In Arroyo Seco, catching some rays on the beach - sun rays, that is

ARROYO SECO, Jalisco, Mexico - Admiral Fox and I decided to come down to Arroyo Seco for a week to check on things and decompress from life in the big city of Puerto Vallarta.

It's been, well, great... We are spending days at the beach, afternoons at Luis' restaurant eating shrimp filadelphia and evenings (after puesto del sol) usually reading before turning in. Yes, I am still reading the Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1. And I will be, into the summer.

View from hotel deck

Our amigos Jim and Vickie are helping the owner of an 11-bedroom house/hotel on the beach rent out some rooms this season. The place is for sale, if you have a spare $350,000 U.S.

Did I mention that the place comes with a heart-shaped swimming pool?

This is the first time in our years in Arroyo Seco that there has been actual overnight accommodations for out-of-town folks.

Adm. Fox and a I grabbed a room on the second story right away and will keep renting it for the season. It has a fabulous view of the entire beach.

In about a week or so, we will move all of our surf and beach gear down there. The place has a big kitchen downstairs and a new refrigerator to keep my hydration supplies cold.

When we have guests in the coming weeks and months, we will put them up down there, instead of having them stay in the Gray Goose Express II here in El Centro.

Over the weekend, Chief Education Officer Laura McCartney Warner dropped off her pooch Mia to spend a few days here in Mia's old stomping grounds. Mia was rescued last year by Sylvia and Laura and eventually went to Canada to live with Laura.

Vickie, Sylvia and Mia

Today, she and several of her former compadre dogs in the village went with us to the beach where they ran, jumped, and, of course, rolled in whatever dead things they could find. A short video of the huge surf - and Mia playing with her amigo pooches - is at the end of this blog.

And the sunsets! Madre mia! In the last few nights, the sun and moon have been putting on spectacular light shows. The first photo below was taken in La Manzanilla, the other here on Playa Grande.

Sunset in La Manzanilla

Arroyo Seco, Playa Grande

Daysailing on Banderas Bay aboard the famous ship, Profligate

LA CRUZ, Nayarit, Mexico - Admiral Fox, son Dustin and I jumped about Richard Spindler's catamaran Profligate Sunday for a three-hour cruise across Banderas Bay from La Cruz to Paradise Village marina (just a mile or so from our casa).

We pulled away from the dock about 1:30 p.m. (after a short shore break) with about 20+ people aboard for the trip.

It was a classic, beautiful day on the bay. And it was a little cooler than normal, which made the temperatures just about right for the entire trip.

Richard is the publisher of Latitude 38 magazine in San Francisco, a magazine soooo revered by sailboaters and cruisers that old editions (from 10 years ago or more) get passed around like rare books at swap meets. He and his partner, Doña de Mallora, will be keeping Profligate at Paradise for the next few months.

Here's a short video of the trip. I was too busy most of the time enjoying the ride to get my video camera out.

Baby it's cold here in Mexico - at least for this time of the year

NUEVO VALLARTA, Jalisco, Mexico - Along the Costalegre (which stretches from here past La Manzanilla to the south) today the emails and message boards were buzzing about how 'cold' it was.

In La Manz, some people said it was 52 degrees Fahrenheit this morning - with a high of 82 still predicted.

Brrr, brrr and, well, brrr.

I know such temperatures have people in northern climes laughing. (It is 21 degrees in Hector, NY as I write this). But when you live in the tropics, anything that is not, well, tropical, can be a shock, and maybe a problem.

For Admiral Fox and I, safely ensconsed this week in our condo in Puerto Vallarta with son Dustin, cool evening temps are no big deal. Close the doors and throw a blanket on the bed. But were we in Arroyo Seco, in the Gray Goose II Express trailer, it would not be as comfortable.

We'll hope for a spike in temperatures before we head back south at the end of the week to Arroyo Seco.

Coming home from school

Admiral Fox is ending up a three-week language class on Friday, a class she has really enjoyed and believes has helped her ability to be able to gossip, er, I mean talk, with the Mexican women in Arroyo Seco.

I do notice already that when I fire smart-ass Spanish frases in her direction, she understands a lot more now.

No more telling store clerks that the woman in line with me is my mother. (I really only did that a few times, because the store clerks usually looked at me and said that they thought I was her father.)

When we go back to Arroyo Seco, we will also get to see how much progress has been made on a house being built on Playa Grande by our amigo Jim Monaco.

