Category Archives: vacation

Maine trip

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We took a long overdue trip to visit Geneva, Layne, Phoenix and Lennox in Bangor Maine last weekend (August 26th to 30th). It so happens that there was a hurricane (Irene) baring down on the east coast at the time. I was actually considering staying in NY to keep an eye on our stuff. I have been through a couple of hurricanes and am aware of the mess it could make. I put the grill and the umbrella in the garage just in case it got really really bad.

In the end, Lisa and i decided that the best thing to do was to get the hell out of town. So we did.The plan was to leave early Friday morning (6am ish) to avoid rush hour and possible evacuating traffic. It kinda worked.

The traffic was light so we got out of the city and were quickly on our way.

We stopped at this hole in the wall place for lunch. I grumbled the entire detour to this place but i have to admit that the food was very good. Checkout Lisas blog for a rundown of how the food was.

We arrived in Bangor around 4:30 5ish. Lisa had been in contact with Geneva via text, updating her on our eta. The whole family were outside! it was good to see them.

Maine is so different from Brooklyn (DUH). In Maine, the kids can play outside unsupervised!! i was floored and a little afraid. My Brooklyn instincts kept kicking in. It took a while for me to be comfortable with just letting Sienna go outside and play. i am envious of Phoenix to be able to do that. It seems so simple. I wish i could let Sienna do that at home. Too many fucked up people in NY for that though. I guess there are fucked up people everywhere but in Maine, i had the sense that the neighbors were keeping an eye on the kids too.

I was glad to see that Sienna and Phoenix got along as if they had just seen each other the other day. They played a lot that weekend along with another little girl from down the street. I didn’t get any pictures of her though..

Lisa and i slept in the game room.

This is what happens if you stay in the game room too long..

Phoenix is really into soups of all kinds. Anything can be part of a soup.

Sienna and her new sword. Here the girls are mesmerized by the TV. Sienna tried to get Phoenix into Shera. I don’t know if it worked.

We visited the river front the next day (Saturday), where there was a folk festival going on with music and food. it kinda reminded me of the big E that we go to every year.

lennox is so cute!! here she’s just chillin in the stroller checking out whats going on.

i love these little doughnuts!! i almost ate the entire thing by myself. Who am i kidding, i did eat the whole thing by myself..

On Sunday It rained like a motherfucker all day because of the hurricane. So we pretty much just hung out inside. Lisa and i tried to go to brunch but the downpour was just too much.

This is what i ate. So much for my cholesterol issue. The buffet was really quite good. I did what you’d normally do with a buffet and ate too much.

That night we took everyone out for dinner at an Irish Pub. The food was good there too. One thing i can say about the trip is that i ate very well.

Downtown Bangor.

Thank you to the Whiteleys for their great hospitality and a wonderful Maine weekend!!

We left the next day (Monday) after breakfast at a bagel place downtown..

We headed out towards Salisbury Mas. It was a little beach town that Star recommended. It was a cool typical beach place.

We had lunch at this place. Outside seating so the flies and mosquitoes can eat too. We were just bombarded with friggin bugs!! The food was good but the bugs kinda ruined the experience. We didn’t stick around too long after that.

The arcade was cool. Sienna kept wanting to play the big sit down games that cost way too much. Here’s Lisa enjoying a game of her youth.

We decided to stay at a Hamptons Inn so we could swim in the pool and just chillax before going home the next day.

The drive back sucked!! for me anyway. Lots of traffic everywhere!! Sienna got to watch Tarzan on Lisa’s iPad TWICE IN A ROW! ugh! at least it kept the whining down for a little bit. I think Sienna missed the freedom of running around and playing all weekend long. I miss that too..

I think this post takes the record for the longest post i have ever made. Its also taken too long to get up. Work is starting to get more and more of my time. The convention is just around the corner. Lots of visual elements to create…

Vacation 2010

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This year we wanted a complete beach vacation so we decided to go to St Petersburg Florida. Why St Pete? well, we had never been to that coast before but read a bunch of good reviews. It was important to find a kid friendly environment. No late night party bullshit. We flew Jet blue on Wednesday (June 2nd) and sure enough Sienna got to watch some cartoons. She really liked that. The flight was uneventful. Sienna is a very good traveler.

