Festivus for the rest of us

We have been lucky enough to celebrate holidays with friends and/or family over the years in a variety of locations and sometimes it has just been the two of us having breakfast at the local Waffle House, a tradition whose origin now escapes us but we dutifully carry on.  This December 2013 was particularly fun.

We attended two Buffalo Bills football games.  One in Tampa (lost bad) and one in Jacksonville (won barely).  That NFL Fantasy Football commercial whose background song is, "Cause you had a bad day...You're taking one down...you sing a sad song just to turn it around"...yatta yatta. Although the outcomes could have been better for the Bills, we had a great time at both games. We will get 'em next year.

Tampa Bay Bucs vs Buffalo Bills (27-6) :-(

We attended my brother's annual Boat Parade Bash.  Every Christmas a few zany Captains decorate their boats with lights, music and even some animation and drive up and down the many canals in the various Florida beach communities for prize money and to promote holiday cheer.  It is akin to a miniature Mardi Gras on the water.  There is eating, drinking and bead throwing with the added danger of falling off the sea wall.

My brother and his wife never fail to disappoint when hosting a party.  The Big Green Egg was fired up and roasted enough pork butt to feed the hearty crowd of about 50 people  It was a reasonably warm evening on the 21st of December and it was a great night of holiday frivolity.  We think this is a sighting of Herbie, the elf who wanted to be a dentist. It is no wonder his practice never took off...

Love the tights and flip flops.

We took a little side trip to visit Mike's dad for a nice Christmas lunch. See where he gets his good looks?




















Back to my brother's place for an awesome Christmas Day dinner. Again, his Big Green Egg prowess did not disappoint.  Smoked prime rib of beef was the centerpiece of our meal.  It was quite a feast.  Carnivores only please!

I realize I focus a lot on food, not sure what that says about me, but I think I like it.  We had great fun, laughs and a lot of catching up that was a huge part of our time with my brother and his very lovely wife and many of their good friends which we have come to know over the years.  The times that great memories are made of.  
     

Happy Floridays!

We arrived back in the US on November 17th from Loreto, BCS Mexico.  Upon arrival to LAX, (we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto) we suspected that there were more people at the LA airport at that moment than lived in the town of Loreto and maybe than we had seen in the whole month and half we were there.  It was a little overwhelming.  Add to that, a red eye flight from LAX to Orlando, FL and we were a little jet lagged upon our return.

Our car had been delivered from Seattle while we were in Mexico.  We were commenting the other day that my '03 Honda Accord has traveled approximately 12,000 miles on the back of trucks and on a boat in it's lifetime, it is almost as well traveled as we are.

In an effort to mitigate my despondence over the sale of our little red scooter in Hawaii, Mike was kind enough to buy an even bigger, sleek black scooter for us to zoom around on.

This is our real scooter pic, a Yamaha Majesty, fitting name as he spoils me like a queen. :-) So he often reminds me.

We have been bumming around warm and sunny Florida since our arrival and will  be in Indian Rocks Beach, FL to visit with my brother and sister-in-law during Christmas.  Their little beach community is very active for the holiday.  We enjoyed an audience with Santa just the other night.

Santa reminded us that his Naughty/Nice database refresh only happens monthly and with all our moving around, he may have an old address for us.  We should not expect under the tree delivery this year.  We said it was no problem and we will just wait for Amazon to find us with the drones soon.

To all our friends and family across the miles, have a very Happy Holiday Season.  Love to you all.

Beauty and the beast

Baja California Sur is full of surprises.  The landscape is rugged, unforgiving and beautiful at the same time.  During our time here we have experienced

• Tropical Storm Raymond (12 inches of rain in 18 hours), 25% of it dripping into our casita
• a 6.7 magnitude earthquake that was centered in the middle of the Sea of Cortez, prompted a new app on my Ipad QuakeFeed
• jellyfish stings
• 3 day mosquito plague from Raymond's standing water
• a 6 inch scorpion in our path from the casita to our car, I checked all sheets and shoes after I saw this guy

And 

• the most incredible hue of blue sky I have ever seen
• an amazing pod of dolphins

• a plethora fish in crystal clear water while snorkeling from the white sand crescent beach of Cornado Island
• a sea lion colony
• great local seafood and mexican specialties
• gracious and friendly locals
• exceptional 80 degree sunny days and 70 degree breezy nights
• too many beautiful hummingbirds and butterflies to count

On balance, the challenges have not overshadowed the beauty and enjoyable experience of life in Baja Mexico. Es una hermosa tierra.