Walking The Beach At Sunrise

It was cloudy this morning - almost a welcome relief from the hot sun!  Also makes for some amazing photos!

Breakfast was wonderful - $5.00 a plate with about 10 choices - and awesome strawberry banana smoothies - a great way to start the day!

We needed some ice for bait and fish and whatever so we stopped at the ice place - the guys had been there before but I hadn't - and I was amazed at this contraption that crushed the ice.  The owner just picks up a huge block of ice and sticks it in this machine.

And you just put your ice chest under the spout and out comes crushed ice!  Now mind you, this is NOT ice you drink with - just ice to cool things down with!

We had a relaxing day at the house - the guys fished - we snorkeled (with no jellyfish around!) - we read books on the patio and enjoyed watching the waves!  A perfect day!

Glenn cooked fish again for dinner and Cindy and I did all the trimmings - and after clean up, we decided we needed dessert!  Dang, the ice cream place was closed so we went to the Bay View and sure enough they had dessert -  Cindy and Glenn had ice cream Rene' had flan and I had the chocolate cake - displayed Mexico style of course!!

A great ending to another perfect day in paradise!

Fun Fun Fun

The early morning sounds of Mexico - dogs barking, roosters crowing, waves lapping at the sandy beach!  Yes, I got up early enough to catch the sunrise and it was gorgeous!

My morning routine begins with a walk on the beach - and one never knows what you're going to see!  This morning it was donkeys on the beach, right below our house!

And later that morning I heard a bunch of dogs barking like crazy and then a cow mooing!!  Sure enough, here comes a cow charging down the beach with dogs nipping at the poor cows' hooves!  That was a little strange!

Below are some of pics of the house we're staying in

I love Mexico bathrooms!  They're always huge and tiled with big enough showers for several people - this one was no exception!

The house does have air conditioning which is a plus as it's pretty warm outside!  We run the air in the bedrooms most of the night.

But usually there's a nice breeze coming off the ocean through these sliding glass screened doors so that makes it nice!

Cindy and I took the kayak out today and it was so much fun - the water was pretty calm in the ocean and we did well rowing together! 

Late morning we headed to a beach up by Punta Pescadora - we followed the highway through and around a mountain with switchbacks even - felt like I was back in Colorado!  But once we came down the mountain, we were back by the ocean and we stopped by a beautiful spot for the guys to fish and Cindy and I to snorkel.

Unfortunately later on, Cindy got stung by a jellyfish - it was very painful for her and she dropped her snorkeling gear in the ocean and we never did find it - course nobody wanted to go back in after she got stung!

Rene' was being silly - here's the only fish he caught that day - ha h!

Relaxation was in order after we stopped and got some yummy tacos!!  That evening we headed out for dinner and had MANGO margaritas with our meal - yum yum!  And then ice cream next door - it was delicious!

It was another great day in Mexico!

Relaxation At Its Best!

This is a picture of our home for the week - Casa Dina.  The red gate to the left is where we access the beach.  I slept in on Monday till 6:45 so missed the sunrise!  But it sure felt good to sleep in!

Cindy and I fixed ourselves some eggs and toast and then headed down for coffee and pastries to go - but we were too late for most of the pastries................the coffee was excellent though!!  We stopped to take a quick picture of the cute welcome display!

Our casa is kind of on the higher part of town and then it drops down into the actual town - so the views at the top of the hill are beautiful!

Yes, even Los Barriles has cell phone towers disguised as trees!

Because the water looked pretty calm, Cindy and I decided to go snorkeling down by the rocks - the water was nice and warm and we saw lots of beautiful fish - it always takes me a while to get used to the snorkeling equipment and the suntan lotion in the eyes burning away but I soon got over it and really enjoyed seeing all the fish!

After leftovers from the night before for lunch, we spent most of the afternoon on the deck, reading and relaxing - the view from our patio!

Meanwhile the guys went out fishing with a guide - I wasn't up when they left so borrowed Cindy's picture - they were pretty excited about going out as they hadn't caught much from the kayak and the shore!

They were all smiles when they got back - 2 decent sized dorado were caught - Glenn didn't have a camera with him so no pictures of the fish!

Happy Hour was spent on the patio with guacamole and chips and yummy drinks!!!!!!!!

The guys cooked us dinner - the grilled fish was delicious!

We feasted on lots of fresh fish and completed the evening by showing Cindy and Rene my 60th Birthday DVD that the girls had given me for my birthday - lots of laughs there!!

Paradise Sunday

 A sunrise over the ocean is always unique and beautiful - Sunday morning was no exception!

