United States Archives - Bay of Islands

My job requires me to travel a lot, so I fly all over the world. Let me tell you what I saw when I was in New York City this past month. I boarded the airplane and flew straight here non-stop with just two small bags and the clothes I wore. When I arrived in New York, NY, I rented a car and drove it to my hotel. Shortly after unpacking, I took a shower, got dressed, and went downstairs to the lobby in order to determine where I wanted to go for dinner. NYC has many famous restaurants, so it was a tough decision. I chose to eat at a franchise restaurant instead, PF Chang’s, because my friend John works there. The meal was great, and after the restaurant closed for the night, my friend invited me to walk into the kitchen area to see the restaurant hood cleaning process. It appeared to be very tedious work. A company called Queens Hood Cleaning had 2 technicians pressure washing the vent hood and kitchen equipment with water and special chemicals to sanitize it. After that, they installed a grease trap. Apparently, a grease trap is a device that collects grease from cooking and catches it in a special compartment to prevent a clog in the drains or piping that connects to the sink. John said that the Queens Hood Cleaning Pros are one of, if not the best NYC grease trap installation companies because they remove all the grease effectively, always perform quality work, and their pricing is low. Whether their handling grease trap installation for a restaurant or scrubbing hoods, they are always timely and affordable. It was very cool to see this work being performed in front of me because I’ve never experienced anything like this before. If I didn’t already have a job, I’d consider this industry.

Have you ever chosen a hotel simply because of the amenities? Think about what you do prior to planning a trip. You have a general idea of the kind of experience you want; you might have a list in your head, or maybe you went so far as to write it down. Whatever that list may be, you’re not going to book that hotel for you and your significant other unless it meets those requirements. Believe it or not, swimming pools are one of the main amenities people simply must have. And, as a pool builder, it’s important to study the designs and construction from the best pool companies you can find so you’re always at the top of your game.

The most impressively designed swimming pools I have ever seen are in Sarasota, Florida, so what better place to go and learn. My pool construction company is only 7 guys, so it was pretty easy to book a trip to Sarasota and hang out for a few days to tour the sites and see some well-designed residential and commercial pools. The first pool builder we met with was Sarasota Pool Builders, a local company with an impressive history of high quality construction in Florida. Their contractors have built thousands of swimming pools across the region, varying in size from small oval shaped ones to huge water-park pools. Their team met us at the airport and took us out to lunch first at Yoder’s Restaurant & Amish Village located at 3434 Bahia Vista St, Sarasota, FL 34239.

After lunch, we felt like relaxing a bit, so we drove to the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, which can be found at the following address: 811 S Palm Ave, Sarasota, FL 34236-7726. It was very cool because it had a huge variety of tropical plants, epiphytes, a koi pond, a rainforest, and a nice view of the bay; that part felt just like home! We stayed at the botanical garden for about 2 hours before deciding to start our swimming pool tour.

Sarasota Pool Builders paid for a limo to drive us around to view their previous work. Our first stop was Judy Anders, a local resident with a home on S Jefferson Ave. Judy had a wide-open backyard and decided to have a figure-8 shaped pool built just beyond the patio. The amount of detail was crazy. The shape and design were absolutely flawless, with a set of stairs on the northwest corner of the pool and a ladder at the southwest corner. The pool liner was a combination of blue and teal with a shell pattern that repeated in 4 foot chunks. Outside the pool, their contractors had even installed custom lighting for added ambiance. We’ve never seen anything quite like it.

After leaving Judy’s residence, we traveled to the Suncoast Technical College – Newtown Campus area in North Sarasota. Jamie Parsons, a long-time resident lived next to the school and graciously offered us a tour of her backyard. This residential monstrosity was nothing like the previous one we had seen. I swear to you – the pool must have been 75 feet long and 30 feet across. It started at 3 feet deep up top and went down to 13 feet in the deep-end. The coolest part about the pool was a luminous liner though. The sun was going down when we arrived, and we got to see the swimming pool glow in the dark.

This whole trip was made possible by my friend and the owner at Sarasota Pool Builders, so we want to say thank you for allowing us the opportunity to visit. We learned a lot and hope to take some of the creativity and design work back with us to apply in our own business.