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Just a manic Monday… on vacation!

June 7, 2026 //
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So, dear reader, I owe you some updates. There have been some decent adventures since we last met! I still owe the three remaining days of our WNY / Finger Lakes adventure. Then we returned home and the following week (this most recent week) I went off to Baltimore for a conference (I’ll likely cover that in a single post). Finally, this recent Friday and Saturday I spent with my friends in their timeshare out in the Shenandoah Valley. But one more – we’re planning a camping trip with the dog in two weeks. This shall be an adventure as the dog has never camped before! But for now, we will start with the Martin House.

May 25 started just as many late-spring days in Buffalo – with clouds and gloom. Well, the gloom continued. It didn’t rain though; it was generally pleasant. We had breakfast at SPoT Coffee again with better service than the two prior days (did I mention how much I enjoy their espresso grind?) and then we checked out and went for a tour at The Martin House.

The Darwin D. Martin House in Buffalo, New York, is a world-class architectural masterpiece designed by Frank Lloyd Wright between 1903 and 1905. It’s widely considered to be the best (well, in my opinion one of the best) examples of his prairie house era. Martin was a successful executive, the chief financial officer, I believe, of a large company headquartered in Buffalo at the time and very much appreciated by his employers. He eventually was in charge of building a new corporate headquarters, also designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, but as a lead up to this he commissioned his own house. Before building his own house he had other homes built on the same plot of land. The gardener’s house above, for instance, was commissioned, as was his sister’s house:

And here is the view of the Martin house from his sister’s house – probably the only place where you can take a photograph inside at the Martin House. You can see from the above there are large beds of peonies that are likely blooming now, two weeks later, but at the time they were just green. Frank Lloyd Wright designed the windows used throughout.

Including these on the main house. Again, you can take photographs from the outside but not inside. Below this line of windows there are glass windows allowing light in to the basement level as well.

Upon entry to the main house you have a view towards where I am standing in this perspective. The entry has a door to the steps on the street as well as a door back in this direction to the walkway to the conservatory. The entry itself is fairly compact for the era with an archway to the left on entering (to the right from here) into a receiving room and then to the right (to the left from here) into a formal family area. If you have ever been in a Wright House it follows his philosophy of “compress and release.” The doorway and movement between rooms is compressed and then the room spreads out away from you and higher than you – the release as it is, capturing you into the space.

The view through the entry and down the covered corridor to the conservatory yields this – intended to impress.

What I enjoyed the most in all of this space was the Steinway covered with white oak; most are black but his wife had one covered with white oak. It returned to the house many years ago and is played by volunteers for maintenance.

While we were at the Martin house we started getting text messages from the Inns of Aurora where we were checking in later that day – 140 miles away! Seems they accidentally did not change our spa appointment to the next day. Therefore, we did not dillydally. We moved on, but first stopping at the Walden Galleria to verify that Western New York is not entirely populated by Dead Malls. I had to buy some sponge candy and a pair of swim trunks! And lunch of course (which sucked – mall food court food).

At the Inns we checked into the Zabriskie House, our home away from home for two nights. We definitely could have stayed longer. We enjoyed a couple’s massage at the spa here this evening (more on that later – we returned to the spa for their outdoor thermal spa experience the next day). We would both rate their massage experience as superb, probably the best compared to other resorts where we’ve enjoyed the massage experience (Woodloch Resort for instance, and Wildflower Farms in Gardiner New York). Not that there was anything wrong at the other places… we both realized that some of the reason why we enjoyed this experience better may be because we both had a male masseuse! Bigger hands with pressure more spread out.

We had dinner at the 1833 Kitchen and Bar which is part of the Inns. It was their third night open for outdoor dining for the season.

There are a ton of wines on the list I would have enjoyed traveling but the slow service allowed me to get as far as two only. We did enjoy some good food like this tuna crudo –

And some really good lamb as well (along with salmon, without the lardons please for her). Pro tip – some members of the guest services staff will do nearly anything for you, including the guy who checked us in who said he was “like a dog with a frisbee” and would answer any question. He told us how to get down to the waterfront in the morning for instance:

“Absolutely! No bother at all! You’re throwing a frisbee at a dog! I love this stuff! You will kindly find your way to the right side of The Rowland House following the grass down to the dock just behind the house. The Rowland House is marked with a large R on your map and just across Main St. from your location at Zabriskie House.”

But our true reward for the journey was sunset over Cayuga Lake.

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Categories Buffalo and the Finger Lakes May 2026, Domestic Travel, Foodie, travel, Travel Logistics

Buffalo Marathon Sunday

May 31, 2026 //
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And now finally the main reason we went on a road trip. There was a marathon for somebody to run! Fortunately, when we woke up early Sunday morning it was fairly dry. I say fairly because it did rain a bit during the marathon.

Buffalo Marathon starts at 6:30 in the morning near city hall. The route the race takes consists of three different “loops” each re-converging on downtown Buffalo. This made it easy for me as a spectator.

The first loop came up Delaware Avenue in front of The Westin where we were staying. This made it easy for me – I crawled out of bed just as Julia was leaving to head to the start line. By the time I arrived downstairs it was ten minutes before start time. I was able to cross the street and find a spot to cheer and so when she went by I yelled “Hey Julia!” She heard me even though I was on the opposite side of the street.

