The Time We Are Given

Out And About In Puerto Rico: The El Morro Fort, Old San Juan, And Parques De Las Ciencias (Hidden Gem)

January 1, 2025 liran Comments 0 Comment

After some much needed and restorative beach relaxation time, it was time to get out and explore. One of my favorite things to see on trips, are ancient ruins. While the Caribbean does not have much in the way of remnants of truly old civilizations, many islands have massive fortresses that are remnants of the colonization era. San Juan has one of the best known of these of forts, the Castillo San Felipe del Morro, which was built in the…

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Playa La Posita: A Puerto Rican Beach Safe From Rip Tides That Is Perfect For Little Kids

December 29, 2024 liran Comments 0 Comment

After one of the most aggravating travel days we’ve had in recent years, we settled in for our first non-resort trip with Ethan. For our first morning in Puerto Rico we decided to go the beach. We are staying on the north coast, and there can be strong currents in December, so one of Ariel’s top priorities was finding a protected beach where we would not have to worry about huge waves and rip tides. She found a beach called…

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A Not-So-Enchanting Journey To The Isla Del Encanto

December 28, 2024 liran Comments 0 Comment

After our Aruba trip, we felt we were able to successfully extend our airplane range to basically anywhere in the Caribbean. But after three consecutive island resort trips with Ethan (of varying levels of success), we decided we wanted to try something a little more adventurous. With me being sick for much of the Aruba experience, it fell to Ariel to fill most of the days for Jacob and Ethan, and there’s only so much time you can spend at…

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Did I find a secret underground passage that connects all the LAX terminals to the AMEX Centurion Lounge (and others)?

December 20, 2024 liran Comments 0 Comment

The short answer is… sort of? It’s not really “secret” in that it’s pretty well known that there’s a tunnel system underneath the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) terminals post-security (although I don’t think this existed back in 2017 when Ariel and I went to New Zealand), but exactly HOW to navigate this dungeon-like maze is really confusing. There’s no guide anywhere and only a rather unhelpful map of the airport that is extremely light on details. The various lounge/points…

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The Elder Millennial’s Lament

September 15, 2024 liran Comments 0 Comment

There’s a point in a person’s life, where it becomes easier to romanticize the past than it is to think about an uncertain future. The effects of nostalgia – or more accurately, a yearning for a mythical past that never really existed – have been discussed to death over the past decade or so. But that’s not what I’m talking about. What I’m talking about is FRUSTRATION. This isn’t the future that any of us envisioned. I don’t mean in…

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Out And About In Aruba: California Lighthouse, Bushiribana Gold Mill, Casibari And Ayo Rocks, and Arikok National Park

September 2, 2024 liran Comments 2 comments

After a really rough start to our trip, I was finally able to get myself close enough to normal to start exploring the island with Ariel and the kids. Amazingly, despite blowing the first 4.5 days of a 7 day trip, we managed to reach basically every corner of the country. Which really isn’t saying a whole lot as the entire island is only 69 square miles. For reference, Middlesex county in New Jersey (where we live) is over 300…

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On The Mend, On An Island

August 28, 2024 liran Comments 2 comments

So… the first half this trip has been C-H-A-L-L-E-N-G-I-N-G. My situation did not improve after 48 hours and I went from just feeling generally ill to a full-blown flu-like nightmare. It was just your classic nasty upper respiratory bug: feverish feeling, post-nasal drip, runny nose, chills, and finally a truly nasty cough that kept Ariel and I up all night. So by Sunday I was frantically seeking some medical assistance. Turns out in Aruba, that’s not very difficult at all….

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Back In Action In Aruba

August 24, 2024 liran Comments 2 comments

It’s been over a year since my last post. A less-than-stellar experience getting to, and being in, Antigua (not due to anything related to the country itself!) spooked us on doing anymore serious travel since last year. Our next attempt was a trip to Cape May that also involved a lot screaming at bedtime… and was cut short due to a bout of food poisoning. So… not great! But a couple of road trips to Pennsylvania went pretty smoothly, and…

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An Unexpected Adventure Getting To Antigua

July 31, 2023 liran Comments 1 comment

After our successful Jamaica trip, we decided we wanted one last hurrah before Ariel went back to work, so we booked a flight to Antigua to stay at the lovely Carlisle Bay. It… did not go as planned. Now to be clear – the place we stayed was beautiful and Antigua itself is very charming! But getting there… and back again… was truly a nightmare that we haven’t experienced in many an age. One of my earliest posts was about…

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Exploring The Green Grotto Caves And Learning The Meaning Of Runaway Bay In Jamaica

June 25, 2023 liran Comments 0 Comment

Unlike the first time we were in Jamaica, this time around we decided to do some exploring. I went off on my own on a long journey to the Bob Marley house. I recently read The Hobbit to Jacob (which he absolutely loved), and so when I found out there was a series of caves – with an underground lake no less) just a few minutes away from where we were staying, we just had to take him to the…

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