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Washington Week In Review

I just got back last night from my week in Washington State. I had a wonderful time and am really glad I went….but also am glad to be back! Here’s a little summary of the fun I had: Sunday evening upon arrival in Seattle I picked up my rental car and headed to my sister’s house. We drank wine and duty-free tequila and caught up on everything. Monday we took a wonderful walk on Ruston Way in Tacoma – along...

You know you live in a hot and humid place when…

After shower baby powder is a must The only seats that get much use are those under ceiling fans Sometimes you go grocery shopping to cool off The dogs will lie down only within fur ruffling distance of the fan You give up vacuuming in between maid visits You know why all cookies and crackers are packaged in single serving bags Wearing a dress makes you want to snitch your husband’s cotton mid-thigh undies Taking the dogs for a walk...

Judge not…..

I’m not a kid anymore. And sometimes it is never more obvious than when I see little gaffes that I can just imagine my mother sighing over. And then I need to slap myself and remember that pretty much anything that someone decides to wear should be fine with me if it’s fine with them. I most recently heard my mother sigh (in my head) when I saw the woman in the photo at the top of the page. and...

Around town

Our next door neighbor feeds the hummingbirds, and we benefit as they come and hang around our yard and have their territory wars for our enjoyment. Above is a picture of one resting on the palm. We see right into the top of this tree from our office. This is a picture I couldn’t resist emailing to people up North. We are sitting in our favorite palapa restaurant enjoying a Pacifico. Mmmm, pretty good! The picture above is a ruin...

Mazatlán or Teatlán?

Paul and I recently read the book Kissing the Virgin’s Mouth by Donna Gershten. The book is a novel about Mazatlán…which you will recognize easily, even though the author calls the city Teatlán. The main character, Magda, grows up in a poor family in one of the barrios of Mazatlán. Her father sells tejuino (a corn drink) from a cart. Magda is determined to get a better life for herself – but of course there were many bumps along the...

Amigos!

While a lot of bloggers were lucky to attend the Blogger Meetup last week on Isla Mujeres put together by Wayne, we had another Meetup going here in Mazatán. Bliss and the Captain sailed into Mazatlán and we had several enjoyable visits. They were moored in an area just South of Centro – less than five minutes by car from our house. We ran over to the marina and picked Bliss up. We came back to our place and after...

What a fine week

We had such a wonderful time with family visiting last week. I am still a bit tired but I was sorting through photos and I thought I’d share a few of them- at the top, Adam and Martha being funny…     Paul is happy.   Pig head.   Phil and Jen in Maz!   Owen and Erica with Señor Frog.   Erica boogie-boarding.   Everyone having fun.   The van heads back North to Washington! So that’s a quickie...

Different strokes

We have had a lot to learn about our new home, Mazatlan. When carpenters install hinges here, they make the cut out area double deep and then install the other side of the hinge flat on the wood. Smart because it means they only have to make one cut for the hinge. I’ve only bought one pair of pants here, but the zipper and button are oriented the opposite way from the way I am accustomed to. The rules of...

It’s personal here

I read an article yesterday about a coffee shop in Washington State where many people chose to pay for the vehicle behind them in the drive through lane. It got a lot of attention as a “good news” item. I think most people are kind – and most enjoy doing nice things for others. Paying for the person behind you is a very nice thing to do. Unexpected generosity is wonderful. I wholly endorse the idea. But. You knew there...

Random Observations

There are tons of things I love about Mazatlan. Some of them are probably unique to Mazatlan and some are similar throughout Mexico. Here are a few: Bike Cops – Mazatlan has a ton of them. They wear t-shirts and shorts with a gun clipped to their belt. They ride all over, not just on the malecon, and they are friendly to everyone. I don’t know why, but they just make the city feel more approachable and friendly. Mosquitoes –...

We all had a great time

  Here’s a picture of Adam and Martha on our sail on the Patricia Belle. We had such a good time! In addition to the sailboat cruise, we went to the beach and boogie-boarded, ate out a lot, stayed up late and in general hung out a lot. One thing that was really helpful was asking the two of them a ton of questions about Spanish. They really were generous and patient with us, and we appreciate it a lot....

Our first guests!

We are very excited to have our first guests coming tomorrow! Son Adam and daughter-in-law Martha are visiting from Mexico City for the holiday weekend. Our house is in quite a jumble with all the construction but we have managed to make the guest room pretty nice, I think. Considering it still needs paint! There is a lot going on in town and we should have a lot of fun going-and-doing as well as sitting-and-talking. We always have fun with...

Mazatlan is Unique

One of the reasons that we chose Mazatlan as our home is because it has a historic colonial Centro – and is on the beach. Usually these two don’t go together. But there’s another thing that makes Mazatlan interesting – it’s varied people. Germans settled in Mazatlán in the 1820’s. Their presence is noticed in the music, food, and beverages. There is strudel in most bakeries and Pacifico beer is the most popular in town. Oompah music is heard everywhere....

Morning at Olas Altas

Yesterday I took a little video while we were near the Pedro Infante monument at the south end of the malecon. It starts out with a view of the newest boutique hotel here – Casa Lucila, then shows Paul and the dogs, Pedro Infante on his motorcycle, and then I just scan around in a circle. The tide was very high. Olas Altas is the stretch of beach nearest us, and it means High Waves. Kind of a nice way...

Sailing on Sunday

Yesterday we went sailing on the Patricia Belle with a group of about a dozen put together by our realtor. The Patricia Belle is an 82 foot schooner – on Fridays and Sundays they take people out sailing just for tips – around 100-200 pesos each. It was such a fun time I know it will be a regular event for us – or for sure anyway when we have people here visiting. We sailed out at 3:30 and returned...