Well, the Category 5 Hurricane Patricia missed us, big time. It came ashore at a sparsely populated area rather farther south of Puerto Vallarta, so our friend who had recently moved there only got rain and a lot of wind overnight. [Whew!] His mother and some other relatives were visiting at the time. Glad they're all safe.
Here in San Miguel - after the storm passed through several sets of mountains, diluting its strength - we only received a gentle, night-long rain followed in the morning with a warm breeze. I was rather disappointed that everything occurred while we were asleep!
There were times in my youth when electrical storms would arrive in southern Indiana and my mother would discover me kneeling on my bed, propped up on my elbows, looking out the open window, watching the lightning! Yes, I got a lecture each time - but it's so easy to say 'Yes; I understand' and then do it the next time anyway! And somehow she knew just where to find me whenever there was a storm...but it was magical! Now if only our dogs didn't freak out over thunder and lightning....
I understand that the storm made its way across Mexico and is now tearing up Texas with flash floods as it moves into Louisiana and points east. I'd feel sorry for the Texans if there were any reasons to do so. [Sorry, friends there live there. You knew what Texas was like and you still moved there!]
In a side note, the pain-in-the-ass person in San Miguel, who complained bitterly about the moderators on our SMA Civil List who refused to let him post the US Embassy warning on the List because it warned US citizens to avoid the west coast of Mexico (many, many hours away from San Miguel - it's a two-day trip when we go to the beach) because it wasn't San-Miguel-related (one of the guidelines for using the Civil List), has been removed from the Civil List when he was agitating to remove the moderators from their 'cushy jobs'. ( Most members don't appreciate their faults being pointed out to them; it's a volunteer position; you spend a lot of time teaching people who are too lazy to find out on their own how to do things on Yahoo groups; did I say it was a volunteer position; there are only three moderators for over 9100 members...you get the picture.) A former employee of the New York City Board of Education, he still has that 'I know better than thou' attitude.
Hope he'll be happy on his own Facebook page! We note that he hasn't revealed that he has been bounced from the List...probably too crushing to his ego. [evil laughter]
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Friday, October 23, 2015
Embassy Warning!!!
Well, we received the warning from the American Embassy in Mexico City this morning, courtesy of the SMA Civil List. Good thing, too, as our individual notification has yet to appear. We signed up for the individual notifications when we registered with the State Department as living in Mexico.
Luckily, Hurricane Patricia is headed into the western coast of Mexico - not anywhere near us. From the Associated Press:
In the meanwhile, the BBC is predicting rain for Mexico City and some points north of there. We're expecting some of that rain, although the BBC only shows Mexico City on their map of Mexico, so we are usually relegated to 'by guess and by golly' as far as our forecasts are concerned.
Luckily, Hurricane Patricia is headed into the western coast of Mexico - not anywhere near us. From the Associated Press:
MANZANILLO, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Patricia headed toward southwestern Mexico Friday as a monster Category 5 storm, the strongest ever in the Western Hemisphere that forecasters said could make a "potentially catastrophic landfall" later in the day.
Residents of a stretch of Mexico's Pacific Coast dotted with resorts and fishing villages on Thursday boarded up homes and bought supplies ahead of Patricia's arrival.
With maximum sustained winds near 200 mph (325 kph), Patricia is the strongest storm ever recorded in the eastern Pacific or in the Atlantic, said Dave Roberts, a hurricane specialist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
...A friend of our moved to Puerto Vallarta last year; we hope he's safe and sound.
In Mexico, officials declared a state of emergency in dozens of municipalities in Colima, Nayarit and Jalisco states that contain the bustling port of Manzanillo and the posh resort of Puerto Vallarta.
In the meanwhile, the BBC is predicting rain for Mexico City and some points north of there. We're expecting some of that rain, although the BBC only shows Mexico City on their map of Mexico, so we are usually relegated to 'by guess and by golly' as far as our forecasts are concerned.
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Day of the Dead
In just a little over three weeks it will be Day of the Dead here in San Miguel. We don't usually partake in the festivities (the Jardin will be awash in bodies both local and from other Mexican cities) and neither of us really enjoy crowds any longer.
My sister, her husband, and two friends will be joining us during the time of the festivities, so we may go to the effort to provide the makings for an altar this year.
Unlike the US, where Hallowe'en is the big draw on October 31st, Mexico celebrates November 1st (Day of Remembrance for children who have died in the last year) and November 2nd (Day of Remembrance for adults who have passed on recently). There will be public altars and many homes will have their own particular altar. On the 3rd, the altars will be transported to the local cemetaries and set up on the graves of those being remembered.
What's involved in an alter? Wild marigolds, canes of the sugar plant, small sugar skulls for the children replaced with large sugar skulls for the adults. Toys and candies for the children replaced with food and mézcal for the adults. Not sure what you put out for teetotalers...water? Sodas are uncapped for the spirits' ease in drinking.
Not that trick and treating hasn't begun to catch on, but at least most of the traditional festivities are tied to actual people who have passed on and it's not just a time to dress up and attempt to scare people - oh, and collect goodies!
My sister, her husband, and two friends will be joining us during the time of the festivities, so we may go to the effort to provide the makings for an altar this year.
Unlike the US, where Hallowe'en is the big draw on October 31st, Mexico celebrates November 1st (Day of Remembrance for children who have died in the last year) and November 2nd (Day of Remembrance for adults who have passed on recently). There will be public altars and many homes will have their own particular altar. On the 3rd, the altars will be transported to the local cemetaries and set up on the graves of those being remembered.
What's involved in an alter? Wild marigolds, canes of the sugar plant, small sugar skulls for the children replaced with large sugar skulls for the adults. Toys and candies for the children replaced with food and mézcal for the adults. Not sure what you put out for teetotalers...water? Sodas are uncapped for the spirits' ease in drinking.
Not that trick and treating hasn't begun to catch on, but at least most of the traditional festivities are tied to actual people who have passed on and it's not just a time to dress up and attempt to scare people - oh, and collect goodies!
Friday, September 18, 2015
A Natural Remedy that seems to work!
I have held off writing about the weather. Of course, that's often what's happening down here....
We've just made our way through the El Grito (the alleged speech made in Dolores (but repeated here and many other places through out Mexico), encouraging the locals to join the fight for freedom from foreign powers.
And then there is always Independence day (the next day) when we celebrate the winning of the War of Independence 11 years later. [It's a really big country; it take a while to reach everyone.]
But today was a little different. A few moments ago (about 5:40 pm Central) there was a loud clap of thunder. And not just a 'clap' but a rolling clap of thunder; ea 'peal' I guess.
We'd recently been made aware of a 'natural' remedy for nervous dogs - i.e., Miyake - and, based on the recommendation of a friend, Michael found that our groomer carried the product: Kalman.
A few days ago we had some warning of an upcoming storm and he gave her a drop under her tongue. And while she was a little excited during the storm, she wasn't doing her shaking/vibrating thing for hours.
Today the peal of thunder was the first indication that a storm was here. And although she had started shaking at the first sound of thunder, she is now (a few minutes later) lying down under Michael's computer (her usual spot) and not shaking! Panting a little but relatively calmer than usual.
Now, I'm not a great believer in 'natural' remedies but this seems to actually work!
And do we have any hint that a storm may occur? Yes, but the map that the BBC uses only notes Mexico City and Acapulco. We sort of guess where those indicators of rain are on the map and take it as an indication that there may be rain in the forecast. Not exactly rocket science, but a guess that is better than any local forecasts. [I.E, we have no local forecasts as we have no airport here, and thus, no weather station.] The nearest is the airport in Leon, which is about an hour-and-a-half away from us. The BBC's maps of Mexico and Central America is about as true as we get. At least it's updated throughout the day!
So the thunder peals have retreated into the distance and it's now 'gently' raining. And Miyake is in much better shape than her usual experience. While still panting, she is lying down and not sitting up, hugging the back wall of the room.
Have we thought of a thunder shirt for her? Yes, but they are about $40 and the little vial of Kalman costs only $7.50. And should last a year or so at a drop a storm!
Plus we'd have to wrestle her into the thunder shirt. And if it didn't work, we'd be back to the Kalman, again. If anyone out there is using the thunder shirt, I wish them well. We'll stick with the Kalman in the meanwhile.
We've just made our way through the El Grito (the alleged speech made in Dolores (but repeated here and many other places through out Mexico), encouraging the locals to join the fight for freedom from foreign powers.
And then there is always Independence day (the next day) when we celebrate the winning of the War of Independence 11 years later. [It's a really big country; it take a while to reach everyone.]
But today was a little different. A few moments ago (about 5:40 pm Central) there was a loud clap of thunder. And not just a 'clap' but a rolling clap of thunder; ea 'peal' I guess.
We'd recently been made aware of a 'natural' remedy for nervous dogs - i.e., Miyake - and, based on the recommendation of a friend, Michael found that our groomer carried the product: Kalman.
A few days ago we had some warning of an upcoming storm and he gave her a drop under her tongue. And while she was a little excited during the storm, she wasn't doing her shaking/vibrating thing for hours.
Today the peal of thunder was the first indication that a storm was here. And although she had started shaking at the first sound of thunder, she is now (a few minutes later) lying down under Michael's computer (her usual spot) and not shaking! Panting a little but relatively calmer than usual.
Now, I'm not a great believer in 'natural' remedies but this seems to actually work!
And do we have any hint that a storm may occur? Yes, but the map that the BBC uses only notes Mexico City and Acapulco. We sort of guess where those indicators of rain are on the map and take it as an indication that there may be rain in the forecast. Not exactly rocket science, but a guess that is better than any local forecasts. [I.E, we have no local forecasts as we have no airport here, and thus, no weather station.] The nearest is the airport in Leon, which is about an hour-and-a-half away from us. The BBC's maps of Mexico and Central America is about as true as we get. At least it's updated throughout the day!
So the thunder peals have retreated into the distance and it's now 'gently' raining. And Miyake is in much better shape than her usual experience. While still panting, she is lying down and not sitting up, hugging the back wall of the room.