Jim bought our two beach lots earlier this year - the lots that are bordered by a short, dead-end street. A local fellow two years ago fenced it off and claimed it was not a street at all - that in fact, it was his land. Total bull, of course, but Admiral Fox and I never could resolve it, and we wanted to build two small houses on the lots, a plan that required the street as access for the back lot.

Police stand by while fence is taken down

So we sold and said 'adios' to that idea.

To make a long story into a short anecdote, the fellow made the mistake of placing part of his fence on our land and last week Jim was able to get the muncipality of La Huerta - and a judge - to order the fence (on Jim's land) removed. A few posts blocking access to the street remain in place. But I hope to see the street opened this spring.

Fence is down, and the posts hauled away

The name of the street? I have dubbed it Calle Libre (free street). I hope it sticks. Hell, I'll buy the street sign and put it up myself, when it is open.

The day the fence was taken down, officials from La Huerta, eight police officers, at least a dozen townspeople (in one official capacity or another) and numerous onlookers came out to see the fence removed.

It wasn't quite as dramatic as the fall of the Berlin Wall, but it was still pretty interesting to see some action take place after two years of endless debate in the village.

Sasha and Sylvia last spring

Admiral Fox did some writing herself today, putting up a very poignant piece about the travails of divorce and what it's like for us not to be able to see our granddaughter - when she lives only minutes from where I am writing this.

You can check out her blog at this LINK: Why we will never get divorced

Restaurant Las Brisas in Arroyo Seco - the new beach hangout

ARROYO SECO, Jalisco, Mexico - The new location for Las Brisas Restaurant in Arroyo Seco, on Playa Grande, suits it well. Very well.

Under a large shady palapa roof, the restaurant has space for maybe fifty people in a crunch (or who might not be crunched,  there's plenty of chairs and tables...). The entire interior of the former house seems to have been given over to a huge kitchen with plenty of room for the fresh fish and shrimp that are the house specialties.

Las Brisas Restaurant in Arroyo Seco

In fact, don't go looking for a hamburger there, just yet. It's a seafood place - and everything is fresh, sometimes caught from the freshwater laguna out back, sometimes the ocean in front.

The place is operated by Luis and Nena, longtime Arroyo Seco residents who ran the restaurant in a much smaller facility across the street for several years. But that restaurant was really open only on weekends (and Semana Santa, of course). Luis and Nena's son, Luis Jr., along with some of his pre-teen amigos, act as the waiters and are close to professionally attentive.

Sometimes they might be wet after just getting out of the pool when they walk up, but they won't make you wait for your food.

The new place is serving meals every day and has become my new Arroyo Seco hangout.

Luis (standing) taking an order

So, um, where is it?

The Arroyo Seco turnoff is a left from Highway 200, a few kilometers north of Agua Caliente and the turnoff for El Tecuan.

The Arroyo Seco signs put up last year seem to have weathered the summer nicely.

Once in Arroyo Seco proper, the turn to Playa Grande is at the end of the main street. If you turn right, you go to Playa Chica, where there are no services, but frequently plenty of surfers.

Playa Grande is about two kilometers from town and Las Brisas is near the south of the beach. It's very close to the new RV park, too.

My favorite dish - so far - has been camarones filadelfia. Yup, they mix some Philadelphia cream cheese in while cooking the shrimp and peppers. It can be a little picante, too. (I have been getting the half order - plenty of of food - for 50 pesos...)

On a recent outing with amigos from La Manzanilla, the shrimp diablo got rave reviews as did the fresh fish filet, cooked in garlic.

All this writing about the restaurant is pushing me out the door to my quad for a quick spin to Las Brisas for some camarones filadelfia and a cold Tecate.

Oh, and a swim in the pool, too, if it's hot. I haven't seen any adults in the small pool, but, hey, it's Mexico. Jump in...

I will try to remember to take some photos of the food this next trip, too. The last few visits it disappeared before I could get my camera out of my bag.

Quick trip to Arroyo Seco and La Manzanilla - too quick, indeed

ARROYO SECO, Jalisco, Mexico - Admiral Fox, son Dustin and I - along with amigas Laura, Christina and Pat from Canada - all shot out of Puerto Vallarta Thursday for a trip to the southland.

Laura, Christina and Pat were bound for a condo in Barra de Navidad rented for a few months. Adm. Fox, Dustin and I were headed a few days of R&R in Arroyo Seco. (R&R, I know, I know...)

It was great homecoming (the second in as many weeks) in Arroyo Seco and La Manzanilla.

