LACASAPARK » Family

MASS MoCA, MA

jaehee — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:48:39 +0000

MASS MoCA, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams town, MA

Just passed Martin Luther King Jr’s long weekend was a perfect time for us to finally visit MASS MoCA up in MA ( about 3 1/2 hour car ride from NYC). Emiliano has been talking about to visit up there and we have been looking up their website admiring amazing space of Museum which once has been industrial factory buildings occupying 13 acres of ground in North Adams town. Most of you must have visited DIA Beacon and MASS MoCA plays Art in similar setting but in much much bigger scale in their 26 industrial buildings with soaring sky high ceilings and envious grand scale of countless windows that allow beautiful natural lighting for the most important and prominent Art of our time.

We have planned to spend a night in the town to cover entire museum as traveling takes up quite a time. Early Saturday morning, with a small bag packed with couple things, we are ready to hit the road!

Getting out of NY state, it definitely gets colder and we were happy like little kids to see snow on the road! It has been unusually warm winter for us.

So beautiful…!

The parking lot is located right in the museum sight. ( when it gets this cold, BRrrrrrrrr, it’s helpful! 15 degrees F!) We are approaching to the main entrance.

Loving this simple Positive-Negative entrance sign.

The first installation Art, Geometric Death by Federico Diaz greets you right outside of the main entrance. The Snow adds extra effect.

Read about the Site Installation. Click here. And Do not touch this!

Gael and MASS MoCA!

Day 1. Gael was over the moon visiting Kid Space first. There’s ” Under the Water” exhibition and a work shop area.

PVC pipes, Garbage cans and more.

Gael, a Boy and the Ocean.

And now, Get Creative!

8 legged underwater creature. 7 more to go!

Woooooo, A scary Underwater Monster!

Emi’s super awesome Abstract mask and/or a hat. I see 2 eyes, a nose and a mouth. LOVE !

Gael’s spaceship!

Gael having fun! Ahhh so much fun. We All are having fun!!!

Day 2. The Workers exhibition on the ground floor. I definitely liked this exhibition, especially short films and documentaries speaking about social problems, economies in different Geographies in the Blue Collar point of view such as a great interview at street Bazaar in Armenia and Garment workers in LA. Is this world not fair? Do workers get treated fairly? The whole thing got me a chill.

A mini screen of collection of films on Blue Collars. These include my all time favorites, “Dancer in the Dark” starring Bjork ( I remember balling in Angelika movie theater watching Dancer in the Dark carrying Gael in my tummy..) and ” Red Desert” by Antonioni. Each film was numbered and had designated numbered headset for audio. Each film was repeating about 10 minute screening of same clips.

A must see. This film got me feeling all embarrassed that I am in Apparel business for the first time. This is a documentary film following real group of garment workers at Sweat Shops who were hired by the third party contractors who did production for ” Forever 21″. People. You need to ask when things are way too cheap. You know somebody is paying for that price either that is in physical labor form or that is in trashed pride and dignity for selves. Or both.

We didn’t catch screening for this. But we are going to watch it. You should too.

Then wonderful Sol Lewitt: A wall drawing Retrospective on the multiple floors. The exhibition runs through year 2033!

These pictures don’t do the justice to capture the vibrancy of these amazing colors!

I love this one so much. High shine black and Matt finished Black. A massive wall and soft glare of surrounding. It’s so cool!

OK, I’ll stop here . The Scale and amount of Wall drawings are huge and heavy weight.

Gael meditating in front of Penelope Umbrico’s wok. An avid collector of images through which she identifies strange phenomena and trends in online visual culture. Suns From Flickr assembles hundreds of photographs of sunsets found on Flickr. Each sunset, depicting a fleeting moment in time, becomes a timeless and universal pictorial structure. People with Suns from Flickr, her new work in Memery, looks at the online response to Suns From Flickr, presenting pictures that viewers have taken in front of the work as it has been shown in various international settings.

I do quite like it!

