Diary of the Traveling Pairs

New York City, the city that never sleeps, is a playground for everyone.  Whether you stay for a weekend or month, there is always so much to do and see.  You will never see and do it all.  Having grown up just across the bridge in Harrison, NJ, New York has always been very accessable to me.  I remember taking the PATH train into the city for a quarter, today it is over $2.00.  There were two reasons to go into the city.  First, my mom cleaned multiple penthouses and apartments in the city, so i went with her to help her so she can come home earlier and in return I made a few bucks.  The second was to shop and spend that money. Jersey City and New York City had all kinds of different, inexpensive, and unique clothes and shoe stores.  Growing up, NYC was my mall and I loved it.  When I was in college, I went there once or twice for the night life with girlfriends who were familiar with NY at night.  I sure was not.  We always went to NY during the day. While in high school, often my fr

The Smooth Jazz Cruise is a high demand cruise. These cruises sell out a year in advance and they are not cheap. This cruise costs about three times the average cruise. However, it is more than worth it if you love music, especially this genre of music, and travel. The Smooth Jazz Cruise is the best of both worlds, top artists in the field and great ports to visit. This is a cruise we have now done twice and plan to go every two years.  We consider this to be one of our top vacations. We have a chance to hear music we love all day and all night. There are concerts with artists by the pool, in the lounges, and nightly shows in large theaters. You can attend listening parties, informal teaching sessions, and see artists perform together that never tour together. The artists on this year's cruise included: Marcus Miller, Boney James, Brian Culbertson, Euge Grove, Peter White, Kirk Whalum, Gerald Albright, Norman Brown, Rick Braun, Candy Dulfer, Keiko Matsui, Eric Marienthal, P