Travel Record

Bay Area for Ramesh's Wedding

2011-04-13T20:11:00.000-04:00

Today we start a long trip from Fort Lauderdale to California's Bay Area. It's going to be a great weekend starting Thursday night, all the way to Monday night.
We left Nico and Penny with their grandparents in Florida, and it's just Mari and me.
The reality is that we had fantastic timing: we were invited to Ramesh and Kristin's wedding on Sunday. and my birthday is tomorrow.
Looking forward to some great days.

The Event

2011-04-10T23:01:00.000-04:00

The event happening was all day Sunday: Ramesh and Kristin's wedding. I will be brief: it started by waking up at 5am, arriving at the Hindu temple at 7am, participating in the ceremony all morning until 11am, and lunch at the Pleasanton Country Club. After lunch, we went back to the hotel for a one hour break, get changed, and head downstairs for the reception.
Yes, we did party the entire day.

San Francisco

2011-04-09T20:28:00.001-04:00

We spent all Saturday in San Francisco.
Started having breakfast with some friends in what's called "The Mission". Very nice area with little stores and classic San Francisco homes. Then we drove all the way to Twin Peaks Outlook, to get a view of the City from behind. After that, we drove and walked a lot.
Started our driving experience through Market Street, and all the way to the financial district. We parked the car and headed for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, SFMOMA. We loved that museum! We enjoyed the section on "the history of wine" and the photography.
After the museum, we decided to take a break and enjoyed some nice fancy tea at Yerba Buena. The best was the Yogurt, honey, and dates dessert.
Because of all that we had eaten, we had to walk around and discovered great things: McKesson Headquarters, Chinatown, and "the fifth avenue of San Francisco" with fancy stores.
We closed the day with some fancy and exquisite dinner a three course meal with pairing wine at the Fleur de lys. It was a great birthday present.

Napa Valley and Golden Gate - Happy Birthday

2011-04-08T20:13:00.000-04:00

Today's my birthday, and we are in Napa Valley. We took the one hour roadtrip from our hotel in Freemont (Newark, actually) on the east of the bay via I-880. We arrived at Napa, California first, and it was a great surprise!
Napa is fantastic! A small town (population 77000, I think I read on the sign) and the gate to Wine Country. We went straight to downtown Napa, parked the car and stopped at the Information Center. It was opened a few days ago, and the person who helped us with a fun itinerary was from Boca Raton, FL - what are the odds of that?!. Our first thing was to walk around town, we visited a fantastic open market with lots of great places to buy cheese, vegetables, and olive oil. After that, we decided to grab some lunch at a Japanese restaurant, near first ave.
We got back in the car around 1pm, fearing that we might not be able to see more than one winery. We first took the back road on the east of the valley (as we were advised by the Boca Raton lady) and it was incredible: packed with small winery after winery, vineyard after vineyard. It's a one lane road that serpents through the valley and the view is beautiful.

We decided to stop by at my favorite winery first, Beringer, and take the tour. For $20 a person you get a nice short tour of the original caves where they keep the wine, and wine tasting. We learned two notable things: (1) you swirl the glass of wine to not only let it breath, but rather to make the scent come out for you to stick your nose in let it in (it truly works, try it), (2) the "progressive pour" allows you to taste multiple types of wines with the same glass: we started with Pinot Noir and ended with Cabernet.
After Beringer we stopped at "V Sattui", which apparently they only sell at their store in the valley, and Mondavi. The last one is pristine and beautifully built in Mexican style.
We started our return around 6pm, and had enough time to stop at the Golden Gate Outlook, just before you get to cross the bridge.

Manatee Springs State Park - Days 2 and 3

2010-03-06T20:40:00.000-05:00

The highlight of the trip was to go to Manatee Springs National Park near Gainesville, to go Manatee Watching. We did that today.

After a not so restful, yet not so terrible night, we woke up at around 8am. Left the hotel, And had breakfast at Kike's: French toasts.

We then left for Manatee Springs State Park that was a quick 40 minute drive to the South East of Gainesville. The park is small, and gorgeous. As you walk to the spring, from the parking lot, you pass the picnic area, a playground, and you get to a crystal clear and warm fresh water spring. The springs feeds the Suwanee River.

We were very lucky and we saw and counted 9 Manatees. Nico saw them only when we gave him Mari's polarized sunglasses. It was very bright. We also saw a deer cross the road and a hawk as we walked around the spring.

