Beach Time

We found out last year that if we wanted to see the best of the kiteboarders on Algadones Beach we had to go on a windy day. Yesterday was just that day. There were boarders close to shore and some far out in the Sea, near the old Club Med.

We sat at the restaurant eating crab tostadas and people watching. As usual, the wind made for a chilly day so all three of us became walking advertisements for the Soggy Peso.

Lenore will enjoy the fact that we ran into Alec working on the beach. He is still going to school in Guaymas and supplements his income by working as a waiter at the Soggy Peso.

Success at Last!

We had a great Christmas Day, opening a few gifts and cards and then just relaxing for the remainder of the day. We debated about going out for a nice meal, but in the end decided to stay home and cook up some fresh fish.

Mexicans don't celebrate Boxing Day so everything was as usual today. We finally broke down and bought ourselves a new flat screen TV in Guaymas. So now we had a nice, new TV and still no Star Choice!

We contacted a Mexican worker who specializes in setting up Gringo satellite dishes and he accomplished the "impossible". We are now able to watch the Canadian news and sports. Go Team Canada!

Christmas Eve in San Carlos

The weather continues to be just perfect - around 24C during the day and cool enough at night to get a good sleep. Fred's mom is finding the early mornings and evenings too cold. She can't find the sweatshirt she bought for the trip and is blaming her youngest child.

Fred has spent the last few days trying to set up his Star Choice system with no luck. We rode our bikes through Totonaka looking for Star Choice users and got a few good tips, but nothing worked. The only thing we really accomplished was to meet a few friends from last year.

We went to Blackies for an excellent Christmas Eve supper. The food and service were perfect for the occasion. We had planned to stop on the way home to watch a boat parade that takes place every Christmas Eve at dusk. It had already started by the time we finished, but we were still able to catch a view of the twelve brightly decorated boats from the beach across from Tecalai.

Working on the House

Fred brought a number of furniture pieces down in the truck and now we had the task of setting them up. We started with the main bedroom, moved on to the spare bedroom and finally tackled the living room. Most of the items were from IKEA so we had some building to do.

The old furniture has been donated to the poor of Guaymas, through Carlos and his foundation. His group of volunteers pick up the donations and take them to a holding spot until distribution.

We spent the better part of the afternoon looking at flat screen TVs. They are fairly expensive so all we did was look. We were hoping for a deal just before Xmas, but no such luck.

Chuyita is not working through the holidays so we had to settle for "second best". Too bad we can't keep her all year long!

San Carlos at Last

We had a fairly easy trip from Tucson to San Carlos on Sunday.  The customs declaration was easy as the officials were polite and courteous.  We had to pay a duty of 1057 pesos on the furniture we had in the truck, but we expected that.  We received a green light and did not have to unload the Dodge, and for that we were extremely grateful.

We arrived at 2:15 after a 7 hour drive to a clean house.  We had let Chuyita [our housekeeper] know when we were arriving so she prepared the best she could. 

We spent the first afternoon unloading a few necessary items and getting groceries from the Santa Rosa.  We walked across to the Fiesta real for an excellent meal ranging from a Waldorf salad to chicken and fish.  

Eleanor was exhausted and ready for bed at 7:30 and I wasn't too far behind.  We justified the early bedtime with the time change.

Fleeing the Cold

It wasn't an easy trip, but Eleanor and I finally made it to San Carlos.  We were scheduled to leave Saskatoon at 3:20 on Saturday and arrive in Tucson at 7:40.  Right from the start we were delayed 45 minutes and things kept getting worse all day.  We had a window of approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes to catch our connecting flight in Denver, but!!! 

In Denver we sat on the gate [the reason was never revealed] for 25 minutes before they would let us deplane. We had to go through customs before we could even begin to find our new gate.  We "ran" from gate 15 to gate 87 and made it just as they were completing the loading.  After all that,  we were forced to sit at the gate for 1/2 hour because our pilot was delayed coming in from San Francisco.  Once we pushed back we got the news that there was an accident [plane went off the runway and was on fire] and we would have to sit until the departing planes could be rerouted.  We finally headed for Tucson two hours late.

