The Next Project

Moving along into summer, we've been enjoying yummy snap peas, and more fresh garden salads than I can count, the tomatoes are green and growing, I see my first pepper and the zucchini and bean plants are thriving. I think it might be one of our best gardens yet.

I have tried once or twice in the last two months to take up running. I don't know if you can even call it that, but 3 or 4 times in the last 6 weeks, I have moved my legs at a faster pace than a walk and worked up a high heart rate and the beginnings of a true sweat, resulting in sore legs the next day. One impediment to being more consistent is the fact that Gracie can't keep up with me! And this is me, one of the slowest runners in the world. I had a friend once tell me that I was the slowest runner she had ever run with (a great friend, really, just brutally and obliviously honest). And once, I ran a St Patrick's day run in Portland, and got passed by the walkers! Can't believe I just admitted that. Anyway, so I was shocked that I had to slow my pace and walk to wait for Gracie to catch up. So now she is my cool-down buddy. But I still find it hard (especially on work days) to make the time to do both (run and walk the dog). The upside to running here in the Willamette Valley of Eugene, is that it is blissfully flat. It is easier to get motivated to run if you don't have a daunting hill to dread or have to drive somewhere to run. So we'll see where this goes. I need to get Keith involved, especially now that we've entered a bit of a weight loss competition with my mom and dad(?). There. You are really committed now, mom.

Mom and Dad came down for a visit last week. I think they had a nice time. Since we don't own a house yet, they had no projects to work on for us, so I think they might have even gotten a little bored. We kept them busy though with strawberry picking, jam making, garage-saling, bike riding the river paths, a trip out to Fall Creek, playing Blokus (thanks Paul!) and lots of deliberation on a house we were deciding on purchasing.

We've been pretty pathetic about taking pictures lately. Even with my parents here. But here are a few from our hike along Fall Creek.

An interesting old dead tree.


Our lunch spot.


A very, very large wad of roots.


Gracie displaying her obsessive-compulsive disorder:


Did I say something about buying a house? Yep, it looks like we're heading that direction. The inspection/contingency period has passed, and the appraisal is done, so we are committed. It's a fixer for sure, which is what we've been looking for. It is not our dream home by any stretch, but should be a good investment. It sits in a reasonably good neighborhood, needs lots of updating inside (soooo 70's), and uh...yeah, the foundation needs to be leveled. Say what? Long story, but we got this house way under market in exchange for an "as-is" sale as Keith is quite sure he can do this work on his own for significantly less money than the $30K bid the owner was given. We shall see. It's your typical 1970's rambler, 3 bed/2 bath in a working/middle class neighborhood on a dead end street. It is a slight risk, but we are both excited to be owners again and to have home improvement projects again (I know....we're kind of weird that way...). Pictures will be up soon. We should close within a week or so.

In other news, we decided to save $60 and do Gracie's annual haircut ourselves. It didn't turn out half bad. Of course we didn't get a good before and after shot, but here is a scintillating action shot...she did not really enjoy the whole process.

Springtime Updates

Click here to have a look at the house I lived in the first 4 years of my life.

A few more images from our time taking care of Wiley. Gracie is indeed getting to be an old dog. This little dog kicked Gracie's butt going up to the top of Spencer Butte. He literally ran circles around all of us.


And at the top of the Butte. Wiley was feeling the heat (look at that tongue!) but it didn't slow him down...


And living room life. They would frequently bark at random times, but I think in this particular instance we were mean and said in a loud excited voice, "They're heerre!" (Which always gets Gracie up and to the door), so that we could see them stand like this for a cute picture...


I guess the real big news update is that we got our car back! About two weeks ago actually. Got a call one afternoon from the police department saying they had found our car. Ironically it was parked just two houses up from my friend’s new house. Apparently it was left there, and the owners of the house called the police to tell them an unknown car was parked outside their house for an extended period of time. Luckily I was home to go get it as they would have towed it at our expense if we couldn’t get there in time. Keith was at work, but my nice neighbor drove me over. The car is in fine shape, just missing a few things – the radio, all four speakers, the floor mats, a blanket, our repair manual,all of Keith’s tools, jumper cable. what did they leave? The garbage, our soccer ball, the spare tire, and half a key stuck in the ignition. Nice to have it back. We’ll miss having a radio for a while, but at least it’s not at risk for being stolen again as there is nothing left to take. But just in case....we did add comprehensive to the insurance.

