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A Week In Cancun
For many, travel is still a virtual concept. We broke that notion two weeks ago and ventured to Cancun – or to be more precise, Iberostar Paraiso Maya resort in the Riviera Maya area. I already shared my impressions as a week in sunrises, but as you can imagine, I have a lot more pictures to share.
We like active vacations where you live hotel in the morning and you come back at night, happy from all the new experiences, but incredibly tired. We also like relaxing vacations, where your whole day runs a small sequence of events in a circle – food, sand, waves, cocktail, food, sand, pool, food, cocktails, sleep – that’s it. There is pure joy in doing nothing, just enjoying the sunshine, as long as you can take your mind under control and tell it to relax together with the rest of the body.
Our week in Cancun was exactly like that – relaxing. This also means taking lots and lots of pictures – whoever invented digital photography – thank you very much. And thus I have the pictures to share with you.
I used to travel with my trusted Nikon and a few lenses. The iPhone camera doesn’t replace the Nikon, but it has a “good enough” advantage. Comparing the advantages of the DSLR versus the simplicity of the single device to carry around, if you are okay with “good enough” and not looking for perfection, your phone camera is all you need.
I love the versatility of the iPhone camera, where you can have both zoomed-in and ultra-wide pictures, as well as the capability to build a panorama. I’m not good at taking panoramas, as it requires you to hold your phone absolutely still while you are turning around – nevertheless, I made an effort to take sunrise panorama shots every morning together with the pictures of the sunrise. Here are the panorama sunrise pictures which I found to be good enough to share:
The resort we stayed at is called Paraiso Maya, and its main building is shaped as a Mayan pyramid. It is very well lit and changes colors at night:
Here are a few more pictures from the resort:
A few flowers:
And, of course, the food. We ate at a buffet and at 5 restaurants, out of which only the Italian restaurant was really good. We also found a new favorite wine – 2014 Oscar Tobias Roja Reserva – the wine was outstanding, with dark fruit and cedar box notes, fresh, and vibrant as only Rioja can be.
And last but not least – sand and waves:
Here you are, my friends. If you still can’t travel, I hope these pictures will help you cope.
You will travel soon.
A Week In Sunrises
And so we did something almost unthinkable – we traveled. Abroad. For vacation.
The mere fact of normalcy – going on the family vacation – became “mission impossible” and unreal over the past year. In today’s world, it might be even considered an act of stupidity. Whatever. We still went to Cancun for a week.
Traveling with the mask is not fun, but it is still not something very difficult. At least the travel to Mexico on the plane was really uneventful. Coming back was borderline madness and exercise in patience, with the huge check-in line moving slower than a snail, and all the useless passport checks about nothing. The trip back almost negated the whole vacation, which was still … a vacation. Much needed vacation. An opportunity to lay under the sun and jump waves in the ocean. And experience beautiful sunrises.
When in Cancun, seeing the sun slowly rising above the horizon is one of my biggest pleasures. I’m happy to wake up early. This is my one on one time with Mother Nature.
This trip was not any different – 7 unique and different sunrises. Actually, even 8, as we were lucky to see one at JFK before our flight. Here they are, below, in chronological order, from Sunday to Sunday. Which one is your favorite?
Sunday:
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:
There are way more experiences I want to share – and I even have a wine recommendation for you – so as they say, stay tuned…
Snow In New England – 2021 Edition
One of the pleasures of living in New England is having 4 seasons. Every year those seasons are different – we might have only 2 weeks of the spring, or the winter without any snow (I think we had only 1 snowfall last winter), but this is all in Mother Nature’s hands, not something we control.
Snow can be devastating, especially coupled with the strong wind and a bit of the freezing rain, as we experienced it here in New England on multiple occasions – but when it is not, when it is just a beautiful dance of the snowflakes slowly descending from the sky, it is really a thing of pleasure (of course, not for everyone – if you despise the snow, you can safely skip this post). Sunny sky, crisp air, and fresh snow is yet another pleasure in itself which New England offers all of us here – without going overboard – I’m not sure I would equally love snow if I would be living in Minnesota or Alberta, Canada.
About 2 weeks ago, we had a pleasure of a beautiful snowfall – there was worrying wind afterward, but luckily, the power stayed. I want to share with you the beauty of the snow – we took a little drive around and really enjoyed the show. And then the sun showed up and made everything even better. Enjoy!
Cape Cod – Ocean, Sunsets and Flowers
Oh, for the love of travel… What would you give for an opportunity to get on the plane, worry-free, and fly somewhere for a week, or even for a few days? I’m sure if this is a real question, many of you would answer “anything”. For all of us feeling travel-deprived, even the thought of a trip anywhere further than our own backyard is extremely comforting. Never mind an actual opportunity to go anywhere.
