HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUTTA

Today is finally Jutta’s Birthday. For the first time in three days, we don’t have to lie about it. This is that one time of the year when at least for one month I can say that I am sleeping with an older woman, and Jutta gets to call me her “Boy Toy”. Happy Birthday Baby.

I have now converted to a strict, 100%, bolos levodos diet……..I love these things……..breakfast is a BL with ham and cheese, fired into the sandwich toaster until all that melted goodness starts to ooze out around the edges. Cuppa strong AZ coffee and I am good to go. I am also researching BL transportability, and to that end have prepared a second unit, carefully wrapped in a napkin, that just might find its way into my golf bag this morning.

Golf is on the agenda……what else? We are headed back to Batalha to take on not only the course itself, but to see if we can survive the hike up those hills, pulling our bags on the ancient trolleys. They need to up their game a little and have some rental electric carts available for the walkers visiting the course. What a difference that would make. Either way, we are off, and having won the first match against J&S, I am promised that today will be different……….giving a stroke a hole to each, except on the par 3’s, and won quite handily a couple of days ago…….what could change?……..I was about to find out.

A little coaching session on the driving range may be working against me, as both J&S are striking the ball beautifully and I find myself down 2 after 3 holes. I manage to scramble my way into winning a few back, and tie a couple of others, but in the end, I am still down 2 after the front nine. The back nine has barely started and I am down 4 before I can blink………try as I might, the ladies have me done like dinner by the 16th. Well played.

Another beautiful day today…….temperatures have been low 20’s, dipping down to like 15-16 at night, with zero rain except for the misty showers for an hour or so on day one. Perfect weather for golf and touring and I hope it continues. Many people compare Azores to Hawaii, and I do see similarities in topography, vegetation, and some climate factors like the constant wind and quickly changing conditions, but Hawaii is just plain warmer/hotter than it is here, especially at this time of the year. Having the ocean view from our hotel on the north shore has been great……..all day long you can watch the waves roll in……I mean some big suckers. We have only seen a few surfers, so we are obviously not in the right location to catch that action……the waves we are watching are absolutely brutal………couldn’t imagine anyone out there on a board. Driving on Sao Miguel has been a breeze. There is a great ring road that runs around the island, usually a little inland from the coast, and then connector roads to the communities along the shore, who are in turn connected to each other with secondary roads closer to the water/cliff edges. We haven’t made it all the way around yet, but by the time we move to the west end, and then back to Furnas, I’m sure we will have travelled it all. The one thing that is so crazy when travelling through towns and villages is how close your front door is to the road…….we see doors opening, and people sticking their heads out first to check for traffic before taking even a half step outside. Old houses, narrow streets, very charming, but even with this small SUV it does get pretty tight sometimes.

Jutta’s actual birthday dinner is scheduled tonight at a small family run restaurant called Cantinho do Cais in the equally small town of Sao Bras………it took us a while to find it the other day when we stopped in to make the reservation, so we hope we have better luck tonight…….in the dark! This one comes recommended by one of the hotel employees who slipped me the name on a note…….I guess they are only supposed to recommend the approved list that is on the hotel handout? He tells me it is great and very traditional Azores style cooking. Well darkness and all, I missed the damn road and ended up about 10km down the highway before finding a good exit to turn around at……..not chancing a U-turn on the highway in this blackness……….loaded up the phone map……..this car GPS sucks……..and in no time we are back on track and at the Cantinho minutes later. All the reviews on this place say you must have the fish soup and the fish stew, and if you want to try some grilled fish, you can be assured it is fresh that day……..I guess all the old fish goes in the soup and the stew! Our waitress was great, and pretty much ordered our meal for us, helped pick out a 5 euro chardonnay……then another……and we had a great meal. Topped it off with a couple of traditional muffin things (I have to get better with these names) served with pineapple slices so sweet to die for. I thought the stew plates were pretty fancy and would make a good souvenir, so asked if they were for sale……..Mama came out from the kitchen and gave one to Jutta, so you just might see it in use sometime back at Oslerview.

The drive home was a breeze as I am getting used to the roads and traffic circles close to Ribeira Grande. It is not late, but we are all ready to hit the sack……..been sleeping like a log ever since we arrived…….must be the fresh sea air that is doing it…….8 hours continuous no problems, not even a pee break. Goodnight