Broadway - New York City - October 2009

This is my third annual pilgrimage to Broadway. There are few things I enjoy more than watching a broadway musical. My first show was My Fair Lady at age 10. I remember sitting in the balcony, watching the actors perform and listening to those famous songs - I Could Have Danced All Night.

Times Square, the heart of Broadway, is where it all happens. This intersection is alive 24 hours a day, or so I've heard. I'm rarely up after 11pm.

TKTS is the best place to purchase last minute tickets to the shows. You wait on line, up to an hour, for the day's unsold tickets. You never know what shows are going to be offered. The tickets used to be half price, but in this day of electronics, the discounts vary from 20% - 50%. I was lucky - on the Thursday I arrived I was able to get tickets to the revival of Hair - which I originally saw in 1969 in Chicago.

Billed as an American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, this show brought us many famous songs, including Aquarius, Good Morning Starshine and Let the Sun Shine In, and those lesser know songs - Sodomy, Hashish, Going Down and Easy to Be Hard. I sat in the last row of the orchestra, on the aisle, which turned out to be a fantastic seat. During the show, the actors were in the aisles many times, and the lead actor, Will Swenson - gave me a big hug during one of his entrances. I remembered very little from the first time I saw the show, but that's no surprise, I can hardly remember what I did yesterday.

What else do you do in NYC besides Broadway - EAT of course. Here I am outside the 2nd Avenue Deli, which is on 33rd Street. I guess they moved 2nd Avenue. I spent Friday with my niece, Rachel, pictured below. I can't believe I didn't take one picture of her in NYC, this picture is from my 50th, no I mean my 60th birthday party. Before lunch we went to buy a new camera - see my Cancun and Berlin posts to read more about my camera adventures.

After lunch we headed to Times Square to take pictures of me by the musicals I was going to try to see. Above is a picture of the reflection of the Empire State Building.

Friday evening Rachel and I went to see the revival of West Side Story. I've seen the show twice before. I was warned that parts of the show were in Spanish. I thought it enhanced the show, and only one song was completely in Spainish - Me Siento Hermosa (I Feel Pretty). The Jets - the American gang - sported current hairstyles and honestly, looked like a bunch of gay guys dancing in the street. The Sharks - the Puerto Ricans - were a little more rugged. My favorite songs include Tonight (Quintet), America, Gee Officer Krupke, and Somewhere.

Saturday I got matinee tickets to Mamma Mia. Who doesn't love ABBA? Fourth time for this show - including once in Spanish in Barcelona. One of the reasons I love Broadway shows is that they find the hottest, well built men. Usually the best are in the musical Chicago, but this trip Mamma Mia won hands down. Almost every guy showed a six-pack and... Now where was I - oh yes, you probably know almost every musical number, including Dancing Queen, Mamma Mia, Thank You For the Music, The Winner Takes It All, and Voulez-Vous.

Saturday evening I had dinner with my sister, Evelyn, my cousin Dianne (pictured above), my niece Staci and her boyfriend, Michael (pictured below) and my brother-in-law Steve (not pictured). We ate at Mangiao Bevi, and enjoyed the food and entertainment. We then took a ride to 12th Street, to find Rachel, who had been out drinking since 1pm. She was very funny and directed me to the nearest gay bar. I tried to take her cute friend with me, but he wasn't game.

My final show for the weekend was Chicago. I think I've seen it five times, but who's counting. It has a long way to catch up to my number one show - A Chorus Line - which I've seen at least twelve times. My favorite songs - All That Jazz, The Cell Block Tango, We Both Reached for the Gun, and Class. If its there next year, I'm sure I'll see it again.

This picture, of Times Square was taken with my new camera, using the panorama mode. You take two or more pictures and the software combines them into one long picture.

What's NYC without a subway ride? Growing up I remember taking the subway for a nickle - Am I that old? Hope you enjoyed my adventure and look forward to your comments.

Cancun - September 2009

Welcome to the Mayan Coast. Our hotel was about an hour and a half south of the Cancun airport.

We're here as a result of a dinner we attended in Orlando. It was at Morton's Steakhouse, and they spared no expense. The main course was a huge steak and three large crabmeat stuffed shrimp. All we had to do was sit through a short sales presentation. They were selling fractional ownership in homes. Details to follow. The pictures above are at the hotel we stayed at - Gran Bahai Principe.

This is the beach by the hotel with hundreds of palapas - the palm covered huts.

