SAN JOSE del CABO, Baja California Sur, MEXICO

For years, Mexico was our go-to destination when we wanted to escape dreary winter days. Somewhere along the way we abandoned it for Maui, which felt safer and easier.  Now that we find Hawaii more expensive, we're renewing our love for this destination where people look you in the eye, smile and greet you with a warm, "Buenas dias."  We never lost our enthusiasm for this country, its food, people, and climate, warm in every sense of the word.  This is our second visit to Mexico this year, but our first to Los Cabos in over thirty years.

pool at Lomas de la Jolla

We're spending nine days in what is, admittedly, tourist Mexico, where almost everyone speaks English, in a complex of 56 white terraced townhouse-style condos on the side of a hill overlooking the Pacific below, at Lomas de la Jolla.   This visit we are "arm-band free," choosing to cook our own food, mingling with locals and searching out good beaches, on foot and by bus.  We walk to the gigantic supermarket, Chedraui Selecto, a mile away, where there is everything you could want and more to tempt us.  Within the store, you can sit at a bar and drink wine, beer or spirits you've bought, or dine at the restaurant.  Or you can choose your live lobster from a tank and take it home.  We bring home a selection of fresh-baked pastries and bread (whole grain loaves baked in-store for a few pesos,) locally-caught seafood, flavorful pork chops, salad and the makings for Mexican appetizers to enjoy on the patio with sangria or margaritas at sundown.

sunset, looking south, 30 kilometers from Cabo San Lucas

Infinity pool

The beach across from the condos is not a swimming beach due to riptides and undertow, but 15 kilometers away, towards Cabo San Lucas, we have discovered the sheltered Playa Santa Maria where it is not crowded and snorkeling is delightful.  The tour boats bring tourists to snorkel or paddle-board but don't come inside the roped area, and are gone in an hour or so.

Recycling fish at the playa

Playa Santa Maria 

beach cleaners

There's another swimming beach at the marina, in the opposite direction, past the town of San Jose del Cabo, but it's harder to get to without a car.  That didn't stop us walking there, a one-time-only event.  Beer on the beach at the hotel restaurant was about $11Cdn and hamburgers $22.  Another time we might rent a car and explore farther fields, perhaps up to La Paz.

This is a scouting mission to see how we like it, and it looks like a keeper.  There is tennis to be played and more beaches to discover, an Art Walk in Viejo San Jose, and many markets.   For now, it's a short break from dull days and a pick-me-up before the Christmas rush.

NEW ENGLAND: NYC, RHODE ISLAND, CAPE COD

New York City


It’s been many years, decades, since we were in NYC…pre 9/11…so changes were expected.  Truly, it’s difficult to picture what we saw before, but the Big Apple is still awe-striking, and lives up to the superlative adjectives used to describe it:  Largest city in the U.S. (8 million plus population, most densely populated at over 10,000 people/square mile), tallest skyscraper in the western hemisphere (One World Trade Center), most linguistically-diverse city in the world (800 languages spoken.)
  

We could barely scratch the surface in our four-day visit.  Our main reason for going was to complete the last of the tennis “grand slams” on our bucket list: The U. S. Open, which we attended for three days with George and Jacinta.
  

Our Airbnb in Brooklyn, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, was about a 30-40-minute commute by car-hailing to Flushing Meadows, Queens, home of the U.S. Open.  All we did was eat breakfast and sleep there, but the neighborhood appeared safe and quiet, and our hosts, Chyanne and Jermaine, were helpful.  It’s close to the MTA on Fulton at Rockaway for trips to the city. https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/20678724?locale=en&guests=1&adults=1&source_impression_id=p3_1570053329_b9xoJ0bOxJEhtcIR  


Attending three day-sessions and two nights, we saw many top players (Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams among others) as well as most of the Canadian players, including Bianca Andreescu, who won the women’s championship, playing in the first round.

Bianca Andreescu, playing first round

Though we had reserved seats in the largest stadium, Arthur Ashe, we made our way to the outer courts to see the Canadians play.  The covered stadium was useful on Day 3, when outdoor matches were canceled due to rain.  We ate most of our meals at the venue, not cheap but convenient, though you can bring in food or water in plastic bottles.  No backpacks though! 

Unisphere, from 1964 World's Fair

Arriving at the U S Open

   

"Freedom of the Human Spirit" statue

  

Arthur Ashe Statdium

sunset, Grandstand Stadium

Jim tries out a bigger racquet

After our last day session, our group of five Uber’d to dinner at Oregano, an Italian bistro in Williamsburg, https://www.oreganowilliamsburg.com/  allowing us to sample some pretty delicious fare.  Jim ordered black fettucine with lobster (squid ink fettuccine served with lobster, zucchini & sun dried tomatoes in vodka sauce); I had crab cakes; we shared a summer salad of arugula, goat cheese, strawberries and pecans.  The owner, Rena, was there to make suggestions on food and wine and threw in an extra bottle on the house!

