On July 2nd I tried two NYC restaurants in Mid-town. For lunch I went to Remi at 145 West 53rd between 6th and 7th. The restaurant was bright and sleek and I enjoyed  the chicken dish I ordered. A great place before the theater. For dinner I went to Visaversa at 325 West 51st between 8th and 9th Avenue. The decor was outstanding and sleek and the pastas were wonderful. Mine with the duck ragout was really great. This is another great location for a pre-theater meal.

I just returned from two amazing weeks in Aspen. I loved going to five performances of the Aspen Music Festival. Highights for me included Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, music my Leonard Bernstein, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major and Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra Chorus. I enjoyed seeing The Last Five Years a musical put on my Theatre Aspen. This year’s Anderson Ranch Art Auction was excellent. I enjoyed my 2 week ceramics class with Christa Assad and Scott Parady, two very talented artists. I loved Scott’s very organic teabowls and enjoyed trying to create similar work using things I found on my hikes for texture.

I was so fortunate to meet Julia Hansen founder and artistic director Theater Masters in Aspen. Using her connections as former President of the Drama League in New York, she has brought several theater programs to the Roaring Fork Valley including supporting new works and producing them in New York. I have joined the National Council and am really excited about getting involved.

I had some amazing meals while there. I loved Lu Lu Wilson’s and Elevation. I also tried Crave downvalley near El Jebel. The salmon was great. I highly recommend this new find. I went to Wild Fig for the third time. My whole fish entree ($31) was not great. I think there are many better choices for dining in Aspen. Pine Creek Cookhouse for lunch and their hiker’s buffet was great as usual. I would also recommend the food at Anderson Ranch. The cafe is open to the public and the food with many vegetarian dishes is really excellent.

The weather was magnificent. I can’t wait to go back in September to see the Aspen leaves.

Santa Fe Restaurants

I have been attempting to try new restaurants on every trip I make to Santa Fe. In June I thoroughly enjoyed 315 which is a great restaurant on Old Santa Fe Trail. The service was great and I loved the food and the small outdoor garden. I tried Aqua Santa which was recommended to me and was just written up in Travel and Leisure but I was very underwhelmed. The food was good but the service poor. We felt totally neglected and I could see that other diners were upset as well.

This trip I went to Geronimo’s for a wonderful meal. Nice wines, great service and an outstanding menu made for a great experience. The ambiance was also perfect. I loved the seared tuna entrée that I ate and the coconut sorbet was amazing. Last night I went to Trattoria Nostrani. It was a small intimate restaurant with a great chef Nelli Maltezos who was sous chef for Charlie Trotters in Chicago. The asparagus salad and halibut were great but I also liked tasting the seafood crepes and the scallops. I highly recommend this new find.

But my new favorite spot in Santa Fe is the Cloud Cliff Bakery and Café on 2nd Street. I met Willem Malten the owner at the Santa Fe Folk Art Market last year where I purchased a number of Peruvian textiles from the Amazon rain forest from him. I purchased more this year which was a highlight as Allie McGraw helped me with the sale. Willem is from the Netherlands and is helping raise funds for the Shipibo Konibo villages in this remote area of Peru. I loved the café with its art and textiles and like it so much that I ate there two days in a row. The blue corn blue berry pancakes were great and the salmon frittata omelet was really good. I highly recommend this spot for
breakfast and lunch.

My local favorite near Casa Las Artes is the Tesuque Village Market where you can get great food at breakfast, lunch and dinner. I love the salmon for dinner!

Make a note that Santa Fe Folk Art Market will again happen this year from July 14-15, 2007. The two day market, held on Museum Hill, has a purpose of fostering economic and cultural sustainability for folk artists and folk art worldwide.

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Though a little tired from my other travels in 2007, I flew to Guatemala City for Semana Santa or Holy Week in this Central American country. I was so pleased to have worked through Elizabeth Bell of Antigua Tours who planned my trip flawlessly. I arrived in Antigua where I stayed at the lovely Hotel Mansion Del Pensativo located three blocks from the main square. Though I had a small single room I loved being away from the many people who had jammed the streets for Palm Sunday and for Holy Thursday and Good Friday or Holy Friday. The hotel had a lovely garden, pool, a terrace overlooking flowering trees and a large volcano where one could enjoy the view while eating a great breakfast. I also saw the Posada Del Angel which has five suites and looks like a wonderful spot to stay also.

