travel eat repeat

December 2018…

Mao

We made a quick stop in New York on the way to Malaga. It’s a great way to see the nephews, hit a museum and catch a cheaper flight to Spain out of NY rather than Albuquerque. We stayed two nights at the Lexington Hotel (Lexington & 48^th, 40k Marriott points or $250 per night), great location, just a couple blocks from Grand Central Station.  Hotel was bursting at the seams but we got a corner room, meaning two views from the 21^st floor, East River on one side and the classier hotel on the other side.

Jorge had work commitments but we saw Carlos Ramirez for an afternoon and evening, in between his final projects and whatever college students get up to these days. He is looking very happy and we encouraged him to move to California after he gets out of Columbia next year.

Hector and I went to a really extensive, really crowded Warhol show at the Whitney Museum. The three floors of Warhol were jam-packed with selfie-takers but the top floors also had some impressive art, yet it was pretty empty up there.

Me, Hector, Carlos, Saks Fifth Ave

We walked around freezing our asses off on the High Line until Carlos met us. We 3 had some wine and pasta at Serafina, then Ubered up to Fifth Ave to see the holiday lights and the crowd control. It was also Santacon that day so we saw lots of drunk Santas stumbling around and a few having fist fights.

Santacon

Hopped on our Iberia flight ($700 rt each premium economy!) dreaming of Malaga all the way.

May 2017…

In May, our niece Vanessa graduated from Morehead State in Kentucky. It was sort of out of the way, even more out of the way than the usual visit to Kentucky. Not positive we were actually in Appalachia, but it certainly had that hillbilly je ne sais quoi about it. Vanessa and her friends were fun, and it was sweet to see the families all excited about their kids graduating.

Many photos were taken. Many nerves were worked.

Before the shutter clicks

April 2017…

In April I met Hector in NYC (SW Air into LaGuardia. What a pit.) after his sales meeting in New Rochelle. I got there one night early and fed Carlos Ramirez, our starving Columbia student, something other than pizza. We stayed at the Essex House on Central Park South (45k Marriott points per night), a hotel I always wanted to visit, even from 35+ years ago when I was first in NYC. It’s a classic brownstone high rise, elegant lobby, tiny elevators and minute rooms with suspicious smells and clangy noises all night. However, we did get a view of Central Park, albeit from an angle.

Looking toward upper west side

We also met Jorge, another Ramirez nephew, for dinner at Beauty and Essex, Lower East Side. Jorge knows all the hipster places. Since it was Easter, we stumbled into the Fifth Ave Easter Parade around the corner, with the hat freaks, as well as the regular ones, and did miles of walking in the park, since we were so close.

Carlos And Hector

Me at the Park

We also went with Carlos to MOMA. I did my usual wander around the Upper West Side, where I once lived for two minutes in 1981. I hope these damn kids stay in New York, it’s a great excuse to visit. Back to La Guardia, sigh, and home.

Jan 2017…

In January I attached myself to one of Hector’s work trips to hang out in San Francisco a few days. We have come here many times over the years, especially when we lived in San Diego, and it never gets old. I’m such a square, I could visit Fisherman’s Wharf EVERY TIME! Unbelievable, because it’s nothing but tourist shit.  I love walking through Chinatown and North Beach! Ever since I first read Tales of the City as an innocent twink, I’ve been hooked on San Francisco. Castro, meh.

Chinatown mural

As a show of sophistication, we also visited SF Museum of Modern Art, where we were treated to a fantastic exhibit of Diane Arbus photographs.

Diane Arbus photos

We used to always rent a car and drive up through Sausalito and Muir Woods, another treat, but this time we just stayed in the city, at the Courtyard on Post Street (70,000 points for 2 nights) from where we could just skid down the hill in the rain to Union Square.

Dec 2016…

We try to leave the country at Christmas as much as we can. Neither of us have family holiday expectations so it’s a pleasure to escape some of the American Christmas Race, with Thanksgiving as the starter pistol, and finishing in a bloated heap on New Year’s Day.

There’s almost none of that in Vallarta, so we had the pleasure of staying at Casa Faro while Paco and Franck were home in Paris. This was first time we’d been during full-on high season and it’s a very different place than when we normally go. If you thought it was gay in June, well, in December it’s Palm Springs and Mykonos and Ibiza all rolled into one squirming, six-packed, oiled-up white party.

La Noche Bar

Our friends Kent and Bob joined us for a week and we proceeded to drag them to every seedy bar we could get into. Our local beach club, Mantamar, was reservation-only, but we snuck in with the help our regular waiters.

The weather was perfect, we snorkeled and beached and stayed out late but honestly, I prefer the off-season, when we can get into our restaurants and the cab drivers treat us like the VIPs we think we are…

Snorkeling at los Arcos

Aug 2016…

We’re baaaack! After a series of extremely fortunate events, we have bought the house we fantasized about in Santa Fe and are happily nesting.

The most valuable lesson I learned from this move is that I am too old to be moving entire houses full of junk across the country. So no more. I expect to be buried somewhere here in this picture.

May 2016…

So we put the Caminito Borde condo on the market May 1, and got a cash offer that night, full price. What a fucking relief, after the chaos and disappointment of two years ago when the sale fell through. We are eager to get back to Santa Fe and restart our plans there, but there is a slight twinge of melancholy at saying goodbye to our home of 18 years. Not so sad to leave San Diego itself, we were ready for that a long time ago.

March 2016…

Mantamar Beach Club-birthday boy bottom right

We spent a whirlwind weekend in Puerto Vallarta to celebrate Franck’s 50th birthday. As usual, he and Paco tore it up with the entertaining. Saturday night there was a White Party at Casa Faro, on Sunday a party boat to Quimixto beach with lobster and alcohol. We met some very fun French friends of theirs, along with the local crowd of Frenchies who live year round in PV. Just like their wedding in Paris three years ago, they spared no expense or detail to make everything fantastic. I wish I gave enough of a shit to entertain that way.

Quimixto Beach

Feb 2016…

Madre mia! It’s Presidents Day Weekend and also Valentines Day Weekend so all the LA cholos will be heading down to Ensenada and Rosarito, and we + Tere & Martin will be right there with them.

Hector and I used to come to Ensenada all the time when his Mom was still alive and living here. Now we aren’t even going to tell his father we’re here. Tere and Martin have picked out an Airbnb for us all. We are actually more the hotel types than the Airbnb types but hey we’re easy. The place is new and cleanish, and cheap.

Saturday we drove out to the Bufadora, the local blow hole, which always had little shops and bodegas clustered around it for the tourists. It was fun and local. Well, that was fifteen years ago and now it’s grown to huge proportions, with a mile of shops and bars before you get near the blow hole, so there was a lot of humanity to get through.  Even though it was jammed with tourists hardly any of them were vomiting.

La Bufadora

Next day we ate breakfast at Hotel Coral, where naturally we ran into Hector’s Dad. Hi, what a surprise. After that we drove out to the Guadalupe Valley to see the wineries.

The wineries were impressive. We hit about 4 or 5 of them and had lunch at Laja. The region has really developed since we visited the only winery there 15 years ago. It’s worth getting a map and devoting a whole weekend to it.

Laja