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After an early start and a relatively uneventful flight from LAX to DFW then DFW (after a 1 hour delay) to Memphis we arrived at our hotel.  I was really happy about using points and a few dollars to stay at the Hilton Doubletree Hotel.  We are saving a lot of money but we are not at the Peabody (our home for two of our last three visits to this fine city).   Hilton advertised all the amenities one would expect of a class hotel but apparently they have a little trouble following up on the hype.  It is very hot and humid in Memphis but looks like we won’t be swimming (see below).  We are across the street from the baseball stadium but I won’t push my luck (no minor league baseball this trip).

We arrived in the city too late to pick up our BBQ credentials but we did get here in time to walk around the city and have a wonderful dinner at Gus’s Famous Fried Chicken.  Gus’s didn’t look like much but they had  people waiting outside and we were given an estimated wait time of 25 minutes.  When seated we felt that the place lacked some of the things we have come to expect at a fine dining restaurant.  The table was set with plastic forks and knives, paper napkins and water in plastic cups.  As they say looks can be deceiving (see below).  The fried chicken was amazing with very good side dishes of fried okra and macaroni and cheese (I ate mine before I thought of taking a picture so below is someone else’s dinner).  For dessert we shared sweet potato pie which was delicious beyond description.

After dinner we had to do some serious walking to burn some calories.  We headed to Beale Street where every Wednesday night they close off the street and let it remain open only to motorcycles.  There were at least 200 motorcycles parked along the street (see me next to a Harley).  Of course the streets were also lined with people in spite of it being very early (late for us, after all it is almost 6 pm in Los Angeles).  Enough said, we need sleep.

See you tomorrow.

Hello followers,

I am very grateful for all of you who have asked, “When are you going away, I really enjoy your blog posts”.  Nothing major has been happening of recent note in regards to travel.  Of course we have had a couple of visits to the Bay Area to visit our son and his family.  Those are brief visits that I don’t want to bore the reader with me boasting about my grandsons.  We did have a nice getaway weekend in La Jolla which gave me lots of material to discuss but my mom was ill and most of my attention was focused on her and contact with her doctors.  Fortunately, mom is back to her usual amazing self and she had a spectacular 100th birthday party in March.  As many of you know this blog started as a simple email to keep my mom informed about her baby’s travels.  It has grown significantly but is still limited to my friends and family.

So where are we going now?  Tomorrow morning we will be on our way to Memphis and the “Memphis in May BBQ Festival” http://www.memphisinmay.org/barbecue.  You might recall that last November we flew to Memphis to become judges and passed the rigid qualifying exam (“Future judges, if you don’t pass the test you can take it again until you do pass”) and have been invited to judge at this year’s festival.  This will be our first time judging food of any sort but apparently the story has grown in regards to our qualifications.  A patient told me that she heard that I am a nationally known BBQ judge.  Well, my friend Steve in South Carolina, who is from Memphis and has attended the Festival knows I will be a judge……. yes, I think that does make a nationally known BBQ judge.

We have an early flight so it’s off to bed.

What’s a better way to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to the people in my life that matter the most than to write on my travel blog?  Today we travel to my favorite place on Earth, that of course is a family home for a wonderful dinner.  For many years that was my sister Annette and brother-in-law Morty’s home.  I can remember many amazing evenings spent there.  Lots of fantastic turkey, stuffing and extras.  And how could I forget the desserts.  Typically there were at least 7 from which to choose but occasionally Annette would slack off and only give us a selection of 6 (all homemade, of course).

This year my brother Stephen and his beautiful wife Fayla are answering the call to duty.  I am writing now because with all the spectacular cooks in the family I will have very little energy to do anything after dinner.

We are very lucky to have my son, David, and his wife, Robyn and their boys in town.  Our girls are still in Madrid but we plan to do a Google “Hang out” to talk to them.  Madrid is 9 hours ahead of Los Angeles and they say they won’t be available until after 4 pm (1 AM in Madrid).  Ugh, being a father can be such torture.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and family.

Our trips for 2016 are in the planning and I promise you will hear from me again soon.

Robert

P.S.  I was in too much of hurry to post before dinner and I have a bit of energy left so here goes.  Tonight was amazing.  Our “Hang Out” with the girls was not perfect but it was great seeing them even it was just briefly.

