On the Road Again with Mrs. V: January 2015

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Nuevas adiciones a nuestra familia

At least it "feels like" New Additions to our Family

Our original plan was just to long-distance "adopt" Lucia whom we already felt a tremendous kinship with based on the hundreds of email conversations we've had with her over the past 6 months - but it didn't quite turn out the way we envisioned our actual "real life" meeting would.

It turned out to be MUCHO MEJOR!

We decided to not just "adopt" Lucia, but her entire familia as well. What an incredible experience the meeting was! Within minutes we felt like we'd known each other for years.

Our "virtual" impressions of Lucia were not only confirmed since she is indeed, one "smart cookie" and a beautiful young lady. After spending only a few minutes with her proud parents and younger brother, it's clear that the word "familia" for this Familia Espanol has a very special and unique meaning.

But before we get back to that, let me bring you up to speed on the concluding events of the day - yesterday.

I've already spoken of the great time we had, but since "food" has become such an integral part of our being here, thought you'd want to see "proof" so here are a few pics that we think might just convince you that we really aren't just making it up.

Ladd's super bacon-cheeseburgers

Incredible "munchies" last night at "Mi Lola's"

Bet you can tell we didn't like it too much...LOL!

Sufficiently nourished, (well, except for our "usual" breakfast omelets extraordinaire),

we anxiously awaited their arrival this morning.

Lucia and her family arriving at "Casa Lucia"

Gracias, Antonio and Lucia, for all the translation help!

What a WONDERFUL family!

Since there is no J.C. Penny store close at hand, we had to do the "family portrait" (sin the photographess - MOI, of course) on our own.

Mucho gracias to Lucia and her fantastic family for making the trip to meet us and for all your kindnesses! We appreciate it all more than we can say!

Friday, January 30, 2015

Congrats To A Fellow Teacher!

Friday, 1/30/15

This morning I will start our post differently with a special message to a wonderful teacher and friend, Ann, who will retire at the end of the school day today after 32 years of teaching! I've worked in education with Ann so I can attest to the fact that she has had a tremendous impact on countless students and their parents. She will be sorely missed, but has truly earned her retirement years. We are wishing you ALL THE BEST in you new adventures, Ann!

CONGRATULATIONS, ANN!

Yesterday, Thursday, 1/29, included our Mexican omelets, lounging by the casa's pool in the sun, catching up on reading books on our kindles, answering emails, doing laundry, and of course "happy hour", too. (I swam in the great pool again, but so far no one else has joined me. Talk about a "private pool"...LOL!)

This morning, (Friday), as we were eating breakfast Antonio, the pool man, arrived to work on the pool. We were happy when he accepted our offer to come in for a cup of coffee and conversation. Antonio speaks Spanish, but also English AMAZINGLY well, so we had a fun time learning about him and telling him a little about ourselves. We've made MANY new amigos here and now we count Antonio as one of them! (If you read our blog, Antonio, we want to again invite you to come visit us in New York some time.)

We will add more to today's post as the day progresses but in the meantime we received some excellent (and long awaited) news that Lucia (as in "Casa Lucia") and her parents will arrive tomorrow morning.

We are SO excited to finally get to meet both her and them after having our only contact to date being "virtual" via the hundreds of emails we've sent back and forth.

Lucia has truly become like our "adopted" Daughter and we can't wait. If it is ok with her parents, we will include some photos of their visit tomorrow.

After Ladd's awesome cheese & bacon hamburgers for dinner, we walked down again to our favorite, local corner bar/restaurant: "Mi Lola". It was a full house when we arrived, and we sat at the last available table. We didn't spot our waiter and friend, Mario, so Ladd asked our waitress if he was working tonight. She said Mario would be in later. We ordered our after-dinner drinks, relaxed, and enjoyed the atmosphere and good music.

After a little while the waitress came over and excitedly told us, "Mario is here!" When Mario came over to our table he greeted us like friends that he was glad to see again. This made us happy because this is how we feel about him, too! We talked and joked with Mario, and then I asked what the restaurant had for "munchies". Mario had apparently not heard the slang expression "munchies" before, and he laughed when we explained it to him saying he liked the term. Then he brought us the BEST "munchies": melted, spicy queso, tortillas, and 5 different kinds of incredible sauces! Yum...delicioso!

