Great vacation, great times...

I'm baaaaaack! Didja miss me? ;-) (Don't answer that.)

Can't begin to say how good of a time I had on vacation in New Jersey, New York and yes even Cleveland. ;-) It helped that I packed a lot of cool things into a very short period of time.

Itinerary looked something like this:

June 29: Arrived in NJ late evening
June 30: Carol King / James Taylor at Madison Square Gardens in NY - fabulous!

Click here to view all pics from Carol King and James Taylor

July 1: Headed to Asbury Park, had dinner on the boardwalk and drinks at the Beach Bar. Walking along the boardwalk we bumped into people we knew...go figure! ;-)

July 2: Had a personal rock and roll tour of the Jersey Shore, went to some old Bruce haunts, former houses, current houses (I felt creepy doing that but what the hell at one point, Springsteen's car was behind us, wasn't him but it was his car, which turned into his farm). Later that night we had a drink at the Wonder Bar and then headed to the legendary Stone Pony to see Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes (Steve Forbert opened).

Click here for a few pics of Asbury Park Boardwalk and SSJ at the Stone Pony

July 3rd: Headed to Ramsey, NJ to visit my friend Jim, his wife Nicole and their two kids Brendan and Ryan. Brendan greeted me stark naked....and used both hands to cover up his privates. LOL Gotta say, have never been greeted like that before. LOL Shortly after arriving to Ramsey, Jim and I set off for Yankee Stadium to watch the Yankees face the Blue Jays - what a beautiful stadium, and a fun day at the ballpark with the Yankees winning 11-3, thanks to an 11 run 3rd inning. We had tailgated a little bit before the game, so my bladder was already full; come the 3rd inning, it was all I could do not to pee my pants LOL - Jim kept telling me I couldn't go and break the inning karma. Before we settled on a standing spot to watch the game from the 2nd level, we toured Monument Park, lotta great history and Jim knows everything about the Yankees, so it was like I had my own personal tour guide.

Click here for more pictures from Yankees Stadium

July 4: Prepared for the 4th of July Party at Jim's - picked up tequila and a 1/4 keg of beer with Jim (LOL). Their friends started arriving and copious amounts of beer and burgers/dogs later we headed to the local park for Ramsey's fireworks.

Click here for July 4th pics

July 5th - Head back to Hoboken

July 6 and 7 - Hung out in Hoboken, those were two really really hot days so I didn't mind hanging close to home. I did walk to the local grocery store and picked up groceries and made dinner for my friend Jane who I was staying with most of my trip.

July 8th we headed on the ferry to NY to Serendipity, a place I had heard about many years ago - finally after all these years I got to try their famous frozen hot chocolate! Amazing!

July 9th, Jane, Mike and I flew to Cleveland and met up with our friends Sue and Natalie to do the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The hotel we stayed at had happy hour from 4-7pm (1/2 price on drinks and appies). Our first night since we only made it to happy for the last 45 minutes, between us all we had 10-12 beer and 2 orders of wings and fries and the total came to $34! Needless to say, that would be our starting point for evening festivities for the rest of the trip. We discovered a great restaurant called "The Chocolate Bar". We hit that place every night we were there for dessert. LOL - amazing food...I even had a Chocolate Baguette sandwich:

Of course we arrived right after LeBron James' announcement that he was leaving Cleveland...to say that there was some tension would be an understatement.

Click here for Cleveland photos

I was struck by how depressed Cleveland was and what I mean by that is how economically depressed it seemed. The area we were in had beautifully ornate buildings that were just abandoned, windows smashed, marble broke from the sides, yet a few blocks down we hit a thriving (albeit, one road) nightlife filled with restaurants and bars that we went to every night.

July 10th and 11th: we went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. If you're a lover of music, this is must go to destination. The history alone is astounding. Of course, we went specificially for the Bruce Springsteen exhibit but we also saw U23D, the movie, with Bono literally on top of you at some points. The second day we went to the stuff we didn't get to see the first day including a Beatles area that just just blew me away - my all time favourite song is Hey Jude and to see handwritten notes and lyrics there for that song, took my breath away. I so wanted to take a picture of it, but there were just too many people around and security was more evident that day. I did manage to get a few pics in the Springsteen exhibit though. :-)

Jacket worn in the cover of Born to Run album:

Click here for pics from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame It should be noted that with the exception of the outside photos, the rest of the photos were taken with my iPhone 3G. Not bad, not bad at all. :-)

July 12th - I flew home, tired but thrilled with everything that I had been able to see and do and thinking it was probably one of the best vacations I've ever had. I actually hope to make it back to the Hall of Fame before my membership runs out; there's so much I want to revisit and I wanna see if I can get that Hey Jude picture. :-)