Our Year 2011

We have been blessed with another year of travels.  We are truly grateful for this lifestyle we so enjoy which allows us to visit beautiful places, meet up with dear friends, and make many new ones along the way. 

This year started out in the Anza Borrego Desert in southern California, where we retreat after the holidays, following the sun and meeting up with fellow snowbirds around the southwest; Sharon and Rodger in Tucson, the Panys in Yuma.

By the time April rolls around it's time for us to head for the coast and turn north toward Pismo Beach and some quality time with best friends, Edna and Allen (please hold thoughts and prayers for Allen).  We were delighted when 8 mo. pregnant daughter Terri, Clint, and Liliana decide to drive down from Half Moon Bay.  More Family Time in Petaluma as we all gather for Easter at Norm and Wendy's. In May, the 16th to be precise, we welcomed our newest grandbaby Damien.

June is anniversary month and we celebrated our 17th in Calistoga, the heart of the Napa Valley wine country.  We also enjoyed time with new friends Bruce and Phyllis, whom we in Petaluma, and "old" friends from Half Moon Bay days, Don and Joan, at their beautiful property in the Gold Country.  Our world-traveling grandson Rob just happened to be in Sacramento for a visit with his mom/our daugher Stephanie, with now wife Helga from Romania, where they are currently residing.

After the 4th of July we start out on our summer migration to the northwest.  The motorhome always needs maintenance or repairs so a stop in Eugene, one of our favorite towns, is in order.  The Willamette Valley is home to some choice wineries so we have our first introduction to Harvest Hosts at Emerson Vineyards.

August is our month in and around the Port Townsend, WA area, probably our favorite summer location, with its beautiful views of Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  The Evergreen Coho Park, provides a perfect location for sightseeing the Olympic Peninsula, especially Hurricane Ridge, and meet new friends, John and Bonnie.  But the Main Attraction was our two weeks parked right on the water at the Pt. Hudson Marina in downtown Port Townsend with a bonus visit from Steph, Gary and friends, Laura and Jim!  A ferry ride and drive to nearby Bellingham and we enjoy a wonderful day with long-time friends from Mexico days, Hazel and Dick.

The month of September brought us to a new destination, Caldwell, ID, near Boise, and soon to be new "summer home" for our good friends Beth and Chris.  Of course, they couldn't have endured without our help and support!  We enjoyed so many good meals and great sight-seeing trips; some that were really, really long days, but provided beautiful scenery.  Check out Weeks 2 through 4 as well.  Perhaps we've found another "favorite" late summer location.

The absolute best and highlight of October was our time in Medford, OR where we celebrated my sister-in-law Gay's Surprise 80th Birthday party, hosted and perfectly planned by my nephews and nieces.  All my family came from Half Moon Bay and Petaluma for the first family re-union in way too many years.  I am honored to share the same birth day with Gay!  Also, while in Medford we met up, but had precious little time with dear friends John and Babs, who had just relocated from Clarkston, WA.

So now it's time to return to Petaluma where we gladly accepted an opportunity to babysit our 5-year old granddaughter, Christina aka The Bean, have special bonding time with Annie, our grandlab, and enjoy cooking and hanging out with son, Norm, while d-i-l Wendy was on vacation a business trip.  Petaluma is a great town, centrally located, with so many fantastic Day Trip opportunities. The Marin County coast is not to be missed, and of course, a Dog Day with Annie in San Francisco...priceless!

By now you surely know we have a Really Big Trip coming up so must get our motorhome in storage mode with the help of our family and friends near Sacramento!  We fly from Sacramento, via Chicago, via Toronto, to..ta-da...Barbados, on November 3rd.  After two wonderful days seeing Barbados with friends Paul and Dalya, we boarded The Star Flyer for 22 days of sailing to beautiful islands, like the ABC Islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.

