Poland was our favorite Baltic country. It is lively and modern and as it is part of the European Common Market it feels like it is growing; citizens are fully employed and college is free or low cost. WODSKI (Vodka) is the national drink and we had a dinner accompanied by a wodski tasting. Above you see Sally with her first two shots lined up on her way to tasting every European grapefruit vodka available. (Finlandia was the best and the Polish version the worst.) Steven did NOT find the horseradish vodka to his liking!

The Poles love their breads, and sausages and meats. This casual local restaurant, a short walk from our hostel, made you start at a huge meat counter to select your cuts, then seated you and started the wodski shots. Before you finish your first shot, perfectly cooked meats, salads, and fresh bread arrives…and the shots continue! I wish we had this restaurant in our Albany neighborhood.

Our first of many, many medieval town squares (yawn…) was in Poznan, about halfway between Berlin and Warsawa. Because we stayed on the town square we happened onto an international ukelele festival! An awesome musician from Australia played faster and faster versions of the William Tell Overture as the crowd yelled, “Faster, faster!”(below)

He was was followed by two local rockers pretending to be Mexicans dressed in big sombreros, tight pants, and …with limited Spanish. They performed a variety of big rock anthems…Move over, Boss! What a hoot with their electrified ukes, rock concert lighting and jumps out into the audience as though into a mosh pit. They got EVERYBODY dancing in spite of the rain.

Poland felt different from the other Baltic countries: friendlier, Catholic, more public art, way better food and less expensive.

Although during WW2, the Poles did their share of marching their Jewish countryman into the forest to shoot them, they also had the largest and most successful Jewish Uprising (Warsaw) of all the ghettos in the Baltics. The large Jewish populations in the Baltics have disappeared but each capital has one remaining synagogue that has been preserved.

You can see how stunned he is! This gorgeous candy display is rebuilt every Tuesday with all different candy and decorative theme…and is just one small niche in a German department store that dedicates 2 huge floors to food products. Approximately 5,000 square feet was dedicated to chocolate products alone…just in case you have a hankering for chocolate made with camel milk. There were gorgeous displays of breads, oils and vinegars, teas, spices, poultry and meats (wild and farmed), nuts, pastries, soups and stews, sausages, aspics, crustaceans and fish, and small restaurants with tasting menus specializing in each area. It was as big as an IKEA for gourmet international foods and contained food delicacies we’ve never seen before. I could live here!

I always thought of Germans as terse and professional, eg. lacking a sense of humor…but I was so wrong! Enjoy this brilliantly located ad using the bus’s exhaust system to advertise a drug to treat erectile dysfunction (above). Ha!

We asked our new friend Tomas (who generously squired us around Berlin’s newest bars and best donor kebab restaurants) if German men had a predilection to pee “free style”, like “Look Ma, no hands!”  He had no idea WTF we were talking about until we led him to the toilet in our apartment…then he laughed heartily at the LARGE graphic above.

Of course Germans still feel shame for allowing the Nazis to systematically murder their countrymen so there are historical reminders throughout the city. This marker (indicating a site for a former railroad station that shipped Jews, gypsies and homosexuals to the concentration camps listed) is right outside the high end department store shown at the top.

The public transportation system is easy, everyone speaks English, there is inexpensive and delicious Turkish food in every tiny space around town, and there is public art and murals everywhere. We loved Berlin for exploration on foot. The only problem was intense heat (95 degrees daily) and high humidity except at night and first thing in the morning. Still, five days was not enough for us, and we will return soon.

Copenhagen is the capital city of magical spires! – Can you guess which is the Dragon Spire?

COPENHAGEN (7-DAY)

This stretch was a definite personal highlight of the trip.  Saadou was a lifelong friend of my first wife, Aspasia. After her bereavement in 2008, his email of condolences ignited our friendship leading to a 7-day stay with him and his awesome family.

They’ve pampered me with much love and quality times: delicious home-cooking Danish meals including daily candle-lit breakfasts consisting of herring, local cheese, black breads & aquavit. Abundant local walks, festivals, historic areas, and museums filled our days. We also took a day-trip ferry to Sweden. The whole family was so generous with their time, including Asta and Emma, 2 and 6 year-olds respectively, who were the sweetest of the swarm.