One of my favorite sayings in life is “count your blessings”. And for that, I can tell you that we are very lucky. We live in close proximity to Cape Cod, which is one of my most favorite places not only in the USA but also in the world. On a normal day, it is only a 4 hours drive to most any place on The Cape as it is lovingly referred to by many New Englanders. In addition to the reasonable driving distance, we also have family living on the Cape, which greatly simplifies the logistics of such a trip. So yes, I’m acutely aware of all the blessings.
Last weekend we visited The Cape and spent 3 days walking around the beaches and neighborhoods, admiring beautiful flowers which can be considered an essential lifestyle element of the Cape living. We also caught a magnificent sunset – 10 minutes of pure bliss, an incredible spectacle of the sun setting down into the ocean, with all the unimaginable color combinations no camera can ever capture properly.
In the times when we have to travel vicariously, here is my trip report – of course, in pictures. As this is the wine blog, I have to mention the sacred subject – there was plenty of wine consumed, with some bottles being nothing short of magnificent – but this deserves a separate post.
Get ready to be inundated.
Let’s start with the ocean:
Now, flowers:
And the sunset:
Hope you enjoyed it!
Travel Diaries: A Few Days in Finland
Oh, the things we take for granted. Let’s take travel, for example. It was so simple, easy, and basic. Get to the airport, get on the plane, eat, sleep, and magically appear in the whole new world, thousands of miles away from home. Nevermind all the travel hassles – they are really negligible next to the pleasure the travel delivers. And then, all of a sudden, this basic fundamental is no more. All thanks to the invisible enemy which takes no hostages, the travel is a thing of the past – at least at the moment. Of course, we will travel again, but for now, it is our memories we need to rely on.
Travel for me is associated with taking pictures. Pictures, in turn, require sharing – same as with wine, which I talk about because I really enjoy it and want to share my joy with people, I like to share my pictures with everyone – I got a proof of this obsession, scroll here. I like to share the pictures in a timely manner, somewhat close to the completion of the trip – when that is not happening, I don’t feel that it is a priority anymore – unless there is a compelling reason to do it even at a later point – like, for example, the one we are living through right now, where travel is no more, at least for the near future.
I visited Finland late last September for work. I only shared one post about that trip – a summary of my wine experiences in Finland. Now I would like to inundate you with non-wine pictures of that beautiful country.
My final destination in Finland was a little town called Kuopio, which is only accessible via the local flight from Helsinki, Finland’s capital. As I never been to Helsinki before, I set up my trip to have half a day to walk around the Helsinki. I stayed in the center of Helsinki in the hotel called Klaus K, which is a part of the Design Hotels and the only Marriott property in Helsinki – if you are ever in Helsinki, I highly recommend this hotel, especially if you can score a room on one of the top floors. I went to walk around the Helsinki and despite the gloomy weather, it was fun and colorful as you will see in the pictures below:
Take a look at these happy people – it is about 40F (4C) outside
Fresh berries, some just picked in the forest
And freshly picked mushrooms
My lunch at the market
This was taken by a trusted iPhone 7 and processed by SnapSeed. Doesn’t SnapSeed make everything look so much better?
The view from the 7th floor room’s balcony at Klaus K hotel
Early next morning, I took a flight to Kuopio with my colleagues. Looking from the plane, you can clearly see that Finland is a country of lakes. According to the information on the internet, if the lake is defined as a body of water larger than 500 square meters, there are 187,888 lakes in Finland. 55,000 of the lakes are at least 200 meters wide.
On the way to Kuopio
Once we arrived in Kuopio, a small city of about 120,000 inhabitants, coffee was the first order of business. If we can say that Americans like their coffee, then we have to say that Finns simply love their coffee. Good coffee can be found anywhere:
Next, we took an hour-long hike through the woods to the observation tower – I still can vividly remember the pleasure of walking through the forest which was very similar to the one I was accustomed to growing up as a kid – which is not surprising, as I grew up only about 500 miles down south from Kuopio.
Kuopio observation tower
Once we managed to the top, we were rewarded with the beautiful views and cold, dark, ultra-refreshing beer, brewed in that same town of Kuopio.
Mestari Stout Kuopio
While Finland offers a vast array of excellent restaurants, no matter where you are, the colleagues I was traveling with had a variety of the eating restrictions, so I had to just go with the flow – hence I don’t have any amazing food scenery to report. Here are just a couple of dishes I enjoyed:
The week flew by quickly as we were busy every day with the event we were attending. To get everyone a little break, we had a trip arranged to a special place – a famous sauna on the lake, one of the most famous in Finland. I’m sure you heard about the Finnish sauna, but you need to understand how important that is to the Finns. In this country of 5.3 million people, there are approximately 2 million saunas (!)
