Visit Home - March

Sunday, March 1 2009.
We just got back from our outing to Puerto Vallarta again to see the Huichol Indian Festival. We were really disappointed. It was in a mall and only a small group were there selling their bead and art work. I bought another bracelet; however, the prices were more than when we bought in Tepic. Oh well. We all expected to see a lot more art displayed and in a park setting not in a mall. We looked around at their art work and saw those making things and their costumes, and then we had to get out of the mall. Not where we wanted to be. We ended up walking several miles to Puerto Vallarta Marina to have dinner and beer. I’m a walker but it was warm and we had no water with us. Needless to say the beer did quite nicely when we finally reached our destination. After we got our bellies full of food and beer, we went across the street and caught the bus back to La Cruz. Dave and I looked at each other and said-----no more adventures!!!!! We went to Tepic for the Huichol Indian work and that was not what we expected and neither was this trip. So no more adventure trips. We got home and just relaxed. It’s a long bus ride to Puerto Vallarta with many stops between. It in itself is an experience. We had a man board the bus and play his guitar for 2 songs and then ask for money and get off at another one of the stops. Another man on down the road got on with his accordion. He played very well but his singing wasn’t so good. Dave paid him 7 pesos hoping he would leave which he did at the next stop.

Monday, March 2.
Today was a boat working day for me. I want a clean boat before we go home and while we are here at the marina it is perfect for washing things. I washed the bimini, the cushions in the cockpit, the deck under the dodger and finally the cockpit. Then I wiped everything down and dried it so it wouldn’t spot. It looks so much better now. After that I rinsed out a couple of clothes items and hung them to dry. After dinner we were relaxing out in the cockpit when I heard Dave and Christy come by in a dinghy. They had been in a bar/restaurant all day long with Charlie and a guy named Tom. They were pretty well lit when they came back. It was funny. Dave and I were having a glass of wine and decided to go down to the dock where they landed and visit with them. We talked for a while then we called it a night. They had dinner at a restaurant that serves BBQ ribs and chicken and the owner is giving up the BBQ after so many years. He is serving other dishes just not the BBQ ribs and chicken anymore. So Dave and Christy said that Tuesday night is the last night to get the BBQ ribs and asked if we all wanted to go. We said yes. No cooking for me tomorrow!!!!

Dave and Christy and Tom had their boats at anchor outside the marina so they still needed to maneuver to their boat. We told them to drive safely.

Tuesday, March 3.
Well yesterday was our grandsons birthday but I thought it was today so I felt bad. I will call him tonight to wish him a happy birthday. His mom’s birthday is tomorrow.

I did more cleaning today. I vacuumed the floor and mopped it. I washed and oiled the wood to clean it so it won’t be sticky anymore. I cleaned and conditioned the leather seats. Then I was done. It was pretty warm with hardly any breeze. The boat got hot. I am trying to close the curtains a little to block some of the sun but leave enough open so air can come in. We have run our fans but that doesn’t really cool things down so we end up running the air conditioner until the boat is cool enough for sleeping. Well usually. We didn’t do that tonight and it was hard to sleep. Oh well. We have been getting clouds at night and early in the morning, but it doesn’t change the heat.

At 5:00pm Christy, Dave, Charlie, Tom, and Dave and I walked into town and went to the restaurant that was serving the ribs. Boy!! Were they good. So was the chicken. Dave got a plate full of ribs with rice and cabbage salad and I got the Chicken with rice and salad. We shared the chicken and ribs with each others. Mmmmmmm good!!! Too bad we didn’t know about this earlier. Oh well. We ate and then listened to some live music. It was open mike night and we had a guy play his guitar. He was good but it was country. We were waiting for some rock n roll. Finally the guy finished and the band played a Pink Floyd song. It was awesome. We had to say good night so we could come back to the boat and call E.J. to wish him a happy birthday. Oh well. We didn’t miss much. They went back to Country music. It’s not that we hate country music, we like certain ones, but mostly we like good ole rock n roll that we can dance too.

We got back to the boat and made the call but only could leave a message. Teri had her phone off. We tried a little later and still had to leave a message. We’ll try in the morning before the kids go to school. Oh well.

We just relaxed in the cockpit. It was a warm night and no breeze. Finally I went below and played solitaire. If I read I get sleepy and want to go to bed. 9:00pm is just too early for me to go to bed. I finally went to bed at 10:00pm but had trouble getting to sleep because it was so warm. We turned the fans on and Dave stayed up for quite a while then went to bed.

Wednesday, March 4.
It was a little over cast this morning but it burned off. Then later on in the morning the clouds moved in. It still didn’t cool things down a lot, but a breeze did come up.

Dave had heard we needed to check in with the Port Captain so he went to the office to see if that was true and the secretary said yes. She forgot to tell us so we have been here 3 days now without checking in with the Port Captain. So Dave got all the papers together and we went to the Port Captain office. He was really nice. We told him what happened and he laughed. Really—if you don’t have an attitude with them and just explain what is going on, they are very accommodating and friendly. So we got all that taken care of and then walked up the street to the village because we heard there was a street market like San Blas had. So we walked and checked it out. Dave bought another DVD. It is the one with Tom Cruise and the story of trying to kill Hitler, titled Valkarie. It wasn’t a large market but I got a couple of food items. We are getting down to the nitty gritty of our provisions and don’t want to buy much at this point since we are leaving next Tuesday. So I will be shopping for tomatoes and other items I need for dinners. Have to empty the freezer before we go.

When we got back from the market, I cleaned the bathrooms and the shower. All I will have to do on Monday is vacuum and maybe rinse the toilets and the boat will be all clean for my return. I don’t like coming back to a dirty boat. When I finally finished my chores I read a little then rested in the cockpit as it was too hot down below to really sleep. I didn’t really sleep just rested. Dave got up this morning and turned on the air conditioner so it would cool the boat down before it got hot again. There was a little breeze but now it has stopped.

We have been invited to a dock social to have tamales. The boat next to us invited us because his wife went to town and bought too many of them and wants to share. So that is cool. At first I thought he wanted to have us buy some and I told him I wasn’t that much of a tamale fan, but then when I understood what he was saying I said we would be happy to come and share with them. There are only a few other people coming as they don’t know a lot of people. That is happening at 5:30pm. Dave went up to take a shower and I am on my way. Catch ya later. Oh yeah. We invited Christy and Dave over for movie night with popcorn. They moved their boat inside the marina right down a couple slips from us. We are having them over for dinner tomorrow night. Got to take advantage of the time they are in port. Friday they are going back out to anchor again to save some money. I’m not sure what we are going to watch but Dave will have the air conditioning on that is for sure.

Dave viewed the movies we have bought here in Mexico and the star wars one was in Spanish only. It said it had Spanish subtitles but it didn’t. No English either. So what do you want for about a dollar and a half? He viewed Valakie

Thursday, March 5.
We spoke to Dave and Christy today and they told us the band just couldn’t get it together. It wasn't very good. They stayed through 6 songs and decided to leave. So they went back to their boat. We are glad we didn’t go. It is hit and miss sometimes with the music here. You just never know what you’re going to get. We don’t go out much to try and save money. Usually when you are sitting there you want to drink a beer or have a glass of wine, but don’t want too many of those because it does add up. We aren’t real big nightlife people anyway. We like sitting on our boat just chilling and listening to the sounds around us or some soft music.

Today Dave and Christy took some people they met on the bus out for a sail on their boat.

I made the dinner for tonight. I figured while the breeze was cooling down the boat, I would cook and the boat would have a chance to cool off before Dave and Christy came to dinner. I made Rigatoni.

After Dave, Christy and their guests got back, they invited us to come over for snacks and a glass of wine. Since I need to empty my freezer of food, I took out the little appetizer franks I had in there, put them in a pan, covered them with BBQ sauce and heated them up. Then we joined everyone on Dave and Christy’s boat s/v Kailani. We had a very nice visit. It was going on 5:00pm so I excused myself to go back to my boat and prepare for dinner. We told Christy and Dave somewhere around 5:30 – 6:00pm. Dave said he had fresh Romano cheese he would bring and I asked him if they could bring over some salad dressing because I only had honey mustard. So he said he would do that. My Dave wanted French bread but didn’t want to walk to the bakery to get it and neither did I. I told him we didn’t need it and he said it was terrible to have an Italian meal with no French bread. I walked up to the club house to use the facilities and while I was gone Dave was talking to Dave and Christy and told them we should have French bread. Well the Dave from s/v Kailani came back from a beer run and delivered a loaf of French bread to the boat. He said that was his contribution to dinner. So I made garlic bread at Dave’s suggestion. Around 6ish, Dave and Christy came over and we had a wonderful dinner and visit then I made popcorn and we sat and watched a movie. We had a great night. After the movie Dave and Christy left and went back to their boat. I left the dishes for tomorrow and sat down and started reading while Dave turned on the air conditioner for a while until it cooled down for sleeping. Then we went to bed. It still was warm and Dave and I both had trouble sleeping.

