In My Heart ~ The One & Only

 

Were you wondering where I was last week?  I was at the gorgeous One & Only Palmilla resort in San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico.  I decided that some serious team building was needed in the Preppy Empty Nester Corp., so I took my team of one to Mexico.

Adios San Miguel

 

Hello, dear friends.  My last post chronicles our fabulous visit to San Miguel de Allende.  You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

There are a few things that I want to mention.  First of all, our entire travel experience was seamless.  As I noted, traveling on Christmas Eve day paid off for us.

San Miguel Through AJ's Lens

 

Hello, dear friends.  I hope that you are having a good week.  This post is Part 2 of our Christmas holiday.  Adorable Jonathon is the man behind the lens.  When he sent me his photos, I thought that they caught the flavor of San Miguel and deserved a post of their own.  I added some commentary and also a few articles of interest.  

If you missed Part 1, you can find it here.

Expats plus foreigners make up ten percent of the population of 140,000.

Our Holiday In Pictures

 

Hello, dear friends.  I hope that you enjoyed your weekend.  We got together with friends on Friday night, which is always a good time.  Saturday, we headed to Costco when it opened to avoid the crowds.  The rest of the weekend was cold and dreary, so we watched a couple of movies and read our books.  That's my idea of a perfect January weekend.

Today, I am sharing bucket loads some photos with you of our Christmas getaway to San Miguel de Allende.  We invited the girls and Adorable Jonathon to join us as our Christmas present to them.  It took them less than a full minute to say yes.

A New York State of Mind

Hello, dear friends.  I hope that you had an enjoyable weekend.  The Mister and I spent ours in NYC visiting our #1 and Adorable Jonathon.  The weather was positively gorgeous.  Perfect shopping weather.

Again, we stayed at the Essex House, which is always such a treat.  It is located across the street from picturesque Central Park.  It's a great location for shopping and Broadway shows.  And best yet... it is walking distance from the newlyweds' love nest.

We took Amtrak and arrived in the city at lunchtime.  The newlyweds were both working, so we were on our own for the afternoon.

If you have read my past posts detailing our adventures in NYC, you know that we love Fig & Olive and it's usually our first stop after checking in to the hotel.

The food and service are always topnotch.

The Mister's favorite thing to do is order lots of little plates so he can try many different dishes.  Fig & Olive offers tons of creative crostinis.   We even decided over a glass of wine or two to make crostinis the theme of our next dinner party. 

The Mister is crazy about their flavored olive oils.

The next stop was to pick up some sweets for the newlyweds.

How cute is this?

My girl tells me that Nello is known for its fabulous Italian food.

Teddy Bears aren't the only ones who love it.

Plenty of celebs do too!

The next stop has been on my bucket list for a while.

Afternoon tea at the Plaza.

First thing... I paid my respects to Eloise.

Our girls had the Eloise doll, and KTG gave them a beautiful autographed Eloise book when they were young.

As I've mentioned many times, my hubby is in the hotel biz, and we have made many moves in the last thirty years. When we relocate, we usually end up living in the hotel for a few months.  

Our first move was to a hotel in Torrey Pines, California.  We were waiting for our house to be built and lived in the hotel for three months.  It was quite luxurious and came equipped with butlers wearing tails.   At the time, we only had our #1. Our sidekick was a rambunctious five-pound Yorkie named Jackhammer. 

One Saturday, when we were out for lunch, the Mister's beeper went off.  Jackhammer had escaped while the maid was cleaning the room.  When we got back, we found 5 young men in tails running all over the hotel in search of the escapee.  

The good news is that Jackhammer was found.
The bad news is that the breakout was the first of many.
  

Nestled in the napkin were warm buttery scones.

Those were the Mister's favorite.

What a way to spend an afternoon!

I highly recommend the experience.

That evening, we met #1 and Adorable Jonathon at their darling apartment for a glass of Vino.  We then went on to have dinner at Wolf, one of several outlets located in the new Nordstrom.

One of the apps that we ordered was this Albacore Tuna Credo.
Both the food and service were fabulous.

The next day we met the newlyweds for brunch.  We got to the Meatpacking district early, so we decided to take a stroll through Chelsea Market.

The Mister was in awe of all the fabulous food.  

He was like a kid in a candy store.

With eyes glazed over, the Mister visited every vendor.

I get the same look when I am in Sephora.

Our lunch destination, Pastis, was right down the street.

When we left, the heated patio was packed.

We all love steak tartare, and this one is one of the best.  I had Chicken Paillard salad for lunch, which was so darn good, it practically brought tears to my eyes.

We shopped in Soho for a couple of hours.  This is a pic of the Amazon store, which not only sells books, but also all of the most popular items sold from their website.

We stopped at Serafina for a glass of vino before going back to the hotel.  Notice the wall with all the crayon signings.

The Mister is so happy to now have a guy in the family.

That evening, we had dinner at Harry Cipriani's.  I was very excited to go because we have been to Harry's Bar in Rome a couple of times which we love.  Also, this restaurant was mentioned a few times in Finding Mrs. Ford, one of my favorite books of 2019.   

Our faces are smiling because of the company we keep.  

