02-Feb-2011 bumfuzzle.
I unboxed the dinghy today and I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised. Ordering sight unseen over the internet tends to go one of two ways, in this case it couldn’t have worked out better. The quality of this thing is really top notch, as it should be for what it cost I suppose. The handholds are sturdy, the hardware is all oversize, and even the pump it came with is high quality. Christ, the thing even came with it’s own carrying case, as if it is a duffel bag that can just be tossed over your shoulder when you hit the beach. Ali seemed less enthused by it than I was. She is certain it’s too big, while I’m certain there is no such thing. In my defense it is only the same size as our last dinghy, and we are carrying an extra passenger around these days, so…

A whole bunch of small projects have been getting checked off the list the past few days as well. And hell, we even got a couple of propane tanks filled today. That is the sort of project that always seems to be on the list when you are preparing for a passage. It made me feel like we’re finally moving forward. One other thing I did, once I realized I wouldn’t be able to hook up our new depth/speed instruments until we haul out, was to figure out the current depth finder. It’s a fish finder actually, similar to what would be on a sixteen foot Lund in the North Woods, and it showed our depth as 5.4 feet. Of course our draft is 6.5 feet, so…

02-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
Marina life on warm sunny days is pretty nice. Days like this make me appreciate where we are in life.

03-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
Ouest is fearless. Which when combined with my own fearlessness, willingness to let things go right to the edge, and general lack of attention, has led to a number of cuts, bumps, and bruises lately. The latest occurred yesterday when she spotted a cat from our cockpit and decided to make a lunge for it. The cat was fifty feet away, and on land, so her attempt was a little misguided, but how else do you learn these things? Anyway, the lunge ended with a railing capping her just above the eye. The resulting cut gives her a sort of evil eye look.

The evil eye comes in handy at night when, after dinner, she and I play monsters. We crawl around the floor making monster noises and attacking each other with belly kisses and neck farts. Her favorite part of this game comes when I crawl into her dark room and hide, as much as I can in ten square feet, and wait for her to come in. I lunge out making scary monster noises and she giggles and collapses right into my shoulder.

What I love about all of her fearlessness is that it’s because she simply doesn’t know any better. She doesn’t know what a monster is, or why she should be afraid of the dark, or the difference between an angry growl and a melodic whistle. She doesn’t know why you don’t touch spiders, or what the meaning of gross is, or why you don’t eat flowers. She doesn’t understand why stepping off a tall curb while not holding onto anything won’t work, or why eight year-olds at the playground aren’t as excited to see her as she is to see them. To her the whole world is just one big fun, friendly, welcoming place where she is free to be as innocent as she wants to be. And I’m sure every parent has said this, but I wish that it could stay that way forever. In fact, I hope that she learns from us that it can be.

04-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
Our routine is pretty cut and dry these days. Ouest gets up at seven and we spend a couple of hours having breakfast and playing inside while waiting for the sun to rise and warm things up. I squeeze in about an hour of boat work and then Ouest goes down for a nap at eleven-thirty. Around one she’s up and we head to town to have lunch, run errands, and walk around town. Back to the boat around three-thirty for another hour or so running around the marina while I sometimes get some more work done, though more often not. Dinner at five-fifteen, shower at six, and into bed around six-forty. It feels as if our entire day revolves around baby meals now.

In town today most of the businesses had their doors wide open. Ouest would walk right into the doorway and just stare inside for anywhere up to a couple of minutes. She couldn’t have cared less when we would continue on down the sidewalk.

There are a bunch of signs such as this around Rio Vista, and more than one with a similar looking martini glass. Sort of gives the impression that this sleepy town didn’t always used to be so sleepy.

05-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
She was there to help, but didn’t really dress for the work.

06-Feb-2011 bumfuzzle.
Our bedroom up front. The bed is about the size of a twin, but I’m used to Ali being all over me anyway. It’s a curse I’ve had to live with for many years. Mainly because we chose to live in boats and VW buses.

