Finding Paradise in Miami

New York City is an awesome city to live in, and I'm so lucky that I've been able to go to school and work here over the past 7 years....but sometimes you have to get out.

By mid-March, the stressful and frenetic pace of life here combined with the 'spring that just wouldn't come' was making me grumpy. Good thing I have friends in warm places willing to let me visit! Though I was born in Florida and still have a ton of family there (in the Tampa/St. Pete area), I had never been to Miami. It was time.

For just being a quick weekend jaunt, it was action-packed. I got in around Happy Hour on a Friday night and we immediately went to a bar in the Brickell area - all the cool kids go there apparently. Right after we parked in the garage I got my first true taste of Miami - a guy wearing red suede Ferragamo sandals and white linen pants got on the elevator with his girlfriend wearing leopard pants. Ha! After hopping around to a few bars, we finished the night eating Cuban pizza, which has a softer dough and is filled with bananas and carmelized onions. I think I like NY pies better, but it definitely had a unique and interesting flavor!

Saturday morning we drove out to Homestead in the "country" of Miami and went to a Amish farm to pick strawberries. Who knew I'd be put to work on my vacation? The farm stand also had delicious milkshakes (raspberry-chocolate, mmm), amazing breads and jams. My favorite purchase? Hot pepper guava jelly - makes a perfect rub for beef, pork chops or chicken!

Then we were off to Schnebly Redland's Winery (pictured above), easily the most unique winery I've ever been to. No grapes here - instead they create wines from tropical fruits native to the region....avocado, mango, passion fruit, star fruit, lychee...the list goes on. I bought the Lychee Wine, which was sweet with a hint of carbonation and reminded me of a Riesling, and the Avocado Wine, a smooth white wine with a buttery, creamy aftertaste.

After hitting up a rooftop pool party and relaxing at home for the evening, we decided to go out on the town. Did you know that there is no set time for bars to close in Miami?! What a wonderous thing! I thought we went out late in NYC, but we left the house at 1am that Saturday and still had plenty of time out and about. I'm not really the South Beach-long line-huge cover charge-grimy bouncer kind of girl, but we did stop on Lincoln Rd. at Segafreda for drinks before hitting up Bardot, the bar everyone was talking about all weekend. Bardot did not disappoint! We got there around 2:30am and danced til 6am, easy. The music was so much fun, and switched in and out from awesome song to awesome song. We finally called it quits when we noticed people starting to mop the floors and clean up.

Did the night end then? NOPE. Time for after-hours breakfast! Instead of your standard diner, we went to a Spanish 24 hour restaurant (when in Miami...). Yep, the menu was in Spanish. I left it to my friend to order, and we stuffed our faces with Columbian hot dogs. So delicious! I woke up with heartburn, but it was worth it.

My final day in Miami was spent on a pontoon boat off the Biscayne Bay looking at views like the one at the top of this post. Gorgeous! It's weekends like this that make me wonder if I could picture myself living in another city. I can. Not sure if it will be Miami (although I'd visit there again anytime), but I don't think I'll be a New York City girl forever. There's just too many other parts of the country that I want to get to know! I'm not willing to settle down until I find my perfect-fit city. It's out there somewhere!

San Francisco and the Perfect Aura

A wise fortune cookie once told me (well, last month), 'The attitude within is more important than the circumstances without." I needed to hear that.

See this summer started out really fun, but somewhere towards the end of July, things started going sour. Financial issues, family stuff, career ruts....I started feeling a bit lost.

In the midst of all this, I remembered that I had planned to go to San Francisco over Labor Day. It's always good timing to go on a cross-country trip when you have no money! Argg. Well, I picked up weekend shifts at two different bars and worked hard to play hard. Despite the crazy work schedule, the trip gave me something to look forward to through the month of August (and my fortune cookie reminded me to refrain from getting too cynical or negative about things).

Well, the SF trip has come and gone. The outcome? I love San Francisco and my bank accounts haven't been frozen (...yet). It's the only city I've visited in California and it was only my second time there, but both times, the city completely brightened my outlook on life right when I needed it.

I love that people in SF seem happy and healthy. I love that dogs are treated like people, that everyone has one and that they run free in the parks. I love that people have active, balanced lifestyles and that laidback attitudes are more prevalent than stressed and unhappy ones.

