Baggage arrived in the morning, so after breakfast we took the cable car to the top of the hill for the panoramic view. Met the rest of our group at the designated spot and shuttled to Villa Zamagna in Zaton Bay.
King’s Landing and the Red Keep
Started the day with breakfast at a cafe in one of the many squares off of the Main Street. There was a farmers market, though mainly it was touristy stuff, like the candies orange peel – so delicious!!
Spent the rest of the day tramping around the city looking at gorgeous views and the various shoot locations for Game of Thrones.
Cold beer with a spectacular view at Buza – watching the sea and the cliff jumpers. Then dinner at Stars Loza – ridiculous grilled bread with an assortments of butters and fish entrees, tuna and sea bass.
Day 1 in Croatia
We made it to Dubrovnik @ 8, but sadly our luggage did not. After filing the appropriate paperwork with the airline, we headed on to the Celenga Apartment. Some confusion later – directional, GPS, and otherwise – we regrouped and headed out for some wine and a snack at La Bodega in the main square. At midnight, the crowd was still lively – and would be long after we said goodnight. The apartment is lovely and comfortable – and extremely well located!
Hanging out @ Schiphol
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brouwerij_’t_IJ
Delays out of DC due to paperwork/maintenance and then a ground stop due to lightning, put us into AMS with just enough time to make our connection if only United hadn’t preemptively off-boarded us. New routing via Frankfurt with time to kill in both Schiphol and Frankfurt before reaching Dubrovnik @ 4 hours off schedule. Not bad, all things considered since we’d already written off today as travel/time adjustment/decompression.
Mirror Lake Trailhead (Tom, Dick and Harry) hike.
Our first venture out for hiking with both dogs! Overall, quite successful. We parked at the ski bowl lot, which added 1.5-2 miles to an otherwise short 3 – 3.5 mile out and back. The drive out highway 26 seemed slow, but it was only 50 miles to the trailhead.
Fatayer Laham
Meat Mixture
2 lb lamb (2.15 lb)
2 medium onions (ended up very fine grate because we used food processor
3 yukon gold potatoes (1.5 lb) shred and liquid squeezed out
3/4 cup lubne
2 lemons (just over 1/3 cup)
jamaican allspice (3/4 tsp)
Vietnamese Cinnamon (3/4 tsp)
1/4 tsp lowrys seasoned salt
2 T salt
Dough
followed recipe in book. (page 55). No butter used.
cut into 36 balls and let rise again for about 30 minutes.
Rolled out to tart size circles (just over 5″)
Notes: our lamb wasn’t super lean and it caused a good amount of grease to spill out. look for lean lamb.
Two scoops is enough meat for each (leveled… no heaping)
Brushed butter after pulled out of 425 degree oven. took about 22 minutes.
First Spring Planting
After clearing out most of our winter crops (we still have one productive Kale plant and leaks that are finally starting to grow
In the past years, our sugar snap peas have yeilded very small crops. both were from starters and were late to get into the ground. this year, following Portland Edibles plan, we planted seeds. Our experiment was to alternate the seeds between two verities that mature a couple weeks apart. Just the fact that planting from seed is starting out with significantly more plants is exciting and the instructions say to not thin them as they like growing clusters. 
Mexico City – last day
Not much time on the last day, but we did walk back to the park. We considered the Museum of History, but decided to wait for another time.
Next time: the pyramids, this neighborhood – see link below, and the Frida Kahlo museum.
Mexico City – New Years Day
Day 3 – Explored the Condesa and Roma neighborhoods. Enjoyed walking on Amsterdam Ave. Made our way to Mercado Roma – a hip and trendy market and food court with a biergarten on top. Other than being slammed, making seating a challenge, it was a good time! The biergarten was less crowded and gave us an opportunity to relax and enjoy the mostly sunny day.
Mexico City – New Years Eve
Day 2 – walked down to the Alameda, Zocalo, National Palace and National Cathedral.
Lunch and mojitos at Le Casa de Los Sirenas. The food here is amazing!!
Had some wine in the best concierge club EVER before heading outside to check out the festivities. It took a while for the crowd to build, but the music was lively. Finally the countdown and fireworks at midnight!