Thursday, October 16, 2014

Busy month.



Location, At Home

Much has happened since I last posted.

A cruise on the Star Princess.

On Oct 1 Clyda and I joined our friends Cindy and Gary in San Francisco for a 10 day round trip cruise to Mexico. We had great weather, (as in hot), low sea state (as in no waves), and a great time. We played lots of trivia against other teams and even won twice. We enjoyed the prize, a bottle of champagne for one win while the ladies won while we were ashore in Cabo San Lucas.
 Under the Golden Gate Bridge as we get underway to Mexico.

 Trivia in the VIsta Lounge with people from Illinois.
  The reason for the cruise.

Birthday cake from Princess.

Cabo San Lucas was our first stop where Gary and I tendered ashore. The sea was a little rough for the ladies to disembark. The town has been decimated by Hurricane Odile and all hotels were closed as well as many of the waterfront establishments. In particular was the demise of Senior Frogs. The only way we knew it was the correct building was because someone had spray painted the name on it.
 Plywood from store fronts in Cabo San Lucas.

We walked the waterfront, had a beer in one of the few open restaurants and went back to the ship.

Our next stop was Loreto which is a new port for Princess. Again we had to tender in but it was worth it as the town while small is unspoiled by tourists. We hired a cab and had the driver give us a town tour. Later we ate at an outdoor restaurant near the city center and then strolled back to the dock.



 On the waterfront in Loreto with Star Princess in the background.

The next day we were in La Paz where we docked but had a one half hour bus ride to town. La Paz is a nice enough town but it happened to be very hot while we were there. Instead of riding the bus back to the ship we opted for an air conditioned cab ride.

Our last stop was Puerto Vallarta which is well known and a fairly large city. Again we hired a cab to give us the town tour. As part of the tour we visited a tequila distillery, sampled the wares, and purchased a bottle to bring home.


 Gary, Cindy, Ed, and Clyda on the dock at Puerto Vallarta with ship in background.

The Star Princess visited Santa Barbara, CA today.

Yesterday I drove to Lompoc and picked up the RV. Everything was fixed but the new fender skirt is a much darker grey than the original. Of course, some of that is sun bleaching I am sure. The insurance company has already paid to have it repainted after my desert trip.

Speaking of which, I have been working like mad to get everything ready to leave Saturday morning. I bought food today, gassed the truck and did all those things that need to be done before any trip. Tomorrow I will load the truck and finish all the other chores.