discountsatori

Most of my extended family lives in the expanse north of Dallas / Ft. Worth and south of the Oklahoma border. I’ve lived in the southeastern U.S. (Atlanta) most of my life, but Texas always has a way of seeming otherworldly to me every time I go. The flatness is at once refreshing and draining to someone who’s always known hills, but the view - the “big sky” - is amazing.

I haven’t been able to properly explore Dallas, but my family and I did go to Ft. Worth for shopping and sightseeing. We went to a steakhouse, where everyone was very accommodating to vegetarian me. Also, I got suckered into putting on cowboy duds in a gift shop, and then posing for a photo that is kindly known as my BLACKMAIL PICTURE. I’d like to travel some more through the state and see San Antonio and Austin. Both of those would be major road trips from the Dallas area, though.

My husband and I took the “Piecing It Together” tour on January 12, 2006. We stopped by the museum in the morning and bought our tickets for the 3:20 PM tour that day. In retrospect, we should have bought tickets for one of the morning tours and hung out in the Lower East Side until it began. But, well, we didn’t. We went to Brooklyn for some shopping and coffee, and then had to high-tail it back to the Lower East Side to make the tour. Long story short, we missed the first fifteen minutes. Our tour guide was not altogether pleased, but fortunately we had caught the tour just before they went inside the tenement.

Each tour is one hour, and in that time the guide shows you 2 apartments. There are currently 2 different tours - “Hard Times” and “Piecing It Together.” The latter is specifically about families who worked in the garment industry. Standing in the tenement apartment and hearing about all the various work and life activities that happened in the three very small rooms is quite humbling. There’s an amazing amount of detail in each room - you’ll want to look at everything from the old sewing machines to the layers of old wallpaper. Our guide, Nadine, was very friendly and informative. I could tell they ran on a tight schedule at the museum, though, because she didn’t seem to have time to answer a lot of questions at the end of the tour.

I started feeling a little faint in the second apartment. And then that feeling increased to “reaaallly faint.” The day was warmer than average for Manhattan in January, and I was wearing a coat and a sweater—plus, I was feeling very closed in among the tenement’s tiny rooms and low ceilings. I had to sit outside for a minute after the tour was over. Our tour guide went out of her way to show me to the staff bathroom on the first floor of the tenement.

Tips for going here: get there on time, explore the gift shop, wear proper clothing, and get enough fresh air before stepping into the tenement. If you do all that, it’ll be well worth your $15.

Hello, why didn’t I go there while I was living in Japan? I spent a number of months hearing how underwhelming Osaka would be for someone like me who was living in Tokyo. But then I started hearing how Osaka is the “artsy city” of Japan, the home to wonderful theater, and the birthplace of Japanese comedy. I was so close to it when I visited Kyoto, but I think it’ll be worth it to trek across the world again to see it.

For the views, for the vegetarian food, for the shopping, for the (perceived) complete departure from anything East Coastian. I’d love to be able to go there this fall. It drives me nuts that I’ve been on the Pacific coast of other countries, but not of my own.

My husband Adam (then boyfriend) and I had a stop in Key West on our first cruise, in August 2002. We were only able to spend the morning and early afternoon there, but we pegged it immediately as somewhere that deserved more of our time. We went to the Hemingway house in the morning, then hit some bars and were pleasantly sloshed just before noon. We took a stroll around the piers and returned to our ship wondering if we should have just stayed on the island.

A year later, we were back. We road-tripped it from Atlanta to Key West, starting at 11:30 PM and deliriously rolling through the Keys in the mid-afternoon. Sleepily, we sang along to the same Jimmy Buffett CD three times as we passed from island to island. The Seven-Mile Bridge was the home stretch. It is quite a long way from the end of mainland Florida to Key West: the driving trip through the Keys can easily last a few hours, but it is a fantastic trip.

Key West in August is HOT, even for Adam, who grew up in Florida. Going out during the day took a good bit of energy. We had a nice pool at our hotel, the La Concha Inn. We were grateful for that. They had an excellent poolside bar, too. Restaurant food was quite expensive—think New York City pricing. Going out for breakfast, we would get one egg and one piece of toast for the price of a full buffet in other places in the U.S. But the restaurants, on the whole, were fantastic. We loved Ricky’s Blue Heaven (you sit outside at picnic tables…it’s like being at a neighborhood barbecue) and a little French place where we had the BEST breakfast croissants and crepes EVER. Every time my husband and I talk about our next vacation, a trip back to the Keys is always a possibility.