Post Aniversario

I certainly have some catching up to do with our “daily” blog. Partly the days have been filled with errands associated with making our apartment more inhabitable. Partly, we have spent endless hours walking back and forth the Blue Chairs beach trying to hook up with Eric, the Box Office manager at Portland Opera. Twice a day we have walked the mile and a half to see if we could fine him and Greg. Finally, yesterday, Saturday, January 5th, while having a little anniversary breakfast at a place on the Malecon called Viteas, a friend of Eric’s, Pat, saw us and told us that Greg and Eric were indeed headed for the beach and that had felt badly about not making the dinner plans firm. So, after a very delicious Spinach Quiche, we headed down the mile and a half trek so the Blue Chairs, where, indeed, we did find the boys waiting.

We had a very nice time with them, drinking Margaritas and Pina Coladas for a couple of hours. However, we did experience increasing cloud cover and it actually became a bit breezey. About 2:30 p.m. Polley and I started back to take part in our daily siesta ritual. This was our 27th aniversario and we had plans for the evening. We started with drinks at a little place called Mariscos, right at the bottom of the hill. The place has a little special significance since it was the place we had a drink prior to meeting Frederico to look at the apartment we now live in. That was a year ago. So, we started this anniversary at the same place. Rae Minten, our dear friend, had given up a gift certificate to Le Bistro, a lovely Mexican restaurant that sits very close to us, right on the river, Rio Cuale (river and rio may be redundant!). We had a foie gras appetizer along with some smoked salmon. Then at dinner we shared (compartido) a very nice scallop dish. A couple of glasses of pinot grigio and some fancy coffees – Highly recommend the place. Our anniversary, however, will probably not be one of our highlights. I have decided that anniversaries are for two purposes. One is the celebrate the years together and the other is to stop, take stock, and analyze where you are and where you are headed. Last night we chose the latter. I don’t recommend it! However, the beginning of the 28th year began better this morning.

We did have another good meal for not a great deal of money on Friday night at this place Viteas. Again, we are tending to eat light. Polley had a very good little pizzetta of smoked salmon and tomatoes. I had a little stew of chorizo, fingerling potatoes and chicken. They also had a wonderful appetizer sauce that they served with bread. We are going to try and duplicate it. It was a cream cheese based with diced green chilies and a little bit of Tabasco or other hot sauce. Wonderful!

We have had fun wandering about looking at various food offerings. We are headed to a place we have heard a great deal about, The Red Cabbage, with Eric and Greg after drinks at the Kit Kat Klub. The old Cabaret days float back into our memories. That was the play where Polley and I first met.

Little else to report. Now that we have hooked up with Eric, we can spend less time hiking to the Blue Chairs and a little more time developing our own routine. I am walking about 4 miles each morning, Polley is doing Pilates. We drink coffee, blog a bit, reading regularly and then walking into town or down the beach. The clouds are gone, and all looks bright and sunny 6 days into the New Year.