Anniversary Trip to Lake Chelan

On June 7th Rita and I celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary, and in honor of the occasion we drove up to Lake Chelan in NE Washington State to spend a few days. Had heard that it was supposed to be an exceptionally pretty place so, when the forecast looked promising, we decided to use our anniversary as a handy excuse to give it a go. Glad we did. Spent the first couple of nights in a terrific little resort right on the south shore of the Lake in the town of Chelan. Did some exploring, both on foot and in the car, to check some of the neat little neighborhoods and parks that dot that end of the lake. It was still pretty early in the year - their "season" doesn't officially kick off until the middle of June - but it turned out great for us since we were able to book the place at about half price compared to what the rates will be just a few days later. We also needed to do some shopping in advance of our trip further up the lake to the town of Stehekin, which is only accessible by ferry or be float plane -  no roads in or out. The place we were staying advised us that we'd need to bring our food with us on the ferry since there really were no markets in the town.

Stehekin itself is extremely isolated, remote....and picturesque. No telephone, TV or internet connectivity for 4 days. It was wonderful - one of most relaxing little side trips we've ever experienced. Here are a few photos:

Approaching Stehekin on the "Lady of the Lake" ferry after the 4 hour trip from Chelan. The lake is essentially a fjord - an extremely deep gap cut between two facing mountain ridges. The ferry made a few stops along the way to drop passengers and supplies at remote little out of the way places. The town (what there was of it) is just to the right. The place we stayed is straight ahead in the photo, nestled in the cover of the trees. 

Our only neighbors for the four days were several families of Canada geese. This was a pretty typical scene in the morning and evening...just watching the fat little goslings trailing along behind Mom and Dad as we drank our coffee.

Also had several families of Mergansers (ducks) like this Mama soaking up the sun on a log with her little puffball ducklings.

We made good use of the free bikes provided at our place to do some exploring up and down the valley. Here's Rita in front of the one room schoolhouse...a throwback to a bygone era (the school I mean).

Looking upstream from one of the remote bridges. Can't see it very well, but the sides of the stream behind Rita were covered by clouds of blooming wild dogwood - beautiful (both Rita and the dogwood).

And of course we did a couple of lengthy hikes. The first one was a level 8 miler along the Stehekin River. The trailhead was just at the approach end of Stehekin Intergalactic Airport - the grassy strip you see just in front of me - and wandered thru the soft Spring landscape to a sandy beach at a State Park on the lake, which made for a pretty picnic spot. Saw several piles of bear scat but no bears out foraging. We did see a couple of deer that didn't seem to be too skittish though.

Our second day hike was 7.5 miles along the shore of Lake Chelan itself. Very pretty walk and, since we happened to be on the trail around 12:30 PM, we got to see the Lady of the Lake pass by on her daily run.

After a very pleasant few days relaxing to the max we caught the return ferry to Chelan, picked up the car, and drove part of the way home to the town of Wenatchee where we spent the night. Next day was gloriously sunny for our return to Vancouver. We drove back the scenic way - past Mt. Rainer National Park. As you can see, the mountain was out in all her glory on the clear day.

Been home now for about a week and have no more trips planned until we start the big National Parks circuit in late July. Intention is to visit Yellowstone, the Black Hills, Rocky Mountain NP, the Grand Canyon, Zion, and several of the smaller and lesser known parks and monuments during the course of an 8 week trip that should finish up back here in Vancouver around the middle of September. Looking forward to that, and in the meantime we've been enjoying some of the prettiest weather of the year here in the Pacific Northwest.

Spring Visit to Valdosta

In May we flew east to spend a few weeks with Mike, Jennah and the grand kids. The occasion was Makenna's First Holy Communion or, as they call it now, her first "Reconciliation". Looks like this may be our last visit to Georgia for a while, since Mike & Jennah have just gotten written orders to Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque where they'll be stationed for the next 3 or 4 years. 

Had a great family visit:  attended several of Makenna's end of the school year events, helped out by running the kids to and from school and other appointments to give Jennah a break, and even helped get the house organized for the upcoming move. Kevin came up from St. Augustine for the last 10 days or so, so we had a good visit with him too.

Took the kids to their horse therapy on Saturday mornings. There's a ranch about 30 minutes north of town that offers horse riding for autistic children, and Shane has been participating in that for a couple of years. They also allow Makenna to ride most of the time which makes for an enjoyable day out for both of the kids...Nana & Grandpa too.

Shane mounted up and raring to go.

Sunday May 21st was the big day for Makenna. Here's a nice shot of the brother & sister before we departed for the church.

Mom & Dad posing with the girl of the hour.

and a nice photo of the four of us.

And finally, Kevin and Makenna in front of the church after the ceremony. 