We were too exhausted to go out for the supper Fred tried to talk us into.  Instead we feasted on cookies and more cookies.

Visiting Tucson

We left San Carlos a day earlier than planned so we could spend time revisiting some of our favourite places in Tucson. A friend drove us to Guaymas to catch the 11:30 pm bus to Tucson. The seven hour bus ride is very comfortable with seats that recline like a bed and Fred took full advantage of this time to catch a "nap".   I, on the other hand, was dragging when the bus pulled into Tucson at 8:00 am [late because of some hassle at the border].

The hotel was kind enough to find a room for us that early and I had a short rest before we headed downtown. We did some shopping at an artisan area that we had visited with family a few years before. Tucson is as hot as San Carlos, but not nearly as humid so we were able to stay outside much longer.  Needless to say it was not a late night!

The picture of the grapefruit is from a tree in our front courtyard.

Guaymas

Carlos drove us to Guaymas to see the Notario for our last signing of the papers. The procedure in Mexico is very lengthy, but we are now at a point where the banks take over so we can safely say we are the proud new owners of a house in Mexico.

I am a little sad to see the 5th wheel life vanish as I loved the outdoor activities that went with it. With that said, we have been meeting many of the year round residents of Tecalai and they have been giving us lots of advice.

Summer in San Carlos is much like the heart of winter in Saskatchewan - you are confined to the house because of the extremes in temperatures. We are unable to sit outside to enjoy the day and we plan our excursions carefully to make sure we can cool down at the grocery store or at least get on the bus asap.

Like I said, most of the changes we plan to make are cosmetic so tomorrow will be spent painting the bathroom and laundry room - thank goodness for A/C.

Praying to the 'Power Gods'.

If a backhoe cuts through your main power supply and you lose your A/C, pray to the “Power Gods” for help - if the same backhoe cuts through your water supply, get yourself to Froggys!

We knew it was going to be extremely hot today so we had decided to spend the day indoors, near the A/C, taking measurements for new blinds etc. The Parque Tecalai has hired a Mexican crew to update their electrical system and of course the mode of operations is to ‘dig first - locate second’. The backhoe first cut the main electrical supply and two hours later we were still waiting for them to correct the incorrect repair [they spliced together the severed wires wrong and the A/C would not work]. We reasoned that we could live with the heat as long as we could jump in the cool [lukewarm] shower occasionally ... that was until they dug through the main water supply. We could have gone to the pool, but that would mean being in the full sunshine for 1 hour or ....5 hours. We already had too much sun yesterday.

Thankfully the water and power were back on when we returned two hours later. It is always an adventure watching Mexicans create problems and solve them.

A Lazy Sunday?

We have been fascinated by Greg Norman and the British Open, so for the last two days we have not been active until 11:00 am. TV coverage here started at 6:30 am. No problem getting up in time when you go to sleep at 8:30 pm. With golfing on our mind, we caught a bus to the golf course and checked out the summer activity. The course looks okay and the crowds were similar to the winter (fairly sparse).

We decided to ignore the heat and walk from the golf course back to Santa Rosa for groceries. It was not an easy walk as you can see from Fred soaking his head with water. As I told Lenore last winter when we took the same “shortcut” twice, “once is a mistake and twice is just plain stupid”. With that in mind, we decided to forego the bus and walk the rest of the way home. Need I say more? Dumb and dumber.

A Day with Carlos.

We had hoped for Friday to be a day of rest and relaxation, but once we met with Carlos (the man who is handling our purchase of the house in San Carlos) that idea was short lived. He needed all sorts of documents, one of which was our tourist visas. The overnite bus didn’t stop at immigration so we were unable to get them on the way down - that meant a hurried trip to Guaymas to get the papers before we could proceed.

Even though we have always relied on the bus system in San Carlos, not having a car is complicating matters somewhat. We are unable to make the necessary quick trips to pick up much needed items. Thankfully Carlos offered to drive us to the airport to get the visas needed.

Another complication for us is the lack of bikes. Unlike the winter, walking long distances in the summer is a problem for us Gringos. The heat and humidity takes its toll on us whenever we have to walk for water or food.