Anna - the quinceanera

In Arroyo Seco, we visited with amigos Jim and Vickie, as well as Julien and, of course, our neighbors Chena and Chon who take care of our property when we are not there. (And frequently even when we are there.)

And we stopped in at a coming-of-age 'quinceanera' party in the main square last night. It was a wild affair with great music and food.

You really haven't lived until you have heard Achy Breaky Heart done in Spanish - and watched a group of gorgeous young Mexican women doing a line dance while wearing prom dresses.


In our travels we also managed to eat at three different La Manzanilla Restaurants: Cafe Risa, Palapa Joe's and Fiesta Mexicana.

Fiesta Mexicana? But isn't that in Tenacatita?

Same sign, even better food

Well, it was - along with a lot of other nice restaurants, unceremoniously evicted by a Guadalajara developer who wants to build a resort and golf course. What is it with the golf course fetish these developers all have?

Anyway, Fiesta Mexicana opened a new restaurant just up the beach from downtown La Manzanilla and I am happy to report the setting - and food - I think is even better than before.

And the evictees from Tenacatita beach and the oceanfront (Adm. Fox and I included) continue to battle in court to get our property back.



In Arroyo Seco, the palm trees around the property have grown so much it's like walking into a jungle-themed park when you go in through the front gate.

In coming weeks, we will be pulling the place together. This trip, we ate, played on the beach and drove the quad around.

And it was great.


Pink Flamingo from the front gate


Palapa with new lamina tile roof

As I write this, we are back in Puerto Vallarta and have a full week planned, including a mid-week visit from Beth and Roy, who are coming from La Manzanilla Wednesday to pick up Beth's son (and our nephew) Nate at the airport.


Nate will get a quick Mexico baptism with a whale-watching panga tour set for 9 a.m. Thursday morning. Quite a difference in scenery (and temperature) from Ithaca, New York where he lives and goes to college.

Admiral Fox and I plan on going along on the panga expedition, too. After seeing whales on one trip with Di and Roger Frizzelle about their sailing vessell Di's Dream, followed by a panga ride where we motored behind a manta ray for a half-hour, I'm hoping for a post-Christmas glimpse of a mermaid.

For you skeptics, I would like to report that I've seen many mermaids on beaches here in Puerto Vallarta and in La Manzanilla.... The quest to find on in the water begins Thursday.

A fast panga ride, whales and visit to a palapa, in Yelapa

YELAPA, Jalisco, Mexico - A ride across Banderas Bay in a fast panga is always fun, more so when the destination is the seaside village of Yelapa, south of Puerto Vallarta.

The area is accessible almost exclusively by boat. There is a road, of sorts,  but it is only for the truly brave, driving a vehicle with an excellent suspension.

The trip was to check in with Adm. Fox's cousin Lynn, who is there with her amiga Suzanne for a few weeks before they head south to La Manzanilla. Along for the adventure with us was Laura (with the pooch, Princessa Mia, of course) and Christina.

Sylvia's cousin and Suzanne are vacationing in a cliff-side home that is drop-dead gorgeous and has only one drawback that I know of: scorpions.


Scorpions where they belong - in a case

Last season, the couple killed about 23 of the little buggers during a short stay in Yelapa - that's 20 more than I killed in our five-months in Arroyo Seco. And I think the three I killed is waaaaay too many.

Nasty stinging things aside, Yelapa is still as magical a place as it was when I first saw it in 2000 when Admiral Fox and I chartered a panga to take us there for the day.

It's changed a lot - more houses, more tourists, even some upscale development, it seems. But the water is just as nice. And it has a couple of restaurants, too - besides the tourist traps that the tour boats frequent.

Some years back, with Karson Swedberg in tow, we sat on the beach there sipping Pacifico beer and postulated that what Yelapa needed was a good local brewery. The fresh water there, we thought, would make excellent brews.

And the motto for the beer? Yelapa - ya love it.

OK,  but it seemed sooooo clever at the time.

The Yacht Club in Yelapa

The trip out and back was fabulous, too, with many whale sightings on the way south, then a close - and I mean very close - encounter with a manta ray on the way home.

Our driver, Gus, knew exactly how to pull the boat close to the action without being too intrusive.

Here's a few photos of the expedition - and a short video of a Manta named Ray...


Laura, Princessa Mia, Gus, and Christina
on the way to Yelapa


How close is that whale?


