Doctor says it's important to avoid dehydration - have a cold beer

PUERTO VALLARTA, Jalisco, Mexico - We roared up Mexico Highway 200 over the weekend to visit with Dustin and Cami and Sasha - as well as take care of some medical appointments in the metropolis of Puerto Vallarta.

I went to a new-to-me doctor/dermatologist who told me I needed to hydrate to help with my very dry skin.

And beer, he said, works to pump up your fluids. Not as well as water, but still...

No kidding. Beer.

Hi-ho! Doctor's orders and all that.


A classic sailboat - a Westsail 32

Part of the reason for being in Vallarta was to hook up with Captain Clarence Harvey, skipper of the 43-foot sailboat Lotus who has asked me to help him with racing in the Banderas Bay Regatta in a couple of weeks. It is a fabulous boat, but he hasn't raced and so my role will be to act as an adviser (Don't hit that boat! Turn to port! Turn to starboard!) as well as to be crew.

And, of course, I will do my best to keep hydrated during the three days of racing in the sun on beautiful Banderas Bay.

Adm. Fox and CEO Laura Warner will also be joining the crew, too, no doubt in part to monitor my hydrating activities. The races can be very long.


Granddaughter Sasha eats her father's bagel

It was a fun visit with Sasha, who at 18 months really is starting to know her mind - and express it.

One new word that she can say in English, Spanish and Romanian is 'no.' And she uses it a lot.

Oddly enough I watched the Jim Carrey movie 'Yes Man' one of the nights and the next day started telling Sasha yes, everytime she said no.

It worked briefly. Very briefly. She is as smart as she is cute and is back on her no-to-everything stance. We see how long she says no when she arrives tonight in Arroyo Seco and we drag out the cookies.


'Cowblock' in Arroyo Seco

There is only one road in and out of Arroyo Seco. Well, only one that I can drive my two trucks on anyway.

And this morning - as we tried to get to La Manzanilla for a 10:30 a.m. breakfast date - we ran into a 'cowblock' on the bridge. For as second, it appeared the small herd of vacas didn't want to cross the bridge and we would have had a standoff unless I backed up. (Yes, it would have been Mexican standoff, but really...)

The vaquero running the herd made them change their minds with a some gentle shouted encouragement - and the back of rope across the butts of several of the laggard cows.

Not exactly U.S. gridlock, just a nice diversion.