First Thing Every Day...

We check weather!
Yes, we lead exciting lives here in La Paz...
This makes us very, very happy:

A Check on "Sweet Lorraine"

Yesterday we drove out to Costa Baja to check on "Sweet Lorraine" in Dave and Kellie's absence.
Hmmmm... alarms going off.
Propane sensor, carbon monoxide sensor.
Turned those off ~ Jim sweating inside the locked up boat.
HOT!
So we just had to go for a dip in the pool at the Beach Club!















Even a picture of me for once!Anyone else docked at Costa Baja that needs a boat checked on?
How about Palmira? They have a pool too...

Happy Birthday Renee!

Ahhh... my brother's middle child...

The one that doesn't take crap from anyone.
Ask her about the time she got suspended from high school for punching a guy - he deserved it, he was grabbing the girls in places high school boys are not supposed to touch.

The one that says what is on her mind.
Like the time she proposed to Jim for me after Jim and I had been dating two weeks and she really, really wanted to be a flower girl in a wedding, as her sister Laina had been one, her cousin Meghan had been one, so she went up to Jim and said, "Please, please, please get married so I can be the flower girl" - she was 6 at the time... and when I asked her about it 12 years later she said, "Hey, you should thank me!"

Ok enough of the torment stories.
Oh I hope I can remember some more!
Now time for the photos.

She was also the one that made funny faces.













Even on her birthday...








The one that named her goat "Dennis".The one that could drive a boat well, and half way back from Santa Cruz Island would say, "Uncle Jim, Uncle Jim please turn the boat back around and let's stay there!"The one that knows how to work me...In ways the other kids don't...
Such as the time when she was about 21 and told me as a child she always felt I was her's and if I had had my own kids she would have been jealous. Ok, Renee what do you want? My boat? I already said you could have my 10 year anniversary diamond ring... What else? You can have anything!




This is when she
was a princess.






This is when she spent two weeks with us last year and we took her back out to Santa Cruz Island.And this is her playing in Paris with her brother and sister!Now she has Laina sticking out her tongue...

Happy, Happy Birthday Renee ~ We love you!

The Last Supper...

Actually it was a thank you dinner for all the help Jim gave Wayne on the computer and software headache...
But we won't talk about that or Carol will want to smash the computer or possibly Wayne.
And a "last supper" with "Capricorn Cat", as they are going up into the Sea for a bit.
Well, they are just going for a week or so then returning, so we will probably have a "last supper #2" then.
Would you two hurry up and get the hell out of our slip already?

A new place was discovered!


We all loved the decor and ambiance, however the food was not as good as a few other places.
We still had a great time!
Susan and Dennis of "Two Can Play" joined us.



The courtyard was beautiful!
Lounging areas, a beautiful fountain made of old bottles, the old cistern (Aljibe means cistern) ~ quite lovely!
And fun to explore...


Wayne really liked
looking down into
the cistern...






The waiter invited
us in to the wine
cellar to select
our wines.






But the best was the rooftop bar!
It reminded us of a mini version of The Delano in South Beach, Miami.


















The restrooms were pretty cool too!










Except for this weirdo peeping
Wayne looking in the window!



Thanks for fun night out "Capricorn Cat"!

Tropical Weather - Tis the Season

Well we don't see too many of these around here:But we have been getting a few of these screaming through each week:
Gee, you think it's raining over in El Centennario?

The hills are turning green.

After an hour's rain yesterday, the water in the bay was brown with runoff.
There were puddles all through town several hours after the downpour.
The malecon was covered in dirt, mud and debris.
What is it going to be like if a "biggie" comes through?

Request by "The Dad"!

The goofball Dad of the beautiful Meghan had a photo request ~ one of him holding her waaaay back many, many years ago.
So here you go wonderful brother-in-law!What a great smile on your face John!
You look just a little pleased with what you had created ~ I am quite sure D is very proud of you!

Happy 20th Birthday Meghan!

A very happy birthday to our beautiful red-haired niece with the incredible singing voice, with the kind, kind heart and the sweet, sweet smile!

This is when she was a baby and people would stop to stare at her.And when she was a slightly older baby and people would still stop to stare at her.
She was enjoying sitting on her Uncle Gary with her cousin Renee (don't laugh Renee, it's your birthday in 2 days... your time will come!)



When she
was a
dalmation
and could
drive
a car...








When her grandparents (my Mom and Dad) went to school with her for "Grandparent's Day" (which was really great of you to go parents of mine)!When she drew a funny picture of her Mom.
Yes, my sister had a very, very large smile that went up to her eyeballs...Actually, my sister LOVED this picture!

When she turned into a beautiful young lady.I think everyone wants that hair...