We also liked the different knives "Mi Lola's" uses, so I wrote down the name of the knives thinking we might look for them and maybe buy some. The knives said, "Made in Brazil." When Mario returned to our table Ladd asked him if he knew where the knives came from. I jokingly said, "Brazil", and at the same time Mario said, "Sam's"! We laughed and laughed.

As we left a great song came on and I slowed down to listen to it near one of "Mi Lola's" picnic tables outside. Ladd joked with the people seated at the picnic table saying they should move over and make room for me so I could join them to listen to the song. They laughed and really started to move to make room for us inviting us to join them! (If we were not so tired, we would have loved to join them as they seemed like a really fun group!) One person asked if we liked "Mi Lola's", and we said we loved it! He then introduced us to the owner of "Mi Lola's" who was one of the group. We told the owner how impressed we were with Mario and what a valuable asset Mario was to "Mi Lola's".

We told Mario about our trip blog and gave him the address. We hope he does get a chance to view the blog so he can read how much we enjoy and appreciate both his super efforts and friendship. Thanks, Mario! We'll be back to see you and enjoy "Mi Lola's " again!

Thursday, January 29, 2015

A Walk Back in Time - 500 Years Back!!!

Up, Up, and AWAY we go!
(Quite literally "up" - as in from sea level to a 4600' elevation in the Sierra Madre Mts.),

Off to San Sebastian del Oeste
(But, first, a tribute to the "Omelette-nista Extraordinaire"

Buenos días, Amigos! This morning, Thursday, 1/29, we had our usual brunch omelets, except with a "kick": Mexican omelets.

As good as it gets!!
Huevos frescos, espinacas, queso, ajo, champiñones, fresas,
un poco de perejil y ...
Salsa casera de Ladd

Yesterday, Wednesday, 1/28, was "Road-Trip Day"! We drove up the mountains to the historic town of San Sebastian Del Oeste. It is about a 90-minute drive from "our" casa. This 400+ year-old town is affectionately called "A Gem Between the Mountains." San Sebastian Del Oeste was founded in 1605 by the Spanish mining for gold and silver. Even the scenery climbing through the mountains was incredibly beautiful! While exploring San Sebastian Del Oeste we saw amazing adobe-brick houses, Colonial architecture, old haciendas and churches, coffee and agave plantations, cattle ranches, and much more. (As you will see from the next four pictures, we got "up close and personal" with some of those cattle being driven down the road by gauchos!)

Mom V. was with us so we didn't want to "over do" the outing, but we plan to return to take Bob and Sandy and tour the "Distillery" and coffee plantation. We did visit the beautiful old church and ANOTHER school! The primary grades were already dismissed, but we heard voices from within the secondary school. We went to the office and attempted to ask the two Mexican secretaries in our oh-so-poor Spanish if we could look around at the classes. The two women spoke little/no English, and after struggling for a couple of minutes, the male worker (custodian? guard?) told us he spoke English.

His English was excellent as he had lived in the United States, and his two sons were born there. He then translated what we had requested for the two secretaries. You could tell by their body language they were hesitant to let two "locos Americanos" just walk in off the street to tour the secondary school in session. However, the male worker apparently said it would be fine, and they agreed...if he accompanied us.

There are only 52 students in this secondary school and we saw 2 classes in session. The first appeared to be the youngest, perhaps 9th-10th grade. They were working independently and silently as a teacher looked on. They did not say anything to us, but just looked and smiled. We looked into an empty computer lab, set up with about 30 new desk-top computers. So modern and up-to-date in this old, adobe school building!

Then in the last classroom we found where the noise was coming from that we heard outside the school. This room seemed to have the "upper classmen/women", perhaps 11th-12th graders, and although they had books, notebooks, there didn't appear to be instruction happening. Perhaps it was a "study hall"...albeit not a silent study hall...LOL! As the students all stared at us, we again struggled to explain in Spanish our interest in visiting there, when one of the students told us, "We speak English", and they all laughed. Then I told them, in English, that I knew they must be "Seniors" because they were chatting and making the noise we heard outside. Fully understanding me, they all laughed again, and some girls pointed to one boy to let us know he was the noise-culprit: perhaps the "class clown"!