Have we thought of a thunder shirt for her? Yes, but they are about $40 and the little vial of Kalman costs only $7.50. And should last a year or so at a drop a storm!
Plus we'd have to wrestle her into the thunder shirt. And if it didn't work, we'd be back to the Kalman, again. If anyone out there is using the thunder shirt, I wish them well. We'll stick with the Kalman in the meanwhile.
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Thank Heavens for Small Miracles
And we have functioning printers again!
The newest cheap-o cartridge for my laser printer was acting up. Over the printed text there were often undulating lines of smeared text. Not so horrible if I was printing a page of a spreadsheet (just print them again until you get a clear version), but really aggravating when printing a transcript for proofing. There was often no way to tell what the text underneath those undulating lines said! [Hope it was right, as it couldn't be read.]
I had gotten a new cartridge that still exhibited this problem. Thought I could solve it by purchasing a new ID tag for the cartridge. Thought - yeah, this is the solution, but as it turns out, the tag that came as part of the refilled cartridge was stuck on with blobs of glue. No joy in Mudville here!
And we couldn't use Michael's printer because it just stopped printing! The new ink cartridge wouldn't fit into place regardless of what we tried.
And after Michael printed a portion of the transcript on my printer and then had to go through and re-print the messed-up pages individually, he announced that it was time to replace both of the printers.
Now, the Office Depot had had printers on sale several weeks ago and he talked me out of buying one for $79 pesos (about $5.25 USD at the exchange rate at that time). (Of course they used the older model of toner cartridges that fitted them - and are no longer manufactured; thank you,Michael.) Obviously today's cartridge refills were full price, but that's how printer manufacturers make money: sell the printer cheap and stick it to the users on the required toner cartridges.
So checking out Office Depot on-line, and comparing what they had in stock with what we needed to replace our current printers, we identified some options. While the most viable option was to get two of the same B/W printers, Michael had had a printer/scanner/color printer and I wanted to get the same for him again.
So we hemmed and hawed and eventually flagged down an employee to make our needs known. We bought a returned Canon scanner/printer/color printer for Michael that was on sale (and since someone had taken it home, it came with both the black and the tri-color cartridges in it at no extra charge. My laser printer was on sale for less than half of the laser cartridge - and it came with one in it (although no knowing that, I now have a spare cartridge).
So the total was about a little less than $2500 pesos - or at today's exchange rate (which was a little over $16 pesos to the dollar!), about $154 USD! Yippee!!!! So we celebrated with lunch at the local McDonald's - where they cook to order - and we ran into a friend who had questions about converting a Residente Temporale visa to a Residente Permanente visa that we were happy to answer.
Once we got home, we quickly installed the new drivers for Michael's Canon and my Samsung printers and they are operational and networked.
Whew!!!!
The newest cheap-o cartridge for my laser printer was acting up. Over the printed text there were often undulating lines of smeared text. Not so horrible if I was printing a page of a spreadsheet (just print them again until you get a clear version), but really aggravating when printing a transcript for proofing. There was often no way to tell what the text underneath those undulating lines said! [Hope it was right, as it couldn't be read.]
I had gotten a new cartridge that still exhibited this problem. Thought I could solve it by purchasing a new ID tag for the cartridge. Thought - yeah, this is the solution, but as it turns out, the tag that came as part of the refilled cartridge was stuck on with blobs of glue. No joy in Mudville here!
And we couldn't use Michael's printer because it just stopped printing! The new ink cartridge wouldn't fit into place regardless of what we tried.
And after Michael printed a portion of the transcript on my printer and then had to go through and re-print the messed-up pages individually, he announced that it was time to replace both of the printers.
Now, the Office Depot had had printers on sale several weeks ago and he talked me out of buying one for $79 pesos (about $5.25 USD at the exchange rate at that time). (Of course they used the older model of toner cartridges that fitted them - and are no longer manufactured; thank you,Michael.) Obviously today's cartridge refills were full price, but that's how printer manufacturers make money: sell the printer cheap and stick it to the users on the required toner cartridges.
So checking out Office Depot on-line, and comparing what they had in stock with what we needed to replace our current printers, we identified some options. While the most viable option was to get two of the same B/W printers, Michael had had a printer/scanner/color printer and I wanted to get the same for him again.
So we hemmed and hawed and eventually flagged down an employee to make our needs known. We bought a returned Canon scanner/printer/color printer for Michael that was on sale (and since someone had taken it home, it came with both the black and the tri-color cartridges in it at no extra charge. My laser printer was on sale for less than half of the laser cartridge - and it came with one in it (although no knowing that, I now have a spare cartridge).
So the total was about a little less than $2500 pesos - or at today's exchange rate (which was a little over $16 pesos to the dollar!), about $154 USD! Yippee!!!! So we celebrated with lunch at the local McDonald's - where they cook to order - and we ran into a friend who had questions about converting a Residente Temporale visa to a Residente Permanente visa that we were happy to answer.
Once we got home, we quickly installed the new drivers for Michael's Canon and my Samsung printers and they are operational and networked.
Whew!!!!
Monday, August 17, 2015
Dental News
Although I still haven't managed to add the photos to my exposé on the cobblestones here in San Miguel, I have celebrated the end of my dental process with photos of my walk to the dental clinic that's been doing the work.
This photo is taken from the parking area of the best gym in town (at our corner, too, not that it matters) looking across the highway that goes to Celaya and Costco/Home Depot/Sam's Club. This is where I time my crossing carefully to make it across the road between the cars speeding down the highway towards the glorieta (roundabout) where the highway meets the Libramiento (ring road) around town. Reminds me of those warning signs on the Interstate 5 near the border control point that warn of people crossing the highway - only we don't have any warning signs here. It's take your life in your hands time!
The shop on the left is the Pharmacia Guadelejara - a good source for inexpensive drugs. Antibiotics (and perhaps some other drugs) require a prescription, but otherwise it's walk up and place your order.
Next to the pharmacy is a building that formerly held a Brazilian restaurant (recently closed) and then an appliance store for upscale kitchen hardware. The brownish buildings at the far end are part of a small shopping center with offices, shops, restaurants, and a bank.
After crossing the highway I walk in front of these buildings and turn left into the shopping center at the bus stop where there's usually a small crowd milling around. An intercity bus (Coordinados) stops there as well as an intracity bus that heads out to the sports center (Unidos Deportiva) outside of town. Some of the intracity buses fo three-quarters of the way around the glorieta, depositing passengers safely at the Mega parking lot; others drive straight through the glorieta and drop passengers for Mega at this point.
This is the shopping center. Shops and restaurants along the left side; more of the same at the far end. The unfinished building in the center of the photo is unnamed at this time; probably a restaurant with underground parking (the building took over part of the parking spaces) They've been working on it for about a year now. I walk through this center towards the back and out to the Libramiento.
Leaving the shopping center I walk on the sidewalk (!) past the TelCel offices (the cell phone service which we use - the driveways are for their parking lot). When the sidewalk ends (and it does), it's on to the dirt path alongside the Libramiento.
Here's the walk alongside the highway. We walk on the dirt path rather than the paved shoulder because cars zip past on the roadway as they come up the hill and make the curve (we hope) - and they're not too careful about observing the painted line denoting where the shoulder is located! Shoulders are used for many things here in Mexico: pulling over to let another vehicle pass; passing another vehicle; driving on when you're a slower car than others in your lane.
This photo shows the edge of the parking lot for the new Burger King (just out of sight), the Pemex station next door, and some offices along the Libramiento. There is no sidewalk here, so one has to be careful of cars entering/leaving both the gas station and the new fast-food restaurant. At the far end of the picture is the used car display area for the local Nissan dealer.
Having made it safely this far, we then head off overland on this little path, cross a cobblestone road, walk past the next set of offices (sort of maroon in the picture), then walk along the shoulder (watching for on-coming traffic) and eventually reach the dental clinic (it's in the building in the distance). The whole trip takes 15-20 minutes and you hope there's no rain 'cuz those dirt paths turn into mud holes!
On Saturday I finally had my permanent bridge cemented into place (it fits so much better than the temporary, which kept coming unglued between appointments). There's only a second cleaning left for this afternoon and I'm free! Until next year or until something else goes wrong with my mouth! I've been dealing with this process since May, when a tooth broke. Of course, we had a 5-week cruise booked for later that month, so the process has taken a little bit longer than normal, but my mouth is back to near-normal.
This photo is taken from the parking area of the best gym in town (at our corner, too, not that it matters) looking across the highway that goes to Celaya and Costco/Home Depot/Sam's Club. This is where I time my crossing carefully to make it across the road between the cars speeding down the highway towards the glorieta (roundabout) where the highway meets the Libramiento (ring road) around town. Reminds me of those warning signs on the Interstate 5 near the border control point that warn of people crossing the highway - only we don't have any warning signs here. It's take your life in your hands time!
The shop on the left is the Pharmacia Guadelejara - a good source for inexpensive drugs. Antibiotics (and perhaps some other drugs) require a prescription, but otherwise it's walk up and place your order.
Next to the pharmacy is a building that formerly held a Brazilian restaurant (recently closed) and then an appliance store for upscale kitchen hardware. The brownish buildings at the far end are part of a small shopping center with offices, shops, restaurants, and a bank.
After crossing the highway I walk in front of these buildings and turn left into the shopping center at the bus stop where there's usually a small crowd milling around. An intercity bus (Coordinados) stops there as well as an intracity bus that heads out to the sports center (Unidos Deportiva) outside of town. Some of the intracity buses fo three-quarters of the way around the glorieta, depositing passengers safely at the Mega parking lot; others drive straight through the glorieta and drop passengers for Mega at this point.
This is the shopping center. Shops and restaurants along the left side; more of the same at the far end. The unfinished building in the center of the photo is unnamed at this time; probably a restaurant with underground parking (the building took over part of the parking spaces) They've been working on it for about a year now. I walk through this center towards the back and out to the Libramiento.
