Sunday, April 15, 2012

What I did Last Summer, really all last year

Us in Old San Juan
Thad's 39th birthday
Our visit w/ Lou & Lydia on S/V Second Hand Rose

The Happy Couple
Girlie Girl Lunch
First horse show for Ellis
The wedding party
Mary Vazquez 100 years of life
Al and me serving up our special concoction
Proud 2nd place winner
Karlene and I at Village Inn New Year's Eve
Family gathers to celebrate 100 years of life

Great-great grandma and Caiden
Ye and Al Xmas Eve

I just took a glimpse of my last post to this blog; it was a year ago. We finally finished up all the family details that kept us in the states. I, of course, did my tour of “Mom” duty, three months in Florida, while Al stayed in California with his own tasks. The family in Florida grew by one this year, my great-niece, Katie had an adorable baby boy, Caiden; making my mother a great-great grandmother for the first time. My mom and I went to Puerto Rico to attend the festivities for my Godmother’s 100th birthday. While in PR we visited some of Mom’s sisters and brother, and I even learned how to make Mofongo. Thank you Titi Nerie.

We stayed with Karlene and Thaddeus for several months; they’re always so gracious to put up with us for so very long. Karlene took me to lots of shows, plays and dance performances, I loved it. Thad’s parents had us over a few times for dinner, including last year’s Easter dinner, always a good meal and equally good company. You guys are the best! We enjoyed Christmas with K & T’s, the usual group for Xmas Eve dinner and Christmas brunch. I was delighted with my new iphone that Santa brought me, thanks Santa Al. Eddie and I had a few happy hour’s together and got in an outing or two.

Al and I also house sat for our good friends, so I was able to go to my favorite kickboxing classes in Newport Beach. Trish and I got to play a lot and I was even invited to some Girlie-Girl luncheons; very fun group, thank you for all your kindnesses. We went to Trish and Rick’s annual blend off party, this time we managed 2nd place, but I’ll keep trying. The big NPB event was Rick and Trish’s wedding, it was wonderful, everything turned out perfectly…congratulations and all the best. Now they are newly arrived residents of Chicago, good thing it’s spring time.

I continued with watercolor and kickboxing, with a little beading thrown in as well. I made a new friend in my watercolor class, Carol; we spent many happy hours at her dining room table working on our painting, her finishing one after another and me working on the same old pumpkin painting. I took up knitting again, I found Jennifer’s place, Suzoo’s Wool Works, in Costa Mesa, and it became a home away from home. I finished Kristina’s Xmas scarf in early March, only a couple of months late but it got sent off to her while it was still cold in Boston.

Congratulations to Kristina and Brian, Mary and Chris, Clary and her guy and Melissa and Andrew on their engagements.

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

A Window with a View









Panama Sights
















We came over from Taboga about 2 weeks ago, spent one week in the anchorage known as “La Playita”, where we got lots of practice getting the dinghy in an out of the water. We're now in the anchorage at the Balboa Yacht Club, not to be confused with the similarly named Yacht Club of Newport Beach. Anyway...it’s so much easier to get around from here and we’ve been able to see more of the area. We’ve stocked up on books during the book exchanges and enjoyed hanging out with other cruisers while munching on pizza and enjoying a few beers. We picked up some charts for our trip to Ecuador from the folks on “Gallant Fox’, along with some first hand info on the Marina in Puerto Lucia, Ecuador. We been to the ruins of Old Panama, Casco Viejo, the walking street, and last night we went to the final night of Carnival; I've even had my hair done the other day and a facial too...I'm feeling so fancy. We had planned to leave a few days ago but couldn’t resist staying until Carnival. Latest news on our departure date is Friday; heading for Ecuador with stops on the way to include the Perlas Islands. We have to provision, fix leaks in the dinghy and check out as well before we head out.

What we saw in Chiriqui

Here's a few more of what we saw in Chiriqui


















WE'RE ON A BOAT, WE'RE ON A BOAT, WE'RE ON A FIRE TRUCKING BOAT!!!