Jan 16th: Heading to Mexico!

 

The holidays with Rebecca, Matt and Wendy were great. For New Year's we had prime rib with other goodies. So now I was counting down the days to leaving for Playa Del Carmen Mexico on January 7th to spend 10 days with Cindy and Randy. My reservations were all set. Cindy hooked me up with transportation from Cancun to Playa Del Carmen and I had double checked all the Covid regulations. 

I decided to take a break from pickle ball and ride my bike to the lagoon where I like to hike. I was glad I did. There were some very fun ducks hanging out at the lagoon. 

In three days I saw Merganser, Mallard, Bufflehead, and Pintail Ducks. In addition, I saw snowy egrets, great white heron, several hawks and numerous shore birds. I was told that many of these birds come here during their migrations. Very fun to see them. 

My favorite were the Bufflehead Ducks. They're pretty small and dive down to get food constantly. Hard to get a good picture but I could see them with binoculars. Here are some pictures from the web. Bufflehead and Merganser Ducks I also liked the Pintails Pintail Ducks info

I was scheduled to take an Uber to the airport Friday morning at 8:30 am.  Wednesday morning I looked out my window to the house next door and saw demolition taking place. We knew they were going to tear it down and do a rebuild but weren't sure when they would start. It was interesting watching them remove everything in the yard first. (Unfortunately they needed to take out the beautiful bougainvillea bushes which attracted many birds.)

There have been several demolitions right near me. The new homes going up cost in the millions due to the proximity to the ocean. I decided I was leaving at the perfect time!

Thursday night, the day before I was to leave, I watched a beautiful sunset from my window. I still enjoy the beautiful sunsets. I was packed and ready to go. At 10:00 PM I thought I'd check my flight status because there were numerous flight delays and cancellations due to Covid and weather. No weather issues from San Diego to Cancun but who knows where the plane was coming from. 

When I checked my email, I had a message my flight was cancelled! No explanation, no options offered. Tried calling and was told it would be three hours to get through. Long story cut short I finally went to bed at 2 am hoping they would put me on another flight sometime soon. I woke up at 5:30 am and tried again with no luck. After talking with Cindy I started looking at other options. I was able to get a flight Saturday morning. I would need to leave for the airport at 4:30 am and Uber said no problem. I really wanted to get to Mexico so I booked  the flight. Everything went well Saturday!

Our balcony, 2nd floor, right

I arrived in Cancun and waited about an hour to get through customs. Took the Canada Transfers van to Playa Del Carmen. Cindy told me to order a sandwich and a beer for the ride. I don't usually drink beer but it was only $1.00. After waiting in San Diego and all the travel time I appreciated Cindy's suggestion. After struggling with some language barriers, and a couple calls to Cindy, my driver finally found Cindy and Randy's place. So happy to get together again.

Main thoroughfare

Cindy warned me that they were in a very busy and noisy location. They were on the main walking thoroughfare through the center of town, and a five minute walk from the beach. We stayed on the second floor of the building in the picture above. The balcony was just big enough for the three of us to hang out and watch the action. 

I saw Cindy's gift from Randy, a fun bell to request a drink or refill. It worked quite well while I was there! Randy is an excellent host.
 

After having "docktails" on the balcony, We joined hundreds of tourists walking down the street. The shops, restaurants and bars were continuous. Lots of music could be enjoyed as almost everything was open to the street. We picked a traditional Mexican restaurant where we could eat at a table right on the walkway, but far enough from the numerous bands that we could still talk. 

The food was delicious, the service was excellent and Cindy's drink arrived balanced on the waiter's head. The entire experience was a very festive introduction to Playa Del Carmen!

We returned to the balcony and had no choice but to listen to the music from the Senor Frog bar down the street. We saw everything from costumes like Spiderman, Shreck, etc. to people in fancy evening wear headed to the upscale places. It is a happy place with very friendly people.

By that time I was worn out. My room is around the other side of the building with it's own balcony and view of the street. It was a long day but a fun day. I put my earplugs in and had no problem sleeping.

I'm in Florida on Yesterday's Dream now. More to come on Mexico in the next blog but I thought I'd better get something up now! I've been very busy here in Florida. More to come on that also.

January 7th: Need to catch up on the blog!

 I decided I better get a blog posted given my future plans. I will be heading to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico to spend 11 days with Cindy and Randy. It will be great to finally be reunited. Hopefully we will be back to boating together this summer in Canada but this will be wonderful!

Then I will fly from Mexico to Florida and back to Yesterday's Dream. My young, skilled and good friend Mychael, has been staying on the boat and doing mechanical repairs as well as cosmetic upgrades. I am anxious to see his work. He said he wasn't going to send pictures because he wanted me to take in the finished product all at once. Works for me. I am hoping to do some cruising. I need to have someone with me to do that and several people have expressed interest. Although Linda and I always enjoyed Banana Bay and our friends there, cruising was the whole point of living on a boat. I'll just see how it goes. I question whether it will be as much fun without Linda but then I think, "I could say that about everything and end up, doing nothing!"

