Travel Light

Miguel, my Salvadorian English student, was in one of his serious talk moods last night.  Haha.  He asked me, "Charisse, how come you look like you don't have any problems?  Everything seems not so heavy for you.  You always smile and laugh."  I am phrasing it on how I understood his question.  Good question, huh.

I wanted to tell him, "Because I want to travel light.  Crying doesn't fix things, though I cry a lot.  Because I come from a naturally happy, crazy family."  As my dad said, "Happiness comes to those who seek them."  Or was it Yoda who said that?  I didn't get to answer him, throngs of customers suddenly packed the deli.

Which reminds me, I haven't thanked my parents enough for bringing me up the way they did and for growing up with my sibs.  Everything is lighter because of them, my seven samurais. 

40-Love Part Deux

So, it's time for the US Open again and I found the dreamiest McDreamy tennis player ever in Feliciano Lopez of Spain. All the Argentinian players (footballers, polo players, tennis players) were blown out the window.

Yup, that's what I did the whole time. Just took pics of this awesome piece of hunky beefcake.

Wild for Cape May, Part 2

We drove over to Cape May on the second day and OMG, I loved it and I'm so sure my mom would love it too. The contrast of Cape May to the wildness of Wildwood is glaring.

It's calmer, civilized (Neruda's word-Wildwood is chaotic), lovely (my word), romantic, classic and the houses and inns were gorgeous.

A gorgeous beach town

I still don't see why people have to take dozens of pictures of sunsets. One is enough.

After the beach, we went to their shopping district and then it wasn't too long when I started complaining about being hungry. Off we went to the Boathouse Restaurant in Wildwood where I already know what I was going to order, Maryland crab cakes and breaded Jersey scallops. Awesome I tell you! Neruda ordered an equally calorie-packed pasta with jumbo shrimps, scallops and clams.

There's nothing else interesting to tell after that except for our lunch today on our way home. We found The Crab Trap by accident because I wouldn't stop whining that I was hungry. I wanted seafood again and I didn't want any fastfood poison. That's where the GPS pointed us to. Garmin saved the day.

Wild for Cape May, Part 1

Wildwood in the morning

Neruda and I just came from Wildwood and Cape May, New Jersey.

There are two types of people in Wildwood. People who willingly stay in Wildwood for the "fun" atmosphere on the Boardwalk and semi-oldies like us who would like to stay in Cape May but are too poor to book two nights in a B & B right in front of the Atlantic Ocean at the southernmost part of New Jersey.

I am not really high maintenance but can you imagine how nervous I was as we were driving around looking for our inn/motel/resort? And our room... all I can say is that we overpaid for it and it was the cheapest motel I could find on the dates we wanted. It's so not worth $203 for 2 nights.

Wildwood at night


The view from our paraguas para la playa

The Blue Men and Minah

Saw The Blue Man Group yesterday at Astor Theatre with Tito Manny, Tita Fe and Minah, another friend from way back. I've been wanting to see this show for the longest time so I bought the tickets a day after I got here.

We had a late lunch/early dinner at Red Lobster and then it was Times Square with Minah. We had our caricature made by this Chinese guy but when we saw it, uh, that's so not us. $10 for a drawing of some girl holding a mic in the middle of Times Square. I actually left mine "accidentally" at Union Turnpike station.

A kiss from a blue man

Niagara

We got back from Niagara Falls last night. Seventeen hours on the bus both ways was so worth it. These pictures doesn't do justice to its majesty.

Travel in the Time of Influenza

Signs of the times. I am ashamed to tell people that my parents just got back from their vacation in the US. I haven't told anybody in the office. What if people suddenly don't want to be near me? What if they suddenly look at me as if I've developed an acute case of the incurable?

My youngest sister has already been asked by the school nurse not to go to class for at least a week. They found out my parents and another sister vacationed stateside for a few weeks and they've been given the dark mark, the scarlet letter, the Star of David in Nazi Germany until they're cleared of any symptoms.

This flu has got to stop spreading. It's bad enough for the travel industry that people aren't giving in to their wanderlust in exchange for a little savings in this recession. The flu gives traveling a bad name.