We grabbed a picnic table and enjoyed some fried chicken, coleslaw, and potato salad. After lunch, we played football and soccer. We had a great time. Then we drove back to Gainesville to an unfinished furniture store called Wood You. Beautiful pieces.

Then we went to see the famous Swamp: where the Florida Gators play football. Nico loved it! He had a chance to go down to the field and play imaginary football. We ended up the tour with a drive around campus after visiting the Gator Store.

We wanted to keep going but we started to get tired and hungry, so we finish the day with pizza and a latte.

The next day we woke up late, and started driving back home mid morning after Sunday Mass.

Manatee Springs State Park - Day 1

2010-03-05T21:30:00.000-05:00

We left home at about 8.30am and arrived at Gainesville at 2 O'clock in the afternoon. We only stopped twice for bathroom brakes and to buy strawberries (awesome Florida strawberries!.) As a matter of fact, Nico tried some Honey Tangerines on the fruit post, and he loved them too.
We had lunch with Kike (Grilled Salmon with Asparagus and Squash) and we sang happy birthday afterwards. Kike's birthday is next week. Funny thing: he didn't remember exactly his age. We all forget.
We played the accustomed soccer game after lunch - we always do that when we come visit. You see, Kike lives next door to a big outdoors public sports complex with 3 soccer fields. And then we went to the hotel for checking in and a quick bath for Nico.
At around 7pm we decided to go to downtown Gainesville, seeking for a good restaurant. We chose a place called Harry's: a very nice New Orleans style restaurant. I had my favorite: Crawfish etouffee

Pictures from Great Smoky Mountain NP

2009-11-30T20:11:00.005-05:00

We leave home at 7am and decided to sleep at

We arrive at Great Smoky at around noon. It wasn't raining, but very cloudy. We didn't have good weather any day.... In reality we only had a 4 hour window of good weather, which was enough for setting up the tent during our arrival, and for picking it up during our departure.

We had planned to go to three different camp-grounds, but the weather only allowed us to stay in Cades Cove all the time. We don't regret it, it is definitely a great campground. Facilities are very very good.

The first day we drove around Cades Cove and saw most of the historical buildings. Very nice... we were lucky and saw a black bear too.

The following days we spent going to the main entrance in Gatlinburg, on the Tennessee side. We actually even spent some time in the city. Very charming tourist town.

The furthers we drove was to Clingmans Dome, where we parked in the parking lot and waited for the rain to stop; yet it didn't. So I decided to walk to the dome at 45 degree weather under the rain. I could not see anything anyways, so I decided to go back to the car.

In the end, after four days, it may seem like we didn't enjoy much, but quite the contraire. In spite of the weather not being on our side, we had a great time full of memories. Nico enjoyed camping and seeing all sorts of insects, spiders, deer, black bears, and chipmunks. It is definitely one to repeat.

Great Smoky National Park Preparation

2009-09-05T11:48:00.003-04:00

We finally decided on a date and location for our first car camping trip as a family. We'll be going to Great Smoky National Park, in Tennessee. The two most remarkable facts about Great Smoky are:
(1) There are 3 black bears in every square mile in the park
(2) It is the most visited National Park in the US

We plan to go in Mid September (mid-low season) and camp in a different location for three nights.

Items in the list, are:

Tent - we got a Marmot Halo 4p
Sleeping mats - we got REI's 1.75 inch mats
Sleeping bags - we cheaped out with some bulky Coleman sleeping bags rated for 40 degrees
Lantern - I love our new Black Diamond Apollo
Bags - we'll just use our day packs and we got an REI basic large duffel bag
Food boxes - We got a simple Coleman Cooler and we plan to get a sealed box to keep our food inside of the car, away from the bears.

Other than that, we should be ready to go... we got non essentials on the list too (music, board games, balls, etc). Now we gotta complete a basic first aid kit and a list of what type of food we are going to take.

Madrid May 09 - Day 4

2009-05-23T19:12:00.001-04:00

23-May-2009. Alcala de Henares. For our last day in Spain, we went to visit some family at a neighbor town. To my surprise, two great moments of history happened here. First, it it the birthplace of Cervantes. Second, it it is the place where Christophoro Columbus asked Queen Elizabeth for money to go to the West Indies and eventually discover America.

We spend the day mostly chatting and catching up with family, which we enjoyed a ton and are very greatful for having them.

