In the mood...

It's a great weekend to be in the mood....for love...for the holidays...

I'm 13.5 lbs lighter and feeling strong and rejuvenated. Almost all the Christmas shopping is done, wrapping has begun, and work is almost over for the year.

Tonight we made what's hopefully our annual pilgrimage to Dyker Heights in Brooklyn, and although it wasn't snowball fight-worthy this year like last year, it was still magical in its competitive commercialism. Ah, the true spirit of Christmas...animatronic decorations and multi-colored lights.

I hear that Howard Beach's decorations might be better, but I'll believe it when I see it. I do think I'm going to check out the Bronx Zoo's holiday lights this year....

Bloodsuckers

There are people that suck the life out of you, and then there are insects that suck the blood out of you and make you itch. I got a little bit o' both in my life right now.

Apparently in St. Thomas there are sand flies that come out of, well, the sand and bite you and suck your blood. I am covered in welts. And, a week later, I am still itchy.

Between that and the Christmas tree, I'm real fun to be around.

The sand flies were just another one of the baffling things about St. Thomas. The Ritz resort also had an iguana beach where giant iguanas would come out and bake in the sun on the rocks. And if you stand there long enough, they'll walk right up to you.

I'm told that the ocean had a lot of living things swimming around in it, but without my glasses I had to just trust the reports of minnows and other creatures swirling about. I did spot a starfish on the ocean floor but we decided not to disturb it, so we didn't really get a closer look.

There were some cool parrots and hummingbirds at the peak of the Skyride, a tramway that takes you up a mountain to an observation point (actually, Paradise Point). It's sort of an enclosed ski lift - with three connected cars that ascend and descend together - located by where the cruise ships dock. It's really a lovely view and the birds were just a bonus.

We didn't stay for any of their crazy cocktail drinks, but I did manage to get a Christmas tree ornament before we left...It was the only piece of crap worth buying in the whole "downtown" area (even including all the pirate paraphernalia!).

No parasailing or snorkeling this trip but maybe next time. I'm ready to get into Christmas.

Only in the Caribbean...

I am way too low-class to deserve the kind of fantastic treatment I'm getting at the Ritz-Carlton Club in St. Thomas (U.S. Virgin Islands). We were supposed to stay in the regular resort but because of a mix-up, we were placed in the residential wing, which means I'm in a huge 2 BR suite, and have keycard access to a club room where there is free food 3x a day. And good food. And amazing service. And everybody says, "My pleasure," and somehow I think they mean it.

And what do I do? Play a game of Asshole, drink straight rum and get so drunk that I lose my room key.

I keep suspecting that I'm supposed to be tipping everybody but mostly people are just being nice. And letting me into my room @ 3 a.m.

And even though the beach here is small, the ocean is gorgeous and warm and the sky is clear with these huge white puffy clouds that turn dark gray when the moon shines behind them.

Before I came here, I kept saying how I'm not a lay-on-the-beach kind of person, but that's pretty much all I want to do. I can't really think of a reason to leave the resort, it's so nice (though I think we are going to take a weird ski lift tomorrow to see some mountaintop views of the island). Today I got a "Tranquility Massage" at the spa from Michelle, a Texas-born mom who moved to USVI when she sent her son off to college. I'd been getting massages so much @ the gym that I forgot how nice a spa can be.

So far, though, I'm not very interested in St. Thomas itself. The taxi ride from the airport was harrowing along a winding road with tons of hairpin turns, and everything we drove by looked pretty shitty. People like to shop here but honestly, they're all giving away so much free Cruzan rum (at the airport, at the hotel check-in....) that I don't need to buy booze, and I really don't want any beads or jewelry.

As nice as the weather is, it's really strange being here now because the hotel is decorated for Christmas and they're piping in all this Caribbean-flavored xmas music. It's really weirding me out. But at the spa today, I did think their evergreen branch/seashell decor was quite nice. And sparkly.

I'm still absorbing it all. I'm having a hard time adjusting. But for my first trip to the Caribbean, this is a pretty nice way to go....

...And the sun shines on the bay....

Ok I've lost the 4 lbs I gained in SF and then some, making my detox total 12.5 lbs. My posterior also feels stronger and strangely higher after walking up all those hills.

