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Five Most Popular Downtown Seattle Hotels

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Seattle is the largest city by population in Washington. It is between the Olympic Mountains to the west and the Cascade Range to the east. The city offers many popular downtown hotels with regular hotel rack rates and fabulous amenities.

Hotels are located at the top spots, where you can spend time to most shops, restaurants, stores and other sites.

The Fairmont Olympic Seattle
The Fairmont Olympic is a luxury hotel and also the region’s destination for social events and celebrations. It is the only AAA Five Diamond Hotel held since 1984 having Italian Renaissance architecture. The hotel is known as the city’s most celebrated treasure, offering perfect services.
It is located near Pike Place Market, Seattle Waterfront and Space Needle, as well as theatres, and museums. The hotel has 450 guestrooms with more than 26,000 square feet of meeting rooms and other amenities.

The Sorrento Hotel
Sorrento Hotel is the longest running boutique hotel among business travelers and vacationers. It was built in 1908 with Italian mission-style architecture along with the modern comforts of luxury accommodation. It is located atop of First Hill and just a few minutes away from the Washington State Convention Center.

The award winning hotel is best for couples on a romantic weekend getaway. It is awarded as one of the Top 25 Hotels in the United States by the magazine Conde Nast Traveler. It is also considered as one of Washington’s Top 40 Places. It is also known as the 2007 Best Pet Friendly Hotel and Best Hotel Dining Facility.

Sorrento Hotel offers 76 of the most superb rooms and suites. Their rooms provide Egyptian cotton linens, high speed internet access, Italian marble bathrooms, DirectTV and CD sound systems.

Best Western Pioneer Square Seattle Hotel
Best Western Pioneer Square is located near Seattle’s Pioneer Square District. It is an elegantly restored Romanesque-Victorian boutique hotel.

It has 75 guest rooms and suites with a choice of two twin beds and a king bed. Each rooms features a bedding of a Five Star Hotel Serta, Corian counter tops, Neutregena bath soaps with individual bathrooms.

40 of the guest rooms are equipped with hard wires for the security of government and corporate guests. This is along with hi-speed wireless internet. All rooms provide basic amenities for your everyday needs.

Grand Hyatt Seattle
The luxurious Grand Hyatt Hotel is located in the heart of the retail district. It has a classic rim styling and friendly personal services, making it a Four Star Diamond hotel. You can experience the beauty of the Pacific Northwest and the generous richness of the big city.

The hotel has 25,000 square feet of event venues and meeting rooms. Their amphitheater offers advanced high resolution display technology. The ordinary artworks of their 25 guestrooms have spacious baths, a private entry foyer, grand beds and an iHome stereo with iPod.

Nearby attractions include the Bellevue Arts Museum and the Botanical Garden, along with the Burke Museum, Center for Wooden Boats and the Chapel of St. Ignatius.

Watertown Hotel
Watertown is a unique urban hotel near the Port of Seattle. It is just four blocks away from Washington University and 18 miles from the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

The hotel offers family-friendly and comfortable accommodations, along with romantic Spa suites, travel specials and a wide array of amenities. It is an ideal choice for a romantic getaway or for business trips. Their 100 smoke-free studio rooms include king and queen beds with free a breakfast bar and complimentary internet access.

Seattle is known as a family-friendly city with plenty of sites and activities to do for the family. Their popular luxurious hotels offer great attractions in Seattle, providing the perfect hotel experience of a lifetime.

Homemade Dog Food – Expert Advice to a Happier, Healthier Pooch

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If you have heard that homemade dog food can improve your dog’s health and you want to find out more, then this article will teach you what you need to know. I will show you why so many dog owners are switching to homemade dog food, how to save time and money making the meals, and where you can find recipes. By the time you finish this article, many of your questions will be answered.

A few years ago, there was a big pet food recall that claimed the lives of many dogs all over the world. It also brought to light the harmful ingredients that the industry uses in many of their products. Even without the recall, some of the ingredients do a lot of health damage to dogs over time and others just aren’t nutritionally necessary.

The next time you read one of their labels, see how many ingredients you don’t recognize or can’t pronounce. You will find that many commercial brands contain a lot of preservatives, additives, and chemicals. A lot of them also use fillers like corn, which dogs cannot digest. These tactics can keep the price down, but the quality of the food suffers greatly and that is passed on to your pet. If you have been feeding your dog regular commercial varieties or premium brands common in grocery stores and pet specialty stores, then some damage may have already been done.

Now you can see why so many dog owners have switched to homemade dog food. If you want reverse the damage and keep your dog the healthiest he can be, then it would make sense to feed him the healthiest food there is. His homemade dog food meals should have nothing artificial and the ingredients should all be natural and wholesome. Some dog owners go as far as only using organic foods. It’s all up to you because you get to choose which recipes to use. Since you will be making the homemade dog food yourself, you are sure to make only the very best.

If you’re looking to make homemade dog food on a budget, you can buy the ingredients that you need when they’re on sale or substitute for some less expensive foods. There are also budget stores, membership warehouses, and bulk stores where you can do your shopping. Even these lower priced foods are healthier than the ingredients found in most commercial brand pet food.

To save time, you can make a very large amount of a few recipes and freeze what you don’t use. Not only does this save time, but it also saves on convenience. This tactic would make homemade dog food just about as convenient as opening a can of store brand food, but it’s a lot healthier.