06-Feb-2011 12:12 PM
Playing around the marina this morning. Ouest discovered this faucet a couple weeks ago and since then we’ve more or less given up trying to make her leave it alone. She loves it. It’s like a water faucet made to her specs.

06-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
We’ve been here for months now but only just today did we finally visit the little town of Isleton, about seven miles up the road from RIo Vista. The main street is about four blocks long and is really quite interesting, especially when comparing it to the unremarkable low-rent homes on the streets behind Main. Most of the buildings are from 1926, apparently rebuilt after a great fire, and are long, narrow, and covered in corrugated steel. Chinese laborers settled here and there is still plenty of evidence of that around town. Now the town is trying to become a hip, artsy, kind of place. And maybe in summer they’re pulling it off, but on a Sunday afternoon in February it’s just a sleepy little place with a biker bar, a couple of small cafes, and an excellent ice-cream shop.

We love taking Ouest to new places, even just a new town for lunch. Walking around with her is so much fun. It takes a good ten minutes to walk a block because she is so interested in every single item along that block. A motorcycle, great. An empty Doritos bag, let me check it out. Oh look, a stick. A flower. A leaf. A cigarette butt. Another stick. Ooh, a person. Better yet, a person with a puppy. It just goes on and on and on. She’s fascinated by everything around her. It’s amazing to think that every little thing she comes across is completely new to her. That it is something she’s never seen before, or touched, or heard. On a nice sunny afternoon in a small town we are perfectly content to just sidle along slowly letting her take it all in.

Though I have to admit that her utter fascination with litter is becoming a bit tiresome. Whenever Ali and I see a scrap of paper or bottle top we try to head things off by quickly covering it with our foot. Of course Ouest quickly caught on to this and now whenever she spots garbage she walks right up to it and stomps her foot down on top of it. You can’t get anything by her.

Along our drive today we found something. I hesitate to admit this as it puts us firmly into the category of white trash, but hey, we shouldn’t label people right? Anyway, we spotted a Little Tikes car on the side of the road. Ali has been talking about getting Ouest one of these for the past couple of months but for one reason or another we never did. So it was sort of serendipitous that we should drive right past one today. At least that’s how we’re choosing to look at it. We pulled over, quickly threw it in the trunk and brought it home. A quick wash and minutes later it had become Ouest’s favorite toy of all time. She hasn’t quite figured out how to walk around in it, but she sure does like to sit in it, put stuff in the trunk, and play with that door.

07-Feb-2011 bumfuzzle.
Ali and I are just about done with the “must-do” list before we can move to the Bay. One of these things doesn’t sound all that important, but judging by the amount of Coast Guard and Sheriff traffic we see on the water around here I think it fits in the must-do category. Getting our name on the boat. I really have no desire to deal with water lawmen, whom I’m sure are doing some great things out there, but would cause me nothing but grief.

So anyway, we spotted a sign in town advertising painting lessons and boat lettering. We stopped in to see her and she seemed eager enough to come slap on a coat of Bumfuzzle. Now it’s just a matter of getting the old name off. I started with Easy-Off oven cleaner as that was the only thing I found that would remove the paint. The trick was not to leave it on too long though as it would then take off the paint underneath the name. Whatever is left behind I’ve been sanding with a very fine grit sandpaper. It doesn’t look perfect, but once the name is painted over it there won’t be much showing, and I imagine a year in the sun will even it all out. And actually now that I see a picture of it I realize you can’t see it at all.

08-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
The wind picked up last night to the point that despite being tied safely up in a marina we felt uneasy. Not to the point that we would have been had we been anchored out, but enough so that I went out to double check all our lines and to wrap another line around the jib to keep it from getting loose. This morning the boat was completely covered in big tree detritus. The wind didn’t stop all day long and because of it we didn’t get outside much. Being cooped up in a boat all day with a sometimes overly active one-year-old is not fun for anybody. We need out!