My Awesome Danish Family Folks!  Smiling and proud Saadou between his warm and sweet  daughter, Ida, and Agneta’s father, Christian. 

Loveliest Agneta and her two gifted daughters, Emma and Asta

Saadou’s kind son, Johannes, and his charming wife, Nanna, prepped an amazing cook-out Danish meal. They have a young precocious boy, Christian and a happy baby girl, Agnes

HAMBURG (4-DAY)

As a world history buff, this city has been on my radar for many years.  Using a 3-day Hop-On Hop-Off bus pass, I’ve time-traveled to 1300’s, when it was a place frequented by pirates throughout the centuries; to 1883 in picturesque Speicherstadt district where it is now today’s largest warehouse district in the world, all standing on massive oak timber piles; and to early 1960’s, in Reeperbahn bustling nightlife center where the Beatles began to make their mark on music.

Despite being located astride the River Elbe, some 60 miles from the North Sea, Hamburg is a major port city. The biggest port in Germany – the second-busiest in Europe and the third largest in the world, after London and New York.

Inside its city limits, Hamburg has more bridges than any other city in the world and more canals than Amsterdam and Venice combined. I’ve heard several figures, somewhere around 2,300 to over 2,500.

Köhlbrandbrücke – a bridge with one of the longest cable span; the central cable-stayed part has a span of over a 1000 feet supporting the infrastructure – it was an impressive sight! (Photo credit to Go-Nils)

St. Nicholas Church, the tallest building in the world from 1874 to 1876. Due to 1943 bombing run, it was irreparably damaged and abandoned.  It is now a monument to the destruction of WWII

In spite of the historical appeal, Hamburg felt “rough”, with sidewalks littered with cigarette butts and litter, and evidence of drug addiction and unemployment. I felt this even more strongly when I then travelled next to Berlin, a thriving, sophisticated city with a huge diversity of foods,  public art, and a fabulous public transportation system.

Angels Everywhere @ Paris!

My trip to Switzerland was a lovely spin to hang out with a family in Geneva, Martigny, and Valais followed by a week-long stay at a 4-star luxury hotel in a Left Bank neighborhood in Paris to celebrate my 63rd birthday.

GENEVA & MARTIGNY, VALAIS (5-DAY)

Hanging out together with a 3-generation Swiss family (Jenelle, Loney, and Stanislas) was so relaxing…thermal hot spring soaks, bike riding, attending cow fighting contests, and just plain old catching up!

Cow Fighting Contests?!  The centuries-old tradition: Combat de Reines (Battle of the Queens) take place regionally and nationally throughout the Valais each spring, where the female Hérens (a small, horned alpine breed of cattle weighing up to a whopping 1300lbs!) fight each other for supremacy.  The territorial cows mostly lock horns and push each other with their foreheads, until one of them turns around and walk away, accepting defeat -no physical harm here.  These queens take part in competitions leading to the Final that we attended in Aproz near Sion (capital of the canton of Valais).

Massive shining black beasts snort, paw the ground, daring challengers to approach, until a pair locks horns. Hand tooled decorative collars dangle a large traditional bell… jangling frantically as they engage. The crowned Queen of the queens will achieve fame in the canton but also across the nation.  Fueled by local wine and raclette, the locals sure know how to have a great time!

JENELLE PETTING ONE OF MANY QUEENS

PARIS (7-DAY)

Alas, on the day of my 63rd birthday, a 3hr TGV high-speed train ride, from Geneva to Paris, was unexpectedly canceled due to a French rail strike.  Alternatively, a nine-hour bus ride delivered me exhausted to the Artus Hôtel…just before midnight.  The ride was surprisingly comfortable and relaxing with wonderful views along rolling French villages and some picturesque rest stops along the way.

The Artus Hôtel is in in the heart of St Germain, the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was a delightful centralized area filled with bohemian cafes, excellent restaurants and out-of-this-world delectable bakeries – all within enchanting walking distance to murals, statues, and many other artistic installations among many historic landmarks and world-class museums.

A LONG WALK ON ONE STREET – Arc de Triomphe, Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, and Grande Arche de la Defense

MY FAVORITE GALS OF THE DAY

Hiking View of Aguille du Grépon (12600ft) in Chamonix, France

After marvelous Seville, wonderful Madrid, and the uplifting 200 mile Primitivo Santiago de Compestela hike, I was ready to finish off Spain with a stay in Barcelona followed by hopefully a mellow shoulder season in France: Montipellier, Grenoble, and Chamonix.

