Catching Up On Things

There is always so much going on down here in Puerto Vallarta that it is hard to keep up with everything on my blog.  But I will try to do a bit of catching up.

Last night a bunch of us went to dinner at epoca, a beach-side restaurant just a little bit down the beach from us.

Epoca


But, before I get to that, and it may very well require a separate post, here are a few of things we have done over the past several days.

The place where we stay has a monthly pot-luck deck party and, as always, I made my much beloved deviled eggs.  The Mysterious Chinese Woman made her soon to be famous chili.  I didn't take too many pictures, but I had to have one taken of me with Marge, an old and dear friend who color-coordinated her outfit and her lipstick to go with what I was wearing.

She Also Planted A Big Kiss On My Cheek


These parties are always a nice way to re-establish old friendships as the same people tend to come down here year after year.  As always we had plenty to eat and drink and just generally caught up on everyone's gossip.

Several of us also hit the River Cafe again and this time I did get the Lamb Osso Buca and it was, indeed delicious.

Our Dinner Party


Then our friends Sharon and Paul who are staying out at the marina until their unit here is available at the end of the month invited us over for cocktails. 

Sharon And Paul On Their Deck


They have a very nice view of the marina and you get to gaze out at the fancy yachts moored there.

Views From The Deck




The lighthouse that you see has a nice bar up on the top.  I have had drinks up there before and you get a pretty nice view.  It used to be nicer before some of the relatively recent construction of towering timeshare, well, towers.  Not the kind of places I would ever want to stay, but to each their own.

A Great Place For A Drink, Or Two (Two If By Sea, After All)


But Sharon and Paul's deck was a pretty good place to have a cocktail as well.

This Will Certainly Do


There are a lot of nice restaurants surrounding the marina and after our cocktails we went out for dinner at Rincon de Buenos Aires, a very nice Argentinian restaurant.

A Happy Group


I don't know what everyone had, but I had a really delicious flank steak and the Mysterious Chinese Woman had beef chunks and vegetables on a skewer.  She had more than she could eat so we brought the leftovers home and I had a couple of chunks the next day.  Even cold they were still tender and juicy.  Certainly a place to which I would return.

And, of course, a dinner at Que?Pasa, formerly Sweeny's, is always a favorite.

Pork Chops And Meatloaf And Drinks


You probably already recognize Peter and Maria.  We were joined by friends of their's Irina and Mike.  Mike was kind of tucked away in the group shot so I figured I better make up for it.

And Here Is Mike


Actually, I wasn't in the mood for either the pork chop or the meatloaf so I ordered the shrimp special.  It comes in a large bowl shaped glass and you are supposed to get fourteen shrimp.  They are served in a warm broth and it is usually pretty good.  This time, however, I only got six very small shrimp.  When I complained and showed the waitress the six tails she said that not all of the shrimp had tails.  When I assured her that all of the shrimp did have tails she didn't seem to believe me.  She went into the kitchen and returned with the cook who apologized and said they only had six shrimp left.  Hmm, you would have thought they would have said something before serving them to me.  Oh well, they didn't charge me for them so who cares.

Just a couple of days ago our friends Bill and Marcie arrived in town.  They are staying at our friends Tom and Bella's place until their unit is available at the end of the month so we went out to Tom and Bella's with Pete and Maria to greet them and have a nice little barbecue.

Greeting The New Arrivals


Well, you can't really see much of Marcie, she is in the group hug.  Bill is the guy in the middle of the picture.  We got so engrossed in catching up on our vaious physical ailments (this is what old people do) and having a jolly good time that I didn't get around to taking any more pictures.  A pity, really.  We did have some mighty fine chicken and a delicious key lime pie type of dessert that Bella made.

And that pretty much ahould bring you up to date on the recent events here.  I guess I will save epoca for a separate post, but I will leave you with a picture from my balcony.

You Can See Why I Love This Place


Today a bunch of us went to Pipi to celebrate Pete's birthday and that will have to wait for another post as well.  You will see that we had a great time there as well.  But then having a great time here is pretty much par for the course.  And it sure beats the hell out of the cold rain and fifty mile-an-hour winds that they are having back home in Brooklyn.