09-Feb-2011 bumfuzzle.
I’m starting to feel real good about how things are coming along on the boat. A bunch of wiring stuff has been completed, the davits are on, we’ve got a dinghy, the boat name is off and just waiting for new paint, the engine starts in a split second every time. We’re getting close to moving now and I can feel it. I’m yearning for it now. Every day I tell Ali how excited I am to get moving.

There are big projects to complete in the Bay. Rigging, sails, autopilot, and refrigeration to name a few. I started taking a closer look at our refrigeration the other day and realized that we’ve got about a five thousand dollar engine driven system onboard. It’s not functioning at the moment, but from what I can see it doesn’t look like it will take too much to get it going again.

I’d always thought a 12V refrigeration system was the way to go, but the more I think about it, I think this engine driven system might actually be better for this boat and for our style of cruising. By “for this boat” I mean the fact that this boat is not going to be able to hold the same sort of solar array as our catamaran. We can get one panel on the dinghy davits, but anything else is going to have to go in some stupid spot on the deck somewhere or hang off the lifelines like I’ve seen on some boats. Neither of those options is very attractive. This means we’ll be firing up the engine to charge up the batteries pretty regularly. So we might as well use that time to cool down the fridge as well.

And by “our style of cruising” I mean that Ali and I tend to not sit still very long. We like to move, to see what’s around the next corner. So if we’re moving, and if we’re motoring, again, we may as well be cooling off the fridge.

Anyway, we’ll see what happens. We’ve still got plenty to do before we get to work on the refrigeration.

09-Feb-2011 8:55 PM
We bought our junker of a car basically with the hope that it would just make it through a few months until we were ready to take off on the boat. Since day one it has made a pretty obnoxious noise, but one that I couldn’t isolate other than to say that it was somewhere up front around the belt and all the pulleys. The past few days the noise got worse and it became pretty clear that it was bearings. Still didn’t know where though.

Then today we came back from town, pulled into the marina and it sounded as if the engine was going to fall out of the car. I parked, popped the hood and spotted it immediately. The fan was just about to fall off. I shut the car down, felt around a little bit, and bearings started dropping out onto the ground. Seconds later the fan was in my hand outside of the car and the big long belt that travels around nine pulleys was just lying there like a dead worm.

I called Ali over and said, “We’re screwed, we can’t go anywhere.”

And despite the fact that the car had been making this noise since day one and we knew it was only a matter of time before it broke down, she looked at me and said, “So you broke it?”

So you broke it. I can’t win. Fortunately though I was able to track down the parts online and have them here day after tomorrow. I get to expand my German automobile repair resumé, yippee. Porsche, check, VW, check, Benz, check.

09-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
Ouest has this cabinet at the head of her bed that we keep our stock of baby wipes and diapers in. Every morning when she wakes up she spends ten or fifteen minutes just playing in bed and that always includes emptying out the contents of the cabinet. A few nights ago Ali started hiding a toy in there before bed for Ouest to find in the morning. Usually a small stuffed animal or a Little People figure. Well I don’t need to tell you just how exciting that can be. It’s like she’s opening a Christmas present every single morning of her life. Oh if we could all derive so much pleasure from something so simple.

10-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
Not having a car out in the country is not fun. A friend of ours offered to pick up the parts we need today and drove himself all over the place searching, but came up empty-handed. Fortunately we were able to get them ordered online with next day delivery, so tomorrow we just might be rolling again. Though neither of us is holding our breath that they’ll actually arrive. My chat with the customer service rep/sixth-grade dropout was less than inspiring.

On the plus side, the lady we found to paint the boat name came out to have a look today, determined it to be no problem, and quoted me the exact price, to the dollar, that I was set on offering her. So she’ll be back in the next week or so to get that done once and for all. This boat just won’t be Bumfuzzle to us until it says so in big bold letters on both sides of her big canoe stern.

Inside the boat there are only a couple more things on the list to do here in Rio Vista. There is plenty of work to do on the boat, just not here in the country.