BARCELONA (3-DAYS)

In the midst of amazing drifts of fresh hot food smells, easy mass transportation, and great neighborhood walkability, I joined the tourist hordes and walked well beyond what my still blistered toes needed…

GAUDI’S LA SAGRADA FAMILIAGAUDI’S CASA BATLLO

BARRIO GOTICO- A Gothic Quarter neighborhood dates back to Roman and medieval times.

MAGIC FOUNTAIN OF MONTJUÏC – First sprouted, 1929; a spectacular display of color, light and dancing water acrobatics to musical accompaniment.

MONTPELLIER (4-DAYS)

My toes got a break with a deep bath tub and Montpellier was slower and quieter with way fewer tourists. Lots of nice places to relax and get off my feet!

Montipellier folks have a lot of pride in their Gothic Cathedrale Sainte-Pierre, distinguished by conical towers, dating to 1364, and their SIX major academic institutions.  One of the oldest Universities in the world, the University of Montpellier was founded in 1160.  In 1289, when the last Crusader States and the Crusades were defeated, the oldest medical university was founded and is still in operation.

Warm and friendly locals and wonderful meals within the Spanish, Moroccan, Algerian, and Italian communities of Montpellier provided a healing respite for my tired body.

UNIVERSITY OF MONTPELLIER – Ancient surgical instruments with instruction 

GRENOBLE (3-DAYS)

At the foot of the French Alps where two major rivers (the Drac & Isere) merge, there were few tourists allowing me to embrace locals and their favorite local bars and restaurants…and especially appreciated after trail jogging with a few up in the Alps!

CHAMONIX (4-DAYS)

Even fewer tourists were evident here allowing me to hike several times to the Alps and glaciers. Unfortunately, the trolley to Mont Blanc was closed due to the weather on that mountain so I missed a great hiking opportunity. What a sweet ending to languish in a hot tub at the base of the mountains…as the weather lowered AFTER my hike!

Primitivo Camino is the oldest of all the pilgrim Caminos. It started in Oviedo, the capital city of Asturias in 813, when King Alfonso II was informed of the discovery of the tomb of Saint James. He made his way to the site at once, thus becoming the first person to complete a Camino (albeit not on foot) to Santiago de Compostela.

I started on the 9th of April when Old Man Winter was winding down and the weather predictions were of sunny and mild conditions. I hiked the Camino Primitivo, a tough but beautiful 320 kilometers (approx 200 miles) in 12 days. I’ll let my brief stage journal and pictures do the talking.

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Stage 1: Oviedo-Cornellana

Mud, knee deep in places, and lots of rain…thus more mud. Stones became a slippery but welcome respite from sticky mud. Cold beer at the hostel was a just reward for 23 miles (11 hours) of very slow and cautious but steady walking.

Stage 2: Cornellana-Tineo

This leg was slow-going (10hrs) due to boot-sucking mud – and I mean EVERYWHERE!! Swollen waterways were good for demucking boots. An hour of snow flurries was followed by early spring wildflowers.

Stage 3: Tineo-Cambillo

My brief stop at the Casa Herminia Hostel at Campellio instead became an overnight. Herminia was a wonderful hostess with a boisterous and warm personality. Her multi course meals were hot and very sustaining, especially after 3 days of challenging yet magnificent contemplative walking.

Stage 4: Campiello-Berducedo

Oh what a luck! Upon arriving at a fork in the road with good weather predicted (actually every day had good weather predicted, a big fat lie until today) I made a dash for the Mt. Hospitales Route.  It was indeed grueling and yet perhaps the most rewarding of all for views and wild Asturias mares and foals.

At Berducedo, I stayed at the Camino Primitivo Hostel. It offered a bar and a hot & tasty 3-course meal @ 10Euro (local wine included). Another great hostess, Vanessa made me feel welcome.

Stage 5: Berducedo-Granda de Salime

Today was chilly fog, misty fog, and wet fog. Take your pick, weather report still lies!

Stage 6: Granda de Salime-Padron

The sun finally peeked out as I crossed from Asturias to Galacia; the halfway mark!

More happy dogs & that tempting sign!