Leaving the shopping center I walk on the sidewalk (!) past the TelCel offices (the cell phone service which we use - the driveways are for their parking lot). When the sidewalk ends (and it does), it's on to the dirt path alongside the Libramiento.
Here's the walk alongside the highway. We walk on the dirt path rather than the paved shoulder because cars zip past on the roadway as they come up the hill and make the curve (we hope) - and they're not too careful about observing the painted line denoting where the shoulder is located! Shoulders are used for many things here in Mexico: pulling over to let another vehicle pass; passing another vehicle; driving on when you're a slower car than others in your lane.
This photo shows the edge of the parking lot for the new Burger King (just out of sight), the Pemex station next door, and some offices along the Libramiento. There is no sidewalk here, so one has to be careful of cars entering/leaving both the gas station and the new fast-food restaurant. At the far end of the picture is the used car display area for the local Nissan dealer.
Having made it safely this far, we then head off overland on this little path, cross a cobblestone road, walk past the next set of offices (sort of maroon in the picture), then walk along the shoulder (watching for on-coming traffic) and eventually reach the dental clinic (it's in the building in the distance). The whole trip takes 15-20 minutes and you hope there's no rain 'cuz those dirt paths turn into mud holes!
On Saturday I finally had my permanent bridge cemented into place (it fits so much better than the temporary, which kept coming unglued between appointments). There's only a second cleaning left for this afternoon and I'm free! Until next year or until something else goes wrong with my mouth! I've been dealing with this process since May, when a tooth broke. Of course, we had a 5-week cruise booked for later that month, so the process has taken a little bit longer than normal, but my mouth is back to near-normal.
Friday, July 24, 2015
I Was Just Going to Post...
A few nights ago (Tuesday night) we had rain. I know I write a lot about the weather, but it didn't just rain, it RAINED! There were a series of three storm fronts that arrived in the evening, around midnight, and around 3 am. Each had it's own series of lightning with crack, sizzles, and power outages. Followed by thunderclaps that reverberated, set off car alarms, and all that sort of thing.
The dogs, of course, were up on the bed, shivering.
Then on Wednesday night we had a repeat, but only twice during the night. There was no early-morning rain storm. But all the other events were present and accounted for! Luckily, the power outages were again brief occurrences.
The last night (Thursday) we had no storms. Nothing, nada, nil! Peaceful and quiet, we hardly knew what to do with ourselves. There was some distant thunder (and the dogs had freaked out already), but there was no rain nor lightning nearby.
We were hoping for a repeat tonight, but at 6:30 pm, another storm rolled in. The only good part was that, again, the rain cam straight down. When the wind blows while it's raining, there are usually leaks around the casements on the rooftop so rain drips down onto the second floor from above. Hopefully the rain was vertical tonight, too.
Other than that it was a good day. Yesterday we finally got around to having our hairs cut after our last cut before the back-to-back-to-back cruises. Chemy, as usual, carried on a complete conversation with others in the shop (in Spanish of course) while cutting our hair and it took about the usual amount of time (10 to 15 minutes apiece). Don't know how he does it, but he does....
Today we had our services folks over in the afternoon to install new light fixtures for the ceilings in our three most popular bathrooms. Maybe we should have visitors more often? Things are finally getting done! We even had them hang the carpet runner on the wall in the stairwell between the rooftop and the second floor....
UPDATE - It seems to have continued to rain throughout the night in one continuous flow! Still dripping when I awakened at 5:00.
Here's a photo from last night in Centro - and no, that isn't people on the rooftops relieving themselves. In an old town such as this, roofs are flat (often turned into gathering areas - ours has it's own bathroom) and the water gathers there and escapes via rain spouts. Makes walking on the sidewalks a bit tricky when folks wash down their rooftops during the day! You can tell it was pouring down as the water is aimed out into the street.
The dogs, of course, were up on the bed, shivering.
Then on Wednesday night we had a repeat, but only twice during the night. There was no early-morning rain storm. But all the other events were present and accounted for! Luckily, the power outages were again brief occurrences.
The last night (Thursday) we had no storms. Nothing, nada, nil! Peaceful and quiet, we hardly knew what to do with ourselves. There was some distant thunder (and the dogs had freaked out already), but there was no rain nor lightning nearby.
We were hoping for a repeat tonight, but at 6:30 pm, another storm rolled in. The only good part was that, again, the rain cam straight down. When the wind blows while it's raining, there are usually leaks around the casements on the rooftop so rain drips down onto the second floor from above. Hopefully the rain was vertical tonight, too.
Other than that it was a good day. Yesterday we finally got around to having our hairs cut after our last cut before the back-to-back-to-back cruises. Chemy, as usual, carried on a complete conversation with others in the shop (in Spanish of course) while cutting our hair and it took about the usual amount of time (10 to 15 minutes apiece). Don't know how he does it, but he does....
Today we had our services folks over in the afternoon to install new light fixtures for the ceilings in our three most popular bathrooms. Maybe we should have visitors more often? Things are finally getting done! We even had them hang the carpet runner on the wall in the stairwell between the rooftop and the second floor....
UPDATE - It seems to have continued to rain throughout the night in one continuous flow! Still dripping when I awakened at 5:00.
Here's a photo from last night in Centro - and no, that isn't people on the rooftops relieving themselves. In an old town such as this, roofs are flat (often turned into gathering areas - ours has it's own bathroom) and the water gathers there and escapes via rain spouts. Makes walking on the sidewalks a bit tricky when folks wash down their rooftops during the day! You can tell it was pouring down as the water is aimed out into the street.
Photo by Maru Balderas Lopez
Friday, July 17, 2015
Cobblestones
...or cobblerocks, as Ilike to call them. Forget those snugly fitted pavements you may be thinking of. Or cobblestones are actual rocks that haven't been dressed in any way. And depending upon where you live in the city, they are more carefully placed -- or not!
I had planned a photo exposé of the pavements in various parts of town, but some of the 'photos' turned out to be videos. I'll try again next week. and update this post.
Other than that it's been same-old, same-old. Things have dried up a bit, but there are still the occasional nighttime rain storm - two of which I've managed to sleep through, even with Michael inviting the dogs up on the bed and their shivers! Guess I must have been really tired. Or there was one-too-many margaritas enjoyed earlier.
I had planned a photo exposé of the pavements in various parts of town, but some of the 'photos' turned out to be videos. I'll try again next week. and update this post.
Other than that it's been same-old, same-old. Things have dried up a bit, but there are still the occasional nighttime rain storm - two of which I've managed to sleep through, even with Michael inviting the dogs up on the bed and their shivers! Guess I must have been really tired. Or there was one-too-many margaritas enjoyed earlier.
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Rain, again
I don't think we can blame it on global warming, but it's been a real rainy season for us this year. In particular, this week. I know it's only Thursday, but it has been raining most days since last week!
And not just a gentle rain, but thunder-and-lighting rain. (Miyake is spending a lot of time in our bathroom - her 'safe' room. A couple of nights ago it not only rained hard, but there was wind and it blew the rain against our southern-facing house. So a combination of heavy rain and blowing wind against the french doors in our bedroom.
Time to find those spare bath towels and put them under the windows and doors in the house that face south. Luckily not many windows/doors face in that direction but there were enough. And there was lightning, of course. On bolt struck very near our house (maybe a block away) and we lost power for a while. Needless to say, Miyake was shaking in the bathroom for a while - well, most of the night. Didn't even want to come downstairs for her breakfast! And yes, we took breakfast up to her. Spoiled, I know.
The weather report has shown it to be rainy all this week. The report we see is from bbc.com and it focuses largely on other parts of the world. It starts of with South America, then moves to Africa and the Middle East, then India, Indonesia, Australia, and Japan. Then finally gets to Central America and that's when Mexico is shown. They seldom say anything about Mexico - and only Mexico City is marked on the map - so we sort of guess whether the rain that is shown will encompass San Miguel or not. It usually does.
At least it is cool here during the summer what with the clouds and occasional rainfall. Other parts of Mexico are shown with temps up to 40 degrees Centigrade (that's about 104F - yikes!!). What's a little rain among friends, eh? At least we not in the Yucatan, poking out in the Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean where it's both hot and rainy, i.e., humid. I keep telling Michael that we could move to Puerto Vallarta if he wants ocean, but he protests that the humidity would do me in (and he's right!).
So we keep a supply of bath towels at the ready - easy to do with dogs that require baths and lots of towels - and place them quickly when the rain begins.
The only real drawback is that to reach Mega (our local grocery store that is right behind our garden wall), the local bus stop, and cab rank is that we have to walk down our street and turn right past the gym and Mega's loading dock. And I do mean 'down' the street. Which means any loose dirt uphill from us washes down the street, floods over the sidewalk, and deposits mud that we then need to walk through. Yuck! Given a day or so, the gym sends their man-of-all-trades out to shovel the dried mud from the sidewalk, but we invariably need to walk through it before that takes place. So we hop from clear spots on the sidewalk to empty gutters (they seem to be pretty empty - though narrow - for most of the way) to the cobblestones in the street.
Yes, we could always go in the opposite direction: walking up to the cross-street, across to the Libramiento, and down to Mega/bus stop/cab rank. But if we're walking into town that puts us on the wrong side of the road (the Ancha), so we don't usually go in that direction. You should see us streaking across the highway to Celaya, looking for all the world like those warning signs around the nuclear power plant on the way to San Diego! But it puts us in a position to cross the Libramiento on the correct side of the glorietta (avoiding the elevated walkway that feels like it's about to collapse) to gain better sidewalks for our stroll into town.
Centro is quite nice (except when it rains and the downhill streets turn into gushing rivers), but life is a little more exciting out on the edges of town!
And not just a gentle rain, but thunder-and-lighting rain. (Miyake is spending a lot of time in our bathroom - her 'safe' room. A couple of nights ago it not only rained hard, but there was wind and it blew the rain against our southern-facing house. So a combination of heavy rain and blowing wind against the french doors in our bedroom.
