Monday, April 11, 2016

Miami

Today is our embarkation from Miami on Oceania’s MS Riviera.  Took the shuttle from the hotel to the port terminal, bags handled efficiently, smooth check-in, boarded, had a nice lunch, a short nap, the hated safety drill wearing a bulky life vest and finally going to dinner at the Jacques Restaurant where we enjoyed escargot and prime rib with a glass of wine.  Since then it has been downhill.  Tomorrow started early.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Just after midnight Bob was very sick, really sick.  This went on for hours.  Iris is sure it is norovirus, Bob thinks it was a bad snail.  So Tuesday was a lost day, room service for Iris, nothing for Bob.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Bob is a bit improved this morning.  After nothing to eat yesterday he was ready for toast with peanut butter and hot tea from room service. Thankfully Iris is not restricted.  So a slow day mostly in the room with a lunch in the Terrace Cafe followed by a nap.  Tonight is the Captain’s reception but Bob does not feel like attending so a quiet evening in the room with Iris enjoying some malbec and a cheese platter, Bob having water and ice.  Early to bed.

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Austin to Miami

Tony picked us up at 9:00 AM in Georgetown and drove us to the Austin airport where we had a leisurely walk through the TSA Pre-check line, had a coffee, read our books, bought our Salt Lick lunch and boarded our flight to Atlanta.  Arriving in Atlanta we had to change terminals in order to get our flight to Miami and we only had 50 minutes to make the change but it all went off without a hitch.  Upon arrival in Miami we called the Element Hotel and the shuttle appeared to transfer us to the hotel in air-conditioned comfort.  Check in was pretty slow but finally we had our room key and up to the room we went.  After a little rest we decided to have a glass of wine and a snack in the hotel as the location in an industrial area prompted us to not want to leave the hotel.  It is probably four miles to the airport, the closest place to get a bite.  We noticed the couple next to us and what they had ordered and they recommended the chicken wings and curly fries so we ordered that too with a caprese salad.  They couple turned out to be Germans living in Orange County, CA that were naturalized American citizens.  They were leaving for a cruise out of Miami port on Sunday morning.

After our nice supper we were ready for bed and it was a decent hour as we had set our clocks to eastern time.

Sunday, April 10, 2016

Miami

Slept until the alarm, unusual for us.  Breakfast in the hotel, nice buffet, back to the room, measured the size of the room and Iris went to the front desk to complain about the size of the room that was far smaller than the advertisement for the room at the time of booking so they moved us to another room that was about double in size, very nice with sectional sofa, king bed, kitchen.  Element Hotels are “green” so much emphasis is placed on saving water and recycling.  We felt it was not good value for money though.

At 11:30 AM we got a driver to take us to Little Havana where we had booked a walking tour of the area focused on cuisine of Cuba.  Cubans have settled in this area of Miami beginning in the late 1950’s and today it is a thriving section of Miami.  Lots of art galleries, restaurants and parks.  Our tour met at an art gallery where the owner was a Cuban that bailed out of Cuba shortly after the Castros came to power.  Ralph (Rafael) met us there and gave us a short orientation talk of what the tour would be and from there our first stop was a sandwich cafeteria where the sandwich station is in the center of a diner counter and there were booths along with tables in a separate room.  We enjoyed empanadas plus a little pastry made with plantains stuffed with chicken and cumin.  All tasty!  Along the street we stopped at Cuba Tobacco Cigar Company to see hand rolling of cigars and packaging for shipment.  This family led by Don Bello legally purchased Cuban tobacco seeds from a third country and planted them in Dominica, Guatemala and Nicaragua and this is the source of the “Cuban” tobacco used in the manufacture of the cigars that are shipped all over the world.  From here we walked to a “ ventanita”, a little window where you could order Cuban sandwiches and coffee.  The sandwich was very good and the coffee was strong even with the cane sugar and cream but tasty.  Iris only gets her caffeine from chocolate so she declined the coffee.  Directly across 8th street from here was the “Ball and Chain”, a night club recreated as a jazz club 60 years after the original closed.  In the 1940’s and 1950’s this was a hot spot for all the big names in jazz like Cab Callaway, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, who were not allowed to stay in local hotels but had to cross the causeway to get to the area that would allow blacks to stay.  Here we had a mojito made with cane sugar, lime juice, club soda and Bacardi Silver rum.  Tasty!  Next stop was to see the Domino park where every table (and there were many) was filled with domino players using double nines instead of the normal double sixes that were thicker than the normal domino probably so it would make the greatest noise when slapped down on the table.  A short walk away we entered an open air fruit market where we learned about plantains and sugar cane while enjoying a glass of sugar cane juice.  This fruit market has been in business for over 100 years.  Current family that owns it had four generations present at the market today.  Ralph retrieved a box of pastries he had bought earlier before the bakery closed and we enjoyed one stuffed with guava jam while standing in front of the Tower Theater.  Our final stop was the Azucar ice cream shop where we had samples of several flavors and then a full cup of our choice.  Very good!  This was the conclusion of our tour so we took a cab back to the hotel and we were ready for a rest after all the walking and standing (3 hours).  A bottle of wine from the bar downstairs was our dinner as we had had so much food on the tour we were certainly not hungry.  To bed fairly early.

