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Flashbacks: Summer Fun – Boston, MA
// February 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Photography, Travel, USA
In summer of 2009 we were fortunate enough to host my family from Ireland at our home. We took them into Boston for the day and here is a pictorial from our adventure in town.
George Washington Equestrian Statue – Boston Public Gardens
Bubbles…
Buildings of Boston
Hopping along
Fishy at the New England Aquarium
New England Aquarium
Shark!
Glass Patterns
My cousin riding the carousel
My cousins awaiting the next round of fountains
Slippery!
Fountain Chaos!
PTM Travel Photography // Quiet Inlet – Newport, RI
// February 2nd, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Photography, Travel
Vaccinations, Anti-Malarials, and more!
// January 28th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Trip Preparation
Photo courtesy of TravelSafely.com
We’re all vaccinated and ready to go!
After 3 appointments and 13 shots later we’re fully vaccinated and ready to travel the world! At this point after getting so many shots within the last month you’d think that we should be well protected from nearly any disease out there. Right?
Our first visit to the South Shore Hospital Travel Clinic was on 12/31/09 and according to our practitioner we received an all time record of shots in a visit. (10!) Yes, TEN! Five in each arm to be exact. We left the clinic with our arms feeling a little sore but that wasn’t our only issue. We were really hoping that we wouldn’t get sick from getting all of these vaccination in one visit, or better yet one hour! Fortunately for us, we were in good hands as we soon realized that we were being taken care of by one of the best travel clinic practitioners in all of Massachusetts! Thanks Dinah!
The vaccinations that we received on our first visit (12/31/09) were the following:
- Hepatitis A
- Typhoid
- Japanese Encephalitis (1 of 2)
- Meningococcal
- Tetanus-Diphtheria
- Seasonal Flu
- H1N1
- Polio
- Rabies (1 of 3)
- Yellow Fever
Our next visit was on 1/7/10 where we recieved our second in a series of three Rabies shots.
- Rabies (2 of 3)
And last but not least our final visit on 1/28/10 consisted of our third and final Rabies shot and our second and final Japanese Encephalitis shot.
- Rabies (3 of 3)
- Japanese Encephalitis (2 of 2)
During our last visit we got to talking about a subject that I had been researching for the last few weeks. Anti-malarial tablets. Scary, right? Which type should we take? What are the side effects of each brand? Should we risk not taking them? How many pills will we need? The answers to these questions seemed to really vary when researching the Internet. Some people take off to areas that are infected with Malaria with no thoughts of purchasing anti-malarials, others do their research and decide that it would probably be best to go to any length to stay healthy on a trip of this magnitude.I mean really, who wants to get Malaria!?
It seems like a no-brainer, right? Well not so fast. There are plenty of downsides to taking anti-malarials can be extreme! Some of the side effects include; nausea, mouth ulcers, blurred vision, rashes, sensitive skin, headache, dizzyness, itching, confusion, depression and even risk of suicide!
Our practitioner recommended that we take Atovaquone (Malarone) a well known and trusted anti-malarial that has the least side effects. After doing some research I found that Malarone seemed to be a somewhat popular choice for travelers, and an expensive choice at that!
Put it this way, my three month supply of Malarone (90 days / 90 Pills) with insurance coverage cost me $90.00. $1/pill! Curious to know what it would have cost if I didn’t have insurance? Try $736.00! ($8.17/pill).
After all was said and done at the pharmacy I spent $110.00 on three prescriptions; Malarone (Anti-Malarial Tablets), ZPak, and Cipro (Antibiotics). To me, it was a small price to pay considering two things. 1. I want to stay as healthy as possible while I travel, and 2. This is the only money that I’ve spent out of pocket as of yet due to my insurance covering ALL of my vaccinations! $110 is pocket change compared to the money that I could have spent on vaccinations alone if I didn’t have insurance.
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Have you traveled to malaria infected areas? If so, what did you decide was best for YOU? What types of anti-malarials did you take, if any? We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to leave comments below!
If you reside in Massachusetts and are interested in finding out about vaccinations, or prescriptions that you’ll need for your upcoming trip do not hesitate to contact the South Shore Hospital’s Travel Clinic at 781-624-8580. Make sure you ask to be seen by the best travel clinic practitioner around, Dinah McDonald.
RTW Trip Coming Soon!
// December 3rd, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Travel
Yes, you heard right. We’re headed off on another adventure! This time it’s an Around The World trip!
