We spent our last two days in Italy in the fashion Capital, Milan. A number of people and guidebooks think Milan is a city to bypass and skip over, but we are glad that we spent some time to explore and discover this underrated city. It wasn’t super huge with tons of things to see and do, so we felt a relaxed pace to just enjoy the days without a must-see list agenda…
Spent the day in Key West, Florida, doing as we usually do, just Meandering around the town on foot. We visited an old fort, the southernmost point in the US, the Key West cemetery, and did a lot of window shopping in this very popular tourist destination.
After almost six weeks of on the go travel, we have finally arrived to our vacation from the vacation: a one-week cruise on the Celebrity Equinox, with stops in Key West, FL; Costa Maya, Mexico; Cozumel, Mexico; and Grand Cayman, Grand Cayman Islands. This is the time where I can finally gain back the seven pounds I’ve lost, to catch up on reading, to sleep and lounge, and to drink! We have the beverage package for both non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks, so I’ll definitely take advantage and try out some new cocktails. And I suppose I’ll try some samples of wine. At any rate, it’s a week of rest for us, our vacation from the vacation!
Phase 3 of our summer vacation is taking the train from New York City down to Miami. We boarded the Amtrak silver meteor on Friday afternoon, schedule departure at 3 p.m. that right away it was delayed by one hour so we left at 4 pm. For the next 27 hours we traversed South through Philadelphia, Washington DC, Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, and Orlando and Fort Lauderdale. This trip normally costs about $600 for the sleeper car but we were able to use Amtrak points and basically take this trip for free. The really great thing about this is that we get free meals on board and a private room with bunk beds. Plus just lots of free time to just watch the scenery and landscapes go by out our big windows…
Although our flight departed a little later than scheduled, we landed on time and we deplaned around 7:15pm. Customs was very quick and after locating our check in luggage on the carousel, we headed outside for the curbside passenger pick up. We waited for about half an hour because traffic was so bad, but eventually my brother Quelen arrived and we drove back through heavy traffic and towards Summit, NJ. We stopped for some take out barbecue on the way home, finally getting there by 10pm. Lisa and I had now been awake for over twenty hours and Lisa was fading, so she turned in for bed and I stayed up to eat and catch up with Quelen and his wife. I ended up hitting the sack around midnight and woke up the next morning at 8am, perfectly adjusted to the new time zone. Lisa and I did some laundry, packed, ate lunch and then Quelen dropped us off at the Summit train station for the next phase of our vacation…
