Atlantic crossing, day one. 3/31/19

Unless I can figure out something other than water and food to take pictures of, my blog is going to be very repetitive and not so interesting until we get to Madeira on Saturday.

Here is the view out the back of the boat from our cabin.

Atlantic Ocean day one

We do a lot of lazing about today probably destroying any progress we have made with boat lag. After having breakfast in our cabin the first thing we do is play trivia with our Canadian pals and two random ladies who are looking for a team to be on. We come in second but it is fun and everyone agrees to meet tomorrow for another try.

Then it is lunchtime. The offerings today are not as good as yesterday and I opt for a slice of pizza after not eating my first plate so much. We split a cookie for dessert.

First plate of lunch had some cod, dried out Thai pork, mushy cauliflower, some beans, and a vegetable skewer

Nothing interesting going on this afternoon so we read books and nap.

For dinner we are eating at The Restaurant again. We go down at 8 PM. Although the food is good the service is quite rushed. It is like they don’t want you to linger over anything since the servers and the rest of the restaurant staff want to get out of the restaurant. When we don’t like our desserts and ask for a cheese plate instead, they are especially unhappy. They bring our cheese and continue setting up for breakfast around us.

John and I both have the very good corvina and shrimp ceviche.
For the main course I have porcini dusted venison with green beans and maple pumpkin. All good although the beans are cold. My favorite part is the pumpkin.
John has braised halibut with a celeriac purée and a side of creamed spinach. They are doing a really good job cooking fish.
For dessert I try this thing called a Lamington roll which is some sort of Australian dessert. Thumbs down.
John has some semi curdled creme brûlée

 

 

 

On the way out I explain to the hostess that we would like slower service without your entree coming before you have finished the first course. She replies that most people complain that the service is too slow. Ah, well, we will try again another night to slow things down.

We go to bed around 10PM and I sleep until 2 AM and then I am awake for the rest of the night.

St. Martin. 3/30/19

Today our destination is St. Martin. While we are having breakfast in our room we approach the island. It is not what I expected. I thought of lush tropical greenery but St. Martin is a volcanic and limestone island and does not support a lot of plant life naturally. Plus it is very tiny although divided between two countries. So I have to adjust my thinking to populated desert island. It is not very attractive. This is made worse by the devastation created by Hurricane Irma. So populated desert island with lots of previous buildings turned into scrap and still lying around.

Yacht in the water approaching St. Martin
First view of St Martin
Closer up

Ours is not the only ship here. We watch as behemoth ships do a delicate dance getting a space at the barre. Then a lot of mostly white, mostly older people are disgorged from the ships. Much like when we went to the small towns of Alaska, there are too many tourists to be absorbed.

Boats maneuvering into their parking spaces
Boat alley
Our boat. Our cabin is in the back on the right-hand side in the next to last highest level

We are taking a bus trip around the island stopping here and there and getting a running commentary from Dahlia, our island tour guide. She says how appreciative they are of the tourists because it is their main industry. And they certainly need dollars since everything is imported to the island. There is no agriculture on St. Martin and it is really too mountainous and dry to raise animals.

View from the bus
Another view from the bus – the sea is a brilliant turquoise!

Our first stop is on the French side at an air conditioned shopping center and a marina. This a much better kept area than anything we have seen along the way. We are offered what I think is a papaya drink and an opportunity to use the rest rooms for $1. I think the drink is awful but John gamely drinks his. We go outside where it is hot and humid and take a few pictures.

John with his papaya drink
John and Mary near the marina
Another view of the marina

Next we stop at an old carousel where we are invited to take a ride. There is also a place to buy ice cream. After crossing back into the Dutch side our third stop is at a look out point where we are admonished not to climb up to the lookout point because we might fall on the way down.

Some of our shipmates on the carousel
Border crossing from French to Dutch side of the island showing 300 years of peaceful co-existence 
View of St. Martin from the lookout area
View towards the French side

We return to our ship after about three hours glad to be off the bus and in the air conditioning of the ship. We wait a while before going to lunch hoping to miss the crowds but are only slightly successful.