Madrid May 09 - Days 1, 2, 3

2009-05-22T19:09:00.001-04:00

20-21-22 May 2009. These 3 days were very busy and packed days full of lots of walking, eating, and drinking.

On Tuesday, we met Greg who was flying from Frankfurt and came visiting. We walked all over Madrid starting at the Puerta del Sol, down to Plaza Mayor, and enjoyed the market. Dinner was Madrid style at its best: tapas at 3 different bars. Each bar had a best one - boquerones, olives, queso cabrales, or the patatas bravas. When it comes to drinks, we tried it all in one night: local beer, asturian cider, tempranillo red wine, and refreshing sangria.

During these 3 days, e visited some interesting spots. We finally saw the Royal Palace or Palacio Real. It was closed when we were last here in Madrid. We had to go to the Reina Sofia Arts Center Museum to enjoy contemporary artists such as Picasso, Miro, and my favorite, Salvador Dali.

On the 22nd, we took a bus to the neighbor town of San Lorenzo to visit its main attraction: the Escorial Monastery. This is a massive building from the sixteenth century that hosts a monastery, basilic, and the kings residence while at the mountains. However, the most amazing place, and probably my favorite of this trip, is the mausoleum where 23 kings and queens of Spain remains are.

Edinburgh May 09 - Day 3

2009-05-19T23:00:00.004-04:00

19-May-2009. Today we had a short day, and we started at the Glenkinchie distillery, which is one of the few whiskey distilleries in the lowlands. It's about a 30-minute drive south if Edinburgh, and we learned about the fabrication process of Whiskey and the differences between Single Malt (exclusive from one batch of distilled barley), Grain Whiskey (mix of other cereals), and Blends (made up of multiple whiskeys). We bought a bottle of single malt, double matured, Glenkinchie whiskey.

At 2pm we had lunch at the sea-side town of Queensferry. We shared the best plate of mussels we've ever had. This was a great last day at Scotland.

Best surprises:

Great food
The closes around the Royal Mile
The distillery
The elaborate Roselyn Chapel in the middle of the country-side

Edinburgh May 09 - Day 2

2009-05-18T22:07:00.003-04:00

18-May-09. At 11.30am we went to Roselyn Chappel, the product of a promise, considered the origins of the art of Masonry. It's an amazingly decorated interior, small, and very cold inside. It has carvings of both pagans and religious figures, and full of puzzles and unsolved mysteries. This gave it a central role in the famous "The Davinci Code Book". What stroke the most: "Wine is strong, the king is stronger, women are stronger still: but truth conquers all".

At 1pm we went to Heriot-Watt University. While waiting for Lyonell, we walked around campus. We enjoyed watching many horses along the way.

At 3pm and after much rain, we had a traditional fish and chips lunch at the Bridge Inn. This was next to the narrow canal/waterway: one of the many throughout Scotland.

At 5pm, we drove to Edinburgh and walked through New Town. We went to "Jenners", which is the first department store in the World. We also bought a tea mug.

At 6pm, we took the route through Rose Street - a busy back alley - to John Maxwell's house where the ICMS is located today. Then we headed for a beer at the near by pub frequented by mathematicians and physicists. We drank a Yorkshire Terrier and an Innis & Gun.

We ended the day heading to Medow Park to go by the University of Edinburgh and had dinner at a French restaurant in the Grass Market.

Edinburgh May 09 - Day 1

2009-05-17T18:12:00.005-04:00

17 May 2009
This is the first post of our May 2009 trip to Edinburgh and Madrid. We started flying to Madrid on the 15th, arriving early 16th, and then taking another plane to Edinburgh the night of the 16th. Therefore the official first day in Edinburgh is the 17th.
After going to Mass in the morning, we left the house at around 11:30am. Parked the car near Holyrood Park, next to the Sailsbury Craig. This is a great place to start a day with great weather, because you can see the entire city from the top of the mountain. You can see Holyrood Palace, which is where the British Royal family stays in Edinburgh.