We arrived in Tampa (which is next to St Pete) in the afternoon and got our little rent a car. It was the first time that i used priceline and it worked out really well. The car was a tiny Kia Rio LX with a surprisingly large trunk. It took me a while to get used to how it handled. I have grown accustomed to how our CRV feels. So spoiled..

I shot a bunch of video clips. The final video would have been too long so i cut it up into 4 parts. I didn’t shoot many stills though. I need to work on that..

While in St Petersburg, we stayed at the Plaza Beach Hotel. The hotel is right on the beach. They also have a heated pool. I wasn’t so sure why they heated it but it felt good and Sienna loved floating around..

The first morning Sienna was up early as usual so i decided to take her out for a walk on the beach. That ended up happening every day.

Morning walk

morning walk

she loves the water

she loves the water

We met Houdini the parrot.

This was the first day on the beach. It was the calmest day. Not exactly a Jamaican beach but it was nice and not crowded at all.

mmmmmmm!! the beach!!

mmmmmmm!! the beach!!

This is a really cute picture..

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I don’t know where she got this from but it was cute.

I LOVE THE WAFFLE HOUSE!!!

I guess it’s good that we don’t have one in NY.

waffles rule!!!

waffles rule!!!


We had a really nice time. I think we would go back again.

More Jamaica videos

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Here are a couple more videos from our trip. They’re very short. I’m starting to really like the little flip cam.

Here is my dad in his workshop. It was quite startling to me to see how disorganized it is knowing how organized he is. I guess when you retire, that part of you just goes out the window..

Here my mom cooks breadfruit..

This is what the ride down the mountain feels like. I didn’t move the camera at all to get the motion you see. It’s all crap road..

Jamaica Vacation 2009 part 2

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After sticking around the mountain compound for a day or so, we loaded up the cars (JP came too) and headed out to the west coast, Negril. Beach Time finally!! For 3 days anyway…

The trip took about 5 hours of steadily degrading road conditions but once we got there, it was soo worth it!!

The resort was called Merrils 2 it was small but nice. The food was ok, I’ve had better. The rooms are clean. I guess the one thing that urked me was that they didn’t have fresh oj which is weird for a Jamaican resort but whatever. It’s not exactly kid friendly but they try..

Our room

Our room

pig tails by grandma

pig tails by grandma

Sienna loves the beach

Sienna loves the beach

more beach little bunny

more little beach bunny

Uncle Baba loves the beach

Uncle Baba loves the beach

that water was friggin blue!!!

that water was friggin blue!!!

they just had to run around

they just had to run around

Dad

Dad

After 3 days at the beach, i wanted to stay but we had to get back to the mountain. The Christmas tree was waiting to be decorated..

back at roz

back at roz

Sienna helps Uncle Baba

Sienna helps Uncle Baba

Gabby helps too

Gabby helps too

Dad just looks on

Dad just looks on

Cute little tree

Cute little tree

I’ll be posting more video clips of this trip in the coming weeks..

Jamaica vacation 2009 part 1

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For our Christmas vacation this year, we originally weren’t going to go anywhere. We bought a car earlier this year and that really took a huge bite out of our finances. As we got closer and closer to December however i started wanting to get away from New York to see my family in Jamaica.

Last year, we flew Air Jamaica. What a stinking pile of shit that airline was!! This year, Jet Blue was our airline of choice and what a huge difference!! They were organized and on time. The only complaint was that the TVs didn’t work that well in our aisle. I was hoping to occupy some of Siennas time with a little cartoon network action but oh well, the story books and stickers seemed to do the trick. She also took a small nap.

We had an early flight from JFK landing in Kingston Jamaica about noon. Below, Lisa and Sienna are having some juice before the flight.