Yes, lots of muddy, running water, and swampy trails, however it was much dryer than the first two stages. It took some cautious maneuvering to get around it or tread on it…slow going.

Stage 7: Padrón

Past the halfway mark I rewarded myself with a layover day, off the trail in an impressive boutique hotel (Complejo O Pineiral) serving Galician style Spanish meals enjoyed by many local families too. Maybe they come for the coldest 1906 beer in the lovely garden in the serene and quiet countryside.

Just a taste of the navigational indicators on the Camino:

Stage 8: Padrón-O Cadavo

Wow – this was definitely the 2nd most challenging long & steep ascending & descending hike after Mt. Hospitales. As our friend Bronca (the oldest woman to summit Mt. Ranier) says, “Go slow…but Go!”

Two rewards here:
1) Casa Meson @ Paradavella had powerful kickin’ coffee and made me a toasted Godzilla ham & cheese sandwich to go. Two dogs kept checking on me. Thanks for making my day!

2) Porta Santa Hostel in O Cadavo was well worth a stay over. The hostess, Mery, was sweet and kind as I arrived ragged with fatigue. She even washed my clothes – for free. I noticed in my private room’s bathroom two toilets: one was like a bidet and let me fill it with hot water to soak my torn up feet- aaah sweet..!

Stage 9: O Cadavo-Lugo

With unhappy baby toes that seriously needed a break, and as a history buff, I took a 45min bus instead of 6+hr hike, giving myself time to explore Lugo. My goodness, it was worth it!

The Roman Walls of Lugo are a UNESCO World Heritage Site as the finest example of Roman fortification in Europe. A visit there is not completed without a 2KM “leisure” walk around its ramparts, or a jog with the locals… not likely given my blisters!

Stage 10, 11, & 12: Lugo-Santiago de Compostela

Primitivo Camino after Lugo is not the least bit “primitive” in quality as the first eight stages. Before Lugo, I encountered only eight hikers. After Lugo there were more than a hundred.

Many restaurants, bars, souvenir shops, and even a few spas had open doors and stands on the streets to serve the clean and well dressed Camino walkers, stopping for wine and tapas on short day walks. This was a way different group from the hikers I met in the first days, all eight of us experiencing long days of fog, rain, and wind, while fighting boot-sucking mud, cascading creeks obliterating the trails, and maneuvering around many fallen trees. I earned my badge of honor, and my grubby body, muddy everything, and blistered toes are proof!

As an avid hiker, this challenging 320km Primitivo Camino journey changed everything and yet, I am reeling with gratefulness to pull this off – it was moving…even if I didn’t do it crawling on all fours as some pilgrims have in the past!

Buen Camino!

SEVILLE

As a “Guire” (foreigner) in Andalusia, I first had to learn the right way to toast others in the bar. “Salud!” (to your health) is the same as in Mexico, except like Scandinavians saying “Skol!”, YOU MUST MAKE MEANINGFUL EYE CONTACT… or be cursed with 7 years of bad sex! At least that’s what the Andalusians promise…

Staying within the quiet part of Seville’s famous old quarter by the Guadaíra River, I had access to cafes, shops, museums, and flamenco dance and music. At the end of Easter week, many locals were attending the sold out flamenco performances or in the streets dressed up in capirote.

Seville offers free walking tours featuring Roman ruins, Moorish minarets, Baroque palaces, and Renaissance churches and the fantastic architecture of Jürgen Mayer-Hermann; the locals fondly call it the “Incarnatíon’s Mushrooms”, like sand castle drippings.

Flamenco is passionate, dramatic, and percussion driven, and Seville is at the vanguard of this vital and precious art; UNESCO listed Flamenco as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2010. I had a chance to get in a sold-out popular Tablaos; slender sweeping arm movements, syncopated clapping, and rhythmic foot stomping gave me chills. Or was it the stoic expressions and emotions of the dancers, which change many times during a single performance? I wasn’t the only one moved as locals played and danced in the streets into the night.

MADRID

On a free walk tour in Madrid I lucked out and saw the King arriving at the Royal Palace (over 3000 rooms – the largest palace in Western Europe) with the Spanish Royal Guard marching and maneuvering on horseback to the Spanish National Anthem.

It was a remarkable if not exhausting experience to spend 4 hours in each of the world famous Museo del Prado and Museo National Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.

