Friends, Family, Fiestas, Fishing, and Fun!

That's a lot of "F's", but it has been a jammed packed month and we have enjoyed every minute of it!

David and Lynette (Doug's brother and sister-in-law) spent a week with us and we had a grand time. We spent a night at the Tropicana Inn in San Jose del Cabo (which we highly recommend).

The rest of the week was spent going to the beaches, visiting museums, shopping, eating, and generally goofing off. We were sorry to see them go!

Next, Phil and Danette (my brother and sister-in-law) arrived and the fun began again!

We visited the Cactus sanctuary in El Rosario.

Day tripped to Todos Santos to see how the rich folks are doing.

We threw a Christmas party at Casa Ana where we crowned Shanna "Miss Pinata 2009".

Isn't she beautiful! That was a tough pinata, but Shanna was even tougher.

Miss you, Ana and Steve!

Fern and Brian invited us over for fun and games at their lovely casa - always wonderful hosts.

We hope to pay them back and take them sailing one of these days...



The manly men decided to go fishing. Reymundo - out of Muertos - did a wonderful job and Brian caught a big Dorado, plus all caught Sierra.

Phil's big tuna was devoured by a Sea Lion before he could reel it in. Now, that is a fish story!

We shared the catch with our amigos - yummy!

Call Reymundo if you want to catch fish (612-120-0325)

We visited the beautiful GranSuenos in Muertos on Christmas Day. We were the only guests and were treated wonderfully. If you want a GRAND experience, check it out.


Now, all of our guests have returned home - how sad is that?

Back to our boat projects!

Happy Holidays!

We hope that you enjoy the holiday humor! We miss you all and hope that you have a wonderful and safe Holiday Season.

Love,

The Moondance Crew

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Happy 40th Birthday, Anessa!

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Time is flying by!

Even with all of the boat projects in progress, we still find time to have some fun!

We attended the 2nd Annual Paella festival - who knew there were so many different ways to make Paella. All very different and yummy. We ate, we drank, and enjoyed the local entertainers. A very nice way to spend the day!

We have been fortunate to have so many of the Gate 11'ers around La Paz recently. We were treated with a marvelous pasta dinner and game night on Jessie's Girl. Loved learning how to play Mexican Train - now we just need to find the dominoes.



We attended Subasta again this year. This is a charity event to raise funds so that local kids can go to school past the 6th grade.



There are auctions, raffles, things to buy, things to eat and drink, plus a wonderful chance to hang out with all of our buddies.



This week - company's coming! David and Lynette (Doug's brother and sister-in-law) are flying in from Reno. Should be a wonderful visit!

Lucha Libre!

Yup, we had to go and experience this local live entertainment!

Lucha Libre, which is Spanish for "free wrestling", is held monthly here in La Paz. We have always wanted to go and just made it happen.

We talked the crews from Evergreen and Jessie's Girl into joining us and treated them to a local favorite - delicious eats at the corner Hot Dog stand (bring your own cervezas).

As you can see, Jess and Doug really got into the spirit and donned their Lucha Libre masks - along with a lot of the locals!

The outdoor arena was packed with families cheering for their favorite wrestlers.

We really enjoyed the first 4 matches - especially the crazy antics of "Mary Apache and Exótico Yuriko fighting Cythia Moreno and Exótico Nygma" - they were a hoot! After that, it got a little too crazy - even for us.

Give it a try if you are in the area - you just might see us there!

Happy Thanksgiving from Casa Ana!

We had a wonderful Thanks giving feast at Casa Ana in La Paz!

Thanks so much to Ana and Steve for sharing their beautiful Casa - sure wish they would have been here to join in on the festivities...

Compadres included:

• Shanna and Jess (Jessie's Girl)
• Fern and Brian - (local Canandian amigos)
• Carol, Dennis, and Josh (Evergreen)
• Jean and Dave (Exit Strategy)

We ate too much good eats (real turkey), drank too much good drinks (keg of beer from Montana - yum!); visited, played games, and all of the other things good friends should do!

Love the Holidays!

Hope you all had a wonderful Turkey Day shared with friends and family. We were thinking about all of you!

The Scoots

Nothing changes, but the changes!

I have no idea where I heard this line, but it sure applies to Moondance!

The last thing you heard from us was that we wanted to spend a year cruising Central America - Costa Rica, Ecuador, etc..

Well, after lots of discussion (and input), we have decided to skip Central America and head to the French Polynesia. The beautiful islands in the French Polynesia have always been our goal, we just got a little sidetracked!

Our very tentative ports of call in Mexico are:

• La Paz - until mid-January
• Isla Isabella (Mexico's Galapagas)
  
• San Blas
• La Cruz
• Puerta Vallarta
• Manzanillo
• Zihautanejo
• and maybe, Acapulco

Our plans after leaving La Paz are pretty flexible, so if you want to hook up along the Mexican coast - let us know. There are lots of wonderful places...