Saturday we left to visit our grandson, Charlie, to celebrate his 3rd birthday.  No trip is complete without a visit with our friends at TSA.  For some reason the TSA seems to have their eyes on Patrice. Hardly a trip goes by without her being singled out at one of the check points for closer scrutiny.  Saturday was no exception.  In addition to the usual pat down she had her carry on luggage completely emptied. Does TSA know something about Patrice that has evaded me all these years?  Am I married to a mole for Isis?  If the security of our country involves intense investigations of a grandma of XXX years of age (I know better than using anything but XXX here), who has raised 3 wonderful children, dedicated her life to helping others, not the least of all is married to an amazing guy like me, our country is in real trouble.

Our flight was relatively comfortable except for the crying baby 2 rows behind us.  I didn’t think it was possible for a baby to cry for an entire flight but this little guy proved me wrong.  The one good aspect was that it wasn’t my baby who was suffering.

Arrival was uneventful.  Our pilot failed to alert the flight attendants to “prepare for cross check”.  I have no clue want that means but we seemed to arrive without incident in spite of his failure to prompt the crew to do their job.  Upon arrival we were welcomed to SF by the crew to the best of my knowledge they were arriving at the same time as us and as my friend Gary has pointed why are they welcoming us since they are arriving too?

Sunday was a dream day.  Charlie had a wonderful party at Rock N Jump.  It was a pleasure watching him and his brother romp around on the trampolines.  I even got to coach and root on grandma Patrice scale the climbing wall (no doubt part of her terrorist training).

We had a great weekend visiting with David, Robyn and the boys.  We are now waiting for our flight home.  Our 1:20 pm flight was cancelled.  I assume because they didn’t have an air marshal to monitor Patrice’s activity.  My boarding pass had “TSA pre check” printed on it but somehow it was deleted from Patrice’s.  I need to check this woman’s background, no?

Robert

 

 

 

With our BBQ certificates in hand we headed home.  Memphis Airport is small and very easy to negotiate.  The first leg of our trip home took us to Dallas (DFW) Airport.  That place is much bigger than Memphis and of course the terminal in which you arrive is not the same as the terminal from which you will depart.  That would be too easy.  After a short wait (I first typed weight, I guess I am still feeling guilty about all the eating we did this weekend) we were on our way.  A little lightning as we took off from Dallas got my blood flowing.  There was turbulence which was also a bit unnerving.  The remainder of the flight was uneventful.

One thing is clear, all our traveling these past 3 years has made us very much into spoiled brats.  For example I was annoyed there wasn’t wifi on our flight from DFW to LAX. Unfortunately I asked the flight attendant if there was wifi and she told me, “I don’t think so because this is one of our older planes”.  That got me thinking, lightning, turbulence, older plane……..  why didn’t I just keep my mouth shut?

Also the hotel was not to our liking.  We stayed at the Holiday Inn which was where the seminar was located.  It was clear that we were not at the Peabody (where we stayed during our first 2 trips to Memphis).  First of all, no spare toilet paper in a cloth bag (How uncivilized!), no safe (This is the Holiday Inn, leave your valuables at home) but most important, no chocolate on our pillows at night.   Also we missed the Peabody Ducks.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwo9L8L_i3U

The trip and training was a lot of fun.  We look forward to the BBQ Festival next May.  I hope if you can’t go with us you will at least follow along via my blog.

Robert

Patrice and I prepared for our BBQ course by going to a restaurant we previously visited on our BBQ tour last May, the Blues City Cafe.  The place is nothing special to look at but the ribs are great (see below).

With that great experience from last night still fresh in our guts, I mean our minds, we attended the BBQ seminar and received our Ph.B. (Doctor of Philosophy in Barbecue).  There were about 100 people attending the training (which is a prerequisite to becoming a judge at the Memphis in May BBQ Festival).  They honor the people who come from the longest distance to attend.  Seminar organizer, Mike Davis, announced “I thought my people from California where going to take the honor but today a man came in from Australia”.  Damn Aussies!

Most of our classmates were from Memphis or the surrounding area.  Many have already been certified by the KCBS.  I thought that was our local Los Angeles TV station but it stands for Kansas City Barbecue Society.  A couple of ladies sitting behind us, who are KCBS certified, recognized us as a couple of newbies.  “You are much too thin to be regulars.”  They shared that they judge some sort of competition almost every weekend (“We do steaks in Texas!”).  They also confessed that they had each gained about 25 lbs since starting to judge food competitions.