The elegant Prado is the most celebrated, and one of the largest museums in Spain featuring Spanish, Italian, and Flemish styles of art. Some of the famous masterpieces I enjoyed were Velazquez’s “Las Meninas,” Goya’s “The Third of May 1808,” Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” and Dürer’s “Self Portrait.”

At the Reina Sophia, besides Picasso’s “Guernica,” arguably Spain’s most famous artwork and the best anti-war art ever produced, is a premier collection of contemporary art.  Here are a few artworks that perhaps you might recognize:

With businesses and museums closed for Siesta all afternoon, what is one to do but…nap, preparing for dinner and performances and lively streets, starting after 10 PM.

A lifelong dream is coming true.  Instead of years of business traveling in Europe, it is my intention to visit again, at a leisurely pace.

PORTO

It’s now a wet and windy Holy Week but it  certainly has not dampened the  throngs of tourists visiting this holiday; I was surprised and now have a clue to what busy summer travel can be like in Europe.  A visiting Brit and his family explained the burst in tourism; it’s common now to take the two hour flight as the cheapest and quickest transportation mode on one of the many small airlines that compete for European pleasure travelers seeking quick getaways.After walking central Porto I took a rewarding stop in the world renowned architectural beauty, Casa du Musica, for a delicious local favorite:  a duo of a cappuccino and hot pastel de nata – a Portuguese tart with a rich eggy custard in shatteringly crispy pastry.  It was even better sipping a glass of the local port to warm me up!  

This fascinating minimalistic yet multifunctional asymmetrical polyhedron 9-story building by famous architect, Rem Koolhass (below). It includes a huge restaurant, 2 main auditoriums, and a charming cafe.  I had to snap a shot of that red hand outside while sipping more of the local fabulous port!

LISBON

Lisbon and her massive tourists & local folks were sleeping in till around 10-ish this Easter weekend morning. With no-lines, I jumped on Lisbon’s famous rickety 3Euro tram (similar to old San Francisco trolleys) to view famous local landmarks and an easy rt 5Euro speedy train to Sintra.

The bright colorful Pena Palace higher above the Castle of the Moor (the surrounding ramparts were steep and narrow) and in the village way below, the Palace of Sintra were all worth the efforts.

“TOE OF SATAN” was one of the ghost chili pepper sauces in the “over 18 tasting room”, warning it would “melt your face off” due to 9 million Scoville units of heat. Given the cold outside and all the brew pubs nearby in the Texas Hill Country, many people were not shy about “getting their sweat on” with some tasting. Llano TX also had some iconic dry rub BBQ brisket coming out of huge cookers alongside sausages, ribs, pork roasts…all by the pound and with lots of friendly, communal picnic tables and endless napkins.

Our continuing Southwest road trip, though now veering north and west toward home, continued to provide great federal access free camping as above, and strange local art installations like this concrete Stonehenge in a field in Texas Hill Country…

…and amazing sights like White Sands National Monument that is entirely gypsum based sand dunes so it looks like you are driving through a snowy landscape. Not so good for birding, however!

Snow flurries dogged us through New Mexico and gave us solitude at the VLA: “VERY LARGE ARRAY” (radio telescope facility) near Socorro, NM.  27 huge portable radio telescope dishes are set on rail lines up to 23 miles apart at the maximum array, and tilt their dishes all at once in the same direction every six hours to focus on a different area of the sky for research purposes. Moving the dishes on rail lines allows 6 different configurations for viewing. Brand new galaxies similar to our own are forming and can be seen with this massive tool capturing gamma ray and x-ray images. The images of the “burps” of flaming gas emitting from supernova black holes is dramatic! Set in a huge flat basin, the surrounding mountains block electric transmission so these dishes collect data 24 hours a day, not needing darkness and clear skies like an optical telescope. We appreciated this as we had to cancel both reservations for star viewing parties at both MacDonald and Lowell Observatories due to cloud cover.

Upon reaching the very touristy Sedona, AZ the back edge of the cold front finally reached us with blizzard conditions. We got to Flagstaff on the heels of a snowplow and hunkered down in a motel for 2 days to let the roads clear. It made our visits to Sunset Crater and the South Rim of the Grand Canyon just so pristine and beautiful in the snow. What a treat!