Friday, March 6.
Today we woke up to sunny skies but then the clouds moved in. It has been like that for about 3 or 4 days now. It is still warm and a little breezy, but when the clouds come in the wind dies. How strange is that? They are always gone by 7 or so in the morning. The wind is blowing in a strange direction today. It was out of the southwest but now it is blowing from the northeast. Hmmm. Don’t really know what that means but it doesn’t mean storms or rain.

I have been trying to finish the February blog but the internet is so slow with so many cruisers using it that it either takes forever to download a picture to the blog or it won’t do it at all. The blog is written I just need to add the pictures. I’d like to do it before we leave on Tuesday so maybe I will try again tonight when most of the cruisers are at the BBQ at the Sky Bar by the office. One way or another I will get them in.

We spoke to Robbie and Tori from Signature Yachts today. They are vacationing here for a week in Puerto Vallarta. Robbie has a place here so he comes down every year for a break. We will see them on Sunday. They fly back home on Monday.

I took our laundry up to the concierge to drop it off. It is a good thing I didn’t wait until tomorrow as the laundry places are not open on Sundays and the concierge lady doesn’t work on Mondays so I wouldn’t be able to pick it up until Tuesday. That was cutting it too close since we are leaving early afternoon Tuesday. So today was the only day to do it. I’ll get it back tomorrow.

The couple that Dave and Christy took sailing the other day, Heather and Greg, invited us, Dave and Christy, Tom, and Charlie to go into the town of Bucerias tonight. They are staying just west of La Cruz and are on vacation and they are leaving on Saturday so they wanted to show us Bucerias. They had been there and found it a charming town. So at 5:00pm we all gathered by Dave and Christy’s boat, Tom brought a bottle of chilled white wine and we all shared it before walking up to the main road to catch the bus. We didn’t have to wait long when the bus showed up. It cost us 7 pesos each. It’s 14 pesos to Puerto Vallarta. We got off the bus and walked toward the older part of town. It looked like most of the Mexican villages and towns we have been in, but each one has a little different architecture. We walked up the street and saw the plaza, and then we walked past a couple of vendor stands on the street.



Here are a couple of pictures I took of the setting sun on the beach.



Dave (Christy’s husband) and Tom stopped at the corn stand and got corn on the cobb on a stick. Then we all stopped at a bar.
We were trying to figure out where to go. We stayed there, had a beer, and found out there was going to be karaoke later that night. Tom wanted to come back and the only people that didn’t was Dave and I. Dave hates karaoke. Most of the time you get people that don’t know the song and don’t have a good voice. Anyway, we had our beers then ventured on. There were a few places to choose from to eat. A couple of them were taco stands and Heather and Greg had eaten at them and said they were good.

We went to a Gringo owned restaurant and went to the roof that overlooked the city and took some pictures.




This was the stainglass window from that restaurant.

A couple of the guys still had plastic cups with beer in them and when we walked in the owner made some comment which they didn’t like. There was no one in the restaurant but they said they were full. Plus their prices were a little on the high side. So we got our pictures and left. Then we still couldn’t make up our mind where to eat and we were really relying on Heather and Greg to lead us. There was another restaurant and bar kitty corner from the one we just left but gringo owned and Heather said they had good food but it was a little pricy. We finally decided we wanted Mexican food. So we walked back to the bar we stopped at in the beginning and got another beer and asked the waiter where a good restaurant was with authentic Mexican food and he mentioned a place called Miguel Angel. So that is where we went. We walked in and there was hardly anyone there. We got a table and sat down and soon after that the owner came to the table to welcome us and give us the specials of the night. We ordered drinks and then dinner. It was a very good choice to go there. The drinks were great. Dave and I had a margarita, and the food was absolutely delicious. They specialized in fish. We had a great time. They had parrots there, Huichol art, and a one man band.



Tom was trying to stack some things that were on the table and the bar tender told us to watch him and this is what he did. Pretty impressive eh?

Tom bought a gourd that was shaped like a fish with an open mouth. It had red chile peppers painted on the side so he got that one. Then he hung it from his necklace.
Funny guy!!!!
After dinner we left and walked back to the bar. Tom signed up to sing and then had to wait for the other people to finish. So while Tom waited we got a picture of him with the waiter.
The waiter was a fun kid. As Tom was waiting to sing I got a couple of pictres of him with his gourd and trying to get Heather to talk to it.



There were mostly Mexican people in the bar. They looked at us kind of funny and when Tom started singing Madonna’s song, ‘Like a Virgil’ they moved away from him. We laughed hard. I got a couple of plastic cups and put them under his t-shirt so he would at least resemble Madonna with the pointed bra.

Once he finished his song we were off to find a place to dance. We walked to a place called Bucerias Gardens. We met a guy in front of the bar we just came from and he gave us a card for free tequila shots if we came to his place. So we went there and got a seat across from the band and started with a beer. The band and music was really good. They played good ole rock n roll. No country!!! Everyone danced and had a great time. Then it was time to hand over the card and get our free shot of tequila. Everyone but Charlie participated. It was pretty good tequila. Shortly after that Heather and Greg called it a night. Get this----they were younger than all of us. What’s up with that? I guess they didn’t want to be hung over on their flight home. The rest of us stayed and danced and closed the place. There were bras and under pants hanging from the tree that was by where the band played. A sign said donate a bra for the cure for cancer. I thought that was original.


Before we knew it we had closed down the bar. It was 1:00am Puerto Vallarta time, midnight La Cruz time. The waiter called us a cab because the buses quit running at 10:00pm. We didn’t have to wait long and we piled into the van and off we went back to La Cruz. He drove us to our gate at the marina and said goodnight after the guys paid him. We had a very fun time. Tom didn’t come back with us as he left with a bunch of women to go dancing some more. He tried to get the ladies to donate money but they just laughed at him and put like pennies and bottle caps and stuff like that in his gourd. Little did he know that all the bars were closed.

Saturday, March 7.
I went to the office to pick up my laundry but the gal wasn’t at the desk. I saw her in the lounge talking with a man that looked like an American. Anyway, I waited and waited. Another man came and sat at the desk and he was waiting to check out so he could leave. I walked in the lounge to try and get her attention put she ignored me well. I was almost to the point of walking over and excusing myself when they ended their conversation. As she was heading to the desk I told her I needed to pick up my laundry. She got it and I paid her and I was outta there. I came back to the boat and started working on the blog. I hadn’t had any luck getting pictures to go in because everybody and their brother have been on the internet. I had heard there was a race today out in Bandera’s Bay and there were several of the boats going out. That means the internet was not going to be busy. So I took advantage of the opportunity and spent the afternoon downloading pictures into the blog. At 5:00pm tonight we are going with Charlie, Tom, Dave and Christy to the Octopus Garden Café, up the street, to listen to an instrumental band. The band consists of two young guys in their early twenties playing classical & acoustic guitar, a young guy about the same age on base guitar, and an older gentleman on the drums and bongos. I wanted to finish getting the pictures in before I left but about 4:00pm the internet started to slow down. The race was over and people were back on their computers. So I quit and hoped to get the last couple of pictures in either tonight or tomorrow morning early.

At 5:00pm we were ready to head to town. Christy and Charlie were already at the café saving seats. Tom, the two Dave’s and myself met Christy and Charlie. Dave, Christy, and Dave and I had already eaten so we just ordered drinks. Charlie and Tom decided they didn’t like what was on the menu so they left for a taco stand. They returned later. The music started and it was really good. We enjoyed it a lot. It was like a concert in an open air café. That is what is so neat about Mexico. You have the choice of sitting outside or inside and most of the places just have a covered patio. It is still quite warm here at night so sitting outside is wonderful. About half way through the concert, Christy, her Dave, Tom, and Charlie couldn’t take it anymore and left to find a place to go dancing and drink. We stayed and had a great time. After the concert was over we walked past Philo’s where the gang said they were going, but we didn’t see them and the band was playing country music so we just kept walking. As it turns out, they didn’t stay there at Philo’s. They ended up going to a wedding celebration on the beach. They stood in the background and the bride saw them and waved them in so they danced and had a great time. Dave and I were tired. We don’t do many late nights so we didn’t want to be out late again tonight. We went back to the boat and I wasn’t able to get the pictures into the blog so I read my book then went to bed.

Sunday, March 8.
Not much going on today. We are expecting Robbie, Tori, Dixie, and their friend, Ramon and guide, while here in Mexico, to stop by sometime early afternoon. Before I started any chores I wanted to get on the internet and add the last pictures to the blog. I was able to do that and got it all straightened out and posted. That is done now. Now it was time to get stuff done. I unhooked the water hose from the boat to wash out a water maker filter that had been soaking all day and night yesterday. It was time to give it a good soak. After I did that, I hosed the boat off. There was a lot of dirt that washed off. It is better, but when we get back from our trip home, we will definitely need to give her a good washing. Things get so dirty here. Everywhere we have been in Mexico it is dusty and dirty. The boat doesn’t stay clean. That is just the way it is. Gotta have something to do right??? I lowered the hatches but didn’t lock them and I got water inside down below. So needless to say—I had messes to clean up and things to dry out. Oh well.