Because the present owners were kind enough to allow us to live here while handling the transfer, we have been able to check the house over carefully. We can see that we will be doing the usual cosmetic changes such as painting, changing blinds and eventually changing some furniture. Houses in Mexico need far more painting upkeep than at home and this house is no exception.

Also, we have relearned that being in Mexico in the summer means you do not have to fire up the water heater - the water is warm enough!

San Carlos Revisited

We had no intentions of visiting Mexico in the summer, but ...! We left Eatonia on Wednesday morning at 7:00 am and were in Tecalai by 6:30 am on Thursday morning. Rather than flying to Guaymas we chose to try the bus system from Tucson, in case 'interior designers' ever venture down !!

Our plans worked to perfection, except that in Tucson we took a cab to the wrong bus company, experienced an electrical blackout in that part of the city, and the A/C was unbearable on the bus trip from Tucson to Guaymas [11:20 pm to 6:00 am].

We had made arrangements to pick up the key to the house and were pleasantly surprised when it was produced right on time. The house was much as we remember.

Both of us are exhausted from the long hours and the humidity. The temperature is 34 degrees, but feels like 43 [according to the weather channel]. Heat like this reminds us of the summer trip to Akumal with Mo.

We even made two walking trips to Santa Rosa for groceries and water. The first walk was at 8:00 am and the heat had us looking for the bus back to Tecalai. We're sure it's just an adjustment thing.

We are presently seated in Froggys checking on the health of Big Alex. We found no wifi at Tecalai and forgot the password for Totonaka RV so Froggys is our nearest wifi.

United Nations

I always have always been interested in the Food Network, especially shows like the Iron Chef. (the chef in the picture is Bobby Flaychuk). Today we walked to Chelsea Market to see the filming studios and found that next year's shows are already being filmed so tours were not welcome. Regardless, the Chelsea Market was worth the time as it is located in a refurbished bakery and now houses many speciality food stores.


Our next destination was the United Nations Complex and along the way we saw a typical New York happening - someone opened the fire hydrant. Two city workers were standing there watching so there must have been a good reason.


We also took a stroll down the section of the city called Diamond Row with its many Jewish diamond shops. They control this part of the city with their wealth and prestige. Most of the baby strollers were being manned by Hispanic nannies, with the mother and father out of sight.


We thought the United Nations area was another unique section of the city. Throughout Manhattan one often hears different languages being spoken, but as we got closer to the complex we could hear a multitude of foreign languages. It was a very interesting area with lot of security surrounding it.




The last two pictures were taken close to home. The Molly Wee Irish Pub was a common rest stop before going into our small and cramped room. We would watch the soccer playoffs with the some locals before heading home at 5:00 to rest and recuperate for tomorrow's walk. The tall buildings show the view from our 12th story room.

Usually the noise in the evenings is tolerable, but because we are located so close to Madison Square Garden, the last two nights have been extremely busy and loud [Coldplay has been performing].

Our flight is scheduled for 4:00 tomorrow so we are running out of time to see everything we want to. We missed the NY Mets, a Broadway show and Hell's Gate Flea Market, but otherwise we have seen much of Manhattan and some of the Bronx and Brooklyn.

Park Avenue to the Bronx

After a quick stop on Park Avenue to see how another Kennedy [Jackie] lived, we moved on to spend the day in the Bronx. We had a little trouble figuring out the subway system to the area we wanted to see, but eventually we were able to work it out. We had to walk through some questionable parts of the Bronx and could not help but make comparisons to Park Avenue.

We made the trek to the Belmont area of the Bronx to see the new "Little Italy". The old Italian district in Manhattan is being taken over by Chinatown and we were hungry for a traditional Italian meal.





The area was small but it contained many restaurants, cheese stores, bakeries and Italian meat markets. They even have their own cigar companies so we spent time watching the people hand roll the cigars to what we thought was perfection.

We wandered around the Belmont area before starting the 50 minute subway ride back to Penn Station. What was supposed to be an easy day was anything but. It's a long way from Upper Manhattan to the Bronx, both distance wise and economically. It made for a stressful day looking at some of the living conditions surrounding the Belmont area.

