For the long July 4th weekend, we decided to drive up to see Niagara Falls and Toronto. We left Wednesday after work, and spent Thursday afternoon and Friday morning at the Falls. We took the Maid of the Mist boat tour, saw the fireworks for the 4th, and tried a couple of restaurants. All in all, Niagara is a cute and somewhat tawdry place to visit for a day or two, not really enough for a whole weekend, unless you also go visit some wineries in the Niagara On the Lake area.
Niagara Falls
On Friday afternoon we drove to Toronto to check out the city. We stayed close enough to downtown to walk in, and we visited the CN Tower on the first day. We also had some great Indian food, but unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the place. On Saturday we had breakfast at Mystic Muffin, which was a really interesting place, and we enjoyed talking with the owner- a super nice guy. And amazing apple cake. In fact, I planned on going back on Sunday morning to grab some stuff for the drive back, but unfortunately they are closed on Sundays. Sad.
We enjoyed the parks and greenspaces of Toronto, as well as the museum, and overall, had a very enjoyable visit there. I’m glad we visited in the summer- it was hot but not too bad, and we didn’t have to deal with all the snow!
I took a short trip to Haiti this weekend to visit friends on the island. I can’t believe it’s been ten years since I moved to Haiti to teach- ten years since I moved overseas! So I hopped on an American Airlines jet and went to visit Monica and Andy, my second family.
M&A have turned their lovely home into an 8 room bed and breakfast, which is just beautiful. I got to sleep in the same room I often slept in, so it really felt like home. They’ve made some awesome additions to the place, but the vista of the bay of Port au Prince is still as beautiful as ever (PaP always looks better from a distance). We spent the first day and night up in Pacot and in Petionville, having lunch at Papaye and seeing how Petionville has and has not changed since the earthquake and with more development coming to Haiti. After a lovely dinner- with plenty of wine, of course-, we were all tired and ready for bed.
Villa Bambou
On Saturday morning we went to the municipal airport and took a 30 minute flight to Cap Haitian, flying over the Citadel on the way. We landed, and half an hour later we were at the beach house, changing into our suits. The property is just beautiful, with sandy beaches, an old French fort dating back to the late 1700’s, and a lovely high deck that shows off a great panorama.
Cap Haitian
We swam, jet skied, and drank lots of rosé wine. Too much of all three! It was fun to ride the jet ski and go by Norm’s Place, where I stayed years ago, and Labadee, the port for Royal Carribbean, and spend a few hours at a tiny island, just playing in the warm ocean.We hunted sea glass and visited with some daughters of their workers who were having their First Communion.
At the beach
On Monday morning it was time to fly back to the capital. I was pretty much ready to leave the beach, as I was sunburnt and tired. We went shopping in town, to pick up some Barbancourt rum and spicy peanut butter, and after a final lunch of my favorite Haitian dish- sauce poids and rice– I headed back to home. My other home.
Chris loves his National Geographic Traveler, so when they ranked Pittsburgh as one of the top 25 places to explore (in the world?!), we had to go. And while I would have to say a visit to the fjords of Norway or the beaches of Bali might have been nicer, we did have a lot of fun.
It’s a four to five hour drive from our house, so we left mid-day on Friday and visited Falling Water along the way, Frank Lloyd Wright’s house that he designed for a Pittsburgh family. Amazing blend of architecture and nature. I could totally live there. And never leave.
Falling Water
We got to Pittsburgh around dinner time, visited the Warhol museum (open late on Fridays and half price!), then found a bar downtown that was showing the Stanley Cup semifinals, where the Penguins were playing. We had corned beef sandwiches and Iron City beer (a local specialty) and then wandered around downtown in the cultural district, winding up at Andy’s Wine Bar in the lobby of the Fairmont Hotel. I tried a new drink: a ginger beam, made with Jim Beam, ginger, syrup, and ginger beer. Yum.
