The Final Destination Our final destination on the Erie Lakeshore Trek, which unintentionally put us here on Easter weekend. Plenty of Hacidic Jews, Indians, and other non-believers sharing the experience. A perfect couple of days plus the benefits of being HHonors Silver at the time, which justified benefits not typically found at American properties. A little cool but we had wonderful weather . . . The Fallsview Hilton The pictures are much more impressive than the view let's on to, though we did have a great view. The suite had a great jacuzzi pass-through bathroom that gave views even while sitting in the bathroom. Despite it being a holiday weekend, this place was hopping with the indoor pool mobbed by kids, makes you wonder how the place is on a busy season. Also, when you consider ... read more

Manny decided we should take a road trip for both of our birthdays driving up the Lake Erie shore up to Niagara Falls, Canada. This blog covers our drive up to Buffalo, NY. We stayed one night in Erie, PA and one night in Buffalo, NY. Erie wasn't much to talk about although we found a great little restaurant for a birthday dinner and Presque Isle State Park was nice at sunset. Erie seems to be a stacking of old brick warehouses and factories with asphalt and railroad tracks. The most interesting thing in Erie (I almost forgot) was the US Brig Niagara, which I sadly did not take a picture of on account of the lousy lake weather we were having and the fact that I did not have a wide angle lens for the ... read more

Looks cold but it wasn't that bad, the snow gave a clean look to everything, if only the wild rhododendrons had been blooming - at least there's an excuse to come back. If a building could ever be photogenic, the Kaufmann house is! The house is well-worth the trip and the Nemacolin Woodlands resort is not too far away if that is the type of place you like. Not sure about the bed and breakfasts in the area.... read more

Flying In to North Eleuthera So close yet so far, we flew down to FLL which was nuts and finally got into this rattle trap. The family took up half the airplane. But if anyone ever needed a beach vacation, we did, look at those mugs. The only way to get into Harbour Island, in many ways as exclusive as St. Barths, is via plane to North Eleuthera followed by a ferry ride to Harbour Island which sits 2 miles across the bay. Harbour Island & Dumore Town Forget Nassau, Freeport, Paradise Island, Coco Key, and any of the other cruise ship islands. If you want to see some great islands, go to the other Bahamanian islands. You truly feel some of the old English colonial spirit and there are not the cruise ship loads coming ... read more

The Sights We took the public bus into town which was effortless. The new metro is open but it is still only one line and only gives access to the most populous places. Old Toulouse is pretty small so it was not too much trouble to get around town. Toulouse is really an incredible city and probably does not get its due credit despite being the 5th largest city in France. The town has changed and the population of North Africans has increased significantly to the point where it was shocking. Toulousains joke that in the center city you will no longer find any French people, this was sadly near to the truth.... read more