Holy week in Antigua is the largest celebration in the Western Hemisphere and second only to Seville Spain. The highlight of being in Antigua for Easter week is to see the many processions. There can be several in a day. The streets are blocked off beforehand so the neighborhood can complete the amazingly elaborate and colored alfombras or carpets made out of colored sawdust. Flowers, flower petals, pine needles, fruit, seeds can also be found on some of the carpets. The people who make them take great pride in their designs. However, as soon as the processions pass the garbage collectors are not far behind.

The processions were amazing. Originating from the many churches the processions were led by Roman soldiers some on horseback. The large floats, some weighing 7,000 lbs. were carried by 80 or more people. Thousands of processional carrier know as cucuruchos participate in the processions. Many are members of a brotherhood and have carried the statues since childhood. Men carried floats of Jesus while women carried the Virgin Mary. Often somber music was played by a small group of musicians. As the floats were so heavy the carriers were replaced almost at the end of each block. These somber events sometimes went on for twelve or more hours. Some started early in the morning and others started late and ended in the middle of the night. I could hear the drum beats often in the distance from my hotel room.

I found some wonderful restaurants in Antigua. I loved the Café Contessa. It had a great brunch on the weekends and I loved eating outside in the back overlooking the courtyard. It had wonderful food and pastries. Since it is right on the main square it is a great place to stop in for a cup of coffee or snack. I frequented a great store and café called Casa Cicob. I loved stopping in for a late afternoon tea and again to escape from the hoards of people in the streets. The owner was delightful and I purchased some nice accessories for my home in San Miguel de Allende. The newspaper estimated that there would be 1 million visitors for Semana Santa in Antigua. Though many of these people were not frequenting the nicer hotel and restaurants it is wise to book your reservations early. I found the restaurant a the Meson Panza Verde to be excellent with a wonderful atmosphere. The Cuban jazz was a real highlight on weekends. I liked Nicolas International food and also had a great meal at Romarin. I would also suggest trying La Fonda de la Calle Real with its lovely courtyard and great Guatemalan cuisine.

I frequented many art galleries, shops and folk art stores. I loved the colonial architecture and atmosphere. I recommend Antigua for a great getaway. I would consider the city for one of my fractional homes but I don’t know if the government is stable enough for the investment or if people would want to go back several times a year.

I did travel by van to Panachal on Lago or Lake Atitlan located the western part of the country. . The lake is surrounded by three volcanoes and is really beautiful. I stayed at the Hotel Posada de don Ronrigo right on the lake in Panachal. I traveled by boat to the small village where my guide Sara Matzgar introduced me to some local weavers. I am a textile collector and loved seeing and buying some wonderful pieces.

A real highlight of my trip was attending the Mayan New Year celebration on the Tuesday before Easter. I was taken by Sara and her family to a sacred Mayan site at just outside of Tecpan. Her son was one of the Shaman who was participating in the ceremony. We arrived early to watch them build the altar. They started making the sign for the day in colored sugar. Then round pieces of incense were added along with multi-colored candles, cigars, flower petals, pine needles. It was a colorful altar that was lit as the ceremony began. The Shaman were all smoking cigars. All who came to the ceremony brought things to add to the altar. The group that had gathered all were greeted by the Shaman. There was praying toward the North, South, East and West as well as dancing and drumming. It was a wonderful experience as they prayed to the Mayan Gods. There were a few of us gringos present. We were welcomed and told that we could take pictures as long as they were used for good and as long as we told the world that the Mayan people are still alive. I thought that was really a great message.

The next day I visited Chichicastenango for the huge indigenous market. I bought a great number of Mayan textiles some used in the homes on their altars. Thank god for ATMs. They are really outstanding pieces and I could have purchased more. The market was really crowed with the local people shopping for the holiday as well as a large number of tourists.