Tuna sandwich for lunch!

After lunch the boat departs and now we are on the ocean until next Saturday. We take advantage of a couple of talks. One is “Explorers—The Age of Discovery”and the other is “The Moorish Influence in Spain.” Both are interesting. Many of the places in Spain with Moorish architecture we have been to and it is fun to see them again.

We take the plunge and eat at The Restaurant tonight waiting until 8 PM to go down to dinner. It is still fairly crowded at that point but mostly everyone is at dessert and the place clears out while we are there. A loudish woman is sitting next to us decrying homeless people and sanctuary cities. Her dinner companions can barely get a word in edgewise. She finally stops when she sees that the woman across from her is falling asleep. They leave and we have the restaurant pretty much to ourselves and enjoy a really good dinner of foie gras and duck with a delicious potato dish completed by a tasty cheese plate.

Yum, foie gras!
Duck and potato dish
Cheese plate for dessert

TransAtlantic Cruise begins 3/28-29, 2019

Our cruise takes us from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Barcelona, Spain. Today and tomorrow we spend getting to San Juan and then familiarizing ourselves with ship.

Our flights go smoothly. We change planes in Dallas and are lucky enough to catch a ride between gates with a friendly driver whose job it seems is to pick up bedraggled seniors. The flight from Dallas to San Juan has a dinner that is not horrible and includes a vanilla/ice cream cone crumble dessert. I sleep a bit and we arrive in San Juan around 10:15.

Short ribs with macaroni and cheese with sad green beans-not terrible airplane food!

John’s luggage arrives well before mine and that causes a moment of panic on my part. We are anxious to get to the hotel because it is warm in the terminal. But it is much warmer and humid when we step outside! Wow, we are not prepared for the humidity. It is 11 PM and still 81 degree and very damp.

The luggage carousel in San Juan. John calls it luggage roulette.

Our hotel, Embassy Suites is still recovering from the hurricane but it is pretty basic regardless. We have a large-ish room that has very little furniture – a bed and dresser and a small low table with two plastic chairs. It is very minimalist to say the least.  We turn the air conditioning on full blast and try to get to sleep but are bodies are still on Pacific time and it is hard to sleep.

View from our window. We can see the ocean!
Embassy Suites minimalism

In the morning we go downstairs for breakfast which is not great and later catch a taxi to the ship. The taxi driver talks about the troubles that Puerto Rico is still suffering from the hurricane, the mean things that President Trump has said about the island and its inhabitants, and how the Governor of Puerto Rico would like to punch Trump in the mouth. So, no love here.

Yay, we are on the ship and in our nice suite!

Living room
Bedroom
Closet/dressing area
Bathroom

We go down to lunch and introduce ourselves to the receptionists, wait staff, and bartender. Everyone is super nice.

John having a beer at lunch
My lunch of salmon and salads – Very good!

After lunch we go to the Explorer’s Lounge where one of the staff recognizes John. Unfortunately most of the staff who were on the ship the last time we took a cruise have moved on to other ships or are on vacation. But we will make new friends.

Mary tries one of John’s favs, negroni sbagliato

After a much needed short nap it is time for the safety drill. We follow the safety drill with a visit to the Explorer Lounge where we have a celebratory sail away negroni sbagliato.

Sailing away from San Juan (in the upper left)

Dinner is at the Chef’s Table where we have the Xiang menu. All of our friends have moved on to other ships here too. But we are busy buttering up the new staff. I hope it pays off.

Amuse bouche – hot and sour soup paired with a Marrenon Blanc
First course – fried prawns and Quinta da Aveleda, an Albariño from Portugal
Main course – wok fried beef and Donnafugata Sherazade from Sicily

There is also a yummy mango tapioca pudding for dessert.

Finally we end up in the Living Room where there is a pianist and we enjoy an Irish coffee. We meet some Canadian folks who are nice and want to draft us on to their team for trivia. We say sure.

After a long day we are happy to go to sleep in our bed which has been provided with some smaller pillows and a top sheet. Yay!