The race headed north for three miles, looped through a neighborhood, and then came back south – in front of the hotel again. This gave me the opportunity to attempt to get coffee. Unfortunately, everybody else and their brother decided to line up in front of SPoT coffee as well yet SPoT was not budging on their 7am opening time. As the day before had not gone well with a 5k running outside the front door once I realized it would only be the two employees who hadn’t been in the best of spirits the day before – AND they were NOT planning to open the doors until at least 7:15 – I abandoned and went back to the hotel room and made Hotel Room Coffee. Ugh.

My next cheering spot was about five blocks away from here. Once the course returned to City Hall it took a turn to the northwest and looped around one of the west side neighborhoods and went out along a waterfront park. I missed catching Julia here as I had taken another trip to the hotel room but I did catch her again when she returned. Then I relocated two miles further along the course – a decent half mile jog to get there – where I caught her returning from the waterfront where we ran Saturday morning.

She came running over to me at that point. “My phone is dead,” she told me.

“What???”

“My phone is dead,” and she held it out.

Then she started running away because I was not getting it.

Somehow in that five second window of time I realized she wanted me to charge her phone. And meet her further along the course. I did my mental calculations where I realized that even though the train wasn’t running and likely buses were not either that this was a town where I could easily get my car out of the garage and drive completely around the race course without running into traffic impediment and meet her…. Well, I was at mile 11 and I knew where to find her at mile 17.

“Hey, wait!” She gave me her phone.

So, I ran the mile back to the hotel. I figured that I needed to get to the hotel in about ten minutes, spend no less than ten minutes inside (charging the phone), spend about 15-20 minutes driving and parking, and then be in place to hand it back to her at I think it was 9:15am.

I was correct on my calculation. However, I went into the hotel and put the phone on the charger for five minutes, found my charged battery pack, hooked the phone up to THAT, and went down to the garage. Without my car keys! Back inside again.

Then I had to get out of the garage down a closed street which meant I had to drive on the sidewalk.

Here is our hero through the trees in Delaware Park just past Mile 17 at 9:19am! She was thankful – I managed to charge the phone to nearly 50% in an hour. Neither of us knows why it went dead.

Less than half a mile up the park roadway there was another junction point where the race course comes together. Next to the bluegrass band tent above there was a park refreshment stand which had coffee so I was able to replenish. Here it did start drizzling a bit but it wasn’t too miserable. After Julia passed here (Mile 21 at that point) I jogged back to my car (another mile…) and drove back towards the hotel.

I actually managed to catch her twice more, an all time record for me. On the drive back I came upon a traffic circle which was closed on one side for the marathon so I jumped out of the car here and cheered her and a number of the others on (they all looked familiar at this point as I had seen them all seven times thus far). And then when I parked at the hotel (back over that sidewalk again) I hopped outside just as she and the others were coming down Delaware Avenue.

She finished the race and we went back to The SPoT for coffee. Fortunately a third person had come in. Lunch was two pizzas from Frankie Primo’s +39 as takeout.

Naps were had all around and then Julia woke me up saying, “I feel like going for a walk. Do you feel like going for a walk?” Who goes walking after running 26.2 miles? Nobody I know.

The weather was beautiful by Buffalo standards for the end of May. It was dry and warm. As you can see the streets were reopened as well.

We made our way out to the seaport park hoping to eat outside at the marina tiki bar. Unfortunately they did not have their outdoor area open so we abandoned and walked back towards the hotel instead, ending up at Big Ditch Brewery.

And finally I had wings.

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Categories Buffalo and the Finger Lakes May 2026, Road Trips, Running, travel

Buffalo – the day before a marathon (not mine)

May 30, 2026 //
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When I was still a serious runner if I were traveling to run a race, especially a longer distance, I would wake up at a reasonable time the day before, have a relaxing breakfast with coffee, and then maybe wander off to the race expo. I might do some light activity for the afternoon, perhaps visiting a museum or do some mild sight seeing, but otherwise I would not exert myself or spend too much time on my feet. And there was always an Italian dinner, maybe pasta, in the evening. Since I’m no longer running the routine for me is different, and the person I travel with, The Boss, has her own routine.

We wake up the day before the race and she does a shakeout run. This is one of the few times I’m permitted to run with her so I dress to run as well. We take different approaches to this. She wakes up, has coffee, relaxes and does a crossword and Wordle or something similar, has a snack, and then heads out. I wake up, get ready, and head out. Not much waiting.

Our run on this particular day took us down to Buffalo’s outer harbor where we ran along the waterfront a bit. As you can tell the weather wasn’t perfect.

We saw the old lighthouse.

We saw Canada off in the distance. In fact, when I ran a speed test from the hotel in Buffalo it told me I had been assigned from an IP address pool in St. Catherines, Ontario.

There were these hardy fools out in the weather getting their exercise in. By this point the drizzle began.

It rained a bit harder after a while. We ended up making our way back to the neighborhood around the hotel where we had coffee at a place called SPoT. This appears to be a local chain of coffee shops where they were utterly unprepared for additional foot traffic for marathon weekend. The espresso was amazing though (I’ll note now their espresso beans make a good latte or espresso but not necessarily good coffee – I brought a bag home). As there were no other craft places nearby we ended up going there more than once.

After a shower we headed out to the expo. Buffalo Marathon has a great race expo especially in relation to the size of the race. It isn’t a huge race, although it isn’t a small race either. It seems to suit the size of the city without overwhelming it.

Even though the weather had turned into crap by this point we did do a bit of sightseeing along the way. Buffalo does have a range of architecture.

Check out this mural for instance.

