Thanksgiving in Sayulita

This year we decided to do a little something different for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving dinner has never been one of my favorite meals and I have managed to avoid cooking it for decades.  (I owe years of gratitude to all of those marvelous cooks who actually know what to do with a turkey.) So this year we went to Sayulita, Mexico and had tacos on the beach for Thanksgiving.  A fish taco is my kind of turkey.

 

 

Rosie, Jay, Roque and Peter joined us in our celebration to make it even more fun.

 

 

The breakfast view.

 

 

We rented a house perched up on a hill with nice touches of Mexican art throughout and a marvelous open air veranda with all kinds of lounging spots and we took advantage of them.

 

 

 

On Saturday we took a sailboat ride out to the Marietas Islands.  The crew really worked hard to show us a good time.  Peter and Jay did a little deep sea fishing.

 

 

Jay took the first shift bringing it in and Peter took the second.

 

Here are the proud fishermen with their catch.  There is more to the story, but you'll have to ask the fishermen.

 

The islands were cool with caves to swim through and a blue footed boobie population, but the best part of the trip was on the ride home when they let us get dragged behind the boat on the cargo net.

 

 

We also had a couple of beach days.  We went to the main beach and rented surfboards and boogie boards one day.

 

 

Roque surfed like a pro her first time out.

 

After an exhausting day on the beach we had dinner in town every night.  Sometimes in a traditional restaurant and sometimes street food. 

 

 

Our favorite beach was about a mile out of town.  We went in the late afternoon one day and besides having the beach to ourselves the light made great pictures.

 

 

Not a big crowd at the beach.

 

 

The large beach connected through this cave to a smaller pocket beach.

 

 

Calvin loves a hidden beach.

 

 

The cave from the other direction.

 

 

Rosie and Jay looking good.

 

 

Lots a brown pelicans to entertain us.

 

 

Bobbing in the waves.

 

A great way to celebrate Thanksgiving!

 

 



It is raining in Reno

It is a rainy weekend here in Reno. I opened the garage door to run some errands yesterday and saw this gorgeous rainbow.  It didn't last long but it was beautiful.  One of the downsides of almost never getting rain is that rainbows are a rare sight here.

To celebrate the rain Calvin decided to go shooting.  He has taken an interest in the Winchester 22 rifle that I inherited from my grandfather through my father.  Calvin had taken it out Friday to hills behind our house, but shooting tends to be discouraged there, so we went Saturday to an established shooting range near Boca.

There was just a little drizzle when we got out of the car, but it rapidly turned into real rain, so we didn't stay long.  It appears that we might need to practice a little more. Neither of us is a great shot, but Calvin at least hit the target board, and hit one of the smaller targets.  I missed the board entirely, and it was not a small board. And it wasn't very far away.  I was playing with my phone and took a video instead of a picture, so you can see how far the target is.

My suggestion to anyone who might come shooting with us is to stay well out of range.

Fall Harvest 2012

We have had the most beautiful fall.  The season lingered long enough for us to harvest a bumper crop from our sporadically attended garden.  We have eaten tomatoes and more tomatoes, but there is nothing like the flavor of a vine ripened tomato.

Our sweet 100s were especially good this year.

Our apples were big and juicy and just a little wormy.

The garden surprise was a 2+ pound potato.  I didn't know that we planted potatoes until I was digging the onions and discovered potatoes instead.  We ate this beauty and it would have fed a family of 6 easily.

Our leaves have finally turned and the birch in the backyard is gorgeous.  What a great place to live.

Denver October 2012

We had a three day lay-over in Denver on our trip back from Washington DC.  We visited with a lot of people and did a lot of fun things, but I only managed to take pictures Zach and Austin.  Bicycling with the grandsons was a highlight for Calvin.  Zach and Austin are really proficient on their bikes, and there are plenty of great places to ride around Butch's house.

Austin happily splashed through all the puddles in the gutter.

Peter and Roque met us every night for some new adventure, so we got a picture of all the Smith boys one night.

We got to spend more time with Austin while Zach was in Kindergarten.  It changes the dynamic at home.  Zach was thrilled when he got to ride his bike to school one day with Grandad and home with his mom.  Life doesn't get much better than that.

I'm not exactly sure what Calvin is saying here.

We went to the zoo on Saturday with Peter and Roque.  Peter took some of these pictures, which is why they are in focus.

Calvin loves the zoo.  He could have stayed all day.

Butch got a break from chasing boys while they rode the carousel.  We talked Roque into riding with boys, since she was the youngest adult.  She is a good sport.

I'm not a big zoo fan, but I like hanging out with the family.

It was a beautiful fall day.

Zach is looking forward to Halloween.  He has a great Knight in Shining Armour costume.  I'm glad we got to see it.  We're so lucky to have such great grandchildren, and lucky to get to see them so often.

Alexandria October 2012

We had a fun week last week visiting kids and grandkids.  We started in Washington DC where Calvin attended the annual Anesthesia Conference.  While Calvin was slaving away at the conference I got to visit with Sarah, Toby and Clare in Alexandria, although you might think from the pictures that I only visited Clare.

The weather was beautiful and Sarah took some time to do a little gardening.  Their yard really looks good.

I watched Sarah work and took pictures of Clare showing off her walking skills. (Hope this works.)

We took a walk to Kings Street one afternoon.  Clare and Sarah had matching shades.

We tried to walk past the playground without stopping, but Clare would have none of that, so we stopped for a swing break.

I apparently have the attention span of a two year old and stopped to take a picture of some cook bricks.

Clare is a "girly" girl.  She has a gold necklace in her toy box that she puts on first thing before she begins to play each day.

Somebody likes to play dress up.  Could be Clare, but possibly it is Grandma.

97 miles on the Green River

 We took a nine day canoe trip on the Green River.  We paddled about 97 miles and I took pictures at the rate of two per mile.  I won't post all of them.

Here we are at the Ruby Ranch put-in, ready for adventure

We had a heavily loaded canoe, but it still managed to float.

The second day out we paddled through a thunderstorm where the raindrops turned into hailstones that were floating along the river with us.

Calvin looks about the same in the back of the canoe as in the back of a kayak, my favorite shot.

We hiked to a narrow fin that separated a big meandering bend on the river called Bowknot bend.

The not so green river was swirling clouds of silt.  You couldn't see anything in the water.  The fish in the river are kind of ugly, so I didn't mind not seeing them.

We had a room with a view every night.

In the evenings we had a campfire

 and watched the sun set on the red rocks

and the moon rise.

We took time out to view several ruins along the way and explore a few side canyons.

We're all smiling on day 9-the jet boat is here and we're headed back to Moab.  Can you guess who didn't use sunscreen?

On the way home I'm hanging out with a few Archaic Barrier Canyon friends.  You never have enough pictures of rock art.