Yesterday we sailed an hour south to Bahia Candeleros. It’s not the most scenic bay but it is nice, the holding is shallow and sandy, it’s still close enough for us to go back if Lowe comes down with Ouest’s strep throat, and there is a brand new resort ashore that is insanely welcoming to cruisers.

Ali and I have been to many many resorts through the years during our boat travels and usually we feel like interlopers. We go to the bar, order drinks, maybe get lunch, and then do our best to look inconspicuous as we lounge around the pool with our non-matching towels.

But this place, and forgive me, I don’t even know what it is called, is incredible. They’ve got garbage cans on the beach for us, they welcomed us as we walked up the stairs from the beach to the pool level, there are towels on every chair, and they were eager to simply run us a tab for the day. The pools were great, the food fantastic, the beer cold, and everyone was exceedingly friendly. Hell, the free wifi even reaches the boat. We were able to Skype home today.

I hate to rant about all our first world luxuries, but after a few weeks out here those luxuries came so unexpectedly today that we were all just a little stunned by it. Ouest, ever the boat kid, ran up to the lounge chairs and yelled, “Towels! Towels!” There appear to only be about ten people staying in the entire resort, and they were all out of earshot, so we didn’t feel like total hillbillies by her wild gesticulating display.

This reminds me of another thing that I think labels Ouest a boat kid. And that’s the fact that she gets very excited by the prospect of a ride in a car. If her favorite doll Molly were to disappear I’m certain we could placate her with a simple, “Ouest, we’re going to take a taxi to town today.”

“Taxi? Taxi!!!!”

It’s so much fun getting her excited about such silly things. Ali and I even get a little cruel sometimes and announce just as we’re about to get in the car, “I get the window seat!”

“No. Noooooooooo. No.” (tears flow down cheek)

The girl has got to learn our sarcastic sense of humor if she is going to survive her childhood. That’s all there is to it.

Lowe fell asleep on the dinghy ride home this afternoon. It was a roughly twenty-five second trip. That boy loves the hum of the two-stroke.

We’ve got a couple of these animal flip-top books that end with a flap that reveals a mirror. This particular one is designed to make it look as if you are an eskimo. But that’s beside the point. The point is that the instant Lowe sees himself in one of these book mirrors his face lights up and he lays a big fat wet kiss on himself. Pretty stinkin’ adorable this kid.