Blogs from North America - page 33

Our condo was so nice and huge! We made our own breakfast at our leisure! The view from the deck was gorgeous. Ed got up real early hoping to take a picture of the sunrise over the water, but learned we were going to get to see the sunset….the sunrise was on the other side of our building!!! Following breakfast we’d took off to go tour The Breakers, one of the beautiful mansions you could visit here in Newport. In the mid 1800’s wealthy southern planters seeking to beat the heat began to build their summer “cottages” along Bellevue Avenue in Newport. Several years later wealthy northerners began building larger mansions nearby. By the turn of the century many of the nations wealthiest families were spending their summers in Newport. They included the Vanderbilts, who built ... read more

On my last trip to New York City, Carnegie Hall was closed for renovation. Carnegie is one of those places that belong on a Water Pail List, along with Royal Albert Hall (London), the Mariinsky Hall (St. Petersburg), and Red Rocks (Denver) for great music venues. The name Carnegie should ring a bell with you. Industrialist Andrew Carnegie built this venue, which soon became one of the most prestigious venues for classical and popular music in the world. Carnegie Hall was opened back in 1891, at 57th Street, and Seventh Avenue. It contains three performance venues: Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, Zankel Hall, and Weill Recital Hall. The attached Rose Museum contains many musical artifacts. So, how does one find Carnegie Hall? Perhaps this joke tells all. The famous Jasha Heifitz was stopped on a New York street, ... read more

After a busy morning of last minute chores we left the lake and headed down to Salem, NH to pick up our Euros. All was uneventful until be reached the airport. While going through security Diane was pulled over and asked to take her shoes off so that they could be put through the x ray machine. Evidentially she looked like a possible shoe bomber. We then proceeded to our gate which felt like four miles away. We then realized that there were no places to eat in this section of the new terminal. After much walking back and forth we decided to order sandwiches which they delivered. $50.00 for two sandwiches seemed a little excessive, but when you’re hungry, your hungry. After devouring our sandwiches we headed to the restrooms. As I was hovering over ... read more

From TravelAwaits: Anyone who’s been or dreams of going to the Big Apple is probably after at least one New York-style slice. New Yorkers Sue Davies and Regina Ang recommend the jumbo slices from Koronet in Manhattan and say “You can’t go wrong on Arthur Avenue” — aka Little Italy — in the Bronx. I had the best pizza of my life (served alongside a double-shot) at San Matteo Pizza & Espresso Bar on 2nd Avenue in Manhattan across the street from quaint Rupert Park. Of course, New York’s delis are just as famous as its pizza joints. You’ve probably heard of Katz’s, and if you’re up for the line, go for it. Davies and Ang also recommend Baz Bagels in Manhattan’s Little ... read more

Well, all good things have to come to an end. All bad things do too, but we won’t worry about that. Today was a magnificent THREE hour snorkel at Two-step, which really has such a wide-ranging variety of environments that even today we picked up two NEW FISH. Plus, with our new Scuba Fish Hawaii app, we’ve been realizing that some taken in the past need renaming. So we are concluding that we have found 20 new fish. (and because we found the parrots this afternoon, 10 new birds). After that 3 hours, we had a lovely hour chatting to friend Pam again, and a new friend who also was traveling alone. We all enjoyed the ice creams sold on the corner, and had a few rambutans for lunch. We “saved” a few families from killing ... read more