A little juice before the flight

A little juice before the flight

We tried to get her to walk around a bit hoping that she’d sleep on the flight. Here, she sees our plane and asks over and over if it was ours..

yes Sienna, that's our plane

yes Sienna, that's our plane

Jet Blue

Jet Blue

When we finally landed and cleared customs (faster than i ever thought possible), we were met by Grandpa, Grandma, Baba, Auntie Carol-Anne and Gabby.

Baba and Auntie Carol-Anne have drinks on the new porch.

JP and Carol-Anne

JP and Carol-Anne

Rozkribben (the compound)

Rozkribben (the compound)

This is my favorite picture of the trip. Sienna looks older but is actually the younger of the two..

cousins

cousins

Goldfish share

Goldfish share

Sienna and Daddy

Sienna and Daddy

Summer Vacation 2009

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We decided to have a vacation where we drove somewhere this year. This was partly because of the economy and partly because i wanted to drive the new car on a road trip. We went to Sesame Place and Lancaster, PA and had a great time!!

Lisa has some other pictures on thebunnylog.com . For more pictures, click here.

Day 1 (Sunday afternoon)

All ready to go

All ready to go

Getting there took all of one hour and a half. Not much traffic. Sienna wasn’t bad at all. She got a little tired of being strapped in but that’s understandable. We left after her nap so that might have had something to do with it too..

arrived

arrived

The Mariot

The Marriot

Day 2

This is the first day of Sesame Place and i think i was more excited than Sienna!! She doesn’t really know what’s going on, or does she?

Froggy made the trip

Froggy made the trip

Breakfast at iHop

Breakfast at iHop

Sienna got accustomed to getting crayons at restaurants. It’s a good distraction.

The entrance

The entrance

There were a LOT more people than i was expecting for a Monday morning. This is what it looked like before the gates opened up. They have a very slow system that includes finger scanning all the adults that enter the park. That was a little creepy..

Where do we start

Where do we start

weeeeeeee!!

weeeeeeee!!

Meeting Elmo and Abby was the highlight of the trip for sure!!

Dinner at Uno

Dinner at Uno

Day 3

The second day of Sesame Place we decided to ride the water rides. Lisa was under the weather so i was the designated escort. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a little too chilly that morning for the water rides. We did do one ride however that i thought Sienna would be scared of but she loved it!!

what to do?

what to do?

Scary ride

Scary ride

Lisa wanted to go on this one with Sienna. i didn’t think Sienna would like but yet again, she LOVED it!!

Not so scary ride after all

Not so scary ride after all

Day 4

We drove out to Lancaster and stayed at the Steam Boat hotel. It’s a hotel shaped like a Steam boat. At first, i was making fun of it but i have to say that it was one of the better hotels that i have ever been in. It was clean and all the amenities were updated..

Steamboat hotel

Steamboat hotel

Amish clothing

Amish clothing

Amish buggy

Amish buggy

Animals

Animals

Kate the horse

Kate the horse

Buggy ride

Buggy ride

We got a buggy ride from an actual Amish person!! I don’t remember his name but it was fun. We wanted to have our own buggy but that didn’t work out.

Day 5

One of the things we did in Lancaster was to take a train ride. The pamphlet advertises a 45 minute ride through the countryside. Sounds cool so we went to check it out. I thought it was going to be a circular trip through the countryside ending up back at the station. Well, it turned out to be a strait line and back. They toot the whistle a couple of times too. It was ok.

The Train

The Train

In the Train

In the Train

Family picture on the Train

Family picture on the Train

Day 6

Waffle House rules!!!

Waffle House rules!!!

This was our last breakfast at the Waffle House. I LOVE THE WAFFLE HOUSE!!!! They are friendly, fast and the food is good.

Wafflehouse

Wafflehouse

My little driver

My little driver

Ready to go back home. The trip back took two hours and fifty minutes. Sienna slept for some of it.

We had a wonderful time on our summer vacation. Maybe next year we could go back with Sienna. She’ll probably be old enough to ride some of the rides by herself.