Locate an Auto Repair Shop in Ocean View, Hawaii

I would pick up my wife at work and we would head out in whatever direction the car happened to be pointed. We had jobs, a new car, and no kids. This lasted for 3 years and then we became parents. Our destinations included the ocean, the mountains, Canada, or Oregon. :D

WASHINGTON (AP) — April was a historic month for wild weather in the United States, and it wasn't just the killer tornado outbreak that set records, according to scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. April included an odd mix of downpours, droughts and wildfires. Six states — Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia — set records for the wettest April since 1895. Kentucky, for example, got nearly a foot of rain, which was more than three times its normal for the month, NOAA reported. U.S. scientists also looked for the fingerprints of global warming and La Nina on last month's deadly tornadoes, but couldn't find evidence to blame those oft-cited weather phenomena. NOAA research meteorologist Martin Hoerling tracked three major factors that go into tornadoes — air instability, wind shear and water vapor — and found no long-term trends that point to either climate change or La Nina. That doesn't mean those factors aren't to blame, but Hoerling couldn't show it, he said. PS So CA still well below normal by about 10 degrees. Barely made it to 55 degrees yesterday. I demand a reduction in taxes. The state is not providing the perfect weather we pay for.

Anyway, do come to NJ. My best recommendation for places we haven't screwed up too badly are in the northwest corner which is hilly and still reasonably rural, Cape May and, naturally around Long Beach Island which is my current neighborhood. I think that you can still have a very nice "Jersey Shore" experience in Ocean City. Plenty of nice beach, a nice boardwalk and you are a stones throw from all the towns. Sea Isle if you want to hit the bars on Ocean Drive (15 mins) AC for Casinos etc (25 mins) Wildwood for the boardwalk/ water parks etc (35 mins).

Now, Steve being an actual resident of the UP will be a whole lot better on it but it is beautiful beyond words. Things that I've done up there - the Soo Locks are a great way to spend a little time. You can get one of the tour boats and they take you out, give a little tour and you go into a lock twice - once to bring you up to the Lake Superior level and once to bring you back down to the Michigan - Huron level. Even if you don't need to hit the lower peninsula for anything I still recommend going over the Mackinac Bridge just for the beauty of it. It's am amazing piece of engineering and has a breathtaking view. A word of warning - some people are so intimidated by the thing that they are afraid to drive it. They have guys there whose job it is to drive cars over the bridge, carrying the timid drivers as passengers in their own cars. This would be a perfect job for me - just driving back and forth across that bridge. We had, shall we say, a funny little excursion back in 1988 which is really the last time I was able to get up there. There is a boat out of Munising, Michigan that takes you out to see the Pictured Rocks from Lake Superior. We got into town late and night and got a cabin for the night. Mention we were going on that trip and the guy at the cabins says "I hope they go out tomorrow. It was too rough yesterday." We get there bright and early the next day. They take our money and we get on the boat. A little bit out into the harbor they mention the lake is a bit rough and 2 to 4 foot waves but they are game. The first mate says they have three life jackets - one for the captain, one for him and the third was up for bids. They point out all sorts of things on either side of the harbor as the waves get bigger as does their estimate of the size of the waves in the open lake. Great Lakes waves are always fun - more straight up than ocean waves. We and my wife (who was maybe two or three months pregnant with our oldest at the time) area having a good time of it and I'm checking to see if this boat is named Edmund Fitzgerald bu the time they announce that the waves are running over ten feet in the open lake and topping out at 15 feet and, no, they weren't putting their boat out in that and they'll refund half our money when we get back to shore. We still had quite a bit of bounce before things calmed down and then they announced they were going to give us all our money back when we got back. I had paid by check and they paid me back in cash. Apparently they'll cash checks for you but only if they test your worthiness on the boat first. It turns out the way they decide if the lake is safe for the tours is to take the first one of the morning out and have a look. That day that was us. One day I must go back and try that again. If you are up around Whitefish Point the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum is there. The guy who owns that is a little odd but there are some neat things in there. It;s right at the Whitefish lighthouse - the one that if it had been working that night might have guided the Fitzgerald safely in. What I mean about the guy - he had divers go down and get the ship's bell from the Fitzgerald and then petitioned the Canadian government (it's in Canadian waters) to prohibit divers from the site because it's a grave. That's enough for the moment..... Part of my theory os taking any ferry that even remotely goes here you want... Atlantic City - it pains me to say this but unless you like casinos there's not much to recommend it anymore. Kills me as I used to go down there all the time to walk the boardwalk or check out the now long gone stores on Pacific and Atlantic Avenues. Far too much of the city is now built to experience only indoors which is silly right at the ocean. New Jersey has not done right by its coast line with rare exceptions and AC is the worst offender. The place where they got things right was Island Beach State Park which looks like the whole coast did when I was a little kid. OTOH, if you end up there anyway let me know. I'm 30 miles north.

My first car was a 66 Galaxie 2 door HT, dark blue with a medium blue interior, 390-4V, drank fuel like an ocean liner. I don't think mid 60s Fords are worth a fortune, a lot less than their Chevy and Mopar counterparts. A normal Galaxie hardtop in excellent condition can be had for under 10 grand no doubt.