I was really worried about Christmas this year as the last two have been duds. I had prepared dinner, set the table, and then sickness struck me and my guests, so it was a doubly wonderful year this time. Not only that, but Hunukah was the same night so I tried to mix up the table with a menorah, and Hunukah gelt in silver wrapping, and my first course was smoked salmon on tiny potato pancakes, a Hunukah tradition, the pancake part that is. Then there was the turkey and the usual accompaniments, but best of all everyone arrived in excellent spirits and a desire to have a good time. Oscar had his wonderful friend Kayley dog and we were all set. Joy pervaded.

Table set for Hunukah and Christmas Chrunukah

New Years was excellent too, well almost. We have a tradition of Zooming our dinner with our dear friends, Liz and Wouter in Toronto, and we celebrate New Years together. We have been doing this since Covid. This year Liz and Wouter both had colds, so despite Wouter turning up in a stunning tuxedo, and Liz in a gown we didn’t make it to midnight. See us on Zoom below

On the third of January, Charles and I headed for a cruise in the Caribbean. We hadn’t done this for a long time. In fact the last time we sailed into ports on our own rented bare boat. Older and not into sailing ourselves these days, we booked on the Ritz Carlton Yacht, yacht is an affectation, because it actually is a ship. Nevertheless, we had a fabulous time and the Yacht/Ship is extraordinary and we will certainly cruise with Ritz again.

nice view from hotel window and pics of San Juan to follow Hector and Charles

narrowest house anywhere?

two very different churches in San Juan

So I will tell you about it. The plan was to fly from Orlando, where we spend our winters, to San Juan in Puerto Rico. I believe in always giving time before a cruise, a day at least so there is no chance of missing the boat as it were. Now the start wasn’t great: our driver was late, the turnpike south was closed for an accident, but thanks to Waze we were taken on a mysterious route, bypassed the problem and arrived with me determined to stay calm. Strangely enough there are not many flight options from Orlando, and Frontier Airlines fit the bill for timing. It is certainly not a first class airline , but it got us there on time even if it was very chaotic at the airport trying to print baggage tags and checking in our bags. This is definitely a no frills carrier, but I bought a quick lunch to take onboard and we made it to board on time. We had the first row. No audio visual stuff or anything, but there was a decent crew, and as I mentioned we got there. Our hotel was fine, not my kind of place, a sort of Vegas style with a casino, but the room had a a great view, and when we ate breakfast the next morning we also could see the water. La Concha Renaissance would not be my choice again, but many of the hotels required a two night stay on a weekend. It was all fine. But the best was the restaurant that I found online and booked for our Friday night in San Juan, and then heard from my sister that she had heard it was superb from a local chef. She too was visiting San Juan just before our arrival. And indeed it was incredible. Marmalade, a totally splendid looking restaurant with a spiffy new bar and rooms separated into areas, some with couches, strewn with pillows. Fabulous art and real style. My pictures don’t do it justice. We arrived early and were told of course our table was ready. The staff were excellent and our wait person wonderful. It is a tasting menu at a fixed price with many choices. If you check out the link you can see the mouth watering menu. But some highlights, their famous tiny white bean very smooth soup with truffles, and pancetta, was sublime. Turns out that they offer this to everyone no matter what your other choices are: I had a ceviche of fluke, tiny linguini with blue crab and clams, and we both had the lamb tagine with Moroccan flavours. We shared dessert, eight different types of chocolate in a mousse. We ordered wine that we liked rather than a pairing, it was a chenin blanc from South Africa and delicious, and I am now having de-alcoholized bubbly before a meal, so I am not drinking too much as alcohol is a trigger for my vertigo filled disease Menières, which I know I have told you about. At any rate, there are now many interesting and good tasting alcohol substitutes in the bubbly department. I have just tried some whites to see how they compare. Not nearly as good.

I booked an early morning tour of San Juan through Tours by Locals, which I like very much, and trust the quality of their guides. In this instance Hector was waiting outside the lobby in a large van even though it was just the two of us. We drove around and saw many sites, and then stopped for a tour of the old 1625 Castillo ramparts fort by the sea. It is considered the largest fortress built in the Americas. It was built for the purpose of protecting the city of San Juan from attack by land from the east. It is a fortification with three levels and an extensive series of outer defences and it took over 150 years to complete. The Irish born Tomás O’Daly was Chief Engineer. It was tremendous and interesting. It was then that we had a hunger for an ice cream as there was an ice cream truck nearby.