We eventually made our way to Streetlight Brasserie for brunch. This place has been open for a few years and seems to be using its space wisely. They get a decent “diner crowd” for brunch and midday meals in addition to evenings for more upscale dinner. They have oysters (currently PEI oysters) and other seafood dishes. But they also have two long bars and frequent live music. We happened past it the next day, Sunday, as well hoping to duck in for a bite to eat but they had a band playing that seemed to have brought in about a hundred or so patrons younger than us all of whom were standing around drinking rather than sitting and relaxing so we ended up going elsewhere for that visit.

While we were in the Brasserie the weather took a turn for the worse and my umbrellas (borrowed from Reston Town Center) went inside out on the walk back to the hotel. So, I had no choice but to take a much needed nap, as The Boss did as well, but I did notice the Pierce Arrow Museum (aka the Buffalo Transportation Museum) on the map about thirty minutes walk away. When I woke I took a stroll down to visit it.

The Pierce Arrow Museum is partially dedicated to the history of Pierce bicycle and motorcar company as well as its subsequent mergers, but also dedicated to other transportation from the era of its heyday such as this Templar automobile. There were period outfits on display, relics from the company founding, numerous old bicycles and motorcycles, and other oddities in one room.

In a second room there were more modern classics and antiques.

When I saw my father a few days later I showed him photos of this Chevy 409. He had a similar model sixty years ago himself.

The Widow Maker was an interesting find. I remember when I was young a lot of people at the time were horrified at the dangers of motorcycles (they still are, just in a different way) and I suspect this is one of the reasons why – companies like Kawasaki learned how to produce more powerful motorcycles which appealed to people who had spent the 1960s buying muscle cars.

In one corner of the museum there were a handful of absolutely beautiful cars from a hundred years ago that had been converted and modernized along the way such as this 1932 Pierce Arrow with a big block Chevy engine and modern tires, wheels, brakes, and power steering and so forth.

I think this Eldorado was the star of the show, though. A 1957 model, exceedingly rare, and the most expensive vehicle, by far, that Cadillac produced during a pretty significant period.

There is one thing I did not notice immediately until I saw a couple of other museum patrons nosing around the back of the structure above. This area was roped off and at first I just figured the installation was to break up the space a bit until I noticed, in the roped off area, light up signs pointing to “Men’s Restroom.”

If you cannot guess what it is.

When the museum closed I spent some time wandering around the Allentown neighborhood trying, unsuccessfully, to find some deli items. Instead, I successfully found a Tim Horton’s. For dinner we went to Frankie Primo’s +39, with +39 being the country code to dial for Italy.

I enjoyed Frankie’s Maiale Sugo dish – slow roasted pork butt with thick noodles. And at the end of the meal they serve complimentary limoncello.

Again, an early night for us. The race would begin at 6:30am on Sunday.

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Categories Buffalo and the Finger Lakes May 2026, Domestic Travel, Foodie, Running, travel

Buenos Aires!

March 7, 2026 //
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Okay. Buenos Aires. We were in Buenos Aires on January 30 and 31. So, buckle up.

Before we left for South America Buenos Aires seemed as if it would take some logistics to handle. Instead, we learned it was similar to visiting New York City, London, Paris, Washington, Atlanta, or Montreal. Yes, there is traffic, but it is not crazy traffic. We thought it would not be easy to find places where it would be safe to walk around. We were wrong – much of the city, much of the center city, seems safe, safer than Santiago – and before we arrived in Santiago it seemed more approachable. So, arriving in Buenos Aires. Let me describe it to you.

When we planned our South America and Antarctica journey we had realized that one of us would be marathon training and mostly on a treadmill. As we planned to be out the evening we were in Buenos Aires (Friday the 30th), and as we had to fly home on Saturday night arriving on Sunday to be back at work on Monday, we decided Saturday would be a relatively easy day. It was. We slept in a bit, one of us spent the morning on the treadmill while the other got organized to fly home and walked some laps on deck, and we enjoyed some of the solitude of a ship in port for a while. Let me describe to you what this was like.

The view from the ship in Buenos Aires is lovely – not. It’s a view of a port and parking lots. At least unlike some other ports you don’t drive through huge stacks of containers to get to the cruise port. Instead, you come off the ship, you board a bus and drive past containers, and then you drive across parking lots for trucks and containers to get to the cruise port. It’s not a scenic cruise terminal. Two years ago the cruise terminal itself was struck by a storm during cruise season and nearly demolished – it has now been rebuilt which is pretty amazing.

Is it a nice terminal? I guess so? But it’s chaos outside. There is not much space for pickup; we attempted to get an Uber across the street but the terminal area has 3G signal rather than 4G or LTE so it’s hard to catch an Uber, and beyond about three blocks from the terminal it really is not a good part of town to walk as there is a tightly packed South American neighborhood-that-was-built-without-authority where as a tourist you do not want to pass. But beyond there, get about a mile or a mile and a half from the terminal, you are in a beautiful cosmopolitan city. Ignore the news about Buenos Aires’ currency catastrophe. Ignore the threats you hear; it’s like being in a Spanish-speaking Brooklyn in my opinion.

Similar to Montevideo we aimed to have a market lunch in Buenos Aires. This was another grill open to the bar in the middle of a market – this time it was Mercado de San Telmo and forgive me I do not have the name of the restaurant within the market. We actually brought my mother along for this. Afterwards we explored the neighborhood. Two blocks away there is an outdoor art market which we explored.

As was the case with a lot of other places we visited we saw street dancing in the park.

