February Getaway to St. Maarten

I've finally gotten around to posting some photos from our February, 2011 trip to the French/Dutch island of St. Martin/St. Maarten. I won't bore you with lots of historical facts and everything we did on a day-to-day basis but simply annotate each photo, to let you know what & where everything is. If you really want to know more about St. Maarten, you can easily check it out on the internet. However, if anyone has any questions (or wants tips) on visiting the island, I'd be glad to answer/provide them.

As always, comments are welcome and click on any image to enlarge it.

Click on it a second time to further enlarge it.

View of (mostly) the Dutch (southern) side of the island from my window on the plane.

Close-up of Philipsburg, the capital of the Dutch side.

The port on Great Bay, Philipsburg, where the cruise ships dock.

Our villa (first building on left, second floor,

overlooking Great Bay)

at the Divi Little Bay Resort.

View looking over our villa (building in center of photo).

View from the balcony of our villa.

View from our balcony.

Looking toward the cruise ship docks on the other side of Great Bay,

from our balcony, with a ship approaching (on the right).

Telephoto shot from our balcony.

Small infinity pool at east end of Divi property,

overlooking Little Bay in background.

View from old Fort Amsterdam, at the tip of the Divi property,

overlooking Little Bay.

Looking toward the east end of the property from Gizmo's Beachside Café.

Gizmo (the mascot of the beachside café).

Looking west along the Divi beach on Little Bay.

Looking east along the Divi beach.

A poolside café toward the east end of the property.

Happy Hour at Gizmo's café with Ken & Ro.

Villas at the east end of the property, photographed

while standing chest-high in the water, late in the day.

Sunset, viewed from Gizmo's Café.

Same sunset, a little later.

Three people watch another sunset, while sitting on the edge of a pool.

Front Street, the old main street in Philipsburg.

Brightly-colored restaurant, typical of the

Caribbean island style, in Philipsburg.

Old courthouse in Philipsburg.

Visitors take a Segway tour of "boardwalk"

along side the beach in Philipsburg.

Historic old church in Philipsburg.

Public beach area on the northeast (French) side of the island,

with fog and rain clouds threatening.

Le Gallion Beach, on the north (French) coast of the island.

Looking back at the beach seen in the previous shot

from the other side of the lagoon.

Looking across the lagoon at Le Gallion Beach

as rain clouds threaten.

Heavily pock-marked volcanic rock

on the extreme north coast of the island,

just past Le Gallion Beach.

Breakfast at Zee Best on the way to the airport

before heading home. (GREAT pastries!)

Jeanne Dippel - Gallery Show

Jeanne Dippel, a family friend and former neighbor,

has been pursuing her dream of becoming an artist,

using charcoal on paper.

She recently had a show of her work in a gallery

at C.W. Post College, in Brookville, New York.

The theme of her collection was,

"Women of Distinction, Portraits in Charcoal,"

and included beautiful renditions of people like

Mother Theresa, Oprah Winfrey, and Marilyn Monroe (below).

(Click on any image to enlarge.)

Jeanne stands by one of her personal favorites,

a drawing of Annie Oakley (below).

Jeanne's works are available for sale;

if interested, please leave a message in

the comments section of this blog

and I will forward all inquiries to Jeanne.

Louis' Lunch, New Haven, CT

While staying at our daughter's place in Wallingford, Connecticut, we drove about a half-hour to New Haven to visit a place I had seen on one of those Diners, Dives, & Drive-ins shows on tv. It was Louis’ Lunch, a tiny brick building at 261-263 Crown Street, amidst the tall office buildings and condos of downtown New Haven.

In existence since 1898, it is supposedly the birthplace of the hamburger. The current owner is Jeff Lassen, grandson of the founder, Louis Lassen; he operates the place much as it’s been run for over a hundred years.

The menu is quite limited: a five-dollar burger, which is still cooked–vertically–in the same cast-iron gas grilles that date to the nineteenth century; potato salad, $4; a bag of chips, $2; piece of pie, $4; and soda, Snapple or water for $2 or 3. The only things available to put on your burger are cheese, tomato, and onion (no ketchup or mustard); the opinion being that if it’s a freshly made burger, using prime meat, you don’t need catchup or mustard to make it taste better. As a matter of fact, there’s a sign on the wall that says, “This isn’t Burger King. You can’t have it your way. You have it my way or you can’t have the damn thing.”

In spite of this attitude, the place has a huge following (plus crazy people like me who come from all over to check it out) and, in the 1970s–when the place was threatened with demolition–a new location was found and the building moved to preserve it. People from all over donated bricks to help rebuild what was lost in the move.

So, what’s my take on the place? Well, the burgers were very good, but overpriced considering the size. Your choices are limited, it’s extremely small inside with very little seating area, and very noisy with customers calling out their orders and Jeff shouting to the grille man. So, it’s not the best dining experience in the world.

But Louis’ Lunch is a landmark; it’s a part of New Haven folklore. And it’s certainly a unique experience.

Todd Rundgren at Morristown, NJ 9-15-2010

This year (2010), veteran rock & roll icon Todd Rundgren went out on tour and performed two of his classic albums-in their entirety-for his fans, some of whom travel around the country to see as many shows as they can. The TODD album, from 1974, was originally released on two LPs while HEALING came out in 1981 (and included a bonus 45 rpm record in the package with the LP).

Rundgren and his touring band appeared at the Community Theater at Mayo Center for the Performing Arts in Morristown, NJ, on the evening of Wednesday, September 15th. Some attendees traveled from as far away as Boston and Georgia to catch this show, confirming Todd's cult fan following.

The following photos were shot with a Fujifilm S8000, using its zoom/telephoto lens to fill the frame from a seat five rows back in the front balcony. As always, click on any photo to enlarge it.

Paul's "Da Burger Joint"

The next time you're in New York City and are in the mood for a really great burger, head on over to the Lower East Side and stop in at Paul's "Da Burger Joint." Located at 131 2nd Avenue (between 7th & 8th Streets) you'll find some of the biggest and tastiest burgers in the city.

(Click on any image to enlarge it.)

One day this past February, Ro & I took our grandkids into Manhattan for the day. While we were walking about the East Village, I spotted Paul's place around lunchtime, so we decided to give it a try.

Some of the unexpected extras inside were the old-time photos and posters. In addition, the owner must be a big Yankees fan 'cause each table is named for a member of the team (or, in Joe Torre's case, an ex-member).

Somewhere beneath the lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions & cheese is a very large and very tasty burger, surrounded by steak fries. They also serve other fine diner-type fare like sandwiches, soups & salads.

For more information and additional photos, click on the link below:

http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/7087467/new_york_ny/paul_s_place.html#profileTab-photos