Oasis Motel Brooklyn

... center, to the ingenuity and artistry of Beijing’s Water Cube and Bird’s Nest stadium and Moebius-like twisting of the CCTV tower, China’s premier cities are without a doubt world-class places. All this has come at a price, though. Smog was so thick that even in “sunny” days the sky was rarely blue. And the human toll of China’s government could (and has) easily filled volumes.

We even got some o’ that culture too as ...

... irritating cab drivers who didn't have a clue where he was going!  Drove around for a whole hour and half, looking for a place that should only have taken about 20 minutes to get to.  To top it off, through an apparent communications error, as the hotel was adjacent to the airport it is a set price from anywhere in NYC - a whopping $80! We should have charged him for wasting our time.  Since when does a taxi cost as much as some hotels or even some flights ...

... Brooklyn. This was my second attempt and again they think it's a great idea to shut the line down on a busy weekend. OK so this time I went all over the place to catch connecting trains to get there. I took me quite a while and of course the trains were packed because everyone was getting them. Brooklyn is nice though. I walked around and went in a few second hand book stores (always my fav) and went around the park. There is a wood in the park and it was very hot and humid in there ...

... next morning, Sunday, I had committed to go hiking with Kent, our neighbor. So at 10:30 I woke up, pushed through my hangover to maximize another day- and boy was it worth it! We drove 2 hours north to Mohonk Mountain, home of the fancy pants Mohonk Mountain House Hotel- Looks like an old castle and the resort grounds reminded me of the setting of Dirty Dancing... a gathering of well-to-do family vacationers. Kent and I decided to take on the Labyrinth scramble ...

... around 9, but apparently you can't do an e-check-in on Emirates flights out of the US. So, now Malcolm is going to get his wish and we're aiming to get to the airport around 9:30 (I haven't told him about the trip to the bank I need to make in the morning, but how crowded can the airport be at 9:00 on a Thursday morning). Wish us luck!

... our order to a bottle of wine that we sipped slowly through the show, the sips interrupted by lots of laughing out loud as we worked our way through 5-6 brilliant stand up's. Laugher certainly is the best medicine not that we needed any but we did come out beaming from ear to ear we were in such good moods we decided to walk back the hotel which was all the way on the opposite end of the island. The walk took the better part of an hour which as it worked out was less ...

... like I am FINALLY getting back out on the road to wrap up this adventure, uh I mean business trip. I should be headed to India next week, with a stop in each market to finalize what I have been working on for the past six months. BUT, never fear I am planning on taking full advantage of my weekends to get in some great side-trips and excellent adventures =). I will keep you posted and please keep the comments coming. See you in Delhi. Signing out from NYC one more time....Brandy

... Everything here has to be bigger and better, even the tree's! Yesterday we spend about 4 hours in the American museum of natural histroy, and only scrateched the surface. The bigger is better theme continued as they had a full size brochosauras (pardon spelling)& T-Rex sceleton, plus a full size blue whale model. There were 4 floors for reptile, mammal, primate, geology, and space exhibits, each flor the size of entire musuems in some towns. Very ...

... NBC here in the city. He literally has the coolest job ever. My brother and I grew up hanging out on the set on SNL and we've gotten to meet some of the coolest people (Blink 182, My Chemical Romance, Derek Jeter, Hanson, Fall Out Boy, Green Day, Natalie Portman, and so many others, including the different cast members from throughout the years with Will Ferrel, Chris Kattan, Molly Shannon and Cheri O'Teri being the nicest). I've ...

Well I wouldn't exactly call this my first American experience but it was an experience all the same. After flying from Healthrow London to Franfurt and onto JFK Airport in New York; I was only due for a 4 hour stopover & change of airlines turned into a 9+ hour wait (5hour delay). Strangely I had been told in London that I could book my luggage in all the way to Bermuda & would not have to reclaim it in New York or go ...