The trip west thereafter was pretty uneventful…which is a good thing after the challenges of federal facility closures, blizzards, being towed for repair, and leaving some of our portable home on the desert floor. Uneventful is good.

Winter is a wonderful time to explore the Southwest, thus the migratory birds linger, and the “Snowbirds” from Canada and the Northern US flock here in RVs and to seasonal second homes. We nestled in next to them on golf courses, in community hot springs, and in National Parks while we explored the Chihuahuan, Colorado, Sonoran, and Mojave Deserts during an 8 week road trip to the Southwest. Much of these deserts are managed by the Feds with free camping through the Bureau of Land Management and the National Forest Service. You cannot imagine the glory of boondocking at Whitewater Wash Draw with 20,000 honking Sandhill Crane taking off and landing en masse at 5 AM and 5 PM within view of our camp.

Kicking off our trip with a return to the Blythe Bluegrass Festival near the Colorado River, as returnees and early arrivals we were placed as close to the main stage as you could get and not be in the sound tent or in the seated audience. A brief but furious dust storm drove us and our RV neighbors inside for a few minutes while most concert attenders had to flee quite a ways to a solid building as the wind leveled even the sound tent. As usual at these festivals, the jamming at night in the campground was extraordinary as many of the featured musicians sat in with very talented amateur musicians.

Crossing into Arizona brought us to the ugly town of Quartzite, with the rudest and most disorganized U.S. Post Office; it only exists to house mailboxes serving the seasonal visitors living all winter out in the open desert; there is NO MAIL DELIVERY in the town. Unfortunately, Steven was unable to pick up his new hearing aids that were located somewhere inside that post office for a week! Once you clear the town traffic to head south, KOFA, the King of Arizona National Monument has thousands of acres of free, open desert with lots of slot canyon hiking. Unfortunately, the dirt roads are graded to leave big mounds on each side that have to be crossed up and over to get off road to a level camp site. We misjudged our entry into one site and scraped off some bolts from the bottom of our rig. Some plumber’s metal strapping kept the car parts snug against the bottom of the vehicle for the rest of the trip but we had to eschew many of the free, off road/BLM and Forest Service sites we would normally have utilized for camping and hiking.

We skedaddled around Arizona and New Mexico’s bigger cities, favoring little mining towns and artsy towns like Bisbee, AZ and Silver City, NM (above). Of course the kitschy tourist towns like Tombstone, AZ called for some dress up formal portraiture…

Marfa, TX required roadside photos of the art installation Prada store set out in the desert in the middle of nowhere…

Our two major hiking destinations were Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona, and Big Bend National Park in West Texas. They did not disappoint.

Chiricahua had great hikes among the amazing rock formations and the prettiest campground. It also had large families of Coatimundi identified in the bush by their thick, long stripey upright tails.

Unfortunately, we were towed early one evening from a trailhead when we returned from a long hike to our immobilized motor home needing some emergency electrical work. That was a first, and we hope a ‘never again’.

Big Bend National Park is enormous and we were glad we had a week to hike four different areas in the park. The southern end had a “hike-in hot spring” on the edge of the Colorado River…Ah! Bliss! …especially as a cold front blew in (and dogged us for the rest of the trip). Smaller rock formations out in the flats made for fun, short hikes and “bouldering” (below).

We also booked a lot more campground time than we needed as the National Parks were possibly closing due to federal government shut down; campers with paid campground reservations MADE IN ADVANCE were allowed in. Below, gorgeous hiking at the north end in Santa Elena Canyon.

For Valentine’s Day, we bought into all the hype about the romantic RiverWalk in San Antonio, TX and stayed at a riverside hotel next to the Alamo with a 23rd story hot tub overlooking the city. The Tub at the top of the world was awesome, especially in the freezing fog, but…neither the TexMex food nor the touristy Riverwalk would ever draw us back to San Antonio again.

Austin, TX however was greatly enlivened by our fabulous host Sherry who dragged us to a great local dive music club after Sally quickly bailed from the crowded “iconic clubs” downtown. Instead we assuaged our disappointment with ice cream cooled with nitrogen gas…actually quite a perfect texture and it melts more slowly!

Off to Sherry’s local neighborhood dive in East Austin, we stayed and danced to the blues until 2 AM and then went to all night street tacos and all night donut shops. Not bad partying behavior for a trio of old farts!