CABO SAN LUCAS-VILLAGE TO BIG CITY.

I had the pleasure of visiting my friend, Michal Houston in Cabo San Lucas for a week.  On the way home from the airport, Michal stopped at Santa Carmela to pick up her cat at Annie Brogdon's house. I'd met Annie on an earlier visit to Cabo probably 2oo3..? We couldn't remember the year.


She had a lovely dinner of pork roast, creamy buttered potatoes and a delightful salad waiting for us. In Mexico, fresh strawberries are available and we had strawberry shortcakes for dessert. Michal's cat didn't want to go home, however.


The cat gets the run of a real yard at Annie's. So, Michal left the cat for a second week since she was hosting me with plans for an overnight at Magdalena Beach to see the whales among other things.


As we drove the rest of the way to town, I was stunned by the wall to wall buildings. Hotel, after hotel. Huge shops, a Costco, Walgreens, Walmart, like a mini America.  You could not see the water anywhere. Nor was she in her former house, a three bedroom house with three little tilapas  she and her husband occupied and rented part time since 1994. It sat up the hill in the Pedrigal and we walked down to the village which consisted of several bars, an old church and three or four restaurants and small adobe houses.  The main activity was marlin fishing. Cabo was advertised and considered the Marlin fishing capital of the world. From her windows, we saw plenty of boats going out in the morning and returning at mid-day to weigh the catch. We tried to get a boat to share, but we were unable to wangle a deal. I snorkeled from the beach away from the marina while Michal enjoyed the sun for an afternoon. It was heavenly. Margaritas and food were cheap and plentiful. People friendly and very little traffic. It was so much fun.


Michal and I traveled together to China. She likes to sleep in and I'm an early riser/exerciser. I'm up and had fixed myself breakfast before she showed up. She catches up with whatever on her computer while I took pictures around her 3200 square foot, 3 bedroom 4 bath condo she is renting for six months. It came furnished. But, the condo fees are $700 a month and electricity and water are very expensive in Cabo. The unit she is in has an HOA. The members voted down the proposal for a desalinization system because members didn't want to up-front the $2500 per unit because if they sold, the new owner would get the loan money back, instead of the original owner. You can see the bottled water on her counter.


She has a long deck that is entered from the dining room and all three king sized bedrooms.


From the deck you can enter a negative edge hot tub. Each of the 17 units has their own hot tub and deck.


Straight down, beneath her deck is a piece of almost bare land next to the old Catholic Church on the left.


To the right is a pool and a couple of buildings. The Mexican family that owned this piece of property that was once "in the middle of nowhere" were smart enough not to sell. They have their small house and developed enough of their land with a pool, a parking lot and a rental building. They still raise chickens and live a simple life. So every morning I awoke to roosters crowing and chickens cackling after laying their eggs. I found it charming.


The furnishings are very Mexican in flavor.



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And, large, like the house.


A Mayan calendar.


I especially liked this bedroom painting of a young Mexican girl.
Michal drives the narrow streets that are now  one way streets, to accommodate the increased traffic. At a marina restaurant, we met with about 30 of her friends. A couple of people I had met previously were there.


I must have been hungry because I took a picture of my food but didn't take any of the regular Tuesday Gringo gathering. They eat lunch and then adjourn to two smaller tables for canasta and single deck pinochle. My plate of chachaita tuna plate was excellent. I'm still not used to using my phone as a camera. and failed to take a picture of the group.


We walked along the marina and spotted Spring Breakers. Kids from the United States come to Cabo for spring break. It is such a feature they come all over from San Diego, Texas, New Mexico and walk around wearing as little as possible and have huge beach parties with way too much to drink.The girls get ogled a lot, but no one touches. The guys too, flaunt their stuff and can usually be seen carrying one or two drinks. We ran into them all over town. They are feeling a freshness and freedom from the restrictions they would face at home is the appeal. I didn't realize how popular it was until I saw posters advertising Spring Break.


The pier walkway used to be boardwalk, replaced by concrete bricks or cobbles. Michal wanted to reserve a boat for friends that are arriving in a couple of weeks.


The company is called Half Loco. Just a little craziness to be fun. A couple of guys were rinsing off their boat and squirting each other with the hose.


These cactus have been saved, but they were once free of all that concrete. They somehow manage to live.


Michal drove me to her new one bedroom condo. She is having it remodeled and we couldn't actually see inside. It is a unit on the 2nd floor. We visited the association office and I got to see pictures of it.


