Lisa and Michael

Long travel day home, very tired after 20 hours up and a drive from Denver to Albuquerque!

Excellent trip, one we’ll never forget. Have about 1200 pics to download, should have them posted in coming days.

Good night.

Walked along the beach at high tide on our last night here, it is kinda bittersweet in a way since we don’t want our vacation to end but we are ready to come home. I won’t miss all the cigarette butts littering the beach, I am shocked that not only are there still tons of smokers out there but they llitter at the same time! Asses! Ignoring that, Miami Beach is beautiful, we willl likely come back again, probably to get on a cruise ship.

More sun, more sand, more ocean, and a hell of a lot of fun (except for sunburns, ach)!

There seems to be a lot of hookah lounges and Italian restaurants in Miami Beach for some reason, and its French and Italian tourist season, where tops are optional. Wasn’t expecting that. To our detriment Lisa and I have sunburns, but that shouldn’t slow is down. The water is just too perfect to stay out of.

In Miami now, specificallly Miami Beach at the most remarkable hotel yet! It is called the Z Ocean and the bathroom alone is bigger than our entire NYC room. We are posting from the BlackBerry since they charge for internet access. That blows, but not a problem. Ocean Drive and the art deco and neon is beautiful, the beach is gorgeous, it is where we are posting from right now. I will take some time to adjust to the humidity and heat, but give us an umbrella and shade and we are happy as clams. Time to get in the ocean!

Lisa hoping to get on camera at the Today Show:

Al and the gang made it outside, but it looks like we picked the wrong end of the stage to meet them, they were way on the other side and didn’t make it our way. Rats. Sorry Lisa. It was cool to see them though, and Rockefeller Plaza.

On our way downtown, however, we had a bit of a surprise!

That’s President Obama’s car! He was in town today to make a speech at Federal Hall, and we just happened upon the barricades over at Liberty Street. What’s shocking is how close we are to his motorcade, just look at that camera phone photo, we are mere feet away. Obama managed to smile and wave as he passed by us!

I think NYPD screwed up security here because Lisa and I weren’t checked out by police at all, I even had my backpack on, they let us walk anywhere prior to his arrival. By the time we finished shopping, this time we were kept about 200 feet away from the vehicles as they departed. Wow, what a treat that was.

After shopping in the Wall Street area, we headed over to Chinatown and enjoyed a couple Tsingtao and local cuisine. We finished off the night by a final stop by Times Square.

Our 5 days here went by fast, and there is still so much more to see. But we are completely exhaused, time for some R&R for the next few days, and we’ll be back to NYC soon. Of that, we are sure.

Tomorrow is a travel day…

It might be one of the highlights of the trip, our visit to the Met:

It was like a live, in person version of your college art history book. Lisa and I agreed that next time we’re back in NYC we’ll spend at least two days there, as the museum is astonishingly large. And since it is situated in Central Park, we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and hung out for some time to soak in the beauty of the park and the surrounding architecture.

We’d only had breakfast (and a few beers) by the time we left the Met around 4:30, and decided Italian food might be a good idea, so we headed down to Little Italy. Wow, were we in for a surprise, since we had no idea the Feast of San Gennaro was going on this week! Tons of people, tons of food, carnival rides, and booze to celebrate this religious festival. Been happending for 80 years or so, it was a blast to be in Little Italy during the festival.

We finished off the night by visiting the observation deck of the Empire State Building. The line was long and took a while to make it up 86 floors, but it was well worth it! I certainly hope our pictures turn out, the view is amazing.

The drizzle and gloom continued for a second day, but that didn’t stop us. We were so tired last night that we slept in and started later than normal, but ended up seeing such architectural gems as the Flatiron Building, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, Saint Thomas Church, and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. Congrats, by the way, to Kimberly O’Hanlon and Gregory Borosage, a very nice and beautiful wedding we walked in on, which I guess is the norm when getting married at St. Patrick’s, the public is always welcome:

After the wedding, it was off to Grand Central Terminal, and finally Times Square. Tons of high-end stores along 5th Avenue, some we even stopped in, including Versace where we saw this nice coat in the window that drew us in:

I promised Lisa if it were under a grand, I’d buy it for her. Really. She tried it on, it looked fabulous, but at $4400, we decided to pass. Yikes!

Tomorrow, a day of art and the park, and a tall building or two.

The Statue of Liberty, 9/11/09:

Lisa and I made it to the crown, one of the lucky ones who had reserved a spot. It was a rainy and windy day, it’s amazing how much the statue moves from side to side in the wind. We also made it to ground zero early afternoon, and again around midnight coming back from the Yankees game to see the twin beams of light in the cloudy, drizzly night sky. It was amazing, and hard to imagine this happened 8 years ago already.

Of course we cruised around Wall Street, checked out Trinity Church and its graveyard, and saw Derek Jeter pass Lou Gehrig in all time Yankee hits.

Overall, quite the historic day, but a very long one at 16+ hours. Time to sleep…

Travel day, a five hour flight from San Francisco to NYC, so we’re kinda tired tonight. We’ll enjoy kick-off of the NFL season, but still took in the sights around Madison Square Garden before grabbing some drinks and pizza. Good times.

Cabbing it to Manhattan: