Category Archives: Travel

A Beautiful Weekend…. On Land.

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My 'daffodil' rhodies.

We finally have decent weather in the Pacific Northwest! This weekend it hit 80 degrees, with blue skies and the sun acting as though it had been there all along. We wait all year for this weather. It’s the only reason many of us continue to live here through the dark disgusting winter season. The garden is filled with the majesty of spring.  So naturally our thoughts turned to being out on the boat.

“Oh good!”, the loyal reader exclaims! “They went out on the boat and there will be cool sailing photos. ”

But that is not what happened. We did not get out on the boat. You cannot possibly be more disappointed than we are about the fact that weekends are only 2 days long and one cannot be more than one place at a time, at least not in this dimension.

Alliums are in full dazzle.

When a certain mother and her daughter both have gift certificates to a certain spa and they want to go together, and the daughter works in Seattle Monday-Friday, then that mother/daughter pair must go to the spa on a Saturday. So we did. And after my body was scrubbed until it shone, I went outside to get dirty. I spent the rest of the day gardening. Being too clean and relaxed sends the wrong message to others. A little dirt under the nails calms down that kind of expectation.

And when that same mother has a son who is away at college and is coming home for the weekend to do the Color Run in Seattle on Mother’s Day, and then wants to go out to lunch with that mother, after which there will be a drive to Redmond,well, you can see that the two day weekend is now shot to heck in terms of going out on the boat for a day.

But all is not lost! There were some boats involved in this weekend. While in Seattle we took a little wander down to the Chittendon Locks in Ballard. The locks were named after a man named Hiram, and Mike’s grandfather’s name was Hiram, so we feel a special affinity for these locks. Also we wanted to see how they work because we’ve never been through them and we hear horror stories. You know, there are horror stories about just about everything. Locks are only one of many subjects.

This combination makes me happy.

After watching the locks open and close letting boats in and out between the salt water of Salmon Bay and the fresh water lakes, I’ve determined that once more, I am correct in assuming that if hundreds of thousands of people accomplish something with ease, we can too. Yep, it looks dead easy. You wait your turn, go in, tie up to the buttons on the wall, wait for the doors to open, then go out. I’m pretty sure we can hack it. So we hope to take a multi-day trip up to Lake Washington this summer, since we’ve never done that.

I took a couple of videos while up at the locks. Also, since there are no sailing photos, I took some of the garden and stuck them in this post. If I have to be on land, may as well enjoy what it has to offer. What’s that they say… bloom where you are planted? Well, I’m trying.

Watch the massive doors open in this video. Also hear the wind that we are missing out on by being on land.

 

Watch how they pack the boats in. It could make me a little nervous having other boats that close, but at least they are not moving fast.

El Pacifico

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Pangas on the the beach just south of Todos Santos

On Easter Sunday, Melissa and I drove across the Baja peninsula to the small town of Todos Santos and the nearby pacific beaches. We can now discern with some confidence the dirt roads that actually go somewhere useful and Melissa found a great beach, Punta Lobos,  just south of Todos Santos where the the fishermen launch and land their pangas on the beach.

We enjoyed seeing how the whole family came out to enjoy the fine weather as husbands and fathers were out at sea or working on boats. Other families, like us, were just out to enjoy the beach.

There is a very nice shrine near the beach to remember those who did not return from the sea and to ask the blessings and protection of the Virgin for those who venture out in boats. We have been photographing several of the shrines in the area and will be building a dedicated post for them. This is one of the more beautiful structures we have seen. It is actually like a small chapel with an alter, a large cruxifix, and beautiful artwork depicting the Virgin.

Shrine near the beach near Todos Santos

In addition to enjoying the fine weather, we got to watch and record how the fishermen here land their pangas. Clearly, they have some experience in sizing up the surf so as to be driven as far up shore as possible. The video below captures the landing. After the boat is on the beach. a modified truck is used to haul the boat further up and out of the way, ready for the next landing.

 

Aspiring to be Useless (Wasting Away in Margaritaville)

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Beautiful statue on the malecon in La Paz.

I’m sitting here with my pitcher of marguaritas thinking back over the day and realizing that it’s our third full day here and we already need to buy more tequila and mixer. Man, supplies start running low when you’re spending your days being nothing but useless to anyone. It’s great! If this is what retirement is going to be like, I’m going to be a big fan.

We got some serious lessons in the retired cruising lifestyle yesterday when we finally met up with Steve and Lulu Yoder (http://yodersafloat.wordpress.com/) and Keith and Kay Schardein (www.keithandkayunderway.blogspot.com). We ‘met’ Steve and Lulu via our respective blogs, and Keith and Kay are friends of a friend of mine who put us in touch when we were planning our La Paz trip.  Both couples are down here in La Paz enjoying life on their boats and guess what? They know each other! It is said that the cruising community is small, and I guess that must be right.

Truth be told, these couples saved us from having to drink several extra pitchers of fire-water margaritas due to the extreme stress we’ve been under since we got here. Without a doubt, there is no reason to be here without a boat. We feel literally stranded, land locked, like boats on the hard. The sea beckons, but we can only long for it. We stand on the docks and stare into the water like complete fools. We’ve walked down the malecon and seen all the pretty statues. Meh. We have been in the hot tub and in the pool. Sigh. We’ve gone to some pretty beaches up north of town. Too crowded this weekend anyhow. I’ve hung in the hammock and read my book. Yawn. There will be no dessert hiking in this desert. This is one inhospitable desert.

So you can imagine that it was with profound relief that we stepped into Keith and Kay’s dinghy today for the ride out to their boat, a Westsail 43 anchored almost directly next to the Yoder’s boat, a Westsail 28. Not only did we get to be on the water, we got to see new and exciting boats as well! We could hardly express our delight.

Mike, trying to communicate with the natives.

Mike and I first boarded Kieth and Kay’s Westsail 43, Chamisa, bearing the international currency of cruisers, beer. The wind was up in the harbor, 14 knots or so with a few whitecaps which made us feel almost like we were under sail.  Mike and I were anxious to learn as many of the finer points to retiring to this lifestyle as we could, and both couples were very generous in sharing their knowledge. Cold beer, warm wind, blue water, good conversation. Oh, and big dolphins. Did I mention those? What could be better?

When I think about the harried life we lead back in Tacoma, I am more than a little chagrined. We can go literally months between visits with our neighbors, and it always seems like they have to be arranged. There’s none of this ‘hanging out’ that seems to just happen naturally in the cruising community. We’re so busy being useful back home, we have no time to simply ‘be’ with others. Sure, we’re on vacation now, but our new friends are not on vacation. They live this way. After lives of complete and utter usefulness in the workplace and at home, after raising families, owning homes, and all of the other useful things people do, they have aspired to uselessness. I hope we are not far behind.

Knowing Steve’s penchant for good food, we followed him to this restaurant and it didn’t let us down. Fabulous burgers!