Really though, the vast majority of our day today was spent outside playing with Ouest. From basically nine to five, with a too-short nap in the middle, we were playing. Outdoors she is the easiest girl in the world to take care of. Indoors is a totally different story. Outside she is happy as can be, indoors she doesn’t entertain herself nearly as well. She likes to be out exploring. She has been getting better and better about just sitting and reading though, which is nice. She used to sit still for roughly two sentences, whereas now we are actually starting to get through the books. And she is sometimes just sitting on her own with a book and flipping around through it.

11-Feb-2011 bumfuzzle.
One of the things I’m finding with a boat this old is that I don’t have the luxury of installing new items where they look the best or where they will be the most useful, instead I install things based on where I can cover up the most holes. Upon removing the antiquated electronic equipment onboard we were left with lots of gaping holes. Twenty year-old inverter remotes, half a dozen six by nine Kenwood speakers, battery switches, and much more. Trying to make it all look as if we aren’t just patching and covering is the trick.

11-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
We were happy to see that our car parts went out for delivery at 7:30 this morning. We were less happy by the time they finally arrived nine hours later. That didn’t leave me much time before dark to get the car running again. And I didn’t. All the parts are on, but I got stuck when it came time to get the belt back on again. So tonight I went online and found instructions, went outside with a flashlight, got everything set up and then went to remove the critical bolt only to find that my half inch socket wrench was broken. Put everything away again, go back to the boat, and wait for morning to come so I can borrow the tool. Then pray this works so we can get out of the marina. We need food. Food of all sorts. We’ve had just enough for Ouest the past couple of days, but Ali and I are on pretty meager rations.

12-Feb-2011 bumfuzzle.
And they call her Bumfuzzle. I spent four hours holding the dinghy tight up against the boat today while our painter finally made our boat ours. I mean up until now it was just “the boat.” But now it’s Bumfuzzle and all that that entails. I mean, it’s Bumfuzzle, it’s got to go places, sail over the horizon, encounter no pirates, battle no storms, etc.. We were told we should have a renaming ceremony, but that’s just not us. We don’t believe in superstitions, or luck, or any of that. If we end up on a reef I assure you that I will not be able to say to Ali, “It’s not my fault, it’s the boat name change.”

12-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
I was up for hours last night on the internet trying to figure out how to get the car’s serpentine belt back on. What I determined was that I had to use the tensioning adjuster. What I was also determining from the chat rooms I ran across was that these things are notorious for breaking on these cars and that replacing the twenty dollar part was not a quick and easy job. I knew before I even tried that ours was broken.

And it was. Broken. The belt had to stretch over eight pulleys without being able to loosen any of them. The consensus from the googling was that it couldn’t be done. But, since we were out of bread, as well as any other form of adult food, there wasn’t much choice. And let me just say, not to toot my own horn, but, well, yes, to toot my own horn, I am the king of making repairs with broken parts and incorrect tools. I can make anything work. Maybe not permanently, but long enough. In about an hour I had unhooked the alternator, used a couple of very large screwdrivers, and about every muscle in my shoulders, to manhandle that belt back on. And she purrs like a kitten, ready to drive us until the day we sail out under the Golden Gate Bridge. At which point I will no doubt have to begin jury rigging our boat in order to keep it moving as well.

I spent most of the day with the painter getting the boat name on while Ali went to town, kept Ouest busy, and rustled us up some grub. Ten minutes after I finished she showed up with a whole pizza just for me. What a gal. Then the three of us were off to wander and explore.

13-Feb-2011 12:44 PM
After weeks of beautiful weather we found ourselves today faced with a forecast of nine straight days of rain beginning tomorrow. And not just rain, but temps in the forties, and even twenty-five mph wind to boot. To say we don’t deal well with adverse weather would be a bit of an understatement. And the thing is, we have Ali’s family’s annual vacation coming up in just one week. We were so close to trading nice weather for even nicer weather. So anyway, we started thinking that maybe we could escape for a couple days this week by driving somewhere. We started researching and found that this weather system covers the entire west coast. Even San Diego and Las Vegas are getting cold and wet.