After 2 days at sea we arrived in the beautiful, old colonial city of Cartagena, Colombia, a truly magnificent experience; then another day at sea before anchoring off the San Blas Islands, home of the indigenous Kuna People.  Our trip to one of their villages, seeing their beautiful crafts and molas, was special indeed.  The piece de resistance, the grand culmination, the top of our bucket list, our Panama Canal Transit was more than our combined imaginations could conjure, even after reading  McCullough's The Path Between the Seas.

The Third Week takes us into the Pacific as we sail from Panama to Costa Rica, anchoring off beautiful, uninhabited islands with stops in Golfito and Quepos, before disembarking in Puerta Caldera.  We end our month-long journey in Jaco, Costa Rica for a much-needed 4 days of quiet decompression, before returning home to the Bay Area on December 1st.

Now and through Christmas once again is family time as we make our circle tour; Petaluma, Half Moon Bay, Citrus Heights, counting our blessings and counting the days until we once again start the New Year 2012 in our beautiful Anza Borrego Desert....and so it goes!  What will this New Year bring?  We so look forward to meeting up with you along the way, on Facebook, or in this wonderful blogging community.

May you and your families be blessed with an abundance of peace, prosperity, health, and happiness in this New Year 2012! 


Lynda & Howard

                              

Jaco, Costa Rica

We said our goodbyes to fellow passengers and crew aboard the Star Flyer and disembarked by tender at Puerto Caldera at about 9:30 a.m.  Here we were met by a large group of taxis and van drivers, where we negotiated our fare to Jaco, about an hour's drive south along the Pacific, for a whopping $100 for the 4 of us...too high we later find out!

According to our US State Department, Costa Rica is a middle income, developing country with a strong democratic tradition, with extensive and generally adequate tourist facilities.  Jaco is surely representative of a laid-back, bustling beach town that caters mostly to tourists and a weekend crowd of Costa Ricans, characteristic of the 1970s era; nice, accommodating but in need of some maintenance.  The locals were all nice and very helpful and Spanglish became the language of choice.

Our condo had been reserved well in advance from Vacation Rentals by Owner.  It was inexpensive and had our minimum requirements....bedroom, bathroom, with a kitchen/dining/living room combo.  This allowed us to stock some food and beverages and fix a meal, especially coffee, if needed.  The owner/rep, Bob Johnson, lived on the premises and made sure we had everything, including free wifi.

The town, beach, and all the restaurants were just a short walk from our place and taxis anywhere in town were 750 colones, or $1.50.  Out first night's dinner was at a local sport's bar where we were treated to great Tico food which usually consists of a choice of fish, chicken, or pork with rice, black beans, salad, and fried bananas...and the super bowl of Costa Rican soccer games between the Alajuela and Saprissa teams on large flat screen TVs.  The air was electric with the excitement of so many people cheering on their favorite team.  A good introduction to the local scene.

The beaches were just OK; not conducive for swimming or overly attractive by Caribbean standards.  The surfing apparently is good as there were a lot of kids toting surf boards.  We had no desire to do any more sight-seeing and the days were just too oppressively hot and humid to spend much time outside other than early mornings and late afternoons.  At 5 pm you could practically set your watch for a major downpour of rain, which usually lasted an hour or so. This was perfectly timed for our walk to dinner!

So we did little but relax, recuperate, read, get caught up on photos and updating this blog, and of course, many SKYPE calls to family.  We reflected on this fantastic voyage we were blessed to experience.  As good friend, George, said:  Another item checked off the bucket list!  Amen to that....  Thursday, Dec.1st, we returned to Sacramento and our much-missed little motorhome.  Every time we fly we think, never again.  Nasty, awful, crowded, sick, and uncomfortable are the adjectives that come to mind.  We will be very content to be in our beautiful Anza Borrego Desert very soon after Christmas!  In the meantime, we are having a much-needed family fix.  Love and best wishes to all...

Around Jaco!

The beach

This beautiful parrot lived in the trees by a restaurant where we dined

Iguana out for a stroll

Haircut with Bob Marley and friends

The town