My pants fit too, at least, 3 out of 4 pairs. There's that one last pair I want to squeeze into, a pair that fit at this time last year.

In SF we took a lot of public transportation, which includes the cable car system (a tourist attraction, and rightfully so - it's quite thrilling), BART, and MUNI. While I was there I became obsessed with MUNI and its retro look - both in terms of its logo and also the actual stations, which reminded me of downtown Syracuse circa 1979. It was actually all very clean and well taken care of, so although it was old, renovation would only be for cosmetic purposes since everything was fully functional and quite pleasant.

Despite the convience of public transportation, we did our fair share of walking, including up a huge hill to see the crookedest street. That portion of Lombard St. makes its way into lots of video games, and it's no wonder. The hill's incline is so steep there that we wondered how the cars didn't flip over - until we saw the signs that strictly enforce parking at exactly 90 degrees.

Thankfully we didn't walk up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower, but instead took the bus. We didn't see the wild parrots that live in the neighborhood but we did catch some really great panoramic views of the city from the top. San Francisco has some amazing cloud formations, or at least did while we were there, and it was very inspiring to look out over the water and see the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay Bridge, the Ferry Building...

After that it was a bit disappointing to see how nothing Ghirardelli Square and Fisherman's Wharf are, but I did manage to snap a shot of In-N-Out Burger (another LA reference) in a very...touristy SF scenario. We also got to ride the F line streetcar which was cool. They have all kinds of different classic streetcars on the route including some from New Orleans, but the one we were on dated back to 1948 and was a smoooth ride over to the pier where we were catching our ferry to Alcatraz.

I know it sounds ridiculous but visiting Alcatraz was really a dream come true. I've always been a prison movie fan and have always been fascinated with prison politics, death row controversies, etc. Plus I like spooky places. We took a night tour of The Rock and although I didn't feel any real indication of hauntings, I was way creeped out, especially going into the pitch-black solitary confinement cell. Our night tour also took us upstairs to the hospital, where the walls were flaking with paint and every room was dark, save for an eerie lantern casting white light from the center of the room. The site has a history as both a military prison and a maximum security prison, so a lot went down there. It feels weird to take a tour of it with hundreds of other people, to gawk at the torture that people experienced, and then buy branded bars of soap and posters of mugshots. But I got a Christmas tree ornament anyway. The soap smelled horrible, but if it hadn't, I probably would have gotten that too.

We didn't shop a lot in SF but I got a few souvenirs, including a 7" vinyl single and the new John Legend CD from Rasputin, and more importantly, wine. We didn't want to check our bags on the plane so we had the Homewood Winery (the only place you can get their wine) ship our Flying Wizzbanger and Cabernet Sauvignon to the office. It should be arriving shortly. Homewood - with its generous tasting portions and intriguing varieties - was definitely the best winery on our day-long tour of Napa and Sonoma. Our bus also took us to the Larson Family Winery, Madonna Estate, and Viansa, which had some great wines and a lovely Tuscan marketplace where we got a nice lunch.

It's nice to know that seemingly cheesy touristy things actually work out quite well: not only was the "Woods + Wine" tour a great deal, but also full of adventure. Before you head out to wine country, you're first taken across the Golden Gate Bridge and stop for a photo opp, and then on to the redwood forest (spotting yet another prison, San Quentin, in Sausalito along the way). We did an hour-long hike in Muir Woods and stopped long enough to gawk at some of the oldest trees in the country, and a black-tailed deer that scuttled by. This is just stuff I've never seen before.

I really felt like I could live in SF, which is the first time I could say that about a city other than New York. I think first I have to visit again and see some of the stuff I missed (the Mission, SoMa, Pacific Heights, the Presidio, Berkeley). And next time I'm definitely walking across the Golden Gate Bridge. If I'm lucky there'll be an earthquake so I can feel it sway 25 feet. I probably won't jump off, even though it's famous for that.

When the lights go down in the city...

I walked home from work tonight in the misty rain, starving. I was missing San Francisco a bit, or at least being on vacation...The weather was so great when we were there, and although I was hungry there too, at least I wasn't detoxing fully so I got to eat and drink lots of good stuff.

