Big News Came with Santa

Happy Holidays to one and all.

It’s time for an update and I will make it in real time because there are real time things to say today. My dear darling daughter, Karlene, was surprised by Thaddeus on Christmas morning with a proposal and an engagement ring. She is thrilled and excited, as we all are. I’m so happy for the both of them and can’t wait to put my two cents in about their upcoming wedding. (just kidding Karlene).

We're still in Puerto Vallarta, having stayed much longer then we had planned because of me having sprained my foot. Of course Puerto Vallarta isn't a bad place to get stuck at. We have enjoyed our stay here, this our 3rd time here.

On Christmas we had a great time at a potluck out in Mezcales, with about 20 folks from different boats who are all docked in Nuevo Vallarta marina. We all got to play a few rounds of a game that's a cross between tennis and golf. I didn't do too badly, even playing with a handicap... it just might be my sport.

The food was good and plentiful, turkey, mashed potatoes and all the fixings.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN WITH UNCLE AL

You may have noticed there’s not much mention of Al over the summer, the reason is that he was on his own adventure while I was in Florida. In total Al drove about 7000 miles this past summer. The first trip we did together to Colorado and back to SoCal. Al then drove back to Colorado to stay at the Flying Horse Ranch to try his hand at living on a ranch, haying and even learning how to drive a tractor. He had a good time with Lou and Lydia, I think he may even have gone to a barn dance or two. Thanks to Lou and Lydia for taking good care of Al.

After a month on the ranch Al drove back to SoCal and fell into his rhythm there, visiting friends, playing with his motorcycle and Monday night dinners with boating friends in Newport Beach. Monday night dinners has been a ritual with this great group of people for eons; they meet at a tiny sort of coffee house, called “Alta”, the food is simply sandwiches and salads but the true appeal is that they are allowed to byob. Needless to say the wine flows in abundance and Al come armed his six pack of Haake Beck non-alcohol beer.

Speaking of Al’s n-a beer. My mom asked me, “Yevette, when Al drinks that make believe beer does he get make believe drunk?” Anyway… back to Al’s travels. After A few weeks in SoCal he took off to Lake Tahoe. Remember Ronan? No worries if you don’t, Ronan is the dog who lives at the house that we house sat for last year. This year Al went solo, just he and Ronan for about a month. I bet it wasn’t as much fun without me, at least that’s what I think. Next road trip was planned for La Paz, where we left the boat for the summer. Al’s friend Jim was a good sport and volunteered to go on the 2000 mile wild ride down to Baja and back all within a week. Al had the truck loaded up with boat parts, a new dinghy, davits for the new dinghy, and the best part was my new lime green kayak. I love my new kayak, thank you Al. Many thanks to Jim for accompanying Al on the long ride South of the Border. Upon returning Al had just enough time to pack a bag and get on a plane to Orlando to join me and to bring me back to SoCal It was a happy reunion for us; we got to do some fun things in the short time he was there. According to Al his favorite moment was when he whooped little Yevette (my 11 year old niece) at driving go-carts. He’s such a guy…..

THIS SUMMER'S PHOTOS

Here are some pics from this summer. Karlene at the aquarium
Al and Libby
Skyler and Felicity
Jennifer and Ellis

Christopher Yevette, Joey, Sunny and Louie


Yevette & Louie

ON TO FLORIDA

Putting some more miles on the Acura we drove back to Long Beach just in time for me to head to Florida for the about 4 months. While in Florida I signed up for a kickboxing/resistance band exercise class that I go to 6 days a week and jog 3 days a week as well. Mom even got to try on the gloves a few times. The trick is that I go early in the morning at 6:30, before the sun starts to really cook and before my Mom wakes up. I wrote a BIG note with a thick black marker pen that says “Mom, I’ll be back soon”, I put it by her door each morning so if she wakes up she’ll be able to remember where I’ve gone. A few times she already had keys in hand and once even backed out of the driveway by the time I got back, convinced that I must have gotten lost or gotten into some predicament. I enjoyed my time there, sometimes it was a little crazy making for me but overall is was a good time spent with my family.