Homemade dog food recipes can be found on the internet, in books, magazine, and maybe even by asking some fellow dog owners. You might be surprised to find a few that have already switched their dogs to this kind of diet. It would be wise to follow in their footsteps and begin improving the health of your dog with good, wholesome, homemade dog food.

Top 5 Caribbean Destinations for Surfing and Boogie Boarding

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The Caribbean is well known for outstanding surfing, and just about any destination in the region will have something to offer, but these top five destinations have some of the best to be found anywhere in the region.

  1. Costa Rica is in the geographical position to offer excellent conditions on both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, and there is no shortage of beaches to choose from. Surf schools and rental shops are in abundance, and numerous hotels, guesthouses and inns cater to the surfing crowd. Beaches with good conditions include Playa Avellana, Playa Bejuco, Playa Esterillos, Playa Hermosa and Playa Negra, to name a few.
  2. Barbados offers year round surfing on the island’s east coast, and holds regular international competitions in November when wave conditions are at their best. Top surfers from around the world compete in this popular 2-day event held at the Soup Bowl on the island’s rugged east coast. The Soup Bowl is the most famous place for both surfing and boogie boarding all year long. At certain times of the year, the south coast has tremendous waves pummeling the shore, anywhere from Oistins to Needhams Point, and Silver Sands, South Point and Accra are particularly popular when conditions are right, but there are numerous small bays and out-of-the-way areas where the swell is good. There are several rental shops and training schools on the island, and accommodations that offer packages with good conditions right outside.
  3. Martinique also boasts several beaches that offer excellent board opportunities, plus equipment rentals and lessons for surfers of all levels of proficiency, including complete novices. Anse Cafard, Anse Ceron, Anse Diamant and Anse Trabaud are the most popular beaches on the island for good year round waves.
  4. St Martin is another island that has been blessed with excellent waves. Baie aux Prunes, Baie de l’Embouchure, Baie Longue, Le Galion Beach and St Barthelemy are particularly popular and include boogie boarding. There are surfer schools, equipment rental shops, plus accommodations that offer packages to surfers with or without equipment and experience.
  5. The British Virgin Islands also make it into the top five surfing destinations in the Caribbean, with most of the good areas being on the island of Tortola. Apple Bay Beach, Cane Garden Beach and Josiah’s Bay Beach are the most popular, and there are surfer schools, equipment rentals shops and nearby accommodations to cater to the needs of visitors.

Enjoying Belize Culture

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A rich natural environment is not the only attraction in this gem of a country. The Belize culture will fascinate even the most season traveler of all.

Known formerly as British Honduras, Belize has features unique to its neighboring countries. One is that it is the only country in Central America which has English as its official language; and also, it is the lone nation in the continent which does not have a coastline on the Pacific. It only has the Caribbean shoreline on its east.

The population of Belize is a melting pot of wonderful people coming from all sorts of races and ethnicity. To get to know Belize culture better, take note that a Belizean can come from a lineage of English, Garifuna, Lebanese, East Indian, Mestizo, Mennonite, Spanish, Chinese, Creole, and Maya.

The Garifuna or Garinagus (as they are sometimes called) lead the towns of Hopkins, Georgetown, Punta Gorda, Dangriga, Seine Bight, and Barranco. Every November 19, which is marked as a national holiday, Belizeans celebrate the arrival of the Garifuna to the country.

Creoles are said to be more recognizable by their values rather than their biological and physical manner. They are descendants of African slaves and British pioneers; and they currently dominate logging and civil service positions in the country.

There are three main Maya groups present in Belize culture. There are the Mopan, Yucatec and the Kekchi Maya. Coming from the Peten region of Guatemala, the Mopan came to Belize in 1886. Their communities can be visited in the San Antonio Village in Toledo district and other villages in the Cayo district.

In 1958, Mennonites arrived, coming all the way from Mexico, Manitoba, Chihuahua, and Canada. They settled in Progresso, Barton Creek, Spanish Lookout, Little Belize, Blue Creek, and Shipyard, all of which are located in the Cayo district. It is easy to distinguish Mennonites-women wear long dresses with bonnets, while men dress in demin overalls with their fancy wide brim hats.

Mestizos make up almost half the population of Belize. They are a mix of Spanish and Mayan lineage. Most of their homes are in the Western district of Cayo and northern regions of Corozal. It has been said a lot of times that Mestizos are vital to the progress and growth of the economy. East Indians make up roughly 2% of the population; while Chinese arrived shortly before the start of World War II.

Some basic national symbols in Belize culture is the black orchid which is their national flower, their national animal which is Baird’s tapir, mahogany which is their national tree and the keel billed toucan which is their national bird. Of course, if one is curious about their national anthem, it is entitled ‘Land of the Free’ which is written by Samuel Haynes and put into music by Walford Young.

When in Belize, do what Belizeans do. It is not uncommon for them to greet one another, even when full acquaintance is not yet established. It is good to have some handy common Spanish phrases to greet people. Sociability and acknowledgement comes in the form of handshakes, pats on the back, or even a kiss on the cheek. Remember though, that unless you are greeting someone you have established a deeper relationship, it is best to call your Belizean friends by their last names.

Belize is a beautiful tropical paradise with a rich culture and tradition. Once you visit you will soon be planning a return trip or you may even consider moving to Belize.