February 26, 2007

I can hardly believe our time in San Felipe is almost over. Our plan is to start heading home on March 4th or 5th . The weather here is beginning to get really nice and warm. The wind usually picks up by afternoon, but it’s very nice in the sun. The Hobie Cats are beginning to arrive. There is a Regatta here on March 1st to 4th and we’ll have front row seats for that as they’ll be racing in the bay right in front of our campo. Michel is very excited about that.


February 14th
On Valentines Day our Campo had a ‘pot luck’ party, margaritas and beer supplied by Maggie and Patti, managers of the park.
We’ve found a few people in the park who enjoy watching “Survivor”, so Gene (single elderly gentleman in the park) brings out his TV (he has a satelite) and we provide the food (fish fry one time, hot dogs another) and we have Happy Hour and watch Survivor. Don’t know what we’ll do when we’re back on the road????

February 15th
We went Clam Digging this morning. Didn’t get very many clams, but it was a 1st time experience for Michel. Actually - the guys did the digging - the gals just sat out and watched (supervised) and chatted.








March 16th - Mardi Gras started today.
We went to the Melecon in the evening for the “Burning of the Bad Humor” Celebration. What a deal that is. Here is a picture of the Bad Humor Dude hanging from the truck. All around him are fire crackers, and after a lengthy story (which was in Spanish and I didn‘t understand a word) they lit the fire crackers. They were popping and shooting out everywhere. As you can see the crowd stands just below. We were sitting up in a balcony - a safer place to be in my opinion. And that’s not all - after the fire crackers sizzled out they blew up the Bad Humor dude. Kaboom!!! Pieces of him flying all over the place……. After all this noise - they began with the entertainment. Now that was awesome. There were singers and dancers in the most elaborate costumes. And of course all the dances and songs tell stories, I wish I understood. But it was wonderful to watch.

February 13, 2007

I had some good news from back home (Grimshaw) last week - I’m going to be a grandma for the 2nd time!! Yup - Farren is going to be a daddy - and Khrystal is going to be a mommy!!! Their baby is due September 17th. All is well I am told, so I look forward to spending some time in Grimshaw in September!!


The two young men with the sailboat got back to San Felipe on February 3rd. They didn’t sail past Puertocitos - no wind - no sailing. But they did put the boat in the water here, and they took us sailing on the one and only windy day (February 5th) that we had for the week that they were here. But we enjoyed having these boys around. They were like a “breath of fresh air” and it was like having the ‘kids’ around again.

We did a little more off-roadin’ again, with Vi & Don and Joe and Lindsay. Took the buggies to the fossil field this time. This field used to be an ocean bed 6 million years ago. There were millions of fossilized clams and oysters and spirals. Also looked at the ‘condos’ in the desert. These caves were inhabited by the Mexicans 1000 or so years ago.

January 31, 2006

Today we took a little drive south (with the car), about 50 miles, to Puertecitos. There was a group leaving from San Felipe at 7:00 a.m., but we drove out on our own about 7:30 and met up with them at the end. Puertecitos is the ‘end of the road’ so to speak. From here the road is a washboard, dirt ‘trail’ that will take you to Gonzaga. It is recommended that only high clearance vehicles travel on this road. From Gonzaga the ’road’ would take you inland and over to the Pacific side of the penninsula to Guerrero Negro.

Puertecitos is a small fishing village (more like a ghost town) that is known for it’s hot springs along the gulf. Here is a picture of some of the group sitting in one of the tide pools. There are four pools and we just kept moving up as the tide was coming in, because of course, when the ocean water comes in it is mighty cold!! Then everyone waited until the tide went out, and worked their way back down. It was a full day event.


We, however, met up with two young guys from Wyoming who were sailing a 16’ Catamaran from San Felipe to Gonzaga. They were camped in Puertecitos on the beach, and they took us sailing. Michel was in his glory. And I have to admit, it was fun! Here is a picture of the sailboat on the beach.









Now take a look at this picture. It’s a restaurant. Mmmmm, Cowpatty, now isn’t that an appetizing name????? I wonder what’s on the menu.

January 30, 2007

Well, what can I say this time? We truly have done a lot of nothing lately. The weather here has been unusually cold and windy, so we haven’t been up to very much. Michel has an old computer game that he’s really gotten into. Indiana Jones. It keeps him busy. We both enjoy sudoku puzzles and reading, so we’ve occupied ourselves with these activities. We’ve met people who we’ve been hangin’ out with too. Happy Hour - you know.

And we still enjoy an outing or two during the week to Fandangos - usually Wednesday for Music Bingo then on Thursday to listen to Buzz.

We did venture out to Playa de oro, which is north about 4 km from downtown San Felipe, to listen to the Sons of the Beaches - - Fred (the drummer) is from Penticton; and Denny (the singer and keyboarder) lives here, but used to play with the Bee Gees. They are very good.