 

Alex’s 13th birthday party. 3/9/19

Alex is officially a teenager yesterday and we are celebrating his birthday today! The party is mainly held in a truck that has big video screens for the kids to play various games on. We really do not see any of the party-goers until it is time to cut the cake.

Kids on the party truck

Auntie Leigh has outdone herself this year with a totally edible dragon cake. She even has dry ice set up so it looks like the dragon is breathing smoke. Everyone is wowed by it.

Dragon cake
Cake, Alex, Auntie Leigh

Happy Birthday, Alex!

Mini-vacay to Indian Wells. 3/2-3/7/19

John and I decided quite a while ago that we would take a little vacation to Indian Wells to see the beginning of the tennis tournament. The first two days which are mostly the players practicing and qualifying rounds are free. We now have the exciting incentive of driving our new car!

Originally we were going down the coast road, CA-1, but the weather has changed our plans. It is either raining or blowing or threatening all along our route so we are going to take US 101 southward and cut over at some point to go to Bakersfield for the night.

Our first stop is at Soledad for lunch.

Welcome to Soledad

When we first used to visit this area to hike in the Pinnacles the town’s motto was  “Catch the Momentum.” Now it is the much less exciting “Gateway to the Pinnacles.” Our favorite Mexican restaurant has closed so we decide to try a new one, Taqueria Pacheco. Surprisingly it is in the La Placida grocery store.

Taqueria Pacheco

John orders a chorizo taco and a tripe one. I have two shrimp tacos. John says his are great but mine are a little overcooked. The roasted jalapeños are delicious! We are the only gringos there.

As we travel further south the sky is fabulous!

Traveling through the orchards of almond trees, the fallen petals look like a dusting of snow.

Almond orchards

We pull into Bakersfield and John unloads our suitcases. After a dinner of eggplant Parmesan at Macaroni Grill, we read and enjoy an early night.

John unloading the car in Bakersfield
Yum! Eggplant Parmesan!

The next morning we are ready to complete our trip to Indian Wells. At check-in at the Marriott Renaissance Hotel we are asked if we would like to participate in their “no housekeeping” program  for a bonus of 500 Marriott points. What!? They claim it is a “green” initiative. Sounds like bullshit to me. How does my making up my own bed and wiping around the sink translate to helping the planet? I think they are just trying to not pay their staff more in a very competitive labor market. For over $400 a night someone can clean my room!

Our nice room at the Marriott Renaissance, Indian Wells

We go down to their very nice lounge for some drinks and sushi. We spend all our evenings here having a kind of snacks and drinks dinner at the hotel. We are not keen on driving in the dark plus we get to see random pro players who are also staying at the hotel. After dinner we spend some time hanging out at the fire pit in rocking chairs. So relaxing!

Edamame and hamachi!
Fire pit

In the morning we catch the shuttle bus over to the Tennis Garden. During our two days here we watch some practices and lower level matches. It is such a pleasure to be here on days when it is not so crowded.

Indian Wells practice courts
Feliciano Lopez talking with his coach during practice session
Milos Raonic serving

On our trip back north we can see the beginnings of the super bloom in the desert and encounter torrential rain, dense fog, and local flooding – an exciting ride home!

Flowers blooming in the desert along I-10

Yay! New car!

Last weekend Jonathan and we went out trying new cars that fit our specifications. Jonathan is so great to have along. He has made up a spread sheet of candidate cars and has learned all about each one. First, though, we have to find one that John can sit in without his head hitting the ceiling. We go to ten different dealerships and sit in their SUV type cars. Only two are contenders – the Acura RSX and the Infiniti QX50.

On Friday we test drive both cars and decide that the Infiniti is the one for us. Today we go in to make a deal on a leased car. Although we are at the dealership for 6 hours we finally arrive at a meeting of the minds and come home with our new car!

Mary in our new Infiniti QX50!