My mom may not remember what she just said a few minutes ago but she has many stories from her early years, which I’m so glad I had the opportunity to hear. She told me that when she was a kid, one of 10 kids, she used to watch her mom sew, always from a distance because her mom would always tell the kids to scram. Anyway… when my mom was about 11 or 12 her aunt asked her if she thought she could so sew a dress for her. My mom figured she’d give it a try, so equipped with one of her aunt’s dresses to use as a pattern, she made her aunt a dress. When the dress was finished her aunt very pleased with the dress, paid her niece 10 cents. That was my mom’s first sewing job. Years later she worked as a seamstress in New York. Over the years my mother made me many beautiful dresses. I remember going to bed while she was still at the sewing machine and in the morning when I awoke there was a brand new dress hanging on the back of my bedroom door. My Mom, she’s one in a million and I love her very much.

In addition to my Mom there‘s my entire family to spend time with in Florida and that I did. We got to go have Italian ices a few times, took a walk across the lake on the elevated wooden walkway, that only a few weeks earlier was totally underwater, thanks to hurricane Fay, and had a few great barbecues. The kids, Mom and I went to a few cheap matinee movies to get out of the heat a couple of times. I even took a pottery class with my nephew Joe and his daughter Katie. Sandra, my sister-in-law tried out a few new recipes and I have now added them to my 1001 chicken dishes. Thanks to my family for sharing their simmering summer with me.

Midway through my stay in Florida I took the train out of the quaint Winter Park station to Fort Lauderdale, then onto Hutchinson Island to spend a with Janet, her family, Cathie and Melissa, all of whom I hadn’t seen in over 20 years. We didn’t get much sun at the beach, again thanks to Fay but we had a good time together laughing and catching up. I learned how to play Rubicube. Thanks again to Janet for being such a wonderful hostess.

Colorado Daze

We flew out of La Paz to LA in mid June just in time to hop in the car and head to Colorado. We had a short but sweet visit with my friends Lorraine and John; they got to meet Al over lunch before we took off down the road for Golden to spend a day with Al’s sister and family. Our date book has September 12, 2009 reserved to come back to Golden for Jill’s wedding (Al’s niece).

Once out of Golden we headed up to Steamboat Springs to “Rockin’ at the Ranch, better known to some as Keri and Spencer’s wedding on the Flying Horse Ranch, hosted by Lou and Lydia, you remember, they’re fellow cruisers that we had been traveling with this past season. It was a great time, sort of a mini reunion with Lou, Lydia and Sean from Chemistry. We danced in the barn, ate New Orleans gumbo, I flirted with Lou’s 90 year old uncle and even got a ride in the helicopter.

Lydia and I had fun drinking wine while cooking lasagna for a crowd and then howled at the moon while sitting in the Jacuzzi. Flying Horse Ranch, high in the Rockies is truly a wondrous place, Lou and Lydia…thank you for our invitation to your beautiful home.

Guests In the Sea

We had our first overnight guests on the boat. We picked up Ray and Carol (the Scottish side of the family) at the marina in Puerto Escondido and began a 4 day excursion to some of our favorite spots in the Sea of Cortez. It happened to be my birthday and had been Ray’s a few days before, so we did our fair share of celebrating. It was the first time that I had provisioned and cooked for 4 people, granted that doesn’t sound like much but I was a little nervous so I was really glad that everything went so well, smoothies in the morning and Pina Coladas for Happy hour We enjoyed exploring coves in the dinghy, snorkeling in Aqua Verde, and a beach party in San Juanico, with several other cruisers in the anchorage. In the evenings we played scrabble, I even won the first night but Carol gave me a sound whooping the next night. Thanks to Ray and Carol for sharing a part of our adventure.

The Volcano and the Dentist

It's time to catch up on my blog. You see, one reason that I don’t get to it is because I’m so far behind but the longer I don’t catch up, the further behind I get.