Time to find those spare bath towels and put them under the windows and doors in the house that face south. Luckily not many windows/doors face in that direction but there were enough. And there was lightning, of course. On bolt struck very near our house (maybe a block away) and we lost power for a while. Needless to say, Miyake was shaking in the bathroom for a while - well, most of the night. Didn't even want to come downstairs for her breakfast! And yes, we took breakfast up to her. Spoiled, I know.
The weather report has shown it to be rainy all this week. The report we see is from bbc.com and it focuses largely on other parts of the world. It starts of with South America, then moves to Africa and the Middle East, then India, Indonesia, Australia, and Japan. Then finally gets to Central America and that's when Mexico is shown. They seldom say anything about Mexico - and only Mexico City is marked on the map - so we sort of guess whether the rain that is shown will encompass San Miguel or not. It usually does.
At least it is cool here during the summer what with the clouds and occasional rainfall. Other parts of Mexico are shown with temps up to 40 degrees Centigrade (that's about 104F - yikes!!). What's a little rain among friends, eh? At least we not in the Yucatan, poking out in the Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean where it's both hot and rainy, i.e., humid. I keep telling Michael that we could move to Puerto Vallarta if he wants ocean, but he protests that the humidity would do me in (and he's right!).
So we keep a supply of bath towels at the ready - easy to do with dogs that require baths and lots of towels - and place them quickly when the rain begins.
The only real drawback is that to reach Mega (our local grocery store that is right behind our garden wall), the local bus stop, and cab rank is that we have to walk down our street and turn right past the gym and Mega's loading dock. And I do mean 'down' the street. Which means any loose dirt uphill from us washes down the street, floods over the sidewalk, and deposits mud that we then need to walk through. Yuck! Given a day or so, the gym sends their man-of-all-trades out to shovel the dried mud from the sidewalk, but we invariably need to walk through it before that takes place. So we hop from clear spots on the sidewalk to empty gutters (they seem to be pretty empty - though narrow - for most of the way) to the cobblestones in the street.
Yes, we could always go in the opposite direction: walking up to the cross-street, across to the Libramiento, and down to Mega/bus stop/cab rank. But if we're walking into town that puts us on the wrong side of the road (the Ancha), so we don't usually go in that direction. You should see us streaking across the highway to Celaya, looking for all the world like those warning signs around the nuclear power plant on the way to San Diego! But it puts us in a position to cross the Libramiento on the correct side of the glorietta (avoiding the elevated walkway that feels like it's about to collapse) to gain better sidewalks for our stroll into town.
Centro is quite nice (except when it rains and the downhill streets turn into gushing rivers), but life is a little more exciting out on the edges of town!
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Where We've Been Recently
I realize that I don't post regularly on this blog - only when something interesting comes along. So you may have been wondering, 'what are those guys up to?'
What we've been up to included 39 nights on three back-to-back cruises plus about6 days at Walt Disney World. [Who can go to Orlando for a cruise and ignore the parks?]
This all began with a bucket list, of course. We had noted that Disney Cruise Line was headed to the Baltics this spring. On the bucket list was the Norwegian Fjords, which they would be visiting. So we booked that cruise.
Of course, we would need to get to the Baltics (all their cruises sailed out of Copenhagen) and it seemed like a good idea to sail on the EastBound TransAtlantic cruise from Florida to Copenhagen. Flights are expensive, anyway - right?
Then we were left with a week between the EBTA and the Fjord cruises, so we signed up for the Baltic Capitals cruise rather that stay in Copenhagen for the week (a notoriously expensive place to stay).
So we left on May 9th and returned to San Miguel on June 15th. Whew! There were many adventures: ports cancelled due to ice, new friends made and old friends reunited on board, and, of course, the usual supply of dim-witted fellow cruisers to avoid at all costs.
For those interested in a blow-by-blow description you might look at Michael's Facebook entries. He was pretty diligent at posting comments and pictures. If I ever get around to sorting through my own pictures, I may post them. That's a big 'If'.
But we're back at home for now. Bought two new cruises while onboard (it's one of the few discounts that Disney offers) so we'll be gone from time to time. We've got five trips in the works through 2016: Disneyland and Club 33 in September 2015; Cabo San Lucas in January/February 2016; the Santa Fe Opera in August; an EastBound Panama Canal in late August (did the westbound PC a couple of years ago) this is just the reverse - San Diego to Port Canaveral; and a Eastern Caribbean in October. Should keep us hopping!
[I never want to drag two suitcases and a carry-on with me again. There were tons of clothes that went unworn.] The dogs did not forget us and seemed quite happy to be home again.
What we've been up to included 39 nights on three back-to-back cruises plus about6 days at Walt Disney World. [Who can go to Orlando for a cruise and ignore the parks?]
This all began with a bucket list, of course. We had noted that Disney Cruise Line was headed to the Baltics this spring. On the bucket list was the Norwegian Fjords, which they would be visiting. So we booked that cruise.
Of course, we would need to get to the Baltics (all their cruises sailed out of Copenhagen) and it seemed like a good idea to sail on the EastBound TransAtlantic cruise from Florida to Copenhagen. Flights are expensive, anyway - right?
Then we were left with a week between the EBTA and the Fjord cruises, so we signed up for the Baltic Capitals cruise rather that stay in Copenhagen for the week (a notoriously expensive place to stay).
So we left on May 9th and returned to San Miguel on June 15th. Whew! There were many adventures: ports cancelled due to ice, new friends made and old friends reunited on board, and, of course, the usual supply of dim-witted fellow cruisers to avoid at all costs.
For those interested in a blow-by-blow description you might look at Michael's Facebook entries. He was pretty diligent at posting comments and pictures. If I ever get around to sorting through my own pictures, I may post them. That's a big 'If'.
But we're back at home for now. Bought two new cruises while onboard (it's one of the few discounts that Disney offers) so we'll be gone from time to time. We've got five trips in the works through 2016: Disneyland and Club 33 in September 2015; Cabo San Lucas in January/February 2016; the Santa Fe Opera in August; an EastBound Panama Canal in late August (did the westbound PC a couple of years ago) this is just the reverse - San Diego to Port Canaveral; and a Eastern Caribbean in October. Should keep us hopping!
[I never want to drag two suitcases and a carry-on with me again. There were tons of clothes that went unworn.] The dogs did not forget us and seemed quite happy to be home again.
Wonders Never Cease
I tend to be a little cynical about most things. Especially new-fangled products promoted with extravagant claims.
So it should come with no surprises that the use of a magnetic gizmo to soften the water in ones home got short shrift from me. Never mind their users' claims that built-up gunk could be eventually removed by running the processed water through the gunked-up fixture.
But I must say, it seems to be time to take a big bite of humble pie!
Our city-supplied water is very hard. Watering the lawn leaves white spots on the windows from the sprinkler. Flushing toilets leaves a trail of white residue from the outlets around the rim of the fixture as well as a ring at the edge of the water level.
Living in a rental, it wasn't in the cards for us to spend big bucks for a water softening outfit for the house. But for $50 bucks, it might be worth it to try one out. Not that we'd try out a big water softener that uses salt to soften the water, but there was an offer for a magnetic gizmo for around $50 bucks.
We had recently done a partial remodel on our kitchen (see earlier posts), which included a new sink and faucet duo. I was getting tired of constantly drying the sink (and going through a lot of towels) to keep the water from drying in place and leaving the infamous white rings.
So - after reading the supporting comments from users, I decided to spring for the 50-buck model. After all, if it didn't work, it was only $50 bucks - right?
Well, bless my soul, but it seemed to work! We installed it on the outflow of our tinaco (took about 15 minutes, including the time to carry an extension ladder up to the roof top) so that all the water in the house would be treated; both hot and cold water is sourced from our tinaco. And it works! And not only that, but a couple of months down the road, the white stains in our toilets seem to be gradually disappearing. And the filter for the hot water to our washing machine doesn't need cleaning nearly as often as it earlier needed to maintain a flow.
We bought the model that had strong magnets that are held around the water supply pipe (some require an electrical connection). I might even spring for a second unit that should fit around the incoming pipe for our water supply so that the lawns can also enjoy the benefits of gunk-free water!
The units don't remove the gunk in the water, but 'realign' the molecules so that they aren't attracted to fixtures. Go figure; still doesn't sound possible, but it works!
Now, I'm still a little cynical about some claims, but I must say that I'm happy we tried this one out!
So it should come with no surprises that the use of a magnetic gizmo to soften the water in ones home got short shrift from me. Never mind their users' claims that built-up gunk could be eventually removed by running the processed water through the gunked-up fixture.
But I must say, it seems to be time to take a big bite of humble pie!
Our city-supplied water is very hard. Watering the lawn leaves white spots on the windows from the sprinkler. Flushing toilets leaves a trail of white residue from the outlets around the rim of the fixture as well as a ring at the edge of the water level.
Living in a rental, it wasn't in the cards for us to spend big bucks for a water softening outfit for the house. But for $50 bucks, it might be worth it to try one out. Not that we'd try out a big water softener that uses salt to soften the water, but there was an offer for a magnetic gizmo for around $50 bucks.
We had recently done a partial remodel on our kitchen (see earlier posts), which included a new sink and faucet duo. I was getting tired of constantly drying the sink (and going through a lot of towels) to keep the water from drying in place and leaving the infamous white rings.
So - after reading the supporting comments from users, I decided to spring for the 50-buck model. After all, if it didn't work, it was only $50 bucks - right?
Well, bless my soul, but it seemed to work! We installed it on the outflow of our tinaco (took about 15 minutes, including the time to carry an extension ladder up to the roof top) so that all the water in the house would be treated; both hot and cold water is sourced from our tinaco. And it works! And not only that, but a couple of months down the road, the white stains in our toilets seem to be gradually disappearing. And the filter for the hot water to our washing machine doesn't need cleaning nearly as often as it earlier needed to maintain a flow.
We bought the model that had strong magnets that are held around the water supply pipe (some require an electrical connection). I might even spring for a second unit that should fit around the incoming pipe for our water supply so that the lawns can also enjoy the benefits of gunk-free water!
