Adios to Cozumel...Back in Houston

We have made it safely back home. We'll be working on adding our stories to this blog, for now here are some of our favorite pictures:

This is our hotel room. There were fresh flowers on the bed, vanity and in the bathroom when we first arrived. A towel in the shape of a swan was on the bed. At night, our bed was turned down and chocolates were on the pillows.

This is the view from our balcony. You can see the coral reefs in the water, close to shore.

Sunset on our first night.

This is the spot where Eric suggested we snorkel on the second day. Just kidding - he didn't say that. Aren't those waves crazy? This is the eastern side of the island, the non-snorkeling side. Reminded me of Asilomar in P.G.

Dolphins swimming near our boat on our third day. You can see Eric's foot as he stood at the bow to take pictures.

Gearing up for snorkeling in deeper water. That's me in a swarm of fish.

Eric discovered a new love for free diving.

Some pictures from town

Day 3: Faaabulous!

Good evening everyone! We are very disappointed that we can't post pictures tonight because there was a weird island-wide power fluctuation/outagae and now the computer is not working very well. (But we are thankful that the lights and running water are back on.)

While we were eating breakfast at our hotel this morning, Eric noticed something moving in the water (ocean water - not his drinking glass). We ran to the pier and saw a pod of dolphins swimming by. It was such a beautiful site! After breakfast, we went on a snorkelling trip. We were surprised to find out that no one else had booked the trip, so this large boat, with a captain and a snorkel guide took just the two of us out, for no additional charge. So it was like our own private tour. While we were on the boat, we encountered the same pod of dolphins that we had seen from the shore. The boat captain did a circling maneuver to surround the pod and the dolphins swam along side the boat. Eric got some amazing pictures which we will have to upload later. That was a major high light of the day.

After about an hour on the boat, we arrived at our snorkel destination - which ended up being quite beautiful and I actually braved the deep water (about 30 feet deep). It was so clear you could see a long ways. The high light for me was seeing and swimming after a nurse shark, and later a turtle. Eric free-dove through a cave - we have a little film of it. I also fed fish by hand and Eric has a funny picture.

That's about it. Here are Eric's thoughts. Hope you are all doing well.

Eric's Thoughts - Today was amazing. I would have been happy just to see the dolphins, but the snorkeling was about the best I have ever experienced. I highly recommend this place. Take care everyone!

Day 2 - Pictures of Town

Day 2: More adventures

The computer we are using is very slow. So I am going to keep the journal entries short, and add more details when we get home. We rented a jeep today and drove around the island, as well as found one of the best snorkelling spots in the world. Yes, I can make this claim since I have snorkelled in a few other places. This, by far, was my favorite! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. In the evening, we wandered around town and then drove down this very sketchy dark highway to get to the other side of the island. The first thing my brother said when I told him we were going to Cozumel was, "Why? Haven't you seen the movie 'Touristas'?" and that's all I kept thinking about while we were on this road. But it was part of the adventure, and probably doesn't make sense without going into the whole story, which I will have to do later. All in all, we are having a great time and we hope all of you are also doing well.

Eric's Thoughts - I am having a wonderful time! The snorkeling was awesome. We had a torrential downpour today, but even that was kind of fun to see. I highly recommend this island for a fun place to relax. Take care everyone.

Hola from Cozumel

It' s not often that I've experienced the instant sensation of stress melting away as soon as I set foot somewhere, but that is exactly how I felt when we arrived to our hotel. Aaaahhhh. It is beautiful here! All the frustrations, etc. of the ending of a school year and all that that entailed immediately left my spirit as I gazed over the most gorgeous tourquoise water I think I have ever seen. We were able to check in as soon as we arrived, before 1 p.m. and it wasn't too much later that we were snorkeling at the beach. And it is amazing snorkeling here. We had so much fun and I ventured far from the shoreline - a first for me. I will end now so that Eric can post some of his snorkeling pictures. Let me end by saying aaaaahhhhh and that I would definitely come back here again!

Eric's Thoughts - It is awesome here. I am having a great time. The stress of the school year is already gone. I am looking forward to the next few days here. I hope everyone is doing well.

Here are some additonal pictures. Enjoy!

NY Highlights

Some of our Favorite Pics from NY

Dinner with Harold and a Recap of our last day here

Well, let me start by saying that dinner at Perilla was fabulous! It was an incredible meal in a restaurant with warm ambience. The dinner would have rated 5 stars, except for my dorky moment of the evening. Now, prior to going to the restaurant, I had a conversation with Eric about how I would absolutely not make a big deal if I should happen to see Harold. After all, he is a person just like all the rest of us. In fact, I didn't even expect to see Harold because I thought he would be busy in the kitchen. I had read an article in which he talked about how he plates all of the dishes himself. So I was completely caught off guard when he walked out from a storage room right past our table (Eric had his back to him.) I gasped, smiled and waved. I know, I know, I'm shaking my head as I type this. He looked at me, we made eye contact, he got a quizzical look on his face, like "Do I know you from somewhere?" decided that he didn't and then looked away. I was so embarrassed. I know it could have been a lot worse, like if I screamed his name or took out my camera or something. But I still felt super dorky. It was very reminiscent of when Tom Hanks was in my hometown Pacific Grove, filming a movie. I was 17, and he was standing a few feet from me. I saw him, gasped, smiled and waved...and in classic Tom Hanks fashion, he imitated me - expression, wave and all. But it is a memory that makes me smile, and so will this one of Harold.

