around the 80 or 100. You can bring your barbeque or if you prefer to visit one of the several local bar-restaurants for a good meal or your favorite cold drink and socialize while you are there.
During the day you can do the usual beach activities like, surfing, playing volleyball, ride your bike or inline skates or simply enjoy the sand and the water.
Each beach city will have their own way to celebrate the 4th of July, for example Marina del Rey will have their annual fireworks show over the Marina’s main channel and Venice Beach will have a bodybuilding competition and they will be looking for Mr. and Ms. muscle beach for this year. Also in the same event it will be the figure and swimsuit competition. Come and enjoy the show, and treat your eyes to this spectacle by the beach.

But when the night comes be prepare to watch the grand fireworks spectacle that most of the beach-cities do as a 4th of July tradition. The night will be illuminated with explosions of red, white and blue colors, such a beautiful sight for children and adult as well.
Make sure you are wearing something patriotic but click on USA Flag wear if you need some help. You can use your imagination and creativity to show your true colors.
Have a happy and safe 4th of July from GreatSunnyBeaches.com

The U.S. goverment have started to mail the new “Economic Stimulus” checks to families and single persons that qualify for this new tax break.

Everybody will recived differents amount that goes according to the amount of taxes they have paid. but in general terms a single person might received around $ 300 dollars and a Family with children might received up to $1,800.

The pourpose of this actions are intended to stimulate and boost the economy. But with the rising price of gasoline ($4.19 - $5.00 at the time of this writing) this stimulus will not get the intended result.

Childrens will soon be on Summer vacation and families will make plans to travel around the United States instead of traveling to Europe where the dollar value is low.

So if you are planning to take a vacation with your family anyway, consider Southern California where your economic stimulus will benefits a lot of your fellow Americans that work in various entertainments, hotels and restaurant business. Here you will find warm weather, beautiful beaches, nice restaurants, several amousements parks for your children and much more. You don’t even have to stay in one place. You can travel from Monterrey Bay all the way south to San Diego.

Visit GreatSunnyBeaches.com for great deals and savings.