We did not want to make the 90-minute trip down the mountain in the dark, so after walking around the town we decided to head back to the casa for dinner. What a wonderful trip back in time!

This cattle-driving gaucho was not as surprised to see us as we were to see him...AND HIS CATTLE!

HERE THEY COME!

Up Close and Personal!

Not fazed by us, around they go.

San Sebastian Del Oeste Centro

All fresh flowers in the church...amazing perfume!

Quaint little Chocolate and Cafe shop

The Secondary School we visited

This sign reminded us of the sign on the show "M.A.S.H."

Mexican Guardrail at the edge of the cliff!

Incredible vistas everywhere

Ladd and Mom V. said he wouldn't look at me for a picture, but when I spoke to him in Spanish, he did! Gracias, Senor Bovine!

Memorial at the base of the bridge

Just in case you missed the symbolism, a modern backhoe sits idle while the (elderly) "worker bee" toils....

...one shovelful, one stone at a time

Some prayers said for family and friends!

Basket Weavers at work in the shade

Finally, while we were able to get some really cool video on my new Kindle Fire, we're (well Ladd is), still trying to figure out how to resize it to include on the blog, so....

In the meantime, here's a link to a Sister Travelista's (although I'm pretty sure she stole the term "Travelista" from MOI!) video that should give you a pretty good idea of some of what we saw - enjoy!

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

The Drunken Ducklette

Back to "Karen's Place".....what a joint!!!

A 2 for 1 (dos por uno) Happy Hour, GREAT place to meet neuvo Amigos, AND a wedding chapel - who could ask for more?

Tuesday, 1/27/15...we THINK...who CARES??!! We just got back from a return visit to one of the great beachfront restaurant/bar places in "our" town of Bucerias. We were there last week with Mom V. for some beach time, shopping on the beach, and iced teas at "Karen's Place". We returned tonight for "Happy Hour" at Karen's Place: 3:30-5:30. When we first sat down I asked the lady to our right what the smooth-looking drink she had was. She told me it was a "Mexican Kiss" and tasted like a coffee milkshake. Sold! So I ordered a "Mexican Kiss", por favor, forgetting that I would get TWO "Mexican Kisses"...dos por uno! Ladd ordered a cerveza Corona...2 for 1. The little pool-side bar by "Karen's Place" was full of happy amigos!

We noticed the preparations for a Mexican Beach Wedding, with the reception being held at "Karen's Place" restaurant. Everyone at the beach-bar happy hour was interested in the up-coming wedding, but everyone also ordered the next rounds as we waited and talked. Viva Mexico!

As the bride walked past the pool and past the bar to the beach for the wedding ceremony, everyone clapped! What a gorgeous dress she had and what a beautiful setting for a wedding!

Then a new Canadian amigo sat down next to us at the bar. Bob (and his wife stay) in the place next to "Karen's Place" each year for several months. Bob was in the Canadian Navy, was also a Policeman - with a heart, a volunteer fireman, and is now retired. He was a very nice gentleman with many great stories to share. Oh, so interesting! His granddaughter, Jenna, learned bar-tending skills at "Karen's Place" and now owns her own place, "Tacos on the Street" in La Cruz. We will definitely make a trip to La Cruz to try Jenna's "Tacos on the Street". We also hope we run into Bob again at "Karen's Place".

Ladd and I decided to call an end to happy hour while we could still remember how to walk back to the casa...ha! I wish to extend a VERY BIG THANK YOU to our fun, efficient, and excellent bar-tenders at "Karen's Place": Rosa and Alex! You made our night more fun...thanks! We walked out the beach exit, past the wedding party, for an enjoyable walk back to "our" casa. What a fun night!

Ladd is now making us sausages, onions & peppers for dinner, so I'll say, "buenas noches" for tonight!