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US: Fayetteville, NC – Secret Outlet For Bargain Athletic Wear
Young girls love the Soffe line of casual athletic wear, but there’s apparel for everyone else here too. Soffe is an all-American lifestyle activewear brand that makes sizes for the entire family including; toddlers, girls, juveniles, youth, juniors, women, and men including big and tall.
In solid colors, there’s varsity pants, jackets, hoodies, t-shirts, sweatshirts, running shorts, windbreakers, cheerleading clothing, ranger shorts and more.
It’s an outlet store, so pricing can go from $1 pieces of clothing piled in giant cardboard boxes to $29.99 on the racks. If you’re lucky you might arrive when they’ve opened the back warehouse room to the public. Then men, women and children might score their well-made clothing for the amazing price of $1-$3. Sandra loaded up the last time that she was there.
The Soffe juniors’ line has been strong in the brand’s cheer-leading apparel but has expanded to include yoga, dance and running. Be sure to check out their performance wear, which features technical fabrics.
Their outstanding quality stems from their roots as a distributor to the military. This line is tough, durable and dependable, and it is designed to channel America’s original athlete: the soldier.
There’s another location in Smithfield at Exit 
95 next door to JR,
49F Dr M.L.K. Jr. Way, Selma, NC 27576
919- 965-0062
Location: Soffe Outlet Store, 1005 Dunn Rd, Fayetteville 28312
Hours: Fayetteville: Mon – Sat 9:30 – 5:30, Sun – closed
Smithfield: Mon – Sat 10 – 6, Sun 12 – 6
Tel: 910-483-1776
soffe.com
For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: visitfayettevillenc.com
US: Boca Raton Sports Memorabilia Museum, Florida – Shaq O’Neal
It’s really hard to beat Shaq O’Neal at his own game, especially since he’s so tall (7 ft, 1 in). I tried this at the Sports Memorabilia Museum in Boca.
Cosmos Tour: Prague Vienna Budapest – Beloved Sisi, Empress Elisabeth
Just as we have our beloved famous Disney princesses, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had theirs – but she was for real. They call her by her nickname Sisi, and she was their Empress for 44 years.
Their have been numerous movies, plays, operas, ballets, books and music about her in the German speaking world. It is probably the trilogy of romantic films about her life which starred a young Romy Schneider which made her a household name. She is so popular that the 3 movies are shown every Christmas on Austrian, German, Dutch, and French television.
Though her husband Emperor Franz Josef adored her, she felt stifled by Habsburg court life and traveled extensively whenever and wherever she could. She loved learning and spoke English, French, modern Greek and Hungarian. Her domineering mother-in-law made her life miserable and even took away her children to raise. Her first daughter died as a toddler and her beloved son Crown Prince Rudolph, heir to the throne, committed suicide along with his lover, and she never fully recovered from that loss.
Empress Elisabeth was vain and did not sit for any portraits after she was 32 and would not allow any more photographs, so that her public image would always remain of her youthful self. She was tall, and compulsively maintained the same low weight all through her life thru exercise (horsemanship, fencing, hiking) and fasting.
Her interest in politics had developed as she matured. She felt an intense emotional alliance with Hungary, and worked toward it gaining an equal footing with Austria. Elisabeth was an ideal mediator between the Magyars and the Emperor. She was a personal advocate for Hungarian Count Gyula Andrássy (he was a lifelong friend, and possibly her lover).
Finally, the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 created the double monarchy of Austro–Hungary. Andrássy was made the first Hungarian prime minister, and in return he saw that Franz Josef and Elisabeth were officially crowned King and Queen of Hungary.
Sisi was assassinated “by accident” in 1898 by Luigi Lucheni, who had planned to kill the Duke of Orleans, Pretender to France’s throne, but the Duke had left town. Despite warnings of possible assassination attempts Elisabeth, now age 60, traveled incognito to Geneva. She eschewed the protection which the Swiss government had offered and only promenaded with her lady-in-waiting.
You can visit many of her residences: her apartments in the Hofburg and the Schönbrunn Palaces in Vienna, the imperial villa in Ischl, the Achilleion in Corfu, and her summer residence in Gödöllő, Hungary.
These plaques, mounted in Vienna, tell some of her story:
