About a month ago I heard about a concert for an artist that Charlie and I both really like. At the time I was in a bit of a funk, missing sunny San Diego, so I decided that buying tickets to the show would be the perfect thing to pick me up. And i was right! I am usually the one that initiates doing things like that, Charlie is content doing our usual mellow weekend around town which i like too but everyone needs a little spice in their life. We decided to make a whole day of it in the city before the Mason Jennings concert.
We took the train in to Penn and hoped a cab to go to this place called the Highline in lower Manhatten. It is an elevated path alongside an old central railroad. Along the path is a lot of buildings, plants (during the appropriate time of year that is, we soon realized that it would probably be really nice during the Spring when plants and flowers are actually alive), sculptures, street art and artists.
I saw this drawing of the family in a few different places across the city. I was really drawn to it and just liked the message.
After cruising the high line for a bit we went to the Chelsea market which was a lot of fun. Tons of different places to eat and shops. I had a lot of fun perusing. Next it was off to dinner at a classic Italian pizza place called Lombardi's. We shared a salad and meatball appetizer and enjoyed some authentic new york pizza. We stuffed our faces for dinner but we managed to have room for ice cream, sweets and coffee before the show.
As I bet my Father suspects i went with an eclair instead of a cannoli. Don't worry Dad, right before I took a big bite i said "this ones for you" :)
After our dessert it was time to head to the concert. We ran into more then one person there we knew, kind of random. The Bowery Ballrom where we saw the show was pretty much an all standing venue but it was small and intamite. We had an up close view of Mason Jennings and the sound was pretty good too. As I suspected the show was great. He didn't play a lot of the old stuff but when he came back for an encore he took requests and I got to hear a few of my favorites. What i really enjoyed about his performance was that he was one of those rare artists who sounds very true to his recordings. He played piano, guitar and harmonica and the acousitcs were great. It was a really memorable show and worth every penny.
So much cool art!!
After our dessert it was time to head to the concert. We ran into more then one person there we knew, kind of random. The Bowery Ballrom where we saw the show was pretty much an all standing venue but it was small and intamite. We had an up close view of Mason Jennings and the sound was pretty good too. As I suspected the show was great. He didn't play a lot of the old stuff but when he came back for an encore he took requests and I got to hear a few of my favorites. What i really enjoyed about his performance was that he was one of those rare artists who sounds very true to his recordings. He played piano, guitar and harmonica and the acousitcs were great. It was a really memorable show and worth every penny.
We had a freak few days where the temperature went up to an almost whopping 50 degrees. It was funny because in San Diego we would have been bundled up with teeth chattering but here it was like tshirt weather! AND it was on a weekend! It was such a taste of spring I couldn't believe it, it was short lived but revitalizing. Charlie and I thought it would be nice to take Johnson to the beach.
Charlie wondering where all the waves are.
Johnson's still got it he just gets tired a little quicker!
Well it was nice but short lived. We are supposedly getting another snow storm on Monday so not pulling out the bathing suits yet..
I always knew that transitioning to life on the East Coast would be just that, a transition but i never could have predicated how much snow lied ahead. You would think it was Alaska or something but nope its Long Island. Record breaking cold? Record breaking snow days? And record breaking inches of snow. Ok universe, I get it, you wanted me to really get the idea of what a real winter is like. I HEAR YOU and YOU CAN STOP NOW!
Ok Ok I will stop the moaning but hey, I had to get it out somehow! I know I will look back on this while soaking up sun rays on a beach one day saying "HA, what winter?" :)
January 31st we set off for the Carribean. Lets face it, Long Island is way too cold this time of year not to escape temporarily so my birthday was the perfect excuse to set up this vacation of ours. We had a group of 7 and 8 of us. We went with Steve, Maggie, Kyle, Justin, Tommy and later Cousin Vinny (It was Steve and Justin's cousin and needless to say he became everyones "cousin Vinny"). We had a great house..No not a house, it was more villa de Rincon which included three bedrooms to full baths, large kitchen, huge roof to tan, patio with barbecue, hammock and outdoor seating with a view of our nearby beach. I have included a video for your enjoyment (or jealousy more likely).
