Exploring PV

Been getting a lot of good use out of our rental car these last few days, exploring all of the little beaches to the north of us as far away as Playa Chacala - about 50 miles up the highway. All of them pretty, and each of them reminding us very much of "Old Hawaii"...probably the way it was back in the 50's or 60's.

Sunday morning we headed the other way into Puerto Vallarta and walked around the city for a few hours before grabbing lunch in a small local place just off the Malecon, which is their pedestrian thoroughfare along the waterfront - very pretty on a sunny morning - especially before all of the other touristas descended upon it for the midday stroll.

Been seeing some beautiful sunrises (and sunsets) from outside our back door.

The Malecon early on a Sunday morning. 

It really is a pleasant walk - goes for about a mile along the seafront in Viejo Vallarta, with lots of statuary and displays like this that make for good photo ops. It's not just the tourists that turn out on sunny weekends either. There were lots of Mexican families enjoying the day as well - including two that we saw with their young daughters out posing for pictures in formal gowns after church...apparently it was the day of their Quinceanero, or combination 15th birthday party and "coming out" celebration. 

Don't know the story behind it but this seems to be the symbol of Puerto Vallarta - at least it's the image that you see plastered all over the place. 

The Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe, or the "Church of the Crown", is both a local landmark and the heart of Old Town in PV. 

Been out snorkeling a few times but without much luck until today when we found a pretty little hidden cove way off the beaten track where the water was actually clear enough to see something. Although the beaches are uniformly gorgeous, with lots of golden sand stretching for miles, there doesn't appear to be an offshore  reef  as is the case in Hawaii. There are Humpback whales here, however, come down from their feeding grounds in Alaska to give birth to the year's calves before heading back north in a few months. While I was out the other day there was one not far from me offshore. Every time I dove down or put my head underwater I heard a chorus of whalesong...so close a couple of times that I popped to the surface to have a look around, thinking that she must have been right next to me.

Been enjoying the car so much that we've extended it an extra couple of weeks, both to continue exploring and just to more thoroughly enjoy some of our earlier discoveries.

Puerto Vallarta

Looking back at our rental villa from the beach

Actually, we're staying in the little town of La Cruz de Huanacaxtle (500 points in scrabble, and extra credit if you can actually pronounce it) about 15 miles north of Puerto Vallarta...still on Bahia Banderas but away from the hustle of the big town. We're about 20 minutes from Sayulita, another sleepy but exceptionally pretty little Mexican hole in the wall. Been exploring by local bus and on foot for the past few days, and finally broke down and rented a car to add a little mobility to the adventure.

PV is the same latitude as Hawaii and I must say that the similarities are striking. Same beautiful, sunny, balmy weather, and what we've seen of the countryside could be Maui or the Big Island. Lots of swaying palms and, somewhat surprisingly, fields of pineapple. Maybe a little more humid but not bad. Besides, if it gets too warm we have the option of just jumping in the pool to cool off.

The flight down from Portland was uneventful, but the delay getting thru customs and immigration at the airport was a real pain. Seems that about 5 planes landed at once so the lines getting thru stretched to infinity and moved at a snails pace. Was nice to finally get thru and on our way.

Here are a few photos of the early explorations:

Looking out towards the beach from our back door - can just see PV off in the distance across the bay.

One early discovery was one of our neighbors - a big green Iguana sunning himself in a tree near the Marina.

The town of La Cruz is pretty tiny, but it does have a nice little plaza. On Sundays (and other times too I think) there's a little open-air farmer's market.

The Marina is about as big as the town and is popular with sailors both domestic and international. Just to the left of the photo is a local fish market where the locals bring their catch for sale every morning. Can get some very nice Mahi, Red Snapper (Huachinango), and other filets for grilling at a very reasonable price.

We bought some cheap snorkeling gear the other day and plan to explore some of the little beaches and villages up and down the coast during the next week or so. Will try to remember to bring the camera...

