Cartagena cuisine

So off we went to Cartagena for our "long weekend" getaway which was in the middle of the week because the four of us are retired LOL- and we can....

We hired a guide for two mornings and the rest was time to relax and attempt to find "cool" - Cartagena is hot and humid all year round and the "real feel" for the days of our trip ranged from 100-104* Fahrenheit... with little diurnal divergence to give relief....

but we still had a good time and some good food- because of course we would find some place to eat...LOL

starting with the most recent meal - here is a run down on our fun four days away-

before we headed to the airport for our flight back to the US we had lunch right near the hotel at a terrific casual place called La Mulata- fab food- fun atmosphere - an all around "find" worth returning to!

a wonderful complimentary fish soup to start - hot and flavorful!

above- my lemon fish and below Phil's pulpo

John had the rice & beans (above) and Barb the vegetarian rice dish- both looked wonderful and got rave reviews!

 the decor was artsy and welcoming!

I liked this meal as much as any we had and the total for the four of us was less than forty bucks - with drinks and two courses!

The night before we had the high end of dining in Cartagena at Restaurant 1621 - in the garden- truly lovely evening and very good food -

the crab salad was fabulous- three of us had that as a starter-

I had a fish dish, John had the steak, and Barb and Phil a seafood stew-

the desserts we less stellar- I had ice cream which was perfect for me - the other three had a chocolate cake they were less impressed with - but it ended well with macarons!

The night before had been somewhat of a fiasco- we had reserved at a place called

We got conflicting information on the location on google so we asked at the front desk and they directed us to the Ananda Hotel - we had drinks in the bar there as we had planned to meet more than an hour earlier-

When we asked about the location of the restaurant Carmen (located in the hotel per our front desk person) we were told they had moved and so we headed to the other google location to find it- we had plenty of time so we were not particularly concerned, Our reservation was for 8PM. We arrived about five minutes before our reservation time and found the place - but they weren't open...well actually the building was but the woman who greeted us told us they didn't open until Friday (this was Wednesday) - they didn't care that we had called on November 14th for a reservation- they claimed they notified everyone via email but since I didn't make the reservation via email - a shame for us...

SO - Restaurant Carmen can take a reservation but not keep a reservation - nor be bothered to inform those people who had made one that they wouldn't be honoring it. #badform - seriously bad form. We would have booked at Don Juan if they had bothered to tell us that they wouldn't be serving dinner on the night we had our reservation.

We left the restaurant already hungry and in search of a new place having walked across town twice... so we ended up at the closest place and had a real stroke of luck because the food was good and the service was as well!

the Spanish tortilla that Barb & John shared - was a classic upgrade with a garlic sauce that had a kick to it -

I had the crab cakes starter and they were fabulous! they don't look like anything special but they were among the best I have ever had.

Phil had the shrimp (I would say the exploding shrimp but that is what the dish looked like on arrival LOL)

both Phil and I had the pork cooked three ways for our entree and it was totally yummy! (Cerdo al Cubo)

John & Barb had the fish of the day -

overall a really good meal despite the fact that we just happened upon the place due to the bad treatment by Carmen.

backing into our first night's meal - we ate at La Perla and started with a fun sangria -

the tiradito nikkei - was perfect- could have eaten three more plates of this!

pulpo was also nicely prepared

John & Barb had a version of arepas (a local specialty)

As entrees Phil had suckling pig and John & Barb had salmon - I had the Chiefa rice dish-

a view from the street -

it was a cute and cozy place - and a very good meal.

So there are the reviews of the places we ate during our brief getaway to Cartagena Colombia! Stay tuned for more photos from touring the city!

holiday letter completed-

what a relief... LOL... here it is for those who have somehow been sleeping through the last year of blog posts LOL

Season’s Greetings! 2016

We hope this holiday letter finds you well!  2015 ended for us with a trip to Cuba for ten days which was as a “people to people” exchange that we enjoyed very much.  Our 2016 was one of many changes and was a lot different from our usual year of travel and social plans because we had so many things transition in our lives. AND- the Cubs won the World Series after a mere 108 years, bringing much joy to Chicago (our summer home town.)

2016 started off with us in residence at our winter home in the Sarasota/Bradenton area for the sixth winter.  We had a number of guests this year, including friends Mon & Beth in January and in February visits from Maryanne in mid-February and Jean a week later or so.  Our winter was filled with symphony and ballet in addition to the classes, theater and concert schedules, as well as the Sarasota Film Festival, the Forks & Corks celebration.  We had a reunion with Victoria’s old friend and former co-worker, Chris Grayson Knutte, in January (fifteen years lapsed in a nanosecond!) and Phil’s Salzburg (1970) group had a reunion in mid-February.

  

As we mentioned in last year’s letter, we do the same things in Florida that we do in Chicago, just in different seasons – so our entire year has included lots of theater- lots of concerts and many, many, amazing meals.  As always, everything is reviewed on the blog, so feel free to delve into our two “seasons” by reading further details at    http://blog.semifreelife.com/

Some highlights of our year – in order of significance to our lives, we sold our four-story home (too many steps, too much maintenance) and moved into a “largish” condo in a small elevator building (12 units) in a neighborhood roughly one mile from Wrigley Field in Chicago.  We closed on our house in early April but didn’t move into the condo until mid-May.  In between homes, we had a Chicago visit from Aase, our dear friend from Denmark who missed seeing the new place by just 36 hours L but who we were lucky enough to see twice this past year. 

