We have reached our destination of Cartagena. Finally. At times it seemed like we would never actually get here.

I am too tired to recap the entire day right now, but suffice it to say that we had some kinks.

We haven’t seen much of Cartagena so far other than the walls of the old city as we passed through them in a tiny opening, but it looks promising and very much reminds us of Nicaragua.

More to come, I promise.

We are off in the morning to Cartagena! 

Dogs are at the kennel and I am about to pack my bags. We have an early morning flight, arriving in Cartagena late afternoon via a change in Miami. It will be exciting to step foot on a whole different continent!

My plans are to blog at least a few times from vacation, so check back! 

Here are a few photos from our food tour of Nolita and NoHo (north of Little Italy and north of SoHo or Houston Street).

NYC's new rental bikes. We didn't see anyone actually riding one that was rented but these bikes collected people sitting on them using them as exercise bikes (just sitting there pedaling away) or using them to sit on while they make a phone call.

Cupcakes! 

 Pizza!

 One of our food stops that made us feel like we were back in San Miguel, Mexico!

And photos from our trip to the Freedom Tower 9/11 Memorial. 

Driving in!

The reflecting pools and fountains are pretty awesome. To think that a very tall building once stood in its place. It's somehow right that they chose to go down instead of building something "up" again.

Reflected buildings. What is really in the skyline?

On our way home we took Lynn to the best view of Manhattan that we know of—a little park in Weehawken.

As you can tell, the weather cooperated for both city trips although it was very hot and humid on the day we went to the Freedom Tower. We enjoyed her visit so much!

I found this cicada not long after it had emerged from the nymph stage.

hi everybody! mom finally is gonna let me show you how much i enjoyed meeting the ocean. you already know that i loves my water, but this was so cool! i could see the water from the yard of the place we were staying (and why we went there i am not really sure because it wasn't like the motels we stay in when we go to the cabin) and i was really excited to find out more about all that water. i could barely contain myself.

we finally went out on the what they called the "beach" and andy did the honors of letting me off my leash. (and by the way, andy is a really cool guy and i liked him a lot.)

yippee! i made a run for it!!!!

i just went right in and didn't hesitate.

look at me … i'm an ocean dog!

 the waves didn't bother me one bit but they were kinda funny …

i had a big smile on my face!

a girl's gotta dry off somehow!

hailey and alex couldn't figure out why i was in there.

we tried to drink it like we do the lake water but it tasted yucky.

hailey got her feet wet but alex wouldn't go near it and i thought he was a weenie.

 daddy took a video of me and you can watch me in action right here: 

i liked the ocean A LOT and i hope i get to go back again someday.

yours truly,

bella the bernese ocean dog