Let’s see I ended off in the late spring. We took an inland bus trip to Colima to go on a trek up to the Volcan de Fuego, a trek of several hours with the French guide we had heard so much about. He was booked for over a week so we went to the tourist office and got a name of another guide, at least that’s what we thought. I called a few of the numbers and finally contacted a gentleman who agreed to take us up to the volcano the next morning. He was curious how we got his number, turned out, even though he was an avid hiker, he was a dentist, not a tour guide. At this point we weren’t sure if we should just get our teeth cleaned or go hiking with the dentist. The next morning Juan showed up early at our hotel room ready to get going. We had a good day, instead of the 4 hour hike to get up close and personal with the volcano we took a 45 minute walk to view the volcano from further away. Just as we got to a high ridge smoke began to billow out of the volcano, right on schedule. Even from this distance, the view was impressive. All in all we had a really good day and saw many of the local sights, including the “green lake” and the best ice cream in town.

Going North

We did head to La Paz but only after going North for a while along the mainland coast. We revisited a few places and stopped at a few new places. We spent time with Linda and Don from Ironrose and they taught us how to play cribbage. Linda has a wealth of knowledge about many different things so I found myself taking notes on anything from bio-idential hormones to nipple covers ( you just never know when you'll need them). Tenacatita was without it's un-official mayor, Archie from Seatacean; there were only but a few boats anchored. We stayed for a day or so but never went ashore, remembering some of the "exciting" landing that many folks had the last time we were there. We pushed on the Chamela where we did go ashore and had lunch at a place called "Lola La Gringa"

Turning Point

Our time in Manzanillo was great, friends, family and good times. It was the turning point to this cruising season; we had planned to go further south but decided to enjoy the Sea of Cortez one more time. So headphones on we pulled up the anchor and headed North to La Paz. It took us only one overnight to arrive.

The Big Day!

One night somewhere between Punta Ipala and Tenacatita we invited our good friends Lou and Lydia over to our boat for dinner; that’s not anything unusual because often while anchored out we hop into our dinghy and either go to their boat or them to ours to enjoy dinner together and maybe a game of Mexican train dominoes. Anyway…that night we told them we had an announcement. Our announcement was that we had decided not to wait until we got to the Cook Islands to get married (that is still probably 2 years away) we were going to get married in Manzanillo. We celebrated and soon Lydia and I were in full planning mode; to find the perfect dress for the perfect wedding. Which is exactly what it was!
We anchored outside of Las Hadas Hotel (of the movie "10" fame) on Sunday, March 9 and began making inquiries about someone to marry us, by Monday afternoon I had it all arranged, even found a local bakery for the cake and flowers as well. Lou and Lydia had graciously offered the use of the house on the beach in Santiago. They had arranged months ago to rent this beautiful beach house, where they were having their kids join them there for the week. Two birthday parties were planned for that week so we just tacked on the wedding to the week's festivities. Karlene came down on Tuesday; we had booked her a room at the hotel. Trish came down as well. Everything turned out wonderful. Everyone was given a little ceramic cup tied with a turquoise colored ribbon to wear around their necks for tequila shots; we all had heaps of fun. A special thank you to all our friends and family that helped make our day such a glorious one, one I will always remember.

After Yelapa

Once we rounded Cabo Corrientes we continued south to many beautful anchorages and great beaches; Chamela, Playa Perula,Tenacatita, Barra de Navidad, Melaque, Santiago and then Manzanillo.
In Chamela Al bought another pair, of what I call, souvenir shoes. He usually forgets his sandals on the boat when we dinghy to shore; hence he's got a few pair of interesting shoes. In Tenacatita we did what is referred to by other cruisers as the "Jungle River Dinghy Ride. It takes about 3 hrs round trip through mangroves, canopied by flowering vines and 15' aerial roots that dangle into the water. I took heaps of pics of colorful birds and iguanas but never did spot any crocodiles. Before returning we stopped at the Beach for some provisioning and lunch. At Tenacatita landing the dinghy was interesting but not nearly as much as launching. During a dinghy raft up a few folks, even seasoned cruisers, told harrowing tales of getting thrown out of their dinks. I guess I got off esy with just breaking my glasses and having my ring finger turn bright purple. Archie and Bev of s/v Sea-tacean are the unofficial Mayor and mayoress (?) of Tenacatita, whenever landing is advisable they conduct a walks, boucle ball on the beach, beading at the palapa and the weekly raft up. I'd been eyeing Lydia's beautiful bracelet made by Bev and I was able to have Bev make me one as well. I wore it on our special day in Santiago but that's for another blog. Here's some photos.