Now we are moving onto ” Mango Tourists” from Nari Ward: Sub Mirage Lignum.

They look like a gigantic rubber band balls from the distance, but these are strips of industrial foams, mango seeds and found objects.

Nu Colossus.

Something So beautiful about this.

Cold but beautiful MASS MoCA

What an amazing Space!

A Beautiful and creative place where you can have fun and learn. MASS MoCA offers concerts, dances, dance parties, Art performance, theater, films and many others through out the year. We will go back when weather gets warmer as surrounding areas also offer fun festivals and concerts. With loved ones and kids. You will have fun no matter what!

LOvE Art!

Big Apple Circus, NYC

jaehee — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 04:23:20 +0000

Entering Big Apple Circus! Lincoln Center, NYC

Thank you Beppe and Dani for an awesome fun Christmas gift for us! Gael was already over the moon for the last 10 days to get to go see Big Apple Circus and I was secretly excite of course! Saturday 7:00pm, we had marked a big circle on our calendar and we were ready to rock and roll!

The big one we got!

Slowly but surely filling in ( because they are all in the line to get pop corns!) and getting one step closer.

Much inspired by Tim Burton, the circus is a big hit for all the kids. They were going nuts!

These awesome group of Asian Oompa-Loompa (just me calling them) were the one of my favortie. They are funny, fun, greatly flexible and entertaining!

Great outfits, aren’t they?

This is a taxi driver, Andre’ sitting on a imagination chair.

My Oompa-Loompa are back with the second outfit and more elaborate acrobatic!

This guy has the fastest hands in the world. 2 visible and 5 invisible.

Porcupine.

Pig.

OK, What’s this guy’s name?

It’s like Tim Burton for Comme des Garcons.

Always a highlight of any circus, Trapeze! Gael had taken a Trapeze class once, so he really related to this. Fun Fun Fun!

Finale!

Of course, clowns and much more are there and you should be there to see it all! Laugh and have fun with your kids, nieces and nephews. It’s a big fun time! Dani and Beppe, “Thank you again for a wonderful wonderful gift! Gael loved it!!!” and personally, I had a good kick out of groovy outfits of Big Apple circus!

It was a starry night in Big Apple.

LOvE NYC!

Todo El Dia, Tulum

jaehee — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:25:17 +0000

Quick drawing and Water coloring. Zazilkin beach.

Take out Ceviche on the beach from El Camello ( the best in town)

Twinkle moment with Gael and Sun.

The Kitchen at Mateo’s.

Pollo con Cille y Paprica verde in Horno at La Onda.

New Year’s Eve, Tulum Style.

Topes!

Feliz Ano Nuevo!

Viva Tulum!

Merry and Bright

jaehee — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 04:01:45 +0000

Lady Gaga at Barney’s Uptown

Saturdays Surf NYC, Soho

Ginger Bread people and the home at Mulberry, NYC

Fresh off the mail from Philadelphia. Home baked cookies just arrived from Emi’s client Fina. So Fab. Thank You Fina!

A pre Christmas surprise for me from Emi and Gael. A little yet Sexy and Mega Mighty IPod Nano. And Extra Love.

And the favorite, Beanfield for my run and plus 1000 artists. Emi, You ROCK!

December 17 SNL hosted by Jimmy Fallon and a musical guest, Michael Buble

Gael Holiday shopping in a matching hat and a warm sweater.

Best Holiday Cheap and Cheerful eat at Christina’s Restaurant, Green Point, Brooklyn

Feeling cosy watching Emi and Gael… And those sweaters…!

At home!

Be Merry, Bright and Happy!

LOvE NYC!

A la Cuisine!, Morimoto, NYC

jaehee — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 06:41:13 +0000

Gael and Emiliano, just about to step into Morimoto, NYC

It’s Emi’s Birthday and this time we decided to go to Morimoto for some great food to celebrate! It’s our very first time being at Morimoto and we are bit excite and but also nervous because we really would not like an Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto’s restaurant being disappointing. So many of these foodie places we find over rated. Not that great at the end…

Oh Chef, Please, you better be Awesome!!!

