Mexico 2009

OK. Finally getting around to doing something on this here website. Hubby and I got back from Mexico just over a week ago. We went with my parents, my aunt, and two cousins and their families. It was a ton of fun, and all we did was relax. We were in a little town north of Puerto Vallarta called Sayulita:

It's kind of a surfing town, but I wonder if it's also just a place for locals to drive up to go to the beach for the day.

We were staying in houses owned by an American,


and they were up the beach a little bit from the main part of town. And by main part of town I mean a 9 block grid that has some form of pavement, the rest being dirt roads.  

Arrival day Hubby and I were the only ones hungry at dinner time, so we took off down the beach and found a little place open to the street. Hopefully they didn't mind my sand socks.

First real day we took a walk down the beach to town (in the daylight!)

And each day was pretty much the same: wake up, eat last night's tamales (from the tamale lady who roams town selling her awesome tamales) with an egg and salsa, read some, walk down the beach somewhere, read some, get ready for dinner, read some. A lot of laying in the hammock was involved.

So my dad and I took a stroll down the beach in the other direction (north) and sunset one of the days. One of my lenses die :( so I took just about all my pictures with my telephoto.

obligatory footprints in the sand photo

looking north toward San Francisco

looking south towards Sayulita

And then another day we walked further north up the beach over the rocks some of those sunset pictures are taken from and found a hidden beach. This beach was right between the two towns, and was accessible by vehicle, but it wasn't developed. So there were only a couple people there. So these pictures are on the way to the hidden beach:

had to walk through a nice house's porch to get over the rocks

we're heading down there

but first had to get through this

One of the days I joined on of my cousins and family on a boat ride to another beach with snorkeling included. Snorkeling didn't pan out (water was all cloudy) but the beach was nice. This is from the covered area they served us lunch:

And here's a random flower picture cuz there's gotta be one in every post:

And then I was playing with long exposure to because I liked how the house lights were lighting up the palm trees. The turquoise strip is waves getting lit up from the house lights too.

And then we came back and then Hubby and I had stomach problems for over a week (still do, a little. No, it's not Mexican (bovine) flu.)

P.S. I don't know why only some random pictures have links to bigger versions

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Reno

Approx 5 min into Reno trip, and already things are going swimmingly. I thought it would be a problem to get seats with Hubby since we got our tickets through different purchases. But not only did they hook us up with seats together, but we got exit row seats, baby! And. And!! Since the group of us are travelling on Military orders (except me, the dependent) we got shuffled through security in like 1 minute, with the regular line trailing back through the corporate offices and bathrooms.

Continued:
We're back now. It was a fun trip for me, since it was no work and all vacation. Hubby got tagged by his boss, who wasn't even supposed to be there (wrong MOS) and had to do "daily accountability". That means he had to have one of NCOICs gather phone calls and emails confirming everyone was still alive from the night before, send them to Hubby, and then he sends the 100% back to the boss. Yeah, youngest person there is a specialist in her low 20's. Young, but still an adult. But other than never getting a break from the micromanagers, I think Hubby had a good time too. Their conference wasn't too much work, and everyone always got the nights off. Me, I just had to occupy myself while they were busy. All I have to say about that is I don't know why I wasted my time with slots; I should have manned up way earlier and gotten on the Blackjack table on day one. I got enough back on Blackjack to not be embarrassed by how much I lost on slots.

This is the main downtown core. The tall buildings are all casinos, but there are some regular town-type buildings in this area as well. We were in the green one, the Silver Legacy. Pretty nice place, cheap rooms, so-so maid service, very nice dealers.


This one is the first morning, before all the snow melted. It snowed later that day, but none of it stuck in the valley the town is in. Up there with the houses is where my Dad's uncle lives, and from where the night picture was taken.


There was a blizzard in Denver the day before we left, and it messed up some people's flights but not ours. So our flight to Phoenix was overbooked from moving all the Denver people around. Flight out of Phoenix was also overbooked. No, we did not volunteer to get bumped. Yes, I'm selfish.

So. The scene to which I returned. One dead lizard and one dead fish. Lizard I knew about, because I got the frantic call midweek. I didn't know about the fish, but the tank is algaey and the guy taking care of the place probably didn't know how many there were to begin with.

The lizard that died is the little Beardie, who I got to replace Lazarus. He had just come out of brumation a few days before we left, so I was loading him on tons of worms. He was VERY (even caps is understated) excited to eat, so I kept giving him lots. So I think the thing that killed him was not crapping out all the poop, so he probably died of some obstruction.

The fish that died, I don't know about. Yeah, that tank's dirty, but not enough to kill fish. It was the orange one who bit it, and he (and his female) are older than the other fish in the tank. Who knows. Maybe now with him gone some of the babies will survive.

Gecko's hanging in. He's been getting a steady supply of crickets for the past couple weeks, so he's is eating mode. I saw him giving the fish the "I'm going to stalk and eat you now; hold still" look this morning, so I gave him a couple crickets. He usually isn't into eating very much, but maybe watching the fish has gotten his appetite up.

Cats are still alive and well.

OK, that's all.


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Back from Knoxville

Knoxville seems like a pretty cool place. We drove trough downtown and old town a bit. But also made it out to the freak show know at Sevierville. Holy cow what a madhouse that place is. It's the Gate Way to the Smokies, but it's also done up for kids and families that don't do the outdoors: Miniputt, go carts, Ripley's, funhouses, etc. It's not a themepark, but just separate businesses as you go down the street.