The units don't remove the gunk in the water, but 'realign' the molecules so that they aren't attracted to fixtures. Go figure; still doesn't sound possible, but it works!
Now, I'm still a little cynical about some claims, but I must say that I'm happy we tried this one out!
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Kitchen Redux
As mentioned before, we're re-tiling the kitchen. The new tile around the new sink looked so good, we screwed up our determination, found that the costs wouldn't be prohibitive, and ordered the work done!
So after a day (9 AM - 6 PM) of pounding, hammering, and chipping away to level the cement bed in which the original tiles had been set, they laid a few of the new tiles before leaving yesterday. And they look grand!
The workers will be back this morning to commence serious tile work and we should be in possession of our kitchen before the end of the day -- depending on how much time will be required before the tiles are set up.
We were able to use the new sink for dinner dishes after that section was replaced - all in the same day! But we're ready to acquiesce to a longer follow-up period for all the counters.
This morning wasn't a great deal of fun as the kitchen was unusable. We made coffee (as well as preparing the dogs' breakfast) in the 3/4 downstairs bathroom - in shifts. First the coffee grinder; then the coffee maker; and finally the cups/cream/sugar. It worked, but I'd rather not deal with it again!
Here are some pictures of the same corner of the kitchen. With blue tile; tile removed (photo shot through the door into the dining area, which is glassed, so there's a bit of reflection); and the finished work.
So after a day (9 AM - 6 PM) of pounding, hammering, and chipping away to level the cement bed in which the original tiles had been set, they laid a few of the new tiles before leaving yesterday. And they look grand!
The workers will be back this morning to commence serious tile work and we should be in possession of our kitchen before the end of the day -- depending on how much time will be required before the tiles are set up.
We were able to use the new sink for dinner dishes after that section was replaced - all in the same day! But we're ready to acquiesce to a longer follow-up period for all the counters.
This morning wasn't a great deal of fun as the kitchen was unusable. We made coffee (as well as preparing the dogs' breakfast) in the 3/4 downstairs bathroom - in shifts. First the coffee grinder; then the coffee maker; and finally the cups/cream/sugar. It worked, but I'd rather not deal with it again!
Here are some pictures of the same corner of the kitchen. With blue tile; tile removed (photo shot through the door into the dining area, which is glassed, so there's a bit of reflection); and the finished work.
Before
During (note space where stove was in Before picture)
and
After --- Ta-Dah!!!
It is now Wednesday and we have all the bits and pieces of the kitchen back in place, so the counter isn't as pristine as it appears in this photo. (We also have the office put back together, the outside wall having been touched-up, so we're not tripping over things.) Now to find a recirculating exhaust hood that will fit the opening above the estufa. We'll eventually get things sorted.
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Kitchen Work
We told the landlord a couple of years ago that we might want to change the tile work in the kitchen. Although there is decorative tile on the walls behind the counter tops (which is not a favorite but we can live with it), the counter tops themselves and the front of the cabinets around the doors are a medium-blue tile. I really dislike blue in homes and a whole kitchen has been difficult to bear.
The kitchen sink was also an older stainless steel number with sarro (calcium) stains especially around the faucets. We meant to replace the whole thing but thought it was going to be an expensive project, so kept putting it off.
Then the kitchen faucets started leaking, creating even more stains on the sink. We decided that the fault was with the faucet, rather than just a simple gasket replacement job, since the water leaked out under the hot water knob whether we had turned on the hot water or the cold! So we stopped at Home Depot on the way to Costco the next time we were in Celaya (the larger town about 40 - 45 km away). Found the faucet we had seen on their website, bought it, and took it home.
Eventually we called the maintenance company (still anticipating a huge bill) and asked them to install it. While waiting for them to stop by and give us an estimate, we decided to replace the sink, too. So we sent them off with a deposit to purchase the sink and needed materials for the installation. It turns out that the sink superstructure was composed of - what else? - cement. So the tiles around the old sink had to be chipped off, the cement leveled with hammer and chisel, then the new tile cemented (using real cement) into place.
Did I mention that the sink was about 1-1/2" short of the size of the hole in the counter top from the earlier sink? So decisions had to be made about spacing.
Lo and behold, they also discovered that the rim of the sink was sandwiched between the counter top tile and the backsplash tile on the wall and that to remove the sink, the tile fractured! So we had to add some new tile to the job. Couldn't find blue tile (just as well) so went with an off-white that was approximately the background color of the wall/back-splash tiles.
And it looked pretty neat installed around the sink (oh yes, as I mentioned, the new sink was a little less wide than the original, so they needed to fill in with extra tile and also replace the backsplash tile with the off-white tile. It was a pretty obvious difference, but it was also pretty obvious that it looked pretty nice!
So we worked up our gumption and asked what it would cost to re-tile the rest of the counters - and was pleasantly surprised to find it affordable! So in a couple of weeks (April the 6th, actually) the old tile will be removed and new tile installed (saving the expense of re-grouting the old counters to more closely match the new work around the sink.
Oh, and here's the new sink. The blue stripe at the bottom right-hand corner of the photo is the original tile which will also be replaced.
To that you can add that the tile work was older and worn around the edges.
That's the corner of the new stove.
Then the kitchen faucets started leaking, creating even more stains on the sink. We decided that the fault was with the faucet, rather than just a simple gasket replacement job, since the water leaked out under the hot water knob whether we had turned on the hot water or the cold! So we stopped at Home Depot on the way to Costco the next time we were in Celaya (the larger town about 40 - 45 km away). Found the faucet we had seen on their website, bought it, and took it home.
Eventually we called the maintenance company (still anticipating a huge bill) and asked them to install it. While waiting for them to stop by and give us an estimate, we decided to replace the sink, too. So we sent them off with a deposit to purchase the sink and needed materials for the installation. It turns out that the sink superstructure was composed of - what else? - cement. So the tiles around the old sink had to be chipped off, the cement leveled with hammer and chisel, then the new tile cemented (using real cement) into place.
Did I mention that the sink was about 1-1/2" short of the size of the hole in the counter top from the earlier sink? So decisions had to be made about spacing.
Lo and behold, they also discovered that the rim of the sink was sandwiched between the counter top tile and the backsplash tile on the wall and that to remove the sink, the tile fractured! So we had to add some new tile to the job. Couldn't find blue tile (just as well) so went with an off-white that was approximately the background color of the wall/back-splash tiles.
And it looked pretty neat installed around the sink (oh yes, as I mentioned, the new sink was a little less wide than the original, so they needed to fill in with extra tile and also replace the backsplash tile with the off-white tile. It was a pretty obvious difference, but it was also pretty obvious that it looked pretty nice!
So we worked up our gumption and asked what it would cost to re-tile the rest of the counters - and was pleasantly surprised to find it affordable! So in a couple of weeks (April the 6th, actually) the old tile will be removed and new tile installed (saving the expense of re-grouting the old counters to more closely match the new work around the sink.
Oh, and here's the new sink. The blue stripe at the bottom right-hand corner of the photo is the original tile which will also be replaced.
The new cross handles will make it simpler to turn the water on and off with soapy hands!
So we're going to have an almost brand new kitchen soon. We replaced the estufa (stove w/oven) recently. Next up - installing a recirculating hood over the new stove. It isn't often that there's cooking smoke in the kitchen, but when it occurs, it's awful! Filtering the air will be a good thing; maybe the cabinets won't get so sticky....
Eventually we'll have the light switches for the backyard lights moved inside the living/dining rooms so we don't have to stumble outside in the dark before switching on the lights. Hope to get that changed before visitors arrive later this year.
We'll post pictures of the completed kitchen once the work is done. At least we got some of the work done before our current lease expired. Should have a new one to sign this weekend!
Monday, March 23, 2015
Disney Cruise Line
Although this has nothing to do with San Miguel de Allende, word has it that it is likely that Disney Cruise Line will announce the rest of 2016's schedule tomorrow (Tuesday). We heard last week that it was imminent and Tuesday is the customary day, so maybe!
They open booking for Platinums and Golds on the day following their announcement - like we could figure out our lives over night! (It's been done, though.) First day fares are almost always the most reasonable - before they start going up overnight!
Anyway, we've a cruise scheduled in April '16, so we're not planning another until later in 2017 - which will not be announced until whenever the next announcement is made.
Not sure we'll be on board a ship when the schedule we're hoping for [Fall of 2917] is announced to take advantage of those onboard booking specials, but we can always book the cruise whenever the announcement is made and then re-shop it the next time we are aboard. First day prices and OBB specials, yeah!
But it's still exciting....
Tuesday Morning Update
Well, it's around 6:30 AM our time (which differs than the usual Central time thanks to the US's time keeping) and there's yet to be a big announcement. Probably too early - though perhaps the past is not a good indicator of what to expect re: the balance of 2016?
Later yet -- So there was some news out today, but the actual itineraries will be released tomorrow and Thursday, it seems. Some news was available today if you knew which URL to type in the correct field; links in their website didn't include the news.
We're pretty well set up as it is: the EBTA and Baltic cruises this year (early summer) are booked; as well as a Western Caribbean cruise that includes Falmouth, Jamaica next spring; and, we hope to schedule an East Bound Panama Canal cruise with a park at either end in late summer of 2017 if it's offered. That will bring us to twenty Disney cruises and we may hold it there a while so that we can do some destination intensive traveling. It's hard to do both without a larger bank account than we have in retirement.
They open booking for Platinums and Golds on the day following their announcement - like we could figure out our lives over night! (It's been done, though.) First day fares are almost always the most reasonable - before they start going up overnight!
Anyway, we've a cruise scheduled in April '16, so we're not planning another until later in 2017 - which will not be announced until whenever the next announcement is made.
Not sure we'll be on board a ship when the schedule we're hoping for [Fall of 2917] is announced to take advantage of those onboard booking specials, but we can always book the cruise whenever the announcement is made and then re-shop it the next time we are aboard. First day prices and OBB specials, yeah!
But it's still exciting....