Hector also took us to the old town and then to a favourite of his a small cabin like place where they made he said, the best piña coladas. Apparently when Elizabeth Taylor visited San Juan she was crazy about this cocktail and brought it fame. It was invented in San Juan. I am not wild about sweet drinks, but tasted it and it was just dandy. We sat on some rough chairs and drank this. I also bought a traditional soup and offered it to Hector for his lunch, which he adored. It was a beautiful day and we really enjoyed our trip with all his local anecdotes.

Famous white bean soup at Marmalade with truffles

and more pictures of the fab restaurant below:

After the tour, we headed back to the hotel, got our baggage, and went to board the ship. The Ritz Carlton ship is simply splendid and classy, but then with that name you would expect nothing less. Our boarding was easy and our cabin was ready. We decided to have lunch in one of the four restaurants, The Beach House. We ate outside and I enjoyed my favourite Ceviche, Charles had a lobster roll. We met the host, Juliet, who we saw almost every day and was charming. The food, service, decor of all the restaurants was terrific. This casual outdoor space became a lunch favourite. The Tides, for dinner or breakfast was terrific, Mistral excellent on the 10th deck and the special Memori , an Asian restaurant, where we ate the first evening became a favourite of ours. We never ate in the very expensive private dining room. All the restaurants were exquisite and part of our fare so why spend extra? We have taken many cruises but this was unique. I loved the ‘no announcements’, over a loud speaker, and no cruise director. Basically this is a cruise for those who want a gorgeous floating hotel. We took no excursions, but others did. As I mentioned earlier, Charles and I have sailed in the Caribbean and visited many of the ports. We didn’t feel as if we were missing anything. We wandered some days in places like St. Barts and Tortola, but were just content to stay aboard and read, and look at the gorgeous sea and scenery and sit in the different outdoor spaces. There was an active Marina off the end of the ship where you could swim and participate in water sports, or paddle a kayak. In fact there were many young passengers and this was perfect for them. I think the average age was under forty. There were 240 passengers, but the ship could hold 400. So you got to see some of the same people and dinner conversations were easy and fun.

tasty before dinner treats aboard.

Nautical evening

fancy night ‘en blanc” and we danced

In Memori where we ate many splendid Asian meals

beautiful art everywhere and flowers and linens

the bridge

Charles loved this sign

the Pitons in St. Lucia

My one special delight was to swim in the glorious pool on the top deck. I went every day around 8:00am and had it to myself. The air was warm and although the pool wasn’t heated per se, it was wonderful. The only negative of the trip for me was that we always walk up and down the stairs and feel very virtuous about this. However, with my recently developed arthritis of my hip the climbing of the stairs was not kind to me. At least by the end I gave in and took the elevator. This getting older is not for the faint of heart.

Memori became our favourite haunt. We sat at the sushi bar and got to know the chefs as well as a visiting chef, Jason, from Tao Hospitality group who was super and one evening prepared a few dishes that he was trying out for the restaurant. One was a giant grilled Prawn, the other was a mixed fish with truffles that he shaved for us. That evening the theme was ‘en blanc’ and I wore my favourite long white caftan that is very simple, but exquisite, and I got a lot of compliments. Made the old girl feel very special. After that dinner we went to the 10th deck for dancing outside. There were no stage shows as such, but in the Living Room, a bar area, there was music every evening. Some groups better than others. One particular act was a cellist who used electronic gimmicks, his looper, that repeats a phrase and then he played along with the recorded sound. He was terrific. OKcello is his act’s name. Go to the link and you can see and hear him.

There was a singing group that was mostly good, but it was always a delight to have dinner and then an after dinner drink with music. Of course the wonderful thing about a cruise is being looked after. Your room is cleaned twice daily and towels changed, and you are served wonderful meals. I could spend time telling you about the individual meals, but that could be tiresome, well not for me, as I savour them in my tastebud memory.

The trip home was not fun as our flight kept being delayed with gate changes. But around midnight we arrived back in Howey. About 7 hours late. To be fair there were snow storms north which impeded our aircraft from arriving. And the Florida weather, like weather everywhere was very chilly. Great to see Oscar, and our comfy beds.

In my next blog, which should arrive sooner than this one did, I will tell you about the fabulous Howey Concert series.

Till then,

Riki

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