At 12:30 we started a big walk through the Royal Mile - the main road of Downtown Edinburgh. Good place with lots of tea houses, restaurants, souvenir shops. What caught our attention the most was the "closes" - small closed alleys along the Royal Mile with backyard gardens, tiny stores, or maybe just a dumpster in some occasions.
We wanted to try a good restaurant, with local food if possible. After at least one hot tea stop, we ended up trying a new restaurant called Oink. We had Wild Hog Sandwiches. These were excellent.
Then we headed for the famous "Elephant House" tea house. This is the supposedly birthplace of Harry Potter - J.K. Rowlings wrote the first chapters in this tea house.
Then we walked all the way up to the Castle, at the top of the mountain. We could not get in because it was too late, but we took some pictures from the main gate.
Then we headed for the National Gallery. I personally really enjoyed this museums: it has two or three pieces of the greatest artists in the World, making it completely manageable for one or two hours. In just one hour you can see pieces by Rembrandt, Van Gogh, El Greco, Velazques, Cesan, and many other great Dutch, Italian, and Spanish painters.

We closed the day going back to the car, and driving to the bay, where we had dinner at a nice restaurant called "The Fish". We all tried the halibut and had the traditonal Sticky Toffee dessert.

First time in the Everglades National Park

2008-11-30T08:12:00.009-05:00

In spite of us living next door to the Everglades National Park, and after three years living in South Florida, we finally decided to go. We had planned going multiple times, but all the plans fell in the rainy season (May to October), when it is not recommended to go due to the unbearable mosquitoes and insects. This time, we literally improvised the trip: November 29th 2008, an after thanksgiving Saturday morning, looking for things to do, we decided to take the 90 minute drive to the entrance of the park and the Ernest Coe Visitor Center. Once there, we will figure out what to do.
Once the Florida Turnpike ends and we turn west, the first impression was that it is a rural part of Florida that we didn’t know existed. We found farms, crops, and interesting things in Florida City. The most iconic thing we saw was a fresh fruit farmers store called “Robert is here” with a giant sign declaring bob’s position in the region. We stopped there for some fruit on our way back.

We then encountered the visitor’s center, just before the park entrance, where we got our map and suggestions from the local park ranger. Nicolas started inquiring about alligators right at the door. The park entrance is immediately after the center and we paid $10 for the car – it’s valid for a week’s pass.
Our first stop was at the Royal Palm. We were advised to go there if we wanted to see some alligators. Just 4 miles from the entrance, we parked the car and decided to have lunch first. Mari had packed sandwiches and drinks. Once done with that, we started our adventure with the Anhinga Trail.
We could not believe that in the first 5 minutes we saw the first alligator in the water. Then another, then another, and finally one as close as two feet from the walkway, with the mouth open. In all, we might have seen at least 10. It is really an amazing experience to see, up close, so many and dangerous wild animals.

We continued with the second trail at the Royal Palm: Gumbo Limbo Trail. This is just a 0.4 mile loop walk in a tropical hardwood hammock. The greatest thing to notice is the clearness of the water. Being in the fresh-water part of the park, the water is crystal clear with no mangroves but lots of water lilies. You might think a swamp is dirty and muddy, but it is completely the opposite.
Now that we saw the fresh water American Alligator, our next goal was to go see a Salt Water American Crocodile. We were told that we could spot those in the Flamingo Visitor Center, at the end of the main road, 38 miles from the entrance and right at the southern tip of the Florida coast line. So, 50 minutes later, we were there.
The Flamingo Marina is the place where boaters come to in the Everglades. We saw people with kayaks, canoes, motor boats, and even inflatable canoes. There’s also a small store and a ruin of what it looked like an old abandoned hotel. The view to the Florida Keys is spectacular from the top floor of the visitor’s center.
Nicolas was sleeping here, however, we were able to see one crocodile, just on the other side of the boat ramp. They are endangered so I figured it would be harder to see them. This once was slightly larger than the biggest alligator that we saw at the Royal Palm; still very impressive. We also saw many birds like hawks, crows and seagulls.

Then we decided to turn around and stop at some other worth seeing spots as we went back home. We did so at the West Lake boardwalk and at the Pa-Hay-Okee Overlook. We were told that the West Lake was the best boardwalk to see the salt water fauna of the Everglades. It is a 0.4 mile loop inside of a massive mangrove. It didn’t impress us much since we have been to several mangroves. Although, Pa-Hay-Okee is a 0.2 mile boardwalk loop with an amazing observation deck offering the best view of the “river of grass” of the Everglades National Park.
We really enjoyed the Everglades. It was enjoyable by the three of us, equally. There is much to see, and at a relatively short drive from home. We left thinking about the possibility of mountain biking adventures, and sleep over camping options in the future to explore it at its max.