We’ll be posting more details about our upcoming RTW trip as the time gets closer. We simply cannot wait to get back out on the road again, and we’re really looking forward to documenting a boat load of great travel information, tips, photos, videos, reviews and more for our viewers!
Excuse us for the lack of content lately. It’s due to the fact that we haven’t really traveled for almost a year and a half now! Over the course of the last few months I’ve been working hard on the redesign of Pause The Moment. I hope you enjoy the new and improved site!
Keep in touch!
-Ry
PTM Travel Photography //
Temple Bar – Dublin, Ireland…
// September 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Photography, Travel
![Pause The Moment - Temple Bar - Dublin, Ireland](http://lh4.google.com/pausethemoment/R9v4zmQyLTI/AAAAAAAAAJ0/hk3MSrKDGWA/IM002432.jpg rel="lightbox" "Temple Bar - Dublin, Ireland")
Temple Bar - Dublin, Ireland - (2003)
Alpine Adventures Zipline Video
// August 6th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Travel, Travel Videos, USA
Alpine Adventures – Sky Rider Zipline Tour – Lincoln, NH! from RTW Ry on Vimeo.
Off to Lincoln, New Hampshire!
// August 1st, 2008 // No Comments » // Travel
We woke up this morning around 8:30AM and finished up some last minute packing before loading up my car with all of our gear. Liz decided to bring her closet with her, so it made it sort of difficult to see out my rear window. Not really, she actually did good! Only because I forced her to leave what I thought was unnecessary back at home.
Anyways, so we loaded the car and headed on up to New Hampshire. Surprisingly enough there was a little traffic before we got to Boston but luckily we were in no real rush to get up there.
We took our time and even made a few stops along the way. We arrived at the Franconia Notch Motel around 12:45PM and we were immediately able to check right in. It worked out perfect. We were looking forward to transferring all of
our junk from my car into our new home for the weekend.
Once we unloaded all of our gear and parked our bikes inside of our room, we headed south on Rt.93 to exit 32 (Rt.112) The Kancamagus Highway which is where you’ll find everything you need from shopping, to food, outdoor adventure companies, and even ski mountains like Loon! We stopped just out front of Loon Mountain which is where the Pemigewasset River flows right by.
PTM Travel Photography //
Shutter View of Lokrum, Croatia
// July 28th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Travel
Shutter View of Lokrum - Lokrum, Croatia - (2008)
PTM Travel Photography //
Tree Jumping! – Glen Echo Lake…
// July 21st, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Photography, Travel
Tree Jumping! @ Glen Echo Lake - Stoughton, Massachusetts - (2002)
Blogging While Traveling: Is it WORTH it?
// July 16th, 2008 // 3 Comments » // Travel, Travel Tips
In the beginning I was told that keeping a blog while traveling would be nearly impossible. With the availability of internet and open Wi-Fi connections across Europe, and the sheer work load of writing in depth each night about my experiences in all of the cities and countries that I would soon be visiting, I knew this would be quite the task!
After completing three full months of blogging on the road, I truly found out how difficult it actually is to find time to sit down each night and put my day, thoughts and experiences down on paper or on the web in this case. Not only did I have to worry about writing often enough but I also knew that I had to make every blog entry interesting and read worthy. It had to be interesting enough that people from all over the world would actually look forward to tuning in to read what I had been up to and where I’ve traveled to over the past few days. I needed to find a way to engrave my website into my visitors heads and make them want to come back for more every day or two.
Before creating PauseTheMoment.com I would have never labeled myself as a writer, never mind a good one. After researching about the difficulties of keeping a personal travel blog, I didn’t think that I could possibly maintain a full on blog for a week never mind a few months. I underestimated myself as most would if they were in my situation. I now feel that overcoming my fears, and creating a fairly successful travel blog has not only been an incredible personal achievement, but it was one of the best decisions that I could’ve ever made. I wouldn’t change it for the world!
The best part about it all is that I now have an archive of great memories, stories, photos, videos, and more to look back on for years to come. I now plan on printing my entire journey to Europe in book form so that I can have an actual hard copy of it hanging around. How great will it be to be able to have a hard copy of my entire trip in arms reach at all times?
If you are thinking about starting your own personal blog of your travels or adventures, my advice is to go through with it! Understand that there will be a lot of hard work and effort involved but if you succeed in keeping it up to date you won’t regret a single minute that you spent on it. Good luck, and when you’re struggling to decide whether you should continue writing, or just quit and take the easy way out, KEEP ON KEEPING ON!
