For Christmas this year, Caroline and I decided to go to the Bahamas. Pics can be seen HERE. I had accured so many Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) points that I could get 5 nights in an upgraded ocean front room on Grand Bamaha Island. The Sheraton at Port Lucaya, just outside of Freeport, Grand Bahama, was where we stayed and paid with my SPG points. This place is great! Short ride to paradise and absolutely clear (and shallow) water. Christopher Columbus discovered this island, and called it “el gran baja mar” which means “the great shallow sea.” That became Grand Bahama. This shoe shaped island is nice, the sand is soft yet firm when wet (you don’t sink like traditional sandy beaches), and the water is clear and shallow that if you jetski out far, you still see the bottom.

This place takes American dollars, has no tax, and everything is duty free. This means that booze is cheaper that soda (as soda is imported). Drinking from the tap here is ok, although has a metallic taste, as the drinking water is desalinated from the ocean through distillation (the metal you taste is from the distiller). But when there’s signs all over the place for shots for $1 who cares? I never had so many pina coladas and other tropical drinks in my life. It’s sooo cheap!

One of the awesome highlights was Unexso Dolphin Experience. We opted to swim with Atlantic bottle-nosed dolphins in Unexso’s private lagoon. I highly recommend this experience! (those who go to Hawaii to do this at the Hyatt are getting ripped off as they’re high priced and they’re actually Atlantic, not Pacific, bottle-nosed dolphins that were imported!).

As for food it’s varied, but our favorite was the fresh conch salad. You can see the pics in my gallery that I posted earlier.

There’s not much to do on the island itself. Shop, eat, relax, drink, swim, jetski, snorkel, and parasail. It’s a great vacation to do nothing and relax. I highly recommend! Trip was cheap as I paid only for food, activities, and airfare. Although if you stay there and pay for the hotel, the rates weren’t too bad either. 4-5 days is probably enough to enjoy this place well.

Like the last blog post stated, 2006 brings lots of good fortune. 2006 is a great year for me. Came into the year engaged, got into a great MBA program, was put in charge of a high-visibility project at work, got married… Well, another big changed has happened today. After 5 great years at Johnson & Johnson, I had a successful career. However, now being married, I simply can’t do the reverse commute of 50+ miles each way (100+ miles a day) with 3 hours a day spent commuting up forever. I gave my 2 weeks notice today, and will be joining a prestigious management consulting firm in midtown (I will not name it so as not to get bombarded by random requests to push a resume). Those who know me personally know where I am. I will miss my J&J friends who are like family there. I will remember you always. I now have a nice easy commute that I won’t stress about, and my insurance rates have plummeted as I drive less than 100 miles a month. LOL

According to the Lunar Calendar, 2006 is the best time for marriage as this year has 2 springs which brings good fortune. The result has led to a mad frenzy in China to get married, resulting in shortages from wedding planners to flowers. Well I guess I’m quite lucky. Thanks to Jessica for sending me this article! (press MORE to read the article)
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Our honeymoon to Hawaii was awesome. Pictures of our trip can be seen HERE. Make sure you click on the Display Mode and change it to “detailed” so that you can see the descriptions. It takes you through the whole trip. Basic itinerary was 7 days in Maui and 5 days in the Big Island. I highly suggest going to the Big Island over Maui if you like adventure style trips. I definitely enjoyed this one, especially in the Jeep for off-roading.

Maui:
- Boat ride to Molokini and go Snorkeling: this is known as the #1 dive snokel site on the planet (#2 is Fiji)
- Parasailing at 800′: awesome and high up – pricey though for a relatively short time in the air
- Old Lahaina Luau: Even though we were at the Grand Hyatt which has their own, this one is better known as it is the “classic” of all Luau’s. Highly recommended. If you plan on taking pictures, make sure you have a fast lens of at least a f/2.8 aperture!
- Drive to Hana: nice twisties and turns on the most scenic roads (although at times insane) around the island. Went all the way to the Seven Sacred pools and back. A large portion of my scenic amazing shots from Hawaii are from this trip. Highly recommend renting a sports car convertible
- Mama’s Fish House: fish are caught fresh daily by staff and this place is known for their most amazing food.
- Mount Haleakela: 10,000 feet above the world, looking into the crater of a dormant Volcano. We chose to go on a chartered luxury van ride as I was tired of driving the Road to Hana
- Sensai: This sushi place is in what’s left of a town that’s basically abandoned after the hotels closed up. It’s fairly remote, and the sushi was only okay. I’ve had better in NY and Seattle.

