Miami, Houston and Boston in June 2007

Judging by the last few years of adventure I declare the month of June as my personal travel month of the year. This year I've accumulated quite a few frequent flier miles both from leisure and business travel one week after another.

Miami Beach, FL

Early this month I came across an offer I couldn't refuse. Jet Blue had some amazing sales for South Florida and instead of sitting at home and doing nothing on my mid-week off days I decided to go for a mini-vacation on the best place on earth: South Beach! The offer was so good I booked a flight for my sister as well... hey for $39 bux each way on an airline that has first class seating and entertainment throughout the plane, how can you go wrong. Not only that they even offered to take $50 bux off the next trip, hell I spend more on gas and parking getting to the airport than flying for two and a half short hours to our favorite vacation destination.


The savings continued upon arrival into Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International. My rent-a-car company of choice, Enterprise made another offer I couldn't refuse... a mere $15 bux a day for an Intermediate vehicle. Better yet I got a free upgrade to a full size Ford Five Hundred in beautiful red to cruise around, which I found to be very impressive.

If that doesn't sound like a dream vacation yet, listen to this... you won't believe the rate I got on a hotel room. While searching through a variety of Internet hotel booking agents I found a place right on Ocean Drive for 50% off the rate in the middle of the off season. Which means my classy hotel room smack in the middle of the Art Deco district between the world famous Colony and Clevelander right where its at cost a mere $50 for the night, all in! We stayed at the Starlite Hotel.


The short trip didn't go without a hitch. My sister really wanted to go Jet Skiing so $160 bux later we were having a blast right on the ocean as there is a beach rental right off 9th Avenue... however as soon as we got ashore half an hour later it started raining and we left Miami Beach for more weather friendly grounds visiting the Seminole Hard Rock resort casino in Hollywood. After a nice diner there we headed out to the movie theater to kill some more time and saw "Knocked Up" on the silver screen. I don't know about other folks who claim it was funnier than the "40 Year Old Virgin" I was laughing much more at the original. The following day was 100% beach day for us. I must have spend six to seven hours soaking in the warm Atlantic Ocean that was exceptionally quiet with hardly any waves. Unfortunately for me, thats precisely the time I got sun poisoning and for the next few days I would feel like dying from the pain and water blisters popping on my shoulders. I must have shed like 8 layers of skin before returning to my normal self. Moral of the story folks: always wear sun block!!!



Before I could even start feeling comfortable to go out in the sun again I was back on a flight to Florida to deliver a vehicle for a business partner... all the way to Texas.

Houston, TX

I have never been to Texas before so I jumped on the opportunity to do a 1200 mile drive as opportunities like these don't come at work often. My plan of course was to get a picture with all of the welcome signs to all the states I passed along the way, and there were quite a few. I purposely spend the night in some cheap Motel 6 in Pensacola, FL in order to get good light for the photo opps, and they came out perfect. The drive itself was totally uneventful, and I won't bore anyone with the particulars. I really wanted to do a drive through New Orleans but for the sake of getting to the destination sooner I left a visit to the Big Easy for a future adventure. I did however try some fried crawfish on my way, stopping pit-stop style at some place called Iowa in the middle of Louisiana. It was delish!
The flight back from Houston Hobby was great, I couldn't believe it was only scheduled to take 3 hours, but of course with weather delays both in Texas and most of the way along the coast to New York, it took much longer. However again I was impressed with Jet Blue... good thing they're going through all the publicity nit picking because I was able to get an amazing deal booking a flight even a week before the departure.




The last week of the month was dedicated to a major business trip I've been planning for months. This was the first time I was in downtown Boston even though I must have been to the state of Massachusetts nearly a dozen times.

Boston, MA

First opinion of Boston was a rather great impression. I took Jet Blue again with a bargain fare that dropped in price after I originally booked it which allowed me to call them up and ask for credit towards a future flight, they're very accomodating that way and its only one part of many that I like about this company thats why I would fly them exclusively if the destinations past and future allowed.

For this trip I didn't have to rent a car, for the short ten minute ride to the Seaport World Trade Center the company send a chauffeur in a brand new Cadillac DTS from Boston Coach. Unlike in the NYC area airports the driver stayed in a Limo designated area at the departure level which made for a very short walk considering I only travel with a carry on.


The business aspect of the trip went rather smoothly for the day and a half I was there, but most impressive was the tour I gave myself of the walk along the Boston Harbor towards Quincy Market which came highly recommended from my coworkers. Once I arrived limped there in nearly 100F and humid weather in the middle of the day wearing a monkey suit, I didn't really care for what it had to offer and after a short rest headed back to a place I saw along the walk called the Barking Crab. That was my final diner destination before catching a stand-by flight home to JFK in New York. Unfortunately for me the early flight I went on got delayed for quite some time and having used up all of the battery life of my laptop, without any cables to re-charge it... (I had to conserve space and that was one thing I thought I could live without on a two day trip) I sat at a corner of the terminal in Logan watching other planes land and take off. That nearly put me to sleep.


I must say from the whole trip only the ride back comes to mind as the least favorite experience. During the ten minute ride the driver was presentable, he was again in a brand spanking new Caddy livery vehicle that was absolutely spottless, but his attitude and the choise of conversation killed the ride. I still don't get why he had to bring up the crap he brought up on that ride, I should of just asked him for some quiet time and that would have been that.


One good thing that came out of this trip, I was asked to write an article for an upcomming issue of an industry publication so I can't wait to get started!

Cool places to grab a bite:

Le Tub, Hollywood, FL
Pappas Bros. Steakhouse, Houston, TX
The Barking Crab, Boston, MA