This is what our front yard looked like about 2 weeks ago. The previous tenant planted this clover as a cover crop with the intent of doing a garden out there. When the red bloomed it became quite the attraction and more than once I'd look out the window and see people crouched down taking pictures of it. Now that the flowers are gone, it looks like dying weeds. Nice. We have dug out a few patches where I have since planted some tomato plants and zucchini. There is nice southern exposure here, so assuming passer-bys don't pick too many of them, we should get some nice results.


In the meantime, Keith bought this:

He started looking at them after the Honda was stolen. He got this for a great price.....but it doesn't run.

Keith took a weekend and met some old friends in Portland and took an attempt at Mt Hood. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and they had to turn back after getting about half way. Too bad, but good for them for acknowledging Mother Nature.


Yesterday with temps reaching the mid to high 80's and us both with a day off, we took off for a much needed day out of the city and into the woods for a little hiking. We ended up going to Falls Creek which is just about 30 minutes away with a nice river side trail and virtual solitude as it is the middle of the week. We did about seven miles following the river, where Gracie spent every opportunity she could laying in the water and searching for that elusive perfect rock. Keith and I took a quick dip as well - the water was quite cold, but it sure was refreshing.

The beginning of the trail:


Lots of nice old growth (plenty still standing as well). This one is well over 300 years..


The swimming hole at our turnaround and lunch spot. Gracie was in heaven, but my goodness she was sore when we got home. The poor thing could barely get herself up off the floor.


I'll end with the Dog Story of the week:
Two blocks down from our house is a great organic market where we regularly buy granola, milk that comes in refillable containers and as of late in the evenings while I am slaving away at work, Keith and Gracie walk down there and Keith gets himself a cookie, and Gracie gets a biscuit. So now every time we go to the store, Gracie expects a treat. Frequently she gets one, and even when she doesn’t, she is soooo happy to be there, because, oh.... the potential. So the other day while I was at work, Keith left the house for about 10 minutes to help our neighbors out with something, leaving Gracie in the backyard. The gate between our yard and our neighbor’s was left open and apparently his gate to the outside was left open, because promptly after Gracie heard Keith leave in the car, she walked herself down the street and to the store. Where she happily hung out at the entrance (not going inside mind you) sniffing everyone’s hands as they came out of the store. Keith eventually figured out she was gone (it took him a while to realize that she hadn’t come in to say hello), got on his bike and rode toward the store where he found her perfectly content. We laugh at the image of her trotting down the sidewalk all by herself with her crab-like crooked walk, but at the same time are horrified at what could have happened (seeing as she is not too perceptive about cars and their danger).

Cars and Dogs

You know how dogs can sense emotions? Gracie has developed a new reaction to my temper tantrums. About a week ago, I was borrowing a friend's carpet cleaner. After refilling the water and trying to reassemble the compartments, something got stuck and I couldn't get it back together. So I started yelling at it. And hitting it. And carrying on as neither of those actions made the machine go back together. Gracie started to get real concerned, and came up to me and nuzzled her head in my hands, getting in my face. As I continued to curse the machine, she gave up, walked herself into the office, and curled up as far under our desk as she could get herself and stared at me through her sorrowful, beautiful brown eyes. I cracked up. She did this again the other day after I woke up to a note outside the bedroom door that read:

"Hey. Guess what? Our car was stolen. Call me when you get up."

After looking outside for proof, (Yep. Two cars gone and one person still in the house), and after calling the police and filing the report, I proceeded to stomp around the living room, cursing mean people and insurance policies. Gracie then proceeded to walk herself under the table (that I have set up in the living room in an attempt to get my photo albums caught up...yeah, how's that coming anyway?) and curled up in a little ball and looked at me again with those eyes. Again, I could do nothing but laugh. This is new behavior for her (curling up in tight balls under tables), but it works wonders on changing my mood. Dogs are the best.