Christmas in Valdosta (and St. Augustine)

In mid December we flew down to Valdosta to spend Christmas with Jennah, Makenna, Shane and son Kevin. Mike was deployed and so was unable to join us. After a week enjoying the grand kids in Valdosta we all headed down to St. Augustine for a week in a beach house we first stayed in a couple of years ago. Made for a great family time, and Mike even got to join us most evenings thanks to the technical wizardry of Skype.

The weather cooperated all week in St Augustine - sunny all day and with a full moon at night that provided some mesmerizing views out the back door.

Jennah & Makenna relaxing.

Shane found a quiet nook where he could stretch out and play with his "computer". Must take after his Grandfather.

Since Kevin now lives in St Augustine he was a terrific tour guide to the city and the local holiday attractions, including this stop at the local Santa's Village.

The kids opened a few presents before we left Valdosta, but saved the rest for Christmas morning in the beach house.

Gotta love Skype. Here's Mike watching the kids opening presents on Christmas morning...live from a NATO base somewhere in Italy.

Makenna was a little waterbug all week, but when she crashed she did so impressively. One second she was reading a book to Grandpa on the sofa, then she leaned forward and rested her head on the armrest and was out like a light. The photo was too cute to pass up.

Nice shot of Jennah and Shane on the deck behind the beach house.

Kevin and Shane chilling on the sofa.

After the rain and cold winter temps of Vancouver a little Florida sun was a welcome change. Every morning brought beautiful sunrises like this one.

Jennah and Makenna in front of the tree.

Opening presents in Valdosta...before the drive down to St Augustine.

Nana and Grandpa got to visit Makenna's school for the Christmas party. 

Makenna posing in the back yard with her Christmas bell.

The two weeks with the family flew by, and before we knew it it was time to return to the rains and cold temperatures of Vancouver... even got about an inch of snow a couple of days after we returned. Thankfully our turnaround time was short before we headed back to PDX for our flight down to Puerto Vallarta....exchanging the 25 degrees of the Pacific Northwest for the 80 degrees of the Mexican Riviera. 

A Long Day's Journey

Made it home earlier this morning at around 0100 local time, at the conclusion of a 30 hour travel day from Germany. The good news is that we made the flight at 0400 from Ramstein to McChord, but the bad news was that there was an intermediate stop along the way at McGuire AFB in New Jersey...about 45 miles from Philadelphia. Was trying to avoid east coast stops and the chance of getting stuck due to the flight backlog there from the hurricane, and sure enough once we arrived at McGuire we found that our hoped-for quick turnaround was instead going to be a 16 hour layover...leading to another 0400 roll call.

Faced with the prospect of a long delay, and with no hope of grabbing any lodging on base, we said the heck with it and booked a cheap commercial flight from Philly back to Portland. Fact is, we were home snug in our bed by the time they even called the roll for the McChord flight in New Jersey, so it worked out great for us.

Today is a recovery day, then tomorrow we'll drive up to McChord to reclaim our car which is still in the long-term lot there. We're pretty tired after two nights of little or no sleep, but glad to be back home...where it's actually warmer than either Ramstein or McGuire, BTW.

No Luck Today

Still waiting.
The chaos on the east coast in the wake of hurricane Sandy has also impacted traffic moving out of Ramstein. Many flights for Baltimore, Charleston, Dover, etc. have been cancelled or rescheduled. Nothing today but for one flight to Birmingham, Alabama, which only took 10 duty passengers. We made the roll call but it was no surprise when we didn't even come close.

The good news is that we then had the rest of the day free, and since it was a sunny autumn day here we opted for a day out to explore some of the local area. Caught a taxi to the nearby town of Landstuhl where there was an old 12th century castle.

Looking up at the ramparts of Schloss Nanstein.

The knight who used to live here is memorialized with this 16th century statue. Note the cross on the front of his tunic, indicating that he was about to embark on a crusade to the holy land. When returning the knights moved the cross to the back of their tunics. 

