Pooks Canyon

In the home across our street, there was a death in their family. Dozens of people have been coming to them all day and night. Women are sobbing on the sidewalks. In the middle of the night I heard loud wailing in several different voices. Today I searched Mexican mourning rituals and read some articles.  In Mexico, the dead belong to the family. The body will lay, either on a table or the floor, covered with a sheet and marked with candles in each corner forming a rectangle. For 24-48 hours friends and family of all ages hold a velorio (prayer vigil). When the coffin is delivered to the house it is filled with clothes and other belongings so that the departed may have his/her things. Arturo Gordon- Velario de un angelito On October 31st altars are made for children who have passed away (los Angelitos), same for adults on November 1st. On November 2nd families hold a candlelight vigil at the cemetery where they remember the departed and commune with their spirits. Below...

Monday started our first work-week in La Paz. The Internet connection in good, the food is great, and the January weather is amazing.  We do a lot of going out and about, trying our poor Spanish on the very friendly people of this fine town.  At the purificado (place to refill water bottles) I wanted to purchase a second bottle and it took a lot of pantomiming to confirm.  At one point the guy looked at Axel and said, "Help me out here."  Young people in La Paz are very much bilingual. At lunchtime Monday I took Axel to enroll in a local school: Instituto Bicultural Juan de Ugarte.  He started on Tuesday and reports that he is very happy there.   The whole upstairs is devoted to English and students begin learning it at a young age.  By fifth grade they all speak English fairly well. Tonight, when I asked him about school, Axel smiled and blushed, saying that the girls in his class are teaching him Spanish words then quizzing him through...

Friday afternoon we flew into Los Cabos with three suitcases, two cats, one large bike box, and the clothes on our backs.  The weather: sunny and 78 degrees.  In La Paz there are 340 days of sunshine per year.  Inland it is arid but the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez have the place surrounded and the shoreline is lush.  It only takes 1-2 hours to drive from one coast to the other. Axel having mango smoothie in our hometown of the moment: La Paz, BCS, Mexico. Hermes, coming out of baggage claim.  Maggie is in there somewhere, too. Los gatos y la bicicleta Jon manages to wedge la bicicleta into the rental car. I manage to wedge Axel and the cats and the suitcases into the rental car. This guy has way more elbow room than us. We found the wide open space very soon.  Here Axel shows Jon a rock from at Playa Balandra (Whale Beach).  There are many whales and dolphins around these parts.  Jon and I saw a wha...

On Sunday we left the trailer at a repair shop in Santa Ana and said hasta la vista until March 20. Our next stop: an Airbnb in Los Angeles.  Actually, I am sitting on the LA Airbnb couch as I type all the 2017 blog posts to-date.   On Friday we are off again, this time to an Airbnb in La Paz for some real Southern California action. The trailer should be fully repaired in time for our return at the end of March. While in LA you take your child to Venice Beach, right? "Mommy, what's that?"  "Oh nothing, honey... look, a skate park!" The beach was just a beach, though when tagging the location on Facebook I almost used the popular Venis Beach tag.   Not sure what that means but I presume something tawdry. This Venice also has canals!  Axel and I walked along the canal.  This evening he made a really cool re-creation of it in Minecraft. Someone let loose with the dad jokes on the Venice sidewalks. And then there was this tr...

The whole point of Oceanside was to surprise Axel with a trip to LEGOLAND.  The weather cooperated and, last Saturday, I told Axel we were going to play disc golf and then rolled up in the LEGOLAND parking lot instead.   The happy boy. Here he is building a boat to run down the watercourse.  I love how much hands-on stuff there is to do at LEGOLAND. Jon met us down there after competing in the Oceanside Gran Fondo (aka the Saturday morning group ride).  He legs may have been tired but his carnival skills were on point, winning this giant Pokemon. Here Jon and Axel pose on a bridge overlooking the New York skyline. We even found LEGO cyclists, in varying degrees of distress.  Not sure what is going on with these middle guys.

After our brief stint in Lost Hills we drove to Paradise by the Sea RV Park in lovely Oceanside, California.  Proximity to beach, hot tub, San Diego, and - most importantly - LEGOLAND were the attraction. Day one and Axel and I were on the beach. This boy loves the ocean. Paradise by the Sea RV Park has a rec room with a pool table and this pirate presides over the gaming action.  If he could talk he would say Axel is pretty good at beating his mom at pool, especially when Axel makes her play bank the eight ball. I took a vacation day from work on Wednesday and Axel and I hopped on a train to Old Town San Diego.  People have been living in Old Town San Diego for about 10,000 years and there are European buildings from as far back as the late 1700's. Axel loads a water bottle into a cannon. Here is Axel at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Old Town. And Axel at our afternoon beverage stop at the Nordstrom Cafe.   Full disclosure: the...

From Santa Cruz we had to make it down to Oceanside in a single weekend.  Not wanting to drive more than four or so hours a day meant a one-night stop in lovely Lost Hills, California.   The Lost Hills scene. How we spent our Saturday night in Lost Hills.  A well stocked trailer courtesy of my father-in-law's great taste in gifts.  Thanks Bill!

It rained a lot in Santa Cruz, California and, apparently, everywhere else during the early days of 2017.  We spent many hours in the trailer at Santa Cruz Ranch RV park lamenting the lack of disc golf weather, the lack of Jenny Umstead (she went to NZ!), and the lack of KK and Lo (they moved to Chico!) On January 2nd we went to the Boardwalk but the rides were closed.  Good thing the indoor mini golf was open!  Here is Axel hamming.  With the handicap, Axel won.  Fun course in which you play along a balcony and occasionally balls come flying down to the first floor. We played a lot of poker thanks to Axel's Christmas present from Grandpa Frank (aka my dad).  We are bringing the chips to Mexico Dad... see you in February! I did manage to find one of my Jennifers, my long-time pal Jen Dohl.  We met up for drinks at Seabright Brewery, a place that serves a pitcher of margaritas in a mug with a straw.  The pitcher did not get fi...