Yesterday was a sea day which was lovely as a quiet space to sun, swim, have a massage (!), and watch the waves go by from the balcony. The only trouble was that the ship clearly thought we needed to be amused on a long day at sea, and they staged a huge lunch buffet….

Sunday, July 21 Today we were supposed to anchor outside Chios, Greece, but it was too rough for the tender to ferry people back and forth so they took us to Cesme, Turkey, instead, where we could dock. We strolled around and found ourselves downtown in a wonderful outdoor market. The vegetable stalls were breathtaking….

I am writing with my eyelids heavy with an impending nap. It’s about 3 in the afternoon on Saturday. We got up early this morning and watched the ship dock here in Kusadasi, Turkey. Houses, shops, hotels, and apartment buildings stagger up the steep hills rising from the water. We slipped in neatly between a…

July 18, evening, somewhere between Athens and Santorini On the ship, in my jammies, sitting on the balcony, under a spangled sky, moonlight bouncing off the waves, eating gummi bears. And no, it doesn’t get any better than this. Spent the day touring Athens, which seemed to be largely closed pending a visit from the…

Still playing catch up. July 18, Athens, in the morning. Good morning, Athens. Good morning, Acropolis. Good morning, sea. What a beautiful sight from our balcony. The air is so lovely here — dry and crisp, getting ready to be hot. Last night’s dinner was special. Found a little restaurant on a residential street near…

[Really spotty Internet access at our Athens hotel, so I am playing catch up for a couple of posts.] July 17, Athens So. Yesterday in Paris. Early exercise in the park followed by the world’s best breakfast. Seriously. Perfect croissant from Gerard Mulot. Butter that is so rich and sweet it is practically cream cheese,…

I love this city. We arrived around noon on a perfect, sunny, blue sky day. Travel was easy peasy, no delays, no lost luggage. Took a cab to the hotel — the Relais St. Germaine, where the rooms are exquisite, the people are phenomenally nice, and the breakfasts are the best in the world (and…

Maine lobster with wasabi cream and mango relish. I skipped the main course and just ate this. Set me up perfectly for a long sleep. Sometimes luxury is worth the price. We are putting that to the test in this trip. Been a long, hard couple of months, but Jerry’s health is stable and my…

Family memory — more my mother’s than mine — has me toddling down the hallway of a relative’s lake home to summon my grandfather for breakfast, with a pudgy one year old’s stuttering steps and a notable inability to pronounce my “r’s.” “Beakfast Weddy Gampa” became part of our personal shorthand and perhaps explains my…

One of the blessings of living part time in Florida is the readily available bounty of the sea.  A mixed blessing, as it turns out, because my husband, a life-long lover of the briny Apalachicola oyster, has once or twice so over-indulged that he has landed himself with a hideous attack of “the gout.” Gout…

I am chagrined and embarrassed to realize how long it’s been since I posted regularly on this blog.  At first I took a break because I was starting to worry more about whether anyone was reading what I wrote than I was about what I might have written or, indeed, eaten, and the whole process…

The April/May issue of Bloom, with my gummi bear column, is now out and available at fine Bloomington establishments everywhere.  If you didn't catch it, I have been on a quest to make a great gummi bear and so far, I am falling short.  The flavors are good (maybe because I am using real fruit…