Chef’s cook books greet you the second you walk into the restaurant.

We get seated in one of the smaller section of the restaurant. Not so open, but then also quite intimate. We are quite happy so far. And the drink and main menu.

This is the very first dish of 7course tasting menu both Emi and I had chosen. All the On trays sound excellent in good range of fish and meat. There’s also a list of Sushi and Sashimi, but we pretty much knew we would go for the Chef’s choice 7 course tasting menu: Morimoto Omakase, a multi course tasting menu to allow you to experience the essence of Morimoto’s Cuisine. This first dish is ” Toro Tartar” on a bamboo plate over a sheet of banana leaf underneath with 6 small portion of garnish that were unbelievably flavorful. This plate is a size of any guy’s palm, so the portion is small but then perfect as a starter and it was absolutely satisfying with gorgeous flavors. THANK YOU CHEF!

You will scrape off bit of tartar with this stainless steel flat spoon sort of, then also steal bit of any garnish then dip the whole thing in the light Dashi in a small bowl that came together. It’s amazing.

While Emi and I are tasting Omakase, Gael’s having a hot stone bowl Yellow Tail Buri. A sort of Korean Dolsot Bibimbap but with Morimoto’s twist. No chili paste here. Fresh Shiso leafes and delicate and light sweet soy based sauce adds quite powerful flavor to this super fresh Yellow Tail Sashimi over the rice. There are some Japanese mountain veggies and toasted nori and raw egg to be all mixed together. The serving staff who was helping was friendly and casual.

Our turn again for the second course. The Yellow tail Crudo with Pea shoots, Mushroom and sesame infused warm olive oil and drop of soy and yuzu. It’s a perfection. It’s just so delicious. The first and the second courses were our two favorite. I can probably have this everyday.

The third dish. OK. Just OK. This one we didn’t care for much. We actually didn’t need this at all. It’s sort of ” Veggie” dish with dipping sauce idea. The anchovy reduction was just all right and veggie were not substantial enough. I would’ve rather not had this at all or maybe would’ve liked something very simple and refreshing salad like. Chef, Please don’t let us down for the rest..!

The fourth one. A fresh oyster accompanied by Foie Gras and warm drizzle of delicate Teriyaki sauce. This one was quite lovely. Emi liked this much more than I did perhaps. Still the first and the second course is lingering on the tip of my tongue….!

Too busy eating and chatting, forgot to take a snap of Course 5, a plate of assorted 6 piece Sushi. They were bit small at bite size with impeccable freshness. They were excellent!

Now the On tray, course 6. Surf and Turf. A lobster tail over a slightly fried sweet potato sticks and lightly seared Korean style marinated Yagyu beef accompanied by whipped up lemon mousse. DELICIOUS!!! It was quite satisfying as portion wise and the lobster tail was perfectly cooked tenderly with amazing seasoning and the beef just melts in your mouth… This On tray made our quite pricy Omakase experience all worth it!

The Lobster tail on the front and the Yagyu beef on the back.

The last course, Dessert. A cup of Sweet potato flan/custard sort of. With a soy stick, poached pear slices, black berry and dollop of cream fresh and an edible flower on the side.. The Soy stick I didn’t go for. I don’t know why. I love the potato flan! Ahh, It also had passion fruit syrup over the flan!

Thank you Chef Morimoto for a great experience! It was quite amazing!

and Happy Happy Birthday to you Emi! Thank You and Gael for everything we have together!

and….LOvE, NYC!

Sweet Home, Mama and Auntie, Korea

jaehee — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 20:37:51 +0000

Aunt , Me and Mom in 1976, Korea.