PTM Travel Photography // Ray of Light – Castellana di Grotte, Italy
// July 16th, 2008 // No Comments » // Italy, Photography, Travel
Ray of Light – Castellana di Grotte, Italy – (2008)
A Surprise Flight Back to Boston!
// July 15th, 2008 // No Comments » // News & Announcements, Travel
Guess who’s back? Yes, it’s true! While I’m very sad to leave Europe and all of it’s crazy ways, I’m also happy to say that I’ll be able to sleep in my own comfy bed (after sleeping in more than 28 different beds across Europe), eat a nice fat American cheese burger with a side of fries not “chips”, drive my car again for the first time in three months and most of all be home to celebrate my mothers birthday with her. I won’t tell you how old she’ll be next week, but I will tell you that it’s a BIG one!
I’ve just returned from an amazing three month trip to Europe which allowed me to visit over 38 cities in 14 different countries during my stay. The things that I’ve seen, and experienced over the last three months cannot be justified in words, or photos.
My trip to Europe was a trip of a lifetime. It is something that many dream of, and an experience that most never get to live out. This trip has truly changed me as a person and my general outlook on life. I’m now returning with the a mind that is far more open than I thought it ever could be.
I have dreams of traveling again to many more cities, countries and even continents but unfortunately for now I will have to settle for the typical daily grind. I have no set plans as of yet for what I will do next but I’m definitely not finished traveling! After traveling through Europe, I’ve realized how many other interesting places there are in the world that are calling my name, just begging for me to encounter and explore them. I will get to these far away places one day, it’s just a matter of time.
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I’d like to send out thanks to each and every visitor from around the world that has visited Pause The Moment religiously over the last few months and even the ones that checked back in every now and then. There were many times that I contemplated on giving up but every time that I logged in to check the visitor statistics for PTM you always made me change my mind! YOU (the visitors) are one of the major reasons that I kept PTM up to date and that I now have a personal archive of stories, photos, videos and more to look back on for years to come.
As most of you know by now, I love hearing from my visitors! Over the course of the last few months, I’ve tried my best to reply to each and every email and comment that has come through my site. Your feedback has always been greatly appreciated and will continue to be. If you have any questions, comments, or just want to chat… be sure to Contact Me!
A Day of Sights, and Music in Dublin…
// July 12th, 2008 // No Comments » // Ireland, Travel
My uncle and I headed into the city to run some errands for my grandmother who lives one block from O’Connell Street in Dublin City Center. Quite convenient huh? As we were walking down to the bank we walked by this statue of a hand that is behind these tall black gates that are usually locked.
I’ve walked past this statue about 3 million times at this point and each and every time I walk by it I think to myself… I wish I could just run in there real quick and jump up into the hand for a photo.
The first time that I walked by a few weeks ago the gates were open but unfortunately I didn’t have anybody with m
e to take the photo. But today I was in luck! Not only were the gates open, but my uncle was with me so he could be the designated photographer. Nice!
PTM Travel Photography //
Crooked Clock Tower of Kotor – Kotor, Montenegro!
// July 11th, 2008 // No Comments » // Montenegro, Photography, Travel
PTM Travel Tips //
How to Book the Best Airline Seat…
// July 10th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Travel, Travel Tips
You know when you book yourself a flight and then you’re prompted to pick your seat? I don’t know about you, but for me this is a daunting task! If you’re like me, you take one look at this airplane seating chart and you think to yourself, well if I sit at the absolute front of the plane I’ll get the most leg room and I’ll be first off of the plane!
Being first off the plane might be great and all, but remember that most parents with infants snag seats right up front too so that they can use the baby trays that are attached to the walls. Believe me, I experienced a six hour scream fest of a flight on my way from Boston to Dublin back in April of 2008 due to a baby sitting across from me. Not cool!
Well, we’re all in luck now because some absolute genius has set up a website called (www.seatguru.com) that shows the seating charts of more than 50 Airlines! Not only can you see the actual seating chart of the actual plane that you’ll be flying on, but you can also find out everything you need to know about where the best seat on the plane is, which seats have the most leg room, which seats are exit seats, which seats do and do not recline all the way back, and best of all which seats reside right next to those fantastic smelling airplane lavatories! Mmm!
Check out SeatGuru now, for your own sanity!