And the token "When she was a reindeer" shot!Why does my family always wear weird things on their heads?
Just something I bring to the party and then torture people with photos of later...

Hey Meghan, did you notice I didn't call you "Meghan Moo" once in this post?

Happy, happy birthday - we love you!

Thursday Night On The Town (if you can call it that...)

Time for a night "walkabout".
We talked "Capricorn Cat" and "ZaZa" into participating wow, there is a bunch of participaters here, although "ZaZa" didn't quite last the entire walk about town ~ maybe only half....

But first we have to prepare.
Frozen waters, cameras, pesos and a destination.
Then Capricorn Cat's wet white shirt contest heat prevention in the form of wet clothes.Carol won, no Wayne won, no Carol won, no Wayne did... depends on how you look at this...

Our destination for the evening was the town square by the Cathedral ~ supposed to have "traditional Mexican music".
Then hot dogs.

But first a walk down The Malecon, where we found chicks beating the crap out of each other a female boxing match.Hmmmmm... now I have seen everything.

We found where the skateboarding park has been relocated to (which my Mom will be really, really happy about, so she doesn't hear clink, clank, slam, slap, clink, clank all night when staying at Los Arcos Cabanas)!We think the community skateboard park is a good thing (just not right next to a hotel) as it keeps the little guys busy and hopefully keeps them out of trouble.

Then the "traditional Mexican music" at the bandstand at the Zocolo.This was the most un-traditional Mexican music we had ever heard.
So untraditional, this is when Greg and ZaZa departed.
The music was more like a school band, but it was still something to do!

Then Wayne and Carol departed... Hmmmmmm...
Actually they went on the search for water and ended up buying stencils.
Stencils ~ Water - yes I see a correlation!
While they were shopping we found a displaced building.
We think this building was originally from Key West and came here on a hurricane whim.

It certainly doesn't fit in here.
But the more I walk about La Paz, the more interesting buildings and architecture and stores and people and signs and fruit and food and cow parts and trash and sidewalk hazards and blah blah blah I find.
I loved this one!
But, hey I like Florida.



Then to eat dogs from a sidewalk vendor and THE COOL THING watch The Olympics at the same time!And to finish the evening off, excellent ice cream at the best ice cream place in town!And of course I have to post lots of pictures of Wayne and Carol, so Carol can steal them off of my blog and put on her blog...

Ventura County Got Our Thunder and Lightning!

Ventura County rarely gets thunderstorms - they got one last night (or this morning...) and then blamed it on Baja:

"The storm originated in Baja California overnight and moved northwest through the county in the early hours of the morning."

Click on the post title to be taken to the article.

Oohhhh - Ventura - you took our thunder!

I Participated.

Yes, I actually participated in a function.
Yes, ME!
I know, I know... I'm not usually up for one of these, but I participated.
I went to the La Paz Ladies' Luncheon yesterday.And had a great time!
I met a lot of boaters and several housers.
One or two I had talked to before.
Most not.
About 22 ladies total.
Some very funny and all very, very nice!
It was worth it!

Thursday's "Walkabout" Town

Time to hit the dollar store 12 peso store for those things we can't live without: shampoo and toothpaste!

I was SO happy to see my favorite air conditioned cheapo store still open.
Dave told me it had closed...
I think he meant the one that has been closed a long time.

Oh YIPEE!

Didn't see much on my walk, because I made the mistake of buying all this heavy stuff (including shampoo for Carol on Cap Cat) because I WAS so excited about the store being open (doesn't take much to excite me...) and then didn't want to carry all the heavy stuff around...

But I did see these two beautiful doorways.











And saw that Hobie Cats have their little "Cat Clique" too...
I think they were just being nice by letting this panga hang out with them.I wonder if the panga had to bribe the Hobie cats with a nice bottle of wine?
Probably not...
Probably just a Corona.

And I did see that the local sidewalk hazard fixers on the malecon don't need traffic cones.
Why would they need traffic cones?
They have rocks and old pieces of pipes!And I saw this new kind of bottom growth.
It's a plastic bag plant.

An Afternoon Sit Float at The Mogote

It's been forever since we got off of our asses the boat and into the dinghy.
Time for a splash in the water over at The Mogote.It's not the prettiest beach in the area, but the water is cleaner than right near the marina.
There are no people.
The view of town is lovely!
And it's just a short dinghy ride away.

We just sit in 1 1/2' of water and cool down.Yes, he has a pair of shorts on.

The water is in the mid to high 80's.
Sort of in between refreshing and not...

This is the cross the boaters use to know where the channel is to cross the bar.It's a lovely little shrine!

On the dinghy ride back, I was amazed that our boat is actually a midget boat...So now we live on a midget boat in a bathtub...