Every time I visit Korea and my family back there, I feel like I am making up for something. It’s a real nice feeling. It makes my stomach warm. We have been always close to Aunt’s family when I was growing up and I had also lived with aunt, uncle and cousin Yoonhee when I was doing the first year at F.I.T as Uncle was in NY for his work. I was lucky to have them while starting my school years all alone but then it wasn’t actually as I was with aunt, uncle and Yoonhee. Then it has been many years we kind of grew a part but here now again we get to see each others whenever I go to Seoul for my business trips. It’s a nice treat to see everyone. There’s always good chatting over delicious hearty food and laughs. Just being together makes me feel very happy and loved. Aunt recently helped mom renovating her new little home and it was my first time to visit mom’s traditional Korean home as she literally just moved in. It felt extra special to be at mom’s new home as aunt helped with many good ideas and also it was right on brother’s memorial day.

Beautifully aging Mom in front of her house. It’s about 150 plus years old traditional home called “Han-Ok” that mom had bought and it’s a kind of architecture that dates back to more than 5000 years of Korean tradition.

Mom’s next project is to add these solid concrete cylinders to the outside fence/wall.

It’s called ” Ogapi” in Korean, a kind of berry. It is supposed to be really good for you. You will see all these sort of things being dried, getting pickled or soaked in the water at my mom and aunt’s place.

Chestnuts drying on a Pyung Sang ( a quite big scaled low wooden seating deck) in the garden… such a Korean scene!

These beautiful wooden beams were hidden and the ceiling was lowered when the house was purchased. Can you believe it?

Poured concrete floor feels very modern in contrary to house’s traditional details. And it has excellent heat conduction as most of Korean homes have heated flooring system.

Happy mom at her new home!

Now we are at Heyri visiting auntie!

Aunt with big big smile and Brandy and Tang right outside of her beautiful Heyri home.

Aunt is an well known fine artist already, Je-soon Kang and she has started making potteries at Heyri studio. Now mom had joined her a bit! Mom holding her very first piece! It’s so fascinating. Isn’t it? I would love to try it one day!

Cheese, no ” KIm-Chi”! Just like an old time. Only difference will be I am the tallest here. Sort of. Ha-ha!!

Beautiful aunt here for an early lunch with me. Mom went off to work. Next time mom!

We are at this Buckwheat specialized restaurant. Buckwheat dumplings, savory pancakes, cold and warm noodle and even down to this much flavorful Korean Buckwheat Sake! Sooooo delicious. Sooo amazing! Chat chat and Chatty Chat. Aunt and I ended up having 4 hour lunch catching up on everything. So much fun!

After a good sleep over at Aunt’s place, this hearty do-your-body -good Rice cake soup for breakfast! It was full of fresh oysters, seaweed, korean herbs and most of all, aunt’s love! So delicious and so good for you!

Aunt holding me for another snap. 1976, Korea

Aunt, thanks for everything and take care till the next time we see! And Mom, I am so happy for your new lovely home!

I love you both, you lovely creative strong sisters!

Chasing the Autumn! North Fork, New York

jaehee — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:47:56 +0000

Beautiful Sunday morning at Orient State Park, North Fork, New York

After many of quite dreadful humid and wet September days for New York to prep crisp real Autumn, this was maybe the first truly gorgeous weekend weathers we had! It was dry and warm yet accompanied by cool clean air to compliment spotless amazing perfect blue sky! The Autumn has officially kicked off! Still in a half sleep in the bed Saturday morning, we could see gorgeous sun coming through our bedroom window’s grainy blinders… The sliver of warm sun light was just enough to make us jump out of the bed and just take off to be out of the city! And where we are heading to? North Fork in Long Island, NY!

Just one briskly packed small bag for all of us, we are excite to explore North Fork! It’s our very first time and all I knew was there are many mini vineyards lined up. Yes, some wine tasting, good food and pick up couple of fresh corns… Hopefully we can stumble into a cozy B&B tucked in somewhere. It all sounds good to my soul and my belly! It’s going to be a heck of good weekend!