Charlie was stoked, as we all were, to be in the blue waters and hot sun, and of course LAS OLAS (W-A-V-E-S)! But what is our luck? Not much surf. We got into town around 4 am and by the time we had our car it was still dark so we posted up in The Surf Zone parking lot by Ramey's and awaited the sunrise to check out Surfers Beach. We were all just so excited to be there it's difficult to put into words. The wind was already up before sunrise so Charlie knew he wouldn't be going out so we ventured over to Jobos. I was pretty happy with this because I knew we would be able to swim around there too because the reef is farther out. The boys all went out surfing, did a little snorkeling and we all did lots of swimming..
Here are some pictures from our first day.
Not that you can see it here but we did get a double rainbow. By the time I got to the car and retrieved my camera there was only one but still I took it as a little blessing on the rest of our trip.
Love this beach. Jobos.
It is a little mean but I couldn't help but snap this picture of Tommy. He looks like a kook.
I did my best to try and get SOME pictures of Charlie surfing.
I managed to get a few good ones.
The boys checking out the view of Crashboats.
Steve, Charlie, Kyle, Tommy & Justin
We ended up going to this beach a few times for snorkeling and pina coladas.
Playing with the panorama feature.
From the first day I think I obnoxiously bugged everyone about going to the place with the rum coconuts. Villa Confresi has a great bar with pool tables and food right on the ocean.. You can order one of these big a$$ coconuts and a little Puerto Rican lady with a machete cuts it open right there for you. I just love it. You can eat the inside of the coconut while sucking down a mixture of cinnamon, coconut water and alcohol ( I use to think it was rum but a lady at work told me it was whiskey so who knows) and then swim in the turquoise waters. It is an epic feeling.
One of our first sunsets. We knew there would be more and better ones to come. THis happened to be at the beach we could walk to from our house.
Little shack driving back from Wilderness
When it became clear there were not really going to be waves we knew we had to seek out some other activities so we decided to do a hike we knew about in San Sebastian to a couple of beautiful waterfalls.
It was awesome to be hiking in the jungles.
And when we finally made it there wasn't a soul in site..
For me this was another one of those surreal moments, only us around, surrounded by natural beauty swimming in fresh waters with the sun shinning through the trees. Then flying off a rope swing and cracking open a medalla.
And of course had to all take turns climbing the rocks and getting a shower under the waterfall. A friend of mine has the pictures of Charlie and I under it but unfortunately I don't have them.
This is my new "happy place"
Mid-air.
Kind of made you feel like a King/Queen being under there..
My love.
The first few days we were on a kick with this place called Calypsos right nearby a surfing beach called Domes. They had decent food and an even better happy hour. We enjoyed sunsets like this with coronas and rum punch.
Charlie being the adventurist he is stumbled on someones homemade lookout point. They nails a few pieces of wood in a tree and threw a piece of plywood up there to watch the waves and sunset so naturally he had to climb up there.
Some waves.
Beauty at "Middles" nearby Jobos
There are a lot of abandoned buildings in this area. My friend found one with some cool art and we had to stop to take a few pictures.
One day we did one of those things where you drive around for hours looking for waves and never end up going out. We decided we needed to get out take some pictures and let Tommy do some offroading in the Jeep we rented. This was a place called Ruins right before Wilderness.
This beach had the best seashell hunting so I was having fun with that.
Kyle pondering life..
Love this picture.
We rented longboards a few days because the waves were so small but that didn't stop the crew from catching them.
The most beautiful sunset from our roof.
This was on our last day at Pools beach.
Cool silhouette of Tommy.
The last day we were there we finally ran into our friend Alex who lives in PR for the winters. We decided to go to Pools for longboarding and we see this little guy shredding on these tiny waves and what do you know it was Alex. It was incredible how fast he could still go on these TINY waves.
Kyle
Alex
Charlie.
This trip was exactly what we all needed and we were all so sad when it came to an end. It was full of some much happiness, laughter, good times, good food, good drink and good company. We were really lucky with no misfortune or troubles (other then a few guys getting urchins in their feet the last day! Sorry dudes). I got to know a few people, made a few friends and bonded more with old friends.
