Anniversary at Traders' Ridge Resort in Yap, Micronesia
We actually started at home with some New Zealand Spumante (Kiwi Champagne) over a few rounds of Monopoly. And we even moved on to open a bottle of French Rose we had been saving.
Then we went here for dinner. Proprietors Jill and Claus had arranged a few nice surprises with nice music (Pachelbel, Beethoven, etc.) and fresh nunus (flower leis). She had a tropical fruity rum drink (Kokomo Joe) and I had the top-shelf Grand Margarita. The appetizers we chose were lightly fried crab cakes (local mangrove crabs) on a bed of papaya chutney and tuna sashimi, perfectly cut and simply presented with soy, wasabi, ginger and water chestnut. For the main course, she had seared tuna with capers, sauteed veggies (papaya, celery, local longbean) and steamed rice. I had a veal shank sauteed with most of the same veggies plus onions and tomatoes and the rice. With a bottle of French Bordeaux.
Delicious. We savored every bit. This is as close to a 4-star restaurant as you can get in the FSM. Palau and Guam may have better restaurants, but that is only because they have better supply shipping lines.
For dessert, they had told me they would prepare us a chocolate cake. It was more like a huge fudge brownie covered with a light sugar glaze. Perfect; even decorated. We took most of that home with us.
She asked me what I like most about her, and I answered, that it was her spirit of adventure, as it made it possible for her to move out here to the middle of nowhere in the Pacific and live without hot water or television or even much travel, and to not only make the best of it, but to thrive and find new opportunities and resources for exciting work, fun, travel and happiness. She has the best attitude of anyone I know. And for putting up with me and my bullshit.
She was very pleased and overwhelmed to have a nice celebration and a "big deal" that I organized.
We were talking later at home, and she described how, 15-16 years ago, living in Communist Czechoslovakia, all of these things happening to her, and all of the things happing in Central & Eastern Europe since then, seemed like an impossible fantasy. And now that she has lived through all the economic and political changes of Slovakia, she can see the opportunities for positive change here in the third world -- in the same way Westerners used to tell her things would change in Slovakia. She didn't believe them then, but she does now, and she is trying to get local people here to believe.
Then we went here for dinner. Proprietors Jill and Claus had arranged a few nice surprises with nice music (Pachelbel, Beethoven, etc.) and fresh nunus (flower leis). She had a tropical fruity rum drink (Kokomo Joe) and I had the top-shelf Grand Margarita. The appetizers we chose were lightly fried crab cakes (local mangrove crabs) on a bed of papaya chutney and tuna sashimi, perfectly cut and simply presented with soy, wasabi, ginger and water chestnut. For the main course, she had seared tuna with capers, sauteed veggies (papaya, celery, local longbean) and steamed rice. I had a veal shank sauteed with most of the same veggies plus onions and tomatoes and the rice. With a bottle of French Bordeaux.
Delicious. We savored every bit. This is as close to a 4-star restaurant as you can get in the FSM. Palau and Guam may have better restaurants, but that is only because they have better supply shipping lines.
For dessert, they had told me they would prepare us a chocolate cake. It was more like a huge fudge brownie covered with a light sugar glaze. Perfect; even decorated. We took most of that home with us.
She asked me what I like most about her, and I answered, that it was her spirit of adventure, as it made it possible for her to move out here to the middle of nowhere in the Pacific and live without hot water or television or even much travel, and to not only make the best of it, but to thrive and find new opportunities and resources for exciting work, fun, travel and happiness. She has the best attitude of anyone I know. And for putting up with me and my bullshit.
She was very pleased and overwhelmed to have a nice celebration and a "big deal" that I organized.
We were talking later at home, and she described how, 15-16 years ago, living in Communist Czechoslovakia, all of these things happening to her, and all of the things happing in Central & Eastern Europe since then, seemed like an impossible fantasy. And now that she has lived through all the economic and political changes of Slovakia, she can see the opportunities for positive change here in the third world -- in the same way Westerners used to tell her things would change in Slovakia. She didn't believe them then, but she does now, and she is trying to get local people here to believe.