Thursday, May 29, 2014

Lower East Side Walking Food Tour

Spent a few days in NYC (Brooklyn) over
Memorial Day for Charlie's 4th birthday.
Doesn't seem possible that he's already FOUR!
One of our days we went into the city
and took a fabulous walking tour
of the lower east side. 
The other 6 people on our tour
didn't show, so we had our
own personalized tour with Dante.
 
We started out at Yonah Schimmel's
for knishes - they were delicious!
 
 
Bagels on the left - Knishes on the right

 
inside Yonah Schimmel's

 
Dumb waiter filled with knishes

 
another view of the dumb waiter

 
Half our knish....
 
Next on the tour was Russ & Daughter's
for raspberry rugelach
another yummy treat.
Then on to Katz's Deli for
melt in your mouth pastrami.
 

 
 

 
I'm not a rye bread fan normally, but
their rye bread is scrumptious and
the pastrami is melt in your mouth.
 
Next we walked thru the old
tenement area.  There's a tenement museum
that we'll go back and visit on another trip.
 

 
Made a quick stop at a bulk candy store
where all kinds of candy from our
childhood memories abound!
We were the proverbial
kids in the candy store LOL.
 
On to Prosperity Dumplings and
yes, there was a line!
Fabulous pork dumplings
were our next tasty treat.

 
Off to see the Pickle Guy for
a sample of the three different
types of dill pickle......
All sorts of pickled items in the barrels.

 
Next to last we hit Kossar's Bialis.
They are similar to bagels, but
sweeter and have finely diced
sauted onions in the center instead of  hole.


 
Last, but not least - Doughnut Plant.
Had a Tres Leches and a Black Out doughnut.
YUM!
Took home a Crème Brulee doughseed
(smaller round doughnut) for later.....


 
Had a great time on the tour and would
highly recommend it!
 
Hope you enjoyed - I'm sure you're probably hungry now
LOL - I know I am..
 
 
 
 


Thursday, May 15, 2014

A Peek at our Panama Canal Cruise

I totally forgot to post a couple
of photos from our fabulous
Panama Canal cruise!!!
For those who may be interested,
it was a fabulous cruise and I'd
recommend it highly.
We did the "in and out" version
and had planned on a shore excursion
on a smaller boat to take us thru to the
other side and get a different
perspective on going thru the canal,
but due to a mechanical problem with a ship
the day before, our tour boat's time slot
was bumped back and they had to cancel the tour.
Needless to say, we were totally bummed,
BUT - we did get thru the canal on one side
and it's amazing!!!!!
 
We began our cruise in Ft. Lauderdale and
our first stop was Jamaica.  Have to say
I didn't care for Jamaica years ago
when I went and this trip didn't change my opinion.
We stopped in Ocho Rios and climbed
Dunn's River Falls which was very cool,
but there are too many other beautiful
islands that I prefer to visit.
 
Ocho Rios, Jamaica
 
 
Some of the beautiful flowers.

 
Dennis & I on the aerial tram

 
View of the Norwegian Epic and
our ship, Coral Princess from the
aerial tram

 
View of Ocho from the ship.

 
View from our balcony as we left Jamaica.
 
Limon, Costa Rica
 

 
More beautiful flowers.

 
Cruising on the Tortuogera Canals.
 
Saw some howler monkeys and a few
other sights, but unable to get good photos.


 
They unofficially call these Jesus Lizards
 because they walk on water - a beautiful
big one and a baby.
 
Our "official" welcome to Costa Rica photo.
 
 
Panama Canal
 
 
View from our balcony entering the first set of locks.

 
These guys have wires attached to the ship to make
sure that it goes thru straight.  They're on both
sides of the ship.

 
The locks opposite us filling up with water.

 
You can see how very little room there is.
This was the container ship in the
other locks beside us.
 

 
It's quite the little drop from one lock to the other.

 
View from the front of the ship on deck 10.

 
Dennis

 
Moi

 
Another view of the difference in the levels.

 
Colon, Panama
not much there - a few shops

 
Dinner at the Bayou Grill sailing from the Panama Canal

 
Cartagena, Colombia
 
I have to say we were pleasantly surprised.
We expected armed guards, etc. as that was
what friends have had in the past.  None of that
and we felt totally safe.  The city old and
new was beautiful and we really had
an enjoyable time and a fabulous tour guide.
 
 
This is the "new" city and is called the white city.

 
Statue welcoming ships into the harbor.

 
This and the few below are  from
Castillo de San Felipe de Baraja



 
The next two are
Las Bovedas - used to be
the prison, but now shops.


 
The next few are walking thru
the old walled city.  Reminiscent of
New Orleans, but with a lot more color.
Gorgeous flowers everywhere.





 
The Cathedral

 
Next few are from
Santuario de San Pedro Claver




 
We also stopped in the Palacio de la Inquisicion
with all it's torture implements.
I'll spare you those pictures - needless to
say they were quite inventive.

 
Selfie :)
 

 
A view of the outside of the walled city.


 
The sun was setting as we left beautiful Cartegena
 
On to Aruba
 
 
View of the Coral Princess from in town

 
Dennis

 
Me again

 
Downtown Aruba

 
My French "tini" at the
On the Bayou show.  Yummy!

 
Couldn't resist a close-up - so Mardi Gras!
 
 
Leaving Aruba

 
Formal night at Sabatini's

 
Caribbean sunset

 
Farewell to another fabulous cruise.


 
 
Hope you enjoyed our cruise.
Sorry the post was so lengthy
but it was an 11 day cruise :)
 
Until next time!
Safe travels.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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