Portugal Potpourri

Well, I'm back.  Sorry for the long absence from posting.  I was on my long anticipated vacation, driving around Portugal with my friend Laura, eating good food and drinking (many) bottles of vinho verde.  Don't worry, though, I have lots of new photos to make up for the time spent away. 

But, alas, I'm jet-lagged.  Barely too tired to transfer photos from my camera and definitely too tired to sort through the two memory cards worth of pictures to put together a cohesive themed post about any one of the towns Laura and I visited or things that we did.  So instead, you will just get this, a potpourri of pictures from the trip.  Hopefully they will get you excited to see some more. 

That is, once I've recovered from the jet-lag... (yawn).

(Portugal, photographed June 2010)

New York State of Mind

As I've been not-so-subtly mentioning (like here), I'm going on vacation.  Soon and very soon, I'll be on a plane headed to beautiful Portugal.  I can't wait for the seafood, the port, the castles, the coast...

So, of course, what am I posting about?

New York City.  Where I live and work.  The place I'm super excited to get away from for a few days.  Yup, tonight, instead of packing, I'm posting about good ole' new york.

I do love this place though.  She's a beautiful city, especially when she wears her bright lights and neon at night.

(New York City, photographed 2009-10)

Ruining Me...

For another "shore excursion" during our cruise, Meghan and I visited the Mayan ruins of Tulum.  In this post, you saw photographs from our ferry ride from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen.  Now, I could have been happy with just that boat ride, but the day got even better. 

The weather was perfect for a history buff like me to walk around these ruins, which were constructed sometime between 1200 and 1450.  Our helpful guide provided lots of information (although, to be fair, I ran around a little bit taking photos while he was talking).

p.s. I cheated a bit with these photos.  I used photoshop to make some of them black and white.  Thought they looked better this way. I think you'll agree.

(Mexico, photographed May 2010)

The Key to Happiness

As part of our cruise, my friend Meghan and I had a "shore excursion" to Key West.  I've been there a couple times before on vacation and was looking forward to seeing it again.  Unfortunately, we only had a few hours in the morning to explore.

But we packed a lot in. Parasailing, a visit to the southernmost point in the continental U.S.A., conch fritters, key lime pie dipped in chocolate and frozen on a stick...

And of course, a couple of drinks at Ernest Hemingway's old bar Captain Tony's (formerly Sloppy Joes). So what if those drinks were at 10:30 in the morning? It was 5 o'clock somewhere...

And, if you can't tell, I played around with my lensbaby while in Key West. 

(Key West, photographed May 2010)

Planning for Port...

Soon and very soon, I leave for Portugal. 

I still have to post more photos from my cruise and embarrassingly still have to finish unpacking from it(whoops!), but I'm already thinking ahead to my next vacation.  I cannot wait.

My friend Laura, who will be going on vacation to Portugal with me, and I met last Saturday at the Bohemian beer garden in Astoria, Queens, to plan for our trip.  What better way to plan for vacation than to look at guide books while drinking cold beer and listening to live music.  We figured out a great plan, too.  We're going to fly into Lisbon, rent a car, and drive up the coast to Northern Spain and back again.  We're not quite sure of our itinerary in-between, but are ready for the adventure.

Of course, me being me, I had to take photos of our planning session.

Laura, who is a talented photographer herself, took some of me, too.  And some old guy we befriended at the beer garden also took our first "portugal travel" photo, seen below in black and white.  Here's a teaser - expect some great photos from Portugal in the next month!

(nyc bohemian beer garden, photographed June 2010)

On A Boat...

I recently went on my first ever cruise and was accompanied by my friend Meghan (hi Meghan!)  Some people are cruise people.  Some people are not.  Meghan and I are decidedly cruise people.  We loved the shows, the chaise lounges, the bars, the endless buffets...

And we loved the "shore excursions."  We went parasailing in Key West and visited some Mayan ruins in Mexico.  What was funny was that, once we disembarked at port in Mexico, we immediately got on another boat to ferry us to the ruins.  But it was a beautiful day to be on a boat, especially one that served ice cold cerveza (Mind you, we stayed away from the margaritas and pina coladas for fear of Montezuma's revenge. Where'd they get the ice from?).  There was even a cute boy playing a guitar for us.  Who could complain?

This bottom photo is with lensbaby for those who are keeping track.

(Mexico, photographed June 2010)