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 t...

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...

New York City (NYC) is absolutely one of our favorite cities. It sits atop the list with London and San Francisco. We do have to add that we also truly enjoy our city, Washington DC, and think it is among the best cities to live, work, and play (although we live in the suburbs). NYC seems to be almost a world all its own. I have been visiting NYC since I was in my early twenties and my husband has been visiting since he was a child. The city is everything you imagine it to be. Some cities are a disappointment. Los Angeles was absolutely a disappointment to me. All of the places that seem so grand on TV are not so in person, except Beverly Hills which is everything it looks to be. NYC is far from a disappointment. It is even better than it seems to be on TV. NYC is truly the city that never sleeps. Anything you want to do, you can do it there. We love the theater and the shopping in NYC. We also love to just walk around the city. We spend most of our time in Manhattan. We als...

Florida in January (DCA-TPA-DCA 18 th - 20 th ) With these frigid temperatures in the DC area and as we wait on our companion pass, we jetted south for a quick beach trip and found roundtrip flights for about 4000 points.   Win! We flew out of National on Southwest at 3pm on Thursday and got to Tampa a little after 5pm. We rented a car for 2 full days for about $200 with unlimited mileage and tolls included and best of all we picked up and dropped it off at the airport which saves on time and is super convenient.   Once we got on the road, we drove 2 hours south to Fort Myers.   We stayed at a Red Roof Inn right on the water.   This was my first time at a Red Roof Inn and I wouldn’t recommend it for a long stay but for one night it was super convenient, clean, and affordable for the beautiful view.   After checking in we went across the street to eat dinner at Sabor de Mexico Restaurant.   It had only been open for a few days but had great reviews so f...

Hello Fellow World Travelers -  I am writing this blog while we are on our first trip of 2018 to Playa del Carmen, Mexico. You will hear more about that trip later. In July of 2017, I took the trip of a lifetime with my family. However, instead of calling it a trip or a vacation, I truly feel it is more appropriate to call it a pilgrimage. My immediate family and some of my extended family went to the HolyLand,  Israel . When we left the United States, we had no idea how this trip would change our lives in every way. The journey was spiritual, motivational, enlightening, and educational. I have been a Christian since I was 10 years old. I have studied the Bible for as long as I can remember. Whenever you read a book, you develop an idea in your mind of what everything looks like. You develop an image of the people, the places, the things in the book. I did that with the Bible and especially the HolyLand. I thought I knew what the Sea of Galilee looked like. I had envi...

WOW… What a year! We traveled somewhere almost every month and often more than once in that month. It made for an exciting and adventurous 2017 and we’ve set a goal to continue our monthly travels again in 2018. We love exploring new places and often are in awe of all that God has provided us with here on earth. There is so much to do and see. In January, we went to Florida. My brother and sister-in-law met us there while mom spent some one on one quality time with baby Cash. We went to the gulf coast and visited Sarasota, Siesta Keys, Long Boat key, Santa Ana, and a number of the beaches along the coast up to and including St. Petersburg, Florida. It was lots of fun but we did encounter red tide in Siesta Key and were only able to hang out on the beach for a little while. As we moved up the coast, the red tide got better and we didn’t see dead fish washed up on the shore as much. Siesta Key was by far the most beautiful powdery sand I’ve ever seen. In February, we went to ...

2017 Travel - Year In Review - 2017 was a great year for us travel wise and in every way! It is our goal to go on a trip every month and we almost achieved that goal. We love travel and love sharing our experiences with others. In 2017, we traveled to Barbados, New York City, Cozumel, Montreal, Israel, Punta Cana, Myrtle Beach, San Antonio, and Jamaica (girls trip). We enjoy a mix of both city and beach trips. We enjoyed every beach trip. The time to relax, see new places, meet new people and have fun in the sun was wonderful. We enjoyed our stay at the Secrets in Punta Cana tremendously. The resort is very nice and the staff was amazing. The food was excellent and the beach was relaxing. We toured the island a bit and had a great time as a couple just being disconnected from the world and enjoying the beauty God created. My first blog was about our stay in Cozumel which was a great time at the beach as well. If you have not read the blog, please do so. We love Cozumel. There are a...