We treated ourselves to a movie, the new Bourne Legacy. We have a Cinemex card that gives us a two for one deal on Tuesdays. So we pay 37 pesos for the two of us…about $3usd. Not a bad deal. Russ and Janet joined us and we did a little Mega shopping before heading back to the boats by bus.
Enjoying a banana split at Fuente
There was a new Starbucks opening in La Paz which was cause for celebration in our household. Russ and Janet joined us for an excursion to Home Depot/ Liverpool/ Wal-Mart to spend the morning. Starbucks is in the Liverpool Shopping Center and Rog was able to buy some more beans to get him through the month.
We managed to squeeze in one more Swap Meet before leaving for our “vacation” to California. I had gone through all of the lockers throughout the boat and separated our stash of “no longer need” items into piles of cost; 10 pesos, 20 pesos, 50 pesos, 100 pesos. We brought 3 large bagfuls over to Russ and Janet’s dock the night before the meet, then were able to cart it up the ramp the next morning. We made about $50 for the morning’s work and then took everything that was still left over to Marina La Paz to be donated to the local poor. We are now down to about 3 laundry basketfuls of hose and wire. Those went into the storage locker.
I took advantage of the nice calm days and started a major sewing project: replacing the dodger. We had it made in Grenada about 7 years ago and the zippers were pretty much dust, not to mention that it was hard to see through the discolored plastic. I used the old dodger as a pattern and spent about a week making the new one. Rog helped me get it on and off for the numerous fittings. I had studied all of the Sailmail videos about zippers and dodgers and I think the end project turned out pretty well. We put up the side curtains and I need one more zipper before I can finish the sides.
I started our next major project, chain galvanizing. Our chain is about 4 or 5 years old and, with the amount of anchoring out we do, it has been in need of galvanizing for a while. We heard of a place called Fetasa in Mexicali that galvanizes chain and got the info from some of the local cruisers. I emailed the guy up there at Fetasa and did not get a reply. One phone call fixed that and he was very helpful (and spoke English!!). Now to get it shipped up to them. Castores was a shipper that was recommended to us so I called and was connected to a guy who spoke English…barely. But it was better than my Spanish! We then communicated via email to firm up the dates and costs. Since we will be in a marina for a month, we are trying to get it picked up before we leave and have it delivered when we get back. With almost daily emails back and forth, he finally set a date to come and look at the container. He was 2 hours late for that rendezvous and I had to solicit help from Cindy at La Paz Yachts to call Castores to try to find him. He seemed to understand me and kept saying “no problem, no problem”.
Dock Party, Farewell for Rock N Roll
Meanwhile, Russ and Janet were ready to fly out of the cruising life. We treated them to an afternoon of entertainment, starting with lunch, then a movie, then dinner. Rock N Roll was hauled out onto the hard and they rented a car to get their 8 pieces of luggage down to Cabo Airport. We went out to dinner with them one last time and said a sad farewell. We will sure miss them, but sounds like they are all set for their new life on land. Online, they picked out a car that they had their family buy for them, then found a number of jobs that they applied for. They have about 5 job interviews set up for the end of the month. So, other than selling Rock N Roll, their cruising life is at an end.
Farewell good friends!
We pulled into Marina Cortez on the 15th and our chain was picked up on Wednesday morning. I made one more trip into Salvatierra to see the doc for my 2 month prescriptions, only to be told that they were out of Pravastatina, my cholesterol medicine. No problem since I have quite a backstock of it. We cleaned the boat up and prepared for a much needed trip to California. I had found a flight into Sacramento International from LAX same day as our trip up from Cabo, so we didn’t have to go into SF. We walked to the bus station from the marina, took the shuttle down to Cabo, then an Alaska flight up to LAX and finally, a Delta into SMF. Michelle picked us up at a little after 11pm and drove us to Rocklin. Our date with Max was the very next day since our trip this time was only 2 weeks. We took him to an art gallery in Roseville for an art project, then went to see The Croods at the Cinemax. We flew kites in the park, then had pizza for dinner before heading home.
The next weekend, I flew up to Seattle with Micki for a sister get-together. Laur and Peg met us at the airport and Laur drove us to Leavenworth where we spent the next 2 days. What a cute town, nested into a valley that is surrounded with snow peaked mountains. The locals turned it into a German village and it has become quite a tourist attraction, full of interesting shops and restaurants. Unfortunately, I came down with a full blown cold and suffered through the weekend. It was worth it to see my sisters and, luckily, none of them caught the cold from me. We saw every single shop (some more than once) and did our usual chocolate snack / ice cream dinner routine. Laur drove us back, dropping Peg off at Seattle Airport, me at the Portland Airport, and Micki at her son’s house in Portland for a quick overnight visit.
Back in Rocklin, we continued our visit with morning walks taking Max to school, trips to the library, playing catch with the football, evening walks, playing games, making every puzzle in the house, Frisbee, watching their garden grow, reading, and even got to see a movie once on Eric’s new TV. We managed to squeeze in some dinners with Ryan and Beth and trips to stores to pick up some needed items. The 2 weeks flew by and we ended it with a family BBQ with the Blooms and Ryan and Beth. I sure love to see the whole family together. A good way to end our vacation. We drove Ryan’s car to the airport early the next morning before anyone got up and left it in economy parking for him to pick up later in the day.
We made an easy connection at LAX and got into Cabo in time to catch the 3:30 shuttle and get back aboard NEOS by 7pm.
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