Since our return to Vancouver Mike & Jennah have started the process - movers came and packed them out in early June, and their new renters (another AF couple) moved in immediately after they vacated the place. The family is staying in a new TLF (transient housing) at Moody until the end of July when they'll be heading west. Guess they've already found a nice rental apartment in Albuquerque, so they'll have just enough time to complete their move and get settled in before Mike reports to his new job and Makenna starts school. We plan to stop by and see them in their new place in early August as part of a longer National Parks tour we're planning this summer.

Spring Update

Since our return from Mexico we've been taking it pretty easy...and basically waiting hopefully for it to stop raining here in Vancouver.

Before leaving on our trip in December we placed a special order for a new car, and our new Subaru Outback was waiting for us when we got home in early March. Had been looking at them for a couple of years and finally decided to buy one. We had noticed during our trip to Alaska a couple of years ago, and again more recently last summer in Colorado, that they seemed to be all over the place. The endorsement of people who live in some pretty challenging environments was good enough for me so we picked one up in expectation of future road trips around the National Parks of the west and, who knows, maybe back up to Alaska again. Been having fun breaking it in with exploratory drives in and around the area.

Looking forward to stretching the legs of our new Outback later this summer.


Our first side trip was down to Travis AFB near Sacramento - wanted to check it out for future Space A opportunities since it's the major west coast hub for military traffic...mainly heading west towards Hawaii and Asia. Along the way we stopped off in Gold Hill, OR for a night with Rita's brothers Rick and Ray. Spent an enjoyable dinner celebrating their birthdays.

Ray, Rita, Rick's wife Mary, and Rick waiting for Mexican food.

We also stopped off in Sacramento to visit with Marge & Dick Heintz - Rita's Aunt and Uncle and two nice folks that provided us a ton of useful information before our trip to Alaska a couple of years ago. They did it by driving an RV up the Alaska Highway many years ago, and after talking with them about their experience we've started thinking about doing it that way ourselves within the next couple of years...maybe driving up and then shipping the car home like we did last time.

Went out to dinner with the two of them, and then spent a most relaxing and enjoyable evening with them at their home. Unfortunately, after taking care to make sure that we'd brought the camera with us we got so caught up in the enjoyment of the evening that we forgot to bring it out and take some photos so, no pix unfortunately.

Our most recent excursion was up to NAS Whidbey, again to check out potential Space A opportunities since I noticed that they occasionally have flights heading east and then on to Europe. Made a 3 day trip out of it by then catching the Washington State ferry over to Port Townsend and spending the night. The weather cooperated - it was gloriously sunny - and the little town (one of our favorites) was just waking up from its long winter nap so there weren't too many (other) tourists about. Explored the petty little town on foot at our leisure, ate some great local seafood, drank gallons of great coffee, and then rode Highway 101 back south towards home. Made for a great excursion, and now the Outback is officially broken in and ready for its summer adventures.

It's really a quaint old Victorian town, and having the ferry dock right on Main St. only adds to the overall charm of the place.

After our return we had about a week before heading out again on a 3 week trip to visit the kids and grand kids in Valdosta...which is where we are now. The occasion is Grand Daughter Makenna's first Holy Communion on May 19. Looks like this may be our last trip to Valdosta for a while - Mike has orders to Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque this summer and it looks like a late July move, so our next visit will likely be part of our National Park circuit later this summer.

Leaving the Land of Eternal Spring

We're just finishing up another delightful month in San Miguel de Allende - the place that's become our "go to" winter destination. Haven't been keeping up with the blog since we arrived, mainly because we've succumbed to the relaxed ambiance and pace of life here and have frankly been too lazy to do so. Couldn't even muster the motivation to tote the camera around town and take any original photos so the ones I've attached here are all taken from the SMA tourist website. 

Once again we really hate to leave here on Friday. Will be catching the local bus into Mexico City (about 3 hours), stay overnight at an airport hotel, then board our return flight early Saturday morning. Should be home by around 2:00 PM local time.  

Here are some more photos of one of our favorite destinations.

Lots and lots of pleasant walking around the pretty local streets - generally exploring the town at a snails pace and looking for someplace to have lunch...or maybe  just a cup of coffee.

We've continued to return to one of our favorite local restaurants called Sicilia en Bocca near the Mirador which, as you can see, commands one of the best views of the town. Doesn't hurt that the Italian food here is terrific. A meal typically takes a couple of hours to complete - in true Mexican/Italian style.

Even the local bars are picturesque photo ops here, as this rustic cantina attests.

And another one - just up the street from us in fact.

A favorite outing has been to the small town of Atotonilco just  a short bus ride outside of town. The Sanctuary is a world heritage site and played a role in the events of the Mexican revolution of 1810, when Father Hidalgo and his army of Campesinos stopped here on their way down from Dolores Hidalgo to collect a banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which became the symbol and patron of the revolution.

