Friday - February 29, 2008

Today was another beautiful day with sunny, warm temperatures. We had a very quiet day, nothing much happening this morning and this afternoon John went for his bike ride and I went for a nice swim.

After my swim I did the laundry then came home and it was time to make dinner. There was a real pretty sunset tonight – seems to be a lot of those in this part of the world and we really enjoy seeing them!



Tonight is TV and reading, as I say not a very exciting day but an enjoyable one; and so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Thursday - February 28, 2008

Wow, another nice day here in Yuma, I think the weather has finally changed for the better – certainly not what you can say for the weather in Ontario where they are experiencing record breaking cold temperatures. Sure hope it warms up for our return on the 1st of May!!

Today was a fairly quiet day, this afternoon we went to the market and picked up a couple of things, what a busy place it was, then went and got a few groceries.
When we got back I had a little nap then sat outside and read for a while – real exciting.

Tonight we talked to John’s brother, who had sent us an interesting DVD with lots of old family pictures on it, so a thank you was in order. We also talked to our son who is a hard person to get a hold of but we lucked out tonight and had a good chat with him also, then it was time to get dinner going. Tonight will be a quiet evening of TV or reading; and so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Wednesday - February 27, 2008

Today was another beautiful day, sunny and hot. Today was the park’s luncheon and fashion show so I had asked Janet to join me for it, the lunch was good – salad with lots of chunks of chicken, croissants and cookies. The fashion show was okay but most of the clothes were “old ladies clothes” – there was only one outfit that we liked that didn’t look like an old lady outfit, but it was a nice time all the same. After the lunch and show Janet and I went for a walk around the park, came back and visited for a while then she left and I got busy catching up on my blog.

I went for a nice swim about 4 and had the pool to myself which I really enjoy. I came back and John and I sat outside for a while and made a couple of phone calls, we talked to my mom and also to our friends Mike & Marg. By the time we got off the phone it was time to think about dinner – where does the day go!

And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Tuesday -February 26, 2008

Wow, are we lucky as today is another beautiful, warm, sunny day. This morning we had breakfast at the hotel, I had a Belgian Waffle and John had French Toast, which is something neither of us have had in ages and they were very good. Our luggage was to be ready for pick up from our rooms at 10, so everyone was ready to go by 10:15, and that is after some shopping had occurred. I bought a pretty white front zip hoody, haven’t had a hoody for years so decided something different was in order.


View of Pool and Pier from Our Hotel Room


Beach Cabanas

Joe took us a couple of miles down the road to a fishing village so we could buy shrimp to take home. Fox Studios have a location right beside the fishing village and the drive in from the highway is about 1 mile all along side a cement fence with broken bottles on the top – pretty! After we got our shrimp Joe had to back out the entire way as there was no place to turn the bus around – now there is one good bus driver!


Walking Up From the Beach at the Fishing Village

We took the same route home, through Tijuana and San Diego, fortunately there is a bus lane to go through customs so we didn’t have to wait in the huge car lineup. We had to take our luggage and anything we bought through customs but we all breezed through and were quickly on our way again. We stopped at the same plaza in Alpine for lunch (they must get some sort of deal there!), stopped at a rest area just before El Centro and arrived back at Desert Paradise about 5 p.m. We had left our truck at Jim & Sonia’s and were just ready to leave when Ida, who is across the road from them, came over and asked us all over to her place for a drink. We had a drink and visit and headed out arriving home about 6:30.

After unpacking we decided to cook a few shrimp for dinner so had shrimp and cheese and crackers. Tonight is catching up time and again I think it will be an early evening as we are both tired – how can you get so weary from doing nothing but sitting on a bus all day! And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Monday -February 25, 2008

Today is a bright, warm, sunny day – we are all happy to see the nice weather. We went to a little restaurant near the hotel for breakfast, the food was okay but the service was very slow.


Looking Out At the Surf From Our Room

We boarded the bus at 10:30 for our trip to La Bufadora, which is a natural oceanic formation in which water is forced into a tiny blowhole and spouts up into the air, sometimes as high as 100 feet; there are only 3 of these formations in the world. The height of the spout depends on the surf and today the surf is huge and there are small craft warnings out so La Bufadora should be good.

There are two roads in the Baja, there is a toll road from Tijuana to Ensenada and there is an alternate route through the mountains, we took the alternate route and what beautiful scenery, unfortunately I couldn’t get any pictures. At Ensenada we picked up the road to La Bufadora, altogether it was about 85 miles from our hotel and an interesting, pretty drive. At La Bufadora Joe parked the bus and then we had to walk about 1km to the overlook for the blowhole. Of course, being typical Mexico all the street vendors were out trying to sell their wares. It had been a long morning and everyone was looking for a restroom but guess what – the one at the outlook cost $0.50 to use and what a rip it was – one cubicle had the door lying on the floor and another one had no toilet seat – and we had to pay for this!!!!

