September, 2011
We spent the beginning of September continuing to enjoy our visit in California. We spent Labor Day with Ryan and Beth. In the afternoon, we headed to the local bowling alley, Strikes, and Rog trounced all of us. I was able to tie for last place the first game but held fourth place all by myself in the second game.
Then we had dinner together in the adjoining restaurant. Back at their place, we finished the day off with a great game of 64. I don’t think Beth will play cards with us again. We were unmerciful…and lucky! On Tuesday, we picked Max up after school at 11:30 for our date. We went to lunch at Brookfield’s, then drove to Rancho Cordova and spent the afternoon at the new Children’s Museum.
Max had a ball in each of the areas; Waterways, World Market, Raceways, Art Studio and My Neighborhood. We stopped for ice cream on the way home and got back about 4pm. On Thursday, we met for lunch at BJ’s with Phil and Lynda Adamson. It was so good to see them again and we urged them to come down to the Sea for a mini vacation. Hope to see them and the kids in December when we come back. As usual, the 3 weeks went by way too quickly and it was time to head home. We were able to get a great deal on a rental car through Budget and picked it up on Friday at the Sacramento Airport when we picked up Peg for a last minute visit. Peg and I stopped in to see Micki at Pottery World and had a nice relaxing day with Michelle, Rog and kids. Rog and I got up at 3am on Saturday morning and headed to SFO. There were no glitches until we hit LAX and the Horizon plane needed some maintenance so we lost 4 hours waiting for a replacement plane. But that meant that we arrived back at La Paz in the evening, after the afternoon heat was finished. We paid $40 for a taxi back to the marina and crashed.
The rest of the month was spent cleaning and doing the small projects on the list. When we are in a marina with dock water and power, it is time for our version of spring cleaning. EVERYthing gets cleaned and washed. Every sheet, every curtain, every cupboard. It took every bit of the remaining days in September. But it is done now and it looks great.
We did take a few days off to head into town. The marina provides a shuttle that leaves every hour. Twice a day it makes a run into Soriana, a large mall with a grocery store. So with weekly trips in for shopping, a couple of trips to a doctor for our annual physical (and lab tests and diagnostics), we got a break from cleaning.
We even went in for the big parade on September 16, Mexican Independence Day (or maybe they were celebrating Michelle and Eric’s anniversary!!). It was a hometown parade. Every student marched with their school…and there must have been 50 schools from preschool all of the way up through career universities. Then the military with tanks, a flyover, and what might pass for a band. Then the horses and finally, Baja 4WDs. It lasted over an hour in the blazing sun. So we had our required ice cream and then headed home.
Summer in La Paz is delightful. We had two overcast mornings, beautiful sunny days and absolutely no rain which meant no lightning. There was usually a nice afternoon breeze but Costa Baja blocks all high winds. We would do our chores in the mornings, have lunch and then head over to the marina’s crew lounge. The crew lounge is air conditioned and has a TV, internet, couches and a table for playing cards. We would relax in the lounge, take showers and then head back to the boat about 6pm. With shore power, we were able to enjoy smoothies every evening as we watched our evening show. Then we would sleep out in the helm area, sometimes serenaded with construction equipment on the hill adjacent to the marina. But it was worth it to have the cooler air and earplugs blocked out the noise. Occasionally, the local bars would have parties or live bands but to be honest, the music was pretty nice.
So our September in Costa Baja slipped by. We will wait out the rest of the hurricane season here and then head back out into the Sea.
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