Tuesday Morning Update
Well, it's around 6:30 AM our time (which differs than the usual Central time thanks to the US's time keeping) and there's yet to be a big announcement. Probably too early - though perhaps the past is not a good indicator of what to expect re: the balance of 2016?
Later yet -- So there was some news out today, but the actual itineraries will be released tomorrow and Thursday, it seems. Some news was available today if you knew which URL to type in the correct field; links in their website didn't include the news.
We're pretty well set up as it is: the EBTA and Baltic cruises this year (early summer) are booked; as well as a Western Caribbean cruise that includes Falmouth, Jamaica next spring; and, we hope to schedule an East Bound Panama Canal cruise with a park at either end in late summer of 2017 if it's offered. That will bring us to twenty Disney cruises and we may hold it there a while so that we can do some destination intensive traveling. It's hard to do both without a larger bank account than we have in retirement.
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Rain, Rain Go Away...
I know that our family and friends NOB have been suffering through worse weather this winter, but it hasn't been its usual 'warm and sunny' down here.
We have friends in Boston (Hi Wally & Pauli, and Kim), family in Washington, DC, lots of family in the northern peninsula of Michigan (where it always snows - just worse this year) and Kentucky, friends in Texas (snowy, too!), Santa Fe, rainy in the Silicon Valley and the great NorthWest who have been slogging through rain and snow this year.
Still, it's been unseasonably cold and wet here in our part of Mexico. I suppose the worse part is that it affects our homes since almost no one has central heating. Concrete and brick homes adjust to the outside temperature quickly. And once chilled, it takes a few days to warm up - if there aren't more rain and clouds in the meanwhile.
In January of the year we moved to San Miguel in the Spring, there was heavy rain (we were told it was unusual) that flooded homes near the stream that sometimes flows through town. Perhaps it was just because so much junk accumulates while it's dry and when the rains came the junk - and the water behind it - got stuck on the low side of town. I hear it was pretty nasty.
We had a slight repetition the next year when we were in town, though we were happy that we lived atop a hill in our little colonia of San Rafael, and not down by the stream bed.
We're nowhere near a stream now - once they finally fixed the storm drain at the bottom of our block - but there are others that run through town, mostly unnoticeable until the rains arrive.
And the dogs! Neither Miyake nor Fiyero particularly like the bad weather. They used to go outside and stand, ears flapping in the wind when we lived in Reseda. But now if there's wind - much less thunder and lightning - they head for cover. Maybe it's the way the windows and doors shake in the wind, I suspect.
Miyake heads for the master bedroom's bathroom and huddles up in a corner and shakes. Fiyero is a bit better, but during yesterday afternoon's thunder storm he was on the bed with me (I was reading, not sleeping) and got as close to me as possible (tried reading with a dog in your lap?). He did calm down when the storm passed and even Miyake was back to normal by dinner time. Unlike the day before yesterday when she wasn't calmed down enough to eat until nearly 8 pm.
Other than the rain last night - and its recurrence about 4 am this morning (it's just letting up now, around 7:30) - we're thinking that our gardener won't be working today - too wet! Maybe he'll find time for us during the week???
So we feel no less for our friends NOB who have had to put up with the terrific weather this past winter, but are feeling a little sorry for ourselves, too. What happened to 'Warm and Sunny' Mexico?
We have friends in Boston (Hi Wally & Pauli, and Kim), family in Washington, DC, lots of family in the northern peninsula of Michigan (where it always snows - just worse this year) and Kentucky, friends in Texas (snowy, too!), Santa Fe, rainy in the Silicon Valley and the great NorthWest who have been slogging through rain and snow this year.
Still, it's been unseasonably cold and wet here in our part of Mexico. I suppose the worse part is that it affects our homes since almost no one has central heating. Concrete and brick homes adjust to the outside temperature quickly. And once chilled, it takes a few days to warm up - if there aren't more rain and clouds in the meanwhile.
In January of the year we moved to San Miguel in the Spring, there was heavy rain (we were told it was unusual) that flooded homes near the stream that sometimes flows through town. Perhaps it was just because so much junk accumulates while it's dry and when the rains came the junk - and the water behind it - got stuck on the low side of town. I hear it was pretty nasty.
We had a slight repetition the next year when we were in town, though we were happy that we lived atop a hill in our little colonia of San Rafael, and not down by the stream bed.
We're nowhere near a stream now - once they finally fixed the storm drain at the bottom of our block - but there are others that run through town, mostly unnoticeable until the rains arrive.
And the dogs! Neither Miyake nor Fiyero particularly like the bad weather. They used to go outside and stand, ears flapping in the wind when we lived in Reseda. But now if there's wind - much less thunder and lightning - they head for cover. Maybe it's the way the windows and doors shake in the wind, I suspect.
Miyake heads for the master bedroom's bathroom and huddles up in a corner and shakes. Fiyero is a bit better, but during yesterday afternoon's thunder storm he was on the bed with me (I was reading, not sleeping) and got as close to me as possible (tried reading with a dog in your lap?). He did calm down when the storm passed and even Miyake was back to normal by dinner time. Unlike the day before yesterday when she wasn't calmed down enough to eat until nearly 8 pm.
Other than the rain last night - and its recurrence about 4 am this morning (it's just letting up now, around 7:30) - we're thinking that our gardener won't be working today - too wet! Maybe he'll find time for us during the week???
So we feel no less for our friends NOB who have had to put up with the terrific weather this past winter, but are feeling a little sorry for ourselves, too. What happened to 'Warm and Sunny' Mexico?
Monday, March 9, 2015
The Baltics
This little excursion began innocently enough: We'd never been to see the Norwegian fjords. Always wanted to go, but never got around to going. So when Disney scheduled a Norwegian Fjord cruise we signed up for it in May 2015. First Day pricing, yeah!
Then the question arose: How do we get to Denmark (the starting place for the Norwegian cruise). Why spend a bunch of money on plane tickets (flying places is quite handy, but usually annoying: seats are too close together, there a small (noisy) child nearby, they are out of the meal you really wanted, etc). So why not sign up for the East Bound Trans Atlantic cruise? [EBTA] We had a swell time on the West Bound Trans Atlantic [WBTA] a few years ago; why not reverse the direction? And, besides, we'd never been to New York City (except for an ill-fated military flight to Germany when my plane engine caught fire), Newfoundland, Canada, and we sure hadn't been to Iceland before! So it cost a little bit more - it would be worth it and it was 15 days long, many of them our favorite: sea days.
Then we looked at the calendar and wondered what we would do for the week between the EBTA and the Fjords.... Well, Disney had that figured out for us, too: why not sign up for the Northern European Capitals cruise during the intervening week? Why not, indeed!?! Copenhagen was reputed to be a lovely - though expensive - city; why not cruise to Tallin, Estonia; St. Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki, Finland; and Stockholm, Sweden plus a couple of sea days while waiting for the Norway cruise? We'd never been to these places and hadn't even heard of Tallin!
So that's how our extravaganza happened: EBTA/Northern Capitals/Norwegian Fjords. Twenty-nine days aboard the same ship! And our travel agent, Kim, managed to get us in the same cabin on all three cruises! Disney is pretty good about moving your stuff to different cabins for you, but you'd need to pack it up. This way we don't even need to do that! Our first B2B2B cruise was settled. [Back-to-back-to-back]
However, could we fly to Florida for embarkation without a stop at Walt Disney World? No!!! We always spend some time at WDW whenever we cruise from Port Canaveral. And we weren't returning to Orlando, so we booked a room at the Boardwalk Resort for five nights (arrival/four parks/departure). We even know which park we will visit each day and where we're eating lunch and dinner each day (ressies made). And EPCOT - our favorite park - is a short walk from the resort so we can always end the day watching IllumiNations!
Our friends, Sarah and Mum, heard of our planned travels and invited us to join them at Victoria's and Albert's at the Grand Floridian. How could we say 'No'? So we didn't! We've always wanted to dine there but getting a ressie is a chore. Luckily Sarah took care of that item. And there will be other friends (our travel agent Kim & her husband) at EPCOT the day we arrive, so we've made plans to 'run into each other' that day. It seems to be all planned out.
Then we easily booked flights from Mexico City to Orlando. Going in the other direction (east to west) was a bit more difficult. We finally settled on Iceland Air (it's supposed to be wonderful if you're on an actual Iceland Air plane; not so much if your flight is palmed off on a contract airline...we'll pray for an Iceland Air flight - it's a 7-1/2 hour flight across the Atlantic). We had friends from NYC (hi, Ben & Rick) who recently flew to Iceland and I think they must have been on the contract airline...it sounded dreadful.
But we finally settled on Iceland Air from Copenhagen to Chicago (O'Hare airport) via Iceland and Toronto. Then a stay over near O'Hare and continuing on the next day on Volaris Airlines (from Midway Airport, across town) to Mexico. This flight would deposit us at the Leon Airport, much closer to San Miguel de Allende. It's still an hour's ride from BJX to SMA, but better than three-and-a-half hours from MEX to SMA.
So everything is set! We studied the port excursions that Disney was offering, and signed up for a few additional independent tours [Segways forever!] - keeping in mind to avoid really steep climbing and using alternate forms of transportation (buses, boats, Segways, walking tours, et cetera). When the appropriate date arrived [we are Platinum on DCL, so everything was open] we booked our Disney port excursions and Palo dining reservations aboard ship. We had also booked our wine packages aboard the ship. What to do next?
We then turned our attention to packing. How do we pack for a total of 39 days in a variety of weathers? And what about formal nights, semi-formal nights, dining at Palo brunches and evenings? Plus warm Florida weather, North Atlantic weather, Baltic weather. Especially since we had jettisoned our cold weather duds when we moved to Mexico five years ago?
Solution: two big suitcases (yes, we had to pay for the extra one on some of the airlines; other lines expected us to bring two suitcases) and a spate of shopping at Orvis - bless them! I love their clothes, but they are a wee bit expensive, so we had to be careful on what we spent our money. We even got some new tux shirts! Now we're set, eh?