And then we enjoyed a wine tasting in a wine shop! This was another thing I specifically sought out and one of the reasons we visited San Telmo as there were another of wine merchants. We actually brought a couple of bottles home from here (no surprise really), one of which can be purchased locally here. Interestingly the shopkeeper used Google Translate to speak out his descriptions of the wines and play them back. Honestly I could have done without that.

We saw interesting sights on the streets in San Telmo. And then we moved on back to the ship for a short siesta before heading out for the evening.

As is the case with a lot of tourists we ended up at a tango show. Our destination, courtesy of a Holland America excursion, was the theater stage at Cafe de Los Angelitos.

At the theater we were offered a cafe or dessert. Still working off lunch we focused on the pavlova which seems to be the national dessert of Buenos Aires (yes, I know Buenos Aires is not a country, but with many places it seems like there’s Buenos Aires and then there is the rest of the country). This was followed by an hour tango show with a mix of modern and traditional tango dancing.

The dancing was spectacular.

As was the singing.

This was well worth it. I think I’d see tango once a week if I were spending a summer in Buenos Aires.

And then we were done. Back on the bus for a ride to a closed door restaurant.

Apparently Buenos Aires has a number of closed door restaurants – relatively small restaurants focused on serving privately. Basically they are the speakeasy of restaurants. Ours seated I think about 30 people, so two thirds of a tour bus. I didn’t take any pictures at the restaurant. I think I would have enjoyed it more if we had not had a large lunch. As it was, the wine was great, the appetizer was good, but the steak dinner was the same as the others we had in South America – and I don’t remember what my partner had (she does not eat beef). It made for a long day. I think if I were to plan it again I would have planned my own tango stop followed by a more avant garde dinner somewhere, maybe even modern sushi.

We were back on the ship around 11:00 in the evening, so very early by local standards, ready to sleep for eight hours before waking up to be off the ship at 9am. And more on that tomorrow.

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Categories South America - Antarctica January 2026, travel

Punte del Este – self-guided wanderings and suggestions

February 7, 2026 //
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Our first visit to Uruguay, and our second to last port stop before arriving in Buenos Aires, was Punte del Este.

Punte del Este appeared over the bow as we were both on the treadmill. Overcast skies with a marine layer which promised to burn off. Puerto Madryn was warm and Puerto Madryn was a beach town, but Punte del Este was more of a modern beach town in the style of a mini Miami Beach. This was also a port where we arrived relatively late – at 10am.

There are even cars from Miami here.

The way Punta del Este is set up is such that there is nowhere close to the walkable city for a full pier large enough to take even a small cruise ship and it does not look as if this will change. But once you navigate a 25 minute tender ride it is a great port for a walking tour. Both Lonely Planet and the ship had maps that included a decent map towards walking the peninsula. In theory you could walk the whole thing in about 90 minutes; we took three hours. It looked shorter on paper. Towards the end we learned we walked close to five miles – something which came back to haunt me the next day as a five mile walk impacts marathon training if that’s what you’re doing (I am not).

This tour took in sights such as:

La Mano de Punta del Este, the local answer to Washington’s “The Awakening” which is sadly now out in Maryland.

A funky modern art sculpture in a median. In the photo above it looks larger than it really is. Honestly, not necessarily worth the walk.

Our Lady of the Mercedes Benz church, or at least that’s what I call it. This is a nice looking church, a century old so I suppose it is old as far as Punte del Este is concerned, but otherwise not immensely notable, although it is across from the lighthouse in a very tony single family home residential neighborhood.

The first true tourist site we saw after leaving the port was this lighthouse, in the center of the peninsula rather than on the edge.

But the first interesting site we saw leaving the port were these smashed up cars. At first we thought there had been a rather significant accident right there and the city had merely pushed the vehicles aside, but in Uruguay and later Buenos Aires we realized that the local practice is to tow and deposit smashed cars next to the police station. There were probably a dozen or so here and we saw even more in Buenos Aires.

Punta del Este has a great shopping street with upscale brands as well as more common brands. Montevideo, the next day, turned out to be similar as well. Prices for every day, non-name-brand goods are reasonable, but prices for items sold on the global market for most of us were less expensive at home. I think, for instance, we saw Hoka shoes here on sale for about $250 USD whereas at home we would pay half that.

As it is a supposedly laid back beach town with some money we also saw a number of classic cars and jeeps.

This was merely parked on the street.

Another one, for example. This isn’t Santiago, or even Buenos Aires, where something such as this would get stolen pretty quickly.

We saw this beautiful early 1970s Ford pickup truck walking the promenade along the Atlantic from the point up to the hand.

But the upscale vehicle of choice seemed to be the Range Rover Velar. This example, and several others, had made the journey either via road (nine hours) or road and ferry (six hours) from Buenos Aires and were likely here for the summer.

We bought some wine here in Punta del Este. It didn’t turn out to be cheap, but we focused on upscale wines we could not get at home. It was more of a purchasing experience than a tasting experience though. And now it is sitting downstairs in the rack waiting out “Dry” February.

By this point in our travels, with Buenos Aires approaching, we neither wanted another plate of seafood nor did we want the culinary investment of a steak (spoiler alert – I ate three steaks over the following three days). Pizza seemed to be the meal of choice.

This time I was the one who enjoyed the very large local beer.

We visited our waiters Muis and Tri for the final time this evening and wished them well on their journeys home to Southeast Asia – a journey that involves four flights.