Catching Up With 2008

Feb 8 & 9, 2008 The first stop after Mazatlan was Isla Isabella. We anchored at the a spot near a rock called “Las Monas” (mannequins). The small island, 281 ft. volcanic peak, less than a mile long, is a national wildlife reserve. Our guidebook says Isla Isabella was frequented by Jacques Cousteau 30 years ago to film the rare frigate bird nests. All over the island in shrubs and low trees are nests of hundreds of frigate nests, as well as the amazing looking blue footed and yellow footed boobies. I think I’ve even captured, in one of my photos a male frigate puffing out his huge red neck, strutting his stuff, so to speak. There were great tide pools formed by the lava flow of the volcanic peak. Enjoy the photos, they say it better than I can. Here is the first place we met the folks on “Chemistry”, Sean, Malavika and Denali. As is the cruiser tradition we enjoyed happy hour together and look forward to cruising with them for a bit.

Feb. 10. San Blas, in Nayarit state is the first place that feels like the tropics. We’re guided in by Norm (more about Norm later), into the bird estuary anchorage. Along the shore there are many fishing pangas, colorful buildings and palm trees with a backdrop of mountain ranges off in the distance. Over dinner (a group of nine) Norm weaves stories of the Friar Sierra sailing from San Blas to establish the missions in Baja and up and down the California coast, intermittently we hear many fishing stories and local info.
Norm & Jan who started out in New York came down to San Blas in the 60’s and stayed. We’ve come across a good many expats that have made Mexico their home. Anyway…Jan is a watercolorist who has done a beautiful series of pieces of the Huichol people. Norm is a semi-retired sport fishing captain.
Norm was also our culinary guide to San Blas as well, we enjoyed the best meals at a different local every night, winding up in the town plaza, the local gathering place. One night Denali played us some beautiful music on an instrument I can’t remember the name of right now. Anyway, here’s a photo.

After San Blas we cruised into the marina in La Cruz on Feb 14. La Cruz is a small town which is a 45 minute, hair raising, bus ride to Puerto Vallarta. We stayed for nearly a week only getting into town a couple of times. Next we stopped over night in Yelapa. The old phrase “ a palapa is Yelapa is better than a condo in Redondo” is alive and well here. Yelapa steeped in a tie-dyed Reike massaged aura, is hill side palapa community of dogs, horse, chickens and rasta-haired folks. It’s got a great little beach with water taxi access to Puerto Vallarta, actually by water is the only was to get there. There’s a few places to stay and we enjoyed a great dinner served by a tanned charming Frenchman. For rental info: www.casayelapa.com or it’s www.casasyelapa.com

Daze in Mazatlan

We spent 7 weeks in Mazatlan with a short break of 10 days for a trip to the states. Many things can be said of Mazatlan and here are a few of mine.
As someone else said about the buses in Mexico or in particular Mazatlan; there are plenty of bus routes just no schedules or bus stops either. Sometimes on a bus you'll encounter a strolling mistral, except he'll be riding a bus rather than strolling. He gets on with his instrument tucked under his arm, sort of out of the bus drivers sight, just in case he has a mind to charge a fare for the guitar as well. The musician finds a corner where he can prop himself up then begins to pick out a tune and sings along. Most passengers don't take much notice of him and every once in a while he'll cruise the aisle and hesitate by your seat for just a moment if he thinks you may dole out a few coins in musical appreciation. If you can't wait for a bus you can always hire a ride on Mazatlan's favorite mode of transportation, the "pulmonia"; it's an open air taxi built on a volkswagon chasis. On chilly nites "pulmonia (pneumonia) is just what I thought I would catch during a brish ride back to the marina.
We enjoyed our stay in Mazatlan and our time with old and new ones too!