San Francisco sailboat
anchored in Yelapa

Settled in Nuevo Vallarta home, but Arroyo Seco beckons

NUEVO VALLARTA, Nayarit, Mexico - Life in Nuevo Vallarta has become as close to routine as life allows here, with most mornings dedicated to exercise (swimming), some writing (blogs and other screeds), planning out of the day (where should we eat lunch?), followed by, well, more exercise, more writing and more planning.

In the past few weeks, we have made a foray south to Arroyo Seco and La Manzanilla, gone whale watching with Roger and Di Frizzelle on their 47-foot yacht, Di's Dream, ran enough errands to run through $100 in gasoline - and helped Dustin get his new home set up here, a home in which we live, too.

How many 30-year-olds do you know whose parents move in with them?

The turnabout is fair play, however, as Adm. Fox and I are helping Dustin find his footing amid the domestic upheaval of separation that too many people reading this have gone through. Divorce is not any prettier among the palm trees.

Still, times are good and getting better day by day.



Di and Sylvia on whale watch patrol


Infinity pool at resort north of La Cruz

Last week we went to a fabulous resort north of La Cruz for the afternoon, where I sipped the best Pina Colada I ever had. And yes, the second one was as good as the first. The place has three infinity pools, each spilling over into the next one.

We only got as far as pool number two for swimming, though Dustin said that ocean waves out front were fine for swimming and/or boogie boarding.

On Christmas Day, we had breakfast with the Frizzelles and Dustin at nearby Paradise Village, then retired to the beach for a family tradition - an Christmas afternoon of boogie boarding and margaritas on the sand.

Sylvia and Dustin at breakfast, Christmas 2010

I opted for a Pina Colada during the course of the afternoon, instead of a margarita. Perhaps that will be a new family tradition, too.

How was the boogie boarding? Fabuloso... Just fabuloso.

Towards midafternoon, Santa Claus arrived on the beach, too - in great style - landing via parasailer. Very classy.




Santa Claus on Paradise Village Beach


Life at the beach

Our next adventure will be to head back to Arroyo Seco in a few days with amigas Laura and Christina from Canada. They are staying at Casa Dustin right now and will be spending the winter in Barra de Navidad.

We will also be checking out the situation at Tenacatita, the site of a beachside 'picnic' today that was put together to draw attention of the seizure of the property August 4 - and the eviction of nearly 800 residents. It's a mess. Here's a recent blog on the situation: Beach picnic/protest

New Year's Eve looks like it will be in Arroyo Seco or La Manzanilla at Palapa Joes for Admiral Fox and I.

Hoo-boy! Can you say, Cuba Libre?

Online, offline, Internet here, there and everywhere

NUEVO VALLARTA, NAYARIT, Mexico - The on-again, off-again, Finnegan of Internet service has been wreaking havoc on posting here and on the Tenacatita Bay Bugle (Tenacatita Bay Bugle link).

On the other hand, it has made it possible to ignore the keyboard, swim and generally enjoy the balmy weather that is Mexico this time of the year.

Admiral Fox and I made a quick foray to Arroyo Seco, where we opened up the place, which had been spit shined by our village amigos Chena and Chon. Somehow in our brief stay of a few days (which included runs to La Manzanilla and Melaque for food, gasoline and more dinero) we neglected to take any photos of the Pink Flamingo, though I did take a short video out on Playa Chica.

Arroyo Seco express to Dustin's

The trip was short because we went through various lockers in both trailers and the bodega to pull out items Dustin (and us) want/need in his new poolside casa.

Last night we barbecued steaks - only the third time our barbecue has been pressed into service since Arroyo Seco friends Jim and Vickie dragged it all the way from Texas for us.

What also came north was about six huge bags of dirty laundry, currently simmering in six washing machines in the laundromat here at Paradise Village.

Actually there are two more sacks sitting on the floor, too, but after dragging it all in, running back to the truck for the soap, buying the tokens for the machine, et al, I decided to take a break and head to the Vallarta Yacht Club for hydration.

Back at the house, Adm. Fox is patiently waiting for TelMex to arrive to hook up the telephone so we have reliable (?) internet service at Casa Dustin. He has been waiting for two weeks, with postponement after postponement.

And so it should come as no surprise that Sunday - when we left for four hours - someone showed up to install the phone. A Sunday. In Mexico.

Good grief.

But now, it's back to the washers. Arriba!