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Categories South America - Antarctica January 2026, travel

Puerto Madryn and the Cellar Master’s experience

January 27, 2026 //
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So, in a few different places I’ve asked after port safety in Montevideo, especially around the port / Mercado area and in general the advice is “we were there a few days ago and it was fine but as usual in a big city…” etc.

In Buenos Aires of course the advice is different – do not walk from the port area.  The recommendations are to get a taxi or Uber to where we are going or at least as far as Plaza General San Martin, but much of Buenos Aires is still safe for people who look like better targets than Julia and I.  Generally, but not always, we’re not the first target, especially on a Holland America cruise.  Until recently neither of us wore jewelry or watches worth stealing either.

One of the things I end up doing every time we travel is I try to figure out if it’s safe for myself or a marathon runner to run outside.  There is a fun little assessment I do regarding local weather conditions, traffic assessment, and comfort level.  You’d be surprised where people aren’t comfortable running outside!  For instance, sometimes places like Avignon, France, are lousy places for runners even in the wee hours of the morning because everybody is calling out for you!

So far, Puerto Madryn was one of our favorite places anywhere we’ve traveled for running (with obvious exceptions like Boston and New York City). Puerto Madryn has La Rambla along the sea which continues in some form or another more than three miles out to the point and to the ecological center.

An obvious turn around point for most guests when they walk or run from the ship is Monumento Indio al Telhuelche on a point of land at the end of the main beach.

This is a monument to the labor movement of the indigenous peoples in Patagonia several decades ago. It also has a lovely view.

View from the ship from three miles away.

The view beyond. I would have loved to keep going, but there was plenty to do. We turned around and ran back the other direction where I stopped near the pier for a large beer while waiting for The Boss to double my mileage.

This was a prelude to some souvenir shopping followed by lunch at Náutico Bistró Del Mar.

This was officially Mariscos de Golfo Nuevo with Golfo Nuevo being the gulf around Puerto Madryn.  I’m not totally certain all of it was directly from the gulf itself but it certainly seemed fresh, cooked as appropriate, and seasoned with lemons, onions, and vinaigrette appropriately.  

Perfect as we were planning to attend the Cellar Master’s dinner yesterday evening, a lunch to share with papas fritas and more large beers.

Eventually after some shopping we returned to the ship.  Our original plan was to run, have a beer, return to the ship, and then head back out, but Puerto Madryn is the type of place where when it’s summer you walk around casually as you are.  We felt comfortable in our fitness wear in open-door souvenir shops as well as dining outside.  

We returned in time for the tango sail away!

Last night we attended the Cellar Master’s dinner.  This appears to be focused on wine but is also one of the best meals available on an Oosterdam cruise.  Food and beverage staff spoke at length and we were introduced to the entire Pinnacle Grill team – although we’ve met them all at some point.

The menu was great.  Somehow we had a mix-up and two of us had scallops instead ofthe foie gras but we were both fine with that especially after yesterday’s bonus lunch.

The Pumpkin Sage Cappuccino is a delightful cream of pumpkin soup paired with a flavor-forward Pinot noir to offset it’s sweet and spicy nature.

For us the warm lobster salad was the star of the show.  If it were twice the size of us then it would be perfect for a meal on a day like yesterday.  This was paired with a rosé which actually wasn’t the greatest in our opinion, but we do think we would have enjoyed it better as stand alone on a sunny summer day.

The filet with the beef tenderloin and grilled shrimp was the best beef I’ve had on the ship so far but the shrimp were even better.  This was nicely paired with the same MTC Syrah I had with dinner a few nights ago!

Dessert was decidedly not a tuille BUT it was the perfect size!  Not huge!  And Graham’s Six Grapes was a perfect accompaniment.

We both enjoyed this meal better than the Konigstafel but I actually think that’s the point.  Konigstafel is to display a variety of what the king wants, Cellar Masters is to share food to pair with wine in more of a best-of.  We also dined by ourselves.  We’re at the point on a 22 day voyage where we are happy to not socialize as much.

One complaint?

Often it seems as if HAL glasses have spots on them.  They need rinse aid of some sort.

So, a few other things to talk about:

We’ve spent a fair amount of time playing table card games, mostly blackjack, and a little bit of craps.  We haven’t lost a ton of money – essentially we are even aside from an hour where I played about twelve days ago where I lost several hundred dollars and stepped away from the casino for four days as a result.  In the meantime, we’ve gotten to know the casino staff really well especially while playing craps.

Last night we decided to curtail our visits to the casino as we’re winding down the trip.  We spent a couple hours with our casino staff friends and gambling buddies playing craps.  It was actually the latest we’ve stayed “out” on this trip so far (we’ll likely stay “out” later on the last night when we go to a closed door restaurant).  It was a lot of fun.

Yesterday I mentioned running in port.  I’ve largely curtailed my treadmill activities although I may pay a visit tomorrow morning.  Instead, I’ve been walking an hour or more on the promenade.  I’ve had some interesting step totals –

Yesterday – 21,589 (Puerto Madryn)

Sunday – 11,468 (Sea Day)

Saturday – 16,519 (Falkland Islands)

Friday – 7,991 (Sea Day)

Thursday – 15,334 (Antarctica Day 4)

Wednesday – 16,212 (Antarctica Day 3)

Tuesday – 17,667 (Antarctica Day 2, with treadmill time)

Monday – 16,944 (Antarctica Day 1)

I had planned to do a number of yoga and pilates classes, but early in the cruise after my first class I couldn’t get motivated to attend because I didn’t enjoy the instructor’s style, so I never went back.  I’ve practiced yoga on Carnival and Cunard cruises, the last time being back in 2017, but I haven’t found any on this or my past two cruises that I truly enjoyed.  I almost think decent fitness classes were a casualty of the Covid era.