Robbie, and the gang drove up in Ramon’s car with Ramon driving. They parked and came down to the boat. I wanted to serve them Mexican margaritas but they declined. They chose water. We talked for a while and got caught up on the happenings back home, and then we took a walk to check out the marina lounge and the Sky Bar on the roof. Then we decided to go for lunch and walked to town. The Mexican restaurant we wanted to eat in was closed. So we ended up at Philo’s for pizza. We had to wait a while because they weren’t really closed but it was siesta time and they would start serving around 4:00pm. So we ordered beer and the gal turned on the oven and left. We wondered what was going on until we realized they were heating the oven and getting ready for the dinner crowd. We had a good time talking about boats and all kinds of stuff. Then the pizzas arrived. They were really good. The restaurant is owned by an American. After we finished eating, we left and walked back to the boat so we could show them the Huichol Indian paintings we have and the yarn picture. Ramón’s eyes got big and he had a big smile on his face when he saw the yarn art. He grew up in La Cruz and is very familiar with the Huichol Indians. Then it was time to say goodbye. It was around 5:30pm or so. We said our goodbyes and we told Robbie we would visit them while we were home.

The rest of the evening Dave and I just relaxed. I started to gather things to pack and then sat down and read my book. I was really tired so I went to bed around 9 or so. Dave stayed up and did his thing.

Monday, March 9.
Well it is a beautiful morning. Blue sky and warm but not hot yet. I took my coffee over to where Dave was talking to a couple on their boat. We talked for a little bit and then I had to get some things done. I checked the air conditioning water tray to see if there was a lot of water in it, and there wasn’t so I didn’t have to suck it out with a turkey baster. The unit in the back cabin under the bed didn’t need water extraction either. Life is good. I washed clothes out and hung them to dry, washed dishes and defrosted the refrigerator. I will turn off the freezer later this afternoon. I have some frozen items to give to Christy that we didn’t get eaten and can’t save. They are coming over later. I helped Dave when he needed it, with the new volume control unit we received from Robbie yesterday. This is the one that is out in the cockpit and it got hit and rusted bad, so Dave asked if Robbie or Tori could bring us a new unit. So they did and Dave started installing it last night and finished this morning. It works!!!! And it sounds great. He said when it was put in a couple wires were not attached properly so the quality hadn’t been very good. It is now!! Dave put the cleaned water maker filter back in the unit and hooked it up. Then I vacuumed, shook rugs, wiped down sinks and toilets and started packing. After I finished packing, Dave took his turn. Our flight tomorrow is around 3 so we don’t have to leave early, but we can relax tonight and tomorrow morning and make sure we haven’t forgotten anything. We are excited to be going home to see everyone. It is going to be a crazy busy time.

It is going to be a relaxing night.

Tuesday, March 10.
We got up and started putting things away. I washed the remaining dishes, dried them and put them away. I put the windshield covers in the windows to keep the heat out. We defrosted the freezer overnight and gave the remaining chicken, veggies, hamburger and a little bit of bacon to Dave and Christy. They stopped by last night to say good-bye. We gave them a zip lock bag of ice to go along with the other stuff. I looked in the refrigerator and noticed ice forming on the unit so I had to defrost that. I didn’t want to leave without doing that. I had some chicken salad to use up so I fixed Dave and I a sandwich and finished the milk that was left. Once we were done with that I washed the remaining dishes and put them away. With bags packed and everything secured we were off to the airport. We said good-bye to our neighbors and Charlie and headed to the bus stop. It was already warm and of course we were over dressed for this weather but not the Northwest weather. So needless to say it was a trudge to the bus stop. We didn’t have to wait long before the bus came. We lugged our bags onboard and found a seat. Dave sat in front of me because there wasn’t anywhere to put our bags except beside us. We left the boat at 10:30am and got to the airport and hour later. When we got off the bus we headed for the entrance to the airport and who did we see standing outside talking to another airport employee was Ramon. He is a friend of Robbie, Tori, and Dixie. We hugged and asked us if we had a red form filled out. We gave him the RCA dog look and said no. No one told us about having to fill out any forms. So from this point on Ramon took us under his wing and took us to the immigration window to get the form but they didn’t have any. So we walked to the Alaska Airline ticket counter, he got our electronic boarding passes, then took us to the desk, asked for the forms and immediately started to fill them out. Once he was finished we finished the check in process and headed back to the immigration desk, had the passport stamped and we were done. We thanked Ramon for all of his help, gave him a big hug and said good-bye. Without Ramon we wouldn’t have had a clue of what to do. A situation that could have been very stressful turned out to be a very pleasant experience. Now all we had to do is wait to board the plane. With time to kill, we walked through the duty free shops and stopped and had lunch. We walked to the boarding gate and waited until it was time to walk out to the plane. When we finally were allowed to board the plane, we walked to the plane via tarmac, found our seats in first class and got settled. Before take off we were told it was 36 degrees in Seattle. Brrrr!! It will be great to see everyone but the weather sucks. We had a 4-1/2 hour non-stop flight so we made the best of it and visited with the people behind us and across from us. It was a regular plane party!!! Before we knew it we were landing in Seattle at 7:30pm. We got our luggage and met Ron and Noreen outside. We got our hugs and piled in the car and off we went. We are staying with them on their boat in the Brownsville Marina. Let me tell you-----it is really cold here!!!! Hey----Mexico---send some warmth our way will ya!!!!!

Wednesday, March 11.
One nice thing about being back in Brownsville Marina is to see all the neat people we left behind. Kim and Cheryl are still managing the deli and doing a great job.

They are fixing dinner per our request of Lasagna. Can’t wait. Nothing has changed much in Brownsville. We stopped in at the marina office and said hello to Jerry and staff. After visiting with them for a while, we went back to the boat and chilled all day. Fortunately the sun was out and we relished sitting in the warmth. Noreen had to work but Ron is retired so we spent the day with him. Ron took us out to Marty and Inez’ house so we could visit with them then get our Thunderbird. They were storing it for us. When we left we drove the car to the mall to get a new phone for Dave. His old one is rapidly falling apart so it is time. After we got the phone we left the mall and went back to the marina to Ron and Noreen’s boat, m/v ‘Reely Ours’.

I went up to the bridge and looked through magazines we had gotten in the mail. There was an article on Tenacanitita, Mexico, which is our next destination after we get back to La Cruz, Mexico. It sounds really nice. All you can do there is anchor. It will be nice to be on the hook again. Noreen came home and we went to the deli to have dinner. Judy, my best friend and her husband Arlen were there. Judy hugged me so hard I almost couldn’t breathe. It was nice to be missed. It was really good to see her and Arlen. Later on Carolyn Thomas came in and we greeted each other with hugs. All these neat people we get to see again. It is really awesome. It feels strange though coming back to the marina where we lived for 15 years and not have a boat there anymore. We saw our old slip which we are subletting until September. Then we are done with saving it in because we aren't coming back here to live. We love our cruising life and have no plans on bringing the boat back to the Northwest. We had a wonderful delicious dinner and the company was great. It was a great evening. When dinner was over and it was time to leave, we said our goodbyes and went back to the boat. Shortly after that we all went to bed.

Thursday, March 12.
Dave and I took off after breakfast and did some errand running. Once that was done Dave dropped me at the marina and proceeded to the West Marine store. I went to the boat and did some reading and went through the mail. I was going to do some blogging but couldn’t find the power cord so I didn’t get that done. When Dave finally got home, it was a little late to blog so I will do it another day. He got some things that were on our list to take back with us. We also got a package with LCD lights for the outside and inside of the boat to save on electricity and battery use. They are brighter and burn less amps. We had been invited to dinner at Silver City Pub in Silverdale for dinner with Marty and Inez. So we met with them and had a great dinner and visit. Came back to the boat and relaxed with Ron and Noreen.