The proper Finnish sauna is not just a hot and dry room. The proper sauna is more of a ritual – you go to the super-hot sauna, you go out, you swim in the cold lake, return, have a beer, and repeat the sauna and the lake – from 3 to 5 times. Then you go and have dinner. I don’t have any pictures of sauna for you, but I have a bunch of pictures of the forest and the lake.
On Thursday, I took a flight back to Helsinki – it was really fun to fly with the sunset:
Flying over Finland with Sunset
Flying with sunset
I stayed overnight at the Hilton at Helsinki airport, as my flight was leaving at 6 am in the morning. I had dinner at the restaurant at the Hilton airport, and while the food was tasty, this was the smallest ever amount of food I had for 50+ euro (never mind also the worst service I pretty much ever had at any restaurant):
As was flying to Helsinki with the sunset, my 6 am flight to Munich coincided with the sunrise – an absolutely surreal experience:
Flying with sunrise
Flying with sunrise
Germany clearly lacks Finnish lakes:
Well, that’s about all there is to my story – except one more thing:
My one million miles flier prize
Yes, this glass of bubbly doesn’t look like anything special, but it was given to me together with the congratulatory words for reaching 1 million miles mark with United. United gives that status only after you actually fly, not spend, a million miles with them, so this was definitely a memorable moment.
My photo report is over.
We Will Travel Again
Sun and Waves
Everybody needs a vacation.
Everyone’s idea of a vacation is different.
While I love active vacations, my favorite winter-time vacation is the one where I need to do nothing – just turn from one side to another to prevent the sunburn. Yep, somewhere warm, sunny, with an unlimited supply of good drinks. All-inclusive resort somewhere in the Caribbean in February usually does it for me.
We just came back from Iberostar Paraiso Del Mar, the resort located 25 minutes away from Cancun airport in Mexico, where we had all of these components – sun, water, drinks – everything. Plus an opportunity to take an unlimited number of pictures, especially those of sunrises.
Sunsets and sunrises offer equal magic of observing the day just starting or ending. Sunrises are a bit easier for me to catch, as the evenings are hard to time, to be in the right place at the right time – it is much easier in Cancun in February, especially as the sun comes up after 7 am.
Once a photographer accumulates lots of pictures, the next logical step is to … share them, yes! Below is an account of our recent trip to Cancun, with some additional comments. Hope you will enjoy!
This is some random plane leaving Newark airport
Our first vacation view
First sunrise (I think)
We met some friends:
Valentine’s Day was well acknowledged:
And more friends:
More sunrises:
Of course there was wine:
And there were cocktails:
Of course we enjoyed these simple views:
More friends visited:
We greatly enjoyed our surroundings:
And more sunsets:
And a few more:
Festival of Lights
I like love wine.
But wine has nothing to do with today’s post.
I also love photography.
I had been a photography fan for a long time, much longer than I had been drinking wine. No, I don’t pretend to achieve any amazing greatness in photography, but I still truly enjoy taking the pictures and then sharing my view of the world with the world.
The time around Christmas and New Year celebration offers a lot of great picture taking opportunities – decorations are everywhere. Yesterday we visited LuminoCity Festival in New York City, which was an absolutely delightful spectacle, full of … yes, light, and creativity. Different worlds came together, from the North Pole to Africa, all beautifully set at the Randalls Island in Queens, with no shortage of ingenuity with music, lights and motion providing non-stop entertainment.
Below are a few glimpses of this beautiful world, which I had a lot of fun taking the pictures of with my new toy – iPhone 11 pro. One day I will master a quarter of the features the 11 pro camera offers, and it will be a good day – for now, here are some of my best efforts.
If you are in New York or will be visiting, the Festival is continuing until January 5th – I’m afraid that most of the times are sold out, however. Well, you can still try and see for yourself.
Enjoy!
Magic of the Season
While I don’t celebrate Christmas, its magic is not lost on me. When I saw an email advertising Christmas lights display at Longwood Gardens, the decision was quick – we should go and see it.
Longwood Gardens, also known as Dupont Gardens, are located in the town of Kennett Square in Delaware, a few miles away from Pennsylvania border. We had been regular visitors for a long time, as Gardens are absolutely beautiful. Some of our perennial favorites are the Fireworks and Fountains events, which are typically run during the summer – you can come with your own blanket and chairs, find a spot, and enjoy a beautiful display of colorfully lit fountains, working in full sync with the fireworks and classical music. However, we never attended A Longwood Christmas event as it is officially called.
Boy, was that the right decision. We got tickets for 4:30 pm (the event has timed tickets which are better be acquired in advance – the event was sold out for the day we were visiting), and this was a great choice of time as we still got a glimpse of the sunset and then enjoyed the Gardens. The lights, the music, and overall organization were nothing short of stunning – and what you see below is a gimps of our enjoyment.