Then the lightbulb went on and we realized that we could just change our flight to Mexico and get out of here a few days earlier. And so that’s what we did. We changed our flights from next Sunday to this Tuesday and even received a credit for doing so. Only real issue is that we don’t have a clue where we are going to stay. We may have a one-year-old, but we can still wing it.

13-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
There are so many small towns around here I’m almost ashamed at how much time we spent isolating ourselves in Rio Vista. Today we went on down to Locke, a speck on the map of maybe a hundred residents. It’s another one of these small Delta towns where Chinese laborers put down roots a hundred or so years ago.

We made a beeline for the biker bar/restaurant, Al the Wops, had cheeseburgers, toast with homemade marmalade, and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Pretty much all we could possibly need to survive. Ouest charmed the black leather crowd and then left them wanting more. Back on the street we explored every nook and cranny. All one block of it. Both sides.

13-Feb-2011 ouest lill. fourteen months.
Ouest Lill, or simply O., as Mama likes to write it,

Our first full month back on the boat in a long time. It felt good to be home. You weren’t walking yet when we left it last time, and while we were away your mama was a little nervous about how things would be once we got back. Mainly she had concerns about you cracking your skull open on the steps. Well, you did crack your skull open a couple of times, but not on the steps. It’s that table. That damn table. When will you ever learn to stop standing up underneath that table?

You love pickles. Black olives are great. Your mama makes a mean French Toast. You don’t eat sugar and are still convinced that desert is fruit. In fact you’ve got the whole family eating so much fruit these days that it’s coming out our ears. Kiwi, blackberries, strawberries, melon, banana, apple, pear, and the list goes on. I don’t think there is a fruit that you won’t eat. I’m tempted to throw a lemon on your plate just to test that out.

Your only word is still, “HI!” And that’s how you say it. Loudly and with an inflection at the end that makes it the most friendly word imaginable. You say it to cats, to birds, to any child up to roughly age fourteen, to flowers, especially to flowers, to Mama and me, to handicapped people in wheelchairs, or more likely to the wheelchairs themselves, to boats, dogs, tennis balls, and even, occasionally, to somebody who says hi to you first.

You wake up most mornings at five o’clock but fall right back to sleep when I put my hand on your chest. Then you get up at seven.

Your mama and I have both said to each other in the past month something along the lines of, “Does it ever seem strange to you that you’re a parent?” Like it still hits us like a thunderbolt sometimes, that we’re your parents and that we’re responsible for absolutely every aspect of your life. And I don’t mean that in a bad way at all. It usually hits us at times like at night when all the lights are off and we’re just hugging you close before putting you to bed. It’s an amazing feeling to have someone need you like you need us. And now, like we need you. It’s a two-way street little girl.

Happy fourteen months.

14-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
I don’t have much to say today, but I thought I should record this. For history’s sake. We were the second car to cross the Sacramento River aboard the brand new Real McCoy II ferry. The first headed westbound. We wouldn’t have thought much of this except the locals have been anticipating this ferry for a few years now and onboard the ship today were at least a dozen CalTrans employees, one of which even filmed us driving aboard. So apparently this was very exciting to some people.

15-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
It took roughly forty-eight hours from the moment we first thought of it, and here we are, back in Mexico. Zihuatanejo to be exact. For the next few days and then we’ll meet the family a bit north of here in Troncones. Anyway, the day started out at five o’clock, we caught our first flight in the chilly wet weather, connected in L.A., and were in Zihuatanejo nine hours after starting out. You’d think getting to Mexico from California would be a breeze, but there are almost no direct flights down here. Flying from Minnesota would have taken three hours less.

Ouest was a trooper despite only the shortest of naps. At least twenty people must have said what a great traveler she was. The lady sitting in front of us on our second flight turned around two hours after we started out and said, “Oh, I didn’t know there was a baby behind me.” Gotta like that.