Friday, March 13.
UhOh!!! Another Friday the 13th!!! Well it really doesn’t matter to us because we aren’t superstitious. It was a good day. Dave and I went and looked at and priced computers. We are looking for a computer for me so I can blog and not tie up our main computer. We came back to the boat and compared all the information we got from the different places we visited. Costco has one we are interested in on sale starting Monday so we will look at what they have then. We went over to the guest dock to visit with Bonita and Jay which have their trawler, m/v ‘Moon Angel’ there for the winter. On our way we were stopped by Patrick and Leslie which have the same style of boat we do. They wanted to visit with us but we told them we were on our way to visit someone else and we would be back. So we went ahead to Jay and Bonita’s boat and visited with them for a while. We had to end the visit because we needed to get back to Ron and Noreen’s boat for dinner. Then drive to Lacy to see Ernie, my oldest son, play in a baseball tournament. Ron bought this large pizza and we cooked it while he drove to the ferry dock to pick up Noreen. Once we finished eating our pizza, Dave and I took off for Lacy. Ern had an 8:40pm game. He actually was playing two games but I told him we would only stay for one. It was cold and the wind picked up out of the south which was blowing in clouds for rain. Jonathan, my youngest son was going to meet us there. We got to the field and met Ern. It was really good to see him. He is looking good. He introduced us to his boss which we got a big hug from and said she loved my son!!! That was cool. Then Jon showed up and we hugged. It was really good to see my boys. Jon, Dave and I were the only ones in the stands. No other crazies were out to watch these games. The first game didn’t go well but I thought he did well. At least I got to see him play. We said goodbye and I would see him and Jon at the grandboys house tomorrow. We jumped in the car and Dave cranked up the heater to get us warm again and off we went. We arrived at the boat and Ron and Noreen were already in bed. This was about 11:00pm. So Dave and I had a half glass of wine then went to bed. I’m looking forward to seeing the grandboys tomorrow and Teri (their mom) and Ben, her significant other. Right now it is time to go to bed. It is suppose to rain tomorrow.

Saturday, March 14.
After we got up and had our coffee and breakfast, Dave and I headed to Renton where we were to meet everyone at Teri, Ben and the boys house. We told Ern and Jon to meet us there at 1:00pm. So we are in traffic in Tacoma and I get this phone call from my eldest son. So where are you? He actually was on time for a change and we were the late ones. Ha!!! I think that is funny!!! Shortly after that, another phone call and this time it was my youngest son. He said, “1:00pm eh?” God forbid mom be late to anything!!!! I got the feeling they were anxious to see me. I just had to laugh. Kids!!! We finally arrived around 1:30pm. Jon, Teri, Ben, and Eian were there but no Ernie or E.J. They had left to go to the store to buy some drinks. They arrived shortly after we got there. Teri had laid out snacks and was preparing hamburgers for the BBQ. We handed out birthday gifts for Teri, E.J., Ern and Jon. We gave Ben a woven bracelet from Mexico and Eian a soccer handkerchief so they wouldn’t be left out. We sat and visited for a while, and then the grandboys played music with the Wii. Eian was on the drums and E.J. on the guitar. They were good!! After their performance we ate. After that we had cake which Teri made from scratch. Everything was good and we were stuffed.

I took a picture of the boys wall of awards. Pretty impressive don't you think?





Here are the boys with Papa and Uncle Jon.











Here are the boys with their Mom and Ben.

Around 4:00pm Ernie had to leave because he was getting together with some of his buddies to celebrate his birthday a day early. That was a good time for the rest of us to leave as well. We said goodbye to everyone and Teri took Eian to a friend’s house to play as he was bored. We left Ben and E.J. behind. It was sure great to see them all. We probably won’t get a chance to see Teri and Ben again, but we will see the boys next weekend. We got back to Ron and Noreen’s boat and just relaxed with them and Jack their pug. Isn't he cute?


As we were sitting around watching TV and Dave’s cell phone rings. It is Ern. He is out with his friends but he had had enough to drink to make the call and ask if we could meet somewhere to have dinner. We weren’t sure where to go so I told him I would call him tomorrow around noon when he was sure to be sober. Ha!!! Ern doesn’t have a lot of money right now. Job hours have been cut back so he is strugglin. I thought that was really nice that he wanted to get together with us, but we got to thinking, we don’t have a lot of money either. So I will have to tell him we just can’t do it. We are seeing him on Saturday at the marina anyway.

Sunday, March 15.
It’s my eldest sons’ birthday today. Ern is 34 years old. I just can’t believe that. Jon turns 32 in a couple of weeks. Wow!!! They are getting old!!! It’s them not me you see!! At noon I called Ern and wished him a happy birthday. Then I told him we just couldn’t afford to go out to dinner but I loved him for thinking of us and wanting to get together. He actually was relieved we said that as after talking to me he started to think of paying for gas and dinner. So we made it easy for him. I’m glad. So everything was good. I told him I would see him on Saturday around 1:00pm. He is bringing the boys with him. After I hung up Dave and I did some running around looking at computers. The prices were pretty good so we just jotted down prices and what they programs it came with and moved on to the next thing which was getting Dave a pair of tennis shoes. We looked at sandals but they didn’t have any in wide widths. Bummer. I almost got a pair of tennis shoes but decided I wanted a really good pair of walking sandals. So we just got Dave his tennis shoes. We returned to the Brownsville Marina to Reely R’s and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with Ron and Noreen. After dinner we watched a little TV everyone said goodnight. Noreen has to get up at o dark thirty and go to work. Bummer. She works in Seattle so he commutes on the ferry which means you have to be there for the first ferry run which is around 5:00am. Dave is thrilled he doesn’t have to do that anymore!!!!

Monday, March 16.
It was going to be a busy day as Ron had to find Noreen a birthday present as her birthday is the 20th , which is fast approaching, and Dave and I need to check the computers at Costco. We wanted to see our daughter-in-law, Dani, Dave’s son Michaels wife, so we gave her a call and she said she was working in Silverdale and she got off work around 1:00pm or so and could meet us around 2:00pm. We said that would work just fine. So we were all off and running. We went to Costco and looked at the computer that was advertised and decided we could get a better deal at Best Buy, but we wanted to stop at Office Depot first and look at their computers again. We think we can get a better deal at Best Buy so we are going to go there. We looked at the computers again and decided we wanted a Dell like the one we already have. So then it was a matter of flagging down a sales person. They were all busy or they just walked by and didn’t even take notice we were waiting. So we waited and waited. Dani called and wanted to know where we were so we told her and she said she would meet us there. Then Ron called us and asked if they had a certain camera there at Best Buy and we told him yes, so he said he would see us there he was coming to look at it. Shortly after Ron got to the store, Dani arrived. It was really good to see her. She and Michael are having a baby and it is due in November. That is sooo exciting. We don’t have any granddaughters yet so maybe we will have one now!!!! It doesn’t really matter to us just as long as it is healthy. We finally got helped and we bought the Dell computer and left it with their technician to install everything on it which would take about 2 hours. So we said goodbye to Ron as he was off running more errands and Dave and I asked Dani if she wanted to come down to the boat. So that is what we did. Once on Ron and Noreen’s boat, we sat and visited with Dani, then Dave had to take off and get a couple more errands done so Dani and I took that opportunity to browse through the pictures we had taken. I’m glad I did that because it showed me how out of order they were. Oops!!!! I vowed to go back and put the pictures in the right folder later just in case others wanted to see them. She didn’t get to see them all due to having to be chauffer for someone and it was getting late in the afternoon. Dave wasn’t going to make it back before she had to leave so she called him and got to say goodbye. We are hoping we can see her again before we leave but don’t know if that will happen. It is so hard to fit everything and everybody into 2 weeks’ worth. Her husband Michael is in Iraq until August. He got to come home for 2 weeks in February, thus the baby, if you know what I mean!!! We were sad we couldn’t see him but we will see him after he gets home and after the baby is born. That is one good reason, among many, to come back home for another visit. So we said goodbye and she went to do her thing. Dave and Ron got home about the same time and Ron started dinner so it would be close to being done when Noreen got home. Being it was Monday, and it started pouring just as Noreen was heading home, Dave made her a Mexican Margarita and it was waiting for her as she came through the door soaked. She changed clothes and got comfortable. We ate dinner and then settled down to a nice relaxing evening.

Tuesday, March 17.
Happy St. Patty’s day!!!! Top O the mornin’ to ya. Today Dave has to go to Seattle to get parts and do running around. Judy and I are spending the day together. She is my chauffer for the day. I needed to get some things while we were home and she said she would be happy to take me where I needed to go. I had a doctor appointment and blood work done first. I got my prescription filled too. I got a good report from my doctor. I am healthy, I lost 10 pounds and my cholesterol is down to 307 from 341. We also agreed I was not going to take a statin and wanted to stay with taking the red rice yeast and fish oil. He said that was fine and he even wrote me a note to clear up any problems with getting red rice yeast into Mexico. Unfortunately they don’t sell that here yet. So I will have to mail order it. So with all that out of the way, Judy and I took off and had coffee then did our running around. We ate lunch at our favorite restaurant, Olive Garden, and went to the book store. That was all that was left to do so she took me back to the Brownsville Marina. We said goodbye and we would see each other for dinner at the deli tomorrow night. I met Ron and Dave at the Deli and we had a beer and visited with some of our friends and neighbors that were there for the St. Patty Day dinner Cheryl and Kim cooked. We weren’t staying for dinner since we were going to have dinner tomorrow night instead. Noreen met us at the deli and had a glass of wine. When we all finished we went down to the boat. Ron started dinner while Noreen got into comfortable clothes. We had a great dinner and then we went to the park to join the camp fire Bonita and Jay set up for us. They wanted to throw a party and have us invite whomever we wished and they would make the camp fire and bring all the fixings for s’mores. Everyone brought what they wanted to drink and we sat around talking about our adventures. The s’mores were great and so was the company. We felt honored to have them do that for us. It was a fun and relaxing evening.




