Florida

I'm just back from a much-needed break with the folks down in Florida...I love Florida as it is a complete dichotomy - on the one hand, you have gorgeous, tan, taut bodies all basking in the sun, and on the other, you have tottery old people racing along on their Zimmer frames to make it for the Earlybird dinner specials at 4.30pm! Old and young, all loving the sunshine and warm ocean.

As we did -- we had a wonderful time, getting into a routine of lying by the pool, reading, and practicing the art of 'sitting' - one does not need to do a darn thing in Florida - you can just 'sit'; they don't read, they don't speak, they just are happy to plunk themselves down on a bench and watch the world go by. It is nice, having time to ponder, reflect, and generally 'sit' - I do not think people do it enough. There is always a tv or radio, phone or laptop which distracts - I highly recommend it!

We caught the King Tut exhibit while it made it's debut in Ft Lauderdale -- over 650,000 attended; it was smaller than the tour that came to the US in the 70's, but it was equally impressive. Stunning how some of the pieces are 'one of a kind' - the exhibit is only going to 4 cities in the US before going to the UK, so we were very lucky to have been able to attend.

We also made sure to catch some of the works at the Boca Raton Museum of Art - where better to see some amazing pieces of art than at a Museum which boasts a huge collection from local private donors?! Boca is one of the wealthiest communities in the US, and some of the people there have donated some stunning pieces of art to the Museum - Klee, Picasso, Warhol, Kandinsky, Hockney, Matisse - you name it, they were there. It's mind-boggling to think that these pieces were just one someone's wall in their house! Truly a wonderful musuem to visit, if you ever visit Boca and have a few hours to spare.

I ended my visit with an evening in Hollywood Florida, at the Westin Diplomat - views from the 30th floor were stunning!

Weekend in New York City & Washington DC's Cherry Blossom Festival

Weekend in NYC - March 24th
We've had some VERY busy weekends this past month! I had to go to Salt Lake City for business in March, and instead of heading back to DC once business had finished, I flew to NYC. Two reasons: 1) to visit my good pal, Ben, who I used to work with in the UK. He was over here in the U.S. on business, and so a little detour was warranted, and 2) it was my birthday weekend, so John was flying up directly from Atlanta and meeting me in the city!

Seeing Ben was great -- we had a lovely few hours on the Thursday evening, catching up on all of the gossip and really enjoying our time together. On Friday morning, I got a taxi into Manhattan and met John at the hotel. He got an early flight, so it was great that we were able to have the whole day to meander around the city. We both love New York - we can just wander around for hours, with no real direction in mind. We had a leisurely breakfast at a local cafe, and then headed over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That's the one that neither of us had been to yet, but both really keen to experience (we've been to the Guggenheim and Museum of Modern Art on our last visits).

The Met is positively huge -- you could honestly spend a whole week there and not see all of the exhibits. We decided to focus primarily on their modern and contemporary works, as well as their fantastic African and Asian art collection. We were just blown away by the sheer amount of art that they have on display.


By the afternoon, we were getting quite peckish - one of the things I always meant to do whilst living in London was to have afternoon tea at the Ritz, but never did....so we decided to do it in New York! We strolled through Central Park and enjoyed the beautiful, crisp spring day - there were loads of people out and we stopped to watch the ice skaters twirling around the rink (well, some of them; others just fell on their bottoms!).

It was rather windy, so after our long walk through the Park, the Ritz was a welcome sight. We were swept into this lovely lounge where tea was being served, and had a wonderfully civilized few hours of sipping Earl Gray tea and munching on deliciously warm scones with jam & clotted cream. A birthday cannot get more perfect than that!

Once we had had our fill of tea and scones, we walked back to the hotel to get ready for our evening out at the theatre - we were going to see the Broadway play, The Odd Couple, starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.

And what a performance! Those two perfectly complemented each other, it was hilarious. The theater itself, the Brooks Atkinson Theater, is a gorgeous little intimate place; I loved the fact it was small and therefore you felt they were performing just for you.

Needless to say, after a whirlwind weekend, we were both happy to be on our way home on Sunday! I couldn't have asked for a better birthday gift.

Washington DC CHerry Blossom Festival - April 2nd
The weather was just spectacular on Sunday, so we decided to go and see what all of the fuss was about with these cherry blossoms. Washington DC is renound for it's Cherry Blossoms, which only bloom for 2-3 weeks out of the year. It is the biggest tourist event of the year, and millions of people come from all over the world to appreciate these beautiful blossoming trees.

The trees themselves line the Potomac River around the George Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial - not a lot of room for people to get around! And we were aghast at the crowds; never had we seen so many people in one place (and John went to Live Aid!).

Still, their reason to be there was justified - the trees were in full bloom and breathtakingly beautiful. As crazy as the crowds were, we were really glad we got a chance to see the trees (but we were also glad to run away!!).