In order to get away from the heat and boredom of the marina, we rented a car for a day and went to the other side of the Baja to Todos Santos. It is a lovely little town but is also very hot. The car was air conditioned so we enjoyed that. This is a typical little store in that town…a perfect one for me to paint!
The cacti all seem to bloom at different times. This one was in Todos Santos and was just beautiful. Some have very large flowers, for their size, and all are colourful and beautiful.
From the photo, this looks large. But, in reality, it was just a tiny plant.
Most of the Baja is so brown, but if you look hard you can find some of the most vibrant colours in nature.
We went out on a little hike to the beach. All the waterfront seemed to be private, or at least block off most of the access.
After scrambling over the rocks, we did manage to get there.
While in Costa Baja, John Semon was in touch with Endeavour and us. He said he was going to have a Tequila party, at his home in San Luis Obispo, and invited us all to come. Well, I'm sure he never really expected us to do that!!!
But, several weeks after Todos Santos, we were fed up with being in this hot marina. So, after several Margaritas (stay away from those things!!), and in a moment of weakness, we (along with Kim and Linda on Endeavour) decided to say yes to the offer. John and Kay Semon own Semonship is the boat we towed a few months back. They offered to put us all up so who were we to refuse such an offer? After all, they needed some real experienced drinkers…er Tequila tasters! We had a great visit and toured SLO as well as drinking Tequila. This is the group (Kim, Kay, Linda, John, Cheryl, Ralph) at a winery…see we did do other things beside drink tequila!
This is Kay and Linda in Gumball Alley. It sounds much nicer than it really is!! It is just this walk-through were someone (in their wisdom) stuck up some gum and it caught on…so to speak!! Now, both walls are entirely covered with chewed gum of various sizes and colours. Some just stuck, some “creative endeavours”, some just words…all of it quite disgusting!!
Another shot…imagine having someone write, “Mike loves Bonnie” in wads of gum. Must have used a ladder to get up that high too!
In SL Obispo they have sidewalk drawing on a regular basis. We could not believe how beautiful many of them were. All that work only to be washed off in a couple of days.
So, since we weren’t already spending enough cash just going to SLO, and since we had to land and take off from LA, we decided to head for Disneyland for a day. As always, we had a great time…although it doesn’t look like I am in this picture. It was Linda’s first visit of Disneyland. Amazingly, it poured for some of the time. We were not prepared for rain at all. We all bought Mickey capes…handy for the boat anyway, I guess.
This is Ralph and I and some old Lego Man (Ralph is on the left)…Ha, ha…he’ll kill me for that one! Amazing what you can make from $6,000,000 worth of Lego!
Linda found a new date as well!
At the end of the day, we headed for the Disney parade…just a wonderful show. Unfortunately, none of the exhibits in the parade would hold still enough for a photo…but you get the picture!
Back at Costa Baja, we had some excitement this week. It was the official inauguration of the marina complex. The president of Mexico, Vicente Fox came to open it officially. These are some of our cruising buddies. They clean up well, don't they?
The entertainment, food, and drinks were all supplied! What more could you ask for?
This is as close as we thought we’d get to the President. As you can see, Ralph has not shrunk from all the time spent in the water here in Mexico!
This is the best shot we have of him, there in the centre of the pack.
That is President Fox in the center of the group. It gives you a better idea how close we actually got. However, we got even closer than that! That’s me and my fellow cruisers, Joanie and Marilyn, waiting to shake hands and say a few words to the President.
This shot…smiling faces, is after we’d had our day in the sun! We got to shake hands with President Fox and have a short chat. Just amazing, to us, coming from the land of security. People were all around him…every bodyguard’s nightmare, I would think! It was really quite an experience!
This is a group shot of all the Bluewater Cruisers who were present in the Marina at that time. It’s not often we are this dressed up…or even this dressed, for that matter!
With boredom setting in, Shelly Ward (Eros) kindly had a birthday so that we could plan a surprise party.
And, she really was surprised! Here she is with husband Jodie.
She was quite a wild pinata smacker!! Got Ralph a couple of times, I believe.