So.....yeah. Our car was stolen. Pretty shitty. Taken right out from under our noses in the middle of the night. Not a shed of broken glass, not a sign or sound of a struggle. These were either professionals or it was one of those flukes where someone else has a key that works in our car. Of course it wasn't worth much, as we deliberately buy older cars, but still, I liked that little car, and it got amazing gas mileage (40+). Which is one of our theories as to why it was taken. Or it was just because it was a Honda Civic (one of the most commonly stolen cars), or it was due to the ever-present meth problem. Who knows. Our neighborhood isn't bad, but we are on the borderline of some more questionable areas. Still, this is Eugene, right? Just a bunch of free-love hippies? Apparently not. From other stories I heard at work, car, motorcycle and bike theft is all too common.

We are partly to blame as we parked it on the street instead of in our pseudo-driveway, but I wonder if that really would have mattered. It was probably just a matter of time. And of course we don't ever carry comprehensive/theft, so not a dime will be coming in the mail to us, except for that $16 reimbursement from Progressive for canceling the liability insurance on it. Yay. Now we are left with a gas guzzling Explorer with gas prices at their highest ever and Keith with a prospective job that involves lots of driving to Corvallis and Albany. Double yay. Have I gone on long enough? We've actually handled it well, as what really can you do? Hey, maybe the police will find it parked nicely somewhere all vacuumed and cleaned out. One can dream.

In other news, work has been fine. More good days than bad this last week, which is an improvement. And finally some feedback - they say I am "progressing as normal". Which translates into: "We can see you are struggling, and stressed and not as efficient as the other nurses, but that is what we expect." I went ahead and took it as a compliment.

Keith has been networking with the big foreclosure player in town and since we aren't having much luck at beating them at these auctions, he may be joining them. It's still in the works, but he plans to do a trial run in managing the Albany/Lebanon/Corvallis foreclosures. Which means we can no longer bid against these guys at the Lane County auctions, but it also presents some other opportunities for gaining property within the county by working with them. Long story short, we hope to have a fixer-upper of our own soon, we just need a little more patience.

Meanwhile some pictures....

Although it is raining cats and dogs right now and quite cold, a week ago, we had a real nice run of weather. I had the day off and Keith worked, so I took a little drive to look at a random house for sale, then stopped by one of our local buttes for a hike and a swim for Gracie in the river.

OK, so Gracie doesn't really swim anymore. But she does love getting in the water and doing this: Behold the anatomy of the rock search (do you want to borrow her for a while dad? She finds some real gems sometimes!):
First, she paws around looking for that perfect rock:


Then she goes in for the kill. Blowing bubbles out her nose and everything.


And then she proudly displays her catch:


After letting Gracie cool off in the river, we took a little walk among the many fine trails of Mt Pisgah, some of which they have actually made dog friendly and you can remove the leash (because we always leash our dog....wink, wink). I picked a different trail than normal that took me up a side hill, and at the top was rewarded with and surprised to find this:


View along the trail:


And finally, the new edition for the week, Mr Wiley. Our friends are out of town, so we get to dogsit Wiley for the week. He and Gracie spend most of the time minding their own business, but in this rare moment Gracie had her ball, and I swear, deliberately dropped it out of her mouth and rolled it towards Wiley as an offering of some sort. OK, OK, so maybe I spend too much time looking at and analyzing my and others' dogs. (And I'm a little embarrassed about that pile of mess in the background...).


Wiley is doing great. Pugs are hilarious. A little noisy at night with all the snoring, but we're working things out. The other thing these two do together is feed off each other with the barking. One hears something and barks, which causes the other to bark, which causes the other to bark, etc. This is happening right now....

Normal Working Stiffs

After being berated by my brother today and then looking at my last posting date of over a month ago, I thought I'd try and write an entry. I wish I had lots of exotic and fun stories to tell, but things have been a bit dry. In fact, I think it might only be my brothers and our parents who will even look at this anymore. I have thought about posting a blog, but we have hardly taken a picture since we've been back and how fun is a blog without any pictures?

Here is an older shot from one of our moves. This is in my parent's back yard. I think they were happy to see it all go...


