Out with the Old

WHERE ARE WE? La Penita, Mexico

Well another year is coming to an end.  It has not been a year that we would ever want to re live, but life marches on and if we want to be part of it we have to put on the big girl panties and head out!!  There have been positive accomplishments in our lives this year as well and for those we are thankful.  So on this final day of 2022, I hope everyone can look back and find some things that make them happy!!

A few chores to do in the early afternoon.  We are dismantling and cleaning our fantastic fans.  They sure do get full of gunk!!  Especially the kitchen one.  Putting them back together will be another days job.

Even the outside covers need cleaning

The kitchen one soaking in the sink!  It was really dirty.

Nothing but clear sky do I see!

clean parts

Somebody, I think maybe Bill Bell, posted a picture of Rincon Guayabitos which is a couple miles down the beach.  It is the tourist area and they are all there for the holiday.  Not sure I could handle crowds like that.  Our place is just out of the picture on the top left corner.

Our beach was a little more relaxed.

Before getting into our New Years Eve I want to tell you a story.  A week ago or so we went for breakfast down the beach and on our return, Susan and Suzanne were walking together as they approached our place.  Susan saw a new sign and thought that the owners had renamed the place AGAIN.  She made the comment that the new name was kinda nice but wondered why they had changed it from Romantic Escapes.  Well her friend Suzanne almost fell on the ground laughing because she figured it out faster than Susan did.  Here is the new name.  Do you see what it is??

For those who don't know a little Spanish, the sign actually says "House for Sale"!!!  Here is the actual sign which is a little farther down the fence.  The whole thing was good for a laugh.

So for New Years Eve we were invited to Abuela's casa to be with them.  They always have a fun time with lots of people.  It started out with some good food and conversation.

Then some dancing and carrying on!

ending with piñata's and firecrackers.  Everyone had a great time and it was a lot of fun.  We enjoy spending time with our Mexican family.  

We did observe a gorgeous sunset before the party and I tried to get the fire in the wine glass like I did last year.  Normand and Suzanne are such good subjects.  And that's it for 2022!  Good Nite!!

A Little Music for the Soul

WHERE ARE WE? La Penita, Mexico

It was a beautiful day today and we just spent most of the day in the pool and visiting on the beach.  Remember we are retired and that means there can be no real plan for the day.  I love it.  The ocean was a bit different tonight because although there were no real big waves, what there was, was really churning up the sand and pebbles.  We were at low tide as well so that seemed to make it worse.  The power of the ocean to change the landscape of this beach overnight is so amazing.

Lots of pink sky tonight and some different things going on, on the water.  

There is a fairly large boat around the last couple of days with lots of people on it.  They anchor it out in front of our place.  Also about this time of day all the fishermen are racing home before dark catches them.

Our local fisherman Jorge (pronounce Horhay), was checking his nets out front.  He can't afford a motor so he just uses a set of homemade paddles.  I think he spends too much on the Mexican laughing tobacco!!

After dark I headed up past the cemetery to the big RV park on the hill.  Tonight is jam night, and they have some pretty good musicians there.  They do need a keyboard though Dave?  It is a good couple hours of music and then I head back down through the cemetery and home.

I did think of home for a couple minutes today and know what it is like there.  Although I like snow, I don't like it this much.

This is more my idea of winter!!  Good Nite!!

Supper Out Again!!

WHERE ARE WE? La Penita, Mexico

Sometimes it seems like our lives are on repeat.  Because the weather is nice, we don't mind just hanging around home and relaxing.  Because of this, it is sometimes hard to come up with an entertaining blog.  I guess even the ho hum things we do here are kinda cool if you have not experienced them.  Mexico is a country steeped in culture.  Even in the 4 years we have been here, we see what the western world calls progress.  Bigger and better stores and hotels and newer cars are showing up more regular.  I sometimes wonder if this is actually good.  Oh well, it is still an awesome place to hang out for the winter.

Today Kenia and I hit up the market looking at all the knick knacks.  Nothing I needed or wanted.  We did run into Louis and eventually his family and friends.  Good to see them again.  They have bought a place in Guayabitos so will not be in the RV park where we are this year.  We will go visit them sometime soon, and tonight they will join us for supper at Las Koritas.

Kenia's friend Chris joined us for lunch uptown and we had a good time laughing and trying to understand what each other was talking about.  Chris is a good young man who has a little restaurant in Colonia.  He and Kenia sell much the same things.  We are going to visit him next Tuesday.

Kenia and I were talking about how one day she would have a place as big and as popular as this one.  She was envisioning her name in neon lights outside.

A few groceries and back home to spend some time on the beach watching the Pelicans diving for their supper.  There must have been a school of fish out there cause they hung around for a long time.  Its neat to watch them dive bomb for their catch.  They are successful more times than they miss.

It was soon time for sunset so everyone lined up on the beach.

