Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico
At 5:00 am off the coast north of Acapulco
On the way to Puerto Vallarta
Good early morning to you all! Up bright and early this morning – 4 am. Why? Doesn’t matter. Showered and got dressed and headed down to the Coffee Connection. It doesn’t open until 6, but the automatic coffee makers works. Had a cappuccino and brioche and worked on the blog.
Finally at 8 it was back to the suite and wake Mary up. Breakfast was at the Compass Rose. I really wanted French toast but they made it with raisin bread this morning. A no no for me. No raisins. Got an omelette with ham and cheese. Mary had a pancake with bananas, coconut and fruit. Looked a very big potato latke. Fairly heavy apparently but also very tasty.
After breakfast we checked in with Destination Services to see what was available in Puerto Vallarta. There were still some tours with space, but nothing we were interested in. The young woman at the desk did say we can get off and walk on the pier and that there were a number of restaurants and shops. Hoping there is someplace that sells butane for my lighter. The matches they ship has aren’t much good for anything.
Up on the 12th floor we walked around the jogging track a few times. Mary found a little longer route around the putting green, driving range, pickleball court, shuffleboard and bocce ball courts. Didn’t add too much to the route but made it a little more interesting than going a round in an oval.
Having gotten up so early it was time for a nap. In bed before noon and out after it had gone two. We tried to have some lunch by the pool but by the time we got there it was closed. Just a good probably as it was Tex-Mex day. An inquiry was made at breakfast of the manager in the Compass Rose exactly what did Tex-Mex mean. He had no clue.
According to Wikipedia Tax-Mex is a regional American cuisine that derives from the culinary creations of the Tejano people Texans of Mexican Heritage. Some ingredients of Tex-Mex cuisine are also common in Mexican cuisine, but others not often used in Mexico, are often added, such as cumin. Tex-Mex cuisine is often characterized by its heavy use of shredded cheese, beans, meat, chili peppers and spices, and is often served with or on tortillas. An interesting fact found, as on Wikipedia, was that as of April 2023 Tex-Mex surpassed Italian food as the most popular cuisine in the U.S.
After the walk it was down to reservations to see if there was any space open at either of the specialty restaurants – Chartreuse, French food, or Prime 7, the steakhouse. There was space tonight in Chartreuse at 18:30, prefect and at 19:30 tomorrow at Prime 7. Both were taken. This will be the first specialty restaurant experience on this trip.
Mary still had some of her book to listen to and she had to prepare for the book club meeting on Tuesday night in San Carlos, so it was done to the Connoisseur Club for a couple cigars. Back up to the room at 17:00 to start preparing for dinner tonight. Maybe a quick couple laps on the track before dinner?
It is becoming apparent why people, the old people, like this so much better than an assisted living center. Great food, lots of activities, nicer rooms and lots of people to talk to. With the added advantages of new people every couple weeks and being in different places all the time. Not for us however we are more interested in doing the moving on the land.
Did two kilometers before dinner. Came down and got “dressed” for dinner. Suite and tie dressed. Kind-of-like a dare night. Chartreuse is a French Restaurant. It is the whole fancy thing. The menu is even in French. We started with the lobster bisque. Not bad but it had a lump of lobster meat formed into a circle but held together with potato. The soup itself wasn’t bad.
A soufflé with blue cheese was next. Unfortunately, the soufflé was very over cooked but also cold at the same time. The flavor was good just not the texture. Mary had the Dover sole. A really big piece of nicely cooked Dover sole. I had the baked lobster with mousse made of scallops. It was more like a crab cake made with lobster than anything else. Unfortunately, while the flavor was good it was obvious that it wasn’t freshly made, and the center was still cold. The mousse wasn’t bad, but it was also still cold from the refrigerator. This is probably the smallest restaurant on the ship. There aren’t many things on the menu and apparently the don’t change the menu – ever! We’ll be back to give them another shot at impressing us. Oh, the bread was really good, although they wanted to serve it with butter infused with truffles. This was quickly replaced with regular old butter.
Dinner finished just after it had gone 8. The show tonight was a tribute to the rat pack. It wouldn’t however start until 9:30. We had thought it would be nice to go to the show. Mary said she was too tired and returned to the suite. I headed off to the Connoisseur Club for a cigar.
Andy come by after a while. Andy is an 87 year old man, traveling alone, for Alaska. He was a ships captain in the Merchant Marine. Interesting guy to listen to. Very lonely. He was also very durnk. In less than two hours we sat together he no less than three bourbons. Impressive he could even talk. After two hours of listening and nodding my head, it was time to head to bed. So I left him with a blank new drink and headed off to our suite.
Buonanotte e ciao, Enrico
I sense a worthy theme here. Please elaborate though on the difference between “different places all the time” versus “moving on land”…….
when you say: With the added advantages of new people every couple weeks and being in different places all the time. Not for us however we are more interested in doing the moving on the land.