During my stay, I got to do so many fun things. Our first day we spent doing touristy things (bang 'em out and get them out of the way in my opinion). We wondered through the streets until we found crooked Lombard St. and then headed to Fisherman's Wharf for chowder bread bowls. On a whim, we decided to go on a $15 boat ride around the Bay (the BYOB sign was calling us) and took lots of pictures. It was a great way to spend a sunny and windy first afternoon. That night we headed down to Chestnut St. in Cow Hollow for dinner and drinks with friends we knew in town.

Over the weekend, we headed to Napa. So pretty! We went on the Napa Wine Train one evening for a gourmet meal...our attempt at being classy after the previous night's debauchery. It was really scenic and the food was great, but we were clearly the youngest people there, and we were so tired and hungover that the older couples showed us up! They were partying and having fun while we were trying not to fall asleep and just wanted off the train, haha. I'd skip it unless you're 40+. The next day we did lunch at Mustard's Grill (yum!) and visited Rubicon Estates for some wine tasting. Rubicon happened to be Coppola's fancy pants vineyard (compared to his more family-friendly Francis Ford Coppola Winery in Geyserville). It was so picturesque! The wine was good, too...I suppose that's more important.

Back in SF for the remainder of our time, we did sushi and sake bombs off Chestnut St. the Sunday evening before Labor Day. Of course we were THAT group being loud in the restaurant while other people were on dates...oops? We followed it up by sake-fueled dirty dancing until who-knows-what-hour. We spent Labor Day laying in Golden Gate Park (hungover) and soaking up the sun when it peeped out from behind the clouds. Perfection. The other girls left a bit earlier than me, so I spent the rest of my California escape hiking through Sausalito and the Marin Headlands, and thrift shopping in the Mission and along Haight. I even hit up a Yang Yoga class at a climbing gym in true West Coaster fashion - I could get used to that life. Sigh, why does California have to be SO far from my family in Pittsburgh and my friends in NY?

More than just having a great time, being away from work and stress in NY gave me time to do some soul-searching. For laughs, the girls and I visited a psychic in Napa and the strangest thing happened. The woman read everyone's palms but mine! She actually stopped, looked at me and said, "I'm sorry sweetie, but I can't give you a reading today. You don't need one. When you walked in here, I saw your aura right away, and it was full of bright, beautiful colors. Your life and your karma are perfect, and everything will figure itself out within a year."

Um, what?

I mean, I just wanted to give the lady my $25 and have her tell me if I should stay in NY or consider a move, and if I was meant to have a career in PR like everyone else. But hearing that made me happy. It was quite an oddball thing to tell someone, but I think it was a reminder that I don't need to worry. All the issues I've been having are temporary (and there will always be issues and pitfalls to deal with), and all-in-all, my life is coming together. More importantly, my life is fun.

Thinking back on 2010 so far, I have to agree that this has been a pretty great year (and my horoscope tells me that the rest is gonna be fab, too. The Pisces is the luckiest sign for the remainder of 2010!).

Despite the bumps in the road, I've been able to look inward to figure out who I am and what I really want this year. I finally released an old sadness that I held onto for far too long, developed a lot of new friendships and strengthened old ones. I set goals to try new invigorating activities (running a 5k, learning yoga), and remembered to keep up with the things that make me happy – other than boozing with friends (painting, reading, Marlon, being independent...I like sober activities, too!).

I also accepted going with the flow this year, and embraced trips and people that landed in my lap. Going to a wedding in Alabama where I didn't know any other guests? Sure why not? And now I have new friends, a couple of which were just in SF with me. Planning a trip to SF for no particular reason with a girl I only met once (at said wedding)? Sounded like a great opportunity to get back to a city I love and get to know her even better. And it was.

I can't wait to see what else is in store for me...I think I'm on the cusp of something big. Hi life, I'm here, along with my perfect aura. Help me figure out what to do next!

Finding History in Honfleur

My trip to Honfleur was my "voyage a la source."  

My great-grandmother, Andree Charlotte LeBlanc was born in Honfleur - a cute, little marina town in Northern France, and visiting was my chance to see where she came from, and understand a bit more of my past than I had before.  It was my chance to put on my sleuthing shoes and fulfill my childhood dream of being a part of the Ghostwriter team (you know you loved it, too).  Well, not that serious, but I was on a bit of a wild goose chase for answers: What was her childhood in France like?  What street did she live on?  Do we have any relatives left here?  Why did her family move to the U.S.?