Wednesday, March 18.
Two more days until Noreen’s birthday and Ron is getting a lot of phone calls. He and a few of their friends and family are planning a surprise party for her on Saturday. Ron and Dave are going to Costco to buy hamburgers, hot dogs, buns and all that kind of stuff, plus beer. He is buying a case of wine from the deli and needs to get sodas. The pretense to get her to the friend’s house was to come and pick them up so we all could go to Whiskey Creek restaurant for dinner instead of taking two cars. Friday, her actual birthday, we would go to her sisters’ house for dinner.

After we had coffee and breakfast, Dave and Ron went to Costco while I stayed on the boat to catch up on mail and the blog. After the guys got the shopping done and delivered to Ron and Noreen friends’ house, they came back to the boat. Then shortly after they got home it was time to walk up to the deli for dinner. We walked up and I joined Judy and Arlen at a table reserved for all of us. Carolyn and her son Christian were there too. Christian is driving my red Ford Escort now. It looks pretty sweet. He has a great stereo system with boom box in the back. It is awesome.




Shortly after getting there Noreen showed up and we visited for a while before dinner. We had a great dinner and the company was great too. It was getting close to deli closing time so we said goodbye to everyone and went back to the boat.

Thursday, March 19.
The countdown begins to Noreen’s birthday and party. Ron forgot to get sodas so he will have to go to Fred Meyer and get them. He needs to get decorations and wrapping paper. Dave and I had to go to storage to get our uniforms for the Squadron dinner meeting tonight. When we got there Dave’s uniform had all the buttons, epilates and name tag on it. Mine had been dry cleaned before I left and I forgot to put the buttons and epilates back on. I left all that back on our boat. So I didn’t have a uniform to wear. Oh darn!!! I would just have to wear regular clothes. We went to Fred Meyer to look for a nautical jewelry gift and found earrings that had 3 dolphins on them. Perfect!! They even wrapped it for us. We got a card and then we were done. We went to the mall to look for sandals and stopped at Famous Brand shoes. Dave found sandals but didn’t know for sure if he wanted to get the ones with the toe cover on them and the biggest problem was the size. They didn’t have half sizes in Teva (brand of shoe) so they were either too big or too small. They didn’t sell Keens (another brand name), so he didn’t get any. Oh well. We were walking toward the exit when we saw it was pouring outside. We didn’t have rain coats on or umbrellas so we waited until it let up a little. Dave hustled to the car and I was right behind him on the phone to Judy making plans to see her on Monday. Just as I started out toward the car it started to pour buckets. It was as if someone turned on the faucet full force. I was soaked. Poor Judy got a scream in her ear as I was trying to get into the car and water was dripping off the door and I was being soaked. Oh well. Washington has shown us her finest. We have had snow, hail, grey skies, blue skies, light and monsoon rain, and freezing temperatures. Just like old times!!!! View from Ron and Noreen's boat.



And you wonder why we are living on our boat in Mexico?!! The saving grace was we were going to go back to warm and sun so the weather didn’t bother us much.

Ron got back to the boat before we did and he had already wrapped Noreen’s gift, filled out cards and hung ‘Look who’s 50’ on the ceiling so she would see it the moment she came through the door. Ron put his gift out and so did we. That way she would have to look at them and wonder what was in them. She was a happy camper when she got home from work because she didn’t have to go back to work until Wednesday of next week. Dave and I had to take off for the squadron dinner meeting so Ron and Noreen had a night to themselves. When we got home they were already in bed. We stayed up for a little while and then went to bed.

Friday, March 20.
Happy Birthday to Noreen!!!! Happy spring!!! It may be spring on the calendar but the temperature hasn’t shown it yet!!

We sat around and had coffee and then Ron fixed breakfast for us. Ron couldn’t take it anymore and finally handed Noreen her gifts and cards. She would have waited forever to open them just to drive Ron and me crazy. After she opened her gifts, we all got busy and got dressed and cleaned the boat up. Ron and Noreen went and did some things they needed too while Dave and I went to West Marine. Around 3 or 4 that afternoon we got in the car and drove to Noreen sister and brother-in-law house, Lee & Frank for dinner, and then a little later Noreen’s other sister, Jan showed up. Then Lee’s son, Travis, stopped by after he got off work to join us for dinner. We had a very nice time and the dinner was salmon!! We can’t get that in Mexico!! Noreen got more gifts and then we had chocolate cheese cake Lee made. Wow!!! Everything was just delicious. Travis’ fiancé stopped by to see Noreen and stayed for dessert, then her and Travis left and we did too. It was such a fun evening.

Saturday, March 21.
My sons Jon and Ern and his two sons, E.J. and Eian are coming down to the boat this afternoon. It will be so good to see them again. We picked up on the boat and then everyone showed up. Noreen left to walk Jack and when she got back to the boat she took a nap. The sunshine had made her sleepy. Dave and Ron took down the old tarp that was covering the bimini to keep rain out and gave it to J.T. for his boat which is smaller. Then all three of the guys were spreading the new tarp over the bimini and tying it down. It wasn’t an easy task as the wind came up. Noreen slept through the whole thing and with the noise from all of us sitting outside her stateroom. The boys and I watched sports and we talked a little. I showed the boys the pictures of the crocodiles and some birds. When Dave, Ron, and J.T. finished tying down the tarp, J.T. went to his boat and Dave and Ron came down below and talked to the guys and watched basketball. Eian and I were kind of bored so we went for a walk. We walked to the swing benches are and sat down and swung and talked. It was nice to have a visit with him. We were walking back to the boat and met up with Ern and E.J. We all went back to the boat and watched some more sports and talked a bit. Then it was time to get ready to go to Noreen’s surprise birthday party so we had to say goodbye. Being this was going to be the last time we would see each other before we went home, hugs were long and hard. We had a wonderful afternoon together.





We changed our clothes and piled into the car and off we went to Ron and Noreen friend’s house. We got there parked and headed to the house but saw a note that said to go upstairs above the garage as they were watching a movie. Ron knocked on the door and it opened and everyone yelled SURPRISE!!! It was so awesome. She didn’t have a clue and she was really blown away. Her family and friends were all there. Once the excitement settled down and Noreen was able to catch her breath, she went around and visited with everyone and Dave and I just mingled. Deli Kim and her husband Mike was there, deli Cheryl and Amy came later after the deli closed. J.T. and his wife Carolyn came, Travis and Kim, SaraNell and Clark, all from the Brownsville Marina, were there too. We played table shuffle board, ate hamburger and hot dogs, salad and of course cake. We ate, drank and were merry. It was a lot of fun. Around midnight Ron, Noreen, Dave and I and the rest of the group left. Some were coming back in the morning to clean up. Ron and everyone did an excellent job keeping the party a secret!!! Well done everyone!!!!

Sunday, March 22.
A day of rest!! Ron could breathe now that everything was over. We got up and were having our coffee when he got a call from their friend Connie. She told Ron that Noreen’s sisters were there cleaning up so Ron just had to pick up the leftover food and beverage. Noreen said she would go since she wanted to help her sisters. So she left. Ron got another call and it was Noreen’s sisters asking if they could come down to the boat. He explained Noreen was on her way there so they said they would watch for her and flag her down. Eventually everyone got to the boat and the gals had the food and beverages with them. They came down below and we sat around and visited for a while. Then Jan had to leave because she still had to drive Lee home and then go home to Tacoma herself. So we all said goodbye. The rest of the day was a lazy one. We did whatever we wanted, which wasn’t much and just enjoyed each other’s company. Dave and I took his uniform back to storage and that was about it.

Monday, March 23.
Well we have one more day before flying back to Mexico. We have enjoyed our visit and stay with Noreen, Ron, and Jack very much. It’s hard to believe it is time to leave. Well we have been really talking to Ron and Noreen about coming down to see us this summer. I think they will. At least I hope so.

One thing I didn't do and I wish I had, was take a picture of Dani. I really thought we would get a chance to see her again but it didn't work out.