We arrived late Thursday and took BART from OAK to Powell Street, in the heart of SF's Union Square area. After walking uphill with our luggage, through the red light district Tenderloin area, we made it to the York Hotel on Sutter St. Not only was it recommended by the New York Times, but it was one of the shooting locations of Hitchcock's classic Vertigo. Always aspiring to live a life noir, of course I tried to get the Kim Novak Room or the Vertigo Room but we had to settle for a different room down the hall. It's a quaint, clean hotel with few amenities but it's a great deal, and a slice of Old Hollywood.

Lots of SF is reminiscent of Old Hollywood in fact: it's similarly old but in a sort of mid-20th century way. I was thrilled to discover an SF outpost of LA's landmark Trader Vic's, a tiki-themed place I've always begged people to take me to but was never lucky enough to visit. Fortunately Edith was game so we sidled up to the empty bar and chatted up the bartender, Lars, drinking zombies and Mai Tai's and 23-year aged rum....Getting free mojito shots and tastes of smoky tequila....

That was really the only night we drank a lot. We tried to do everything in moderation, sharing plates at Zuni (where we split a delicious baked pear with a dessert gorgonzola and wildflower honey) and Colibri Mexican Bistro...We never got to try sushi but we did have a great meal and drinks in the Haight, a disgusting neighborhood that houses Amoeba and a bunch of stereotypically incense-soaked hippie stores. It's very strange to find Magnolia Pub & Brewery and The Alembic there - two lovely places that serve their own-brewed beer (draught and cask!), great food and beautifully crafted cocktails.

San Francisco is actually full of restaurants that serve craft beer, including their own local Anchor Steam. At Magnolia I had their Prescription Pale Ale, and I got to try Pranqster Belgian Style Golden Ale at Hog Island Oyster Co. on our way to Alcatraz...More on that later...

Fortunately we didn't just eat and drink while we were there, but we crammed too much into our short trip to write all about here now...But despite all the walking uphill (and hiking through Muir Woods), I still gained four pounds while I was away. Fortunately I've lost about two by detoxing again since my return.

Carving out my niche

My day started out spookily enough. After waking up at 6:30 a.m. to a hot apartment, I got back to sleep and was awakened again at 8 by my alarm going off one hour too early, thanks to Daylight Savings. When I woke up the second time I realized there was a huge scratch down my calf - I'm not sure whether I did it to myself during my weird dreams, or whether something else in my apartment did it. I've always thought my apartment was haunted - books falling off bookshelves, waking up thinking someone was in the room - but I hate to think something like that scratched me. Then again, I hate to think it was something else.

It doesn't help that my apartment is all tricked out for Halloween. I've got the Day of the Dead streamers and candy corn lights and fake blood dripping down the window, so no wonder I'm a little spooked. I can never have enough frightful stuff so I was thrilled today to come across the Party Box on Rt. 17 in Lodi, NJ. Dan was looking for a cape but I was looking for a few finishing touches to my decorations and devilish costume, and it satisfied our every need. It's a little more ghetto than Party City, but it will definitely be a destination to visit early in the season next year...

We were feeling festive anyway because we went to pick our own pumpkins at Demarest Farms in Hillsdale, NJ. Bergen County has some beautiful foliage right now that's only a bit past peak - mostly a golden yellow color rather than reds and oranges - and it was a beautiful day for a drive. Despite it being so late in the season, we found some great pumpkins and picked them amongst an odd group of pug dogs - I mean, a lot of pugs and their owners. Still trying to figure that one out, and how they could be all out of apples (much to Amy's chagrin).

I was disappointed to not try the hot cider and powdered donuts that were so good last year, but alas, not part of my detox (which is soon ending, thank god). Fortunately being 8 lbs lighter has given me steel will.

We did roast some pumpkin seeds with hot salt while we were carving, and I did partake of those...Check out the pics: this year I went for a spooky face rather than an abstract or modern art design, which I've done the past few years....