I took pictures of this walkway to the beach while she talked with the complex business people.


I loved this little outside bar. It was manned but no customers in the middle of the day.


The complex has a pool, tennis courts, a gym, and the usual amenities, but this place has a beach where people can enjoy the water more like her first home in the Pedregal.


The cactus will not be discouraged by the imported landscaping. True survivalists.


On the way home, we passed the small Catholic Church. You can see her rented condo up above in the background.

And next to it, the Mexican couple in the rented parking lot eating lunch with a rooster on the ground roaming free.
We spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for company. Michal loves to cook and we made cream of broccoli soup, twice baked potatoes, sirloin steak marinaded and pan seared rare with a fruity salad. I had a beer but everyone else liked wine. Her guests were Glen Moon, whose wife Sandra was in the States with their kids at the moment and Tibore, a gentleman I'd met previously, from Hungary. His wife  and two daughters live in the states and have citizenship. Though divorced, they remain friends.   Apologizing for not taking pictures must be annoying, and I'm annoyed that I didn't. The camera is easy to forget when you are having fun and enjoying stimulating conversation. I went to bed stuffed from too much rich food in one day.

Continued tomorrow.

TOURIST IN MY OWN TOWN.

My car needed an oil change, it is a hybrid meaning gas/electric car, so, of course it needs regular maintenance. I decided to have it done right close in town at  7 am and walk around town and look at it from a tourists perspective. A coffee klatch was enjoying coffee and sweet treats at Aria Bakery. And another group was sitting outside at tables at Grounds.


It used to be the coffee crowd gathered at the “famous” Murphys Hotel. They were empty both outside and in. Change is the only constant in life, so ’tis said.


Not all change is pleasant. The necessity to have to chain a table to prevent theft at this one time coffee shop turned real estate company made me sad. In fact when we first moved to town, I remember a rancher complaining that he hung his long-sleeved shirt on the fence when it got warm, only to have it stolen and he groaned about the changes with new people moving in.



I forget how charming it is to have a creek running through town. I took a similar picture at a campground in Monroe, Washington. But I had never looked closely over the bridge in town. Trees and vines and burbling waters sluicing over the rocks.


On the opposite side of the bridge, the folks who live there have built up an inviting patio with a water wheel to run their barbecue spit.


The bench at this candle shop was left unchained. Maybe it is all a matter of trust.


In the backyard of an old friend, since deceased, is this unusual tree.


He told me it came from another country as a seed in the pocket of a miner headed for the gold fields. He had no idea what it is. The light green pods are beautiful and unusual. I tried to grow one from the seed and failed. I’m going to try again.


A cute idea to paint a rusting old sprinkling can and hang it on the fence with a plant in it.


A cluster of bird houses is always a good idea. Made for very small birds, decorative and useful enough to foil a cat from reaching into one.


An appropriate sign for a store that sells bathroom machineries. They are most unusual and I always haul people inside for a look. Probably the most fascinating store in Murphys. Plus, the employees believe they have a ghost.


On one of the back streets stands a rustic gold miner’s shack, a fairly large one compared to others I’ve seen. It was occupied by a Miwuk Indian man when I first moved to Murphys. He had a chair in the Murphys Hotel where he sat everyday and told stories to anyone who would listen.  Gone, now, too.


Whenever I see a beautiful sunflower I automatically think of  Van Gogh,  such a pleasant thought.


This corner covered with a showy clematis vine made a worthy picture. Part of my somewhat intense scrutiny of downtown gardens was triggered by having lunch with a friend about June 1st. We wandered town and I happened upon a lavender colored rose that was also very fragrant. I wanted to find it again, hoping I could talk the owner into giving me a cutting from it. It is rare to find a fragrant rose these days. But I couldn’t find anyone around town who knows this rose, or could help me find it. I smelled a lot of blah roses.


An obvious antique something or other decorates another garden. But what is it?  I looked and looked at it without discovering a use for it. I suppose it could be a fence “post” corner. Maybe someone else knows?


After my car was finished, I drove to the chiropractor’s health center in Tuolumne County. Change is a constant? This climbing wall was once 12 feet tall. It has grown to 45 feet tall. Wow!  Not for the timid. Good exercise no doubt and a competitive sport . I’d like to see it in action. Maybe someday.

ENDINGS.