Sale of our St. George house. 1/30/19

We have made the decision to sell our vacation house in St. George, Utah. As much as we have loved coming here these past 16 years it is time to move on. I am no longer able to hike or play tennis due to my painful knee. Even if my amniotic stem cell shot works totally, I still think that the wear and tear of the long trip to St. George and the worry over the condition of the house when we are not there is enough to have us consider the sale.  It also frees up time and money to do other things that we enjoy.

Our house in St. George
View out the back windows

In what should be a poignant last visit to sign the papers over to the new owners turns into a horror show that makes us happy to leave. The people who have put the offer in on the house have indicated that they want to buy it furnished and we are happy to agree. We just want a few things out of it, one picture and our pottery. We send a list of things we want before we depart for St. George and upon arriving realize that we left off a few of the pottery pieces and  one additional print that we would like to take with us. There are also a couple of small knives and spreading knives.

Items we would like to take with us

But these people want everything. All of our sheets and towels, all of our decorations and are threatening to walk if we don’t let them have it all. We are flabbergasted. These things are our personal items that we have collected over the years. What is wrong with these people?!

After much negotiating they finally agree to let us have our stuff and give us a list which includes the pottery, and also our tennis equipment, Jonathan’s golf clubs, a set of dirty sheets and towels that we used while there, and a knee brace that was on a shelf. We did not realize that these were items of contention.

By the time we leave we are no longer sad to be selling our house. These buyers have sucked all the joy out of our experience.

P.S. One funny note about all this is that their horrible realtor wants to buy our Santa Fe. After taking the car for a test drive and to their mechanic they list everything that needs to be fixed. We immediately lower our price to $1500 from $3000. In a rather an unusual move they counter with $2000. We say, are you sure? They say yes and we agree on $2000. Backwards negotiating, amazing!

Sam’s 10th Birthday. 1/11/19

Wow, can it be!? Sam is double digits today! Here is what happened at his birthday party-

We have just arrived and while Sam is busy playing with his friends…
Sarah is busy photobombing Jon in the kitchen.
Sam is enjoying treats…
And Sarah has concocted a drink in the kitchen while Rose and John H. look on.
Leigh and her Dad
John H. And Sarah toast the birthday boy.
Alex and her friend Noah stay out of the way of the younger kids.
Here is the Rainbow Pusheen birthday cake that Auntie Leigh has made for Sam!
A hug from Sam for Auntie Leigh
Leigh and Sam with the cake
Happy family and cake
Sam and Zayde
Sam blows out the candles
Time to cut the cake
Cake cutting inspection
Wow! It’s rainbow inside!
Sam and his special cake
Beeba, Jon, and Sarah at the party
Time to open presents
And more presents
At the end of the party Sam and everyone else is pretty worn out

Happy 10th birthday to Sam!!

Viterbo and Fumicino. 12/30 and 12/31, 2018

After a rather upsetting check out in Siena where the  desk staff wanted us to lie about where we had been so we could get some money back for the inconvenience of their broken toilet from Booking.com, we head off to Rome Airport (Fumicino) via Viterbo. Our idea is to stop at our favorite pizza place, Buongiorno Napoli, and look around Viterbo a bit.

When we get to the restaurant it is closed, closed for the holidays I guess. With our trusty phones we find a nearby restaurant, Fratelli La Bufala, and it is within walking distance. We decide on pizza as our last meal in Italy. (Duh)

Pizza with buffalo mozzarella
Pizza with sausage and kale

After lunch we head up to the old section of Viterbo where a raucous street festival is going on. We have some hot wine and watch families enjoying the day. We also stop in at the Viterbo Cathedral museum.

Etruscan sarcophagus, second century BCE
Column Capital, 4 A.D,
Decorative peacocks, 8 A.D.

Then it is off to Rome airport to return the car and check into the Hilton which is attahched to the airport. Our dinner consists of the snacks laid out in the lounge on the executive floor.

In the morning, very early, we walk over to the airport. We are checking in at British Airways and Jon and Ryan are checking in at Lufthansa. There is a mix-up and it seems like Ryan and Jon’s reservation has not been correctly changed by United to reflect  a change in flights. Luckily Jon finds someone on the phone to straighten things out. It is a tense 15 minutes or so.

