Christmas Holidays 2024, New York, Washington DC, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Miami

 

We have spent quite some time traveling on the Pacific Coast, but not in the Atlantic so we decided to Flight to New York and drive all the way to Miami to visit my mom.

The highlight of the trip was New York ! My friend Rey that I grew up with has been living in NY for the past 10 years and offered us to stay at his place and visit the city with him, this made a huge difference !! having someone local to guide you around was the best. He lives in East Manhattan (a few blocks away from the Metropolitan Museum) in an apartment built in 1896 !!

We arrived Thursday night and after a quick trip on the Subway from the JFK we were welcome by Rey and hit the streets of NYC !! We grabbed something to eat at a Mexican Food Truck (some birras) and after that headed to Time Square.

  

NY is definitely the city that never sleep. We were in Times Square at midnight and could barely walk through the river of people ! crazy.

We walked until everyone was ready to sleep after a long day.. The next day Rey has to work and told us what to do to get around. We decided to walk around Central Park and find our way down to the 9/11 Memorial. Lots of heavy vibes in that place as it is expected after 3,000 people die there in 2001. We had lunch, walk around, and came back to Wall Street to see the Charging Bull  ! We met with my friend Rodolfo who lives in Jersey, and spent some quality time with him walking around.

 

On Saturday (Rey had to work as well) and told us how to go to see the Statue Of Liberty as it was our target for the trip. 

We took a taxi boat from East Manhattan to Wall Street, we could see all the bridges of NY and had a beautiful blue ski all day.

We took the Ferry to Staten Island and got a first sight of the Statue of Liberty, wow what a day. 

It was a long day but totally worth it.

Back with Rey to go out at night for dinner in one of the Dinning places of NYC, great food and amazing service. 

Our last full day in NYC was Sunday and Rey didn't have to work and stayed with us all day, we went to Queens to eat "Cachapas", walk around, went to his friend's art gallery and from there visited to iconic Dumbo in Brooklyn. What a vibrant and beautiful place with the best view of Mahattan, especially at night. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and after that headed home to continue eating more delicious food in the streets of NYC and enjoy the busy streets.. 

Queens

One of Rey's paintings

Dumbo

Monday morning was the last day in NYC, headed down to Times Square to pick up  our rental car to continue our trip. We try to visit the FAO Schwarz toy store without success due to a long line to get in...

We left NYC at noon and started our drive to Washington DC, it was a busy highway and took us a good 5 hours to get there,,

Our first visit was The Capitol Building ! It was raining, but totally worth seen at night.

Washington DC

Supreme Court of Justice DC

Next day bright and early we drove to DC and spent the entire day walking at least 20kms visiting the Monuments, The Capitol Building, The Library of Congress and all surrounding areas of Capitol Hill.

The White House

We left Washington DC after 2 full days visiting.. and our next stop was North Carolina. Found a cheap hotel to spend the night and next day we continue our trip down south.

We really wanted to spend more time in South Carolina and Georgia, but tired of cold weather we decided to just make a quick stop for dinner and carried on with our final destination.

We arrived to my Mom's house in Port Saint Lucie Florida just after 11pm... went to bed and next day were on the beach :--)

Down in Florida for 3 weeks we spent some time with the large family we have... even got to see some of Maria's extended family that were visiting Florida and got the opportunity to see them.

Nicholas was pretty much driving everywhere, exited to have his drivers license that is all he wants to do these days. 

I rode my bike 1,100kms during our stay, we did some shopping, we played pool, bowling, baseball, basketball, you name it !! I even have a chance to do my Mom's floor (check it out)

In January (is now tradition) that we drive down to Miami with my nephew and spend the day in downtown. We arrived early morning and went to Miami Arts and Design District (beautiful) place, every building is a piece of art, amazing (we spent at least 3 hours), after that, went to South Beach for a plunge !! Brrrr 67F and a walk through Ocean Drive and Lincoln Road. Few days earlier we went to Mar-a-Lago (Trump's house in West Palm Beach) just to say we have been there....

Mar-a-Lago West Palm Beach

Mar-a-Lago West Palm Beach

Mar-a-Lago West Palm Beach

It was time to get ready and fly back to Calgary, few more get together with the family and that was a wrap for 2024 year-end.. until next Christmas !!