If you are anywhere within the driving distance, the event worth a hassle – find the time before January 5th to visit and enjoy – or put it already in the calendar for the next year. I’m sure you will greatly enjoy it.
Here you go:
Mother Nature, Unbound
I love photography. If you flip through the pages of this blog, you will see lots of pictures – I enjoy taking the pictures, and I enjoy sharing them.
Yes, this is a wine blog, and so most of the pictures here are related to either wine and food. Most, but not all – as, for example, will be this post.
I rarely take pictures of people – or even if I do, I rarely share them publicly. Nature, on the other hand, might be my most favorite subject, both for taking the pictures and for sharing them.
Yesterday we needed to take a trip downtown Stamford in the evening, and then the thought was – why don’t we take the dog down to the beach for a walk?
Oh my… Once we arrived at the beach, for the next 30 minutes or so, we couldn’t stop looking and looking around, trying to fully appreciate and take in one of the most magnificent spectacles ever put out by Mother Nature (okay, yes, I’m going too far – she does it every day, non-stop around the world, but still). I often tell people that Mother Nature is a true and original artist, I just try my best to capture her creations and share them with the world.
I usually prefer to convey my own vision of the same Mother Nature’s act in my pictures (read – edit them), but yesterday’s performance was so perfect that I’m just sharing it as is, not edited at all – #nofilter as we like to say.
Enjoy!
Travel Diaries: Two Days in New York, or Pleasures of Being a Tourist
I live in close proximity of New York – 45 minutes by train – and I almost call it my “home town”. Each year, I get to visit the City, as it is typically called by locals (and to the best of my knowledge, “The City” primarily refers to Manhattan – New Yorkers, feel free to correct me) numerous number of times – business meetings, dinners, Broadway shows, wines tastings – you name it. But every one of those visits is purpose-driven – get in, do your thing, get out. Yes, I get to walk the streets, which I enjoy immensely and snap a few pictures, but still – the mind is set on “in and out”. “Can I sit on this bench for another ten minutes? No, because then you will miss the train. Get up and get going”.
To tell you the truth, the idea of staying in New York for a night was on my mind for a long time. Last week was a school break, for which we had no opportunity to make any plans. I looked around for a short notice vacation – flying would cost a fortune and would be mentally exhaustive (don’t get me going on my travel luck lately). Driving long distance with a rainy forecast for most of the East Coast didn’t look attractive even for a bit. And then the thought came – what about New York? My wife and our youngest daughter quickly agreed (older kids had no vacation that week anyway); we got lucky finding the room at Marriott Marquis, right in the middle of the Times Square – and with my Marriott status we even scored an upgrade, so we were definitely all set for a short New York getaway.
We decided to come over by train so we will not have to deal with the parking. After some deliberations, we decided to skip the most touristy things – city tour and the Broadway show, and just enjoy the City for what it is. Our mandatory program was short – Times Square, 9/11 Memorial, Jewish Heritage Musem and Central Park. Natural History Museum was also on the list, but with a bit of a lesser priority. With the hotel located right on the Times Square, the first requirement was easy – plus our upgraded room exceeded our expectations – we had the full view of the Times Square from the 45th floor, any second we wanted to see it – that alone made our vacation perfect.
Despite the gloomy forecast, I have to say that the weather cooperated with us very well. The view of the World Trade Center building covered in the fog was rather unique, and overall gray weather was perfectly appropriate for the solemn mood of the 9/11 memorial and even Jewish Heritage Museum. And for the next day’s walk through Central Park we even had the sun coming out instead of the expected rain, so we really can’t complain about the weather at all. By the way – we made it to the Natural History Museum, but it seems that there were a lot (way too many) dinosaur fans in New York that day – the line to get into the museum to see T.Rex exhibition was stretching over the few of the neighboring streets, so we really decided to call it a day.
The fact that we stayed overnight in New York really changed the impression and perception of this vacation. Instead of fighting the traffic and crowds to get back home after dinner, the leisurely walk back to the hotel created a feeling of a real vacation, when you immerse into the life around you and lose the feeling of time. There was no feeling of the day trip, no feeling of being close to home – it was a real vacation, just somewhere in the world, in a place where time doesn’t exist and you don’t need to care about anything. We all really loved the experience of being a tourist almost in your hometown and will be looking forward to doing this again – in New York and not.
The only way I can share this experience with you is through the pictures. As I never know when to stop, here are some many pictures for you – definitely more than a few, but I’m only trying to share some of the moments of our [short] vacation. Hope you will enjoy them as much as I did while taking them. Cheers!
Lower Manhattan – The World Trade Center and around:
Somewhere in New York:
Times Square – day, night, and around:
Central Park:
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