So, I had a couple interviews, and as of March 9, I've been gainfully employed as a staff nurse at Sacred Heart Hospital here in Eugene on the Progressive Cardiac Unit. I tell you, it is not easy jumping back into the profession after taking almost two years off. And "jumping back in" is hardly accurate as I was anything but a seasoned nurse when we left. Nevertheless they hired me, and after a couple weeks of orientation, I have been flying solo (i.e. taking a full team of patients on my own) for a week now. It hasn't been easy. Nursing is hard. Sometimes I wonder why I left that cushy desk job with my own private office, for these nights of stress and overwhelming feelings of inadequacy. But then I have a good night or have small successes like: Striking a balance with the demented patient who has been terrorizing the rest of the staff and get her to smile and relax, or putting the pieces together regarding treatment, or just getting a genuine "Thank You" from family or patients letting me know that I made their yucky hospital day a little bit more tolerable. It is an intense floor with mostly cardiac related patients (heart attacks, heart failure, stent placements, heart surgery, etc.). It is divided into three zones, two of which require further training for me before I'll work on them independently. For now, the focus becomes a lot of time management and prioritizing and juggling what at times seem unmanageable demands. While I wasn't too thrilled with my orientation, I think I will be happy on the floor (everyone I have talked to says the first three months basically suck no matter what) as the nurses I work with are very nice, non-presuming, and always willing to lend a hand.

But enough nursing talk. Keith is employed as well. He took a no-brainer, muscle job at Jerry's Home Improvement working in the lumber yard. Not the best paying job out there, but it keeps him busy and brings in a little extra cash. And it is giving him a greater appreciation for how hard people have to work physically for not much pay. With the rest of his time, he's been researching the plethora of foreclosed homes out there looking to see if he can make a living out of buying, fixing and reselling them. It looks promising, except that the logistics of auctions are just plain weird, and that there are lots of other people out there looking to do the same thing. We'll see where it takes us.

Meanwhile I took a trip up to Seattle and went to another baby shower. Stacey will be bringing little Caylin into the world shortly adding to the abundance of babies being born up in that area (it seems that all of my high school friends are having babies at the same time - so fun for them to be going through it together). On that trip, mom and I went and saw the Soweto Gospel Choir from South Africa perform at the Pantages Theatre in Tacoma. Amazing. I am sorry for all who missed the show. http://www.sowetogospelchoir.com/

Here is Stacey and me. She is looking great! And we can't wait to meet Caylin!


And other than that, it's been long walks with the dog and some tinkering in our garden. We are both becoming restless and anxious about not owning our own home. Being in such a tiny place with no garage or home projects is wearing on Keith especially. And reverting to the work life is not easy either. I'm working a swing shift and Keith is mostly days and of course neither of us work a normal M-F, so days off or evenings off together are few and far between. Woe is me. Welcome back to the real world.

My peas growing nicely. I have since added the strings for them to climb up. Look at how excited Gracie is that my peas are growing! OK, so maybe she found a squirrel....


Keith's lettuce. He is so proud.


A look at the rest of the backyard. Nothing fancy, but Gracie likes it.....when we're out there with her.....and playing with her....
See all that white hair on her? Everyone we walk by makes some kind of comment like, "oh, what an old dog!", "How old is she anyway?", etc, etc. I am convinced this weird white fuzzy hair that is growing in strange places is not a reflection of her age, but a side-effect from her thyroid pills. Seriously.


My peas up close.

Settling Down

Well, we’ve done it. Within a week, we have purchased a second car, signed up for cell phone service, moved into a house (rented), and applied for jobs (well, one of us has anyway). Right back into the mainstream. But we are happy. It feels good to be settling down and it feels good to have some options still open (like Keith’s career and where, if, and when we will buy a home). Oh yeah, and it feels great to have a closet! No more clothes bag!

Upon flying into LA, we used pretty swift public transport and got back to our car which was graciously housed at the father of my new sister-in-law’s place of work. We headed north immediately taking the somewhat scenic route on 101. I-5 just seemed too straight and boring and Hwy 1 too slow and scenic so we compromised on the 101. It is a nice drive, giving us glimpses of the ocean and pretty green and hilly scenery. We didn’t plan to make it as far as San Francisco that day, but we were making good time, and we have a friend there, so we pushed on and got to her house about 10:00. We had a nice visit and hit the road early in the morning.