This morning Judy and I went to Poulsbo to pick up a prescription for Dave and get my sandals. Then we met Kim, Cheryl, and Noreen at Apple Bees for lunch. We had a great ladies time out. When we finished lunch, Cheryl and Kim drove off together and Noreen left and Judy and I left. I was driving the T-Bird. Whoohoo!!! Judy loved it and I was glad I had a chance to drive her around in it. I came back to the marina and said goodbye to Judy with big hugs. Then I walked down to the boat. We had to get copies made of our forms for Mexico that we had run out of, so we left to go do that. When we were finished, Dave dropped me back at the marina while he went to the bank to get a form signed and notarized so our friend Marty could sell the car in our absence. When Dave got to the bank and gave them the form, they said I would have to sign it also. We were to take the car to Marty and Inez’ house and leave it. They are storing it for us. It was going on 2:00pm and we were supposed to be there around 2:30pm. I walked up to the deli and waited for Dave to come back. He picked me up and then told me we had to go back to the bank so I could sign the form. So we did that without any problems and then we were off to Marty and Inez’ house. We got there around 3:00pm. We visited for a little while and then Marty took us back to the Marina. Inez was teaching the squadron weather class so she had a few things to do before she left. We thanked them for looking after the car for us and hopefully selling it while we are in Mexico. We have a private party interested in taking a look and hopefully buying it. So hopefully we will be able to sell it. It would be nice to have the extra money in the bank. We shall see. If it doesn’t sell now, we will take care of it when we come home again.

That evening we took Ron and Noreen to dinner at Famous Dave’s restaurant. They are in the same place as Tony Roma’s was but they went out of business and Famous Dave’s took over. It is really a neat place and the food is really tasty. We ordered a garbage lit full of beans, coleslaw, BBQ chicken, ribs, thinly sliced brisket, pulled pork, small corn on the cob and fat French fried potatoes. Ron and Noreen took leftovers home for lunch tomorrow. It was awesome. Both they and we have never eaten there and we heard it was good so we gave Ron and Noreen a choice of Whiskey Creek or Famous Dave’s. Good choice guys!!!!! We were so full we almost waddled back to the boat. We drank some wine and then called it a night. We had to get up early as our flight leaves at 8:30am tomorrow. Ron and Noreen insisted on taking us to the airport which is very sweet of them.

Tomorrow is my youngest sons’ birthday. He will be 32 years old. It seems like yesterday he and his brother were just kids. They really grow up fast. He and his brother turned out to be really neat men. I am very proud.

Tuesday, March 24.
The alarm went off at 4:30am, however, Dave was up and getting dressed and putting the last minute things in his suitcase. I got up, got dressed and packed what was left and then had a cup of coffee. We all had our coffee and Jack got his morning walk in before we left for the airport. It was a pretty quiet ride. The traffic was light and we only had a backup around the Tacoma Sprague exit. We got to the airport and Ron helped us get our bags out of the trunk and then we said goodbye. It’s always sad to leave good friends and family behind. We gathered our bags and off we went and Ron and Noreen drove away. We checked our luggage and John and Sandy’s refrigeration unit which they didn’t charged us for either. That was cool. We went through security and there was a man that was on the same flight we were, to Puerto Vallarta, and wasn’t sure of what to do or where to go. His English wasn’t very good so we tried to help him. Dave guided him through the security section and then told him to follow us to the terminal. So he did. He was very nervous about getting on the right plane. Once we were at the terminal, we told him they will announce when to board. Then we said goodbye and walked to find a store to buy some water for Dave. Then we walked back to the terminal and waited to board. We only had to wait about 20 minutes or so. It was pretty painless. We got on board and into our seats. We watched for our friend and wondered if he was going to make it on the plane. He was almost the last to board but he made it. The doors closed and we taxied out to the runway and off we went. It took 4 hours to land in Puerto Vallarta. We cleared customs, got our luggage and off we went. As we were getting close to the exit of the airport, we saw John and Sandy waving at us. We greeted them and gave them the box with the refrigeration unit in it. They were happy campers. We found out it was Sandy’s birthday yesterday so we wished her a happy belated birthday. They had transportation lined up for us which was really nice. The driver took John and Sandy back to the Nuevo Vallarta Marina where they have their boat and waited while John took the box to the boat to drop it off. Then we got back in the car and the driver took us to La Cruz marina where we got out. We thanked the driver, paid him and said goodbye. John and Sandy helped us carry our luggage, computer cases and backpacks to the boat. We couldn’t believe how much dirt was on the boat. Everything was just covered. Everything you touched was gritty. After we got all our stuff down below, we took off and went to dinner just up the street. The Mexican restaurant we wanted to eat at was closed and we started to walk away when they told us to come in. So we did and sat down and ordered beer and water. Then we ordered dinner. It was really good. We had a nice visit with John and Sandy and they told us their tale of mishaps on their trip south. It seems that everything that could go wrong and quit working did. Sandy was about to throw in the towel but she didn’t. So now they are making repairs to head north to the Sea of Cortez. They have to stop in Mazatlan first to renew their FM3’s. Then they will go north. We will stay here in La Cruz until first week in April. Kim from the Brownsville Marine Deli and her husband Mike and kids are coming down to stay in Nuevo Vallarta for a week starting April 1. It is spring break so they are taking a vacation. We are going to get together with them after they get settled. Then we will be heading south to Tenacatitas.

After we finished dinner, we said goodbye to John and Sandy. They took the bus back to Nuevo Vallarta and we went back to our boat. Sandy has to take the bus to Zihuatanejo to get their car and then drive back. When she returns with the car, she will rest for a day or two and then John and Sandy, or one of them will drive the car to Mazatlan where they will leave. Then take the bus back to Puerto Vallarta and back to their boat. When they get back and rested they want to go to Costco to provision and invited us to go along since we need to do that too. That’s cool.

When we returned to the boat we unpacked and started to put some things away. The rest will have to wait until tomorrow. We are tired and just want to veg.

Wednesday, March 25.
As I sit having my morning coffee, I reflect on our mini vacation back home. To be honest I’m a little sad. Not to return to paradise but leaving such wonderful people and family behind. If I could have fit all of you into my suitcase you would be here now!!! Oh wait!!! Let’s think about this. That means I would need to fit you all on the boat and feed you. Uh---that’s not going to happen!! But on the other hand – we could have one hell of a party for days!!!! Ooh----that makes my head hurt just thinking about it. Never mind. O.K. Forget bringing you down here. You will just have to hop on a plane and get your raggedy butts down here to visit us. Reality sucks sometimes!!

Today is Jon’s birthday (my youngest son). I called and left a happy birthday message.

Now it was time to tackle the boat. I took all the screens down and set them aside. Then I washed the dodger and bimini. I took all the cushions in the cockpit and rinsed them and then rinsed the entire cockpit area. Then it was time to tackle the screens. I scrubbed those and hung them to drip then Dave helped put them back in while I washed the other sections. We finally got the screens in and I felt better now that everything was clean. We got everything organized. Dave walked to the marina store to buy bread and beer. When he got back I made sandwiches for us. Christy of s/v Kailani came to visit. We had heard they left soon after we did to go home to Oregon to take care of some family business and just got back. She came over to invite us to their boat for dinner tonight. That was neat. They are serving us the chicken breasts we gave them from our freezer before we left. We asked Christy how their trip back home went and she told us. It wasn’t a good trip. There were legal matters Dave had to deal with about his mom and sister.

We mentioned we were going to go to Mega to get a few things since we had nothing on the boat, and asked if she and Dave wanted to go with us. She said she would check with him and get back to us. As we finished lunch, we got a call over the VHF radio from s/v Kailani. I answered it and Dave said they were right in the middle of boat work and painting and wouldn’t be able to go to Mega with us. I asked if there was anything we could pick up for them and bring to dinner and they said just wine. That is our kind of people. Dinner is at 6:00pm so it will give us a chance to take the bus to Mega and back before then. Mega is in Bucerias which isn’t far from La Cruz. We had to wait for the bus and there were a few high school kids waiting too. About 10 minutes past and then the bus arrived. It was a full one. Dave and I stood in the aisle along with the school kids. As the bus stopped and people got off, we got a seat. When the bus stopped at Mega we got off and walked across the street. Once inside the store I checked my backpack and headed to the produce section. I got a few things and then we were done. We paid and packed the groceries in my backpack and extra bags we brought along. We walked out to the main street and caught the second bus that stopped there. It was almost an empty bus. We were surprised. We thought there would be a lot of people getting off work and going home. It worked great for us. We got off across the street from where the marina is and walked to our boat. I put the groceries away, took a shower and met Dave on Kailani. We had a great dinner and visit. It was getting late so we said goodbye and walked back to our boat. I read a little bit and then went to bed. Dave followed shortly thereafter.

Thursday, March 26.
It is a beautiful sunny day. It is going to be a warm one. I have all kinds of things to put away like the suitcases and the parts we brought home.

Dave had to get under the mattress to access the water maker parts and filters so he could put the new filters away. I really didn’t have a lot of energy so I just left things as they were for now. I’ll deal with it tomorrow.

I did some inventory of things I had as I am making a list for Costco. While I was doing all this stuff, Dave and the two Mexican guys started cleaning the rigging, spreaders and mast. It really is looking nice. Dave helped hoist the guys up the mast. That worked out good for me as Dave wasn’t in my way and vice versa. Ladies I’m sure you know what I’m talking about!!!!

