2019 Entries

Adding back in our trip to Miami Beach, Miami and Key West over the holidays. Here's a short movie of the photographs.

Our summer vacation was spent traveling to a variety of places by car in order to see people we hadn't seen in years. The first part of the trip was to Washington DC with Kim's son Domenic and his girlfriend Stela. We drove to DC, stayed at the Crowne Plaza in Crystal City, right across the street from my old apartment.

We spent Wednesday visiting the National Space and Aeronautics Museum and the Natural History Museum. These were the two that Dom wanted to visit, and Kim made arrangements for a specialized tour by a guide providing in depth descriptions.

Thursday we went to the National Cathedral, and then this coffee shop that had an olde time recording studio where Dom and Stela recorded themselves singing onto a 45 rpm record. We then dropped them off at the National Mall, and returned the car to the hotel. We took the metro back to meet them and by then quite a downpour had started. Taking the Metro back to the hotel instead of driving was very convenient as the storm backed up traffic for the entire DC area. Our trip was only a few days after the early July storm that flooded parts of Arlington and Alexandria.

After dropping off Dom and Stela at the airport for them to return home, we continued on to Fuquay-Varina, NC in order to visit some of my oldest friends, Greg and Jennifer. I've known them since 1993 after being stationed together in Germany, but haven't been in their parts of the country since 2006. We had a great two evenings, visited a winery and then a meadery/honey winery Starrlight Mead. It included a tour of how they make the honey into mead. Then Jen and Greg made a delicious dinner to include fried green tomatoes! Wonderful visit, working on getting them to visit WNY now.

Following North Carolina, we headed to Charleston, South Carolina for a few nights in the coastal city. We stayed at this amazing boutique hotel called Zero George. It was the best hotel I've stayed at for customer service and facility. The hotel was built out of four circa 1804 mansions in Charleston, with the rooms in the southern type buildings, but completely renovated inside without losing any of the charm. Kim loved the nightly wine and cheese hour at the lounge, and I loved the expansive continental breakfast each morning. The smoked salmon was great, as was the coffee and locally made pastries.

The first evening we walked around historical Charleston, saw the famous pineapple fountain, and the riverside views. The next full day we went to Fort Sumter, the starting point of the Civil War and then headed across the bay after to the USS Yorktown. I've seen all three WWII carriers on the east coast now (NYC, Corpus Christi, Charleston). We had a great dinner at Hank's Seafood.

Following Charleston, we stopped outside the city at Mangolia Plantation, a huge historical plantation dating to pre-Civil War. Following the Civil War, it has continually been used for tours and walking, having paid visitors for over 100 years. We arrived in Charlotte in order to visit Kim's brother Jeff. We had a filling dinner and then stopped by his downtown bar and nightclub, Sip.

Spring vacation was spent in NYC visiting the mid-Manhattan sites. We stayed at Lotte Palace New York, which was this great hotel overlooking St. Patrick's Cathedral. had an amazing view from our 29th floor room. I really didn't take many pictures of our trip mostly cause most things in NYC are viewed while staring straight up at the tops of buildings and that rarely photos well.

We certainly felt like we did a lot all week. On Tuesday we went to the Guggenheim Art Gallery and the US Intrepid Air and Space Museum. That evening we saw the Book of Mormon at the Eugene O'Neil theater, was fast-paced and very entertaining. While the musical had some South Park type humor, it wasn't especially anti-Mormon. Good songs.

Wednesday, we went to the Sojo Day Spa outside NYC in Edgewater, NJ. Great place, like a water park for adults. Dozens of different hot tubs, pools and saunas. All-day just flew by. That evening we had dinner at St. Bart's at the Park, where the restaurant was a converted gymnasium and park next to the old church.

Thursday, we walked a bit of Manhatten and had a late lunch at Rolf's, a small German restaurant that does amazing Christmas decorations and leaves them up till April. That evening, we saw this show called "The Imbible, a history of drinking". It was a cute small bar show, maybe 30 seats, and they did songs and funny education about the history of alcohol, while including a few of the historical drinks. The drinks were an IPA beer, an Old-Fashioned and a Gin and Tonic. Very good show.