By about noon the next day, we reached Castle Crags State Park in northern California and did the main hike to the top. A spectacular hike, and one we highly recommend if you are doing the I-5 drive to California. It is right off the highway, not too long, and provides great views and really crazy rock formations. We found ourselves in Medford having dinner at 7:00 and felt like we were a stone’s throw from Eugene, so we pushed on again, and made it to our friend’s house by 11:00. And that was that. I guess the official end of our trip!

A nice view of Mt Shasta on the way to the top of the Crags:

Nice colors and scenery along the way:

Looks kind of scary to me, but a great photo. Notice I am not in the photo...


The valley of crags at the end of the trail:


We started our search for a place to live that a) was close to downtown, b) allowed dogs, c) had a fenced backyard, d) was in the right price range, and e) offered a short term lease and despite all these requirements, we actually were able to find something by the end of the weekend. After securing the house with a move-in date of March 1, we visited our old neighbors in Lebanon and bought a car. One I never thought I’d see us getting, but after spending a month in my dad’s Ford Explorer and hearing him rave about what great cars they are for the value, we looked into them, and indeed did find a great deal. So, we are quickly a two-car household with a highly efficient Honda Civic, and a not-so-efficient-but-not-bad-for-an-SUV Explorer.

After nearly draining our bank accounts with all that, we scuttled on down to Keith’s parents for a nice visit, and our last round of free room and board. A rainy and cold, but nice visit, and yet another reunion with our dog, who I think will sorely miss life with retired ‘grandparents’ (sorry mom) who take her on walks and to sand dunes and are home all day to coddle to her. Now she will be an urban dog whose parents work and leave her alone for 10 hours a day. We loaded up our trailer and truck with about half of the stuff we stored at his parents’ and headed back to Eugene and moved in.

We’ve got ourselves a cute, older 2-bedroom, 1 bath house close to the heart of Eugene. After only a few walks around our neighborhood, we discovered a fabulous organic market only two blocks away that serves a fine cup of coffee and an array of bulk goods at reasonable prices. Hooray! And on the next main street up, we found….are you ready for this? A panadaria! (My mom is sure to come and visit now.) And a carniceria and a taco & burrito stand, and a Mexican supermercado. Apparently this little stretch is a popular area for Hispanic businesses. Organic-granola style on one block, Mexican on the next, yuppie-ville not far down the road. Diversity at its best….we must be back in Eugene.

Here's our new home (and the Explorer):


Inside. A little lacking on the furniture. We still have to make a run north up to my folks' place to pick up another load of stuff.

It's been almost unseasonably cold here, and yesterday after a snowy walk up the local Butte, we were treated to some of the falling white stuff on the valley floor. This is looking out our front window. That car across the street is not the stereotypical Eugene vehicle.

And tomorrow I have not one, but three interviews at the local hospital. Ack! The real world is crashing down. Wish me luck.

Snow In El Paso!

Yep, we are in El Paso, TX in the good ol US of A and yes, we got snowed on today. What is with our luck and the weather? It's been a while, I realize. And here we are at the end of our trip, so lots to catch up on.

We left off in Melaque.
We debated staying in Melaque another day as we were enjoying the warm weather. On the other hand, Guadalajara was calling. Keith and I debated doing a side trip on our own to Mexico City, but it was a long bus ride and if you haven't gathered from the tone of my writing sometimes, we are actually growing weary of the travel life. So we decided Guadalajara (the second biggest city in Mexico) would suffice as our big city experience.

If you are not following along on a map, Guadalajara is north. Keith and I have our backpacks and have been prepared to part from mis padres at any moment and continue our journey on to Central America (since we couldn't convince dad to drive to Panama), but after thinking hard about it, we have decided to finish this trip through Mexico with the folks and call the traveling good for now and find a home.

