It finally got hot and sunny today! I'm sitting on the deck and the sun is beginning to set. I'll upload this to the internet later. Hope all is well at home. We're in Mazatlan
tomorrow.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
01/27/09 Puerto Vallarta
We're in Puerto Vallarta. We took a cab to the downtown area and were out all day. It is a nice city. We took a lot of pictures and bought a few souvenirs. We had some of the best shrimp I've ever eaten for lunch: shrimp ceviche, shrimp skewers marinated and grilled over charcoal, and a couple of spicy cajun-type shrimp dishes with sticky rice and french bread. The Pacificos were great too.
It finally got hot and sunny today! I'm sitting on the deck and the sun is beginning to set. I'll upload this to the internet later. Hope all is well at home. We're in Mazatlan
tomorrow.
It finally got hot and sunny today! I'm sitting on the deck and the sun is beginning to set. I'll upload this to the internet later. Hope all is well at home. We're in Mazatlan
tomorrow.
Monday, January 26, 2009
01/26/09 Baja California
Today is our second full sea day. It remains cloudy and has finally warmed up enough to be outside a little. We're sitting out by the pool right now. Rick has broken out the shorts, but it's still at least 10 degrees too cool for shorts for me. It's been 5 days since we saw the sun. I'm not sure I believe the sunny southern California thing. We're cruising about 30 miles west of the coastline and will pass by the southern tip of Baja California (aka Cabo San Lucas) this afternoon our way to Puerto Vallarta. We have a long port in Puerto Vallarta tomorrow. We've decided to go out on our own for all 3 ports. None of the ship's excursions sounded too exciting for the price.
It has been a fairly relaxing the past 2 days on the ship. It's basically the same layout as the Grand Princess we were on a few years ago. We have the late seating for dinner (8:15pm)--it varies from 9:15 to 10:15pm CST depending where we are. That should take some time to adjust when we get back--we generally finish eating 2 hours later. The martini bars are good. We're heading to the art auction again in a while. Guess we should find something to eat. Looks like the weather sucks at home, so I probably shouldn't complain about some clouds.
We just passed Cabo San Lucas. I've included a few pictures. The first is at San Pedro pier in LA. In the last one you can see the top of a large whale that surfaced several times as we went by!--it's the same pic with the two sailboats to the right & the whale is on the left. Isn't this where your sailboat came from Walt & Kathy?
It has been a fairly relaxing the past 2 days on the ship. It's basically the same layout as the Grand Princess we were on a few years ago. We have the late seating for dinner (8:15pm)--it varies from 9:15 to 10:15pm CST depending where we are. That should take some time to adjust when we get back--we generally finish eating 2 hours later. The martini bars are good. We're heading to the art auction again in a while. Guess we should find something to eat. Looks like the weather sucks at home, so I probably shouldn't complain about some clouds.
We just passed Cabo San Lucas. I've included a few pictures. The first is at San Pedro pier in LA. In the last one you can see the top of a large whale that surfaced several times as we went by!--it's the same pic with the two sailboats to the right & the whale is on the left. Isn't this where your sailboat came from Walt & Kathy?
Saturday, January 24, 2009
01/24/09 The cruise leaves today!!
Hello from not-so-sunny southern California. We've been here 3 days now and have not yet seen the sun. It has rained steadily for the past 2 days (they only have about 35 rainy days a year!)
Yesterday was high on adventure and kind of low on fun. We decided to take the LA Metro system from the airport to Hollywood. After a couple of shuttles, we caught the Green Line near the airport. We connected to the Blue Line and then transferred to the Red Line at Union Station near the Staples Center. We went through the middle of South LA/Watts neighborhood and the trip was quite interesting. Part of the Metro is considered light rail and is above ground. The rest is a subway. The south LA part was above ground, so we could see everything. It changes to subway just before Union Station near downtown. The good news is that we weren't killed or robbed, and it was cheap--we rode all day with multiple transfers back and forth in the Hollywood area for $5 each. Unfortunately it was raining and cold, and we hadn't brought jackets or umbrellas. We bought umbrellas from some guy in Hollywood for $6 each.