Three days after we moved our stuff out of storage, we left a box-filled condo to head to NYC to visit friends Alix, Laure & Arno.  Our daughter Angela and her fiancé, Lee (engaged this fall!) had moved to North Carolina in mid-2015, so we visited them in Durham in March.  In early April, son Jeremy visited us during the Film Festival in Sarasota, but we were able to see him in NYC too!

During our year of mostly good changes, we had the sadness of our cat Penny’s passing after an extended illness– just before Victoria and sister cat, Lucy headed to Chicago, moving into the new condo in late May.  A few days later, Victoria headed west to meet travel buddy Tom for the annual DART - Disappearing America Road Trip (this year it detoured to Canada – Victoria & Vancouver mostly) while Phil went off to Ireland on a music tour, making new friends of Mike & Leslie.

By the end of June, we had settled in to the new place well enough to have our first dinner party on the deck of our condo. For Father’s Day, Angela & Lee and Jeremy came in to celebrate with Phil at a Cubs game at nearby Wrigley.  We also entertained on the deck in July, when many of the attorneys Victoria worked with for decades were in town for a meeting. 

This summer we also made a quick trip to Michigan to visit friends Chuck & Georgia,  and for a Jackson Browne concert at Interlochen.  We had a couple of dinners with new friends Mike & Leslie, including one with Mike’s musician colleague, Al Stewart (who is a wine guy as well as being the singer-songwriter of one of Victoria’s all-time favorites – you guessed it - The Year of the Cat LOL.)

Later in the summer we got around to having our anniversary (15^th) trip – two months late LOL. We went to Copenhagen to visit all our Danish friends – Aase came over from Aalborg to join us for a few days and then we got to spend an evening with Poul & Lene and Martin & Susan and their kids as well.  We departed Copenhagen and made a ten day journey around the Baltic Sea.  Our small ship had 98 passengers and made stops in Bornholm, Gdansk, Riga, Tallinn, St. Petersburg, Helsinki and Stockholm (where we stayed a couple of nights after getting off the ship.) The highlights of the trip were many, but one lifetime highlight was getting to meet Lech Walesa!

When we got back to Chicago, we had a visit from brother Steve and sister-in-law Suzanne to celebrate Steve’s birthday together.  We had terrific meals at El Ideas, 42 grams and mfk.  We were unfortunately not able to time an evening to our newest favorite Oriole- where we had four amazing meals this summer/fall.  We were not in the least surprised when they won two Michelin stars in November despite having just opened in February.  This place is the one we would put on the “MUST GO” list for anyone visiting our lovely city.  It is so good we have a reservation for a “forced trip” we have back to the frozen tundra in January LOL.

Before we headed south for our winter home we had a last trip from Chicago for 2016.  We were lucky enough to have scored tickets for Desert Trip in Indio, California in October.  We relived many of the moments of our youth during the three day festival in the desert at the same location of the Cochella Festival (this one was dubbed “Oldchella” LOL.) This was a once-in-a-lifetime event that basically substituted for our usual October trip to Europe for Phil’s birthday, cost the same amount and was worth every penny! Just look at this line up!

Victoria arrived in Florida with Lucy on Halloween.  Phil insisted on staying in Chicago until after the World Series, and followed after celebrating the Cubs victory, like all the neighborhood and much of the country by crying and dancing in the streets of Wrigleyville. Both Angela and Jeremy had come in during the playoffs and series to be in town for the run up to the astounding game seven. WOW what a victory that was!

So we were all settled in by the first week of November.  Brother Larry came up from Miami for Thanksgiving weekend and we are headed there for Christmas weekend.  We just returned from a quick trip to Cartagena, Colombia with friends John & Barb (Florida neighbors who share the same schedule for Chicago summers as we do.) Victoria is signed up for class with the January term; Phil is sitting this term out.  We have a visit to Chicago for four nights in January to handle some of life’s details (GOES renewal, dentist appointment etc.)

Right now our travel plans for the upcoming year are varied.  Victoria is signed up for a trip (market and cuisine oriented) to Uzbekistan in March, her DART trip with Tom (to Delaware and Maryland) in April, when Phil will return to Chicago just after the Film Festival. Lucy and Victoria will head back to Chicago late April.  We have an Ireland trip on the books for June/July (Part Two of the one Phil took in 2016.) An October “epicurean” trip to the Republic of Georgia will round out our time in Chicago. 

Angela & Lee have a wedding coming up but we are not sure of the date yet… so 2017 promises to be as busy as prior years but much less stressful than 2016 has been.  Between moving out, storage and moving in, the loss of our dear kitty Penny, and the election outcome (a horror to old hippie liberals like we are) the end of 2016 will be joyfully greeted.  Every year we close this letter with the same message – about counting our blessings.  This year while we do so, we also have concern for the future of our planet, and our friends who are black, gay, immigrants or anything other than white, male and Christian.  So we send extra light and hope and thoughts to all in need.

We hope this finds you and your families happy and healthy.  As the year closes, we count our blessings and send to each of you our very best wishes for health, wealth, happiness, peace, prosperity, abundance, and good luck in 2017! 

Penny Jane

aka “Pennifer”

2005-2016