Then the phone rang - it was Iceland Air calling. It seems that the 3-leg flight from Copenhagen to Chicago via Reykjavik and Toronto had a little problem. Two legs [CPH/KEF (Reykjavik) and KEF/YYZ (Toronto)] were fine, but the third flight on Air Canada's schedule had been advanced and there was no way we would make the connection.
But the friendly Iceland Air agent had a plan: they would book us on the first Air Canada flight out of Toronto the next morning. Well, it was better than nothing, so we agreed. We then hurriedly booked a hotel in Toronto and cancelled our hotel in Chicago. The only hitch is that the first Air Canada flight the next morning is sub-contracted to United Airlines and there's a hitch in the get-a-long when changing flights like this - the receiving airline has 48 hours in which to accept us or decline to accept us. And the 48 hours is now well past and we haven't been advised of their decision. I did check the UA site and there are a lot of seats available, so there shouldn't be a problem (unless they decide to cancel the flight), but it would be nice to have our seats reserved. Guess I contact Iceland Air tomorrow....
Michael and I both like our space, so our usual approach is to book seats C/D in the same row, so we each have an aisle seat but can chat with each other easily across the aisle. I'm hoping that the seats assigned (!) follow this pattern, but if they don't, we still have time to change them -- assuming we can find out what they are and sign into the United reservation. Air Canada's website only shows that the flights in our itinerary needed to be changed to accommodate the new schedule, but I can't sign-in to the United website to verify the seats (and change them if needed). Now, it's a short flight (about 1-1/2 hours) so if they stick us next to each other that would be doable, but it's at the end of the trip and we'll probably be cranky by then!
Once this is settled, we have only to finalize our packing list (your should see the guest bedroom's bed), actually pack, and reserve the airport shuttle transportation between SMA/MEX and BJX/SMA Michael found a great hotel within the Mexico City airport terminal from which we are flying and reserved our room before the first flight, so we're set there. Since we don't leave home until May 9th, we still have time to work this out. The last time we went to Mexico City to fly out, we booked a combination (shuttle to the Queretero bus station and then a bus directly to the airport terminal) and since there was another couple on the shuttle who had paid for door-to-door service, we got to ride along! We'll probably try this again for this trip. If worse comes to worse, we'll get what we paid for. Otherwise, yippee!!!
We have suffered set-backs in other trips we've taken: I remember our flight to Barcelona for the WBTA. Although our flight arrived on time at Heathrow, we had to change terminals - and they weren't connected - and by the time we got through the new security, we'd missed our flight into BCN. Luckily there was one more flight that night which they put us on ('us' is a collective noun, as there were several of us in this predicament). And although we made it on the flight, it was also the last flight into the BCN airport. If we hadn't caught the last shuttle into town, we would have been stuck at the closed airport. As it was, there we were in downtown Barcelona, stumbling around dragging our luggage behind us, looking for our hotel. We finally found a tourist info kiosk which told us we were only three blocks from the hotel and pointed us in the right direction.
We really don't want to do that again!!!
Then the question arose: How do we get to Denmark (the starting place for the Norwegian cruise). Why spend a bunch of money on plane tickets (flying places is quite handy, but usually annoying: seats are too close together, there a small (noisy) child nearby, they are out of the meal you really wanted, etc). So why not sign up for the East Bound Trans Atlantic cruise? [EBTA] We had a swell time on the West Bound Trans Atlantic [WBTA] a few years ago; why not reverse the direction? And, besides, we'd never been to New York City (except for an ill-fated military flight to Germany when my plane engine caught fire), Newfoundland, Canada, and we sure hadn't been to Iceland before! So it cost a little bit more - it would be worth it and it was 15 days long, many of them our favorite: sea days.
Then we looked at the calendar and wondered what we would do for the week between the EBTA and the Fjords.... Well, Disney had that figured out for us, too: why not sign up for the Northern European Capitals cruise during the intervening week? Why not, indeed!?! Copenhagen was reputed to be a lovely - though expensive - city; why not cruise to Tallin, Estonia; St. Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki, Finland; and Stockholm, Sweden plus a couple of sea days while waiting for the Norway cruise? We'd never been to these places and hadn't even heard of Tallin!
So that's how our extravaganza happened: EBTA/Northern Capitals/Norwegian Fjords. Twenty-nine days aboard the same ship! And our travel agent, Kim, managed to get us in the same cabin on all three cruises! Disney is pretty good about moving your stuff to different cabins for you, but you'd need to pack it up. This way we don't even need to do that! Our first B2B2B cruise was settled. [Back-to-back-to-back]
However, could we fly to Florida for embarkation without a stop at Walt Disney World? No!!! We always spend some time at WDW whenever we cruise from Port Canaveral. And we weren't returning to Orlando, so we booked a room at the Boardwalk Resort for five nights (arrival/four parks/departure). We even know which park we will visit each day and where we're eating lunch and dinner each day (ressies made). And EPCOT - our favorite park - is a short walk from the resort so we can always end the day watching IllumiNations!
Our friends, Sarah and Mum, heard of our planned travels and invited us to join them at Victoria's and Albert's at the Grand Floridian. How could we say 'No'? So we didn't! We've always wanted to dine there but getting a ressie is a chore. Luckily Sarah took care of that item. And there will be other friends (our travel agent Kim & her husband) at EPCOT the day we arrive, so we've made plans to 'run into each other' that day. It seems to be all planned out.
Then we easily booked flights from Mexico City to Orlando. Going in the other direction (east to west) was a bit more difficult. We finally settled on Iceland Air (it's supposed to be wonderful if you're on an actual Iceland Air plane; not so much if your flight is palmed off on a contract airline...we'll pray for an Iceland Air flight - it's a 7-1/2 hour flight across the Atlantic). We had friends from NYC (hi, Ben & Rick) who recently flew to Iceland and I think they must have been on the contract airline...it sounded dreadful.
But we finally settled on Iceland Air from Copenhagen to Chicago (O'Hare airport) via Iceland and Toronto. Then a stay over near O'Hare and continuing on the next day on Volaris Airlines (from Midway Airport, across town) to Mexico. This flight would deposit us at the Leon Airport, much closer to San Miguel de Allende. It's still an hour's ride from BJX to SMA, but better than three-and-a-half hours from MEX to SMA.
So everything is set! We studied the port excursions that Disney was offering, and signed up for a few additional independent tours [Segways forever!] - keeping in mind to avoid really steep climbing and using alternate forms of transportation (buses, boats, Segways, walking tours, et cetera). When the appropriate date arrived [we are Platinum on DCL, so everything was open] we booked our Disney port excursions and Palo dining reservations aboard ship. We had also booked our wine packages aboard the ship. What to do next?
We then turned our attention to packing. How do we pack for a total of 39 days in a variety of weathers? And what about formal nights, semi-formal nights, dining at Palo brunches and evenings? Plus warm Florida weather, North Atlantic weather, Baltic weather. Especially since we had jettisoned our cold weather duds when we moved to Mexico five years ago?
Solution: two big suitcases (yes, we had to pay for the extra one on some of the airlines; other lines expected us to bring two suitcases) and a spate of shopping at Orvis - bless them! I love their clothes, but they are a wee bit expensive, so we had to be careful on what we spent our money. We even got some new tux shirts! Now we're set, eh?
Then the phone rang - it was Iceland Air calling. It seems that the 3-leg flight from Copenhagen to Chicago via Reykjavik and Toronto had a little problem. Two legs [CPH/KEF (Reykjavik) and KEF/YYZ (Toronto)] were fine, but the third flight on Air Canada's schedule had been advanced and there was no way we would make the connection.
But the friendly Iceland Air agent had a plan: they would book us on the first Air Canada flight out of Toronto the next morning. Well, it was better than nothing, so we agreed. We then hurriedly booked a hotel in Toronto and cancelled our hotel in Chicago. The only hitch is that the first Air Canada flight the next morning is sub-contracted to United Airlines and there's a hitch in the get-a-long when changing flights like this - the receiving airline has 48 hours in which to accept us or decline to accept us. And the 48 hours is now well past and we haven't been advised of their decision. I did check the UA site and there are a lot of seats available, so there shouldn't be a problem (unless they decide to cancel the flight), but it would be nice to have our seats reserved. Guess I contact Iceland Air tomorrow....
Michael and I both like our space, so our usual approach is to book seats C/D in the same row, so we each have an aisle seat but can chat with each other easily across the aisle. I'm hoping that the seats assigned (!) follow this pattern, but if they don't, we still have time to change them -- assuming we can find out what they are and sign into the United reservation. Air Canada's website only shows that the flights in our itinerary needed to be changed to accommodate the new schedule, but I can't sign-in to the United website to verify the seats (and change them if needed). Now, it's a short flight (about 1-1/2 hours) so if they stick us next to each other that would be doable, but it's at the end of the trip and we'll probably be cranky by then!
Once this is settled, we have only to finalize our packing list (your should see the guest bedroom's bed), actually pack, and reserve the airport shuttle transportation between SMA/MEX and BJX/SMA Michael found a great hotel within the Mexico City airport terminal from which we are flying and reserved our room before the first flight, so we're set there. Since we don't leave home until May 9th, we still have time to work this out. The last time we went to Mexico City to fly out, we booked a combination (shuttle to the Queretero bus station and then a bus directly to the airport terminal) and since there was another couple on the shuttle who had paid for door-to-door service, we got to ride along! We'll probably try this again for this trip. If worse comes to worse, we'll get what we paid for. Otherwise, yippee!!!
We have suffered set-backs in other trips we've taken: I remember our flight to Barcelona for the WBTA. Although our flight arrived on time at Heathrow, we had to change terminals - and they weren't connected - and by the time we got through the new security, we'd missed our flight into BCN. Luckily there was one more flight that night which they put us on ('us' is a collective noun, as there were several of us in this predicament). And although we made it on the flight, it was also the last flight into the BCN airport. If we hadn't caught the last shuttle into town, we would have been stuck at the closed airport. As it was, there we were in downtown Barcelona, stumbling around dragging our luggage behind us, looking for our hotel. We finally found a tourist info kiosk which told us we were only three blocks from the hotel and pointed us in the right direction.