You couldn't really see anything because of the weather, so we skipped out on the Universal Studios tour and other tours. We did eventually make it to the Universal CityWalk and ate lunch at Karl Strauss Brewery Restaurant (more beer and fish tacos). We had numerous adventures in the Hollywood area, including at Hollywood & Highland (Grauman's Chinese Theater/Kodak Theater--the Academy Awards). We were undecided about what to do when we were ready to head back to the hotel. It was getting later in the afternoon, and it was Friday afternoon. The thought of going back through South LA on the Metro was not a good one. We took the subway part of the way back to cut back the cost and length of a cab ride, but we went too far south. There were no cabs available in these neighborhoods and there were crazy people both outside and inside the subways. We finally went back to Hollywood & Vine and eventually found a cab to get back to the hotel. At that point I would have paid $151, but the fare was only $51.
We made it back alive and then took the shuttle back to Manhattan Beach to eat dinner. This time we ate at Pasta Pomodoro.
The cruise leaves at 4pm. The bridgecam link (Sapphire Princess): http://www.princess.com/bridgecams/sa/sapphire_bridgecam.html
Rick looks very scared in the subway.
Universal CityWalk/Universal Studios
The corner of Hollywood & Vine--where we finally caught the cab back.
The tall building on the left is the Scientology building.
Yesterday was high on adventure and kind of low on fun. We decided to take the LA Metro system from the airport to Hollywood. After a couple of shuttles, we caught the Green Line near the airport. We connected to the Blue Line and then transferred to the Red Line at Union Station near the Staples Center. We went through the middle of South LA/Watts neighborhood and the trip was quite interesting. Part of the Metro is considered light rail and is above ground. The rest is a subway. The south LA part was above ground, so we could see everything. It changes to subway just before Union Station near downtown. The good news is that we weren't killed or robbed, and it was cheap--we rode all day with multiple transfers back and forth in the Hollywood area for $5 each. Unfortunately it was raining and cold, and we hadn't brought jackets or umbrellas. We bought umbrellas from some guy in Hollywood for $6 each.
You couldn't really see anything because of the weather, so we skipped out on the Universal Studios tour and other tours. We did eventually make it to the Universal CityWalk and ate lunch at Karl Strauss Brewery Restaurant (more beer and fish tacos). We had numerous adventures in the Hollywood area, including at Hollywood & Highland (Grauman's Chinese Theater/Kodak Theater--the Academy Awards). We were undecided about what to do when we were ready to head back to the hotel. It was getting later in the afternoon, and it was Friday afternoon. The thought of going back through South LA on the Metro was not a good one. We took the subway part of the way back to cut back the cost and length of a cab ride, but we went too far south. There were no cabs available in these neighborhoods and there were crazy people both outside and inside the subways. We finally went back to Hollywood & Vine and eventually found a cab to get back to the hotel. At that point I would have paid $151, but the fare was only $51.
We made it back alive and then took the shuttle back to Manhattan Beach to eat dinner. This time we ate at Pasta Pomodoro.
The cruise leaves at 4pm. The bridgecam link (Sapphire Princess): http://www.princess.com/bridgecams/sa/sapphire_bridgecam.html
Rick looks very scared in the subway.
Universal CityWalk/Universal Studios
The corner of Hollywood & Vine--where we finally caught the cab back.
The tall building on the left is the Scientology building.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
01/22/09 Hello from Los Angeles
We arrived in Los Angeles this afternoon. After we checked in at the hotel (the Radisson near the airport), we took a trolley to Manhattan Beach. The beaches were mostly deserted today--the weather was overcast and a little cool. We drank a beer at the Manhattan Beach Brewing Company, ate some fish tacos at Wahoo's, walked around and shopped for several hours, ate a little more at California Pizza Kitchen, and finally took a trolley back to the hotel.
Tomorrow we'll go over to the Universal City and Hollywood areas.
Tomorrow we'll go over to the Universal City and Hollywood areas.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
01/10/09: Happy Birthday Rick!!
Saturday was cold and windy but we got quite a bit accomplished. This is where we started on Saturday morning. Every sheet required multiple cuts. It was quite tedious, but we finished the south wall.The birthday boy!
Sunday is supposed to be warmer and less windy. We hope to finish the east and north walls tomorrow.
Milo poses by the amaryllis (picture for Mother).
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
01/07/09
We've made a lot of progress with framing and installing windows/doors. The metal siding is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. We plan to have everything enclosed before we leave on vacation January 22--hopefully the wind and weather will cooperate.
Friday, January 2, 2009
01/02/09 Update
Our little steel worker learned how to climb ladders. Here he checks out progress on the beams & inspects Rick's welding.
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