Tribeca

Yesterday we were on a mission to find where JFK Jr. had lived and this search took us to the Tribeca area in lower Manhattan, just north of 'Ground Zero'. JFK lived in Tribeca and while looking for his apartment we met a former NYC police officer who knew Kennedy. The tall building in the above picture shows where his apartment was located.

This ex-police officer is now head of security for Robert De Niro's holdings in Tribeca and he gave us a lot of information we would have otherwise not have heard (such as where other celebrities live in the area) and their personalities. He also arranged for us to have a tour of De Niro's new hotel and restaurant - we did just that! Very nice and very expensive.

This gentlemen was also very heavily involved with the aftermath of 9/11. He told us that the Twin Towers blocked the wind that blew off the Hudson River and when the buildings went down the wind was sucked up Greenwich Street thus creating the picture that showed people running from a cloud of ash.


We had a very enjoyable hour with him before starting the long walk back to Chelsea and our hotel. We made a point of checking out the Chelsea Hotel that inspired Joni Mitchell in her song "Chelsea Morning". The hotel was also often used by Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and many other performers.

We walked through Greenwich Village and Soho before heading to the Empire State Building. Our hotel is located just minutes from this famous building, but we hadn't bothered to check it up close. We were sorry we tried as it is impossible to see anything but a big, square block from the streets around it. It is only impressive from a distance.


Nearby, we saw some unusual activities such as the restaurant worker bringing in the supper preparations from the street.


After seven hours walking the streets of Manhattan, we had to break down and eat as New Yorkers do - have a soft pretzel on the street.

Central Park

We knew today was going to be a tough walking day so we braced ourselves and were pleasantly surprised when we arrived home in fairly good shape. We caught a subway to half way up the west side of Central Park and walked through what I always believed to be a relatively dangerous part of New York (TV shows do have an influence on attitudes).

Central Park is something special in a concrete city, especially on a Sunday. It is nothing like we see on TV, except for one or two parts that tourists are advised to stay away from after dusk. We watched kids on a carousel, softball games, families enjoying a picnic, hundreds of bikers and joggers, horse-drawn carriages and countless dogs.

We showed our age (along with other Baby Boomers), when we made a pilgrimage to the Dakota Building where John Lennon was killed. The second picture is a front view of the apartment.

Besides the glitter and glitz of Park Avenue and 5th Avenue, we spent a lot of time on Madison Avenue before moving on to Broadway and the Theatre District. New York has always been called a city of cultural diversity and we saw that and more today. We have yet to convince ourselves to go to a Broadway show, even though I guess we can say we saw a show yesterday when we went to see the Yankees. That was a show in itself!

The skyline of New York is impressive and hard to believe, but ground level 5th Avenue is somewhere beyond that. We went to the top of the Rockefeller Centre and had an excellent view of the city limits and more. Fred was far more adventurous than I was on this excursion, but that was okay with me.

We walked from Central Park North all the way back to our hotel and were ready for a break. We stopped at a well-known Irish pub for a 'wee one' and wings.

Again, I have to say that it was a great day with lots of walking, great weather, friendly people and super sightseeing.

Yankee Stadium

Yankee Stadium was rocking today as the crowd was loud and full of energy. The subway system in New York can sometimes be confusing, but today all we had to do was follow the dark blue T shirts.

The stadium is old and the inside tunnels are small, narrow and dark. History aside, I can see why the Yankees are moving to a new park. It was an experience I would not have wanted to miss, especially watching the people and making comparisons to the Rogers Centre in Toronto. The crowd is very polite in Toronto and the stadium allows movement between innings. Here, the crowd loudly supports its team and, just as loudly, they harass the opposition.

We had made a decision long ago to have a Yankee beer, along with a Yankee hot dog, no matter the cost, but we were blown away by the $8.50 cost of a beer and could not force ourselves to try the $6.50 hot dog.

The game itself was incidental and kind of boring, but the stadium and the crowd were well worth the visit. Even so, the ride home may have been the most exciting part of the day as the subways were jammed and we had to squeeze in hoping that the doors would not close on us. We were almost home when the 'D' train (express) was forced to stop while the police tended to an obstinate rider a few cars back. We saw the 'A' train pull up on the opposite platform so we ran to catch that ride home - making it look like we really know how the New York subway system works.

