Coxen Travel Ink Mexico/Southern California 2015
Mexico
November 24 to 28 - The adventure began well before we left home as a blizzard, the first of the year, blew in about 12 hours before we were due to leave. We decided that we did not want to take a chance, so we drove out to the airport the evening before our flight was to leave. The flight down to Cabo san Lucas was uneventful until we arrived in Cabo and Pat's luggage did not arrive with us. Try dealing with that when you have no Spanish and the airport baggage people have no English. Eventually, we arrived at our accommodation at the
Villa del Palmar. We were treated very well and the hotel staff took a real interest in helping us find our missing luggage. We went for dinner on the patio and enjoyed the 'Broadway Showtunes' show the hotel was putting on.
We were up the next morning and off to the required time share presentation. The view of Land's End and the Sea of Cortez was perfect from the offices at the top of the resort.
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| Lands End |
After finally escaping from it and NOT buying more time share weeks, we had lunch and then took the local bus, called "Transporte Collectivo" to Walmart to get Pat some stuff. Walmart was everything you would expect and we were able to find all the necessities. Once back at the hotel, we checked into the luggage and guess what .... it was there! Thank you to Cynthia and Ariana for all of their phone calls and checking. We went down and hung out at the pool, but the sun was going down by 16:30 hrs. For dinner we again went to the theater and this time saw the 'Mamma Mia' show.
Thursday morning we were up and off to another presentation at a different time share
Solmar Hotels and Resorts. Wow! If we were only rich! This hotel was absolutely decadent. We would have loved to buy a week there, but it was just the cost that was in our way. One of the interesting things about this resort is that it is one the Pacific Ocean side of the peninsula. The waves come crashing in so you cannot swim here, but the fishing and surfing are great. The area has lots of whales starting in December. Rocks separate this area from downtown Cabo.
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| Infinity pool at the Solmar Resort |
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| Looking south from the Solmar Resort |
After the presentation we decided to take a walk around the marina in Cabo. We bought a boat ride that would tour us around Land"s End to see the Arco (rock arch), the pelicans and the sea lions before dropping us on Lover's Beach. All was well until it was time to get off the boat. The waves were pounding the beach and we needed to get off. Fortunately, there were some enterprising young Mexican men who were there to help. You just had to give them a tip. We wandered around the tiny beach. One of the sights was a gentleman with 4 iguanas on his shirt. He offered one up to Pat to touch and hold. She looked to good with one in her hands, so he put another on her shoulder. Their skin feels like thin, dry leather, and their tails have small spikes. Their feet have small fingers with class on the tips so they can climb on anything. We then watched the show as other people were trying to get back onto their boats. We watched one boat try to load up a large group of people. The boat was pushed in to shore and got caught behind a rock that caused the stern to go down. The waves started crashing over into the boat's stern. The young Mexican entrepreneurs rushed over and rescued all the passengers, including a small child. With the boat empty of people the crew, with some help from shore and a boat waiting to come in, was able to get off the beach. The crew started bailing out water before they were able to come in again and pick up their passengers. Now it was our turn to get on our boat. Pat went first. On her first try, the boat tipped and she fell off the boat ladder and went under. I dragged her out and then she tried again with the help of a young Mexican entrepreneur. Success! After Pat sat on the far side of the boat, I was able to get on got on and we headed back to the marina.
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| Pat with 2 iguanas |
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| Lovers Beach |
The Cabo Marina is a lot of fun with a souvenir flee market and lots of restaurants and bars. We walked back on the beach to our resort and were thoroughly exhausted. Hurricane Sandra arrived about 16:30 so we just made it back in time. All of the dinner and show venues moved indoors, so we had dinner at the Sports Bar with a couple from Surrey, and an early night after our adventures.
Friday, Hurricane Sandra hung around for most of the day. By this time, it had blown itself down to a tropical storm. It was still warm, so we sat under the roof of the beach buffet area and watched the waves come crashing in. One can really appreciate the power of water when you see it in motion! We knew the rain was almost over when we watched a beautiful double rainbow. Dinner was set back up on the patio, so we had a wonderful latin meal and enjoyed the "Michael Jackson Experience" with a Jackson look-a-like. He was amazing!!
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| Double rainbow at the end of the storm |
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| Hurricane Sandra |
Saturday started with clouds and a little rain, but that was alright because we were flying to San Diego today. The trip back to the airport was seamless and so was checking in. While we were in line for security, we met a couple Kerry had known 40 years ago. What are the odds? Anyway, Kerry and Larry got caught up on the gossip, and we shared contact information. We shall reconnect at home.
