Mexico

HA! I made it back with all THREE suns in one piece. You have to keep reading to understand the significance of this modern day marvel. Ummm. I went to all girls Catholic school and I don't think we loved Jesus THIS much.

Lunch after wine tasting.

The last winery we tasted at. GREAT olive bread and cheeses laid out for us.

I think these corks halved and glue gunned? to the wall are cool. I am so going to incorporate this into our house somewhere.

One winery we sorta got mixed in with the blue hair tour. This must be the Mexican version of a riddling rack?

The original grape stompin' footwear. Are you gellin'?

I made a couple smiley faces in the dust...

When I saw this poor, old dog I said to Furry Husband, Oh, sweetie! Look at that poor old dog with saggy boobies! The Dr. of the couple we were with (Dr. and D) quickly replied, "If you refer to my wife that way again, I refuse to ride in the same car with you!" See? Told you they were fun to hang with!

Our first Mexican winery. D, Dr, La Jefa, Me, El Jefe Me, Furry Husband, La Jefa, El Jefe

A cool dog... he was colored just like MY first dog ever who was half Bloodhound and half Australian Shepherd. I had to have some puppy love.

Ahhh - vines and vinyards.

Blue skies and orange trees.

Bonito!

Ensenada.

I kept looking for Lyle Lovett. After all - we were ON the road .... to Ensenada.

Funny.

We didn't see him anywhere.

The huge ass sea lion.

Surfers! El Jefe (Furry Husband's buddy) is the one on the left.

This bird appears in my NIGHTMARES. Big time Stephen King moment here. Just look at that stub of a leg. Furry Husband says to me, "Wow. I bet that one leg is really strong." I found this bird completely disturbing... and it would scratch it's head with that weird missing foot of a leg. Ewww. Do you see how it's giving me the stink eye. This bird wants to eat my kidneys.

This seems to be the logo for the main liquor store in Mexico - fat guy carrying his belly in a wheelbarrow. Nice. Makes me long for another six-pack.

We followed Jefe in another car cuz he needed to drop his off at the mechanic. This guy was working on a car and it made us laugh.

I liked the tidal pools!

Everything was GREEN! I loved it. CO is so dry and brown and drought ridden.... Birds of Paradise everywhere.

The beach and coast line where we stayed for a week. That doesn't suck does it?

More cool tidal pool stuff. It was just like the Discovery Channel.

Furry Husband with his frisbee... we didn't know our beach would be so rocky. No frisbee - we woulda broken ankles for sure - snap, crackle, pop! The tide pools were awesome tho!

Our stop at the Mexican grocery store... El Jefe is looking at me indulgently with all my bread and pastries. Mexican pastries pale in comparison to American pastry so compared to French pastry... you don't even want to go there. But I was hungry and I stocked up on Mexican pastry. Tho' in reality most of it ended up in the trash by weeks end. Tsk tsk.

Furry Husband's buddy, El Jefe, has a 6 yr old daughter - isn't she cute?!

Our first stop at the border.... I think the guy in black is another Federal employee... CBP maybe?

We had a great time in Mexico! The press is sorta having a field day with the drug wars etc. but it is NO WHERE near the tourist areas. I think it's a case of wag the dog...

We went whale watching and there were Grey Whales everywhere! I read some brochure about how they would be curious about the boat and come up to it - let people touch them - open their mouths like Shamu and let you scratch their tongue. Seriously, this was in the brochure!

Shame on me because I 1/2 way believed it. And let me tell you - if it sounds too good to be true, it probably IS too good to be true. They are like any wild animal - you spot them and you can get within some type of range before they move away... just like a squirrel in your yard.

BUT it was extremely cool to see them out in the ocean in their environment. This short clip doesn't really do it justice at all. You can see some spray - we saw backs slicing through the water and we saw tails. The ocean was pretty choppy that day making it more difficult to see.

On the way back in, the guys manning the boat put lines out to catch fish. They caught 4 Bonito. I've actually had Bonito as sushi - EXCELLENT fish if you like it raw! Anyway - interesting to see the whole fish vs. a little piece of it served on sticky rice.

When we docked, there was this HUGE sea lion. That thing had to be 800 lbs... sitting on the next dock sunning itself.

Furry Husband and I went over to take a look... not every day we get to see a sea lion. We are in a dry, drought stricken, land locked state. As we headed back to land, the man from our boat is cleaning the Bonito. He offers me the bloody fish head and entrails to throw to the sea lion....

A very nice offer... but um. No. I don't want to hold a bloody fish head in order to feed a wild 800 lb sea lion. Really. Thanks but um. yeah. No. Thank-you very much.

I mean the guy had blood dripping down his hands....

I'm a farm girl who won't hesitate to dive into a goat vagina to fish out babies... but somehow on vacation, it's nice to stay clean and free from the blood and gore.

We visited wine country one day - really beautiful, picturesque countryside. The wine was suprisingly good and we had a wonderful, wonderful day. Another couple, D and the Dr. were part of our wine country day and they were super fun. Everyone was down to earth, friendly and interesting.

I had to bring home some decorative suns. We stopped on the way to the airport to get ONE. I ended up getting THREE. I know Furry Husband is seriously questioning my simple math skills. He shook his head - "how are you going to get those on the plane?!"

Simple honey. I'll just tie all the sun spokes together and it'll be like it's only one!

He looked at me skeptically shaking his head. He's lived with me long enough he knows when it's a lost cause to argue.

We arrived at the airport in San Diego and I carried all THREE suns to the check in counter. The ticket agent gave me a roll of packing tape and left me to it. Thirty minutes later, I felt my suns were adequately secured together and I checked them. Furry Husband had to walk away and watch me from a 10 foot distance because I am so insane and stubborn and I was gonna get those suns on the plane if it killed me. He didn't want anyone to know he was associated with the crazy sun toting woman.

THEY MADE IT WITHOUT A SCRATCH ON THEM! HA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (manical laughter)