All in all - a great day.

Little Italy

Another day on our feet! We bought a 7 day unlimited subway pass, but we still do an enormous amount of walking. Today we took the 'E' Train to lower Manhattan and wound our way back to the hotel. In the meantime, we toured Chinatown, Little Italy, the Lower East Side and eventually took a stroll down Park and 5th Avenues. The change in lifestyles is very noticeable with homeless people very prominent in the Chinatown area and nothing but "bling" on 5th Avenue.

We stopped for a bite to eat at Katz's Deli which was made famous by the much talked about scene from "When Harry Met Sally". I actually talked with Mr. Katz and he assured me that the deli was famous long before the movie was filmed there.

We feel a little sheepish about our evenings, but we have stuck with habits that have served us best over the years. We eat a mid-afternoon meal at a restaurant or tavern recommended in travel journals, and then head home around 5:00. We eat a late snack of bagels and peanut butter in our room and call it a day. The bright lights of New York and Broadway have no appeal as of yet.

I am so excited about tomorrow's visit to Yankee Stadium! I feel like I have been waiting my whole life to see this park and I can hardly wait - just like a kid on Christmas Eve. The game starts at 1:05, but I have 'suggested' to Fred that we have to be there by 10:30 so I can tour the 'House That Ruth Built'.

Financial District

We are staying in Manhattan and our hotel is located two blocks from the Empire State Building so we have used that as our reference point. We are only one block from Madison Square Gardens and Penn Station so catching the subway was an easy chore this morning. We took the subway to the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge and walked back to tour lower Manhattan.

We visited the site of the World Trade Center's twin towers and were amazed by the void left behind. The area looks much like any ordinary construction site, but when they are finished construction it will be interesting to see. The buildings in this part of New York are situated so close to each other that from a distance it looks like one mass. It is not too hard to imagine the panic that must have set in on 9/11 because of the location of the towers. There was actually no place for the people on the ground to flee to - water not far away and nothing but tall buildings surrounding them.

We saw nothing but suits and power lunches on Wall Street. Since 9/11, visitors have not been able to tour the Stock Exchange - in fact, nobody can get very close to the building as it is blocked off.

We walked for what seemed like miles and ended up at the Staten Island ferry terminal in time to take the ferry past the Statue of Liberty. If you take a different ferry you can tour the statue and Ellis Island, but the line to obtain these tickets was blocks long.

We ended today's tour with a walk through some historical areas of lower Manhattan and had an early supper on Stone Street, not far from where George Washington bid farewell to his troops. The weather was fabulous so we were able to eat outside and people watch.

Visit in Waterloo

On Monday, June 16th, Fred and I flew to Toronto, rented a car and headed to Waterloo for a visit with Regan, Jeff and Mason. We spent a very comfortable two days with the family and thoroughly enjoyed getting reacquainted with Mason. Both Jeff and Regan took time off work to be with us and we appreciated that very much.

Our Wednesday flight to New York was at 11:15 am and to make things easier for us we left Waterloo at 7:15. Thank goodness we left early as we got caught in a major traffic jam and made it to the airport with not much time to spare. We had to jump off the 401 and travel the back roads through Brampton to get away from the backlog of cars.

The flight to New York was comfortable and pretty much on time. We landed in La Guardia and were not prepared for the small and cramped airport. I guess we assumed any airport handling that many people would be big and modern.

Our first impressions of New York were formed from the back seat of a taxi - it is big, crowded, dirty and extremely busy. We were delayed getting into our room so we didn't do much other than get our bearings around our hotel.

Home at Last

We are getting settled in Eatonia, even with the snow that keeps falling everyday. We were very surprised to see our yard and decks - they required shovelling before we could get into the front porch. The snow is wet and is adding much needed moisture to the soil.

It is hard to believe our winter is over and we have already started counting down the days until we can head back to San Carlos. Although, I must admit I have been feeling the urge to teach again. Someone shake me!

