vacation Archives - Curiously Carmen

Travel Diary: Circle Line Sightseeing Cruise, New York City

May 5, 2016

I spent almost a week in the concrete jungle, and am now back in Vancouver and ready to share my trip with you all. There was a lot my mom and I wanted to do, so our ‘vacation’ was really fast paced and I ended up doing a tremendous amount of walking there. Far more walking than I would normally do in Vancouver!

There are so many posts I have lined up from my Big Apple visit, but I decided to talk about the Circle Line Sightseeing Cruise first because it was my favourite touristy activity.

I had the NYC CityPASS, which is a ticket booklet that offers you admission to 6 popular NYC attractions at a discounted price. You can click here for the full CityPASS review.

The Circle Line Sightseeing Cruise was included as one of the activities, and you had the option of choosing which scheduled cruise you wanted. You can go on the NYC CityPASS website for more information on the cruises.

We chose the Harbour Lights Cruise, as we wanted to see the city lit up at night!
Since this is the sunset cruise, this scheduled cruise only runs once per day, obviously. The other cruises, such as the Landmark or Liberty Cruises, run twice a day.

The pier where the cruise is located is about a 10 minute walk from Times Square, depending on how fast you walk. You can also take the bus from Times Square.

The weather was a bit muggy but that did not dampen our mood at all! Since it was more of a chillier day, we sat inside the cruise. Pictured above is the outside top deck (there are two floors).
Once the cruise started to move, people moved inside because it was a windy night and also raining a bit. But on a beautiful, warm day, you will definitely want to be on the balcony!

On Circle Line’s website, you can see the routes in which the ships go, as well as the length of time it runs for. The Harbour Lights cruise was 2 hours and goes around the bottom half of Manhattan, and back around the same way so you don’t have to worry if you are sitting on the side of the boat without the better view.

Now, on to the beautiful views!
On the cruise, we also got to see some attractions on the other side of Manhattan. We passed a port where soldiers were deported to Europe in World War 1 & 2 in New Jersey. We also saw the old Colgate factory in New Jersey. These things we wouldn’t have known if it wasn’t for our informative and engaging tour guide!

Pictured above is the old Pepsi sign, where the factory used to be in Brooklyn!
Passing by New York City, with the Empire State Building in the background!
We scored great seats since we went a hour early! The only annoying thing about our seats was that it was directly facing the stairs to the deck. Since the boat was going pretty fast and it was chilly that day, the cold wind blasted up to us whenever people would open the doors. It got a bit annoying because other customers held the door open for their friends, which made our entire area really cold!

Good thing there was an angry customer who went down and told them to not leave the door open as everyone upstairs was starting to freeze. Thank you, haha!
Going under the three bridges that connect Brooklyn and Queens to Manhattan! The tour guide, who was awesome btw, told us an easy way to remember the order of the bridges was BMW – Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg.

This one was either the Manhattan or Williamsburg bridge, sorry, I don’t remember which one exactly.
The sun was beginning to set at 8 pm! Pictured above is the famous Brooklyn Bridge, one of the first steel cable and oldest bridges in North America. We learned that when it was first built, citizens and government officials alike were hesitant to cross the bridge because it was the first time they used steel cable there.

We also learned from the tour guide that the engineer used double the amount of steel cable than necessary. So, you can easily tell the Brooklyn Bridge apart from the other two based on how much more cable and wire it has.
I actually didn’t know the Harbour Lights cruise went around the Statue of Liberty, so I was pleasantly surprised when it was announced!

This picture is probably my favourite photo of the trip that I took. Lady Liberty looks so majestic and beautiful lit up like that.
On the way back, our side of the boat faced Manhattan so I was able to take nicer city view photos. This is a photo of Lower Manhattan, featuring the World Trade Center building.

Since my mom and I didn’t go on any tours and just explored the city on our own, it was really nice to learn about NYC from an experienced tour guide. Throughout the evening, the tour guide told us fun and interesting facts about the city – hidden facts you wouldn’t really know.

To add to it even more, he had a really great sense of humour and I had a lot of laughs listening to his stories and facts! For me, that’s what made the sightseeing cruise so enjoyable and memorable. I would highly recommend taking this cruise, whether or not it’s your first time to the Big Apple!