Sunset in La Manzanilla (at Figaro's restaurant) Friday night

In Mexico for the winter: Swimming pool, cerveza, beaches ahead

NUEVO VALLARTA, Nayarit, Mexico - It took two days of travel, but Admiral Fox and I are safely ensconced at son Dustin's new casa, looking at the pool and plotting a day that includes a trip to the beach and a potluck dinner at the Vallarta Yacht Club.

Ah, Mexico!

Pool at Dustin's new casa in Nuevo Vallarta

 The trip began with a US Airways farble at 6 a.m. A lightbulb was out over one of the emergency doors and because there was no replacement bulb in the airport, the flight was delayed until about 10 a.m.

And so that meant instead of a 6:30 a.m. flight to Phoenix, followed by a 10 a.m. flight to Vallarta and arrival at 1:30 p.m., we spent a leisurely morning in the Sacramento airport - and eventually an overnight at a Courtyard Hotel on the edge of Phoenix's Sky Harbor.


As part of this trip south, we had to purchase one additional suitcase to carry all the assorted paraphernalia, clothes, and gifts we wanted to bring. But another black suitcase seemed, well, soooooo pedestrian.

Pink suitcase ready for loading in Sacramento

And so two days before liftoff, Admiral Fox went on the search and found a shocking pink suitcase at a Marshal's store that is bright enough that you might consider wearing sunglasses when you look at it.

The suitcase did yeoman service for the entire trip, each time popping off the conveyor belt, signaling the arrival of the three checked bags.

We knew the suitcase was going to make it to Phoenix, because we saw it being loaded in Sacramento.

Today we are already set to do some serious pool time, (serious pool time?), maybe head to the beach to make sure the sand is still there, and later tonight, we will go to the Vallarta Yacht Club for a potluck dinner.

The yacht club should be humming with cruisers and folks we know from other seasons down here.

And Arroyo Seco? That's on tap for later in the week after we sort out all the details of telephones, internet modems and various other details that make life in Mexico muy divertido...

A view of the coast north of Puerto Vallarta

Back in the air, heading back to Sacramento from snow country

NEW YORK, New York, USA - The Admiral and I are sitting in JFK International Airport, getting ready for the third leg of our travels today, a cross-country Jet Blue flight that will get us home to Sacramento late this evening - and to our warm casa with Pam and Steve.

The day started with swirling snow in Ithaca, New York where we stayed overnight with brother David's special amiga, Caren. I was a little groggy as we departed after a great dinner party the night before, but not so groggy that I didn't notice it was snowing pretty hard while David drove us to the Syracuse Airport, an hour and a half from Ithaca.

In Ithaca, NY, Dec. 5, 2010 - brrrrrrrrrrr

We breezed in without issue, however, until the Admiral got held up at the security gate and was given the choice of either one of those new TSA pat downs, or taking some other form of transit to Sacramento.

The Admiral was not amused and will likely vent her wrath on how ludicrousness of what passes for security when she writes in her own blog.

The overall trip was a success, however, on several levels (pat downs aside).

And among the things accomplished was getting some video broadcast on WENY, Elmira, New York. I braved the cold and shot the Christmas parade for the station, which used some clips in their evening newscast the same night.

More on what the other levels of success were will show up in another blog.

Below are two videos.

One is of our trip to Syracuse, and the airport snowplows busy at work. The second is a TSA ukulele video. It's pretty fun, but for now, I am not sharing it with the Admiral.

End-of-the-semester shuffle starts for this year's Mexico adventures

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - The last term papers and projects have been turned in, graded and returned, leaving only the avalanche of portfolios from my students, compilations of their work from the entire semester - kind of an academic legal brief as to why the student should get a good grade.

When those portfolios all show up early next week, it's time for me to dig through the pile and assign grades - a process that usually takes me right up until the day we leave for Mexico.

With four full classes, it looks about the same this year, too.

What is different about this year is that because we have been the guests of Steve and Pam, the packing up transition is less problematic - and less traumatic. When we get close to departure day, we live within two miles of our storage unit.

And even at that, we have very little to even stick into storage, thanks to Pam and Steve's letting us stay in their nicely furnished guest quarters.

I think I will be able to get everything in a single pickup truck load - and that's using my Nissan with a camper shell.

As the temperatures in Sacramento have started dropping down to the freezing level at night - and warming up into the high 40s during the day - those warm days at the beaches in Arroyo Seco and La Manzanilla are the stuff that dreams are made of.

And in this case, dreams set to come true.

Just a 100 or so portfolios stand in my way.