Smokies was pretty. Stopped the car when we saw a sign for "Quiet Walkway." The short trail split a few times, and following the most trod path we ended up in a damn cemetery!

Someone who has an account with a heritage site (ahem, Ma) can look up the names. Judging from the dates a nontrivial amount of children were lost due to influenza epidemic in the nineteen-teens.

W.H. Bohanan: March 20, 1845 - June 29, 1880

Martha L. Bradley, Wife of W.H. Bohanan and R.R. Reagan: 

November 11 1848 - September 7, 1918

Clifford Bohanan: November 9, 1895 - October 18, 1896

Pearl Stinnett, Daughter of Eli Russell: May 8, 1914 - 

September 17, 1917

Richard Stinnett, Son of Eli Russell: March 14, 1912 - April 14, 1912

Sarah Jane Bohanan: October 29, 1873 - February 6, 1879

Elmina Bohanan: November 22, 1857 - August 15, 1885

Mary Bohanan: August 8(?), 1877 - December ??, 1877

OK, enough of dead people. Here is one of Gatlinburg, which is totally touristified. Not sure there is anything authentic to see.

And one from the same viewpoint, but of a light dusting of snow in the trees.


This day of driving around started with a nice BBQ lunch at a chain called Buddy's. It was goooood!!

And then was driving through the Smokies, and then on the way back we stopped by some outlets. One was supposed to be a power tool outlet, but they didn't seem to have much in the way of tools. Mostly they had odds and ends and ten this stuff that I though was joke stuff:


But they may be real, for people with bad eyesight. I'm going with joke.

Had Japanese that night. Lots of college kids apparently can afford hanging at the Japanese restaurant on a Sunday. Then Monday we met Idiot Friend in town and had lunch at a nice little Hippie Shack (called Tomato Head) on the market square. The more BBQ at a Famous Daves for dinner. Should have taken a picture of that too, because we got the meal for 4 that comes on a garbage can lid.

So anyway, driving was fine, it snowed but didn't stick all day Monday, and leaving Tuesday morning there was snow in the parking lot but the roads and the rest of the way was clear. the car did excellently the whole way, and we convinced Idiot Friend to upgrade his Subaru.

Even though the trip was fun, we don't have any guns to show for our cost and effort. poop. Click for full post and comments

I'll Tennessee you in my dreams

This'll disappoint some Googlers when they get here looking for a Tanya Tucker site. Oh well. We're heading to Knoxville today. Finally going to visit a friend of ours who is moving back West again, and he has too many guns to ship. So we are going to be rolling through DC on Inauguration Day with a trunk loaded with guns. Should be interesting! If you don't hear from me for like six months, it's either me being my normal non-blogging self or I'm in Gitmo, or if Gitmo is closed then another secret CIA camp.

In unrelated news the momma cichlid that was holding has let her baby go, and I got to see it this morning. He's bigger than I thought it would be, so hopefully this guy will make it. He's got a good hiding spot.


[UPDATE] We're in Knoxville, and let me tell you: 35F feels like a tropical paradise compared to the 11F we left in MD. And right now it's 39F! It's positively sweltering!

[UPDATE] Idiot Friend says he's going to pack his guns in the trunk of the car that's getting shipped, instead of letting us take care of them. We'll see how good an idea that is when they get stolen.


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Fiji 2008

I went to the most awesome place at the end of February: Fiji! Specifically Shangri La's Fijian Resort, on its own island on the south side of the main island (Viti Levu?). It's on what's called the coral coast, so the waves break 100-200 yards off the beach, making a lagoon that is easy for snorkelling. I had never snorkelled before, but all you really have to do when the water is three feet deep is float. It was so rad I don't have words. So there are lots of pictures instead:

First a few of some of the property:

On the one Saturday we were there there were two (or more) weddings going on. It looked like the chapel was being set up for a wedding, but we saw one ceremony on the lawn by the rooms. So maybe it was on the lawn because the chapel was booked. Anyway, one bride I saw had on a real gown, like the kind you don't want to get dirty. Who does that for a freakin wedding in Fiji? That's dumb. The other party looked a little more beach-themed.

Kava is a native drink that they say "one makes your tongue numb, two takes it away, three puts you to sleep". I only had one, and my tongue went numb. Apparently it's a mild narcotic.

I took lots of sunset pictures, and it was finally when we were getting on buses for the airport did it get real colorful with pink and other colors.

The place is beautifully landscaped, and when you walk around the island you see some of their facilities: green/hothouses growing areas, etc. The place it pretty much self contained in all ways except electricity. That I think comes from the main isalnd, but water and sewer are all taken care of on site.

Spent lots of time on the beach. The snorkelling pictures are all film, so they need to be scanned.

You can pay for excursions off the property, like zip line through the jungle, or visit a village for lunch and kava ceremony, or a dinner or all day cruise. We didn't do any of those, but our group was treated to a fire walking ceremony (followed by dinner and more fire-themed entertainment, of course)on the resort property.

From "Beach Bar and Grill":

From the cabana at Takali Bar:

The next two are when we drove to the capitol, Suva. Sometimes the road is near the water, other parts it is in the mountains.

Sunset on the beach:

It was an awesome trip. I plan on going again, to this resort, again. We spent a week there, and that seemed about the right amount of time. There's really not much to do, so you'll get bored if there too long.

Bula Fiji!

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