There are several places in Florida that you can visit if you recently returned from deployment or perhaps are a veteran and want to spend time with either friends or family.
The best family friendly spot would be Orlando Florida. Orlando is the home to Walt Disney World, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Universal Studios, and Sea World. There are a number of affordable vacation packages which will help you save money and also save on travel time as well. If you have kids they will always be very entertained by the large amount of rides along with a number of different parks within a few minutes of each other. The area is also great for adults or those without children as well. There are a number of extreme water parks in the area as well. Some of the favorites are Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach, and Wet ‘n Wild. I personally have visited all of these parks in the last 2yrs. They are a blast and definetely a place worth spending time at with your family and friends.
The best place to visit if your looking for a social time and some great food is the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area. I lived in the area for 2yrs and was a great place to live and also an even better place in my opinion to vacation. A very popular place is South Miami Beach. This is where a lot of people go to lay out and also enjoy some great food on Ocean Drive. There are a number of clubs in the Miami Beach area you can choose from along with 5 star restaurants and resorts. In my own opinion i suggest staying at Loews on Miami Beach. It has direct beach access as well as being within walking distance of Ocean Drive. There are a number of restaurants you can choose from like Emeril’s at the St. Moritz, China Grill, 510 Ocean, and DeVito. If your looking for more of a casual budgeted place to eat they have Jerry’s Diner which is right across the street from Loews Miami Beach. My Favorite is the 11th Street Diner which i tried after seeing it on Food Networks Diners, Drive ins, and Dives. Its awesome food and very good priced. Just south of Miami there is an area called coconut grove which is home to a small shopping and eating area called Coco Walk. There are several places to eat and also great shopping as well. Its very accessible and a wonderful place to enjoy both day and night.
The best place to visit if your looking for diving/snorkeling is Key Largo Florida and the Florida Keys. There really isn’t a whole lot in the Florida Keys. Its a very slow moving atmosphere which is nice if your looking to relax. There is one place i would recommend staying in Key Largo which is the Marriott Key Largo Resort. Key Largo is world wide known to be the Dive Capital of the world. There are a number of places in the northern keys that you can snorkel. In Islamorada which is just south of Key Largo there are a number of fishing tours ranging from deep sea fishing to shark fishing. Also a number of Dive Tours are down there as well. One thing to see that is very popular is the “Christ of the abyss” underwater statue. A number of people say that they have been marked by the statue when they have touched it by in reality its just covered with Fire Coral which burns and leaves a mark for a short period of time. 
These are just a few of my suggestions for vacation after a long deployment no matter what branch of military you are in. All these places are fun and full of things to do ranging from relaxation to having a blast doing whatever you could possibly imagine. I’ve been to these places personally and hope that its something useful coming from a person who likes to travel.
Lastly, if you go here on travel you may quickly find the relaxing lifestyle very convenient for veterans living in florida and you may want to move to florida so be careful!
-MATT FUGAL
The new Good Faith Estimate that arrives in 2010 is a way to allow you as the consumer to see exactly what your settlement charges are and will be. It provides much greater transparency to the consumer. The problem with the new GFE is that it advocates shopping for the lowest cost loan, which we all know doesn’t always come with the best available service. I believe this new good faith is going to lead to a lot of heartache for borrowers interested only in pricing. Having an educated, experienced loan officer that can discuss your goals and objectives for the given loan is a critical component of loan shopping. Here at Flagship Financial you will get great customer service along with very competitive pricing. Nobody has spent more time and energy becoming nimble to the changes in this marketplace than Flagship Financial. I anticipate that we will continue to adapt and show resilience in this ever changing market. If you look at our track record it is quite compelling when you see the number of Veterans and FHA homeowners we’ve helped thru the years. The one area of the GFE that makes complete sense to me is the tradeoff table. Using the table will allow a borrower to see exactly what the tradeoff is between lower interest rates and lower costs. However it doesn’t compare the overall savings associated with these changes. The new GFE is longer (3 pages) and will provide more disclosure and seems easier for the consumer to identify what settlement charges will be at closing. It will require a further inquiry as pertaining to qualifying before quoting an interest rate. There will be no more GFE shopping taking place among competitors until a thorough investigation has been done to determine eligibility. The consumer will have to realize before receiving a quote from a broker or lender he/she may be asked to provide authorization to pull credit prior to receiving this new GFE. Initial quoting of interest rates will be given in a range, understanding that there are number of factors that determine pricing.