The course involved a pretest followed by a review of the syllabus.  We also had a demonstration of both “On Site” and “Blind” judging.  The “Californians” were honored by being permitted to be the “Judges” for the Blind Judging demonstration.

Then came the final exam.  The pressure was taken off when the organizers said if you don’t pass the test you will take it again until you pass.  Patrice finished first and when she returned with both her and my certificate I knew I was okay.  We both did quite well but I did manage to miss two questions that I previously answered correctly on the pretest. I guess I didn’t get as much as I could have from the training.

Training accomplished, now it is time to get to working out.  We can’t come here next year unless we’ve done some serious exercising prior to arrival. They don’t encourage health around here.  They even have a run called the Big Hog Run during the Festival.  Male entrants have to be over 175 lbs and females over 150.  The run is a 0.2K (200 meters) and I am told it is all downhill.

Fun times ahead.

Robert

Baby back ribs from The Blues City Cafe on Beale Street

Today we leave for what has become a home away from home, Memphis, Tennessee.  This will be our 3rd trip to the city since June of 2014. Tomorrow, Patrice and I will be attending a seminar.   You all know how committed we are to education and even as our ages advance we want to learn new information and new skills.  If successful, tomorrow’s seminar will qualify us to return to Memphis next May to be judges at the “Memphis in May BBQ Festival”.

Our loyal blog followers might remember the amazing BBQ tour our guide Lance, from Tastin Round Town (www.tastinroundtown.com), took us on last May.  If you recall (or even if you don’t recall) we enjoyed BBQ ribs (pork and beef), a pulled pork sandwich, BBQ egg roll (yes egg roll), BBQ spaghetti (yes spaghetti) and BBQ nachos (yes nachos).  We learned an incredible amount of information about BBQ from Lance but the one thing we found most valuable is that we could become judges for the BBQ Festival.  All we needed to do was to apply, be accepted, and attend the BBQ judge seminar.  What he didn’t mention (or maybe I conveniently forgot this part) is that we need to pass a test after the seminar (you mean we actually have to learn something?).  I just hope they don’t ask us to regurgitate what we learned because if we eat as much as we did with Lance last May, regurgitation might be a real possibility and I am not talking about regurgitation of information.

Currently we are at about 30,000 feet over San Bernardino, California.  I had plenty of time to write and publish this entry while still on the ground but you all know how much I love to use the internet from way up high.  It is my version of the “Mile High Club”.

If any of my readers are superstitious they might be worried that we are flying on Friday the 13th.  We obviously don’t seem to mind (see picture below) because we are seated in row 13.  How is that for tempting fate? My pal, Allen, was born on Friday the 13th (actually November 13th, Happy B-Day Allen) and it seemed to work out okay for him. Actually he is working on his birthday so Patrice and I could have our little getaway.  Thanks, Allen.

Enough for now (some of you might have already said that a paragraph or two ago).

I hope all is well.

Robert

Today is our last day in Rio and again it looks too cloudy to venture up to see Christ the Redeemer.  So I guess we will need to come back to Rio sometime.This morning we had a walking tour of the favelas.  These are poor neighborhoods where many of the local gangs live.  The homes are rather run down and when new family members are added they build up rather than acquire new property.

It was raining during much of our tour so I kept wondering why am I doing this and did I really pay for the privilege?  See the photos below.

We are now back at the hotel and waiting for our ride to the airport.  Looking forward to being back in the US and starting plans on our next trip.

A little wet but still with smiles on our faces.

Roberto

The name of this trip on my blog has been “The Road to Rio” because even though we had wonderful plans to see Buenos Aires, the glaciers of Patagonia and the Iguazú Falls, the main reason for this trip was to satisfy my desire to see the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio.  You might not know this name but I know you have seen the magnificent structure any time you have seen pictures of Rio.  Christ, with his arms outstretched, standing on the hill of Corcovado looking over the city of Rio below.