After Mexico, we really start to sail - to the South Pacific that is:

• Galapagos (first part of May)
  
• Gambiers
• Tuamotus
• Marquesas

If all goes as plans, we should be in Hawaii for Christmas. How cool is that?

Check out our path!

View Moondance's Sailing Adventure in a larger map

Back in La Paz!

We have been on the move! Our goal was to get to La Paz quickly so that we could start on our BIG list of projects. You know us, we don't move so quick and neither does Moondance, but we did good.



We only traveled ~200 miles, but it took us 10 days. Lots of beautiful stops along the way, plus reconnecting with our boat buddies.




Highlights of the trip:

• Homemade pizza on AirOps - thanks Dave and Merry
• Fishing
• Watching the wildlife
• Marvelous Dorado dinner on Totem - yum
• Cruising again!
  

We are enjoying being back in La Paz and re-visiting our favorite eateries. Special treat - the crews from Evergreen, Totem, and Capaz converging on the Burrito Lady for wonderful cheap eats!

Ana and Steve - wish you were here!

The Dolphin Roundup!

We had a special treat on our sail south - the Dolphin Roundup!

We were traveling from Puerto Escondido to San Marte when we were joined by approximately 200 dolphins. It was amazing to see them jumping and flapping their tails as the rounded up dinner, plus listen to them "talk". An amazing show that lasted about two hours - WOW!

Hope all of you get to see the Dolphin Roundup one of these days.

Thanks for the fish!

Back on the Baja!

We had a beautiful moonlit sail from San Carlos to the Baja Peninsula last night! We sailed 55 miles and motored 15 - that is pretty good for us! We were able to test out a lot of our equipment (new and old) and except for a fuel issue (TBDL), everything worked well.

It took us a long time, but nothing too crazy - except for the Frigging Frigates that were trying to land on our mast in the middle of nowhere, which generated lots of yelling and banging. People wonder what we do all night!

As we pulled into Punta Chivato on the Baja this morning, we were amazed to find the sun rising on our port side - and the moon setting on the starboard side. How often does that happen?

We also had a pod of dolphins join in to celebrate our arrival and help us find our way.

We have really enjoyed "cruising" again. We are sitting at anchor with a beautiful view (plus free wi-fi) and eating good old home cooking - the luxuries of life!

We had a very nice surprise tonight - Totem pulled in - yeah! We have really missed them and looking forward to spending some time together.

We will probably stay here a couple of days and then start heading South to La Paz. Looking forward to exploring the Baja again!

After that, we aren't sure what's happening. There is a "discussion" about our next step. Oh my. We will keep you posted!

Happy Halloween y El Día de los Muertos

Happy Halloween to our American Amigos; Feliz El Día de los Muertos to our Mexican Amigos!

We have been in San Carlos for two weeks now, getting Moondance read to sail again - it has been much more work than we thought!

Besides putting Moondance back together, we (Doug) has been repairing lots of important stuff, plus installing some of our new goodies!

In our "spare" time, we have enjoyed watching all of the Major League Baseball games (go Phillies), plus some football. What a treat - San Carlos is definitely Gringo friendly!

We met a lot of new boat buddies, plus hooked up with some of our old friends. San Carlos is pretty festive this time of year - lots of activities and parties - our kind of town. It was a special treat to spend time with our Alameda buddies, Marv and Ardy on Odyssey.

We hope to leave San Carlos on Sunday/Monday; heading to Punta Chivato. It is about 70 miles, so we will leave around 5pm and should get their about 7am.

If all goes well, we should have a beautiful moonlight sail over to the Baja - how romantic!

Most likely, we will be incommunicado until we hit La Paz - around November 15. We hope to get caught up on our R&R time, plus catch some fish along the way. Hope you are well and enjoying life!

Hasta Luego!

Naked Man and the Raccoon!

4:30 am - Doug (Naked Man) staring down a Raccoon that had scampered inside our boat, found the snack bin, and stole a bag of Snyder pretzels - hah!

The Raccoon would have got away with it except opening a bag of pretzels is very noisy and I sleep very light!

I wake up Doug who flies out of bed, grabs a flashlight, and sprints up the steps - a very attractive site for Naked Man! The Raccoon jumps off the boat, leaving the pretzels behind.

The Raccoon doesn't appear to be afraid of Doug. He is more interested in the pretzel bag Doug has in his hand. The Raccoon runs up and down the dock thinking ... flee or tackle Naked Guy and grab the pretzels? The Raccoon finally decides to run away, but we are sure he is going to come back. He knows where we keep the goods!

We have checked with other boats at the Marina - Raccoons are harassing everyone. Guess we had better start closing the hatches at night!

PS: Photo is not of our Raccoon, but a good substitute!

Back on Moondance!

