We said sad goodbyes to Walter and Cindy, and beautiful San Diego on Monday morning, and drove east to Anza Borrego State Park. After a beautiful drive through the hills, over the mountains and into the high desert valley, we arrived at the trailhead for the hike into the Borrego Palm Canyon. The hike is wonderful, following a small stream through boulders and flowers into a canyon that ends in a real palm oasis! The palms are the only ones that are native to California. We passed by the Salton Sea, after leaving Anza Borego. There had once been much development around the accidentally (an attempt to steal water from Mexico gone bad) man-made lake, with lots of water sports and fishing available. Not any more....many abandoned properties..roads with names and pavement leading nowhere. People still ... read more

We arrived here Monday evening after a long day of driving. There had been snow on the pass the night before and I5 was closed, so we were a bit concerned about getting across...There was some snow piled along the freeway, but nothing on the road by late afternoon when we got there. We did see a possible funnel cloud forming outside of Sacramento, and hit some very heavy downpours, but in general the drive to Glendale was easy, and we arrived in time to hear Shirley play piano for the residents before dinner. We had a great visit with Shirley over dinner, and then left for San Diego. We arrived here around 9:00pm and were really amazed with the beauty of Walter and Cindy's home and neighborhood. The next morning we saw the location in ... read more

We left Isla Holbox at dawn yesterday...it was a warm, humid morning...lots of bird song, and mosquitos! We will miss the soft sand, great food, friendly people, warm waves, cold beer, palms, and warm breezes, but not the cigarette smoke (tourists) and watching people roast themselves in the sun.. We took a golf cart taxi to the ferry, which was packed with high school kids heading for the mainland school. Next we took the bus to Cancun, a three hour trip through jungle and villages. The ferry cost 70 pesos for 30 minutes; the bus was 90 pesos for three hours... Once in Cancun, we took another bus to the airport, lunched, bought vanilla, and had an uneventful flight to Dallas. We flew over Holbox, which was very cool...being able to see all of this long, ... read more

We are loving the easy life here....I get up around 7:30, meditate on the beach, go for a short run before it gets too hot, have coffee and some kind of sweet from the bakery, swim, shower, eat breakfast...and then all that's left is reading and stroling. We've taken some long walks up to the channel that separates this part of the penninsula from the rest and makes it an island. The last buildings on the beach are only a mile or so from our hotel. We may rent bikes today and explore more. Hard to believe it may snow back home today.... Many French and Italians here..not as many Americans...Lots of choices for good food, ranging from Italian pizza (owned by an Italian) to sushi (haven't been there), and plenty of fresh fish. While there ... read more

Our last night here turned out to be a few hours in the outer circles of hell. Around 10:30 pm the disco started up, and continued churning out music til 4:00 am. A low point for me was a very loud "Smoke on the Water" around 3:00 am. As soon as the music stopped, the locsl cats decided to reproduce on the roof of our patio, which is translucent, giving a glimpse of cat porn before they ran off screeching still. Once the cats were gone, a persistent mosquito buzzed us until we fell asleep for a few hours, only to be woken by the enormous (and I am not exaggerating here) South African couple who sit by the pool and smoke.... The overnight bus is now sounding pleasant in contrast. We visited both the Archaeological ... read more