It was harder than I imagined to get to Honfleur without a car.  After five different buses/metros/trains, I finally arrived in Trouville... not even Honfleur.  Apparently, Honfleur doesn't have a train station, so I had to stay in the next town over.  It turned out better than expected - Trouville is a really adorable beach town with old Victorian beach houses, old-fashioned changing rooms right on the water, and plenty of good restaurants and inexpensive hotels (in the off season at least).  During the summer, Trouville and Deauville (another neighboring town) are two of the most popular weekend getaways for Parisians because they are only two hours from the city.

In the morning, I was able to jog on the beach right near my hotel, and then catch the local bus to Honfleur for only about 1.50 euro.  I came armed with an address, a name and a date.  The address: 36 Rue Lingots.  An Henri LeBlanc (we think he was maybe a cousin of my great-grandma) wrote her numerous postcards after she moved to the U.S. from this address.  The name: Laurent LeBlanc, the only LeBlanc I could find in the White Pages of Honfleur.  The date: 1898, the year my great-grandma was born.

Honfleur was smaller than I thought.  I started my day by searching for the address.  I easily found it... right near L'Eglise de Ste. Catherine, a church famous in Honfleur for being the only all-wooden Catholic Church.  It was a home-wares store on the first floor with a set of apartments upstairs.  Really cool to imagine someone sitting at one of those windows nearly 80 years ago and writing postcards that I still hold onto today...

Next, I headed over to the Hotel de Ville (town hall) to see about finding any information about my great-grandmother through the old town documents.  But, alas, the Hotel de Ville was closed daily from 12:30-2:30pm for lunch.  Yes, in France, they close things for lunch and on Sundays.  Hard for an American to get used to...  So I set out to explore the town for awhile and find lunch.  I poked around all the different shops and tiny, little roads and took plenty of pictures of the Vieux Bassin, the dock famous for all the Impressionist and Watercolor painters that have loved it over the years.  I found a restaurant serving Moules a la Normandie (mussels in cream sauce) and broke for lunch.  I treated myself to a Pommeau aperatif, an apple-based liquor popular in the Normandie region, and a Tarte Tartin (upside-down apple tarte) for dessert.  Why not?  As my trip was nearing an end, I no longer feared eating by myself and I was all about eating as much yummy French food as possible before I couldn't anymore (that may be why I feel a little extra pudge in my stomach area that wasn't there before, hmm).

Trying the Hotel de Ville again, I faced the typical French attitude... at first, they basically told me it was impossible for them to search for anything on her because I didn't know enough background info.  But, as I had learned to do during my stay, I kept inquiring, and a nice woman finally directed me to the Town Archives.  At the archives, they found her birth certificate from 1898 as well as the marriage certificate of her parents from 1896 within five minutes.  It was so exciting to see all these incredibly old documents that led to my past!  The marriage certificate explained that on the day of their marriage, my great-great grandmother's father had been missing without any news for 17 years... interesting.  The birth certificate listed the road my great-grandma's family lived on, so I was then able to find the street she grew up on until moving to the U.S. when she was four years old.  So much history in one day!

My final stop of the day was Laurent LeBlanc's address.  Who knows... maybe we were cousins?!  It turns out Laurent LeBlanc was an artist (a good one, too!) and the address I found was his gallery.  I stopped in to chat with him when there were no customers around, and unfortunately, we were not related.  His family grew up in another French town, so it looks like the Honfleur LeBlancs of my family have died out or married.  Damn.  But, I did make a friend.  We talked for awhile and he showed me all his work, and then he offered to drive me back to Trouville in an hour, since I had missed the last bus back.  Sweet deal.

I finished my Honfleur day by painting a small tableau sitting on the edge of the Vieux Bassin, just like all the artists around me and all the artists of days before, and then hitched my ride back to the hotel.  Some mysteries solved, but other questions about my family history had just begun.

La Drome - Living the French Country Life

I've been traveling about a month and a half now (and mostly by myself) and I just realized something -- I think I might be proud of myself.  What I'm doing here (while lots of fun) is not easy.  With the help of a good friend back in New York, I've met up with different people in Paris and found places to stay.  I've gone multiple times to French travel agencies and (in French) figured out travel itineraries, rail passes and how to get around in this foreign country. With no definite "plan" before I left, I organized myself here and decided where I wanted to visit each day/week and when necessary, searched online and found hostels/hotels, etc... I might just be a good traveler!

As I write this, I'm leaving the Drome, one of my favorite areas of France.  I visited this area - a tiny village outside of Valence called Ste. Croix - once before, 3 years ago during a summer study abroad trip with St. John's University and fell in love.  Beautiful mountains, cute little towns, open markets, Clairette de Die (a bubbly and delicious wine specific to the area), horses, roosters, sheep... it's a simple and real way of living here.

