Laundry Fail

Well folks, today has been a productive day for me thus far. I woke up a little earlier than the usual, ran 3 miles, got myself together, and bought a new piece of large luggage. I also got about $30 worth of quarters from the bank just so I can do my gazillion loads of laundry that have piled up over the past week and a half. By the way, Patrick and I are leaving for Hawaii tomorrow, and today allowed itself for a perfect day of laundering our clothes. That is until I went downstairs and my super told me, in his ever so gentle and kind way, that all of the machines were just removed from the basement to be fixed...for a week. I, literally, missed my window by 5 minutes! I think I felt my heart poop out on the floor in such dismay that I almost wanted to cry. "Oh, I am so sorry my dear," said the super. "Can you wait a week?" My reply was a sad little, "No...I am leaving for a trip tomorrow." He proceeded to tell me that the nearest laundromat was 4 blocks away. Feeling downtrodden, I pushed my basket of dirty cloths back into the elevator and returned to my apartment. So, being a social worker, and having a pretty good sense of humor, I laughed off this ridiculous situation and began to problem-solve. Patrick and I have decided that one suitcase will carry dirty clothes and the other our clean, and I will just have to do laundry when we get to the Westin Villas in Princeville, Kauai. Ok, so it not the ideal way to begin our vacation, but it is kind of a funny way to do so. After we made up our plan, Mr. Superintendent comes knocking on my door and offers to take me to the laundromat himself. He felt so badly for me, but I refused his kindness as graciously as I could because he has better things to do than cart me around to wash my clothes. I told him that I procrastinated, which made him laugh. He said he wished he could have let me know sooner that we would not have the washing machines weeks ago, but the guy he was working with was shady and a liar. Oh boy...at least he will be looking after our apartment to make sure it is safe when we are away. He really is the nicest man I know. I am never sarcastic when I talk about him...if you met him, you would love him too. So, now I suppose I better sort through my dirty laundry and pack for this trip. Never thought I would say that to anyone...

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Cancun

About two weeks ago, I went to Cancun with Patrick, my mom, and step-dad, Kirk. For years, we have talked about going on a vacation together, and we finally made it happen. It was the perfect time of year to go since April is the shoulder season (the time between spring break and summer). It wasn't very crowded and we got some amazing rates for our hotel rooms at the Westin Lagunamar, situated right on the Hotel Zone in Cancun. With a pristine beach and clear aqua water, it is the perfect setting for relaxation, fun, and sun (when we had it). The Westin Lagunamar is located across the street from a large shopping complex and there are lots of restaurants within walking distance. Being from New York, proximity to the necessities is important! All of the larger attractions and historical sites are quite far from the Hotel Zone, but those are a must see when visiting Cancun. We decided to venture to Chichen Itza via CARM tours, one of the wonders of the ancient world, and a fascinating place it is! Our tour guide was full of facts (maybe too many since he sucked up a lot of our allotted time and we ended up ditching him so that we could explore the sacred grounds), and our drivers got us back to enjoy some tacos! Here's a fun fact about Chichen Itza: If you stand in front of the stairs and clap, the sound travels up the stairs and echoes a bird sound back as it bounces off the top of the temple. So cool! My birthday just to happened to land on our final full day in Cancun. How did that happen? The day started with going to the Westin Resort and Spa (located on the other end of the Hotel Zone) where I had a wonderful hot stone massage. It was my mom's first time ever going to a really nice spa, and I think I converted her to the lap of luxury. She had a 50 minute facial, and she looked radiant afterwards! Once we were all nice and relaxed, we headed back to finish up some last minute shopping and pool time before heading over to Fred's House for a tasty seafood birthday dinner. I had crab soup and a lovely house salad with fresh goat cheese, but I did manage to try some grilled octopus that Kirk had ordered. Dinner is always a fun occasion with my mom and Kirk because we pass around our food, wanting to sample everything we have ordered. Kirk usually kicks this off with his statement, "Oh my God, Lin (my mom), you gotta try this." He says this as a utensil piled with food is right under my mom's nose. "No thanks," she politely declines. However, being a true Italian, he insists and my mom eats the food and repeats, "Oh my God. That is so good." Thus we all are inclined to sample one another's food with much laughter and lots of happy stomachs. So here are a few pics from our trip. If you are ever in need of a good vacation, check out the Westin Laugnamar. Each room is a villa equipped with a full-functioning kitchen complete with pots, pans, and anything you would have at home! The resort also has activities for families such as a kids club, themed buffets, pool games and contests, a water slide, and DVD rentals. Make sure you go during the slower seasons to get better rates and you too can say "Bienvenidos a Mexico!"

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Brooklyn Day

Every once in a while, Patrick and I need a Brooklyn day because it is really a great borough and sometimes we really miss it. My favorite place in all the city is perhaps the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, and this time of year the cherry blossoms are beginning to bloom. Just like D.C., they have a cherry blossom festival, celebrating the beauty of the blossoms and partaking in the Japanese tradition of Hanami, which is the art of staring at the cherry trees in full bloom. If you go when the trees are in peak bloom, you can understand from where this tradition came. Not only are the cherry blossoms out, but we also viewed a variety of spring time flora including, lilacs, hyacinth, daffodils, and magnolias.

I am having difficulty with the new format of blogger, and so I apologize for the weird placement of my paragraphs. Hopefully they will fix this problem. Anyways... After the garden, we took a stroll through Prospect Park into the Park Slope neighborhood where we had a late brunch at the Stone Park Cafe. I had shrimp and grits topped with a poached egg, and Patrick ordered the best BLT he has ever consumed (specially made with Berkshire pork belly instead of bacon). It was a lovely day spent in Brooklyn.