 Plans for the day?  Nothing but solid relaxation!  Something all 4 of us were craving!  After a delicious breakfast at the Roadrunner Bakery (which even had speciality coffee - I was in heaven!) we grabbed our books and sunscreen and headed to the beautiful patio where we spent the morning!  But we didn't get much reading done as it's tough to read when you can look at that beautiful view!!

 

 The guys fished - Glenn tried out the kayak for fishing and decided the larger, 2 seater one worked great but the single one was a little tough for Rene' to handle while fishing!  They had fun while Cindy and I caught up on kids and grandkids!

This is the hillside above our casa!

 We all forgot what Glenn looked like with hair so decided to try a toupee made of coconut husks - not a great look we decided!

 Here's the fisherman ready to head out in the kayak for a late afternoon shot of fishing!

 Cindy and I did some swimming - the water was warm!   And of course lots of reading...............

 Dinner that night was at The Bay View, a beautiful outdoor restaurant. The shrimp scampi was delicious and way too much to eat so it was brought home for lunch the next day!

The outside had beautifully sculptured bushes which were hard to capture with the lighting but this one came out great!

 Because it was dusk, the water in the background didn't show up as it was the same color as the sky - but it was fun to sit outside and watch the boats out in the water.  There was a 2 piece band playing and it was the perfect evening to a wonderful day!

Mexico, Here We Come!!

Our first look at the ocean from our home for a week - Casa Dina - Los Barriles!
We could hardly wait for vacation - since we hadn't taken one in Feb., we were MORE than ready for a break from work!  Our flight was Saturday morning at 8:20 and we were planning on driving up Saturday morning - luckily Glenn decided he wanted to drive up Friday night to get an adjustment from Jessi before we headed out - it was definitely the right decision as about 8:30 than night I got a text from Teller County stating the pass was closed and the text to say it was back open?  Not till 6:30 the next morning - yikes - that wouldn't have worked for us!

The first stop after check in and breakfast?  Of course - Caribou Coffee - nothing better than to start your vacation the right way!

We had a direct flight to Cabo and landed in Terminal 3 - 45 minutes later Cindy and Rene' were due to land in Terminal 2 and our agreement was to meet at the rental car place which is offsite of the airport - it all worked out beautifully!!  The "Cactus" rental car company had just moved into a new building and Glenn and I were the FIRST clients to walk through the door - no we didn't win a door prize or anything fun though!!  Soon Cindy and Rene were there and we were off to paradise!

Sorianos is a grocery store/hardware/sporting goods/clothing store and we stopped there to stock up on a few groceries, snacks and liquor -  a must for any tropical vacation!  The SUV suddenly seemed a whole lot smaller as we loaded $150 worth of stuff into the car, mainly around Cindy and I's feet!!

45 minutes later we found Casa Dina and our host Duke greeted us and gave us the tour of the house and grounds - we were amazed at the property - a beautiful fully stocked house right on the ocean with everything imaginable inside!!  The garage was full of any outside things you might need:  fishing poles, noodles for the water, snorkel equipment, ice chests, you name it!!

I started snapping pictures and just couldn't stop as the setting was gorgeous!  I knew we were going to have a great week in this beautiful house!

 

Dinner than evening was at Tia Pablo's - Duke had driven us around the town and pointed out the places to eat dinner - this place was having 1/2 priced pork meals that night so Rene' chose it for the first night - great drinks and a great meal - 2 complete pork meals, beers and a pina colada for me and the bill wasn't even $20.00 - I was impressed! 

 We were all smiles!

 I had bacon wrapped pork medallions with a delicious sauce!

 We were all tired from travelling so it wasn't a late night - not that it would be a late night anyway for us old people - ha ha!  It was a gorgeous night and we couldn't wait to see what the next day would bring!

My Own Herb Garden

I LOVE my herb garden that Jaime gave me for Mothers Day!!  I've never had one before and it's fun cutting the garlic chives for our baked potatoes!!  There's also cilantro that's ready to pick so guess I better be making some Mexican dishes here soon!

It looks great sitting in my window sill and so far, the herbs are doing great!!  THANKS JAIME!

My Favorite Gift

I always look forward to Mother's Day because I KNOW what the girls are giving me - a hard bound copy of my blogs and pictures from the previous year!!!  Take a peek at the books I've collected over the past few years!!

I love the cover of my new book that I opened on Sunday - it has my favorite picture of the grandkids which makes it extra special!!!  Thanks Jaime, Jill and Jessi for the BEST GIFT EVER!!