So, north we went, officially halfway done with Mexico (from a distance perspective anyway). We took the scenic route to Guadalajara, which was nice. Rolling hills, greenery, and lots of potholes. On one of the greater descents, Keith hopped on one of the bikes and coasted down (after making a nerve-wracking pass of a big, stinky truck). We got into Guadalajara without any problems and settled into a nice, big secure room....almost too secure - you had to call someone to get out of the building. Glad there wasn't a fire.

Guadalajara is a grand colonial city and the attraction for us was to check out all the old architecture, the big market and the all important Sunday craft market. We wanted to see a showing of the Ballet Folklorico in the grand and famous Theatre Degollado, but despite the promises given in our silly guide books, it wasn't too be. Our first night there we did get a free concert in one of the plazas - sitting on an old iron park bench listening to the symphonic band while watching the kids chase the pigeons and the crazy cowgirl lady dance.

In the main Guadalajara plaza with the government building behind me waiting for the free concert to start.


The Gudalajara market. I spared you and didn't post the picture from the meat section.


The next day was spent walking in and out of the lovely colonial buildings adn churches around the centro. Some of the most impressive parts of the architecture are the massive doors, the iron work around the windows and as dad says, how it is all made of the same pyroclastic rock. We also ventured into the central market which was like most other markets we have been to. It had its meat section with buckets of cow hearts, stalls lined with hooves, snouts, tripe, and god only knows what else. And then the fruit and veggie area that is always refreshing and the rows and rows of junk (watch bands, plastic toys, sunglasses, cowboy hats, cheap crafts, etc.), and finally the prepared food area which Keith and I love. I had my first Mexican burrito here and it was fantastic (up until now, just tacos, tacos, tacos).

Food here in Mexico has been good, but we are growing weary of the tiny little tacos. The best taquerias are the ones that give you a variety of sauces (most of them hot) the best being a runny guacamole that we've all come to crave. After meat tacos, the second staple of our diet has been pastries (um, yeah, no weight loss here). Every new town we go to, we have to know where the nearest panadaria is so we can stock up and have something to eat with our coffee. It was a hard word for these guys to learn how to pronounce, but now they've got it and they won't hesitate to ask anyone where the nearest one is. We like the pastries mostly because they aren't too sweet (and they are pastries, duh), but the experience of buying them is fun too. A store full of open shelves of all kinds of interesting breadware. You walk in, almost get knocked over by the amazing smell, pick up a big silver tray and tongs and start loading up. We always go in with the intention to buy one or two and usually come out with at least ten. We are lacking in veggies though, so whenever we can cook for ourselves, it usually ends up being a big veggie stir fry.

Our second to last day in Guadalajara, we took a public bus out to a suburb called Tlaquepaque. It was an incredibly rainy day, so we didn't linger. This suburb is known for its pottery shops and quaint city center. We looked around for a while and then after some confusion got the bus back to the hotel. That evening (it was a Saturday) Keith and I wandered around the plazas, watched a band, some street dancers, then went into a bar and tried to dance a little salsa with the locals.

Our final day in Guadalajara was market day. In another suburb called Tonala every Thursday and Sunday there is a HUGE craft market with an emphasis on pottery. Dad sat this one out as his attitude about markets is starkly different than ours. So mom, Keith and I set out. We learned a valuable lesson. When you know you are going to buy a lot of stuff and you find one you like, buy it. We spent our first two hours walking the endless rows pricing items we liked. Then as we went back, ready to buy, the rain hit. It had been a perfectly sunny day and then we were pummelled by one of the worst thunderstorms I have ever seen. We had made a few purchases already and tried to push through the rain, but eventually took refuge in a storefront with the scores of others.

As it started to ease up, we decided to move on. Just as I stepped out, the nearest vendor picked up his broom handle to dump more water from his tarp roof and stuck his stick out right in front of me. Down I went. With two bags of pottery. Damn. Embarrassing and frustrating. I lost three plates and the tip of a sun. The good part is that they were the cheapest things we had bought, so not a great loss. The rains did stop and we were then just left with literal rivers of nasty brown, dirty water running in between the stalls. We hurried and made our remaining purchases and staggered home hungry and exhausted and buying way more than planned. Then we had to carry everything up to the room where dad was waiting. The look on his face was classic. You see, he is very particular about a clear line of vision out of the back of the car and we were already packed tight. So the rest of the night was spent packing pottery and the car and thanks to Keith's packing genius we got it all in and it looks like we didn't buy a thing. Now, will it all survive the horrendous topes (speed bumps) that are everywhere in Mexico.....now, instead of screaming "Tope!", we scream "Pottery!"