La Manzanilla beach

Thanksgiving weekend ends, diet starts tomorrow (or Tuesday, or...)

SACRAMENTO, California, USA - The wonderfully long Thanksgiving weekend is almost over. Adm. Fox and I just finished a dinner of leftovers with Dr. Pam and Steve. And tomorrow night, we might actually have to cook a complete, fresh meal.

Son Dylan helps with T-day dessert

It was fun time, with children and friends coming and going in and out of the house faster than characters in a Harold Pinter play. At times, it seemed like it was a Harold Pinter play.

Thanksgiving Day itself, we went to Steve's sister's house in Loomis where we joined with probably 40 members of the extended family for a big dinner that included pasta with a meat sauce (and venison in the pasta).

Friday, the house and yard were taken over by Christmas decorating - serious Christmas decorating. Like a general commanding her troops, Dr. Pam had various children, nephews, other relatives and friends all setting up Christmas items on the front lawn.

The pre-teenage boys especially liked hanging out of second story windows - and climbing on the roof.

Dad and Jason

By Friday afternoon, the house was decorated with the finishing touches. Electric lights went on today (Sunday).

It turned out also to be an all-family weekend for the Fox-Fitzgeralds, too. Son Dylan arrived Tuesday to help with the baking of many pies for the festivities.

Wednesday, son Jason arrived to have breakfast and fill us in on his adventures as a coach in Michigan - with snowboarding adventures to start next week in Vail, Colorado.

Sami, Grandpa Michael and Kami

And today we were able to catch up with daughter Anne at her Rancho Cordova house with husband Steve and granddaughters Sami and Kami. Sami is now slightly taller than her mother - and probably two inches taller than Adm. Fox.

At one point, three-year-old Kami asked me to read her a third book, and when I said I was too tired, she grabbed the bag of Doritos we were munching together and said, 'No reading, no chips, Grandpa.'

She probably has a future as a hostage negotiator.

Below are three photos of the Lovotti house - one sans decor, the other with.  And at the bottomw, a photo of the house all lit up. (Like a Christmas tree?)

At the top - the house at 10 a.m. then at 2 p.m and below - all lit up

The day starts with a footrace/walk - and ends in the recliner

LOOMIS, Calif., USA - Thanksgiving 2010 started in Sacramento with an early morning rollout (for a holiday) to attend and participate in the Run to Feed the Hungry.

The annual event draws thousands of people - maybe as many as a Glenn Beck Rally - and the streets all around the fabulous 40s area of Sacramento were teeming with people running (a 5K or 10K) or just walking to show their support.

Along the course there were thousands of supporters cheering the walkers and runners on. And there were live bands playing, too.

After days of cold (and strong) north winds, the Run to Feed the Hungry crowd only had to deal with some high 30s (F) temperatures. There wasn't a hint of a breeze during the race itself.

The entire Lovotti-DiTomasso-Fox-Fitzgerald entourage is about to head up the mountain to Loomis for a 3 p.m. Thanksgiving Day dinner at Steve's sister's house with the entire extended family. So far, we are pretty sure there will be 40 people having dinner.

So did I walk or run in the Run to Feed the Hungry?  

I walked. But along that walk I took a half-hour of video, with some snippets of the race in the movie below.

Happy Thanksgiving!

No Internet! Man the lifeboats, scan the horizon for some WiFi

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - The day dawned kind of gray and bleak, with a long list of things that needed to be done - nearly all on the computer and sent via the Internet to their appointed destinations in New York, Southern California and even parts of the great white north - Canada.

But the faithful ATT WiFi box at the house had died during the night. Quietly and with dignity probably, but even when prodded, poked and banged gently, refused to reanimate this morning as the heater in the house was slowly getting the temperature up to normal.

Calling Dr. Frankenstein. We have an emergency.

The immediate crisis passed by calling into action Adm. Fox's new IPad which has its own 3G internet connection. Some expected emails hadn't shown up yet for me, so there was some breathing room for the day.

But the emails that needed to go out right away couldn't because the IPad and Gmail are not on the best of terms.

That's a little glitch that needs fixing before I head to the Apple Store to buy one.

So instead of a leisurely, tea-sipping morning at our casa, Adm. Fox and a I barreled out of the house to the nearby Crepe Escape restaurant  (a favorite breakfast spot near the university) where we had a great breakfast and luxuriated in the free (and very fast) WiFi signal. All emails got handled nicely, other Internet matters taken care of, too. And Adm. Fox went online (where else?) to look for a replacement modem for the late ATT WiFi box at the house.