Before the guys came to clean the rigging, another Mexican man came by trying to drum up work for his guys. He wanted to clean our rigging but I told him we already had someone coming out to do it. So then he wanted to know if he could clean the bottom of the hull. Dave talked with him and they arranged for it to be done next week sometime.

The guys worked until they were finished, which was about 6:00pm. Just as they were putting their things away and cleaning up, I walked to the marina store and bought some beer. When they were done I gave one of them a beer and the other wanted a coke. So they were happy campers. They worked really hard and it shows. They do such good work. After the guys left I started dinner. We don’t have much groceries, but I do have some canned roast beef, so I am making a roast beef topper for rice. I’m serving that with a green salad and French bread.

We had dinner and then relaxed. Dave was a happy camper (me too) that the rigging is clean and is not prone to rust now. Life is good!!!!

Friday, March 27.
I got up and had my coffee. Dave didn’t have any energy. That was o.k. because I had enough for both of us.

I made breakfast and I bet you can’t guess what we had? Beep! Time is up!!! We had spam and eggs with toast. It was pretty good. When you don’t have bacon or sausage, it works. After breakfast came the dishes and then I took laundry up to the lobby at the yacht club and gave it to the concierge to give to the laundry ladies. I will get it back tomorrow afternoon.

When I got back I tore into the boat. Well not literally but you know what I mean. I started with Eian’s stateroom. I straightened out the mattress and made the bed again. Then arranged the pillows and put the dive gear cases back on the bed. I took Dave’s shirts out of the closet and on the back of the door and distributed them in our room. I am trying to rearrange things so there will be room for when we have guests onboard.

Once I finished that room, I straightened up and rearranged things in E.J.’s stateroom to make room for the suitcases. I’m trying to make room for all of the provisions I will have on the boat for the Sea of Cortez. Sometimes you have to get creative in your thinking to make things work.

I gathered the winter clothes Dave and I had on the sides of our bed and distributed them cabinets and what wouldn’t fit there I put in the suitcase. Now I have lots of space to stow stuff. The suitcases went in E.J.’s room. Then I changed out the pictures of my grandsons to their new pictures that their mom gave us. I put the two nautical placemats on the table that Judy gave me and it dressed the table nicely. Cool.

After all that I still wasn’t finished. I have been putting off getting all the old receipts for 2008 out of the file box so that is what I did for the rest of the afternoon. Once they were in a large envelope and the 2009 receipts were filed away, I put the file box away and stashed the 2008 receipts on the shelf. Whew!!! That along with cleaning the bathrooms is at the top of the list for things I don’t like to do. I sure felt better though after it was done. I felt good about all the stuff I did today.

We got a call from s/v Kailani, Christy and Dave and asked if we were going to the pot luck dinner for the cruisers tonight. I told them I hadn’t planned on it but we could do that. You have to bring your own place settings and a dish to share. If you have some meat or whatever to BBQ you could do that too. Dinner was to be in the Sky Bar on the top of the yacht club building. There is a beautiful view from there and it was a perfect night to be up there. I brought a bottle of wine just in case we didn’t want to spend money for drinks. As it turned out, a lot of the cruisers brought their own wine. There were a few that took advantage of the bar. We met other cruisers that are heading south and others going north. After it got dark and Dave and I had enough of conversing with people, we said goodbye and went back to the boat.

When we got on the boat we opened another bottle of wine and both Dave and I sat in the cockpit with our wine and smoking cigars. It was a perfect ending to a great day. It is really pretty here.

Saturday, March 28.
Well Dave and I are switching energy levels today. He wanted to wash the hull but I didn’t feel like it. I reminded him he had a day off yesterday so it was my turn. He agreed. So guess what we will be doing tomorrow?! It all works out.

Dave took my new computer to the yacht club lounge to load some programs and get it to connect to the internet. He was successful.

While he was doing that I got a variety of cookbooks off the shelf and spent the morning looking for recipes I want to make while we are in the Sea of Cortez. Then the items I needed I made a list and that will go along with the Costco list. When I finished that I put the books away and walked up to the yacht club lobby to pick up my laundry. I first needed to find Dave because he has all the money. He wasn’t in the lounge so I walked upstairs. I didn’t see him up there either so as I was heading downstairs I heard Dave call me. He had a aqua scooter in his hand. He told the harbor master he would try to fix it. So we went down to the lobby and I got my laundry and then went to the marina store to buy some bread for lunch.

Dave was putting the final touches on the computer so I gathered up my stuff and went back to the boat. Dave would soon be there.

Now all I have to do is hook the computer to the printer and get that program installed. I loaded pictures from my camera and that worked great. Dave is trying to get it set up so I can write my journal then copy it to the blog with the pictures.

Dave couldn’t get the aqua scooter to work as the battery unit was dead and there isn’t any way to fix it. So Dave took it back to the harbor master with the sad news. The harbor master found it by the garbage. I hope he can get another battery unit. It was a cool thing. I wish we had one. Oh yeah! Where would we put it? You would have to ask that wouldn’t you. Damn.

Dave came back to the boat and is playing his submarine game while I am writing this. It is going to be another beautiful night. It was a nice day today. The wind blew and it cooled down the boat for awhile until the sun got really intense. Now we have the fans running. Thank goodness for that.

The more time Dave and I spend together the more alike we think. I had been wondering the last couple of days whether we should head south just to turn around and go north. I was looking at the skies with dark clouds and also feeling the wind which is from the south. That might not be a good ride for us. But I thought I would wait and see what the next few days brought. This morning as I was having my coffee, Dave said he was not sure he wanted to go south just to turn around and go north. I was really surprised and told him I was thinking the same thing. Great minds think alike!!!! So we made the decision to stay here at La Cruz until next week sometime and then start a slow journey back to Mazatlan and then shoot over to the Baja side for La Paz and the Sea of Cortez. We have next year to head south and explore. So there you go. I think we made a wise decision. The weather has been so unpredictable even here and the point we have to go around, Cabo Corrientes can get nasty. We had Big Sur images in our head. The way the wind has been blowing lately it could be a nasty ride. So I am glad we are going to wait.

Well it is happy hour so gotta fix something to drink. While I was doing that Dave got on this computer for a while and hooked it up to the printer. Everything seems to be working. Yippe!!!!

I fixed dinner and then we sat outside for a while to cool off. Even with the wind blowing today it still got warm. It is 8:30pm and it is cooling down inside now. It is a beautiful night. Dave and I walked to the marina store to get some gin but they didn’t have any so we got vodka instead to have vodka and tonics. They were giving away free bread so we snagged one of those. Well now it is time to do some reading and then go to bed. Tomorrow will be a busy day with washing the hull.

Sunday, March 29.
This is supposed to be a day of rest right? Wrong!!! Not for us. We decided to wash the hull and then wax it to get the hard water spots off of it. Dave is very worried about the paint. If the hard water is left on the hull and not wiped off it will eat the paint away. We washed it but the spots were still there. Dave was not a happy camper. I was washing it with a soft cloth which wasn’t doing anything so I used a soft brush and that seemed to work better. What we did was wash a little area, used a chamois to dry it, then moved on to another area and did the same until the whole starboard side was washed. Then we applied wax and wiped that off. Not all the water spots came off, but it sure looks better. There is a product we need to get, made by 3m that removes hard water spots. We have to be careful on the algrip paint as hard chemicals will damage the paint. So we will see if we can use that. Having a painted hull sometimes is not a great thing. We didn’t choose to have a painted boat, it came that way. We are just trying to maintain what we have. The elements here are very hard on a boat. You do have to continually keep it up when you are in port. If you don’t have any salt on the stainless steel you can shine it up. You can do that anywhere. It’s all about keeping things in working order.

We finished the hull and called it quits. I shined up the aluminum strip on the rub rail while we had the boat pulled closer to the dock so I could reach it. Then I was done. I cleaned up, soaked the rags and went below to cool off and Dave too. It was quit warm and we both had had enough of the sun. I fixed lunch as it was only 12:30pm. Felt like it was later. We sat around for the rest of the afternoon. Dave did his thing and I read my book. I am reading Dan Brown’s book titled Angels & Demons. It is getting really exciting and I can’t put it down. I would like to finish it and start on a Janet Evonovich book. I finally put the book down to take a break from sitting. I took a shower and when I came back I fixed a cocktail for Dave and I. We enjoyed that and I read some more. Then I fixed dinner. Guess what we had? Macaroni and Cheese with spam!!! I bet you would never have thought of THAT!!! Dave said we are getting to the bottom of the barrel, but I assured him I had options and wanted to try the spam again. I didn’t just fry up the spam and add it to the mac and cheese. I tried a new thing. I wanted to spice the dish up a little so I added some Tabasco Sweet and Spicy sauce to the frying pan, added the spam and mushrooms and let it cook while I boiled water and cooked the macaroni. When the macaroni was done and drained, I added the milk, butter and cheese sauce, mixed all that up then added the cooked spam. Wa la!!! Deb’s creative gourmet meal. I served it with a green salad and sliced French bread. It wasn’t bad. It was a little sweet but it had a little kick to it which made your taste buds come alive. I kind of liked it. Guess what I am having for lunch tomorrow?