The chapel inside the church, which was built in 1740 on the site of a local Indian (Chichimeca) holy place. In an age when most of the population was illiterate, the inside of the church is loaded from floor to ceiling with frescoes and allegorical scenes from the bible to assist the new converts. 

A look at just a part of the ceiling inside the nave. Atotonilco is a pilgrimage site for people throughout Mexico and beyond, and I must confess it really is an evocative place. The entire little town could be a movie set of a small 18th century Mexican village. Except for the power lines strung along the street I doubt that it looks much different from the day they laid the cornerstone for the church.

We've also been back to La Gruta a couple of times, enjoying the spa and generally soaking up as much sun as possible before our return to reality. 

As before, we really hate to leave the endless sunny days and balmy temperatures of San Miguel, but do plan to return - if not next year then maybe in 2015. Hasta Luego.

Leaving Puerto Vallarta

We departed PV on the 1st via the Primera Plus bus to Guadalajara, where we stayed for a couple of nights before pushing on to San Miguel,  where we are now. Our last couple of weeks were spent revisiting some of the dreamy little Mexican beach towns to the north of us - even got to do some real snorkeling when the weather and sea state permitted. Although we enjoyed our explorations around the town of Puerto Vallarta, looking back on it I think we're both glad that we opted to stay outside of and away from the busy city. Nice place to visit but wouldn't want to live there sort of a thing.

Here's some photographic evidence of our last couple of weeks:

We returned to the Malecon several times just to stroll along the busy beachfront and have lunch. One section of the walk includes a stretch of sand castles, many of which were quite elaborate and some of which looked like they probably required a construction permit.

Our favorite of all of the pretty little beaches was Destiladeras, located about 5 miles north of us along the road to Punta Mita. It consisted of a two mile long stretch of nearly deserted beach, with this little cove situated at one end...after about a 600 yard walk around a point at low tide. We spent several relaxing afternoons here, and the little cove just beyond the rocks was my snorkeling spot. 

Rita relaxing next to one of the tide pools. It was a perfect spot for us, with the extra advantage of natural shade until about 2:00 in the afternoon.

Looking down Destiladeras to the north. These palapas restaurants were about the only sign of life as you walked along the beach towards the distant headland. Am afraid it's not likely to last. Noticed that someone was developing a stretch of the coastline with condos and private clubs to offer to visiting gringos from el norte, so everything you see will be abutted by development within a few years.

The town of Sayulita has unfortunately been "discovered" by the Americans and Canadians who flock here every winter. The main attraction is that the bay encompasses one of the best surfing beaches in Mexico. There are also a number of RV parks just off the beach so it tends to get a little crowded on sunny afternoon.

The streets of Sayulita early on a weekday morning.

It really is a pretty beach. Just down a little way are a number of local fishing boats, or lanchas. Their method of launching them into and thru the surf was  rather straightforward...just get a bunch of people at the stern to physically shove the things off the beach and thru the waves until the water was deep enough to crank up the engine. Same system in reverse - I never saw a boat trailer, everything was done with brute force.

Rita at the end of the beach walk.

Another of our favorite spots was San Francisco, or San Pancho as it's known locally. Still relatively undiscovered and unexploited, the idyllic stretch of beach wasn't nearly as crowded as some of the others along the coast. Don't think this will last long either, but it sure is nice while it lasts. That sleeping dog lying in the street in front of one of the restaurants sort of sums up the ambiance of the little town.

Looking south along the beach at San Pancho. That estuary just ahead had signs warning of crocodiles - not the vicious salt-water variety you find in Australia thank goodness, but the more benign fresh water types...sort of like American alligators I guess. Nevertheless I didn't see anyone swimming there.

The open-air market in San Pancho.

And a look back from the beach on an exceptionally busy day - it really was a nice place to spend a relaxing day walking about.

Driving in Mexico (at least this part of it) was no big deal once I got used to the local rules of the road, which seemed to be to ignore all speed limit and traffic signs and just race ahead like the proverbial "bat outta hell". The local drivers are very aggressive and like to tailgate in preparation for passing, which they will do just about anywhere. Double yellow line going uphill on a blind curve? No problema, senor. They'll just blast away and hope that no one is coming around the bend just ahead...and those are just the buses. There are speed bumps (called topes) strategically placed along some of the streets in the towns to encourage cars to slow down. Unfortunately many are not well marked so you can occasionally find yourself approaching one at speed (with someone right on your tail) and the ensuing hard braking to avoid tearing out the guts of your transmission, while at the same time hoping not to be rear-ended, can make for an exciting interlude on the road. Still, and with all that, driving here was mostly pleasant and without drama. Wouldn't want to do it in Mexico City however.

Although we both enjoyed our time here in the Riviera Nayarit, we were both ready for a return to the high desert of San Miguel which, after 3 years, has become our winter home-away-from-home.

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...