Latest News

Just realized that we've not said anything since Bob's birthday on January 31st.  What could we have possible been doing?  Don't ask!
We were in France from early January until March 22nd.  The purpose of this unusually timed trip was to try to solve some problems with our homeowners association where our house is located.  Basically the association is non-existant as maintenance of the common areas has been sadly lacking for a couple of years so one of the other owners joined us in a legal action against the association to try and get a new manager to address the problems.  The French legal system (Napoleon must have been a lawyer) is very complex and nothing like the British (and American) system based on precedent but strictly on the written law.  Mexicans could never live like that.  Anyway it took all that time to get an Advocate (French lawyer) to represent us, write letters and make appeal to a judge.  So now we're waiting on the ruling by the judge to appoint a new manager.  What a production!
It was not all work though - we still enjoy the markets and even if some Saturday mornings were very cold (35 F) we went to the Apt Market to have a sweet roll and coffee at our favorite cafe and meet the folks at the butcher shop, fish stall, cheese stall and the veg stall buying most of what we need to eat for the following week.  Long silk underwear helps during the cold rainy winter market days.  We also had discovered a lovely restaurant last summer in Le Chene, very close to our house, called Le Petit Ecole (little school) located in an old one-room school house that is two floors.  The school teacher probably lived upstairs and now the owners of the restaurant live there.  Downstairs is the dining space in the winter, during summer months the seating is outside in the garden.  So we enjoyed several meals there inside where they have space for 20 diners and we saw Kelly, wife of Chef Oliver have to turn away folks as reservations are required as they serve 20 people every day.  See their website at
http://www.restaurant-lapetite-ecole.com/index.htm
We've had a short stay in Georgetown since returning from France but full of plans and activities to get ready for our summer in France.  We've enjoyed our little time with some great friends including a dinner party with the usual suspects that was wonderful friends that don't seem to forget us even though we're gone for many months at a time.
Now we're packing like mad getting ready for our return to France.  We leave Saturday for Miami where we will spend a couple of days then board the Oceania Riviera for our transatlantic crossing to Barcelona two weeks later..
We will try to do more blogs with some photos after we get to Miami.

Bob's Birthday

76 years ago in McGehee, Arkansas on a cold snowy Wednesday afternoon, Glennie Harrod Spears brought into the center of the world one, Robert Luther Spears, also son of Bruce Wilson Spears.
So much for ancient history.
On a beautiful winter day in the South of France with the sun shining brightly Bob & Iris awoke to celebrate Bob's birthday (a day early) by making the trip of 1 hour, 20 minutes to Maussane where we visited the olive plantation and processor, Le Mas des Barres just outside of town.  Last year this favorite place of ours had no olive harvest so we could not get their oil but this year they had a good crop in November so we bought some of the new harvest.  We had a tasting and it was delicious, maybe not on the same level with what we used to produce in Secciano but certainly very good.

 Iris at entrance to the shop at Mas des Barres

 Olive trees at Mas des Barres

 Scenery from Mas des Barres

 Our 3-litre can of olive oil

Display at Mas des Barres
Next we had a few minutes to kill so we stopped at the La Fountain Cafe in Maussane where their outdoor cafe is across the street beside the church.  On the public parking area just in front of the Tourist Office there is a huge cruifix that must just drive the moslems crazy in Maussane.  We had a "Gran Creme" and relaxed at the cafe.

From Maussane is is a 2-minute drive to Paradou and our favorite restaurant in France, Le Bistrot du Paradou, where we have been coming since 1994.  This was the first time to be here in the winter.  Inside it was nice and warm and the bottle of "Cotes du Rhone" wine was sitting open on our table so we enjoyed that for a little while before ordering the only thing available, lamb.  But first we had a choice of escargot or foie gras so we opted for the snails and were not disappointed.  Lots of butter, parsley and garlic.