Our final day was a whirlwind sightseeing visit to Manhattan where we started in Times Square before taking three bus tours, Uptown and Harlem, Downtown and a Night Tour, plus a Liberty Island cruise with Top View NYC, www.topviewnyc.com 

Times Square

Columbus Circle, Time Warner Center

The Met

corner of Central Park South

The Empire State Building

Flatiron Building, 5th Ave and 21st St.

new Manhattan skyline

Lower Manhattan

Statue of Liberty

Lower Manhattan, Battery Park

Times Square at Night

  

Rhode Island

NYC – Providence, RI, via Connecticut by Peter Pan bus from the Port Authority in mid-town Manhattan on the Friday of the long weekend.   A 3.75-hour trip became 5.25 hours when Hwy 95 became a virtual parking lot as everyone seemed to be escaping the city.  Patiently, Jane was waiting for us, bless her!  We stopped on the coast at East Greenwich for seafood at Finn’s Harborside, https://finnsharborside.com, where we all relaxed over raw oysters, lobster sauté, and seared scallops and some libations. 

My New York-born cousin Jane has recently retired to North Kingstown, RI, where she lives in an idyllic rural setting in a townhouse backed on a large green expanse meeting a forest. What a great place to start the morning, sipping coffee on the deck with hummingbirds, squirrels and other small creatures chirping and skittering by!

Lotus, North Kingstown

Nearby, historic Wickford, dating from 1709, located on Narragansett Bay, is one of the oldest preserved colonial villages in the country.  https://histwick.org/  
   

Another day Jane drove us to nearby Newport, to take in the Tennis Hall of Fame and drive by a few mansions before we visited Jane’s brother, John, and his wife Celia.  

The Breakers, Newport

Tennis Hall of Fame, Newport

Tennis Hall of Fame

John, Jane, Celia and Jim at Diego's

   


The final day we watched surfers at Pt. Judith in Narragansett and lunched at Matunuck Oyster Bar, https://rhodyoysters.com  for more fresh local seafood.  Jim was happy to continue his lobster fest.
 

Matunuck Harbor

 

                                                               

Cape Cod

Labor Day over, we picked up our rental car for the drive to Hyannis, Cape Cod.  The sun followed us along Highways 138, then 195 east to 6 on the Cape, where we stopped for a walk on the beach at Sandy Neck. There were still a few people camping on the beach in motor homes.  As well as fewer people after Labor Day, access to the beaches and parking is free, instead of $20.

Sandy Neck Beach, Cape Cod

Though we didn’t spend much time exploring Hyannis, it’s central location and our motel, Hyannis Travel Inn, https://www.hyannistravelinn.com/  were convenient for visiting the Cape.

Artists' shacks, Hyannis

  
We took a day to drive to Provincetown, stopping at Highland Lighthouse on the outer coast (Atlantic), and two beaches on “the hook”:  Race Point and Herring Cove.  P’town, as it’s known to locals, was still fairly busy with tourists and parking was tight.  You can see the Pilgrim Monument from everywhere in town and we walked over for a look, but there was no time to climb the 116 steps and 60 ramps for the view or visit the museum.  It commemorates the place where they landed first in 1620 before heading for Plymouth.  We had a quick look around and had, guess what?, for lunch at the Lobster Pot. 

Highland Light

Herring Cove Beach, planted beach grass

  

We weren't about to swim at this beach!

Colorful Provincetown

  

Our final destination was a 35-minute ferry ride from Falmouth to Martha’s Vineyard, on the Island Queen.  Landing in Oak Bluffs, we met up with cousin Vanessa, an actress who was performing in Carver at the head of the Cape.  We rode bikes along the beach road path about six miles to Edgartown.  There are 44 miles of bike trails, a safe, relaxing way to see the Island.  Edgartown was settled by whaling captains, whose stately white Greek Revival houses have been carefully restored as private homes or commercial buildings.  

  

We parked our bikes on the outskirts and strolled through town, dining at Atlantic Fish and Chop House, www.atlanticmv.com by the marina where we enjoyed lobster croissants.  

After cycling back to Oak Bluffs and a drink near the ferry dock, we came across a community of the gingerbread cottages, known as Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association, an inter-denominational religious National Historic Landmark dating back to1835.  The individual cottages are privately owned and on streets centered around the Tabernacle.  Website:  MVCMA.org.  

 






We cut our stay on the Cape short by a day due to the arrival of Hurricane Dorian, expected to unleash its heaviest on the area early the next day.  Ferries to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard were either cancelled or cut back.  “Batten down the hatches,” advised a woman working at the Welcome Centre, so we took that as a sign it was time to leave.   We followed the coast up through Plymouth, where we took a short break, arriving outside of Boston and close to the airport where our early morning flight left the next day.  New England hospitality and attractions left us thinking we might be back some day…if only….too many places to see, too little time. 

Plymouth Rock

We look smug because we escaped Dorian.