(Note about Maui, wear lots of sunscreen and re-apply frequently. Both of us got burned despite using it, but luckily they had aloe with lidocaine to numb the burn) Lahaina translates to “Merciless Sun” for this reason!

Big Island:
- Flumin Da Ditch in Hawi: kayak down the old irrigation flumes that go through mountain tunnels, rain forest, and pass by waterfalls. Highly recommended.
- 15 Mile Waterfall ATV Adventure in Hawi: Traverse through brisk mountain streams; enter a rainforest filled with native Hawaiian trees and canopies of ferns and flowers before discovering a private secluded waterfall. Your guide will paint a historical picture of the rich culture in the area. A visual rush of panoramic collages makes this a driving experience to remember
- Drove around the entire island except to Hilo as we ran out of time
- Drove to Mauna Loa and Volcanoes National Park
- Drove to South Point, off-roaded a long ways to the Green Sand beach (green becuase of olivine). Note it is a 60 foot climb down a cliff, so wear sneakers
- Drove to Punalulu black sand beach. This place is the windiest place in Hawaii, but its cool to see the sea turtles chilling on the beach. Note you have to stand a good distance away from them by law as they are endangered. Bring a telephoto lens if you plan on taking photos.

For all the shots, most of these places are secluded. I planned ahead and brought my tripod with a remote trigger. If you have any questions and want ideas or tips for a trip to Hawaii, let me know. I wouldn’t go back to Maui as it got boring once you do the road to Hana, but Big Island I do plan on going back as theres so much more I want to see like checking out Waipio Valley (remember the opening scene in Jurassic park with the helicopter vista? This is the place) and taking the helicopter over the volcano.

After our wedding, we spent the night about 3 blocks away at the Hotel Gansevoort. My wife actually used the hotel for her preparation ground on the day of the wedding. They promised us the room would be ready at 3PM for our 6PM wedding. Well they totally dropped the ball on that one. Caroline waited for almost an hour until the damn hotel had a room available, despite the fact that we told them ahead that this was critical for our wedding. She complained oviously, and they didn’t do anything about it. Horrible – especially for a wedding you’d think they’d be accomidating! As a result we were late for our own wedding. Also after the wedding I went to to open our room and carry my wife into the room, only to find that these idiots had deactivated our key cards! WTF?! How embarassing. My wife’s feet were killing her and she wanted to sit down, so she sat on the floor outside our hotel room in her wedding dress, while I went to the lobby to get the keycard working again. I complained and the guy at the desk gave me the “I couldn’t give a shit” look, despite me mentioning again that it was my wedding day! Finally back in our room realized that the belhop never brough our luggage. Called the front desk to bring it up… After a good half hour passed, they called back asking me to come down and find it as they don’t know where it is?!! So I again go down to the lobby, they lead me into the luggage room, and there’s my luggage in the corner. Without their tag numbers. Now I feel stupid for tipping the belhop well during the day when I dropped off my luggage as I asked him to take extra care of the luggage. We slept well that night as we were completely pooped and had to leave at 6AM to catch our flight. They got my car from the garage and checkout was nice. I again complained ot the manager about all the crap that happened and mentioned that it was our wedding day that this happened on. He gave me a “I couldn’t give a shit” look and said, well next time just look for me and I’ll give you a discount on your next stay. (yeah like I’ll ever stay here and pay $700 for a damn room again for this crappy service). The ambiance is nice (lobby has snakeskin covered pillars, granite floors) and the rooms are small but modern looking. But the service of the hotel is totally elitist and they just want your damn money as they know you’re not coming back. I definitely don’t recommend. Spend that money at the Ritz Carlton or even the W, and you’ll be treated much better.