Year number two started on Saturday morning in Bozeman, Montana. We had a perfect visit for a few days with the Coley family and all met up for breakfast at Jam! Afterward, Chad and Lucy dropped us off at the airport for our 11:55am flight to Atlanta. It left a little late due to a maintenance issue but still arrived nearly on time. During our layover in Atlanta, we ate at Chipotle and then I grabbed a sandwich at Arby’s. We boarded our flight to Buenos Aires and left right on time at 9pm. The flight was Delta flight number 101 – I’m not sure if I’ve ever been on a flight 101 before – that’s meaningful for us Depeche devotees. 😊

Sandy watched a couple of movies – What Happens Next and Saturday Night. I read my current book and slept for around five hours in total. Sandy got around three hours of sleep. We skipped the dinner service but had the egg, cheese, and spinach pastry for breakfast shortly before landing at 9am. We cleared passport control, picked up our bags and then had an Uber pick us up around 10:15am. The ride to our hotel – the Ayers de Recoleta apartment hotel took just over 30 minutes. The hotel is the same one we stayed in when we were here in 2018 for the Depeche tour, and it certainly looked familiar upon arrival. We fully expected to have to wait for several hours since we arrived so early but they were able to get us right into our room. We unpacked and then went to get lunch.

We were very excited to get back to one of the best pizzas we have ever had, which is at La Continental – just around the corner from the apartment. We couldn’t remember the specific pizza we had seven years ago, but it wasn’t the one we had yesterday (the Bruschetta one). It was ok, but after thinking about that pizza for the last seven years, it was disappointing. We’ll see if we give it another shot. After an unsuccessful search for an ATM, we went back to the apartment to get some things done and to take a nap.

After the nap and showering, we went across the street and explored the mall. We found a good Italian restaurant called Il Quotodiano where we had tea, shared a Greek salad, and each had gnocchi pomodoro. It was a perfect evening. After dinner, we found an ATM that worked for our card and picked up some bananas before a relaxing evening in the apartment.

We both slept great last night – an overnight flight helps tire you out to usually make for a good night of rest the following night. We slept in and then headed out for a nice four-mile run through some of the parks here. It was unplanned, but as we ran, we realized that we were repeating the same route we had done seven years ago. It’s weird how something you haven’t done in that much time can feel so familiar.

After our run, we walked down the block so that I could get my haircut – we’re in the high rent district I guess, because it was $10! Then it was over to Be Juice and Coffee for a great healthy lunch – we each had fruit juices and I had a chicken wrap while Sandy had a quinoa salad. Sandy found a place that is supposed to have some of the best alfajores in Buenos Aires, so we walked to Guolis Recoleta. We tried two versions – one was a vanilla cake inside while the second was chocolate. The second one is the one we were looking for – delicious!

After our lunch outing, it was back to the apartment to get some things done. For dinner, we wanted fish and found a good restaurant called Jardin Inviernos inside the Recoleta hotel. It was a beautiful setting with an inside garden and we had white salmon along with sauteed vegetables. Delicious. Back in the room, we started to get things together for moving day tomorrow while catching up on today’s inaugural activities back in the States. That whole process and ceremony is always a reminder of how cool our political transitions are – regardless of who is going into office. I find it to be an inspiring exercise every four years (and I find the same when I watch transitions in other countries also).