One thing they mentioned last night which I never would have known – HAL canceled their bottle stewards after Covid.  They still have a sommelier around and they have one full time in Pinnacle Grill, but not so much visibly; they just have a beverage runner in the MDR, at least on this ship.  You order through your waiter.  I wonder if HAL pushed bottles of wine versus elite beverage package more prior to Covid.  This, by the way, is one thing I like more about Cunard; HAL has a decent wine list and I think it’s better than our experience on Celebrity nearly four years ago now but you have to ask for it.  Cunard is a little more forward with their wine list.  And we enjoyed (again, this is four years ago, right before all of the cuts) Celebrity’s beverage service in Blu a bit better.

But again, especially in the dining room, Pinnacle Grill, and with food in general, HAL has surprised us.  The variety of food and drink available is stellar.  The MDR menu isn’t as generic as we had on our Celebrity Silhouette cruise a few years ago – and thus we didn’t dine in the main dining room. Here there are often more interesting dishes offered.  When you get to know the system and get to know your dining room staff, things are really in your favor.  And the Pinnacle Grill breakfast experience is top notch; to think we almost missed it because our goal had been to skip breakfast every day.

Now, speaking of the Lido Market buffet – we still haven’t returned for buffet dining, even though today is Cake Day (it’s hard to handle Cake Day after a few days of a lot of eating).  We’ve learned that they do not have an Asian corner on this ship as they do on Noordam and Westerdam (someone please correct me if I’m missing something regarding info and availability this winter please).

Also, today, without eating breakfast, I was craving a typical sandwich, something like a club sandwich, so we ordered room service lunch.  They warned us it would be a 45 minute wait; it was a ten minute wait and the sandwich was great.

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Categories Foodie, Running, South America - Antarctica January 2026, travel, Travel Logistics

Looking ahead to the Falkland Islands!

January 22, 2026 //
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Looking ahead – what the guide says about The Falkland Islands:

“Many ships call into the Falkland Islands on their way to or from Antarctica.  These stops usually turn out to be a pleasant surprise for those on board.  Located 477 km (296 miles) east of southern Argentina, the Falklands are a rare mix of wildlife hotspot and delightful inhabited outpost.  Comprising over 700 islands, the archipelago has a human population of around 4000, and a sea-bird population that dwarfs that.  For wildlife lovers the Falklands are a fantastic destination.  Unlike other subantarctic islands, they can be visited independently by scheduled flights.”

The archipelago is slightly larger than the area of Jamaica including water.  Theya re around 51 degrees south latitude, the equivalent to Southern Labrador, London, and Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula in the north.  They are, however, much colder and are constantly raked by strong winds.  There are no naturally recurring trees.  Temperature in the summer tends to be around 9 degrees Celsius / 48 degrees Fahrenheit and the sun shines more often than not.

The book talks about literally millions of petrels, albatrosses, penguins, gulls, and cormorants.  Black-browed albatrosses, rockhopper penguins, giant petrels, white-chinned petrels, Antarctic prions, Magellanic and blue-eyed cormorants, kelp geese, upland geese, crested ducks, flightless steamer ducks.  

There are mammals including Commerson’s and Peale’s dolphins, killer whales, Sei whales, elephant seals, South American fur seals, sea lions, etc.

We’re looking forward to it.  We have a Volunteer Point excursion planned.

We’re also reading up on our next stops in Puerto Madryn, Punta del Este, Montevideo, and finally Buenos Aires.  

I’ve been using Peter Carey & Craig Franklin’s Antarctica Cruising Guide for information on Antarctica as well as the surrounding islands including the Falklands; this includes the quote above.

For ideas on what to do in ports as well as Santiago and Buenos Aires, I’ve been using the latest version of Lonely Planet South America. This helped me give our private guide in Santiago a list of neighborhoods and sites to visit as well as for me to identify what was good for us to see on our own. I’m also using it for a similar guide in Buenos Aires. And it helped me with the museum in Ushuaia and to find Isabel Cocina al Disco in Ushuaia.

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Categories Books, South America - Antarctica January 2026, travel, Travel Logistics

Day 2 – things learned on a sea day off the coast of Chile

January 11, 2026 //
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So today was a good sea day if a bit busier than I would normally hope to be on a sea day.  Things I learned today –

  • If we order room service for delivery at 6am they will actually show up close to 6am.
  • All of the treadmills are in use by 7am; only one of us was able to run this morning and she spent 2 1/2 hours on the treadmill.  Not certain if anybody stuck around long enough to notice.
  • The fitness instructor doesn’t care if people doing yoga want to stay balanced on both sides.
  • HAL likes to focus on meal pacing.  Tonight they asked us if they were pacing our meals properly or if we would like to go faster or slower.
  • Even with a beverage package they want you to sign – sporadically, part of the time.
  • The cable boxes (IPTV converters) freeze when the WiFi freezes, or when Elon Musk coughs, but they can be rebooted from the hallway.