San Diego
November 28 to December 12 - After a two hour flight, we were in San Diego, had our rental car, and were driving up the coast to Solana Beach and our home for the next week at The Sand Pebbles. Kerry's Aunt Lois called us while Kerry was driving, so we had a good chat. She was excited about her copy of our first book,
"Counting on the Canal". She never knows where we will be when she calls, so finds us in lots of different places around the world. She is almost disappointed when we are actually at home.
After a slow start, we walked over to the Solana Beach Farmer's Market for 1 pm, and wandered the shops on Cedros Avenue. The remainder of the afternoon was spent watching the Grey Cup football game. (Thank you to ESPN for showing it).
Tomorrow we are off to Palm Desert to see our good friends Lynne and Doug.
We took the back way into Palm Desert over the San Jacinta Mountains. What a trip. The road down into the Cochella Valley was switchback after switchback.
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| Switchbacks coming down into Palm Desert |
Our friends Lynne and Doug are such excellent hosts. Lynne had lunch ready, and then we moved into cocktails and an excellent dinner. Breakfast the next morning was at the Country Club before we hit the stores for some shopping. We returned via the freeway and arrived back in San Diego at dinner time.
Wednesday was shopping day. We headed up the coast to Carlsbad and the Outlet Mall. Only a few shoppers were there, and the sales were amazing!! Unfortunately, we arrived back to our apartment to see the news about the mass killing in San Bernadino.
We decided we needed to enjoy the pool and the beach at our apartment today. The sun was shining and we had to cool off in the pool. That would not be happening in St. Albert! Anyway, we wandered to the beach to enjoy the sunset. It was not as clear as yesterday, but the clouds made it far more interesting.
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| Sunset on Solana Beach |
Saturday was very exciting. We had to be out of our apartment by 10, so we headed south to La Jolle. We were heading south when we saw a sign indicating a scenic drive. We headed down the road and quickly came to the glider port and a big parking lot on the top edge of the cliffs above the beach.
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| Torry Pines Beach from above. |
We wandered the area, and stopped to enjoy the waves, the sun, the birds, and the people walking below. Flocks of pelicans were flying past us before they headed down to skim the edges of the waves for fish.
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| Too cool as we look down on Pelicans going by! |
Hang Gliders also quickly filled the sky around us as they floated in the breeze.
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| There were lots of hang gliders up that day. |
We then drove into downtown San Diego and settled into our new digs. The building has a rooftop patio area, so we will enjoy that.
Bright and early on Sunday, we drove again to Palm Desert to visit our dear friends Lynne and Doug. They are always so much fun. Lynne and Pat can gossip non-stop for days. We toured the booths at the Monterey Street market, while Lynne finished her Christmas shopping. She introduced us to the American doll industry. We capped the visit with a Dole pineapple whip ice cream, and ran into friends from Morinville.
Tuesday we drove south to Yuma, just over the California border into Arizona, and a very lose to the Mexican border. On the way down we passed fields of vegetables and dates being grown. Once in Yuma, we visited Our daughter in law's grandparents Richard and Irene. They introduced us to a cotton field with the balls ready to be picked. We also drove passed lettuce fields where the heads were being picked and packed in bags in the fields and then picked up at the warehouse that night for shipment to stores all over North America within a day or so. Richard also drove us passed the old territory prison where horrendous criminals were sent to live in adobe cells. We ended the tour with a stop at Lutes Bar, a very old building with a history as a pool hall for a very long time. Filled with signs and memorabilia from all over the south, it is a feast for the ears, eyes and stomach. We ended the evening with a delicious dinner before driving back to San Diego.
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| Cotton crop in Yuma. |
Wednesday we headed to Old Town and the fun and history of San Diego at its beginnings. Thursday we headed to one of our favourite places - the San Diego Zoo. We were able to see all of the animals - the pandas, gorillas, giraffes, hippo mother and her baby, a sea eagle, tigers, lions, a grizzly bear, and so on. This is an amazing place.
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| Colobus Monkey |
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| Flamingos |
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| Tiger |
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| Giraffes |
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| Panda |
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| Wildsbok |
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| Gorilla |
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| Toucan |
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| Hippo |
Friday we spent the day in Balboa Park at four of the museums. The first was the Air and Space Museum to see their airplanes and the Leonardo DaVinci exhibit. Leonardo was an amazing, creative, curious man who drew up plans for all kinds of machines that remain in use today, or were used as the starting point for - parachutes, life-saving bouys, water screws to name a few still in use. He had a rudimentary tank, helicopter, hang gliders, submarine. He was a master at gears, levers, screws and circular motion!!! The second museum was the Photography Museum to see an exhibit of photos taken by students, before heading to the History Museum to see the Dr. Seuss exhibit. Theodore Seuss Geisler was an amazing painter as well as an illustrator and write of children's books. We finished the day at the Museum of Natural History at the Cactus to Coast exhibit. A great day!
Our time is over. Tomorrow we fly home.