It was an interesting (if momentarily uncomfortable) reminder of how dependent we are on the Internet for, well, practically everything but cooking the western scramble breakfast I ate this morning.

But a new modem for the house will be installed today.

How could we have the Thanksgiving holiday without it?

Getting out of the U.S. to Mexico, just ahead of the snow season

CAMP CONNELL, Calif., USA - The news from amigo Sanders Lamont this morning was that he already has 3.5 feet of snow on the ground at his house - and more falling all the time.

Welcome to the Northern California mountains, the place where surfboards are replaced by snowboards every fall about this time.

Sander's house in Camp Connell

This whopper of a winter storm dropped plenty of rain on the Sacramento Valley floor over the last few days, brought in gusty winds and generally reminded Adm. Fox and I why we head to Mexico every December.

Brrr.... Donde esta mi flip-flops?

In anticipation of that sojourn south, we spent part of Saturday at our down-sized storage unit, shifting clothes and getting ready for several upcoming trips.

But the storm also suggested that we should not try to drive up into the mountains to the town of Arnold, where a fiesta will be held Monday night for amigos Randy and Karin. They sold their mountain home and are headed to Santa Fe, New Mexico. We will also see them in Mexico this winter - they own a prime lot in Arroyo Seco, two blocks from the Pink Flamingo.

And there will not be any snow on the ground there. Dust? Of course.

California being California, the rain seems to have passed and the sun is out bright this morning, a harbinger of a sunny day perhaps. The thermometer is not having none of that, however. It seems to be stuck at just above 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Here, that seems damn cold. In Hector, New York, it would close to balmy.

Somewhere else, though (like Mexico) the surf's up and ready.

Me, too.

World's biggest surfboard

The ukulele on its way to La Manzanilla for winter and spring

Captain on the uke

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - My ukulele - which hasn't had a workout in weeks - is now safely in the back of the Nissan Pathfinder being driven south by amigos Beth and Roy.

The couple stopped by last night, had dinner and spent the night, then catapulted off this morning with stops planned in Yosemite, San Francisco and many parts between here and La Manzanilla.

They are carrying my uke as well as a couple of boogie-boards given to us by Dan and Lorraine Olsen, currently cruising on their sailboat somewhere in the Caribbean.

How to get the ukulele to Mexico became a minor crisis because of my new video camera. No way that piece of electronic gear is going into checked luggage. Ditto for the ukulele. It would arrive in three pieces, maybe four.

As it is, Admiral Fox and I are heading out to storage Friday (or Saturday) to check out what we need to pack to take to Mexico. All of the relatively cold-weather clothes we are wearing now need to be packed up and boxed in favor of the shorts, T-shirts, sandals and flip-flops that are the uniform of the day in La Manzanilla and Arroyo Seco.

I can see the ocean from my window right now. Or at least I wish I could.

In searching for the photo of the uke above, I ran across this classic ukulele video - one of my favorites.

Countdown to Mexico continues - while the projects pile up, too

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - The list of things to do before going to Mexico in December never seems to get shorter, no matter how many items we check off.

Check off 'get car insurance' and you have to add, 'stash insurance docs into suitcase'.

Arrrrgggghhhh.

But some progress has been made.

The new Panasonic video camera is proving to be all that it was advertised as. A new, khaki-colored  photographer's vest arrived (so I can look official). It will now be part of my general Mexico attire when filming this winter and spring.  The video from the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear is finally downloaded and packaged into a short video. (The brief YouTube entry is below.) And the Tenacatita Bay Bugle website has been redesigned to make it more user friendly (and visually appealing) for this season.

Now if I can just get those 50 student projects graded in the next four or five days...

Arrrggghhhh redux.

Careening to Mexico - but to exactly what, we'll see when we arrive

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - Parts of Mexico would appear to be imploding or exploding, depending on your perspective. Not a day seems to go by without a published and/or broadcast report that more bodies have been unearthed somewhere along the U.S.-Mexican border, or some travesty involving violence has happened somewhere to the south. The New York Times has been doing a credible job of reporting on all the nastiness. I'm trying to skip over some of the stories; they are too gruesome.

Even in our little corner of the Costa Alegre, south of Puerto Vallarta, a developer has grabbed arguably the most beautiful beach on the west coast of the Mexican mainland (Tenacatita) and now threatens to shoot anyone who tries to go to the beach, beaches which Mexican law proudly declares belong to the people.