There was a nice little cafe right next to the castle where we stopped in for lunch. Had Sauerbraten while sitting next to a warming fire and, best of all, a pint of the local brew...which went down REAL easy.

All in all it was a very enjoyable "day out".

Looks like they're going to try to dig into the backlog of flights starting tomorrow, but unfortunately there's nothing for us on the board until Friday morning. The good news is that there are several flights that day, including two to McChord (wouldn't that be nice), but right now it's way too early to have any idea how many seats may be available. So...planning to get up early and check the schedule in the AM, then probably walk into Ramstein village to check it out and maybe grab some lunch before heading back to the hotel. First roll call Friday morning is 0400, so the plan is to bank some sleep in anticipation of a loooong day that day.

A Near Miss

...but we're still in Ramstein.

Made the 1255 roll call for the flight to Charleston, but didn't make the initial cut. They were showing 30 seats available and there was a long pause after they called the first 30 names while the selectees were being processed. Turned out that there were 4 no-shows, so they called out 4 more names, two of whom were us,  and so we thought we were on our way. Got processed thru, checked the bags, claimed our boarding passes and boarded the bus to take us out to the airplane. As we approached the A/C I noted that it was a McChord based C-17...so thoughts of just staying with it and continuing on to Washington state after we finished our business in Charleston were dancing thru my head, when we were informed that because of some late-arriving priority cargo they could now take only 7 pax instead of the promised 30. So...23 disappointed people had to reclaim their bags and reverse the process we'd just completed. No more flights for the day either - everything for BWI and Dover was cancelled due to the storm on the east coast. Such is the nature (and the adventure) of Space-A travel.

So...here we sit for one more day. The good news is that we got to keep our room in the General Cannon hotel on base, and if you have to wait it out somewhere this is as good a place as any. The Cannon is Ramstein's Distinguished Visitor hotel...for active duty and retired O-6's and above. We're in a very nice suite, and they serve a great continental breakfast in the wardroom every morning. Plus, we have access to an on-demand shuttle bus that will pretty much take us anywhere on base we care to go, so life really isn't too bad at all.

They're showing 3 flights to the USA tomorrow - all around midday - so we can even sleep in a little before starting out fresh in the morning.

Waiting in Ramstein

 Well, the good news is that we made it to Vicenza with no problem, spent the night there, and caught the bus to Ramstein yesterday morning...arriving here last night around 7 PM local time. Thought we had walked into an incredible bit of luck when we saw a flight to BWI on the board for a 2200 departure, but when I spoke with the passenger terminal rep I was told that the incoming flight wouldn't be getting in from the UAE until after 0100 the next morning, meaning that the revised departure time would be about 0300, so we said the heck with it and just checked into base lodging to get a good night's sleep under our belts before trying again today.

Pretty bus ride yesterday thru the Alps. Some photos:

Not too bad as we left Vicenza. Sunny and cool - but dry.

The scene from our first pit stop near Innsbruck. The forecast had been for snow and boy were they getting it. First big storm of the season apparently . It was coming down pretty heavily as we went thru Brenner Pass - in fact I was a little worried about getting thru at all - but the Austrians are old pro's at winter road clearing and we barely slowed down.

 The sun reappeared as we descended out of the mountains, but it was REALLY cold, and with enough of a breeze to have us scurrying inside.

After checking in at at the Pax Terminal we got checked into quarters. So...here we sit, waiting. First roll call for a USA bound flight is 1255 today to Charleston, SC, far enough south of Hurricane Sandy's track that it shouldn't be affected by the recent excitement  along the east coast. Supposed to be 30 seats available, so we're hoping.

Meant to say that there was a bit of drama in Rome the other day when we arrived to board our train to Vicenza. I had forgotten about daylight savings time and moving the clocks back an hour that night (Saturday). Lucky for us we showed up at the train station an hour early rather than an hour late. Just gave us a little extra time to relax with a cup of coffee before hopping on the train, but might have been really exciting otherwise.

The flight line at Ramstein. Hoping to be on one of those C-17's later this afternoon.