The upcoming summer will be filled with house renovations - remember the kitchen sink? We have one special trip planned for June and that is to go to New York to see Yankee Stadium before it closes in October. Being a baseball fanatic, this has always been a dream of mine and I am so excited about seeing the history of baseball in that stadium.

Great Falls

Can you guess which Maggie enjoyed the snow the most?

We made it to Great Falls without any difficulties - well maybe one! We checked our medical insurance this morning and found that it had expired yesterday, so another trip to the pay phone. No problems with GMS extending it.

This storm in Northern Montana has taken a toll on heaters. The Home Depot in Great Falls is sold out so we are on a mission later this afternoon to find one.

It is quite interesting to see the number of RVers who have been stranded by the weather. Many have the same problem we have and have been experiencing frozen pumps and pipes. The RV park is out of propane and WalMart is also out of space heaters and RV antifreeze.

The last few days have been exciting and a good wake-up call from the 'worry about it tomorrow' mentality we've become accustomed to over the last four months.

Tomorrow we are moving to Havre and then home on Wednesday. Hopefully!

SIDE NOTE: We finally were able to find a heater at K-Mart after searching many big box stores for what we thought was a very common item.

Good News

Our furnace kicked in last night and the second storm has not yet appeared. We're leaving Butte in an hour or so and will try to make it to Great Falls or Havre.

Movin' On Up...North

Since we left Mesquite on Saturday we have been through extremes in the weather, from 30 degrees and higher in Mesquite [just perfect for a happy hour with friends] to blankets of snow with -11 degrees and lower in Butte [not so perfect].

As we neared Salt Lake City on Saturday the sand was blowing reducing visibility and on Sunday as we got closer to Monida Pass the snow was blowing, again reducing visibility.

We left Ogden early on Sunday hoping to beat the storm that was to hit Helena and further north. When we got to Dubois we checked with the services stations to make sure Monida Pass was open - the response was "yes, no trouble". Alas - weather changes fast. Within 30 minutes of leaving Dubois we were in the midst of a severe storm. We had to decide between turning around and driving more than 50 miles back to an RV park at Idaho Falls or struggle through the pass. Monida was dangerous and very scary, but we were committed and continued on to Butte. We keep reminding ourselves that when we left in December, we promised that if we ran into poor weather we would just "hole up" and wait it out. Next year for sure.

Butte is in terrible shape with tons of snow and very cold at -11 degrees. The good news first. Wait - there is no good news. Because we didn't expect the temperature to drop so suddenly, we didn't empty the black water, grey water or the fresh water. Of course they froze solid and we had to haul pails of hot water to get the sewer thawed and emptied. The rest was too frozen to work with so we will check for leaks later.

The next "good news" was that our furnace quit. We tried to buy a heater at WalMart [sold out] and then K-Mart [fake fireplace look for $100]. We finally had to borrow one from the Kamping Kabins at the KOA.

The last piece of "good" news is that this storm is expected to reappear tonight. We have no plans of leaving Butte tomorrow and as such may not be home until Wednesday. The Friday 501 is looking better and better.

Oatman Arizona

Fred and I had wanted to go see the "ghost" town of Oatman and when Lenore wrote about their visit, it only reinforced our desire to see the place. The town is situated in the low hills surrounding Laughlin and Bullhead City.

When the gold mines closed down, the residents did not allowed their town to die completely. They set up souvenir shops, restaurants and promoted the wild burros that roam the area. The burros were the main attraction and they caught my attention completely. They come down from the hills to wander the streets and to get a feed of carrots offered by the tourists. They often walk through the stores, stopping for a visit with their favourite shop owners.

We stopped for a beer at the Oatman Hotel and saw the honeymoon suite of Carol Lombarde and Clark Gable. The hotel is papered in dollar bills from every country [mostly USA] and in my eyes is a major fire hazard.

We have since left Laughlin and today are camped at Ogden, Utah. We always stay at a state park when we pass through here, but today decided to stay at a regular RV Park so we could use the Internet to get an update on the storm we were warned about. After checking in we found out the WIFI is not working so we have now resorted to sneaking into the Super 8 Hotel to send this and to check the weather.

If all goes well, we still plan on arriving at Eatonia on Tuesday. It all depends on the huge snowfall we are hearing so much about.