About little over 2 hours, we are getting into the beginning of North Fork. What can we say…. It got Surf and Turf kind of thing going on here in North Fork. I know we are near the ocean and I see ton of handsome pumpkin farms, small yet swanky vineyards already starting from the very beginning. We know we are really going to like here. Above is a back yard at ” Material Object“, a home furnishing and wine related object store in Jamesport. This 1870’s farm house converted into wine tasting and home decor shop sure shows envious eclectic taste of the shop owner. The natural light filled space is to die for!

The Main house of Material Object, The picture can’t justify the actual space. Here only showing a fraction of entire house. Everything you see here is for sale.

The Barn house/ Cottage like second home which is set back. This felt like a newly built with much charm. But Not the original structure.

Arriving at Greenport. Almost the end of North Fork. It’s a real cute town with many good restaurants, antique and vintage shops as well as oyster and lobster shacks by the water! Here we are chasing early fall but boy I have to say we just can’t complain about warm sun on your back and perfect breeze! It feels sort of early summer and early fall at the same time!

Claudio’s restaurant was opened back in 1870’s! There’s the main one on the main street and also 2 clam bars right by the water. Bit touristy but all good here.

Yeap! It sounds perfect! Lobster roll anyone? It’s already Lunch time!

Hmmm choices choices…

OK waiting for our number to be called. We are at # 2 Clam bar of Claudio’s. This place is run by self service and there’s no live band playing ( sort of wedding band, Haha!) Which we consider as a good thing.

Both are $29.95 plates. Not so cheap. Skip the fake butter, Who needs it? Cole slaw, I always love! Lemon works for anything.

Gael’s too busy eating his creamy clam chowder!

After lunch town strolling begins.

The Greenport town has a good mix of old and new including a tiny Greenport jail ( not pictured..)! It’s charming and not touched by big chain stores yet. There’s a Calypso boutique as far as a known brand shop. No Starbucks or Ben & Jerry’s. Instead there’s ” Sand pipe Ice cream shop” where I had the best ice cream in entire US for only 4 bucks! Maple syrup Walnut and Vanilla black cherries. Yum!

This is The best vintage and antique shop in Greenport! Beall & Bell, 430 Main Street. Right items at right prices. We saw some of the best pieces here!

This old School gym acrobat pads were sold! I was happy that quite many pieces in the shop are marked as sold! Which means we are in the right place! How good are these? Emi had a great idea! One of these would easily doll up your bed as a head board. Especially for guys, that’s awesome I think!

One next to the Beall & Bell. This one also sells home furnishing materials such as textiles and things.

After we checked in at our motel ( yes everything was booked and we were lucky to find quite lovely and affordable motel right outside of downtown Greenport), we came to restaurant, Noah’s for dinner. It’s not the high season since it is already October, but you want to make reservations ahead for better and really good restaurants in Greenport. They get booked up fast. Literally any restaurants in the town will have a some sort of raw bar going on and also good seafood dishes. We wanted to check out Frisky Oyster, but it was too late by the time we called for the reservation. Bit old school and bit groovy here with hefty price tags. We quite enjoyed our meal at Noah’s as they offer many great small dishes are not actually that small. You could call it generously portioned tapas of seafood, great salad and meat bites. We ended up having 5 small dishes and 2 bottles of local 2010 Chardonnay, ” Bedell” from one of the North Fork’s wineries, Bedell . It reminded me of Sauvignon Blanc, Oyster bay from New Zealand.

Now Sunday morning, We are at Orient Beach State Park in North Fork, a short car ride from Greenport! Water’s quite amazing here!

You will see lagoons and ocean everywhere in North Fork. It’s really beautiful!

Running me, Emi and Gael.

Nice run, shower and pack and we go. Here we are at one of farm stand on the road.

Gael loves to shop produces. He loves to touch and smell them. We were peeking inside to see they are full and healthy. And these corns are so sweet and juicy! We also like them raw!

These are called MUMs and they are cheap. 3 mums for $12!