The end of a paint job. Though, Laurie still has other rooms to finish.

The end of Mikey’s stuffed toy-soon. He loves them to death.

The end of work on the bronco and motor home. My bike reloaded on the back.

The end of our cool weather and pink sunsets. Jim read me the weather report.  From the sixties, the weather will turn cold;  40′s during the day, and 20′s and 30′s at night.
“I get out of here just in time,” declared Jim, the weather wimp. He misses the road. He is scheduled to leave at 10 a.m. Monday morning. The end of his stay as he heads south. First  Manteca, a stop in Bakersfield, then Palm Desert, which leads him to Yuma, snow bird country. I finished cleaning out the medicine cabinet and the spice drawer yesterday. We put sheets back on the bed. Doug will come up to install a shoe rack he built for the motor home. I will sort through books I want to take with me. I’ll load the new lightweight computer into the motor home, though, I’m having my doubts about carrying it back and forth, which was the objective. It was frustrating having stuff on one computer I couldn’t access from the other computer.  I fiddled with the new one  for hours last night and it takes two or three clicks to perform tasks in system 7, that take one click in Vista. I’ll load the computer and hope for the best;  forcing myself to use it on the road. Groan. It might have been smarter to carry a separate drive back and forth.

Jim doesn’t listen to popular radio with commercials but there is a song I like, “You’re going To Miss Me When I’m Gone.”  With us, the ending isn’t terribly long.  I’ll fly to meet him in January.

THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER IN BEMIDJI, MINNESOTA?

Bemidji, Minnesota is an Ojibwa Indian name. Kudo’s to the city that actually honored Native Americans with a plaque. A first in my book. Resting in the gardens surrounding the Bemidji Visitor Center when you cross over the bridge and enter the town.

The gardens are a native plant preserve and snuggle up next to small Lake Bemidji. Giant trout, yellow perch, walleyed pike, and whitefish reward the persistent fisherman. This guy says he fishes three days a week and the fish have their “seasons”.

The lake water forms a river that runs south. This is considered the birth place of the Mighty Mississippi River.
Cattails are prolific here and a survival food for humans and animals. (That comes from my days of trying to camp out with my kids and eat straight from the land.)  It was fun but left us starving. The roots make a flour and the tails when green are a vegetable similar to very skinny corn on the cob. (I had just read Stalking The Wild Asparagas, by Euel Gibbons.)  They are a beautiful pond plant anyway. It always amazes me what long forgotten memories come out of the depths when I write.

The Center has a sculpture garden that we enjoyed.

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People line up to have their picture taken with Babe the Blue Ox and Paul Bunyan. I grew up on Paul Bunyan stories and poems, and now I think they are kinda hokey. The visitor center is located in the arts district of Bemidji and the sculpture installations went right on into the first four blocks of town.

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If you are going to have a bike rack, why not make it an artistic bike rack.

Same for a bench. I’m not sure you could actually sit on this one though. It was Labor Day Weekend and most of the businesses were closed, the streets nearly barren of traffic.

Don’t know where my fascination for rusty stuff comes from. Maybe my farm background?

This section of town was artsy in other ways, too.

Interesting signage, fun shops, like comics, baseball cards, cool threads, used stuff, fabric, sewing machines, consignment stores, fun restaurants, (few of them open), two brew pubs, (both closed)  one pub, Keg and Cork was open, but we passed.

We are getting close to our picture upload limit but since I am on a borrowed signal where we are staying at the Elks, I get to splurge.

A flying pig situated near Bene Tutto, an upscale Italian Restaurant (closed) with a pig as part of its logo.

Also within walking distance of the visitors center, a county historical museum. It, too was closed but a veterans memorial was in the museum side yard. Untypical of this memorial was a salute to the Merchant Marines. Merchant sailors had to sign war papers and lost more men by percentage than any other branch of service. They finally got veterans recognition in 1988.


Also unique, recognizing the services of the Coast Guard.  (I’ve noticed that several of my vertical pictures are not loading properly, but if you click on them they come up.)

And, not only women, but women and men of color. I think I like this town.

We spent the night at the Eagles where Amazing Angela, the friendliest singing bartender we ever met holds sway. We supported their fundraiser, spaghetti dinner,  for a child born with multiple problems, surgeries and huge medical bills. Now, if we can overcome the pervasive Koch brothers disinformation campaign about Obamacare, kids like this little boy won’t put his parents in the poor house.