A post-vacation, spontaneous afternoon in Fort Lauderdale

After an amazing week at sea cruising around the Caribbean with Princess, I had an eight-hour layover in Fort Lauderdale. Now, vacation is great, but when it's done, have you ever noticed that you just can't wait to get home? Due to the timing and circumstances that I booked my flights under, I not only couldn't get an early flight out, but I had to spend the night in Atlanta (not so bad all in all). Needless to say my yearning to get back to my own home and my own bed was burning a hole through my very relaxed being.

Lucky for me, my brother and his fiance were in the same boat (so to speak) and also had a very long layover. While pondering what we could make of our time there, Frankie had the excellent idea to get a car and enjoy our remaining time in the tropics close to the beach. 500 Hertz points and $7 later, we were rocking around Fort Lauderdale Beach with the bronze-bodied, eccentric car driving south Floridians.

We popped into a restaurant (Oasis  Cafe) right up on the side of the ocean and sat at a cool, swinging picnic table. We drowned the afternoon away with 11 Coronas, a couple of sandwiches (one of which had to be returned due to a cooking "malfunction"), lots of french fries, and a game of Phase Ten (which I won, applause applause :). The whole time we were entertained by fancy cars and scantily-clothed passersby; not a terrible way to unwind from vacation!

Fortunately, by the time we got back to the airport and went through the flight formalities, everything else was hunky dorey. I'm grateful that I got so much time with my family during our week and that our last day together was a memorable one. 

Cheers, M@

Taking to the skies for vacation

I do a lot of traveling, but almost all of it lately is for work. Today, though, I'm writing from my comfy first class seat on a spacious Delta Boeing 757 jet heading to rendez-vous with my family in Fort Lauderdale, FL. We haven't done a group vacation in almost five years and although it's unfortunate that my little brother Dave and his lovely fiance, Colleen couldn't make it, I've been looking forward to this trip for MONTHS!

Tomorrow our eight-person group departs from the Fort Lauderdale cruise port for seven days of fun and sun aboard the Ruby Princess. Our ports-of-call are the Bahamas, St Thomas, St Marten, and Grand Turk islands. I've taken an eastern Caribbean adventure with Princess and Carnival before, but neither time have we stopped at Grand Turk. Site seeing and learning more about its history is one of my two main highlights for the trip. The other highlight is FINALLY swimming with dolphins off the coast of St Thomas! I've wanted to splash around with Earth's most intelligent water-dwelling creatures for years and have no idea why I didn't do it on an earlier cruise.

Naturally, I can't talk about highlights for my vacation without mentioning the main reasons I've been looking forward to the trip itself. The original reasons we planned to go on a family vacation together again is because (a) we really enjoy spending time together and haven't done so like this in so long; (b) my sister, Collins finally found and married the man of her dreams (I'm not jealous, but can't wait to do the same :-); (c) I took a new role at work finally propelling myself down a new, but related career path I only dreamed about before. Recently we added two more reasons to make this a wonderful celebration: (d & e) both of my brothers recently got engaged to wonderful girls!

The other big reason that I particularly am excited to go on a cruise is because this is one of the few ways to truly break away from the fast-paced, technological world  we live in. That's why I left my work Blackberry at home and will be     turning off my personal Android before embarkation tomorrow. I find these holidays from the 21st century itself are extremely enriching and rejuvenating.

Well it's time to land, get my bags, and kick off the relaxation! Wish me luck :-)

An early morning drive through the Berkshires

I'm not sure I like driving early in the morning better than I enjoy flying early in the morning, but either way, it's nice to see a gorgeous sunrise! Now before you judge me for taking pictures while driving, which isn't easy by the way!, I couldn't let this one go by.

Now that I'm home from my month-long stay in the automotive capital of the world (is Detroit still considered that these days?), I'm back to commuting between my soon-to-be home in Fairfield, CT and my currently-on-the-market home in Albany, NY. These drives, which I usually start at 6a on Mondays, are lovely, but considering the Great White Northeast has been greater and whiter than normal this year, I'm really looking forward to the big move.

In the meantime, though, I'll try to limit the number of photos I take while operating a large configuration of metal at sub-warp speeds down one of the nations few coast-to-coast super highways...but if I see another moment like this one, all bets are off!

Cheers, M@

The Joy of Going Home

I've done more traveling in my life than I imagined I would when I was a kid, but every time I go, no matter what the destination, I get a thrill from seeing my home city up on the board at the flight gate. After a month in lovely Detroit, with a pit stop in Orlando and Atlanta, I'm finally returning to the great, very white, northeast. My time there may be short, but for now, all I can think of is, "there's no place like home!"