We left Guadalajara on a holiday, so the streets were deserted and everything was closed including dad's favorite coffee shop where they make "the best coffee in the world". It was a nice drive along which we passed many impressive rock walls used for property markers and crop rotation. These walls are amazing in that they stretch on and on up steep hills and off into the horizon and are perfectly stacked and quite pleasing to the eye. Before reaching our final destination of Zacatecas, we stopped at the La Quemada/Chicomostoc Ruins. There are many theories as to who lived here, but they know the date ranges of existence were 400-800 AD and they may have been the predecessors to the Aztecs. It was quite an impressive site covering a vast area.

Cool lighting at the ruins.


Another ruin shot. Neat columns.


Then it was two nights in Zacatecas, elevation 8,000 feet. Crisp, comfortable days, but cold at night. Zacatecas is a cool town. Built on the silver mining trade, it has more impressive colonial buildings, but this time the rock (yes, still pyroclastic) is predominately a lovely pink color, and the roads are narrow, hilly and confusing. What a maze of cobblestone chaos. But a great townfor wandering and gazing. We did some sight seeing the next day, taking in an old silver mine that operated for 400-500 years. The tour was nice, but it was in Spanish and my translation capabilities were way below par....I think I obtained three or four facts over teh course of the hour. Then we took a cable car to La Bufa (top of a hill overlooking the city) and walked down and into a couple museums.

The streets of Zacatecas:


The next day was a driving day....about 700 km with the last 70km or so in the dark - something we swore we'd never do - because mom and I were too scared to stay at the dark, dank $12 motel we found in a very random hotel. Not too adventurous.

Our next stop was Creel and the Copper Canyon. We stayed three nights in Creel, a not very impressive town (dusty, dusty, dusty and lots of smog because of the cold nights and many wood fires), but the jumping off point for the canyon. We spent one day on a long bike ride through small Tamahamara villages looking at interesting rocks and the next day on a day hike down into the canyon. The hike into the canyon was a highlight for sure. What a massive canyon. There is a great vantage point where three canyons merge, and that is close to where we did our hike. We had a late start so it was only a half day hike, but it was great. Peaceful and beautiful. We are all regretting not planning better and getting all the way to the bottom (it takes 5 hours to hike down, so you have to sleep over at the bottom). At this point, we had already purchased a ticket from El Paso, so we were out of time and had to move north.

On the bike ride outside of Creel. The Valley of the Monks:


More bikes and rocks:


A view of the canyon at sun down.


More canyon view.


From Creel, it has been pretty much just driving. One more stop at a small ruin site (adobe buildings) and then on to the border. What a fiasco our border crossing was yesterday. We bypassed the smaller border crossing for fear that they wouldn't have all the offices we needed to get the car properly "checked out" of Mexico (there are huge fines if you don't), so we proceeded to Ciudad Juarez that crosses the Rio Grand into El Paso. Before we knew it, we were on the bridge and into US soil without ever seeing a Mexican immigration or customs building of any kind. We found out (after being grilled about and searched thoroughly by the US Customs for all our contraband oranges) that mom and dad's only option is to drive back into Mexico and recross the border, this time surrendering their paperwork first. They will have to do this at the smaller border that we intentionally bypassed. Stupid. You would think crossing the bigger border would be failsafe. Instead we waited in much longer lines and still didn't do it right!

With one day to kill before our flight, we drove East to Guadalupe National Park and camped. It was a cold windy night and today for our short day hike it snowed on us. Back in El Paso now, catching up and flying out to LA tomorrow where we pick up our car and head towards Oregon.

On our hike today after the snow started.


Nice things about being in the US? Throwing toilet paper in the toilet, not worrying about tap water, no topes, not nearly as much litter, and nice wide roads with shoulders!

