Our Final Days at Spa Buena Vista

Can this really be our last day here as I'm writing this?  Boy did that 5 weeks go fast!  Of course when you add on the 4 day travel time each way and the 4 days we stayed at San Lucas Cove, I guess it HAS been awhile since we've been home..........But this year was different and better than last year concerning the rental!  The last couple of years we were in a 450 sq ft casita that shared a large patio with the big house - we enjoyed both sets of people that were in the house!  But the neighbor on the other side sometimes drove me a little crazy!!

This year with the LARGE rental house we are in made for a much more enjoyable time here and we wished we would have booked 6 weeks - but no fear, we've already booked it NEXT year for 6 weeks!  The price of it was amazing and even though we had to pay for internet and the electric bill, it was still way below what we've paid the past couple of years!

We sure had fun picking up the sea glass this year - I always pick up little shells (but it's not a shell beach so they are rare to find!) but adding the sea glass made it so much more fun on my walks!!  Here's what we ended up with - 2 photos, one on each side of the post!  I want to put some in a clear glass jar with lights inside - Glenn has more serious intentions of making some jewelry - we shall see!!

We rode the ATV one final time out to the beach bar, El Gecko!  Glenn ordered some clam chowder which came in a bread bowl and it was excellent!!  The guacamole was plenty for me, along with my mango daiquiris!!

And now it's time to journey on back to the mountains to see the kids and grand kids, prepare for Easter with the family and unfortunately surgery for me!!  But more on that later.........  Vacation isn't quite over yet!

Charter Fishing / Sunrises

A friend of mine just emailed me this picture of Joleen and I on the beach in the early dawn hour!!  Yes, the alarm was always set for 5:30 to get up to see the colors, stretch and then hit the beach long before the sun actually came up over the ocean!

Glenn finally got arranged to join some guys for a fishing charter over at the Bay of Dreams - 3:30 wake up call as the drive over there is an hour - I was glad Glenn didn't have to drive!!

They had a great time and got back late afternoon - here he's holding a jack creville he caught - they're not great for eating so it was handed off to a Mexican - they make soup out of them!

And here's a huge needle fish!!  Glenn says it's the longest one he's ever caught!!

2 more sunrise pictures that I just had to post - I never tire of looking at them!

Glenn and I headed to town on the ATV one day to get some fruit at the market - they have the best blueberries and strawberries - you pay a pretty penny for them but totally worth it!!  While in there, a gal came in munching a fresh baguette from the deli next door - after tasting it we HAD to go in and get one, along with a couple of cinnamon rolls that were great with coffee the next day!

Next up was the smoothie place that we hadn't tried yet - glad we only ordered one!!  It tasted great with that hot bread!

All the fisherman that went fishing together met at Rancho Vista for dinner as the place cooked the fish for us.  It's just up the beach a little ways and such a peaceful setting, listening to the ocean waves!  The fish was not only cooked a couple of different ways, but they first brought out the raw fish in the form of sashimi fixed 3 different ways - not my favorite but I tried a piece at least!

It was a beautiful evening and I enjoyed meeting the others!

Food and Fish

And the week with Joleen was somewhat a repeat of the week with Patty's!  We love going out to eat and we love the beach - but unlike me, Jo loves to fish!!

One morning we woke up to a gorgeous sunrise with that sliver of a moon!!

Boy the water was hot coming out on the day we did the hot tub - took about an hour for it to cool off enough so we could get in!!

An evening walk is always fun too - since the sunset is over the mountains on the opposite side, we just get the color in the sky and on the ocean - pink, pink, pink!!!

Glenn took the boat out early one morning and came back with 10 trigger fish I think - here he is with the gardener for our place!

After a brief rest, him and Jo headed back out!

And came back in with more fish!!!  Jo took a couple of pics on the boat and she was thrilled to have caught fish!!  She even saw a whale!

On her final night, we went to town to eat shrimp!  This place wasn't as good as El Pirata but still a good place!

All too soon, it was back to the airport to drop Jo off with many memories!

A Week With Joleen

We dropped Patty and Leonard off at United Airlines and then walked downstairs to meet Joleen who was due to arrive in about 10 minutes.  Boy was I surprised when I looked at the monitor and saw that the plane had landed (early) 1/2 hour ago - within 5 minutes she was through the door!!

We waved goodbye to Patty's as they were still in line and stopped for lunch with Joleen at the same place we had stopped with Patty's over a week ago!!

ATVing down the beach - Glenn fishes, we walk the beach!!

Happy Hour at Smokie's - and YES, we had to order the nachos once again!!  And there was enough left for lunch the next day for all 3 of us!!

The place where we stay in Mexico is very safe - a lot of Americans are here and you never hear of ANY crime here - until this year!!  Apparently there is a lot of building going on at the small town past Los Barriles and they're bringing in workers from out of town - and that seems to be the problem.  Every day we were hearing of something being stolen and gas being siphoned out of gas tanks!  Because our house is right by the beach road, there is some traffic and a very small parking area right close.  One night Glenn woke up as he heard a car and looked out about 3:00am and there was a black SUV sitting in the parking area - he turned on the BIG floodlight that lights up our front yard where the boat is and the car left.  We started locking everything up tight at night and leaving outside lights on all night (which did make it a little hard to sleep with all that light!!)  And then Glenn decided to make "Leroy" to sit on our couch as there are no curtains or shades along the living room, just a slider and huge windows!  We left the lamp on so people could see directly in!

And for an update, the police DID catch 4 banditos a few days ago - they rammed their black SUV (yup - was probably them in the parking area scouting out places) and arrested them!!  And so far, no more thefts - hooray!!  The police used to patrol a few times every day and now there are several that are around!

One of our favorite photo spots!!

We loved walking the beach every morning around sunrise (and that darn sun just keeps rising earlier and earlier every day!!) 

Final Days With Patty and Leonard

We had some serious wind for a couple of days which is normal this time of year so Patty and I spent a lot of time reading!  The front porch is perfect for that!

And of course we were up early each morning to catch the sunrises and then walk. 

I LOVE our beach umbrella so it's fun to take it out to the beach and relax!!

One afternoon we got in the hot tub!

Our neighbors Jerry and LouAnn have a 2nd story place to sit which they call the crows nest so we went up there one day to take some pictures!

And here's a picture of the sea glass we've picked up to date!!  I'll have to post another picture at the end of our stay!

After a wonderful week with them, it was time to drive them to the airport and pick up our next guest - my friend Joleen!

A Walk Through The Flowers

After a great breakfast at El Viejo, we went out the back door to walk around the square where the community market is held.  The place was just bursting with beautiful flowers!!

I think I matched the flowers!

And as we were walking back towards the truck, we saw the yoga place with this cool door!

El Pirata

Another day - another gorgeous sunrise!

For our evening meal we decided to go to El Pirata so Patty and Leonard could taste their awesome imperial shrimp!

The meals are all cooked over an open mesquite fire so the taste is awesome!  We were at a larger table and when a party of 11 came in, the waiter asked if we could move to a smaller table, which happened to be right in front of the grill!  Bad mistake!!  The smoke was so bad and we knew that once we had moved it was a mistake but by that time our food had arrived so we just stuck it out!  Let's just say that we will NEVER sit that close to the grill again as our clothes smelled so bad when we got home that it took a couple of days for them to air out on the clothesline!!  But the food was so worth it!!

And no, those aren't drumsticks but prawns!

Our waiter was fun and luckily he speaks enough English to get by on!

Leonard doesn't really enjoy seafood but he said it was one of the best meals ever!