I won't go into the details, but to say that the food and service were deplorable at Harry Cipriani's would be an understatement.

Our last stop was a final glass of wine at the hotel.

Our weekend came to a sweet end with a hug and a kiss to the best NYC tour guides in town.

It was a fabulous weekend.  

The only thing missing was our #2!

If you are interested in reading about our other adventures in NYC, you can find them here, here, here, and here.

Until next time...

We got home to hear a very good report from the babysitter.

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La Samanna / A Slice of Heaven

Hello, dear friends.  Did you have a good week?  Not to brag or anything, but mine was a slice of heaven.  

Allow me to backtrack. 
The Mister and I have lived through six very long New England winters.  It is always the first week in January that we realize that we have forgotten to plan an escape from the gawdawful arctic chill ahead.  

Not this year, thanks to the Mister.  He came home one night from work on a warm August evening with a mysterious smile on his face.  He told me that he had big news.

Did you meet Oprah?
Did you book me a facelift? 
Or a few thousand dollars worth of liposuction?

No to all of the above.  
And then when he saw my disappointment, he proclaimed... 
I booked a week at LA SAMANNA in January!!  

As much as I was fantasizing about meeting Oprah with my thirty-year-old new face and killer bod, I jumped for joy. 

The time finally arrived.  We flew to Philly and then went on to Saint Martin.

When was the last time you flew with an empty seat next to you, let alone an empty plane?

The flight to Saint Martin, however, was packed to the doors. 

The Mister and I have been to St. Martin several times.  

As a matter of fact, we spent our honeymoon there.

We had been to La Samanna a couple of times for lunch, but we never stayed there.

When we arrived, we were greeted by some warm welcomes from the staff members.

As we entered the lovely open-air lobby, we spotted it.

The Money Shot!

We enjoyed our complimentary rum punches.

We also noshed on some yummy apps.

I can get used to this!

I got this pic off the website because my photos came out too dark.  We had a beautiful waterfront suite with two terraces - one off of the living area and also one on the rooftop.

First stop... the beach.

I couldn't help wondering if Captain Lee was at the helm of that yacht out there.

A girl can dream...

Who needs to dream?

Here comes my Adonis right now.

Every evening, we stopped into the cozy bar for a glass of vino.

 We dined at the waterfront restaurant at the hotel a few times.

The food and waitstaff were incomparable.

The next day we had a great breakfast.
We needed the nourishment because we were on pool duty.

The resort has two pools.  
There were very few guests sitting at them.

Most of them were enjoying the beach.

This was our home away from home for the week.

One day, we ventured into Phillipsburg and had lunch at Holland House on the boardwalk.

We had been there before, and we lost our taste for it this time.
The staff was apathetic, and the food was subpar.
And I'm being kind.

But as always, I see the brighter side of life provided I have a full glass in my hand! 

Instead of buying me my customary piece of jewelry, the Mister decided to buy me the entire store.

I guess he shouldn't have had that second drink.

Back to pool duty.

It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it!

Every evening around 5ish, our fabulous waitress, Alexandra, would come over and talk us into having a cocktail.  She was an awful influence on us!

After a lot of arm twisting, we would agree and tell Alexandra to bring us the drink of her choice. She had so much fun coming up with a new drink of the day.  And we had fun enjoying the fruits of her labor. 

One evening, we had a fabulous dinner at Bistro Caraibes in Grand Case.  

Grand Case is a small town on the French side, which is known for its wonderful restaurants.  

As I mentioned in my last post, the Mister is learning French during his daily commute.

He did his best to impress the waitstaff with his new skill.  
The waiters smiled politely.
They earned every cent of their tip.

We also spent an afternoon in Marigot, the French Side.  Our driver, Lucien, recommended this restaurant, Be Kool. In our continuous effort to up our coolness quotient, we had high hopes for this restaurant.

We were not disappointed.  I had the best Dover Sole I ever had in my whole life.  The Sea Bass that the Mister ordered was a big hit as well.  Be Kool is a family-run restaurant with Mom and Pop waiting tables, and their two sons were covering the kitchen.  When the Mister told Pop that how much we enjoyed our lunch, the Pop brought the Mister back to the kitchen to introduce him to his sons.

The Pop was sweet enough to end our meal with a shot.  

A good sign!
If he downs that shot, I will have a very successful shopping trip ahead of me.

The last evening, we had dinner at a restaurant on the beach called La Cigale.

The food and service were spectacular.
The Mister is watching the gent fileting his wife's fish.
He is so darn protective of me.

Amuse-bouche!

One of our fabulous apps.

Before we knew it, we were enjoying our last breakfast in Paradise.

This is our driver for the week, Lucien.  He is such a wonderful guy and so professional.  I highly recommend him to anyone who may be planning a trip to St. Martin. This is his Facebook page.

On the flight, I watched this darling movie that I downloaded on Amazon.  Here is the trailer.

Amazon

I read three books while I was away.  I absolutely adored this one. I have a book post coming up soon where I will write the review.

That's it for now.
As the Mister would say over and over again
Au revoir!

Until next time...

Photo by Andrew Pons 

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