And we didn’t skip one thing! Now checking out a few antique store by the road. We scored a real cute picnic basket filled with 4 of wine glasses, silver wear, plates, cheese knife and wooden cutting board and wool matching blanket to the plaid liner of the basket, probably never used before. All these for $30! Now, that’s a good deal!

I always like these!

Honestly, we were bit tip toeing around the wine tasting as we realized there are hundreds of wineries in North Fork area! Then after the last antique shop we stopped in, we saw the sign if ” Bedell” winery. We love the Chardonnay from them last night! So here we are we are stopping in.

It looks sort of Nespresso shop.

It’s about noon. There are lot of people tasting wine. We realized most of wineries here has small Raw bar. Mostly Clams and Oysters.

Live Jazz is not so bad!

It feels like we are in Napa!

You can also bring your own food and just hang out here with some wine from the winery. It”s a perfect day to do it! I mean look at that sky!

You will find these many little lovely trails that connects to vineyards or the beach in North Fork. So charming!

It was the perfect 2 day getaway to truly enjoy beautiful sun, last minute lingering lovely summer but surely it was beginning of Autumn for us. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and if you like to get out of city a little, try North Fork! It is a real little gem that has little of everything you can taste what water and the land can offer!

LOvE North Fork!

Denny’s Birthday at Robataya, NYC

jaehee — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 23:50:45 +0000

On Denny’s Birthday, At the beautiful Grill Bar at Robataya NYC

Emi’s dear nephew Denny’s visiting us from Italy for about 2 and a half weeks. He has just arrived in time for his 24th birthday! I can’t believe our little Denny I met 18 years ago ( then 6!) is now all grown up handsomely with a great job as well! It’s always nice to have Denny at our home and it’s just really nice to have your family visit from oversea when especially we are the only ones away from home. Before Denny arrived we had a few things in our mind to do together with him and for sure we knew where to take Denny for his big 24th birthday.

Robataya on the 9th street in East village!

I have been eyeing on this place since the last James Blake concert Heidi and I went near the restaurant. We were looking for an easy quick dinner before the show and ended up walking into little Japan area that is happening around the 9th street. I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few cute Japanese restaurants and tea houses on one single block. It quickly brought me fun memories from my numerous trips to Tokyo! Bit small and tucked in… A hole on the wall… A little place on the second floor somewhere selling delicious food and drinks…

Robataya is bit fancier than any other ones on the block. The concept of Robataya is not something too up-scaled or so unique as Robatayaki ( Japanese grilling) in Japan is sort of common street food or hearty quick bar food, but this particular one in East village sure scores higher note on the beautiful setting of their Grill bar consisting of wood banquets and chairs that mimics the setting of an open market. The setting is grand but also intimate enough to enjoy the company of rest of the customers sitting at the bar. There’s this sense of “Togetherness” sitting around watching and admiring 2 master chefs’ well skilled clean cooking as a center focus. I really like this.

It’s very common to order directly to the chef as normally the grill bar scale is smaller and also customers sit closer to the chef. Think Sushi Bars. But at Robataya, there are a couple waiters will assist you. I think they wanted to make this easier for both the chefs and the customers and it felt definitely more up-scaled. The guy with a head wrap was one of them.

Our cool 2 chefs for the night. The chef on the left cooked all the dishes we had. The wooden panel in front of him displays his proud name.

I must say watching chefs’ moves at this Robataya is quite entertaining. They don’t put up any sort of show but their whole cooking and getting things are just very interesting! As you can see most of ingredients for any grilling is displayed in front of chefs and it’s sure an eye candy.

Chefs serve the finished dishes and beer bottles to customers at the bar on that long wooden stick with flat tray at the end. Can you see it…? One guy grabbing a beer bottle off the wooden stick!

This is THE SLAT Robataya uses for all their cooking. DELICIOUS!!! Anything you eat you can really taste the deep flavor of this real good salt. I think good salt does the half of the job for any cooking! Maldon from England is also my favorite!