Upstate State of Mind

We drove up to Tuxedo, NY today for some Halloween festivities. We were hoping to make it farther upstate to Ulster County for their Headless Horseman attractions, but we didn't plan far enough ahead and it was sold out. So instead we took the Thruway to Route 17, to 17A and then took a left at "Fear" - the Forest of Fear, that is, in Sterling Forest on the site of the NY Renaissance Faire (something I have never visited).

We arrived a bit early, right when it opened at sundown, and felt a bit silly showing up with the sun still out, but it's a good thing we did. Man, this was the place to be. By the time we left around 8 p.m., there was a huge line to get in and a long wait for the attractions. It's totally the kind of place I would have gone on a date were it - and I - in Syracuse. And best of all we didn't feel old or silly at all being there because everybody from the area was there. And it's no wonder - the haunted house ("The Slaughterhouse") is awesome and truly startling. I nearly didn't make it through, only because I was going to try to hit on the guy in the vampire room....

There's a maze too in a weird circus tent full of deranged clowns who try to mess you up and make you lose your way, but we made it out of there pretty quickly. On our way out we passed some distressed ladies who seemed like they'd been in there for quite some time...

Before we left we took a ride on the Scrambler on their midway, despite our terror over how old it was and how half of it was broken. Since I haven't really been eating anything, I didn't get nauseous. We all managed to resist the "funeral" cakes and burgers and stuff they had there, and stuck to our detox.

Next weekend is pumpkin-picking, I think. If there are any pumpkins left.

The Forest of Fear is only about an hour and a half away from NYC metro area, a lovely drive for foliage-gazing along winding roads...

Here It Comes Again

I took Friday off to make this officially a three-day work week. With Monday off for Columbus Day, I got to actually enjoy last weekend. Good timing, too, since it was the annual Open House New York event, which has allowed me to explore the city's nether regions over the last few years.

This year we drove all the way down to southeast Brooklyn, spitting distance from the Rockaways, to Floyd Bennett Field - the city's first municipal airport, and the site of many historic flights (including Amelia Earhart). Park rangers who work for the National Park Service give regular tours, but last weekend they took us into all the "Authorized Personnel Only" areas, including a mezzanine and old residential quarters as well as tunnels under the old terminal building that have fallen in disrepair (and whose many stairwells have been filled with concrete or sandbagged shut).

One of the tunnels under the old terminal building, now Ryan Visitor Center

Another little-known fact is that you can just show up to one of the hangars and find volunteer engineers who will take you around and show you all the aircraft. We went to Hangar B, the big yellow one, and climbed up into old paratrooper planes, stuck our heads into cockpits, examined how salt water had eaten away at the aluminum of amphibious planes...Most of them can't fly but they're the real thing - only a couple are actually replicas.

After that I wasn't toured out yet, so I got dropped off in Flushing Meadows at the Queens Art Museum to take a tour of the old site of the World's Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. There are a few permanent structures left over from the demolition that happened after the 1964-5 World's Fair, including the art museum (formerly the New York City Pavilion). Most people recognize the Unisphere, which has become a symbol for Queens (and is often televised with coverage of the US Open). But I think few people know about the old heliport (now a catering hall called Terrace on the Park which looks like a big table), or the old New York State Pavilion ("The Tent of Tomorrow"). The state pavilion is heartbreaking to look at - a series of three observation decks (with an elevator stuck 2/3 of the way up) plus an open round structure with a rotting floor that used to showcase a map of the NY metro area. There are some amazing photos online, and apparently a campaign to turn the site from ruins into a space museum.

The Hall of Science was really cool too, and since it's always open to the public, I need to go back. The building itself is architecturally weird, with its undulating exterior wall made of blue glass embedded in concrete. An aerial view shows you its amoeba-like shape. As part of the special tour we got access to the Great Hall, where you can actually see what the blue glass/concrete wall looks like from the inside, with the sun shining through. The Great Hall is a catering hall too, and probably a pretty impressive for events with its unusual lighting, wavy walls and high ceiling. Getting access to it was definitely a highlight of the tour. I wanted to lie down and sleep in there.

Getting home was a struggle since a building fell on the 7 train, but after wandering around that area and finally hopping on a shuttle bus, I feel like I've conquered another piece of Queens. But when will OHNY do guided tours of Glendale?

Ain't That America

I just came back from Indiana. The rest of the state has to be better than where I was.