Check out the NYC CityPASS for tickets to the Circle Line Sightseeing Cruise!

Yay!

Thanks for reading,

Carmen

Media passes provided on behalf of CityPASS. Opinions are own.

Travel Diaries: Winetasting & Hiking in Kelowna

May 20, 2015

I just came back from a nice little getaway to the beautiful city of Kelowna and had the idea to attempt travel blogging. I’ve never really done this before but I do follow my awesome friend’s travel blog, so I figured I would give this a try.

For those who don’t know, Kelowna is a small city located around 4 hours away from Vancouver, in the same province (British Columbia). It is a pretty easy drive up as you just follow the highway. This city is situated in the interior region of BC, otherwise known as the Okanagan Valley.

The Okanagan Valley is very well known for the beautiful Okanagan Lake which I couldn’t take my eyes off of and the beautiful summer weather, which in turns produces their famous fresh and delicious fruits. In particular, Kelowna is well known for their tremendous amount of wineries and outdoor activities! It is the perfect place to come and enjoy the great outdoors!
I don’t normally go hiking, but one of my best friends who lived here for 4 years recommended that we hike up to Knox Mountain. I’m glad that we went in the early afternoon, because by the time we were done the hike, the sun was directly on top of us and it was getting really hot. The hike up to the first viewpoint took around 15 minutes, and was pretty easy. There was some slight uphill, but nothing that bad.

From there, we saw signs leading to the Paul’s Tomb hike, and decided to follow that instead of going to the second viewpoint at Knox Mountain. The hike to Paul’s Tomb was a lot easier because there wasn’t much uphill, and a lot of gradual downhill! It took us around 30 minutes at a leisurely pace to get to Paul’s Tomb.

When we got to Paul’s Tomb, I was in awe at how beautiful the view was. The trail was pretty quiet, and we were the only ones there which was something I really appreciated about a smaller city like Kelowna.

We sat here for awhile, absorbing the beautiful view that was Okanagan Lake and the surrounding mountains. Waves gently brushing over the rocks, a gentle cool lake breeze gave us a break from the hot sun, and clear water.

The walk back took more effort than the getting there, but it was so worth it! We took shelter and cooled off whenever the sun would get hidden behind the fluffy white clouds. There was slight uphill as the walk there is downhill, so you do get a bit of a workout. As someone who doesn’t hike often, I certainly felt it in my calves and hamstrings after finishing the hike.

After a quick lunch, we were off to our first wine tasting! There are five main winery regions in Kelowna, which can be found on the online pamphlet or in the wineries themselves. We decided to go to the Lake Country region first. I recommend having a car in Kelowna, as many of the wineries are in secluded, hidden areas. Also, a map – we got lost a few times with all the winding off-roads!

Unfortunately, I didn’t take pictures of all the wineries as I hadn’t thought of blogging about this trip until afterwards =( My favourite winery in Lake Country was Arrowleaf! The inside had a nice, modern, clean design and had floor to ceiling windows. They also had a nice grassy area for a picnic or a patio where you can enjoy their wine.
This is the view from Grey Monk winery. All the wineries that we went to had breathtaking views of Okanagan Lake! The Lake Country region had around 6 different wineries, we went to 3 of the wineries. At most, wineries in the same region are no more than a 15 minutes drive away from each other but usually less than 7 minutes.

Never been wine tasting?

Worry not! When you arrive at the winery, one of the workers will approach you and ask if you’re interested in sampling some wine. Some wineries charge a small fee (I remember the ones we went to ranged from $3-$8), but sometimes they waive the fee if you purchase a bottle of wine from them. Others offer complementary tasting.

Then, they give you a small menu with all the different types of wine that is available for sampling, it can vary from day to day. Most places limit you to four samples. You will start with the lighest wines (typically the whites and rose) and move on to the heavier wines. This method works better for your taste palette.

Wine tasting goes by pretty fast! In each winery, we completed the wine tasting in under ten minutes and spent the rest of the time walking outside, enjoying the view, or checking out the products on sale.

Where did we stay?

