Saturday - March 3 - Today was another nice, sunny, warm day. Laundry called, I haven’t done any for a week so desperately needed to do it. I went to do that and John went out to get a couple of things he wanted to get.

While doing laundry I talked to Judy, a gal from Guelph, and they went to Newfoundland 2 years ago, so she gave me all kinds of hints and is going to write down some of the places they stayed, things they did, etc. so that will be real helpful as we plan on going there is year.

Other than that, it was a quiet day. Jim and Sonia came over this morning with questions about starting a blog, and we were telling them how we do tax returns, etc down here so hope we were helpful for them. John barbecued a boneless leg of lamb for dinner - wonderful!

Friday - March 2 - Today was our 45^th wedding anniversary, where does the time go. I told John he deserves a medal for putting up with me all these years. We decided that we had been out to eat enough this week so just stayed home and had a nice dinner and relaxed and reminisced. Thank you everyone for the cards, phone calls and e-mails with best wishes, we sure hope we have many more to enjoy!!

We just got an invitation to a 50^th anniversary party for a fellow I worked with, unfortunately it is in early April so we won’t be home but we hope that we also make the 50 year mark, quite an achievement.

Thursday - March 1 - Today was nice and sunny, but cool. We didn’t do a lot, just took it easy then we went to Janet and Dave’s for dinner and the evening. We had a great dinner and visit.

This afternoon we were talking to Jim, from the trailer behind us, and somehow it came up about blogs so I was telling him about mine and he was quite interested, so I showed him how I did it etc., maybe he will also start one. He is doing what I started out doing, keeping a daily diary then e-mailing it to his kids every couple of weeks so thought the blog sounded easier to do and then they can check it daily if they want.

Wednesday - February 28 - Today was very breezy and cool, I’m glad it was warm while we were away. We had a quiet day, went out for a bit this afternoon to get a couple of groceries, stamps, etc. but other than that we didn’t do a lot.

We have decided to stay here for another week so I went down and paid up till March 10^th but I think that for sure we will leave then. That’s it for today.

Mine at Ajo

Puerto Penasco Across the Bay

Shrimpers

View of Gulf of California From Our Balcony

Tuesday - February 27 - We enjoyed the breakfast again, then it was time to get our stuff down and ready to go on the bus. The local fishermen were there with their fresh catch, John and I bought some beautiful jumbo shrimp (we had some for dinner and they were delicious). There was also a lady selling asparagus for $1/bunch so we got some asparagus. The bus left about 10 and it was the same route home only on the way back Joe stopped in Ajo (pronounced Awho) so we could see where they had mined copper there. The mine was closed about 20 years ago but there is still this huge area where they mined, just a humongous hole in the ground! There is also a beautiful looking building sitting on the top of a hill which at one time was a hotel, then during the war it was turned into a hospital. It is now all closed up but Joe said that it is haunted - interesting.

Going through customs on the way back was a breeze and the fellow was very friendly - sure a difference from the ones at Algadones! We got home about 4 and all in all it was a fun trip and we hope to be able to do another one next year. We had great weather, cool in the morning but it warmed up nicely during the day and it was all sunshine until we got back today then it clouded over.

The one thing that really bothered us was the poverty there, the housing was indescribable, we wondered how anyone could live in some of the places. Also, because of the dirt roads and dry dusty landscape everything was totally dusty, even the leaves on the few trees were dust laden. It is so sad to see people having to live like that.

Monday - February 26 - Breakfast both days was included in the price and it was a great buffet, lots of fruit, sausage, pancakes, French toast etc. and wonderful omelets - very scrumptious. The bus left the hotel at 9:30 and Joe (the bus driver) took us to a shopping place which was very much like Algadones but at least the vendors there weren’t in your face like they are in Algadones. After that we stopped at a local artist’s place, he uses sea shells and his work is lovely, he has a large piece of his work at the Vatican, pieces at the Smithsonian Institute, etc. I think he made some good sales from the bus but we didn’t buy anything as we have no place to put it. From there we went on a tour of some very large million $ homes, what was interesting though was that although these homes were on the ocean and very expensive it was all dirt roads - I can’t imagine having that kind of a home on a dirt road. The dust there is incredible because only the main roads are paved so it would be a killer trying to keep a house there clean.

From there we went to the port area for lunch and more shopping, then returned to the hotel about 2. John and I went for a long walk along the beach, they are building all kinds of condos along the beach and there is also a large RV park which was part of our hotel complex. We walked through the park but weren’t very impressed, the sites were all dirt and close together. We also heard that it was very expensive and there was a 3 year waiting list to get into the park. We came back and sat on the balcony for a while just watching the ocean, the shrimp boats, the people on the beach etc. and watched the local vendors come in with all their wares to sell. They walked across a huge lot sand loaded down with their goodies and they started coming about 3:45, guess they knew happy hour on the patio was from 4 to 6. It would be a very hard walk in all the sand loaded down with their wares, we wondered if they actually sold very much.

We went down about 5 for happy hour then dinner and again had an early evening, all the fresh air and exercise is tiring!

Sunday - February 25 - We were ready to go at 8:15 a.m., an early start to the day. Most of the people were from our park but we stopped at Fry’s and picked up another 10 people from other parks, the bus was full with 56 passengers. We stopped at Gila (pronounced Hilla) Bend for lunch at Burger King (not my favourite) then went south from there to Mexico. We stopped at the border for liquor purchases and the washroom, then on to Puerto Penasco. Altogether it was about a 4-1/2 hour trip. We went right to the hotel and were given keys to our rooms and the rest of the day was ours to do what we wanted. We got together with 3 other couples from Alberta and spent happy hour and had dinner with them, all in all a good time. It was an early evening as everyone was beat and it seemed to be a long day.