I just returned from five days in Cancun with Greg and Pete and really enjoyed the trip.

We stayed at the Le Meridien, which was on the main strip of large hotels. We were able to book the rooms at under $100 per night and I was able to upgrade to a nice suite using some Starwood magic. The suite's spacious balcony was unique to the hotel (room 810) and afforded fine views of the lagoon and the sea. The room itself was very nicely appointed in continental European style. My only complaint about the room is that the in-room coffee was awful. The hotel did not provide free coffee or water, so we had to stock up on provisions at a small convenience store about 100 yards to the right of the hotel. The hotel has three nicely designed pools, one of which is heated. The hotel grounds are not extensive, but the space that is available is well used. An issue which anyone researching the hotel will probably come across is that a large hotel is being constructed right next to the hotel. As a city boy, I did not mind the occasional construction noise which other visitors have complained about, but it is unfortunate that the new structure casts a shadow that blocks the sun from most of the pool area in the afternoon.

Another unfortunate situation that impacts not only this hotel, but probably virtually every other property in Cancun, is the severe beach erosion. We arrived immediately after hurricane Ida passed by and there was virtually no beach. In fact, it was not easy to access the beach since so much sand has eroded, that guests have to descend down some temporary wooden steps to a strip of beach that is just a few feet wide, and that more or less disappears entirely at high tide.

After spending a few hours poolside, where lunch and mixed drinks were quite good, we hopped on the R1 bus to downtown Cancun for dinner. The bus costs about 50 cents, runs frequently, and is nice and clean. It travels at breakneck speed and may arrive at your destination before most taxis would - at a tiny fraction of the cost. We had dinner at La Habichuela, which is generally noted as one of the best restaurants in Cancun. This was our most formal dinner of the trip and probably not our favorite. My skirt steak was fine but my friends did not care very much for their food and Pete (who eats most anything) did not finish his ceviche.

For the next morning, we reserved a tour of the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza through the hotel tour office. Everything is negotiable in Cancun and we got the tour price down to $60 from the list price of $75. This trip was an all day affair, departing the hotel shortly after 7:00 am and not returning until after 7:00 pm. The bus stops at a "cenote" (sinkhole), where visitors descend into a cave sacred to the Maya and can take a dip in the underground river, hopefully not offending any local deities in the process. Next it is on to lunch - well, actually we had to wait a bit for lunch and we were strongly encouraged to spend some pesos in the adjoining handicrafts shop. Lunch was served buffet style and was quite good, if basic, local cuisine. Finally, after another half hour or so on the bus, we arrived at the ruins. Our guide, Simon, did a wonderful job of explaining the history of the site and the development of the various architectural periods of Maya construction. Almost as impressive to means the temples, palaces, ball courts, observatories and so forth was the jungle wildlife. We saw huge lizards, highly colorful birds and a micro-highway carrying thousand of ants bearing leaves. The Mexican authorities keep the park in pristine condition, but for some reason they permit local vendors selling trinkets to operate throughout the park.

The next day, Wednesday, we spent the morning at the hotel lounging by the pool. Although Hurricane Ida was long gone, this was our windiest day. Red flags were up along the beach all week, but we jumped into the warm azure water anyway and the waves were not very high at all. The undertow is strong but manageable. For lunch we headed back downtown (on the R2 bus this time) and wandered around the Mercado 28, where shopkeepers aggressively sought our business (I bought some sunglasses for about $10, after some moderately successful haggling). We had a delicious lunch in the middle of the market - I believe the restaurant was called Veracruz, but I am not certain. My grilled squid and octopus was probably my favorite meal of the trip. We headed hack to the "hotel zone" and stopped at Playa Tortugas on the north shore. Tortugas is supposed to be one of the best beaches in Cancun but it has been severely impacted by erosion. In the evening we went to the La Isla outdoor mall - a well-designed place with a large number of medium and high-end shops. We had a drink at the La Madonna (rated in DK Guide as the #1 bar in Cancun) and were rather disappointed that the staff of a place which describes itself as a "martini bar" did not know what type of gin the place had! All of the "top ten martinis" on the menu were various types of vodka drinks that happened to be served in martini glasses. Dinner was at a local place on the lagoon which was quite good. After dinner we headed to Senor Frogs, which had some semi-descent live music that stopped after 3 songs. My friends said the frozen drinks were awful. I stuck to beer - although I was almost put into a headlock by a waitress who tried to force me to drink a shot of some glowing blue liquid (perhaps Curacao?)