And that’s it. Our wonderful, long anticipated trip is over. We all get back to California with no more glitches. I am so glad we made this trip and so happy that Sarah, Ryan, and Jonathan were able to come with us. It is an experience we all will always remember!

 

Siena. 12/29/18

Today we visit the beautiful cathedral of Siena. It is practically on our doorstep. First we stop for a quick breakfast at Bar 4 Cantoni where there is an array of pastries and sandwiches. Everyone picks what they like best and we all choose cappuccino, of course.

Pastries and sandwiches at Bar 4 Cantoni near the Siena Cathedral

Then it is off to the Siena Cathedral. While John is buying tickets Sarah and I wandering around the outside taking pictures.

3/4 view of Siena Cathedral
Front of Siena Cathedral
Mary in front of doors of Siena Cathedral
Close up of Mary with Judith holding the head of Holofernes whom she beheaded

Once inside you are struck by the immense space and the amazing marble inlaid floors. Giorgio Vasari described the floor as “the most beautiful…largest, and most magnificent…that ever was made.” Early floors had figures scratched in while later ones were made of intricate pieces.

A look towards the altar of the Siena Cathedral
Marble floor etching. “Hello, Mr. Wolf,” said Mr. Lion. “Let’s be friends.”

There is one large floor inlay which shows the emblems of nearby cities. We have been to nearly every one!

Floor inlay of the symbol of Siena
Viterbo
Florence
Pisa
Lucca

Hanging off the main church on the left is the Piccolomini Library which was begun in 1495 for Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini who later became Pope Pius III. Inside is a priceless collection of illunimated 15th century musical manuscripts. On the walls are frescoes depicting the life of the cardinal’s uncle who became Pope Pius II.

Piccolomini Library with frescoes by Pinturicchio and his pupils 1502-1508
Detail from an illuminated choral manuscript

Another highlight of the cathedral is the Pisano Pulpit. It was carved by Nicola Pisano and his students from 1256 to 1268. The octagonal pulpit is held aloft by nine columns some of which stand on stone lions. It is full of Christian stories and symbols.

Pisano Pulpit

A few more pictures of the beautiful Siena Cathedral.

Main altar
More floor carving and inlay. In one piece of floor is Crates who preached virtue of poverty.
A naked lady, a personification of Fortune,  just under Crates is balancing one foot on a sphere and the other on a boat with a broken mast with a sail in one hand and a cornucopia in the other ????

We have all been keeping touch with each other while we look around at the things that interest us most. Now we all head to the Opera del Duomo which holds other artwork of the cathedral.

The most significant work housed here is Duccio’s Maesta, a very large altarpiece painted in 1308-1311. There are over 40 figures on the front and over 80 on the back where the Passion of Christ is depicted.

Madonna and Child enthroned with angels and saints
Last Supper from the black of the altarpiece

On the upper floor are other 13th century artworks by Sienese painters.

Early Madonna and Child
Madonna of the Large Eyes,, Sienese master 1200’s

After a long morning’s work of looking at all sorts of wonderful art, we head to  Il Ghibellino where we had eaten an iffy lunch on a previous trip. This lunch also had some iffy components, especially Ryan’s.

Ryan’s malfatti which turned out to be giant spinach and ricotta dumplings

After lunch we head back to the cathedral complex. We visit the Baptistry and everyone but I visit the Crypt. At this point I could not walk up the millions of steps with no railings on uneven stone. I head back to the hotel and give my poor knee a little rest.

I have many pictures from prior trips of the baptismal font and the great frescoes. This time I zeroed in on Sienese Andrea Vanni’s 14th century altarpiece.

Andrea Vanni’s 14th century altarpiece in the Baptistry

I quite like the fact that St. Stephen with the rocks on his head to the left of the Virgin has the exact same head position and look as the Virgin. the elongated head and thin, slanted eyes are real hallmarks of Sienese Renaissance art.

Later we go out to the campo for some drinks and free food. Tonight we get white pizza and crostini with our drinks. It is hard to take much in the way of pictures because it is really foggy.

Fog on the Campo