First Whale Sighting!

Monday 30 January 2012 -- Cabo San Lucas

Our first full day in Cabo began with coffee on the balcony as we soaked up the morning sun that had already peeked up over Building A at Playa Grande. Darlene normally gets up before sunrise, but not this morning. The very slight breeze quickly went away and the stillness of the morn allowed the warmth of the sun to greet us back to our home of 10 years. As children grow, so do the palm trees, and they are beginning to obstruct the views of some of the rooms, including our previous room, just one building to the left and one floor down. But as we look at the maximum height of the oldest trees, we might be lucky in our new room -- our view might remain clear for a long time. As you look at this picture, can you blame us for wanting to come back here every year? The temperature is in the mid-30's at home (F, not C), and here the locals think it's cold when it only gets up to 75 in the daytime.

It seemed a little quiet on the water, and then finally at 8:37 AM we spotted our first whale. Actually we saw two spouts at the same time, and they were heading South (left in the picture above). They are normally heading back North at this time of the year, but we do see a few that go counter to the crowd -- just like humans.

Since we are known to be creatures of habit, we had lunch right here at the resort -- the tortilla soup is really good. So we each had a bowl of that, and then we split the casear salad with grilled chicken breast. We told them we were going to split the salad, and rather than just bringing an extra dish, they already split it for us and brought it on two plates. That's nice-- I think that's also called good service!!

The fun part of the afternoon was about to begin -- we drove to San Jose del Cabo and got to play surrogate Santa Claus to Stella and Lila. Their Aunt Barbara wanted to send Christmas presents, but mailing items into Mexico has certain risks. Ida and Pete were expecting us although they didn't know what time. When we arrived, it was like Santa had just come down the chimney. As Ida opened the box and handed out the presents, the girls were so excited. I just wish I'd had my video camera going when Stella opened her Rapunzel doll package She was jumping up and down because "she knew" she was getting one because "she had been a good girl." It was also fun visiting with Pete and Ida again, and we'll see them during Art Walk on Thursday evenings at Galeria de Ida Victoria.
 
 On the way back to Cabo San Lucas, we did some shopping and then we were back here at Playa Grande to prepare dinner. As Darlene made some seasoned rice and then fixed a nice fresh salad with delicious vegetables, I peeled shrimp that I was going to sautee in olive oil with diced garlic, lime, and serrano peppers. They turned out to be quite tasty. But before we had dinner, we had one more Cabo tradition -- the first shots of tequila, as pictured here. We brought our "Cabo San Lucas" shot glasses, purchased a year or two ago, with us rather than buying more glasses that we don't need. Also, the tequila is a Don Ramon Reposado. It's a brand we found last year down here that we actually took back to Boise -- plus we liked the bottle. So when we saw it yesterday, how could we pass it up? In case you're curious, that is a "lime cube" in front of the lime slices -- it is what's left after taking off the four "shot slices" and the ends. I then used that lime cube (once it was chopped) in with the shrimp.

That was about it for our first day -- all in all, a pretty good day. We made two little girls very happy (along with their parents and their aunt); we saw whales; we enjoyed some sunshine; we had a couple shots of tequila; we had a nice dinner, and we enjoyed the beautiful weather of Los Cabos.

Thanks for being here -- hasta luego.

The Weather is great in Cabo!

Sunday 29 January 2012 -- Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico

Well, it's the first day of our four weeks in Los Cabos, and it looks just about the same as it did when we left here last April. I know that not everyone likes Cabo as much as we do, and that's great! If everyone did, then it would get way overcrowded and beset with way too many problems. But then I know people who think the islands in the Caribbean are just fantastic -- they can go there, and I'll go to Cabo; such a shame we won't see each other on vacations!

The day's journey started with a 6 AM flight from Boise to San Francisco on a 50-seat Regional Jet; Darlene read and I slept for the 90-minute flight. We landed around 6:40 Pacific Time, and the airport was still a little quiet, but it is Sunday morning. We had breakfast at Lorie's Diner and were going to go to the United Club (formerly Red Carpet Club) to wait for our flight to Los Angeles. We're close to the gates and the Club, so it wouldn't be a big deal. When I looked at the Departures screen, I saw our flight was leaving out of gate 99 -- the International Concourse. So much for the United Club.

We'd left our house pretty early (4:50 AM) so there were no morning walks, but we certainly got one in going from gate 80 to gate 99 (the VERY last gate in the International Concourse). We waited for only about five minutes once we got there, and then they started boarding the flight. There was a role reversal on this flight -- Darlene slept, and I did some writing on the computer. But it was a short flight, followed by an hour in the United Club before heading to gate 81 for our flight to Los Cabos.

Why three flights to get down here? Flying anywhere out of Boise isn't easy to do, and getting to some places, Los Cabos among them, is even harder. But we landed in Cabo early, made it through Immigration, got our luggage, got a green light at Customs, and found Cape Travel (our transportation company) outside the terminal. Eight of the ten people in the van were going to Playa Grande where we are, so we had only one other stop --yea! After getting our room keys, we had to go to the hostess to get our "welcome package" -- I got our pool towel cards, and told her quickly and politely that weren't attending a "member's update." We've been owners for 10 years; there's nothing new we want to hear, and what they have to offer is not worth our time. I don't think she was too happy, but I don't care -- It's my time to be here.

We walked into town and had dinner (actually lunch at 5 PM since we never had lunch) at our traditional "first meal in Cabo" joint -- Las Quesadillas. Today we had chips and salsa with some awesome guacamole. Then we had garlic shrimp tacos -- yummy! After some quick grocery shopping across the street, we walked back, and it's now relax time.

Oh yes, the temperature was 75 when we arrived -- just heavenly!

Packing our Bags for Los Cabos

Saturday 28 January 2012 -- Boise, Idaho

It's just about noon here at home, and even though we've had some of the items out for a couple weeks, we are just now getting around to packing our suitcases for our trip that starts tomorrow.  Things have been quite hectic here this month, but this blog isn't the place for those things, so let's move on to travel. Darlene and I are getting ready for our annual trip down to Los Cabos, Mexico -- four weeks of awesome relaxation!
Tomorrow's first flight is at 0600 (yes, that's 6 AM -- two hours before the sun wakes up), and it takes us to San Francisco. We then take a flight to Los Angeles, and then finally on from LAX to San Jose del Cabo, landing there at 2:30 in the afternoon. These are all flights on United Airlines. Sometimes we take US Air and they have more direct flight through Phoenix, but you know me and United (Million Mile status and all that stuff!)
Need to get back to the packing. Even though we'll be there for 4 weeks, we're actually taking much less than the very first time we went down for only one week. We're better packers, and better travelers now.
No pictures with today's posting -- you don't need to see the chaos that abounds. But there'll be plenty of photos, and some video, of sand, waves, food, and fun, as we want to share some of the reasons why we love to go back to the SAFEST places in Mexico every year! I hope you enjoy -- hasta luego!