Cancun diving, April 2025

 Bonus dive trip

Cenote Kukul Kan in the Chac Mool system-with us diving!

Even though we had just been on a dive trip, we got an offer from friends to stay in their new place in Cancun.  How could we not go?!?  It was in a lovely residential area, away from the tourist hotels, but near the Costco!

We ate at several nearby restaurants and walked the neighborhood.  We used Cthulhu Divers to see the MUSA underwater museum.  Fantastic idea-put hundreds of sculptures underwater so that snorkelers and beginning divers have fun stuff to see easily.  The only problem is you are sucking in diesel fumes for the 45 minute boat ride out to the museum.  We had a good time and liked our dive master, so had him take us cenote diving the next day.

A cenote is not a cavern, you always see the sky.  They are underground rivers, so are generally colder than the ocean.  The whole experience blew us away.

So beautiful!  You are diving, but it kind of feels like you are hiking.

The lack of waves means the visibility is always amazing on the top layer.  Once you drop below the halocline visibility becomes 5 inches.  There is a rope line to guide you along the dive and you always carry flashlights.  

The second dive was in Little Brother, at the same site.  A great 2-tank dive day.

All the dive photos are from Triton photos-the professional photographer on site.  Totally worth the price

Real deal safety sign-do not ignore these!

NYC Feb 2025, Encore!

 The show was so good we went again!

We knew this show was going to have a short run, so we wanted to see it again before it closed.

Just the two of us, but made friends with our seat neighbor, Barbara.  We took her back stage to meet James and she was thrilled!  In a first, we went to his room instead of the stage-interesting!!

We stayed at the same funky hotel, the Paramount Times Square, where the lobby was always packed full of people coming and going.  Plush couches, dark wall hangings, a fake fireplace, and a nice bar.  

The main branch of the New York Public Library has a large museum. I continue to be drawn to the fibar arts displays.

an embroidered cover

A display of miniature items

Then a quick trip to Grand Central station

We went specifically to visit Jacques Torres' chocolate shop.  It was tiny, but packed with so many things!

They were even giving out freebies that were an MTA collaboration-adorable and delicious.

The Cooper Hewitt!  It has been forever since we visited the design museum.  The exhibits were all based around the idea of 'Home'.  Lots of discussions about wallpaper that I failed to photograph.

I did manage to photograph all the biotech based exhibits.

Feels like a lab, but it is also very pretty, all neat and organized.

Yup, it is cold in the winter.

We did a bit of the nostalgia tour, but due to heightened security, only students were allowed on campus.

I settled for a photo at the subway stop!

Love sweet potato fries

At Columbus Circle.  Museum of Arts and Design had a Barbie exhibit, since the movie was having a moment.  One of the better gift shops I've seen.  After this we flew to Grand Cayman and had a dive vacation!

NYC Dec 2024

NYC Nov 2024 to see A Wonderful World

This is one of those musicals that will likely only been seen on Broadway, so we made a special trip with Delicate Flower and Bike Guy to see our friend James as Louis Armstrong.  The show was amazing.  He was married 4 times, so they found 4 strong female singers in addition to giving James special training to not ruin his voice.  It is hard to find cheap hotel rooms, so we ended up with double bunk beds in a tiny room.  Memorable!!  Also, our Uber driver had a fender bender just as he was dropping us off?  We paid and got out of that situation ASAP!

We decided to go all in on Broadway and get more tickets from TKTS.  It was really cold and we stood out there for at least an hour.  Worth it!  The Book of Mormon was amazing-it had been a at least a decade for us, and was new to the others.

We also went to Back to the Future.  It was not amazing.  The songs were unremarkable and nothing was added to the plot.  Even the costumes looked bad.  And yet people loved it.  The car was cool, yes, but I never need to see that again.

It was so cold.  I took any opportunity to duck inside and warm up.  Wandered into this interesting fiber art display.

We ate a ton of good food on this trip.  A bunch of $2 pizza slices, fantastic bagels, giant cookies, and this delicious breakfast sandwich!  We also found good tacos in New York City, something we Californias did believe existed.  A small chain, Los Tacos No.1 turned out to be amazing.  They were cooking the tortillas as fast as they were being eaten.  So fresh!

We visited the NYC Nintendo store! Right around the corner from Lincoln Center and tree.  This close to Xmas it was packed-quite the struggle to get this photo without random people.

They have the tiniest museum-one display case filled with info and examples of the older gaming stations.

The DS series has a special place in our hearts-so much Bomber Man! 

The cutest Pokemon pjs

Not sure where along the trip we picked these up, but they were unexpectedly delicious.