Yahoo - it is wonderful to be home again and sleeping in our own bed - even if it is a mess! Our summer vacation lasted 3 1/2 months and completely wore us out. We decided that was too long to be away (for lots of different reasons) - but especially because of the hardships to the boat and equipment caused by the heat, humidity, and lack of care.

Our first day back, we spent the day goofing off and checking out some of favorite watering holes - just to catch up on some rest, plus acclimate to the weather.

Next day, we actually starting to "think" about our projects and shuffling stuff around. We have been keeping busy multi-tasking: catching up on email, blogging, and bombing cockroaches that snuck aboard while we were gone - oh my!

Today, we actually got some boat projects started and worked all day (almost).

We had an easy trip from Arizona to San Carlos. Thanks to Bill and Linda for letting us crash at their place, plus for the wonderful steak dinner. We went through Mexican customs, plus a Checkpoint, without much stress. Doug overwhelmed everyone with his fluency of the Spanish language (not!), his impressive amount of paperwork, plus the quantity of stuff stashed in the pickup. The locals didn't even want to start digging through the pile of boxes and bags that we called treasures!

San Carlos is in much better shape than we imagined, plus it beautifully green (from all of that rain). Tropical Storm/Hurricane Jimena left it's mark and there is still a lot of work to be done on the infrastructure, but it is coming along.

We hope to have Moondance sailing away by the end of October. Wish us luck!

The Wild, Wild, West!

We have been having a grand time visiting family and friends - can you tell? We loved spending time in Albuquerque with Kathy, Deb, and Chuck, visiting old haunts, and hanging with our buddies.

Plus, we got to spend some time with some of my SWIFT work team (miss them!) and Doug's old Gunrunner softball team. Can't believe it has been a year!

Next stop, Ruidoso to visit my family. This is Billy the Kid country and has lots of history, plus just beautiful mountains and valleys

Mom and Dad threw a 42 party (dominos) and, as you can tell, we ate lots of yummy stuff and stayed up way too late!

We got to enjoy some of the nightlife of Ruidoso with my sister and family (Anessa, Eric, and Gavin) - a chuckwagon dinner and western show at the Flying J Ranch.

Gavin braved the horseback ride and shoot out and we all laughed and sang during the entertainment - it was a hoot!.

Jim and Tawona invited us out to their house to pick yummy apples in the Hondo valley. It is harder than it looks, but we were able to get plenty!

Doug and Eric really enjoyed learning how to "Fast Draw" - check out the video. I gave it a try, but couldn't hardly hold the gun. It is tough.

Jim and Tawona compete in competitions. Jim is going to the Nationals near Reno this weekend. Good luck to them!

Giggles and Grins!

Watch Doug and Steve on stage!

Our Travels: Nevada, Illinois, New Hampshire, and Texas!

Now, that's a whirlwind trip!

As part of our summer vacation, we are trying to finish up projects, plus visit as many family and friends as time allows.

We visited Doug's family in Reno and had a great time. We arrived just in time for a family birthday party (Linda and Nicky), we played craps and won (wow), we were treated to a wonderful Sunday brunch, plus more.

The best thing - we were able to deliver the family antiques to the next generation. So nice to shutdown the storage area. Thanks Scott's!

We also got to meet our new niece, Nikayla. What a beauty!

Next, off to visit my family in the suburbs of Chicago. We had a great visit with Becky, Dave, and Ryan - just like always.

No matter how long we have been separated, it seems like yesterday. Gotta love that!

We had a great time losing money betting on the ponies at the Arlington Park Racetrack. What a beautiful track, plus the sun was shining - nice treat!

And, or course, we had to go watch the Chicago Cubs play. We must have been good luck - they won!

Next stop, Goffstown, New Hampshire to visit more of my family - Ken, Lisa, and Brittany!

Ken and Lisa have a beautiful "boathouse" on the lake where we spent lots of hours floating, eating, drinking, and socializing with the locals. Great fun and wonderful lobster!

We also got a chance to watch our niece, Brittany, play volleyball and had a great time. Brittany is Captain of the JV team and has a mean knuckle-ball serve. Just like her ol' aunt!

From there, we flew down to Texas do help my sister Becky find a house in San Antonio. What's family for anyway? First, we took a couple days of vacation to goof off in Austin - we love that town plus we needed some rest. Now, we are zooming around San Antonio looking for the perfect place. I am not sure the value we are adding, but we are happy to help!

As much as we have enjoyed our summer vacation, we are really missing our boat, plus we are pooped! We are used to a much easier lifestyle - no alarm clocks, planes, schedules, etc. Silly retired folks!

And, just in case you haven't been watching the Pacific weather, our boat that is docked in San Carlos was in the path of Hurricane Jimena. Our boat is fine (we think) but the towns on the Baja and the mainland were hit hard. So sad, for the local families and so much to rebuild...