It felt good to land on Mexican soil once again. I have to say that I feel more at home down here these days. The atmosphere and vibe is just so much more my style than the States. I don’t always feel like I belong in the States these days. The pace, the things that appear important, the news, it all just sort of weighs on me, and I count the days until I can leave again. Ali and I can not wait to point our bow south.

Anyway, we found our condo, a block from La Ropa beach, dropped off our bags, and went to get Ouest’s feet, and our whistles, wet. When we first set her down in the sand she sort of had trouble walking. We realized it was the first time since she’s been walking that she’s been in soft sand, and it took a few minute of getting used to. It didn’t take her long to find the water though, and she went straight for it. We played for a little bit, watched the sun go down, and then grabbed some guacamole and fish tacos. She dove straight into both of those as well. I had two happy girls on my hands.

In the cab on the way to the condo today, the warm air blowing through the windows, Ouest lounging contentedly on Ali’s lap with her head leaning back into her chest, Ali looked over at me and said, “This is the perfect age. Perfect.” And I couldn’t agree more. Ouest is so well behaved, so inquisitive, so friendly, so cute, so sweet, just so much fun, that we couldn’t possibly ask her for anything more right now. We are two very happy parents.

16-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
A day at the beach. Ouest loved it. She was so caked with sunblock and sand at the end of the day that the only way to get her cleaned off for bed was to go swimming in the pool first, as sort of a pre-soak, and then hit the shower. She was a champ in the pool, diving under with me a couple times and basically being completely fearless and, as if to drive Ali crazy, reckless.

17-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
Guess what we did today? Beach. Breakfast at home, then straight to the beach. Back home for a nap, then to the beach for lunch and a couple hours in the water. Back home for Ouest’s dinner, some books, and bed. Not a bad day at all.

The only downside to this lifestyle is the sand. Because we have to constantly cake the sunblock on Ouest she is perpetually covered in sand. It doesn’t brush off. At all. The only way to get it off is soap and a shower. She usually likes her showers, but when we start having to take two a day she gets a little tired of it.

She had a great time in the water today. Zihua is a protected bay so the only waves you get are piddly little things that even a baby can play in. She started off a little tentatively, with nervous laughter every time the water reached where she was standing on the sand, but soon she was running straight in. I held her neck deep as the waves broke and the white water rolled across her giggling and splashing body. I don’t think we’re going to have a hard time getting her to swim.

18-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
Downtown Zihuatanejo’s waterfront is a nice little area to walk around, grab an ice cream, and watch the fisherman come and go. It’s also a great place for Ouest to get her cheeks pinched or her arms rubbed. In the Mexican culture there is a belief in the evil eye. And if you are to look at a baby admiringly or compliment the baby you may give it the evil eye without even trying to wish it harm. Fortunately the evil eye can be neutralized simply by touching the baby. Entire families would walk by and rub a finger across her cheek, place their hand softly on top of her head, or squeeze her arm gently, while commenting on what a cute baby she was. Even young chidren, a boy of about eight for example, would partake in the ritual. It’s sweet. And Ouest didn’t mind the attention one bit, she would just stare at them wide-eyed until they were long gone around the corner.

We were happy to see the town’s Humane Society was still in business and doing what they can to help out the pet population. This is the place we brought our Mexican puppy Libre to a couple of years back after finding him in the middle of the highway. They placed him with a home in just one afternoon.

19-Feb-2011 our life. daily.

20-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
We left Zihua today and headed up the road to Troncones. Troncones is a one dirt road town that ends at a T when it hits the ocean. From there you can head in either direction to dozens of beautiful rental houses on the wide open and wild Pacific.

Ali’s family all arrived at the house a little ahead of us so when we climbed out of our cab Ouest received the welcome surprise. We’d been trying to tell her we were going to see everyone, but she’s still a little young to understand what we’re talking about. She got out, saw her cousin Lea, and said, “Hi!” like she sees her every day.