La Bufadora was wonderful, it would shoot up about once a minute with one or two little spouts then a huge one. At one point there was a Mexican family on one of the lower lookouts and they got soaked by one of the spouts, a few from the bus got damp but fortunately no one from our bus got soaked. After seeing the spout we worked our way back through all the vendors and stopped at a restaurant for lunch then I stopped and bought a couple of postcards and John got a new hat for $5.


John & La Bufadora


La Bufadora

From there we took the scenic route to L.A. Cetto Winery where we had a tour of the winery then did some wine tasting, we tasted four wines, 2 white, 1 Champagne and a red – all quite good. John and I bought a bottle of red Zinfandel and a bottle of white Zinfandel, we didn’t taste the white but I really like it so we decided to try it as those who tasted it said it was very good. Joe then took us around the winery to an area where the owner entertains guests, there is a huge covered patio and a bull ring, all with a beautiful view of the vine yards and mountains in the background.


Lots of Wine!


Bull Ring with Vine Yards and Mountains in Background

We arrived back at the hotel about 6:30 after a very enjoyable day. Again Don & Gail asked the same group down for a drink then we walked uptown a couple of blocks to La Nesta for dinner. Joe had recommended this restaurant as being very good, and it was and also had beautiful décor. After having had both a large breakfast and lunch (at least by John and I’s standards) we weren’t starving so ended up ordering two seafood platters and sharing them with Jim & Sonia. Both platters had shrimp, calamari and a piece of fish but one was broiled and one fried so we just divided everything in four, the platters each came with soup and salad and the soup was bean so John had that and I had the salad, worked out perfectly. John & Jim also shared an appetizer of venison liver and onions – yuk!!

We arrived back at our room about 10:30, very ready for a good night’s sleep; and so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Sunday -February 24, 2008

We were off to an early start today, we had to be at Desert Paradise for 7:30 as the bus was leaving at 8 a.m. There was a bit of a different sunrise, not real bright but just slivers peaking over the top of the mountains.


Sunrise On Way to Desert Paradise

We got away on time but when we got about half way up the mountain range we had to cross in California it started raining and that lasted all the way to Rosarito Beach. We stopped for a break at Alpine, CA in the same plaza we had stopped at on the way home from the zoo in late January. John had left his hat at the restaurant that night but we didn’t go to the same restaurant today but John walked up just before we were ready to leave and the fellow was just opening the restaurant and lo and behold there was his hat in the lost and found – John was one happy camper.

We were originally scheduled to cross into Mexico at Tecate but for some reason they decided to go to Tijuana to cross and what a huge city that is with traffic all over the place. The lineup at customs for cars returning to California was about 4 lanes wide and over a mile long – a long, long wait from the looks of it!!

We arrived at the hotel about 1 p.m. but our rooms weren’t ready yet so they unloaded the luggage then off we went to Puerto Nuevo for some shopping – the same shops, goods etc. as at Algadones. It had stopped raining by then but the street was a sea of mud, everyone was walking very carefully as no one wanted to go sliding down!


Looking North Up the Pacific Ocean from Peurto Nuevo


Looking Out to the Ocean from Main Street of Puerto Nuevo

We arrived back at the Rosarito Beach Hotel about 3:30 and what a beautiful hotel it is, it was built in the 1920’s and the spacious wood-beamed lobby is decorated with the original murals, tiles and paintings from the 1920’s – absolutely gorgeous and the stained glass over the entrance door was to die for. Hollywood stars such as Orson Welles, Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth and other screen legends as well as several presidents of Mexico and foreign royalty have stayed at this hotel.

We have a lovely room with a gorgeous ocean view and also overlook the huge pool with swim up bar and a fishing pier. Unfortunately it is too cool to enjoy the pool and I am sure the ocean is quite cool and the surf is tremendous, but it is fascinating to watch the waves crashing in.


View of Ocean From Our Balcony

After unpacking we went to Don & Gail’s room for happy hour, there were 10 of us (so happens that we are all Canadians with 3 couples from either Calgary or Edmonton, one couple from Manitoba and then us from Ontario) and we had a great time and lots of laughs. We went to the main dining room in the hotel for dinner and the food was excellent and the margaritas cold.

After dinner we came back to our room and watched the end of the Academy Awards then it was lights out as we are beat; and so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.