After dinner Dave played his new submarine game which he is still trying to figure out and I washed dishes then sat down and read more of my book.

It is 11:00pm and I’m tired. I’d like to finish the book but I would be up too late so I decided to go to bed. I’ll finish it tomorrow.

Monday, March 30.
We decided to wait and wash the port side of the boat tomorrow. The wind had already picked up so it would be a real challenge to move the boat. Dave went over to another hunter boat to talk to ask the guy about LED lights. Then he and Jerry came to our boat and they talked about all kinds of things. His boat is a 460 made in 2000, and ours was made in 2002 so there were similarities and changes he recognized. His wiener dog Buddy, followed him onto the boat unbeknownst to me. I finished putting banana bread batter in the loaf pans and put them in the oven. Then I went topside to see what the guys were doing. As I was leaning out from the cockpit, a dark blob came toward me on my right side. I jumped and let out a whelp!!!! Then I laughed. Jerry said he didn’t realize buddy followed him onto the boat. No worries I just didn’t expect a moving object to come at me. He is very friendly and was just exploring. Dave thought it was a funny thing though. Of course!! The guys continued to talk so I went below to check on the bread. Then I checked email and by this time the guys ventured down below. I finished emailing and then took my book topside and started reading while the guys talked shop. After about 30 minutes I went below and checked on the bread. Still not done. I went back upstairs again. After the guys finished looking at stuff down below, they came up in the cockpit and sat and talked some more. Jerry was asking questions about things on the boat and such. It was time to take the bread out of the oven and let it cool. Once the bread was cooled I sliced a few pieces, buttered them and took them topside. I went below and started cleaning things up. Then I started to update the blog journal. Jerry left and now Dave is printing out some information on a new insurance company we are going to go with. It is better than Jackline Insurance. At least for us.

I finished the book. It was really good and had a good ending. Now I can start on the Janet Evanovich book. Not much going on tonight. We are just relaxing. It’s a beautiful night.

Tuesday, March 31.
I guess I don’t need to tell you we are having another beautiful day. But I will. HA!! There is a stiff breeze and it feels good otherwise it would be really hot.

We got a call from s/v Masquerade, John and Sandy, asking if we wanted to go to Costco this afternoon. “Of course”, we replied!!! So we will take the bus into Nuevo Vallarta to meet them and we’ll go from there. It is going to be nice to fill my refrigerator and cupboards. I am thinking big bulk items this time as I can just refill the containers I already have like olive oil, vinegar and the like. We will also stop at the marine store to get some black calking to fill a hole in the fake window on the starboard side of the hull. The windows were put one to make it look like there was a window there but there isn’t. One of the screws broke off on one of them and we think it got too hot and the screw deteriorated and broke. The problem is part of the screw is still in there. Dave sent an email to Hunter Corp. and he has yet to hear from them, but he contacted the maintenance guy at Signature Yachts and he said that usually the screws are removed and then filled with calking. So I think what we might do is remove the screws and fill with black calking so it doesn’t happen again. I think before we take out any screws he will wait to hear from Hunter to see what they have to say. This happened while we were home for two weeks. It’s amazing what you find when you clean and wax the hull!!

We haven’t decided when we are leaving here yet. Probably next week sometime. We have reservations to be in El Cid Marina, Mazatlan on April 20. It doesn’t take that long to get there so we can leave anytime. I would like to stop and anchor in Punta de Mita on our way back and Chacala, but Dave isn’t sure we’ll stop in Chacala because the rumors have it you have to stern anchor. We’ll see. Then I would like to stop back in San Blas, but don’t know about that either. There have been numerous reports of dinghies being stolen from boats anchored in Manchenten Bay in the wee hours of the morning. Not that we would have a dinghy in the water, but if they are that gutsy to take the dinghies, maybe they would want stuff that is onboard. It just doesn’t sound like a good situation no matter how you look at it. The guys that are doing the stealing are on jet skis. They scope you out and then come back when you aren’t expecting anyone. We could go into the marina but it is really tricky getting in there because the silt is making passage very difficult. They need to dredge. Also we aren’t sure power is hooked up yet and all that kind of stuff. So we may have to skip the last two spots until we come back next year. The police have an idea who is doing the stealing, but haven’t caught them yet. Bummer.

Tomorrow there is the open market here in La Cruz. It is like a flea market that takes up a full two blocks. I will get some fresh fruits and vegetables there.

We hired a guy to dive under the boat to clean the hull so that is what is happening right now while I am in the yacht club lounge writing this. I think we might ask the guy how much he charges to clean and wax the port side of the hull. If we can leave the boat where it is and he can do it from a dinghy that would be great. We will see. Labor is inexpensive enough, they do such good work, and are also use to working in the heat. We’ll have to see.

I had enough of sitting and working on the computer, plus people were talking on their cell phone or using skype on their computer to talk to people back home, but it was distracting. So I packed up and went back to the boat. It was about 1:00pm so I fixed Dave and me a sandwich. After that I sat and read and Dave walked over to use the facilities. While he was gone, I got a call over the VHF radio from John and Sandy asking when we were going to leave. I said about 2:30pm we’d start walking up to the bus. Well, Sandy reminded me they were on Jalisco and not Nayarit time and it was almost 3:00pm there. We were supposed to meet them at the Marlin restaurant at 3:00pm. Oops!!! Big mistake!!! Dave and I totally forgot they were on different time from us. I told Sandy I was really sorry and we would leave as soon as Dave got back. She said they would come and get us as time was fleeting. So I felt really bad. When Dave got back I told him what happened and he also said oops!! So we gathered the backpack and another pack that is insulated for the frozen and cold items and headed up to the main highway. We figured we would cross over to the other side of the highway so it would be easier for John and Sandy to stop for us. So that is what we did. We tried hailing them on the VHF mobile radio, but never got a response. We thought that maybe they were out of reach. We tried several times to no avail. Finally they showed and they pulled over and let us in. Then we apologized profusely about our mistake. They were very gracious and said “no worries”. We told them we were trying to hail them on the radio but couldn’t get them and they said they forgot to take it with them. Oh well!! So off we went. John had some parts to get so we just tagged along to the hose store, marine store, Home Depot, electronics store in a mall in Puerto Vallarta then off to Costco. When I got into Costco and started to shop, I felt like a kid in a candy store. I saw items I hadn’t seen in other stores. I had a list but I needed to be selective as John and Sandy didn’t have much room in the back of their car, plus they were shopping also. I zoomed down each aisle looking for specific items and found some items I didn’t have on my list that I could use later. Isn’t that how it usually goes? Anyway, our cart was loaded and Sandy and John were finished, so we checked out. Everything went well until we went to pay for it all. I had the lady swipe my Key Bank debit card and it got denied. Hmmm. So we tried Dave’s card – denied!!!! What the heck is going on? We have used it several times in Mexico and have never had a problem. The gal asked for another card and Dave gave her our Credit Union debit card. Bingo!!!! That took. We had had large amounts on the Key Bank card before and never had a problem. So Dave said he would call them tomorrow. No sooner had we paid and started to gather the carts, Dave gets a phone call from the Credit Union. They were concerned about the large amount and questioned it. Dave told them and it was all fine. Now THAT is service. Both banks are aware of us being in Mexico. So once that was taken care of we walked to the car and loaded our stuff. Then we were off to dinner. John heard on the net this morning about a restaurant at Liverpool mall in P.V. about a 2 for 1 dinner. The place is called Sirloin Steakhouse. We got the 170 peso buffet dinner and ordered a bottle of wine. Wow!!!! The food you could get. There was fish, hamburgers, pizza, Chinese food, all kinds of salad fixings, desserts and ice cream with fixings for a Sunday if you wanted. It was awesome. The food was really good for a buffet. We would go again if given the opportunity.

After dinner it was back to the marina. John and Sandy drove us there and helped us with the groceries. Then we said goodbye and thanked them again for taking us to Costco and such. We will see them again before they leave for Mazatlan. I think they need to do another Costco run and I told them to let us know as I needed to go back also. They are going to the Black Forest restaurant here in La Cruz to see a Flamingo performance on Friday so we will probably see them there. Dave asked if I wanted to go and I said that sounded like fun. We have to make reservations.

When we got everything on the boat, I took everything down below except the paper towels and the box of garbage bags. I didn’t want anything else to catch someone’s eye and entice stealing. I put the meat and cheeses in the refrigerator and the frozen stuff in the freezer and left the rest for tomorrow. I sat down and read some more of my book. I’m almost finished with it. It turned out to be a great afternoon and evening.