On Friday, we were picked up at 6am for our long, long, long bus ride to Chichen Itza (also know as Chicken Pizza). These are Mayan ruins, which are part of the New 7 Wonders of the World. I've seen six of the seven - Giza Pyramid Complex (the only one of the original 7 remaining), Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janiero, the Colosseum in Rome, the Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu in Peru, and the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. The seventh, which I will probably never see is Petra in Jordan. And if I do go, I will never tell my cousin Sara.

There are 91 steps on each side, plus the top one for all four staircases, totalling 365 - representing an entire year. Up until two years ago you could climb the steps, but some woman fell down the steps, so they are now off limits.

These are the older Chichen Itza ruins, which have not been cleaned yet.

He I am sitting on the ruins. By the way, all the pictures are from Eric's camera. My camera disappeared at the resort and no one ever turned it in.

Before leaving Chichen Itza, you walk past about a bizillion local venders. My purchase was a t-shirt, since mine was soaked during a thunderstorm.

On our last day, we saw the Mayan ruins in Tulum, about half an hour south of our hotel. They were not as large as Chichen Itza, but just as impressive. And they looked directly over the blue Gulf of Mexico. See the two photos below.

One of the many lizards that were everywhere.

Here I am having a cocktail before the sales presentation we had to attend - not bad for a free three night stay at a five star resort. Everything was included - room, meals and liquor. The presentation was about 2 1/2 hours, with no pressure at all. They wanted you to buy 1/12 of a home for $120,000, with an annual maintenance cost for your four weeks of $5400. When we viewed the property, they only had two houses built, and they were just the models. And this project had been underway for over three years. You can see why we jumped at the offer - LOL.

This final picture was sunrise. I'm told it happens every morning, but I manage to miss it. You can be sure that this picture was not on my missing camera.

San Diego - Ride for Aids - Sept 2009

This is my second trip to San Diego this year, with one more to go. I had signed up for the 2009 Ride for Aids in April, but it was postponed until September.

I was extremely lucky that my good friends Jeane and Jay Zorzy were at home, and invited me to stay with them. The two pictures above were taken at their mountain ranch.

When I arrived in San Diego, I went directly to Lisa’s office and took her out to lunch at the Studio Diner – I wasn’t hungry since I already had three meals by noon. That’s Lisa above signing the word “hello”.

After lunch I went to Jeane and Jay’s and relaxed until dinner. It seems all we do is relax and go out to eat, which isn’t all that bad. Tonight was PF Changs.

Jeane had a fantastic day on the golf course today. She was taking her second lesson and was chipping onto the green – and guess what? – The ball went right into the hole – I call that a hole in one. I doubt she’ll take my advice to give up the game, since it will never get any better.

On Friday I went with Jay to the skating rink, where he played ice hockey – number 27 in the picture. I lasted about an hour, before the threat of frostbite forced me out into the warmer weather. That evening we went to a beautiful restaurant overlooking the Pacific.

On Saturday, Lisa, Jeane and I went downtown for an Art Walk. I wasn’t really impressed with the work, but Jeane bought a beautiful photo of stones and shells that matched her guest room perfectly. That’s sunset above from Jeane and Jay’s backyard.

Later that afternoon we relaxed before another night out on the town – sushi tonight.

Sunday morning Jay and I woke at 5 am, and actually left on time at 5:30am. There were about 75 riders for the Ride for Aids. After four hours of up hills and down hills, Jay and I completed 108 miles. That’s 54 miles each, which included 4 extra miles since we got lost alone the way. It really was a beautiful ride as you can see from the pictures. The first loop was to Point Loma Peninsula, where we rode by a very large military cemetery. The view was beautiful, not a bad place to be buried. We then headed north, where we overlooked the Pacific Ocean. We lost the course somewhere around Sea World, but managed to make it back to the finish line with four other riders. Just as we arrived, they were drawing prizes, and Jay won a $50 gift certificate. I won a stuffed teddy bear.

An interesting fact – my bike rental for one day cost the same as my four day car rental - $60.

We returned home, heated up the hot tub, and relaxed.

The biggest surprise Sunday night was the homemade dinner Jeane prepared – her famous white chili. Save the picture above, since it may be a collector’s item one day. Exhausted from the ride, I retired early, getting ready for my flight home on Monday.

I’ll be returning to San Diego in October to take Lisa out to dinner. I need the miles to requalify for Executive Platinum.

Costa Rica - Sept 2009

This year's relaxing vacation was a week at Tamarindo Beach on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. After our flights to Miami and San Jose, we had a four hour car ride to the condo (pictured above). The ride wasn't really that bad, except for the last half hour on a dirt road. The condo had a fantastic view of the ocean and beautiful sunsets (see below).

This is the waterfall in our pool.