You are probably reading this and caring more about what the actual meal was like, and let me tell you, it was fabulous! It was yummy and I felt very posh as we dined on spicy duck meatballs, the best rizotto I've ever had, a yummy steak dish.....and a good chocolatey dessert. I'll go into more detail on our review blog when we get home. Let me just say, it was the best meal that we had in the City!

Today was another good day. We strolled through Central Park and wandered through their zoo, on our way to Grand Central Station. We had heard from our friend Jess that Juniors has the best cheesecake in New York, so Eric wanted to try it. And let me tell you, it was really good. It was better than the cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory restaurants, and that's saying a lot because I really like that place.

From GCS, we made our way back uptown to the Met. Museum of Art. We wandered briefly through, and saw some amazing exhibits, and then made it back to our hotel for a little rest, before heading to the eastside, to Serendipity's. Now, I think this is quite serendipitous: As you know, we tried to go to Serendipity's on Sunday, but it was too crowded, so we made reservations for tonight. When we got there, it was extremely crowded, but because we had reservations, we only had to wait a couple of minutes. And then we were seated at....you won't believe this....the actual table that John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale sat at in the movie Serendipity. That was soooooo cool and fun. And the frozen hot chocolate lives up to all of the hype. It was super decadent and very delicious and I loved every sip! It was the perfect end to our great vacation here in New York!

Now we are wandering back to our hotel to pack. Our flight leaves early tomorrow afternoon. I'm not sure if we will be able to do anything tomorrow morning before we head to the airport. If not, that's OK. It's been a great, relaxing, fun trip - exactly what we needed. Hope you are all well, and if anyone is headed to NY anytime soon, let us know and we will pass on some recommendations.

A quick recap of day 4 while we wait for dinner with Harold

Hi Everyone,

We tried to blog last night but got to the cafe 3 minutes after it closed. Day 4 was a lot of fun. We went to the American Museum of Natural History and spent several hours wandering around the museum. It was very enjoyable, except for the long line to get in (even though we had City Passes! The pay line was going faster than our "speed right through" line!)

From the museum, we headed towards Midtown to meet up with our friend Jess and her boyfriend Nick. This is our friend that we made while on the island of Capri in Italy. She had just graduated from College and was touring Europe by herself. Ironically enough, she met her boyfriend Nick in Italy - he lives in Arizona, and was also touring Europe. They are still together and doing the long distance thing quite well. We feel a kinship with them as that is how we got our start - meeting in Japan and dating long distance for 2 years.

We enjoyed a fabulous, fun meal with them at an Italian restaurant called Serafina. After dinner, Eric and I headed to Time Square. It wasn't nearly as crowded as it had been on the weekend. We were on the hunt for the cheesey souveniers my brother wants us to bring back for him.

Today has been a very rainy day. We didn't leave the hotel until almost 12:30 pm - hoping to wait out the rain. Funny enough - Bravo was showing repeats of Top Chef Season 1. Funny, because we are headed to winner Harold's restaurant right now. We are about 1/2 hour early, and our subway let out right by an internet cafe.

So anyway...we left around 12:30 and went for a rainy walk through Central Park - a part we hadn't visited yet - around a big resevoir - it was beautiful. We went to the Gougenheim Museum, which is my least favorite museum (I don't really get modern art.) But we had free passes, so we wanted to use them. It was crowded and annoying, and put a damper on my good mood from the walk.

But Eric was a good sport and indulged me in another walk to to some shopping (just one store) but it was still fun.

So now we're off to our big dinner date. I hope the food is great so that we can give Perilla a good review. Oh - I forgot to mention that we had lunch today at a great pizza spot called Pinch - Pizza by the Inch. They have yummy pizza, but also mac and cheese of all sorts of varieties, served in small cast iron skillets. It was very yummy! Ok we're off to our next adventure. Hope you are all well!

Day 3/Day 4: Two Posts in One

Hi Everyone,

We continue to stay busy enjoying the City. Yesterday was a cold and rainy day. After we wrote in our blog, we were on a quest for brunch. Who knew that Sunday brunch was "the thing" to do in NY? Every restaurant we went to had an incredible wait. Finally Eric said that he found a place for us. It was called the High Life Bar. It looked like one of those sketchy bars with darkened windows and a neon martini glass in the window. I said no way am I going to eat in there and he insisted. It ended up being one of the best brunches ever (and without the wait!) Once inside, there was better ambience, and the best part was that while we were waiting for our breakfast, they served buttered white toast with cinnamon and sugar. Yummy! I haven't had that since I was a kid! And they served it with strawberry butter, which Eric loved.