After the processions in Antigua I flew to Tikal for a night at the Jungle Lodge. We arrived at the National Park on Saturday morning. But I was disappointed with the large number of people visiting the Mayan ruins. However, on Sunday which was Easter Sunday, I went into the park before 7am and I was so pleased to see the wonderful ruins and temples before the crowds had arrived. It was a great experience and I was glad I spent the time to see it. I was a little nervous about flying over the jungle in a small plane but everything worked out with no problems. The Lodge was simple but comfortable and the food was okay for being in the middle of the jungle.

I had a wonderful week in Guatemala! I highly recommend it. Remember Elizabeth Bell at Antigua Tours can do a great job in planning your trip.

I just returned from a wonderful weekend of viewing art in Dallas and Fort Worth Texas. The trip was arranged by the Auxiliary Board of the Art Institute of Chicago of which I have been a member for almost 15 years. I had not been in Dallas for quite some time and was impressed with the growth of the mid-town area just north of downtown. I liked seeing the Dallas Museum of Art and was so impressed with the generous gifts that three prominent Dallas families, the Roses, Rachofskys and Hoffmans have made to the museum. I was even more impressed with the new Nasher Sculpture Center next door. Raymond Nasher personally guided us through his outstanding new museum which was designed by Renzo Piano. Don’t miss the wonderful works by Matisse!In Ft. Worth, we toured the museum campus which include the Kimball designed by Louis Kahn, the new Modern designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando and the Amon Carter which was designed by Philip Johnson. The Kimball has a wonderful collection of European paintings, and the Amon Carter an equally impressive collection of American paintings, bronzes, prints and drawings and photographs. As far as the Modern goes, I loved the building but was not impressed by the collection.

We also toured four private homes and collections including those of Rusty and Deedie Rose designed by Anton Predoc, the Rachofsky House owned by Cindie and Howard Rachofsky which was designed by Richard Meier and the home of Charles and Jessie Price which was designed by Stephen Holl. The highlight was Raymond Nasher’s private home with outstanding garden and sculpture park. This 1949 home is exquisite in every detail and filled with magnificent art.

When in Dallas, make sure you try Stephen Pyles and Abacus for Dinner. We had two wonderful meals. Both have top ratings according to Texas Monthly Magazine. We stayed at the Crescent Court which was a lovely hotel just north of downtown.

Aspen/Snowmass

I just returned from a weekend at the Private Residences at the Snowmass Club. Now run by the Little Nell Hotel in Aspen this club has improved considerably over the last two years. The restaurant is now excellent and the health club is one of the best in town. The units of the private residence club continue to be the most attractive in the entire Valley.

In addition to the great skiing and the X Games that were taking place my last weekend, Aspen is still a cultural city even in Winter. The film series at the Wheeler Opera House always shows the best independent and art films, likewise the Zazz Apen series at the Wheeler is always good. The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet is coming back in February which is always a highlight on the Winter cultural season while the Aspen Music Festival and School always has some great performances at Harris Hall.

New Years in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico is becoming a tradition for me as I find it truly magical. It reminds me of a simpler time when the world was safer and more innocent and not as fast paced. Hundreds congregate just before midnight, where there is music and dancing in the Jardin.

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In November 2006 I visited Hanoi and it bustling Old Quarter. The charm of this 600 year old artisan’s district are the narrow lanes, small vendors and intense motorbike and bicycle traffic. Each street has its own specialty. One specializes in beautiful Vietnamese silk, clothing and embroidered articles, others feature toys, stationery, flowers for funerals, decorations for weddings and even a street for colorful boxed gifts used for wedding engagement parties.

There are numerous shops selling Vietnamese laquerware and many art galleries found next to motorbike repair shops and small restaurants. You see many people sitting on small chairs drinking beer or eating squid and drinking rice wine, or eating pho or the traditional noodle soup from large bowls with chopsticks. One even sees baguettes being sold, a remnant of the French Colonial days. With 70% of the population under the age of 35, everyone is young it seems. The commercial frenzy has evolved from nothing, from the days when private trade was prohibited for more than 40 years. This is an experience in Asia that is not to be missed.