It hasn't been easy to look at our pictures on these slow computers, so I don't always know if I'm picking good ones. So when we get settled, I am going to pick out the really good photos and post them for you all to enjoy....

Lazy Days in Melaque

Well, we are having a fine time here on the Mexican coast. We have been getting lots of good beach time and the last few days have been downright hot. We try hard not to complain when we get too hot, as we have sure done our fair share of complaining about all the cold weather and rain. So.....I think we left off in Guayabitos.

We spent one day exploring nearby beaches. No swimming as it was quite cool out, but we found more nice towns where we say, 'Oh, we should have stayed here'. Our last day there was a nice one. One that dad said should 'save me some blog space', as we didn't do anything. Lots of beach time, eating and reading. It was a Saturday, so the beach was suddenly packed...a whole different scene. It didn't stop us from beach lounging though, and mom was feeling better so she was able to swim and enjoy herself as well.

The next day we headed off south. We breezed right through Puerto Vallarta. While we weren't impressed with the highly touristed area of Puerto Vallarta, we were quite impressed with the scenery to the immediate south of the city. Quite stunning jungle mountains that seem to just plunge into the ocean. No wonder it has become so built up....the pretty places often do.

On the way to Puerto Vallarta. Keith has been craving this barbequed chicken. He saw the smoke and said, "pull over, let's see if this is chicken". Sure enough, where there is smoke, there is chicken. A delicious lunch.


Cruisin on south, our intended destination was Melaque, but on a detour to look at a beach, we decided to go ahead and just stay the night there.....and camp! I say that with an exclamation point, because we've been lugging all this camping gear down thousands of miles and continually threaten to camp on Mexico's wild and free beaches, but we have yet to do so. We always have some excuse. Well in this very small place of La Fortuna/Playa Perda(? not sure on the name) we found miles of very accessible beach and several people telling us it is no problem to camp there. We had no excuse. So we camped. It was nice....except for the rouge wave that literally chased mom and me out of the water after thoroughly pummeling us - probably the hardest beating I've ever received from a wave. Otherwise, we had great weather and were serenaded to sleep by a local bad of some type with a very talented drummer.

Proof that we camped.


I have no idea where this was taken, but it is pretty representative of all the streets in all the towns. Give or take a few palm trees depending how close to the coast you are.


The next day we arrived in Melaque which was recommended to us by a friend of my mom's, Joy, who comes here for two months every year. It is a great place. Yes, lots of gringos (mostly Canadians) come here, but it feels even less so than Guayabitos. The town has just a nice, mellow, Mexican feel and everyone is so friendly and happy. We met up with Joy, said hi, then ended up settling into the bungalow across the street from her. A great place with a fabulous pool, a bungalow with two rooms and a kitchen situated just across the street from the beach. The only downfall to this area might be the beach. It is beautiful, but very steep, so not a great walking beach (or as we call it now, Gringo Marching beach - because in Guaybitos every morning there was a parade of gringos walking up and down the beach at a fast clip that dad called marching) and the waves are a bit intimidating to those of us that are now gunshy. The northern most end is quite calm, and appropriately called 'Chicken Beach' - Keith has had fun with that one.

Keith body surfing in Melaque. This is not Chicken Beach.


At any rate, we have spent three sun filled relaxing days here. Snorkeling at a nearby beach one day and who knows what we've done the last two. More of the same, so it's no use recounting here. I did get back on the proverbial horse and tackled the big waves today as did mom. They really aren't so bad because they crash so close to shore it is easy to get out beyond them. So between playing in the surf, cooling off in the pool, eating and riding bikes around, we have successfully killed three days and now will turn back north and start working our way home saying goodbye to the beaches.

Pictures from Melaque:

Our pool in Melaque. It is cooler than the ocean, but it feels great.


The northern most end of the Melaque bay.


One of the things dad likes to do best on the beaches. This is a beach just north of Melaque that mom and dad explored tonight for sunset.


After a sunset swim.


Look at all the gringos snorkeling! (I'm not talking bad about gringos, obviously we are one of them, it is just fun to make fun of us all cause we're all doing the same things everywhere we turn!) Surprisingly good snorkeling here. Not of Thailand caliber, but better than I expected.