And it didn't disappoint.  Never a bad sunset!!  One thing is that it sets about 5 pm so it is dark by 5:30 or so.  Good thing the temperatures stay up after dark.  Generally it stays around 24C all night, so jackets are never needed.

Tonight we were attending supper at Sergio's at the invitation of Pat and Harold.  The supper was to be a meet and greet for their daughter Julie and her SO Jason however their flights got delayed until the 31st.  So it turned out to be a welcome back for Louis and Candice and Journey and a get together for the rest of us.  We had a great meal of coconut shrimp.  No organized pictures but you get the drift from these.

Always a great meal and social event at Las Korita's.  We chatted for quite a while before the rice pudding girl showed up and took some of my money!!!  Mmmmm they make such good rice pudding here.  The end to another day was sneaking up so off to home we went with our hearts and tummies full!!!   Good Nite!!

Cj's On Ice

WHERE ARE WE? La Penita, Mexico

I will show you all of the pictures I took today.  Obviously only 1 and it was the inside of my pocket!!

I have been looking for an opportunity to put some pictures in of "Cj's on Ice" Christmas party.  There are not a lot.  This is our group of girls that work there with our daughter Sheri.  In this picture, they are actually "on ice"!!  Because they are young ladies, I will not publish their names.  If you know them, you will recognize them, as some of them work at Cj's Snack Shack at the lake in the summer.  We have been blessed to have a dedicated group of people work for us over the last 4 or 5 years and hope we send them out in the world with some people skills and a work ethic!!  We are pleased that we can provide them entertainment almost year round now.

They all went skating in their pj's for a while.  Normally they get to serve all the people that have been on the ice, but today Sheri arranged for them to put on the skates and have some fun.  

Then they went inside and played the saran wrap game.  Sheri spent lots of time rolling up a bunch of things in a big ball of saran wrap.  The game is played by one player putting on oven mitts and trying to unroll the ball of saran wrap, while the next person rolls two dice quickly.  When they roll a double, they quickly grab the ball and the mitts from the first person and start unrolling the ball.  The next person then begins rolling the dice.  The person with the mitts gets to keep whatever goodies get unwrapped in their turn.  Its tough to grab the saran wrap with those big mitts and many times by the time you get the mitts on, the person has rolled doubles and grabs everything from you.  It creates lots of action and laughs.

Cj's on Ice has only been open for a little over a month but already it has made an impression in the rink and in the community.  I think the quality of food has been a big attraction and we are starting to see people visiting the rink just for the food.  We hope that those same people will notice the events happening on the ice and come visit for hockey games, or curling events, or just for some old fashioned public skating.  We have a great facility and it needs to be full all the time, and we hope to help draw in the crowds.   Thats all for today.  Good Nite!

Happy Birthday to Julie

WHERE ARE WE? La Penita, Mexico

More laundry today.  I had to pick up the laundry that I didn't get yesterday plus we had a bunch more.  Its always nice to get the bedding done and they air dry it I think.  Anyway, when I went there with my load of laundry, Marie said pickup on Thursday!!  I think it had something to do with all the laundry lined up on the street.  She will be a busy lady.

Next plan was to drop off a bunch of clothes that Kenia had in Canada and we brought down in the MH.  While I was at her house I was feeling hungry so we went around the corner to a little tin taco place for dinner.  2 taco's each and 2 pinapple waters, 100 peso's.  Perfect lunch and super tasty.

Even the local cowboy and his horse were on some down time.  

They do like to take care of their old trucks.  Water and gravel trucks are fixed up with all sorts of lights and reflectors and the paint is really colourful.  They love the chrome as well.

I headed home and later in the afternoon, Kenia and Oscar and her dogs came for a play on the beach.  They sure have a lot of fun in the ocean with the dogs.

There are not as many people on the beach now that Christmas is winding down.

We were invited to go out with Steve and Julies to celebrate Julie's 29th 39th Birthday.  I just can't keep up with how she is growing up so fast!!!  We went to a restaurant called Buhardilla for supper.  We had reservations for 6 and we got out of there about 9 due to some very slow service.  

At least there was some music while we waited and we were in very good company.

We were actually happy to be there but the picture didn't show it.

The food was great, maybe a little skimpy, but good quality. Some steak, some seafood, some pork and some pasta.  Someone said the make good pizza but we will never know cause we didn't order any.

The reason the pictures are all yellow is because there was a huge neon light above our table.  It was for ambiance so there!!!  Here is proof of how good the meal was!!

Barry requested them to sing Happy Birthday which they did and they brought out some fruit in a cream sauce with a candle.  It was nice.  It's always tricky whether you should draw peoples attention to a birthday girl when she is 39 but I think Julie loved it. 

All in all it was a great night of laughs and chatter.  There is always lots of catching up to do after the summer away from here.  We enjoyed each others company and will do it again sometime.

The check was a little expensive but it was delivered in this funky wooden box!!  Made everyone feel better about paying it!!!  We said goodnight and went our seperate ways.  It was another good day.  Good Nite to you too!