A few days at the lake house and summer arrives with a bang

VALOIS, New York, USA - The arrival of summer was heralded this past week by the simultaneous arrival of our amigos Steve and Pam from Sacramento. They came in for a few days visit on their way to Ohio.

Pam and Steve

And even though the visit was short, we packed in a lake trip on the Spirit of Louise, some wine tasting, a Savard's breakfast, several trips to Watkins Glen, hiking around the property and witnessing a couple of whopper thunderstorms.

We also went to Tina and Eric Hazlitt's beachside cabana for a glass (or two) of wine where Steve and Pam posed for the photo on the left, with Tina and Eric's sailboat in the background.

It looks like a postcard to me.

Pam and Steve are used to the more benign weather of Sacramento and the sudden shifts were sort of shocking. As they left this morning, a cold front roared down the lake and dropped the temperature at the lake house by about 10 degrees in about as many minutes.

Yes, there was plenty of rain in those clouds

Tuesday,  a thunderstorm rolled in just as I was taking a swim off the end of the dock of the Valois Point Yacht Club.

I waited about five minutes too long to grab my stuff and run up the hill.

Next up this week is a fundraiser for Kathleen Schamel's great motoring adventure across Europe to Mongolia as part of a charity for people in Asia and elsewhere.

She will be traveling as part of a road rally team. The rally cars, are, well, pretty small and the roads are, well, pretty non-existent in some of the places they need to traverse.

Still, she's game and the photos from the trip are going to be collector's items.

Here is the link to her team's website: Kathleen's Excellent Adventure

The fund raiser tomorrow will be at the Village Marina Bar and Grill, which, totally coincidentally, is owned by her parents, Mike and Karen Schamel, and run by her brother Mike. It also is being billed as a pre-game party to the three-day Phish concert that starts Friday at the Watkins Glen race track where about 40,000 Phish fans are expected to descend, en masse, for music, parties and, well, more parties.

And it's likely I will be among that throng, writing some short news articles for a local newspaper.

It won't be Woodstock Redux, but it should be interesting.

Carlos Santana at Woodstock - 1969

To Barra de Navidad for a croissant - and to find the miracle store

BARRA DE NAVIDAD, Jalisco, Mexico - Admiral Fox, amiga Kathleen Schamel and I left our outpost in Arroyo Seco (and the hotel on the beach) to roar into Barra de Navidad Saturday for a look at the city. We also wanted to pick up a few things to take back to the USSA when we return later this spring.

Kathleen's last visit to Barra was about 6 years go when she was crewing aboard our sailboat Sabbatical and we were cruising the coast from Puerto Vallarta to Zihuatenjeo.

Of course, on Saturday we stopped at the French Baker on the street next to the bay first, for a croissant or two and some hot tea.

Inside the Milagro store

There were not a lot of tourists in town - or at least up early (11 a.m.). There were quite a few spring break folks about town though, obvious by their bathing attire (or lack of it) and the sweating bottles of Corona they clutched so close.

One stop for me was the Milagro Store - yes, a store that sells various religious items as well as other stuff. I bought a couple of things for our new house in New York and hope that the milagro will be that we get to see our granddaughter here in Mexico sometime soon.

In our travels, we also picked up amiga Laura McCartney who walks with her pooch Mia around Barra every day. At least every day when she isn't out in Arroyo Seco staying at the hotel.

She, the Admiral and Kathleen were checking out the Bob Marley store when I caught up with them, aprés my croissant. A Bob Marley store? I am not kidding. It's a store that seems devoted to all things hippie and equally devoted to Bob Marley.

Three amigas

Fifteen minutes inside of it, and I was considering getting some dreadlocks. Considering.

Barra is a great place to do such browsing but when lunchtime arrived, we were near crisis. Should we eat at Mexico Lindo (our favorite in Barra) or trek back over the mountain to La Manzanilla for lunch at Palapa Joe's.

Palapa Joe's won out fairly easily and we had a great lunch there, sitting at the new bar (new this season). Adm. Fox and I had hamburguesas de pollo, of course. It was a bean and cheese burrito for Kathleen.

When we parked in La Manzanilla, we noticed that a pickup truck was parked nearly in front of Palapa Joe's, advertising a competitor's restaurant on the jardin. The sign wasn't enough to tempt us to divert from our path, however.

And as a bonus for our good choice of luncheon spot, we were able to have key lime pie for dessert - the last slice of piece.

Palapa Joe's never disappoints.

Outside Palapa Joe's in La Manzanilla

School is out for winter, let the rest of the fun begin

ARROYO SECO, Jalisco, Mexico - The Admiral left this afternoon to take son Dylan north to Puerto Vallarta where he will pick up his flight back to the U.S. tomorrow. He's a little more tan, a lot more relaxed, and convinced that his lunatic parents made a really good choice in deciding to settle in this part of Mexico.

We - the lunatics - totally agree.

Today was devoted to the longest stretch of sleeping this captain has taken in years, a total of 12 hours of shuteye from crashing last night until nearly noon this morning. (There were margaritas involved yesterday.) But then I had to finish version 1.2 of a movie for our Canadian amiga Laura Warner who put on such a great set of English classes for the village children last week that they are still talking about Senora Laura.


Laura Warner and the Arroyo Seco Class of 2009

The movie is a chronicle of her class and stay, and in its final form should be a complete Fox-Fitzgerald Rockumentary.

At present, it only has three songs - long on the documentary part, short on the rock music. More music will be included in the final cut.


Barra de Navidad marina and lagoon

With the English classes over, the Admiral and I have shifted back into the go-to-the-beach mode, with side trips to places like Barra de Navidad, a touristy sort of place south of Melaque but very fun to visit.

We stayed at the marina in Barra several seasons aboard our sailboat Sabbatical, enjoying the great amenties of the hotel (pools, hot showers, great food, etc...). We took Hector, N.Y. amigos Mike and Karen Schamel there this past week to give them the tour, along with Cousin Ruth, whose daughters and significant others arrived this week for vacations.

Mike and Karen's daughter, Kathleen, was crew on our sailboat Sabbatical on those sojourns and loved the Grand Bay Hotel and Marina. We think she might love the Pink Flamingo, too.


La Manzanilla Sunset


Julien and Laura on Playa Chica at Arroyo Seco

And the cold/pulmonia./cough stuff?

Better it seems, provided there's plenty of sleep involved. Which is why this blog ends right here...

Buenas noches, amigos.