Thursday we headed to Isla Mujeres off the north coast of Cancun. We asked the hotel about tours involving a catamaran, snorkeling, lunch and swimming with sharks, but decided to go on our own. This was probably the best decision of the trip - we later saw the catamaran tour and people were virtually spilling over the sides ofthe boat, it looked miserable and cost $75 per person. We just walked down the dock and found a local captain who took us out to the reef for $20 per person (plus $5 national park fee) for a great snorkeling adventure. We saw huge schools of brightly colored fish in dozens of varieties, a lobster, a squid and a barracuda. After snorkeling we wandered around town for a bit, checked out the fascinating local cemetery, had a couple of cervezas at a beach bar and then had a delicious lunch a a little place in town. I had the local soup (sopa de lima) and the local grilled pork dish (pok chuk) both of which were among my favorite eats on the trip. I found that my enjoyment of my meals was inversely proportional to the cost. We rented a golf cart and scooted around the island, winding up at the southern tip, which is supposed to be the eastern-most point in Mexico. There is an outdoor sculpture garden with some semi-interesting abstract designs, some weird honeycombed rocks and a small Mayan temple at the end of the island.

After relaxing at the hotel for a bit, we headed back to Cancun and went downtown for dinner again, this time to La Padrilla. This restaurant is near La Habicuela and generally is referenced as one of the better place in town. It had a more festive atmosphere than La Habicuella and we all enjoyed our food, so this is probably where we would go again for dinner. However, as noted above, I ost enjoyed our little hole-in-the-wall lunch places. On the way back to the hotel, we were determined to get a good deal on a taxi, hoping to bargain the driver down from the listed rate of 180 pesos to 120 pesos, Things must have been slow, however, since he gave us a 120 rate when we asked the price.

Friday was the best day weather-wise, but unfortunately I had to fly home in the afternoon. I spent the morning bobbing around in the ocean and lounging poolside before packing up and heading home. It was a great little trip

We had a brief dog-napping incident earlier this evening. It has been a somewhat odd time here at my normally sedate apartment building, where the average tenant age is probably about 82. Aside from griping about te elevators and the heat, the neighbors are generally no problem and we rarely even hear any noise from the other apartments. However, one of our neighbors occasionally has a bit too much to drink and makes various noises that make me think that someone is attempting to break in and/or attacking her, until I investigate and realize that she is smashing things up and screaming all by herself, or sometimes with her poor husband as the target.

Unfortunately, Loki is obsessed with her apartment, since she has a cat - the only other pet on the floor. Tonight, when I opened my door to verify that the loud thumping I was hearing was just this neighbor smashing up her own apartment while on a bender, and not some burglar trying to kick in a door, Loki dashed out and headed down the hall. Some woman I had never seen before was standing in the doorway of the drunken neighbor's apartment holding a bottle of wine - which is just about the last thing this lady needs.

Loki dashed inside the apartment, hot on the trail of the cat. We have been through this before and it is no big deal -I usually just have to listen to a boozy monologue for a few minutes and refuse a drink a couple of times. However, tonight she was really out of it and let the other woman in, but slammed the door in my face. This was quite a shock, as she has always been nice to me, even when in this state. I gave it a minute or so and then knocked on the door. She opened the door and acted as if nothing had happened. The other woman turned out to be a TV producer who was asking what was causing the thumping, as it was evidently disturbing a shoot that they were doing upstairs.

My doorman later told me that this is one of those reality shows where they clean up your messy home and the upstairs neighbor, who I suppose has a messy apartment, was having her cleanup filmed. The crew was apparently apologizing for the noise that they had caused, which resulted in the drunken neighbor banging back in retaliation. They must not have realized that she was drunk - since their peace offering was a bottle of wine! Fortunately, Loki and I were able to get out of there after listening to a few minutes of insensible ranting. The banging and screaming have stopped, so I imagine she drank the wine and passed out.