We really don't want to do that again!!!
Thursday, February 19, 2015
New Water Meters
Yes, it's true -- our street now has new water meters! For the last 3 years we've lived with a buried meter. It was the old-fashioned kind with dials, not digits, so readings were approximated. It was also buried and we often though that the meter reader didn't bother to uncover it - just repeated the last month's reading.
Our meter was situated below the level of the sidewalk at the point where our sidewalk met our neighbor's sidewalk - a difference of a few inches as the street went uphill. The gap between these two sections of sidewalk was filled with dirt and the occasional plant life. As we didn't know how deep it was buried, we didn't even try to read it ourselves.
All this changed earlier this week when work crews swarmed the street, dug trenches, replaced the old meters with digital ones, and the holes were filled in, cemented, and a hinged lid was placed above the meter.
We still need to dig the dirt out of the finger-hole to lift the flexible lid, but I'm anxious to see what the meter looks like. Some houses had the meter installed in their outer walls, so we have a good idea of the style, but actually seeing it is best, don't you think?
I've heard others who had their meters replaced earlier in the year complaining that their readings were higher, but guessing at the reading does eventually catch up!
Our meter was situated below the level of the sidewalk at the point where our sidewalk met our neighbor's sidewalk - a difference of a few inches as the street went uphill. The gap between these two sections of sidewalk was filled with dirt and the occasional plant life. As we didn't know how deep it was buried, we didn't even try to read it ourselves.
All this changed earlier this week when work crews swarmed the street, dug trenches, replaced the old meters with digital ones, and the holes were filled in, cemented, and a hinged lid was placed above the meter.
We still need to dig the dirt out of the finger-hole to lift the flexible lid, but I'm anxious to see what the meter looks like. Some houses had the meter installed in their outer walls, so we have a good idea of the style, but actually seeing it is best, don't you think?
I've heard others who had their meters replaced earlier in the year complaining that their readings were higher, but guessing at the reading does eventually catch up!
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Vacations
Yes, vacations are still a part of our life! While we don't need vacations from retirement, traveling is still one of our favorite activities. So perhaps 'vacations' isn't the correct term, but we take them anyway!
We've just returned home from a combo 'vacation': three weeks on the beach in Cabo San Lucas with a direct flight to New Orleans for the beginning of Mardi Gras (actually pre-Mardi Gras, I guess it would be).
The weeks in Cabo were heavenly. Nothing much to do except laze on the beach, turn up for a chance to win an activity at the weekly timeshare owner/guest meeting, eat and drink - be it on the beach, in the restaurant, one of the pool swim-up bars, or in the penthouse. A rough life, to be sure!
My brother and his wife had invited us down to be guests in their little 3,000 square foot, beach front penthouse [how could we turn that down?] as they do each year. This year we were joined by my sister and her husband for one week and we had the penthouse to ourselves for most of the last week while my brother and SIL traveled back to the Midwest for an appointment. We left the day of their return (they have something like 9 or 10 weeks at the resort). Other guests were arriving later.
We 'earned' our keep by making meals that fit into my sister-in-law's dietary requirements (on most nights). This involved walking to and from the Super WalMart store for groceries most days - a healthy two-mile round trip. It was fun trying out new recipes and most were successful!
So we flew directly to New Orleans for a few days of more eating/drinking/parading in the early days of pre-Mardi Gras with a friend who was celebrating both her birthday and her official designation of cancer-free! Two wonderful reasons to celebrate!
This was our first visit to New Orleans, so it was a whirlwind tour of meals, bars, shops, and parades.
We got off to a late start flying out of Cabo when our plane was delayed because of deicing required in Chicago. That made us miss our connecting flight in Dallas-Fort Worth, so we arrived too late for dinner out. We did enjoyed the improved new terminal at the San Juan del Cabo airport - a vast improvement over the old one - even if it was still recovering from Hurricane Odile!
Once we made it to the hotel in the French Quarter, we crashed. It had been a really long day and the layovers/delays at SJD and DFW were exhausting, even without the flights.
After our included breakfast Friday morning, we met up with our friend and her sister and toddled off to the Cafe du Monde for beignets and cafe au lait with chicory. Of course we were sightseeing along the way, so it was a circuitous route, but we eventually found our way to the Cafe, found a table fairly easily (the place is huge and is full especially in the morning hours), and enjoyed our beignets. Never saw so much powdered sugar in my life! Lots of browsing afterwards in the shops nearby and along our return route to the hotel.
The days in New Orleans were a panoply of walking around town (many bus lines had been closed because of the various parades, the trolley line's southern route was out of commission, streets we wanted to cross were blocked by barricades for the parades), drinks (the hotel had two bars: Patrick's wine bar and the 21st Amendment and there were plenty of others on offer), and meals (Commander's Palace, Willie Mae's Scotch House, Cane Vino, and The Two Sisters come to mind). And - oh, yes - the shopping! More shops than you could shake a stick at and I think we stopped at most of them! We even found our way to a shop owned by friends of my sister w-a-a-y down on Magazine Street! [Magazine Street is alternately residential and business and the buses weren't running for most of that distance.]
Our return flight to Mexico was actually simpler than in the other direction because we didn't have to deal with late flights and customs/immigration during a short layover - it was at the end of the trip, so even getting a red light at customs wasn't a big deal! [And they got us sorted out at the New Orleans airport; their system didn't allow Michael to check-in on line.]
We know know why we don't usually fly American Airlines -- they fly MD80s which have very limited overhead space for all the carry-ons that flyers nowadays bring and they cram as many people onto the plane as possible. While our plane from DFW to BJX was brand new and gorgeous (a smart-phone type screen installed on the back of the seat in front of you that offered many options), it was still an uncomfortable flight - luckily a shorter one. Guess that's one way to up-sell people to more spacious seating or business/first class! I know if we fly them again, I'll certainly pick a premium seat or upgrade during check-in!
But we made it home safely and were delivered to our doorstep about midnight. Yesterday was laundry, pick-up packages at our service, et cetera. Today is back to normal. It's just like we never left....
We've just returned home from a combo 'vacation': three weeks on the beach in Cabo San Lucas with a direct flight to New Orleans for the beginning of Mardi Gras (actually pre-Mardi Gras, I guess it would be).
The weeks in Cabo were heavenly. Nothing much to do except laze on the beach, turn up for a chance to win an activity at the weekly timeshare owner/guest meeting, eat and drink - be it on the beach, in the restaurant, one of the pool swim-up bars, or in the penthouse. A rough life, to be sure!
My brother and his wife had invited us down to be guests in their little 3,000 square foot, beach front penthouse [how could we turn that down?] as they do each year. This year we were joined by my sister and her husband for one week and we had the penthouse to ourselves for most of the last week while my brother and SIL traveled back to the Midwest for an appointment. We left the day of their return (they have something like 9 or 10 weeks at the resort). Other guests were arriving later.
We 'earned' our keep by making meals that fit into my sister-in-law's dietary requirements (on most nights). This involved walking to and from the Super WalMart store for groceries most days - a healthy two-mile round trip. It was fun trying out new recipes and most were successful!
So we flew directly to New Orleans for a few days of more eating/drinking/parading in the early days of pre-Mardi Gras with a friend who was celebrating both her birthday and her official designation of cancer-free! Two wonderful reasons to celebrate!
This was our first visit to New Orleans, so it was a whirlwind tour of meals, bars, shops, and parades.
We got off to a late start flying out of Cabo when our plane was delayed because of deicing required in Chicago. That made us miss our connecting flight in Dallas-Fort Worth, so we arrived too late for dinner out. We did enjoyed the improved new terminal at the San Juan del Cabo airport - a vast improvement over the old one - even if it was still recovering from Hurricane Odile!
Once we made it to the hotel in the French Quarter, we crashed. It had been a really long day and the layovers/delays at SJD and DFW were exhausting, even without the flights.
After our included breakfast Friday morning, we met up with our friend and her sister and toddled off to the Cafe du Monde for beignets and cafe au lait with chicory. Of course we were sightseeing along the way, so it was a circuitous route, but we eventually found our way to the Cafe, found a table fairly easily (the place is huge and is full especially in the morning hours), and enjoyed our beignets. Never saw so much powdered sugar in my life! Lots of browsing afterwards in the shops nearby and along our return route to the hotel.
The days in New Orleans were a panoply of walking around town (many bus lines had been closed because of the various parades, the trolley line's southern route was out of commission, streets we wanted to cross were blocked by barricades for the parades), drinks (the hotel had two bars: Patrick's wine bar and the 21st Amendment and there were plenty of others on offer), and meals (Commander's Palace, Willie Mae's Scotch House, Cane Vino, and The Two Sisters come to mind). And - oh, yes - the shopping! More shops than you could shake a stick at and I think we stopped at most of them! We even found our way to a shop owned by friends of my sister w-a-a-y down on Magazine Street! [Magazine Street is alternately residential and business and the buses weren't running for most of that distance.]
Our return flight to Mexico was actually simpler than in the other direction because we didn't have to deal with late flights and customs/immigration during a short layover - it was at the end of the trip, so even getting a red light at customs wasn't a big deal! [And they got us sorted out at the New Orleans airport; their system didn't allow Michael to check-in on line.]
We know know why we don't usually fly American Airlines -- they fly MD80s which have very limited overhead space for all the carry-ons that flyers nowadays bring and they cram as many people onto the plane as possible. While our plane from DFW to BJX was brand new and gorgeous (a smart-phone type screen installed on the back of the seat in front of you that offered many options), it was still an uncomfortable flight - luckily a shorter one. Guess that's one way to up-sell people to more spacious seating or business/first class! I know if we fly them again, I'll certainly pick a premium seat or upgrade during check-in!
But we made it home safely and were delivered to our doorstep about midnight. Yesterday was laundry, pick-up packages at our service, et cetera. Today is back to normal. It's just like we never left....
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