Rebecca and I decided to get together the weekend before Christmas to have an early Christmas celebration. She has a new job as the Senior Vice President of NBC Current television programming and is very, very busy. That's okay, she loves being active! 

Of course there were a few projects. One was to tighten the outdoor big screen. The wires had stretched some and caused wrinkles. Not a tough job. 

When I went out to the garage to get the tools I noticed the garage door opener wasn't connected. Rebecca said, "Oh put that on the list! There's something wrong with the wiring you did when putting in the new outlet. I can get it to work if I twist the wire nuts." Hmmm. Clearly shoddy workmanship! I suspected I knew the problem. Too many wires in one wire nut. I was in a hurry to finish the job on the last trip and hoped it would be okay, but I can't say I was surprised. So I did some rewiring and all is well.

Then there was the removal of  a shelf structure in her closet. She had taken one shelf out with some difficulty and wanted the whole thing gone. I said I'd give it a shot but no guarantees on how it would look. Those shelves were clearly installed to withstand an earthquake! It took some doing but I got them out. Then I said, " You realize there is different flooring under the shelves?"

Then I said, " You realize there is different flooring under the shelves?" She said, "No problem I have extra flooring in the garage." Again I said okay but no guarantees on the final appearance. 

She helped me cut the flooring and it turned out great.

I was coming up fairly early Friday so I stopped to get a couple lobsters. We enjoy lobster so I often pick some up at my 99 Ranch store. They always have lobsters but it seems like they are just barely big enough or crazy large, like 5 lbs. or more. Fortunately, this time I was able to get a 3 lb. lobster.  

It's just fun to get a big one! I also got a 1.5 lobster and we shared! It was excellent as usual. 

So it was lobster Friday night and prime rib Saturday night. It was quite the feasting weekend!

Trevi and London were forced into joining the festivities! Rebecca got them to wear their holiday garb long enough to get a picture. But not much longer. I had no part in this quasi-dog abuse other than the pictures. They were actually very cute and festive.

London

Trevi

Unique manger scene

The holiday season was busy and fun. After having the early Christmas at Rebecca's I stopped at the Rahn's on my way home. Karen really gets into Christmas decorations. Here are a couple I don't see very often!

The Leg Lamp is a replica from the Christmas Story movie filmed in Cleveland, Ohio. Full size in their front window!

When it was three weeks until Christmas and I was looking for some activities, I decided to return to the Fire and Mud Studios. Several years earlier, Wendy showed us a lot of fun pottery she had made. 

Linda and I decided to try our hands at making pottery. It was a lot of fun and we quickly developed an appreciation for the skill it took to make the fun pottery items Wendy had shown us. Despite our inexperience, the class we took enabled us to make several items. I guess they weren't picture worthy because I can't find any pictures.

It had been so long that I signed up for the beginner's class again. It was fun. Certainly don't have the skill part mastered yet, but Wendy does.

Here are the items we sculpted. Next they will be dried a few days and then we "Trim" them to perfect the shape and texture. Then they were fired in a kiln. Next we did the glazing (Artwork, finish, etc.) and they get fired again.

The small ones are Wendy's. They are more difficult to do. The little domed one is the beginning of a small pot with a lid. She eventually carved off the top and made a lid out of it. Unfortunately, given the holidays, everything took longer than usual. I'm headed to Mexico so I won't see all the finished products in person. But Wendy will send pictures which I'll share on a future blog.

The San Diego Botanic Garden is 8 minutes away. They do a Winter Wonderland lighting display. It is truly amazing. The garden itself is magnificent and the lighting is very well done. Matt, Wendy and I enjoyed the experience. The pictures just can't capture the immensity of what they accomplished. 

This display was inside a huge greenhouse. The decorations were extensive!

I liked the Stegosaurus. Look closely and you'll see presents making up the backbone fin.

We had some rainy weather but I could still get some beach walks in. I just got sprinkled on a little bit.

There is just something very relaxing about walking on the beach. In particular it is great when it is low tide when the tidal pools are exposed. 

Wendy, Matt and I continued our Christmas feasting over the holidays. We were trying to decide between buttermilk brined turkey or prime rib for Christmas. Wendy had a great idea. Turkey for Christmas and prime rib for New Year's. Swordfish for Matt! Everyone was happy. I even made several batches of anise cookies.

Well that's it for now. I was supposed to be in Mexico but got an email last night at 10:00 pm that my flight was cancelled! Spent quite a while today rebooking everything and I leave here at 4:00AM for a 6:15 AM flight tomorrow morning. Hopefully all will go well this time!