The Todd birthday festivities seem to be winding down at last, which is welcome, since I can't handle much more celebrating at my advanced age. During my birthday we were at Disney, our third and final week with the annual passes we bought in November. We hit all of the parks but our focus was on Epcot because of the food and wine festival. About twenty food stands were set up around the lake at Epcot with appetizer sized portions of various tidbits plus wine pairings from around the world. It was very nice, but since each day;s temperatures were above 90 degrees, intake of food ad wine was somewhat curtailed. The sensible thing to do would be to partake at night, but our small companion's bedtime is 7:30, and he likes a schedule.

We returned on Tuesday, some work stuff happened for the rest of the week and then it was down to Philadelphia on Friday. I first dropped in on Pete, who presented me with some goat cheese with a candle in it along with some surprisingly good box wine. Soon after the goat cheese, Greg and Susan joined us for a tasty dinner at Pub and Kitchen. The Anniversary Ale at Pub and Kitchen was really good. Unfortunately I did not stick to beer and wine for the evening - there were subsequent encounters with tequila and more exotic beverages and then... well, lets just say it takes a little longer to recover from this type of adventure at 41 than it used to.

There were an unusual amount of lederhosen scampering about in Central Park yesterday. It turned out to be the Steuben Day parade. A couple of blocks from our house are a few of the remaining businesses from the days when Yorkville was an ethnic German enclave, so there were big crowds quaffing Spaten at the Heidelberg and devouring bratwurst at Schaller and Weber. Unfortunately they were out of brats by the time we arrived, which was probably for the best. I reminded our little companion that he is approximately 3/8 German, but he did not seem to be very interested.

On Friday I took a little extra time at lunch to check out the High Line. The High Line is a new park in Chelsea which is set in the track bed of a former elevated railway. The park is quite original and has many creative touches. The designers did a great job of incorporating the old rails at various points. One of the most interesting things about walking through the city along an elevated path is seeing into the second and third floors of buildings and generally getting a different perspective on the town. Unfortunately, I didn't see anything interest going on in the Standard Hotel, where several guests were recently observed by Highline visitors to be engaged in various normally private activities with the shades open - good for them!

We had a very nice lunch on Sunday for my father's 75th birthday. About 35 people showed up early at Lamberti's in Cherry Hill to surprise my dad. He did not really seemed all that surprised, evidently my stepmother is not going to win an oscar for acting out her cover story. I had to give a little speech after the cake was served. I often do a lot of public speaking for my job, but this assignment was a little more tricky. I think I wound up doing a mild roast, but I think it went just fine.

After that was over, we hit the road again and continued on to Baltimore. We scored a spacious suite at the Sheraton with a view of the inner harbor. It was a very nice evening as we walked around the harbor and had dinner at the harborplace. The next day, a bit of work interrupted this otherwise pleasant visit, but that turned out to be less painful than anticipated. After that, we packed up and did the long drive back to New York. I was very glad to leave the car at the parking lot for the rest of the week this morning.

I spent the week in Minneapolis and, although I did not throw my hat into the air upon arrival, it was a nice place to visit. The Ivy hotel was surprisingly high-end (Starwood "luxury collection") for one of our work conferences and my room was very well furnished, if somewhat on the small side. The only problem with the Ivy was that every street in every direction was being torn up (thanks economic stimulus!) so the area around the hotel was sort of a war zone. Fortunately, Minneapolis is festooned with skywalks throughout the downtown so people can remain indoors during the frigid winter months. The Ivy's skywalk led to the Hilton and then to the larger network of downtown malls and offices, thereby enabling hotel guests to walk a couple of stories above the ripped up streets.

The first night was perfect, so large group of us ate dinner outdoors, but after that the weather deteriorated and we did not venture far from the skyways. On Wednesday there was a tornado warning, but we managed to make it through without losing our ruby slippers.

Loki was quite the rock star at the dog park tonight. There was a group of kids about 7 to 8 years old who were playing with the dogs, giving them nicknames like "low rider fox" or, in the case of Loki, "high rider curly." Loki soon became a favorite of the kids because he was the most eager of the dozens of dogs to fetch and return the various tennis balls lying around. The kids were competing for Loki's attention and, after one of them asked me his name, began chanting "Loki! Loki!" All of this took place with the song "Who Let the Dogs Out" playing in the background as people gathered for the nearby outdoor film. Now Loki is lying next to me, completely exhausted.