At the Mattress Factory MuseumHeading into Pittsburgh
On Saturday we visited the Mattress Factory, a very weird and yet very fun installation art museum. I loved the room full of silver helium balloons, Chris loved the polka dot room with infinity mirrors. Then we took the funicular up to the top of the hillside that overlooks the three rivers (a bit reminiscent of Khartoum), and then walked along the downtown and South Shore trails until we found the Hof Brau House. I should have known better than to take Chris there mid-day, because we basically got stuck there and had not only lunch but dinner there as well, with several liters of beer between us.
Pittsburgh SkylineDeah in Pittsburgh
Sunday, our last day, we visited the Carnegie Science museum, and watched Star Trak: Into Darkness at their OmniMax. Big. Maybe too big. The science center was fun, especially their Sports Works section, and then we just had one final building to look for: Church Brew Works, an old church that has been turned into a brewpub. Great beer and a great lunch, with a lot of ambience.
Inside Church Brew
Hopefully our next trip will be more along the lines of the jungles of South America, but Pittsburgh actually turned out to be pretty nice.
Not a lot of travel yet this year- I’ve been sticking closer to home. I’ve been busy though! In March I ran a half marathon, the DC Rock and Roll Half. Then a week later I visited family and friends in Texas for a week, and then flew back to Virginia, and welcomed Chris home two days later. We bought a new convertible and have been tooling around in that enjoying the nice spring weather. We hopped over to West Virginia last weekend and did some mountain hiking and enjoyed the area around Berkeley Springs. The trees are in bloom and it’s a great time of year up here. So happy to be able to spend it together!
Chris and I were able to meet in Israel for a week over the Christmas holidays. I arrived in Tel Aviv on Christmas Eve night, exhausted from almost 20 hours of flights.
The next day was Christmas Day, but being Israel, everything was still open. I walked all around Tel Aviv and down to Jaffa, exploring the Carmel Market, the beaches, and Old City Jaffa along the way. Great temperatures in the 70’s and lots of sights to see. Late that night Chris showed up, and the next morning I took him to visit all the sights I had seen the day before. Then we got on a bus for Jerusalem.
Deah in Tel Aviv
The next morning we returned to the Old City to see the rest of the sights- the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, David’s City, The Temple Mount- we were not allowed to go inside the Temple Mount to see Al Aqsa Mosque or the Dome of the Rock- (don’t even get me started on sites that exclude due to sex, race, or religion)- but we climbed to the top of the Austrian Guest House and could see Jerusalem from above. Later that day we took a bus to Bethlehem, where a friendly taxi driver showed us the Fields of the Shepherds, the Church of the Nativity, and lots of Palestinian street art on the wall that separates Israel from the Palestinian West Bank.
Jerusalem
On Friday we took a day trip to see Masada and the Dead Sea. Along the way we saw the Qumran caves, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. We took an aerial car to the top of Masada and learned about the siege by the Romans in 73 AD, which ended in the suicide of the Jews on the mountain. We went to the Dead Sea, covered our arms and legs with mud from the banks, and floated in the salty water. When we returned to Jerusalem, Sabbat had begun, so no trams, buses, and few restaurants open. We walked down to the Old City and found an Armenian place open and it was great.
The Dead Sea and Masada
On Saturday we paired up with two other people and rented a taxi to Haifa, north on the coast. What a beautiful city, or at least the part we explored! It was a bit rainy and we were pretty exhausted from our continuing jet lag and all our walking around, so we had a late lunch, walked around a bit, and went to bed.
The next day, Sunday, we went to see the Museum of Clandestine Immigration and learned about all the sneaky ways the Jews got people into Israel before the British left in 1947. They had artifacts and photos and even some of the ships they used. Very interesting, especially if you’ve read Leon Uris’s Exodus. Across the street was Elijah’s cave, a sacred site to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and open to all. Then we took a tram to the top of the Baha’i Gardens and took a tour down through the amazingly maintained green space. It was really lovely.
Haifa
All too soon it was time to take a train down to Tel Aviv, where we got a hotel right on the train tracks near the airport. Chris left late that night, and I flew home the next morning. At least I got a layover in Istanbul- mmmm, Turkish delight!!
PalmTreeMusings 