After breakfast we decided to go back to our hotel and wait out the rain. It finally cleared around 4 pm and we were able to walk through Central Park. We then headed to Times Square to watch Mama Mia! What an incredible, upbeat show it was! We left the theater singing and laughing! It was so much fun - and we both agreed that it is one of our favorite musicals. We were on such a high when we left that we decided to be adventurous and take the subway to the Upper Eastside to get a frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity's. Now, I've heard about their notoriously long lines, but this was 10:30 p.m. on a freezing cold Sunday night. Well, wouldn'tcha know that the wait was an hour! We decided to skip it, and have since called and made reservations for Thursday evening. We had an adventure trying to get back to our hotel, which ended with us just taking a taxi back to our hotel.

And now for today.....
Another great day! We had a late breakfast and then walked through Central Park to 5th Avenue, where we watched the St. Patrick's Day parade. What a cool experience! It was so much fun and so great to see the Irish pride in this City. From Central Park, we walked down to Rockefeller Center to Dean & Delucca's. I had been telling Eric about their black and white cookies, so we thought we'd get some. But they didn't have any, so we got a black and a white cupcake instead. Yummy! From there, we made it down to the Hudson River to take a 2 hour harbor cruise. That was amazing - we saw the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge up close. But, it was freezing cold! I have never felt so cold before. After the cruise, we started the 2 mile walk back to our hotel and ate dinner at a yummy Thai restaurant. As you can see, it's been a busy few days. But we're having a blast, and the best part is being able to wander all over the place and discover new and interesting things and places. Hope you are all doing well! Thanks for the comments and e mails back - we like hearing from you. Take care!

Recapping Day 2

Hi Everyone! Sorry we didn't blog yesterday, but we didn't make it back to this end of town until very late. So here is a recap of what was keeping us so busy...

Aaaah, vacation! What can I say? It is so nice to sleep in and not feel rushed in the morning. And that's exactly what we did! I think it was almost 11:30 a.m. before we finally made it out of our hotel. We strolled a bit and found a place for brunch, The City Grill. When we get home, I am going to make another blog called Jeneric Reviews, where I will describe all of our dining experiences in more detail.

From brunch, we just started walking. We made our way to Times Square - which is crazy chaos and tourist trap hell! It was such a contrast to go from the quiet of the Central Park neighborhoods to the billions of people in a few block radius. But, we were able to get some theater tickets for tonight. We are going to see Mama Mia! which comes highly recommended by Eric's parents. We also visited the Hershey's Store. I tell you, it is advertising genious to let a reality tv show film in your store! I had seen the Hershey's Store on an episode of Project Runway, so I wanted to go in. And guess what? All the Project Runway fans will know what I'm talking about....they had 5 of the dresses from that episode in the store - including Romi's and Jillian's. I had a lot of fun seeing those (and we heard many other people commenting on the show while we were there.)

From Times Square, we wandered down to the Empire State building. It was a beautiful, clear (but very cold!) day, so we thought it would be perfect to go up to the observation deck. And there didn't appear to be a line.... Ha ha ha! were we fooled! The line is now inside the building and snakes its way up several floors. But we didn't mind, because we didn't have any real agenda. Once we made it up to the top, the views were incredible! It was so worth the wait to be able to see all of the City from this vantage point. We loved it!

Then we made our way to Washington Square in Greenwich Village. They are doing a lot of construction in this area, but there were still lots of people milling about. We found a bench a rested for a little while. We called Eric's parents to wish George a very happy birthday and to also check in about our niece Alesia. They seem to think that the worst is over, and now it's just a matter of how she responds to the treatment.

We continued our walk with a little side trip to Harold's restaurant (from Top Chef.) Poor Harold. Retail space must be extremely expensive here! His restaurant was around the corner from all of the xxx shops! His street looks nice and quaint, but it was funny to see where it is located.

We then made our way to Ground Zero. On the way there we unexpectedly passed the fire station that the movie Ghost Busters was filmed in. So that was a neat treat and fun to see. Ground Zero was very moving, and of course I cried. Lots of people were moved to tears, how could you not be? They have a very tasteful memorial, and they operate under the idea that a picture is worth a thousand words. On the wall that said "Remember" they only had a few pictures, but they were so powerful and full of emotion. They had a list of all of the people who had died. And then they had an area that I think was supposed to be hopeful, about their plans for rebuilding, etc. A homeless man was playing Amazing Grace on the flute, so this really added to the whole experience.

At this point, it was almost 6 pm, so we made our way over to the Brooklyn Bridge and had an amazing twilight stroll across the bridge. It was so cool to watch the lights come on in the buildings that make up the Manhattan skyline. Very cool.

At this point, we had walked 6 miles, and were tired, so we took the subway to Grand Central Station, where we stopped for dinner. I had a monstrous coney island hot dog, and Eric had a pastrami sandwich. Feeling, rejuvinated, we walked the rest of the way home, another two miles, passing through Rockefeller Center.

It was a lot of fun and we had a great day. Today is cold and grey, but we are going to try to wander through Central Park. We'll write more tomorrow. Hope you are all well!