I think I like it so much because it's such a different way of living than I'm used to.  It's a sort of departure from my life -- I stay in a plain bedroom in a monastery built in the 11th century, eat delicious French meals until I think I'm going to pop, go on hikes, picnics, and horseback riding, speak only in French and have very little contact with the outside world.

But then again, this whole trip has been a departure from my life.  I don't have to think about jobs, growing up, friends lost, boyfriends, or what I'm doing with my life.  I can just be.

Sadly, this once-in-a-lifetime trip will be ending all too soon, and I will have to think about all of the above again, and make some very big girl decisions.  But for 3 days, I was a French country girl, galloping through the mountains on a horse named Shepes without a care in the world...

Adventures in Amsterdam

Staying on a boat sounded much more glamorous than it was, haha.

When we arrived at Centraal Station in Amsterdam, it was rush hour and we had to fight through the crowds to find the "botel."  But once we found the dock, there were over 20 boats! I guess that makes sense for a city of canals, but it was confusing for us American girls. 

The gruff Dutchman that owned the boat showed us the way to our cabin (calling it a cabin is a stretch) -- and lucky for us, the way included a set of the steepest, skinniest stairs I've ever seen.  Once inside the "cabin," there wasn't even enough standing room for the two of us and our bags, haha.  My friend couldn't stretch her wingspan across the room without touching both walls and I couldn't sit up on the bottom bunk without bumping my head.  It was interesting to say the least!

We headed out for food and exploration and stopped at the first pizzeria we saw.  Bad idea.  It was the worst pizza I've ever tasted.  And the guy microwaved it!!  That is such a no-no when it comes to pizza.  We're from New York for Christ's sake!  That's not to say Amsterdam doesn't have good pizza.  I'm sure they do... just not where we went. 

Left to our own devices without tour guides like the California guys in Munich, we set off walking and hoped to run into something fun.  We found our way to the edge of the Red Light District and found a long row of coffee shops, bars and a quite interesting store called The Condomerie.  Plenty of people were out and about and we were curious about the whole coffee shop experience, but our prude American nature made us hesitant to walk in.  How does it work?...Is there a certain coffee shop etiquette??  Finally, we pushed our reservations aside and tried out Coffee Shop Sheeba.

Sheeba was great.  The middle-aged man behind the marijuana and hash counter showed us the menu, chatted with us and joked around.  We made our purchases and headed back to the boat.  3/4 of the way back, we made the brilliant realization that we lost our lighter somewhere in Munich.  Damn.  Amsterdam is an early city - all the stores are closed by 6 or 7pm and the bars and coffee shops close at 1am.  We were stuck.  Then came Funky.  

Funky was a Jamaican reggaeman (and possibly homeless) that was wandering and dancing to his own beat on the dock near the boats.  We went up to him, asked him for a light for a cigarette, he lit it and asked where we were staying and tried to chat... we responded far far away and scampered back to the deck to smoke our legal goods before he saw us.  We then came to the conclusion that though illegal, it just might be easier to smoke in America.

We sat on the dock together, looked at the beautiful city of canals at night and smoked.  A nice Dutch guy from the boat next door and his dog, Dolly came to join us.  After a few struggles, it was a perfect end to our first night in Amsterdam.  Then, the rain came and we had to head inside to our cubicle.

A few things to note about Amsterdam:

- A trip to Amsterdam is probably best during the summertime.  Surrounded by many canals and situated in the North, it was windy, freezing cold and raining during our whole stay in late September.  Plus in the summer, there are tulips!

- Go out early because most of the bars and coffee shops shut down around 1am.

- The Van Gogh Museum has an amazing collection of his work, but for some reason, it's more expensive than any other museum I've visited in Europe, and they don't offer a discount for people under 26 years old. (costs around 12.50 Euro)

- The Anne Frank Haus is a must-see.  We've all read the book and it was both moving and sad to see the actual place where her family hid as she wrote her diary.

- Amsterdam has great shopping.  If you're looking for funky trinkets and souvenirs for family and friends, there are tons of gift shops on every block.  And if you're looking for a great piece of Euro fashion to take home, there are a bunch of cool boutiques and shops like Sacha, where I found my new favorite boots.

PROST! Oktoberfest in Munich

I left Munich with war wounds and a massive hangover, and I loved it.

Before this trip to the biggest beer festival in the world, I had never been to Germany or met many German people... but if Oktoberfest is any indication, I loveee them both.