Well today was the day.  When our guide, Edson, picked us up he had a look of concern. Today was overcast and visibility was awful.  In spite of the poor conditions we went to the landmark statue.  We took the 20 minute train ride to the base.  In addition to the fog it started to rain.  I was not about to be deterred.  I planed this trip for about the past year for this one day and I was not going to let some clouds and rain stop me.  The one good piece of news was that things were not crowded.  The train going up to the base had 6 passengers (looked like it could handle about 150 per car and about 4 cars were pulled upward).   At the prime viewing spot there were 4 individuals (counting Patrice and me).  I stood out there for a few minutes praying for the rains to stop and the clouds to clear.  I then went down a couple flights of stairs to the gift shop to give my prayers a chance to work.  Ten minutes later I told Patrice “I’m going up for another look”.   Patrice wasn’t going to let me go alone so we both braved the elements to see if my prayers had helped.  And much to my amazement things hadn’t changed a bit.  See my photos below.   If you want to see what this should look like check out this link.  http://www.lovethesepics.com/2011/04/christ-the-redeemer-statue-1-of-7-new-wonders-of-the-world-45-inspiring-pics/

Wet, cold and disappointed we left Christ and headed to Estrela do Sur for lunch.  One more buffet (as if we needed any).  This place takes buffet to an obscene level.  In the US you stand on line and get your food.  Typically you wait to have a person carve you some beef or turkey.  At this restaurant the meat carvers repeatedly come to your table.  We were offered a variety of beef, lamb, poultry, pork and fish.  There was also a buffet with a variety of salads, sushi, appetizers and other hot dishes.  Dessert sent you back to your table where they delivered a variety of treats.

Prior to the food I was offered the national drink of Brazil, the “Caipirinha” (see below).  The ingredients are lime, rum, sugar and ice.   Yes, this is Robert who is writing.  You know me as a non drinker but damn it I wanted to see Christ the Redeemer and look below if you need a reminder of what I saw.  The drink was quite good but not to worry, I still am not a big alcohol fan.

Tomorrow we have another tour in the morning.  If the skies are clear we MIGHT be able to arrange a quick trip to see Cristo.  Tomorrow night we return home.  We need to get home because all this food is going to kill us.  I now know why people often die soon after retirement.  I need to get home to my work outs and a much healthier diet.

Christ the Redeemer in hiding.

Caipirinha helping me forget Cristo.

Ciao, ciao,

Roberto

We started our day with another wonderful breakfast at our hotel, then our tour guide took us to the Iguazu Falls airport.  There are 2 international airports in Iguazu Falls, one in Argentina (where we arrived) and the other in Brazil (from where we departed). We went through security and boarded the plan without anyone asking us to show our passports or any form of identification.

The flight left on time (I guess not checking ID will speed up departure times) and we arrived in Rio a few minutes early.  Not sure if I mentioned it but my luggage did not make it to Iguazu Falls with our flight (they brought it the next day) so I was a bit nervous waiting in baggage claim. Both bags arrived and we were on our way.  The hotel was about a 30 minute drive from the airport during which we talked with our Rio guide (Edson) a little about the city and the plans for tomorrow and Monday.

We are staying at the Copacabana Palace which is across the street from the beach.  The hotel is amazing (a recurrent theme for this trip).  Unfortunately we don’t have a view of the beach or the pool.  After arriving we took a walk around the area and the hotel.  There is a wedding taking place here and apparently they are having two separate ceremonies due to religious differences.  We are told that the average Brazilian household income is about $25,000 (USD) but many make as little as $12,000 per year.  Tonight’s wedding families clearly don’t belong in either of these socioeconomic groups.

Dinner was in the hotel at a restaurant called Mee.  It is an Asian style restaurant and has Michelin One Star rating.  Does it make sense to trust a tire company to rate a restaurant? The answer is YES.  We had a fantastic meal.  We didn’t just have a meal, we had an experience.  We sat at the sushi bar and ordered the prix fixe menu that won them the Michelin Star Rating.  We watched the first 3 courses being made.  They were sushi dishes (yes, I ate sushi) and they tasted spectacular.  We spoke with Chef Kazuo Harada who explained that the restaurant is new and they recently received their Michelin One Star of which he is justifiably very proud.

Tomorrow is our tour of the city but tonight we devoted our attention to food (see below).

Sealed Salmon with spicy miso sauce

Scallops Truffle (that is tuna sashimi in the front).

Dim Sum: both pork, the one on the left is green due to spinach.

Sorry too busy eating, I forgot to take a picture of the Sushi Set (1. Tuna with foie gras 2. Chilean King Crab)

Duck.  The duck was then taken off the bone by the waiters and we ate it wrapped in pancakes and Hoisin sauce (like moo shu pork)

Wagyu beef ribs cooked in low temperature with kabocha squash.

Tofu Cheesecake and Raspberry Sherbet for dessert.

Patrice (“Miss Patricia” according to the waitress); Chef Kazuo Harada; and Robert (¨Mr. Richard”)

Hasta mañana,

Roberto