We’ve been on two more buggy trips since my last update. On Sunday we took a little buggy out for a test run. We took it along the beach. Here is a picture of the buggy Michel and I played in, and one of the beach we were driving on.

This one is of the Eldorado Ranch. This is where the majority of the construction is happening. It’s amazing! Last year we stayed in their RV park in this spot, but this year it’s grown up too much - they don’t have an RV park anymore. Had to make room for condos.

We went to a Dinner Theatre a week of so back. It was quite enjoyable. It was called “Cooking With Gus” and was performed by four people. We had a good laugh - oh and a good dinner too.
We also took in the Taste of San Felipe. There were 20 or so restaurants who took part, and we just walked up the street and ate for TWO HOURS!!! There was a great turnout - and we ate far too much.

January 9, 2007

We’ve had quite a few windy days. Usually the sun still shines pretty nice, but the winds on a few days were such that we just stayed in. Sand blowing all over the place. But today it was hot and beautiful.

We took a little tour of the desert today. We went with new friends from Florida, Joe and Lindsay who own a big purple rail and a big house; Ken, our tae-kwon-doe friend we met last year, and his jeep and then there was us in our little Tracker. I can see why people buy those buggies, they go like light through the desert, through the sand and over the bumps. We did too, but a little slower. Maybe that’s a good thing?




This picture on the left is a little desert scenery. You don’t have to look too far to find a burned out vehicle in the desert.




We met a couple, Don and Vi Benson, from Edmonton who have a winter home here. He builds these dune buggies, 3 per year while he‘s here. We spend quite a bit of time with them and Michel enjoys helping him out in his huge mechanical shop. Apparently he has an identical shop at home. Anyway, next time in the desert we’ll be going with him and using one of his buggies. I’ll let you know what that is like.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year

We hope everyone had a wonderfully blessed Christmas and we wish only good things for you in the new year.

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve written, I think I might have lost some of the momentum. So where do I begin. We had a wonderful Christmas. On Christmas Eve we attended a non-denominational church service. It was a candlelight service and it was beautiful. No pictures of it - you’ll have to take our word for it….

On Christmas Day we attended a ‘pot luck’ dinner at our favorite bar “Fandangos”. There was turkey, beef, all kinds of salads and lots of scallop potatoes. It wasn’t your traditional Christmas Dinner but we ate lots and enjoyed the company. This picture was taken by Victor, the owner of the establishment. We enjoyed the company of Buzz and Heather Byers, who hail from Penticton. He plays a mean steel guitar and sings, and entertains once a week at Fandangos.

On Boxing Day we ventured across the border into El Centro, US for a little shopping at Costco. It was an early morning and a long day, but we managed to call home and talk to Michel’s mom and dad and to my kids. All is well - both here and there!!!

On New Years Eve we were back at Fandangos - you’d think we lived there!! Well, almost. Buzz was the entertainment and the owners brought out the champagne at midnight and thenfireworks afterwards. They do like their fireworks here!!

It was a quiet evening, nowhere near as many people as expected, but it was fun.

December 21, 2006

Merry Christmas from our home to yours

As I write this letter, there are only a few days until Christmas. We wish you all a blessed Christmas filled with love and happiness. I’d say we wish you were all here with us, but we’d never all fit in the motorhome. In our hearts you are with us.

The temperatures here have been cooler than normal with north winds that make for ‘pants and long sleeves’ kind of weather. We’re not complaining though, we don’t have snow!

We’ve been pretty lazy these past weeks. We’ve done a lot of reading and have really gotten into those crazy Sudoku puzzles. They can really drive you crazy!

We’ve met a few couples that we’ve enjoyed visiting with. It’s amazing how small this world really is. We’re always meeting people who know people we know, or who are from down the street where we live now or used to live. We met a couple from Edmonton last Sunday who live just blocks away from where I grew up in Jasper Place. Their kids went to JP Comp High – next door to the school I went to. The one daughter, who is my age, now lives with her husband in Westbank - just down the road from where we stayed last year. We’re looking forward to meeting them – they’ll be in San Felipe in February.

I put up all my Christmas decorations last Sunday. We have a small tree (artificial of course) and I’ve got lights and garland across the front. It looks good, but it does seem weird with palm trees and ocean as a backdrop.

We caught the last episode of Survivor last Sunday. We went to Fandangos, the little bar up the street. We were the only ones in the bar and they would have normally closed at 8 on Sunday, but stayed open so we could watch. We were both pulling for Ozzie, but Yul is a good second.

Christmas Eve there’s a non-denominational candle light service at the Mission church, and we’re going to go. On Christmas Day, Fandangos hosts a “pot luck” supper and many of the snowbirds flock down there for good food and good company. We’ve been told that it’s a great time, so we’ll likely try that out. They are also ‘puttin on the ritz’ for New Years Eve. So we do have some plans. We’ll keep you posted.