All in all, we’re beginning to understand why Holland America cruisers are so loyal.  Whenever you ask someone to do something, if it’s within their authority and they have time and energy, they do it.  People have been so helpful.  Tonight, we had a couple of additional chairs delivered to our cabin so now we can host parties.  We bought a beverage beyond the limit of our package and they told us not to worry about it.  They handled our query about fixed dining perfectly – and followed up, both from the concierge and the maître d’.  In short, it sounds like they were trying to tell us to “just use Club Orange and dine whenever we want.”  We decided “we’d rather depend on having the same waiter every night and having the same spot near the window.”  And they’re smart enough to tell us the Club Orange menu now (they were before, we just had not asked).

Our new living room

We had a couples massage this morning.  Swedish massage.  We both fell asleep in the middle.  The upsell was moderate to heavy, probably because they know we are suckers sometimes.  We also enjoyed the large hot hydrotherapy pool mostly to ourselves – picture loungers in the water with jets and bubbles; this is where we will be when we get chilled from watching for penguins flying in boats.   

“Penguins Landing in Small Boats”

We also went to the Cruise Critic meet and greet, where people clapped when I said “this is the longest we’ve taken off work in three decades…”. I met one of the cruisers who was staying at the Sheraton Thursday night who was having fits with the excursion crew in Santiago Thursday night.  He was actually at the winery at the same time we were at an earlier time (I wish he were in our crew because he’s an interesting guy).

We’re all settled in for another twenty days here.

So, because I couldn’t get on the treadmill this morning I walked several laps on the promenade instead this morning even though it was windy and cold.  I met a man who lives on the same road as my parents – he grew up “back home.”  Turns out he lived for 17 years about six blocks from where we live in Arlington.  What a small world.  

Because I couldn’t do the treadmill I decided I either need to get up tomorrow morning for treadmill time or I needed to do it this afternoon.  I went this afternoon instead (it’s rare for me to get motivated for this on vacation).  I watched The Extraordinary Attorney Woo on Netflix while running a few miles.  In this show whales act as a metaphor for Attorney Woo helping her analyze life as an autistic attorney.  Whenever she has a brainstorm, or a deep thought which breaks the wall of autistic thought patterns, she sees whales or dolphins, usually splashing out of the ocean.  Today, I had a pleasure of watching the whales with the ocean as a backdrop.  

Reporting in on logistical matters –

People dress nice-ish on dressy nights on HAL scenic cruises.  Nobody is messy but there are not too many dresses and we didn’t see too many tuxedos.  The split between suits and just a dress shirt seemed to be about 60/40 towards a suit.  Not too many people wore ties either (myself included; I’ll send photos sometime as I look perfectly presentable and professional without a tie).

Lamb chops

Dressy night got us a few extra menu options.  Tonight’s steak options were a tenderloin and a NY Strip Steak.  Orange menu got us a braised short rib.  I had “rack of lamb” which consisted of two thick lamb chops.  They were good and didn’t taste like they were sent from New Zealand so they may have actually been brought on the ship in Santiago.  At lunch today I had crab Louie salad.

Crab Louie salad

We played blackjack for a bit this afternoon, losing more than winning but having a good time.  We likely won’t play again for a few days as the next two are port days.  

Tonight, after calling the cable guy, we’re watching football.  We sent out laundry today and I called my kid to have a difficult conversation.  It’s almost as if we’re at home.  Well, we do our own laundry at home.

Weather this morning

Weather – cold and damp this morning, upper 50s (14C).  Warm and sunny this afternoon, around 70 (21C) but with nice warm sun.  I sat shirtless in the sun a bit and became a little pink.  Tomorrow…. I frankly have no idea but it looks like upper 50s and “chance of a shower.”  People report that weather can be highly variable in Puerto Montt and Puerto Chacabuco.  we’ll see.

Weather tonight

17,947 steps today.  Not enough sleep last night so we shall be sleeping soon.

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Categories South America - Antarctica January 2026, travel

We’re in Santiago!

January 8, 2026 //
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So it’s been a long day – and night and day.  We’re currently ensconced in the 21st floor lounge at the Sheraton in Santiago with a wonderful view of the city and mountains after two flights yesterday (one redeye), customs madness at the airport today, and a city tour with lunch.  Oh, by the way, it’s summer.

View from the Sheraton lounge

Logistically what we followed is we booked a private transfer through Cristian at Vamonos Tours.  He recommended we expand it to a city tour and I agreed as we did an upgrade to First / Business Class on American Airlines meaning the flight was actually restful and I wasn’t too certain the Sheraton would check us in early (spoiler alert – my mother flew in on a different flight today as well and they wouldn’t check her in without an extra fee).

Plaza des Armas

So I’ll say this. What enabled us to have the energy to do this touring was this – American’s Business Class to South America was great.  They offered us better service than I recall from Virgin Atlantic or British Airways’ business class although BA at least was a bit more comfortable (caveat – it wasn’t first class, and this was 2002 when I had the privilege to be upgraded there).  Although the lay flat bed once flat felt like a coffin where your feet were constrained, the food was great and the service was very good.  They even made us hot fudge sundaes.  The domestic product flying to Miami worked well for us as well although obviously there is no lay flat bed (who needs it on a flight less than three hours?) but they did call us out by name as we boarded and as they provided us service.

Today we stayed fit by walking and climbing St. Lucia hill with Hidalgo castle on it.  We managed to get more than four miles in (just one mile in the airport alone) and as of 6:57pm 9,586 steps.  After all of that craziness, we checked into the hotel (there’s a Walmart convention here in addition to a thousand Holland America cruisers), went up to our room, showered and siestaed.  This didn’t really do much for my six hour sleep debt according to Oura, but it let me decompress enough to write this all up.