No - I did not go surfing. I leave that to my sister. The waves were not very high, but there were plenty of surfer boys showing their skills. We didn't really spend much time on the beach - since the rental chairs were too uncomfortable to sit in, and the umbrella was at least 15 years old - not providing a lot of protection.

Here's one of the many sunsets we saw each evening. It rained most afternoons, which helped to bring the temperature down.

I don't know how I got this affect, probably after too many gin and tonics. It was fun walking the beach, especially in the evening.

This was the sunset on the last night of our trip.

The hightlight of the trip was our ziplining adventure. We drove to the rain forest and managed to find a small hotel with ziplining - not the one we were looking for, which was about an hour and a half from where we ended up. The last time we went to Costa Rica I paniced and would not go ziplining. This time we were both pros - flying from tree to tree at at least 50 mph, or was that kph. It was a lot of fun - and I hope my niece Rachel gets to do it one day.

This final picture truly describes our trip. Our meal - every night except one - was rice, beans and chicken, which always came with a small salad and squash. We call it the standard dinner in Costa Rica. It was just as good as we remembered it four years ago. We also had it the first night we were home.

Cycling Across Switzerland - June 28 - July 7, 2009

I arrived in Geneva on June 28, 2009. John, the tour guide met me at the airport and took me to the hotel, only a block from the train station. Geneva provides free rides from the airport and free local transportation during your stay. Can't think of any US city that does that.



We had dinner at a restaurant on Lake Geneva. One of the courses was horse meat, which I tried, but it definitely did not taste like chicken. On the way back to the hotel we stopped for gelato, one of many for the week.

This is the group I traveled with - Damoi, Todd, Debbie, Cole, Diane, Billy and me. Ed is missing from this picture, since he preferred more difficult routes most days. Unfortunately Demoi fell and broke his collar bone on the third day, and had to return to Korea for surgery.

Here I am climbing one of the many hills of Switzerland. On day two I was talked into taking the harder route which finished in a five mile climb in pouring rain. I was not a happy biker that day. I soaked in a hot tub for half an hour before feeling normal. Of course the gin and tonic didn't hurt.

Every day, our other guide, David, provided us with a fantastic picnic lunch. This is one of the spots he chose during the journey. David always made fresh salad, a choice of meats, fruit, local cheese and of course - chocolate. You needed energy while burning 8000 calories a day.

Vineyards covered the landscape as we neared the end of Lake Geneva, and our steep climb to a local winery. We relaxed and enjoyed wine, cheese and sausage. You can see France across the lake.

The highlight of day 3 was a stop in Gruyere. Not an easy climb to the village, but well worth it. Here I am at the local watering hole.

I took over 1000 pictures during the trip. There must be a few, like the flowers above, that will make it to canvas.

During our daily rides, we saw many beautiful waterfalls. This one was on the way to Interlaken and then Wengen. We were glad to get to the hotel in Interlaken, and park our bikes for two days. We reached Wengen by taking two steep train rides, and then walked to the hotel - no cars allowed.

With a day off from cycling, I took a cable car to the top of a mountain, and walked a three mile mountain pass, covered with beautiful flowers. The photo above shows the Swiss Alps in the background.

Following my hike through the mountains, I took the train back to Wengen.

The next day we arrived in Lucern, which most of you can tell from the landmark bridge pictured above. There was also a great farmers market around the lake on this Saturday morning.

During my previous cycling trips to Europe, I always missed the sunflowers. We were lucky this time, passing many fields of the yellow flowers.

In the town of Rapperswil, I saw one of the most colorful cemeteries ever. It was almost like they had a contest to see who could create the prettiest grave. We pictured all these widows planting and tending the flowers every day, to see who would win the blue ribbon.

Switzerland has an amazing system of bike trails throughout the country. We took route 9 from western to eastern Switzerland. The path is a total of 504 km, or about 310 miles. I guess we averaged from 45-50 miles a day.

Here I am on one of the final days of the ride. Notice the sign behind me - a 25% grade. I must admit, I only rode halfway up the hill, and walked the bike the rest of the way. Many in the group did climb the entire hill without stopping.

Here's an old wooden bridge, which leads to Liechtenstein. I walked across the bridge, stepped on dry land, so I can now add another country to my list, which now totals 63. My goal is to reach 100. That evening we stayed in a small countryside hotel, and had one of the most amazing meals ever. It compares to the best restaurants in the world.

After finishing our ride we turned in our bikes, had another fantastic dinner and prepared for our journey back to Geneva. We broke the train ride into two segments, stopping in the Swiss capital of Bern.

We had lots of rain in Bern, but I caught this flower scene during one of the sunny moments.

An one final word for Switzerland - CHOCOLATE