The Chicagoland area encompasses the northernmost part of Indiana, including Gary (made famous by The Music Man) and Michigan City, both of which run along the south shore of Lake Michigan. We flew into Chicago on Friday for a bachelor/ette party and then headed wayyy out to Michigan City on Saturday to spend the rest of the weekend doing more wedding-related activities (mostly eating).

I have to say, I was unimpressed with both.

I've been to Chicago before, but on business trips staying in a nice hotel and not really seeing suburbs (except Highland Park, where Michelle is from). This time around I got to drive around the southern neighborhoods (yikes - I swear it's stuck in 1979) and eat deep dish pizza for the first time at Lou Malnati's (I like Uno's better). Even though I'm the groom's friend, I got stuck with the bachelorette festivities, which was planned as a sleepover. The problem is, we didn't really do anything. There was a bellydancing instructor who came to give us a lesson, but she wasn't very good and just did a lot of talking and not a lot of teaching. I don't think we really learned anything, and I felt like an expert compared to her. Can't wait to go back to Crunch and take another class with Mimi.

The best part was staying over in an amazing converted loft apartment in the old Rowe Building on Printer's Row near the Loop in downtown Chicago. The bride's sister-in-law has an amazing space and it was cool to be in such a historic area I'd never seen, with the El tracks looming above...

It was too bad we had to drive the hour and a half out to Michigan City, but we did some exploring there too. I knew that there were a lot of dunes along the beach shore, and we got to see one for ourselves: Mt. Baldy, a huge mountain made of sand that - because of wind, erosion and other environmental factors - actually moves 4 ft. every year. It looms 123 ft. high above the Lake Michigan shore and there's only one way to get to the top: a practically vertical climb of pure sand, flanked by foresty trees. I was certain I'd never make it up there but after taking my time, I managed to ascend to the flat top and see the gorgeous and bizarre view (obstructed only by the weird fossil fuel plant next door). By the time we stumbled down the vertical drop to the bottom (some ran, I squished my bare feet in very slowly and carefully), our legs were covered up to the knees in sand, grains like cinnamon sugar, soft and sweet between our toes.

Michigan City has this nature thing happening but it's also riddled with chain restaurants and big discount superstores. For a small town, it has no small town feel - only highways, a weird casino that's half boat / half building, and tons of cigarette/tobacco shops and fireworks stores. I was happy to eat at the Bob Evans for breakfast, but I don't know if that was because it's good or because I was anxious to get away from my repulsive motel room with the terrifyingly dirty bedspread.

The wedding today took us back to nature, at the International Friendship Gardens. It looks like they have a great variety of gardens and hiking trails there, but we stuck to the official wedding area which, although chilly today, was a beautiful venue for a marriage ceremony.

I'm glad I was there this weekend - after all, it's all about friendship - but I'm betting that Vic's December wedding in St. Thomas is going to give me a more enjoyable vacation.

Labor Day Weekend Travels Part II

The trip back today went relatively smoothly. I did get to stop in Scranton and eat at Perkins, though their "new-improved" salad bread bowl is really bizarre, and not that tasty. But it's still a great place to eat, even by yourself, and I got a sugar cookie to go, to keep me company on the rest of the trip home.

I left Syracuse a bit later than I wanted to (making a requisite stop at Carousel mall), so of course I was pretty much rushed the whole way back to Newark. Instead of stopping at every scenic overlook and taking pictures like I wanted to, I treated the trip back as more of a fact-finding mission for the next time I drive through that way. Besides all the previously mentioned restaurants, there's also The Crossings outlet mall, and Bushkills Falls (known as "The Niagara of Pennsylvania"). Plus, Pennsylvania (esp. the Scranton area) has all these coal mine tours, and even a mining museum. Probably great family vacation attractions, which means of course I want to go.

But today I spent a long time in stand-still traffic on 80E, and soon thereafter my check engine (or check oil?) light went on, so I was anxious to drop that frickin' rental car off in Newark.

By the way, if the car rental company asks you whether you prefer a KIA Rio or Optima, tell them "Neither. Give me a car with a quiet transmission and a steering wheel that doesn't shake."