 Bob standing in front of Bistrot du Paradou

The lamb was next and it was done exactly like we like it and it was very special.

Then the cheese platter where we got greedy and had too much.

The cheese was followed by dessert.  Iris had chocolate cake with whipped cream.  Bob had ice cream with a sparkler in it to mark the birthday.

What a great birthday.
One last photo of a space that used to be a window at Bistrot du Paradou especially for Nancy who knows how to pronounce this properly.

Trip to France

Left our house in Georgetown on Monday, January 11 for the airport in Austin.  8:00 departure from home for 11:20 flight to Chicago.  It was snowing when we arrived in Chicago and the temperature was 1 degree F.  We tried to find a warm place to wait for our flight to Madrid but mostly unsuccessful so we spent time at Starbucks for some hot coffee.  Views from the terminal.

The gate agent announced that for boarding we should wear our coats as the temperature in the jetway was 0 degrees.  We believe it!  We sat on the plane for about 45 minutes extra while they sprayed de-ice fluid on the plane.  This is what it looked like before the spray.  Note the snow in the lower right of the window.

After take-off we had a nice meal with some good Spanish wine before our naps.  We slept somewhat uncomfortably for quite some time.  The arrival in Madrid caused a long train ride between different parts of the airport and then lots of walking to reach our gate to get the Marseille flight.  A small plane so had to check our carry-on bag and naturally it was damaged upon arrival in Marseille.  Also one of our checked bags did not show so we spent some time trying to claim so Iberia could find our bag and deliver it to Roussillon.  Finally all the paperwork was complete and we exited the customs area where we found Brigitte waiting for us as usual.  Loaded our luggage into her Ford Ka (tiny) and Bob went immediately to sleep.  Iris entertained Brigitte.
Entering Le Mas du Close we found our keys in the mailbox just as Eric had promised so we gained entry to a cold house ( 40 degrees F) and turned on the water and both heat pumps to try and get warm.  A ham sandwich was all we could manage for our supper along with a glass of wine and soon we were in our bed with the big blanket that has not been used in 5 years.  Needed it tonight.

Unity Murphy Bed

We drove to Fort Worth on January 7 to attend the Fort Worth RV Show at the Convention Center starting that day.  Arrived about 10:20 AM at the Holiday Inn Express and caught their shuttle to the show to see the 2016 Unity MB (shown above) to put our hands on one like we have ordered and will be delivered in September.

Iris had some specific things she wanted to check out.  One important one was the height of the toilet:

 We also wanted to see how the recliners worked and how the murphy bed was lowered on top of the recliners to make the bed.

 Ron and Michelle accompanied us to the show from Georgetown and they also wanted to see how the systems worked.  Iris and Michelle compared notes on fabrics and leather colors.

 The Fort Worth Convention Center had a unique chandelier made from cowboy hats that we thought was very interesting.

We had a burger at the Omni hotel across the street from the show and returned in the afternoon to see the Unity again.  We are pleased with our choice, however, our order is for a lighter color exterior and white leather.  It will look like this.

Had dinner at P.F. Chang's downtown, spicy and too much but enjoyed it before hitting the sack to dream about motorhomes.
Up early for breakfast on the 8th and drove back to Wahlberg where we stopped at Dale's for fried catfish for us and burger for Ron & Michelle.  Then home to return to reality and packing for our departure on Monday for France.
Peace to all!

New Year's Eve

December 31, 2015
We got an email from Billy Mata showing the following advertisement so we signed up to go with our San Marcos friends, Eleanor and Allan.

 We drove down to San Marcos, had a great BBQ rib dinner and then Eleanor drove us down to Adkins, TX and the Mesquite Hall.  We had never been to this dance hall in the middle of nowhere east of San Antonio. The parking lot was full when we arrived.  Eleanor, having called ahead to the drummer, Rocco, had arranged a table front and center of the band for us.  It is a BYOB type place with beer, soft drinks and setups so we tucked into some refreshments just as the band was ready to start.  Billy Mata and the Texas Tradition Band hit us off with a fast one so we sat out that until the real two-step began and the dance floor filled up but not crowded even with lots of children mingling among the dancers.  We had a lovely time dancing and seeing some old friends from prior dances.  We had enough at the second break so we took off to return to San Marcos.  We brought in the New Year while still approaching San Marcos and enjoyed the fireworks that lit up the sky around the city.  It did not take us long to get to bed and slept until 7:30 AM New Year's Day.  A big breakfast hit the spot before we started our return drive to Georgetown.
All in all it was a great way to celebrate the end of 2015 and to begin 2016.