So we were seated in front of Mushroom area and we had tasted 2 kinds. The super big one ( no it’s not porcini) and the little ones on the front on the right side. Sorry didn’t get all the names…

Kobe Beef. Yes it was tender!

Also we had ordered fried oysters in a graded radish sauce. It was bit odd I must admit.

Here comes another pass of beer bottle from the chef!

2 and a half of handsome generations! From left Denny the birthday boy, Gael the lucky one and my man, Emiliano!

Happy birthday to you, Denny again! We love you Denny!!

This is what we had for the night: Snow crab dumplings in clear broth, fried oysters in graded radish sauce, 2 kinds of grilled mushrooms and fresh lemon squeeze, repeat the mushroom because it was so good! Grilled yam with butter, grilled Kobe beef, duck and lamb, simmered pork belly in soy and ginger, simmered short rib in clear broth and chunk of radish, roasted rice balls in 2 ways: one with miso and the other one with soy sauce ( soooo goooddd!), lots of beer for guys and Junmai Ginjo for me the whole time.

Check it out! You will love it!

Santa Maria Di Leuca, Puglia :The final Point of Italy

jaehee — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:48:11 +0000

The typical coast line of South of Puglia. Here we are at Santa Maria di Leuca, the lowest point of the geographical “Heel” of Italian Peninsula.

About 3 hours of car ride down south from Beppe’s home, Bitonto, We are here at Santa Maria di Leuca, the very final point of Italy, the very tip of the heel of Italy and also the meeting point of the waters from Adriatic Sea and the Ionian Sea. Is that why the reason the water looks particularly gorgeous here? Or is that just Italy is the land that much blessed with rich soil and sun, and enviously beautiful ocean and the ocean life… Anyway you will see this most gorgeous view of Ionic ocean from literally any point of the town of Santa Maria di Leuca and along the coast of the Southern Puglia.

Here I like to show you the map of Puglia so you have a good idea where we are traveling through this time!

The green dots show where we are starting and where we will end at through this trip. Bari is the main airport we had landed also because of our friend Beppe’s Home, Bitonto is literally 10 minutes away from there and Beppe and Dani are on this trip with us for the first 3 days. 2 years ago we had already traveled through “Brindisi” area such as Alberobello, Ostuni and all as you can see in this map. So if you go on a main highway from Bari, it would take about 3 hour car ride to get to the very final tip of Italy, Santa Maria de Leuca! We are now based here for 5 nights and 6 days to travel through by running, swimming, boating and dinning at near areas and planning to drive through and do town hopping and snapping pics of the most gorgeous coast line of Puglia.

Let’s start with the town of Leuca! No this is not where we stayed at but this was one our favorite typical Italian home in the town. The warm yellow wash and perfectly placed 2 palms and the most beautiful garden just melted our hearts. Apart from Olives, Cypress and Pines are maybe the 2 best known trees when it gets to Tuscan area but down here in south, you will see more of Palms and all different kinds of palms. And exotic Fig trees and tons of Oleanders, ” The” flower tree you may call Italy’s National flower trees through out the country. That’s Gael on the front!

Rundown but gorgeous. As Leuca actually means ” White” in old Greek language, you can see white washed homes dominate the town.

I realize any hot weathered places share one thing in common. Simple lines in Architecture. Despite of strong presence of Baroque style down in many parts of south of Italy such as Lecce and Sicily, you can see majority of homes of public are built in simple lines as in Yucatan Mexico or Greek.

A small beach front right in the heart of the town of Leuca. Whenever passing by the beach in the morning, I felt like I was in one scene of old Italian Movie. Sofia Lauren running into Marcello Mastroianni! Also Bit San Tropez..? Did we swim here? Naaa, wait for something better. Much much better!

More palms in town.

Now we are in the car hunting the perfect spot to swim and spend all day in the ocean. 5 minute ride from our base in Leuca, we find a nice big parking lot in front of this cute Trattoria. Also great for after swim Apperitivo!