It felt good to get out of Zihua. It was a fine stop for a few quick days but the place isn’t really our style. It’s basically a giant retirement community for Canadians and folks from Iowa. We’re no spring chickens any more, but I could count on one hand the number of couples we saw on the beach younger than us. Of course Ouest doesn’t care one bit as long as there is sand and water involved, and that’s really the only reason we were there, so for that it worked out perfectly.

Anyway, Ouest had a great time being with family again. She showed off her new sunglasses for everybody as if she knew she were a diva. And then best of all she got to have cake for grandpa’s birthday. Great, if a bit exhausting, day.

21-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
The whale migration is in full swing along the Pacific coast and today we could see dozens of them blowing and slapping their flukes. Pretty awesome to be sitting on your porch witnessing that.

22-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
You wouldn’t think it would be possible for a house to be less kid friendly and more dangerous than a boat, but oh my goodness it is. We’re exhausted, not just from playing in the sand and water under the hot sun all day, but from never being able to be more than one step away from Ouest. If it’s not the pool it’s the stairs, or the swings, or the wet tile, or the burning hot cement, or the prickly flower vines, or the…

Troncones is just a small dirt road town, but just a couple minutes walk past our house is the town of Majahua which makes Troncones seem like the big city. Ouest donned her finest animal print onesie and pink Converse and set out to spread joy to the unsuspecting animals that live there today. Dozens of dogs, cats, roosters, and even caged squirrels. Give her this over the big city any day.

24-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
There isn’t really a lot to say. This is a family vacation. We lounge around all day by the pool, go for a swim in the ocean, eat, play Yahtzee, and go to bed exhausted. It’s pretty nice.

Ouest did get to ride on a bike today which she thoroughly enjoyed. Or at least we thoroughly enjoyed it, because the normal thirty minute walk/stroll/garbage pickup/flower picking, was cut down to a four minute bike ride. She just sat there in my arms and enjoyed the ride right up until the end when she decided that she’d like to have a hand in steering as well. I should have let go of my handle and given Ali a heart-attack but I am far too mature for that.

25-Feb-2011 our life. daily.

26-Feb-2011 our life. daily.

28-Feb-2011 our life. daily.
And just like that we’re home again. Yesterday was the worst travel day in memory. We knew it would be before it even started simply because our flight didn’t leave Zihuatanejo until five p.m. Anytime you start traveling at that time you are in trouble. So about sixty minutes before Ouest’s bedtime we set off on what was to be an eight hour journey. Eight hours in which she didn’t sleep a wink.

Mexico airports are comical. You walk in to this tiny place, line up in front of your airline’s agents, and then wait to have your baggage searched by the Mexican version of the TSA. Or not so much searched really, as re-packed. They throw your bag up onto a plastic picnic table and proceed to empty the contents completely. Every item. Then they quickly run their hands around the edge of the bag and begin to pack it again. We all know that we pack our bags just so, so that there isn’t one square inch of remaining space in our bags, so these bag packers/security personnel have their jobs cut out for them. In fact they are so worried about packing that they seem to have completely forgotten that they are supposed to be searching for bombs. Any terrorist with half a brain could pack a hidden compartment full of explosives and these guys wouldn’t stand a chance at finding it. The things we do for the perception of safety.

Ouest took great offense to having her bags taken away. She cried horribly when her crib got thrown up on the table and re-packed. She cheered up again though when her little sheep was discovered hiding inside the luggage.

We landed in L.A. with a two-hour layover and were wondering what we were going to do with all that time. Wondering, that is, until we saw the lines through immigration and customs. Brutal. Then back outside to walk to another terminal and wait to go through screening again. U.S. of A style: Barefoot and naked. We made our connection with mere minutes to spare.

We landed so worn out late last night that we skipped going home altogether and opted instead to go straight to a hotel where Ouest was finally able to crash after a good long over-tired baby cry.

This morning we pulled into the marina driveway where she began yelling and pointing. She knew right where she was. Home again. She got on the boat and immediately started digging through toy cabinets. Screams of joy flying out left and right. It does feel good to be home. Now we just need to move this boat to Mexico and we’ll really be able to call it a casa.