Martina brunch

I've been missing going to brunch so much. I mean, getting food to go is fine and all, but going out for a relaxing meal is wonderful. I managed to get a reservation at Martina for brunch and things are back up and running. We were seated right away and they have you use your phone to place your food and beverage orders. The server was available to assist if needed too. It is a rather slick system.  

John had the almond flour pancakes with fruit, butter and almond butter. They were very light in texture yet filling at the same time. 

I had the crab cake eggs benedict. They were tasty and very filling with an excellent hollandaise sauce. 

We also had some potato churros, which I did not remember to get a photos of. I think we had them on a prior visit. They are amazingly delicious potatoes fried like a churro, essentially. 

Let's hope the march to normalcy continues. 

Martina
4312 S Upton Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55410
Phone: (612) 922-9913
https://www.martinarestaurant.com/

Guava's Cuban Cafe

We visited Guava's Cuban Cafe for brunch recently. I think it is a fairly new restaurant on the edge of Richfield/Minneapolis. It is a very cute little cafe with a small patio in the front. You order at the counter and the food is delivered to your table. 

John had the Vaca Frita Hash with braised beef, house potatoes, charred onions, yuca, 2 eggs, cilantro aioli and tostada. He really enjoyed this. The meat was tender and well flavored. It was a huge portion and he took some of it home for another meal. 

I had the Miami breakfast with bacon, 2 eggs, patatas bravas and Cuban toast with guava butter. Everything was very good. I really liked the Cuban toast and guava butter. The  potatoes were crispy and well seasoned. 

We really enjoyed Guava's and plan to return soon. The menu is not huge, but everything was high quality and there were some other items I'd love to try. 

Guava's Cuban Cafe
5607 Chicago Ave 
Minneapolis, MN 55417
Phone: (612) 824-0951
https://guavascubancafe.com

Negril, Jamaica, Couples Swept Away 2.9-16.2021 - Pandemic edition

Originally, 2021 was supposed to take us on a trip to Hawaii, but the pandemic sidelined those plans for the time being. We decided to stick with the familiar and opted to return to Couples Swept Away in Negril, Jamaica. We were impressed that the country required testing to visit and we were not deterred when the U.S. required testing to return home. The resort quickly stepped up and offered testing as part of our package. 

We upgraded ourselves to first class on the way there. For spacing and safety. Also upgrades were were pretty affordable, though services were a bit limited. 

This lady was so excited to be back in an airplane that I took photos like a little kid. 

The view from our ocean view room #3314. Not as wonderful of a view as the beachfront rooms, but not bad either. 

hot tub just to the right

I should have take room photos before we unpacked, but I forgot....pretend you do not see our stuff. 

We had a bit of rain most afternoons. We just took that time to return to the room to shower or sit on the verandah. 

Most days we got breakfast, sat on the beach, got lunch, sat on the beach for the afternoon, went back to the room to shower, had happy hour on the verandah, and went to dinner. After dinner we usually just went back to the room and played trivia or uno. Writing that, it sounds boring, but it was great warm weather and an improvement over staying home. Plus we missed the majority of the coldest weather of the year at home. 

dinner at Palms Tuesday evening

first breakfast is essential LOL

delicious yogurt!

lunch at patois on Wednesday

tiki bar boat

potato of the evening amused me.....

Wednesday dinner at Patois

martini bar was open! and great! 

the Silver Birds were amazing! 

breakfast visitor

Thursday we had lunch at Seagrapes

quite a downpour Thursday afternoon

We played trivia cards and had an uno tournament on the verandah during the storm. 

Thursday's dinner was at Feather's

Friday morning the buffet was back up and running just about normally. Honestly, I preferred table service, though it did take longer.

like a postcard, but real life

lunch at patois

We took the catamaran tour and had a lovely time. 

Rick's cafe from the water

Friday dinner at Patois

breakfast kitty cat

Saturday lunch at Seagrapes

the fish tacos were excellent

finally an unobstructed sunset

Saturday dinner at Lemongrass

Saturday afternoon we had our COVID tests required to return home. We went over to the sports center and the testing took maybe 10 minutes start to finish. The results were emailed to us later that afternoon. While the possibility of testing positive was a bit stressful, we really were not around others that much and all venues were outdoors and open air, which knew and hoped would be a good thing. We also made sure to mask when entering and exiting restaurants on the resort and stopping at the bars.   

glass bottom boat tour on Sunday

pretty desserts even at Patois at lunch

impressive Valentine's party on the beach

Sunday was Valentine's dinner at the Palms

dinner kitty friend

Monday breakfast from the buffet

John on an aqua cycle

Monday we went on the snorkeling tour

Monday lunch at Seagrapes

it was rather easy to get a palapa each day since capacity at the resort was pretty low

Monday night repeater's dinner

Overall, I was very impressed with the food and beverage at the resort once again. The food is delicious, high quality and well prepared, especially for an all inclusive resort. The standards remain high and we would certainly return. 

We had an excellent trip. I did miss the fact that Patois restaurant was not open for sit down breakfast quite a bit. I'm sure there were not enough people to have it open as none of the restaurants really felt crowded at any time. Sometimes it felt a bit busy, but not overly so. 

We has some resort credit for being repeaters. We booked a couples massage at the spa one day. MY massage was great, John said his was just OK. I guess it depends who you get. We wore our masks the entire time and that was fine. Not a big deal. 

I should mention that we booked private transportation to and from the airport. We wanted to reduce contact with others as much see could and it wasn't that expensive. 

We visited the Club MoBay lounge before our flight departed. Some snacks were tasty, some were a miss. 

The trip home was uneventful. We were seated in the exit row with an empty seat next to both of us. Both flights were rather empty so social distancing was pretty easy. If everyone would just wear a mask, it would be fine, but that is too much to ask of some people. Sigh....