Approaching the tip of coast line. Dying to know what’s ahead of us!

What else do you really need?!!!!

Need a throw down with Caribbean ocean!

With our Casarosa’s adventurous spirit, No rocky cliff is hardly any obstacle for us! Gael well trained by Emi in Livorno, we are just 2 seconds away from climbing down and jumping into to this sweet gorgeous ocean!

Yeap! That’s my 8 year old son Gael from NYC! I mean who would think he’s from the middle of the crazy city? Gael fits right in with tough locals!

In the water with Dad. Gael earned a nick name during this summer: Il Lupo di Mare. The Wolf of Ocean!

From left, Beppe, Gael, Emi and the far right, Dani. Did I swim too? Of course!!

Now the 4 boys from Rome.

They are showing us off Sea urchins they collected. They said they would it raw with a piece of bread.

We loved it all. We loved it so much, the next day, we had rented out a small boat for 7! Now Gigi, Beppe’s brother and Vivianan, Gigi’s girl friend had joined us for today’s adventure! Captain Emi launching the boat!

Yeah!!!!

Gigi and happy Gael!

Approaching one of million caves along the coast!

It reminds me of Cenotes in Tulum!

Viviana and me.

Sail, stop, swim, lunch, prosecco and sail, stop, swim , snack, prosecco. Now repeat !

Beppe and Dani. What a hard life we live..!

The Light House of Santa Maria di Leuca. The second most important light house of the entire Italy after the one in Genova.

Going home…

Special thanks to Captain Emi, the man capable of so many things in every way. I love you so much Emi! And Gael, my brave proud son who keeps up with anything and everything that is ahead of us. And dear friends carrying on amazing friendship that is becoming family-ship now… I love you all and thanks for the one of the most beautiful day of life…!

LOvE Puglia!!!

Again, Puglia!!

jaehee — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 18:06:29 +0000

Giovinazzo by night. A view from a locale, Ecclesia.

Now it has been already 2 years since Emi and I had visited beautiful Puglia. First encounter with Mamma Lucia and her gorgeous Bocconotti, Love at first sight in Poligano, Endless night wonder at Giovinazzo, pretty white city Ostuni, exotic distinctive Puglia’s architecture : Trulli at Albero Bello… So much beauties in so little time then, it definitely made us want to come back to Puglia to see more. And here we are back to explore down further south through Lecce and on. Stay tuned for “The next Toscana of Italy”, Puglia!

Sweet moment. Truly it is an “Open” bar with a view of the port behind. After a day of long lunch with Beppe’s family, running in the park and the gorgeous dinner filled with plenty of fresh Riccotta di Bufala at the piazza of Giovinazzo, here we are stopping by for some cocktails and friends. The bar is located on the tip of fort at historical town and it’s elevated location gives you plenty of cool sea breeze and amazing view to the town.

Beppe and Emi

Dani and me

The time goes by, it get’s more lively. The music is going and people are dancing. Kids are running around and everything is just cool.

There are enough of sitting and lounging area and you can also have some food here as well. Gael fell asleep on a chair…

Gaetano. He’s a friend of Beppe and the owner of this cool bar, Eclessia.

Walking the night away. The breeze tingles you around.. It’s so perfect!

The lively piazza of Giovinazzo. It’s almost like a Christmas here! There are many little festivals throughout many cities and towns of Italy this time around. Notte Bianca, Sagre… Tonight, there was a parade of people in historical costumes through the town of Giovinazzo.

Streets are blocked from the cars and literally everyone is out and about!

Made through a big crowd and waiting for a dinner!

Spec and Ricotta salata. Wait for the next one!

Fresh Riccota of Bufala. ( Buffalo in English) This melts in your mouth. Sssso light! So milky! So smooth but not dense. Airy, fresh and just delicious!

Gael loves anchovy and olives. So Italian he is. Cheese~!

Nite Nite….!