April 19, 2010

What a whirlwind this weekend was!!

My kids and grandkids met us at Wilderness Park on Crimson Lake, a nice RV park just outside of Rocky Mountain House, AB. We had a wonderful weekend of camping, talking, laughing, playing and of course - eating. As seen in this picture:

(clockwise l to r: Rob, Tammy, Tristan, Myself, Farren, Melody, Kim)


The weather was great and our time together was too short, but none the less wonderful. Here are some pictures of us just 'having fun' and enjoying being together.

My daughter Tammy and her man Rob ( ain't love grand??)














my grandkids Tristan and Melody playing at the park

Michel swinging with Tristan

On Sunday we went to the Calgary Zoo. This was Melody's first time at this zoo (mine too I might add) and we all revelled in her excitement. She couldn't wait to see the monkeys.

Her favorite animals were the monkeys and 'puppies' (African Wild Dogs) - go figure??

Farren, Kim and Melody

April 15, 2010

Welcome to the world baby Emily!!

Meet Emily - the newest addition to the family. Michel's daughter Alisha and her husband Rob are the proud parents. She was born while we were in Mexico on March 14th, so we were anxious to get back home to meet her - and we must say she's adorable!!





Here is a picture of the very proud momma - Alisha




















And we mustn't forget the proud grandpa!!!




















And here is a nice shot of the new happy family!!




















While in Calgary we visited with Michel's sisters. In this picture are Pat and Lise's four younger boys. You will remember three of them from the Alaska Cruise. No picture of Lise and Pat cause the camera batteries died when we were relaxing in the hot tub.....

l to r: Daniel, Ryan, Michel, Shane and Tyler














And here is a shot of Michel's middle sister Suzanne and her husband Harry.

April 8, 2010

We're on our way home.
Should be crossing the Alberta border on Saturday (the day after tomorrow). Where do I begin, it's been so long since I've updated the blog. When we got back from Mexico we spent 4 days at Desert Pools and another week at Catalina Spa, in Desert Hot Springs. We did the usual thing - hanging out by the pool, into Palm Springs for dinner and (window) shopping..... We decided this year we would go home a different route. We want to go to Alberta to meet and greet the newest addition to the family - Michel's new granddaughter, born March 14th (more about her in the next blog) ..... So along the way we thought we would do the 'tourist' thing again.... you know... Grand Canyon, etc, etc.... So we went to Phoenix and headed north.

We spent a night (April 1st) at Camp Verde, just to regroup and plan our route of attack.. We left Camp Verde April 2nd, detoured through the Painted Desert National Park and ended up in Cameron, Az for the night.

April 3rd - Michel's Brithday - we unhooked the car (left the rig in town) and drove up to the Grand Canyon and spent the day. Had his b'day lunch at a Pizza Pub... All is good!! But we could have chosen a better time of year to be there... Easter Weekend - there were millions of people, and half were kids.....breathtaking!!

a picture of us with the Grand Canyon in the background

April 4th - Page, Az. Took a 5 1/2 hour leisurely boat ride and audio tour and explored the remarkable canyons on Powell Lake. Included in that was a unforgettable visit to Rainbow Bridge National Monument. There we docked the boat and we hiked up to the site.

(this picture is the walkway from the boat)

This is the Rainbow Bridge - - - -

The white line on these rocks is the high water mark - this happened in 1988

We spent another day in Page and visited the area. Hiked up to Horseshoe Canyon Bend. It was a nice hike (about 1 1/4 miles return), but the wind was horrendous. .

Because of the wind we chose not to do a lot more hiking, but we did check out the Glen Canyon Dam

March 15, 2010

Today (Monday) we left San Felipe.

We weren't in a big hurry to leave so we got away at 9:30 a.m.

We stopped when we got to Mexicalli and took a picture of this little store. We've gone past this store twice each year (on our way down and on our way back) but never thought to stop for a picture. Well, maybe it's because I've been painting - we take pictures of EVERYTHING!!! Thought you'd all get a kick out of it. I'll bet they sell beer?????

We arrived at the border at 1 0'clock. It took us 2 hours and 45 minutes to clear the border. The line up was LONG!!! We should have known better. Every man and his dog was going home from the Baja 250!! Oh well, we didn't have anywhere to go anyway. We just dry camped at the WalMart in ElCentro for the night, did some shopping - put some American food in our fridge!!

March 12, 2010

We went to the 'Parade of Cars' on the Melacon this morning. We just walked around, did a little souvenier shopping and looked at the entries for the Baja 250 to be held the next day (Saturday). This is a picture of the Melecon - busy place!!!



This is a picture of one of the other entries.











There was only one Canadian entry. In the 4-wheel large truck division. A young man (Mike) from Edmonton. Don't know where he finished in the race. This was his truck.

March 5, 2010

Went south to Puertocitos, about 75 km from San Felipe, to sit in the natural not springs. We had a good day, packed a small lunch and a couple of cervezas. We got there with enough time to enjoy the hot springs before the tides began to come in. Once the tides come in they get too cold and you have to wait until the tides go back out in order to get back in.

In the 1st picture is the group we went down with: starting in back: Margie, Ellie, Bill, Dalton, Ruellie, Albert and Michel….

















The 2nd picture is taken from the opposite end of the pool. You can see the steam coming off the top pool. It was too hot to go in, and we had to wait until the tide came in to cool it off enough….

February 27, 2010

Today was Rich and Tina’s last day in San Felipe. So we went out for a ‘good bye’ dinner and a little partying….We were originally going to leave with them, but Michel wanted to stay another couple of weeks to enjoy the ocean and do a little more sailing. We’ll meet up with them in a few weeks.
In this picture Michel dancing with Deb

In this picture: front to back: Rich & Tina, Michel and Myself, Deb and Wayne