Posted: February 26th, 2009 | Filed under: Out Of Town
We went to Aruba last year and enjoyed it so much that we returned this year, some friends in tow. Last year we missed the Carnaval festivities, but this year we got to see the Tivoli Lighting Parade through Oranjestad:
Other highlights included Alto Vista Chapel (and the festively decorated house on the road there), the Aruba Aloe Factory, the Jolly Pirates Afternoon Snorkel Cruise and the Seroe Colorado Lighthouse (thanks to fellow guests for the directions — on the way to Baby Beach, make the first left just past the drug treatment center you see on the right side of the road).
Like last year, we stayed at Peter and Julie’s Coral Reef Beach — highly recommended if you want a different Aruba experience than you’d get from the hotel resorts on the other part of the island. As Peter himself might say, Coral Reef is “very nice . . . very inexpensive . . . very local.” Both Peter and Julie go out of their way to point you to some of the more out-of-the-way places on the island, and the accommodations are really charming.
Bring a snorkel and mask; we did this time and it was fantastic.
Posted: February 3rd, 2009 | Filed under: Manhattan
Ah — I always wondered who this guy was — I saw vegetable peeler-purveyor John Ades/took pictures of him two different times. The pictures sat on the hard drive for a while — What was it? Who was he? How do you classify it? I tried googling it but what do you google, “peeler guy manhattan”? In retrospect, I should have googled the Daily News clip in the background with the headline “A Slice of the Street Action” . . . I would have come across this. Then one day I just finally labeled a page “The Pitch” under “Curiosities” and uploaded the pictures there.
Anyway, John Ades passed away last Sunday, February 1.
Here he is in Lower Manhattan probably about 3 years ago (I think — I can’t quite remember):
And here he is in Union Square in September 2008:
Posted: February 2nd, 2009 | Filed under: Queens
Unlike Yankee Stadium, the demolition of Shea Stadium is moving along rather quickly. Not one but two articles this weekend pointed out this fact, so we figured we should get over there before it’s gone. It’s pretty fantastic to see:
It looks chintzy like a sardine can when they peel away the blue facade.
There were several groups of people taking pictures:
And a rookie cop was arrested for trespassing “early Friday” . . . even though you can roam right up to the chainlink fence, I guess they look down on hanging out there at night.