View from St. Lucia

We’re truly inspired by the setting of the beautiful city of Santiago, in a valley surrounded by mountains, near the coast as if it were California.  Although it is rough around the edges, the people we encountered on the street and in the market today were incredible.  There is a lot of flair in the city.

Chinchinero Dancing

Our guide was happy we were lucky enough to show up when there was activity in the streets. He also laughed at us because he dropped us at the base of St. Lucia and told us to wait because he had instructions; we mis-heard him and walked up the mountain instead.

Mercado Central

One of the best parts of the day was seafood lunch at El Galeón at the market. It was such a lively scene there – on a random Wednesday afternoon in the summer. I’ve added photos and videos around the city – dancing in the streets, the Mercado itself, and of course a Pisco Sour.

Dancing
Mercado from the outside in the mid-afternoon sun
Pisco Sour
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Categories Foodie, South America - Antarctica January 2026, travel, Travel Logistics

Happy Christmas Eve dinner – seafood and yoga

December 25, 2025 //
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I always feel like The Waitresses – Christmas Wrapping is stuck in my head on Christmas Eve as I dash to and fro possibly while bundled up too tight, but today was typical Virginia, where the weather was showing it can be bright and sunny and warm for the day. And for this I took advantage of some outdoor time, first by walking to coffee with my retired old man group, then by walking the waterfront in Old Town because I arrived too early for yoga, and finally by enjoying the waterfront at dusk after having a mid-afternoon dinner.

Latte at Idido’s

Back before the earth cooled, or at least in the pre-COVID era, a coffee shop opened across the street from my home, where I was living in a large apartment building before I settled down and moved into a house. This was Idido’s Coffee and Social. I actually wrote entire proposals while sitting at Idido’s.

Once I moved I started walking to Idido’s a few times a week to get out of the house as well as I was still working from home all the time. I started noticing one of my neighbors was meeting his friends there, mostly retired civil servants, once a week, and eventually he invited me to join them.

Well, I have long since gotten out of the habit of going to Idido’s, but my neighbor’s group has grown to include between ten and eighteen people, and I still show up once or twice a month. That’s what I did today. I didn’t have to leave early to go to work thankfully. Instead, I left early got head to yoga.

Months ago I started going to a new yoga studio in Old Town Alexandria. Usually I go with The Boss, other times I go by myself (today was maybe the once this month I will go alone). And being the next town over you never know how long, with metro DC traffic, it will take to get there and find parking. Today’s answer? About 17 minutes. Sometimes it’s 30 or 40 minutes. End result, I was early.

Yes, I know I’m droning on and on about this but there’s a point.

View of DC from Alexandria

I walked out to the waterfront to a spot I have never experienced. Let’s call this “things to do while waiting for yoga.” On this point there was, until recently, an empty warehouse but now there is a city park. It has a great view. I took the photo above with my new phone, an iPhone 17 Pro that I figured would be great for penguin photos next month.

I tried to make a joke about penguins but it just wouldn’t fly.

A month ago I was persuaded to upgrade my phone for aforementioned penguins, in part because the camera is so impressive. Purely as demonstration, not necessarily of quality because nothing is great with full on electronic zoom, I offer you this.

The Capitol from six miles distant

A view of the Capitol from six miles distant – notice it’s just a zoom on the photo above, a separte photo. But still, it tells me I can zoom in on an emporer on the ice and have you, dear reader, see an emporer on the ice.

But enough of this. Yoga as great, mostly floor practice, lots of stretching, then I came home and took a nap.

Dinner was at 3pm on Ada’s on the River. They still had their lunch menu up which was fine, it’s great. Ada’s is a better value than going into DC for fancy food and has a more extensive menu than most places in Arlington

Beau Joie Brut NV Champagne

We had a full bottle of champagne rather than cocktails and glasses. The occasion seemed to call for it, and the $89 restaurant price of the Beau Joie seems to be not tooooo far off from the $59 Total Wine price of the Beau Joie (it wouldn’t have surprised me to find that it was $30 in the store, such is the usual markup).

Oysters and Tuna

They had James River oysters which we refer to as being good enough for a half dozen. We like our oysters a bit more saline and tighter and smaller; the Chesapeake and tributary oysters tend to be less saline and larger. But these were fine and Ada’s serves them with excellent accompaniments. We also had tuna tartare and a dark brioche bread.

Mussels were had

Ada’s does a great job with mussels, served with bread of course in a tomato broth with some spice and dill. After oysters, tuna, and mussels, it seemed to order something starchy, so of course there was a side of lobster mac n cheese. Two pots of mussels were the same cost as the lobster mac n cheese.

Time for Tokaji

In honor of Hungary I ordered a glass of Royal Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos. And then the salted caramel chocolate souffle.

Image of man stirring caramel into a souffle

This was actually the only flop of the day, and it honestly wasn’t a serious flop. The server brought the souffle out with a tin of caramel, but the caramel was lacking in quantity and cold. It wouldn’t pour. So, when he cut open our souffle with a spoon and poured it, it wouldn’t pour, so our poor sad souffle was sitting there looking like molten chocolate until he ran to the kitchen and heated up the caramel. It was good and tasty, but the presentation would have been better if it was as intended. Instead, I’ll need to make it at home!

And that’s all for today’s activities outside of the home. Inside the home I’m rolling out puff pastry. More on that tomorrow, maybe. And I’ll talk about yoga.

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Categories Foodie, yoga
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