My friend and I arrived in Munich after midnight on a Thursday and exhausted from the train, we assumed we'd go to bed early and get a good start the next morning... hahaha, not so much.  We had rented an apartment through Craig's List Munich (best idea ever - thanks Mel!) that was just 5 minutes walking distance from the fairgrounds and when we got inside, we met the 4 guys from Cali staying in the room next door.  Instant friends.  That's the thing about traveling -- you make instant friends wherever you go because frankly, you don't have anyone else!  We went straight to the local bar and quickly got our first taste of Oktoberfest.  The place was crawling with leiderhosen-clad men and Bavarian-dressed ladies already tanked from drinking all day.  They were jolly, loud and so much fun.  We didn't go to bed until probably 5am, and as soon as we got up the next day, we started all over again.

The guys showed us the best beer tents (don't be deceived -- the beer tents are huge, completely enclosed barn-type buildings) and we drank steins, danced on tables and rode the carnival rides (interesting when drunk...) all day.  We thought we were drinking well into the night, but as we later learned, it was probably 9pm when we left the festival grounds, ha.  But we didn't stop there... the pub we went to the first night became "our pub" for the week, and we made a point to go back every night post-Oktoberfest.  It was my "Traditions" in Germany :) and the beer maids knew us by the last night.

 

My memories may be a little dim thanks to the strong Bavarian brews, but I know I had a good time... there are pictures to prove it!

Burnt and Burnt Out...Long Beach

Summer is officially here.  Whew, I'm beat.  I took a beating from the sun and got very little sleep this weekend in Long Beach, Long Island and I loved every minute of it.

Long Beach is a fun little beach town in Nassau County of Long Island just about a 20 minute drive (or LIRR trip) from my area of Queens.  It's a cute little town that's nothing like the city...yet it's still just a short commute, and the people there (young and old) love a good time.

Two examples:

1. One night we headed out to Saloon, and were drinking within a mixed crowd of folks in their mid-twenties and some in their mid-fifties.  I'll admit, as part of the mid-twenties grouping, those fifty-something party animals provided a dose of humor for the night, but hey, when I'm around that age, I still want to have places to go out with my friends and have a good time!

2. As we walked back to our car after a weekend of sun and a little too much fun, an old couple sitting on their porch laughed at us and asked if we had a good night last night. What kind of old folks say that?? haha

There's an active boardwalk full of bikers, joggers and walkers, plenty of little coffee shops and restaurants, and even a town parade on Memorial Day.  On the other hand, there's a long strip of bars made for bar-hopping and, this is key, they are all within walking distance from the houses... perfection in my book!

Summer is a celebration in Long Beach, as it should be.  There were constant barbeques to attend, the beach was always lively (but not too packed), and the West End where I stayed had a college-anything goes-laid back vibe.  The houses in the West End are typically small bungalows stacked close together and parking can be difficult, but the bonus lies in their community feel and close proximity to the beach.  Everyone sits out on their porches and chats with neighbors on nice afternoons, and the beach is literally only a block or 2 blocks away.

Things to note when heading to Long Beach:

- You will need to get a  beach pass from a kiosk on the boardwalk to head to the beach for the day (or bum one from a resident in the area with a summer-long beach pass).

- Parking can be tight on the West End near the "state streets" (Indiana Ave., Louisiana St., etc.).

- Breakfast (or lunch or dinner) is cheap and good at the West End Coffee Shop at W. Beech and Georgia Ave.  On busy weekends, expect a bit of a crowd in this cute small town diner.

 

516-432-7147

1042 W. Beech St.

Long Beach, NY 11561

- Bring your volleyball!  Lots of people set up nets on the beach and love joiners interested in a game.

- Saloon at Indiana Ave. and W. Beech St. is a fun bar with a mixed crowd of young and old.  They often times have live music or karaoke.  

 

516-432-9185

1016 W. Beech St.

Long Beach, NY 11561

-Ever wished you could do the Pleasantville-small town stereotype of riding a dainty bike with a basket and a bell?  Now's your chance.  The boardwalk is long and the small alley streets are free from traffic making Long Beach a biker's paradise.

- Minnesota's Restaurant & Tavern at Minnesota Ave. and W. Beech St. is known to have the youngest crowd in Long Beach.  I found it to be a really good time (but then again, I'm only 23!).  

www.minnesotasny.com

959 W. Beech St.

Long Beach, NY 11561

I've only been to Long Beach three times, but I hope to go a lot more this summer.  Anyone else have other places to recommend in the area?