We found a nice, comfortable place on AirBNB! It was very centrally located and convenient. Our host was wonderful and the place was readily stocked with all the necessities plus minor little details. We chose to go with AirBNB instead of a hotel mainly because Kelowna hotels cost significantly more in the summer due to the influx of tourists and were all sold out already, and because we wanted a full kitchen in case we decided to cook.

Thanks for reading! Stay posted on more wine tastings, horseback riding, and an outdoor high ropes/obstacle course!

-Carmen

Brewhouse (Whistler)

July 24, 2014

Another Whistler post! After settling down in our hotels and hitting up the pool (such a great time, by the way), we decided to finally grab some late dinner. After spending a long time in our hotel room browsing Urbanspoon and debating, we decided to try a small Italian restaurant that had great ratings.

It took us awhile to find it and when we finally did, it was packed and the wait was too long. We ended walking around the village a bit more, stopping here and there looking at menus, how full each place was, etc.

Eventually, we stopped at Brewhouse which looked decent from the outside. At this point, we were all pretty hungry and the hostess told us that there was no wait if we sat inside the restaurant, which was a relief! But if we knew what was in store, we would not have stopped here… *cue horror music* (Joking. Kind of.)
Turns out, there was a reason why it was so quiet inside the restaurant…It was so hot and stuffy inside the restaurant. There was no a/c, I’m not even sure if there were fans because it was that stuffy.

The patio doors were open, but it did not help. They had an open concept kitchen, with a big wood oven for pizzas, which explained why it was so warm in there.

I felt bad for the cooks because they were right beside the stoves and ovens, in full cooking, long sleeve and hat attire. We asked to sit near the patio doors, but for some reason, the hostess declined us and led us to a table inside the restaurant…
The beginning of our restaurant experience was not pleasant. It was super hot, and our server did not show up until twenty minutes later. At that point, we were getting hungry and really wanted ice water to cool down, but no one helped us. We tried to wave servers down but were ignored.

Thankfully, we finally got a pitcher of water so that we didn’t have to go through the challenge of finding servers to refill our glasses as often. One cool and trivial thing about the restaurant was that they had a train set that went around the whole restaurant. The trains advertised different companies in Whistler. It was pretty cool, but I could see it getting annoying as every 10 minutes you would hear this chugging train noise :).

Now, moving on to the food, was it delicious enough to make up for the lack of service and uncomfortable heat in the restaurant?
Nothing on the menu looked too appealing to me, and took me longer than usual to decide what I wanted. I decided to order their valley chicken pizza ($18). It came with free range chicken, prosciutto, apples, and sage. I actually enjoyed the pizza a lot, the crust wasn’t too oily and was very doughy.

There was a generous amount of chicken and prosciutto on it, while the apple slices enhanced the flavour. I didn’t end up tasting any of the sage though, but everything else tasted great together.
Macaroni ordered the wild mushroom fettuccine ($19). She despises peas and asked the server to exclude it, but they ended up including it as you can see in the picture.

She ended up just eating around all the peas because we didn’t want to go through the hassle again of waving down our server. I had a bite of the fettuccine, and it was pretty creamy and cheesy. If only they took out the peas for my friend, she would have enjoyed the dish a lot more.
Cheese and Cash both ordered the Thai chicken salad ($17). It came with marinated chicken, snap peas, mushrooms, cashews, green peppers, crispy onions, spring roll chips, and a peanut/sriracha dressing. They both enjoyed their salads, but noted that they didn’t taste the srircha in the sauce.
The boyfriend ordered the beef burger ($16) with poutine for an extra $3. He was very disappointed with the taste of the burger. It lacked flavour and put simply, it was just not good. He loves his burgers whenever we go out to eat, and this was probably the first time I have heard him say that he did not like his burger.

Overall, I didn’t really enjoy my visit to Brewhouse. The food was decent, but the service and atmosphere needed improvement. The food was a bit overpriced, but that’s to be expected when in a resort town.

You would think that a tourist pub like Brewhouse would have better service, but it was very sporadic and the server was not that friendly either.

Also adding to the fact that it was super warm in the restaurant without a/c or a strong fan, it was just not a comfortable experience. I hope that this review did not sound too bitter, but I can not have perfect dining experiences every single time, and this just happened to be one of them :(.

-Carmen