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mission: greece days 3 and 4

right now i am awaiting a package that is to be delivered by the (in my opinion) unreliable and unpredictable ups man, and so as i listen to smooth french jazz of madeleine peyroux, i find it the perfect time to blog about athens.

even though blogging about this trip is taking me a long time to get through completely, i am finding that it is the only way to stay connected to the greek ways of taking my time. also, i get the chance to relive each moment one singular memory at a time, and i hope you are enjoying my process as well. patrick says i should write everyday to keep my readers engaged, and yet with everything else going on in my life right now, i blog when i can. thus i begin.

day three was all about the sight-seeing around athens, riding in

a mini-bus while stopping at the most significant ruins of the greek golden era. our companions on the tour were the ever engaging 10 year old lochlan and his wonderful mother linda from sydney, australia. our first stop on the tour was zeus's temple. in the middle of a green field, stands erect 15 of the original 104 columns of the greek god's temple. one has fallen down, making 16 in total. this is not a greek temple, but rather a roman structure built for zeus, and if you would like to read more about this temple click here.

we took our pictures for about ten minutes,and then were herded into our mini bus to continue the tour where our next stop was the old olympic stadium. our guide, maria, informed us that the greeks don't call it the old temple, but the temple that is made out of marble. everything the make is glorified, and of course the best. this st

adium is still used as a finish line for the yearly marathon, and is also used to begin the olympic games passing of the torch race around the world!

our final stop on the tour, was the acropolis (acro meaning edge and polis meaning city gives you the greek word for the site of the parthenon). along the way to the acopolis, maria pointed out many interesting sites around athens, such as the parliament building and the president's home. so we get to our destination, and hiked our way to check out the heart and soul of the greeks (when i say hike, i mean climb a lot of stairs, but it's not too exhausting). we learned that it only took 17 years to build the entire complex of the acropolis which includes the parthenon, the propylaea (gateway), the temple of athena nike, and the erectheion (another temple). the temples were beautiful to look at and all were very photogenic, but the views of the city were simply breath-taking. you could see the entire city of athens all the way to the sea port village of pireaus.

when we had seen everything and taken all the desired pictures, we headed back to our hotel. stelios, our trafalgar guide of athens, wanted to show us around plaka. stelios, in my mind, it your stereotypical greek man, just like the father from my big fat greek wedding. he gives you the entire history of the greeks along with the meaning to every word...ever without being asked. i found him very endearing.

so, even though we had ventured to this part of town already, we indulged him and gave him the chance to talk about everything that we saw. i cannot recount many of his stories, mostly because i zoned out and patrick was busy being entertained with the millions of stray animals and wanted me to take part in his excitement. (side note- there are no squirrels to be found in the city of athens, but in their place are hundreds of stray cats and dogs. i mean it, they are everywhere!!!) patrick and i were feeling quite hungry, and so as soon as stelios's plaka tour was over we headed to a cafe for some gyros! they are a lot different than the ones over here because the meat was not difficult to identify. however, they did not have many lamb gyros around, mostly chicken and pork.

we napped in the afternoon, checked out the acropolis museum, and then ate at an italian restaurant near our hotel. i think we needed something other that greek food that night. it was actually really good, so good we ate there again before we left. i had a farfalle pasta dish with shrimp and red peppers in a

tomato cream sauce while patrick had the cheesiest lasagna i have ever seen!

day four was a national holiday, and not just any holiday...THE holiday! it is the day that the greek celebrate their independence, march 25. this meant that everything was closed, and so we had little options for sightseeing. we began the day with stelios taking us to the military parade. it was so over crowded and so hot, i thought i was going to hyperventilate and pass out. thankfully i made it through the entire thing, and then patrick, linda, and lochlan and i took the metro back to the hotel. we decided that the metro system in greece is pretty amazing. it is clean and mostly made out of marble. i think that the mta should take note of this!

after some more napping and a change of clothes, and another round of gyros and tzaziki, patrick and i ventured out vis metro to faliro (i think) which is along the coast on the outsk

irts of athens and situated near the olympic complex. we walked along this one street and were amazed. the entire row was restaurants, one right after another. you could find any type of fare you wanted, from traditional greek to cuban to seafood! what i found interesting about these places were half of the restaurant was on one side of

the street overlooking the harbor and the other half was on the other side of the street. we deduced that the kitchen was on the non harbor side as we saw wait-staff lugging trays across the busy street. we were longing for some food but were not quite ready for a full dinner. so we settled on the haagen dazs cafe where we had a delectable dessert and freddo cappuccinos! between the view, the sweets, and my sweet, i was in heaven. it was so relaxing, and so perfect.

to get back to our hotel, we took the tram this time to experience that form of transportation. what can i say, us new yorkers have to know how to travel around each place we go! it was a long trip, but relaxing as we got to see the coastline and parts of the city we hadn't seen yet. our stop was quite close to our hotel and so we trudged back to our room to relax. for dinner that night, we thought we would try some greek fast food at their nation chain called goody's. we got some burgers and fries, and were happy to not spend hours at a taverna for dinner (although greek life agrees with me, i am still very much american).

patrick and i ended our night watching madagascar in greek. it was funny, and the amount of commercials was ridiculous! the same 30 second ads were played over and over for about 20 minutes! i am not exaggerating. i tried to count them at one point, but by commercial number 40, i lost interest in the game and fell asleep.

this is beth signing off.

mission: accomplished.

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