People with guns, apparently.


Tenacatita Beach, May 2, 2009 - all empty now, except for guards with guns

Still, in a little over a month, Adm. Fox and I will head south (by plane, not driving across the border this year, thank you very much) and check out how things are in Arroyo Seco, our village where serenity has reigned for the few years we've lived there in the winter.

We hope it's still serene, but given that it is only a few miles from occupied Tenacatita Beach, we are braced for some tension there, too. And the village might have some new residents, some of the 800 or so Mexicans who were booted from their homes and businesses so unceremoniously (and viciously) August 4. Most of the refugees are clustered in and around the small village of Rebalsito, a tiny town on the highway into the beach, though some of those folks have family ties to Arroyo Seco.

Earlier this year, the evicted people blocked the major north-south highway as a protest - and in since August, have been trying every legal avenue possible to get their property (most of it federally titled) back.


Protesters on the highway in August

Still, I have started to pack my new camera gear, new hats (my dermatologist has insisted), and warm-weather clothing for the Mexican winter. And, of course, presents for granddaughter Sasha Fox in Puerto Vallarta have started stacking up likes planes over Denver, around our suitcases. My greatest dilemma is how to bring down my eight-string ukulele. My new camera gear has to be hand-carried on the plane. With my other carry-on - my backpack full of important Mexico papers - I am at capacity.

But sans the uke, there would be no participating in open mic nights at the newly renovated Palapa Joe's.

That's a sobering thought.

Mexico, prepare for incoming.

Getting to hear "It's 5 o'clock Somewhere" sung live by Alan Jackson

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - Confession time: I like country and western music. Not all of it, certainly. But a lot of it, yes, absolutely. I love that so many country songs actually tell a little story. Ever hear Bubba Shot the Jukebox? Now there is a story.

And so when The Sacramento Bee newspaper asked me to to haul my butt out to Arco Arena to catch Alan Jackson's concert Thursday night - and write a review and snap some pictures - I jumped to go. Alan Jackson's music is my kind of country music. And it turned out, the Admiral's, too.

I checked when I got the assignment and saw that I have a half-dozen of his songs safely tucked in my ITunes library, including "It's 5 o'clock Somewhere." That song has particular meaning to me - it was first real song I learned to play on the ukulele. (I don't count Row, Row, Row Your Boat or Auld Lang Syne or Clementine in quite the same category.)

Alan Jackson

And I was not disappointed - he sang the It's 5 o'clock Somewhere towards the end of his concert, along with all the other songs I already have in my library.

"Anybody know what time it is?" he shouted. And that was it, we were all up and swaying and dancing to It's 5 o'clock Somewhere. Like most of his songs, the audience knew all the lyrics and sang along.

Here's a link to my review: Alan Jackson concert review

I lost count years ago of the events I've gone to and written about for newspapers and magazines. And at many of those, I carried a still camera, capturing a few (or more) images for news stories or features. Last week's Rally to Restore Sanity, being a good example, though Admiral Fox got most of the photos there. Here's a link to the rally story that appeared in the Sacramento News and Review: Rally Story

But I have never been a photo shooter at a big concert - and this was a first-class operation with professional photographers and cameras with huge lenses that looked so powerful that if Sarah Palin had one, she probably could see Russia from her house.

Me? Well I have a fantastic new video camera. But my still camera is well, a little puny.

Thursday night I was using my little Canon point and shoot, about one fourth the size of the hardware carried by the professionals.  But I was not going to waste a photo credential that let me stand a few feet from the country legend and his band, The Strayhorns.

Check out the guy in the gray ponytail below Alan Jackson

So when three equipment-laden photographers marched out of the stage wings, led by a security guard through the crowd, I tagged along and gamely shot pictures of Alan for an entire song. I'm sure it looked pretty silly. But silly or not, I was able to snap about six or eight shots that were pretty good - and one did make it into The Sacramento Bee with the review.

Take that, professional photographers.


The first warm-up band for Alan Jackson (just before Chris Young took the stage) was a nice surprise - and worth hearing all on its own.

The Band Perry, (Kimberly Perry and her two brothers, Neil and Reid) rocked the stage at Arco with a short set that got the place jumping and dancing and screaming an hour before the main event.

The band has had some hits and is one of those up-and-coming groups that you can tell are going to make it really big - and soon. Some of their songs will likely be finding their way onto my ITunes lists pretty soon.

Here's a link to their site: The Band Perry website

Neil, Kimberly and Reid Perry