December 30, 2018 - San Diego, CA

We met Tyler, Katie, and Charlotte at the Ocean Beach pier this morning. We had fun walking to the end of the pier and watching the surfers. You must need to be a special breed of person to have a desire to get out in the cold ocean water! Air temperature was about 55 with a slight breeze – much cooler than my ideal beach temperature!This pelican posed for us and didn’t seem a bit bothered by all the folks walking on the pier! He seemed most appreciative when Charlotte said goodbye to him! Tyler and Katie took Charlotte down to the water so she could get her toes in the Pacific. I think she liked it, but it was pretty chilly.This is Ocean Beach’s community Christmas tree which was put up on November 27. Apparently it has become a tradition to have the “left-leaning” tree which is somewhat symbolic of the political leanings of the area. http://sdnews.com/view/full_story/27615349/article-Locally-sourced-Christmas-tree-adds-to-holiday-spirit-in-Ocean-Beach-?instance=most_popular1

After a lunch stop for Charlotte, we said our goodbyes to Katie and Charlotte who headed back to Colorado this afternoon.

Tobey and I got the motorcycle and ran some errands. We had a stop at the hardware store for screws to replace the mud flap and sheet metal around the wheel well and pick up some groceries. We also found a great Mexican restaurant, Cotijas Mexican Food, for lunch in Lemon Grove, CA – not far from the RV park. Tobey had the carne asada burrito and I had the quesadillas de cameron (shrimp) and horchata (a rice milk drink). Oh my gosh! It was amazing (mine was better). I thought we had been transported back to Michoacán, Mexico. The portions were so large we both took half of our meals home.

Back at the RV, Tyler arrived after getting the girls to the airport. Tobey helped Tyler do the RV repairs and then Tyler got his gear stowed before dinner. A big shout out to our great neighbors and friends from home, Dante and Lisa, who sent delicious homemade meatballs and pasta sauce with us. The guys needed to carb up for the ride which begins tomorrow. Dinner was fantastic and we have enough for a lunch, too!

The weather forecast for tomorrow isn’t great (rain, wind and possibly snow at their higher elevations), but we are hopeful it holds off until they finish tomorrow’s ride. Stay tuned!

December 29, 2018 - Sea World, San Diego, CA

We had a busy, busy day today!

We took an Uber to Sea World with Tyler, Katie, and Charlotte today. It was chilly when we arrived around 9 am, but the sun was shining and perfect for a family outing.We had the opportunity to see the park through the eyes of a two year old and it was great fun. Everything was new and exciting. She loved the sea lions, penguins, flamingos and turtles and was always polite to say goodbye to the animals before moving on to the next exhibit!The weather cooled down quite a bit as the sun was setting and we all donned our coats and hats and mittens for the orca show!After dinner, we revisited a couple of the exhibits before leaving the park.We were back to the RV by 8pm and ready to kick back and relax.

December 28, 2018 - Scottsdale, AZ to San Diego, CA

What a day this has been! After spending a great Christmas with our families in Scottsdale, we loaded the RV for our trek to California where Tobey and Tyler will begin their bike trip.

It is quite different traveling with our son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter than just the two of us! We got all of the gear stowed, baby car seat installed, and everyone in and on the road by 10 am. We had a couple stops to make in Surprise, Arizona, and then it was time for lunch. Tummies filled, Charlotte buckled in for her nap, and off we went.

Wind and rough roads made for a rough go. We started hearing new rattles (really LOUD rattles) that made us stop three different times. On the first stop they adjusted the motorcycle rack. On the second stop, they took off one of the mud flaps that had lost a couple screws. On the last stop, they removed a piece of sheet metal (which was the real culprit) that is part of the wheel well that had come loose. The rattles finally stopped!

Near Yuma, Arizona, we went by miles of sand dunes – and blowing sand. Charlotte had fun seeing some of the dune buggies going up and down the hills.We had a stop in Alpine, CA for dinner before delivering our kids at their hotel for the night and heading to the RV park for us.

Once we got settled, I heard water dripping … a new leak under our kitchen sink. UGGHHH. We pulled all the pans and cleaned the mess. Tobey thinks we will need to replace the faucet and re-caulk the sink. Where is our mobile RV repairman from home when we need him??? We will try rearranging things and keeping a dishpan under the faucet for the time being.

We will get a good night’s sleep then do some tourist things with our family tomorrow. It should be a fun day and we are looking forward to spending it with our granddaughter!

December 26, 2018 - Scottsdale, Arizona

We are just about ready to start our next big adventure. Tobey will be riding his bicycle across the United States – from San Diego, California to St. Augustine, Florida – about 3000 miles beginning December 31!

We are in Arizona for the holidays so Tobey did a few rides to keep in shape, and has already had his one mishap that I am allowing for this trip.

He rode from Scottsdale to Sun City West and was returning when he and his bicycle tangled with a car. He wasn’t sure who hit who, but, fortunately, he wasn’t hurt too much. Some walkers stopped to assist, as well as the driver of the car. They went to a business and got some wet cloths to clean the small cut over his nose, a band aid, and made sure he was okay. He said his concussion protocol was to hold up two fingers and say, “yes, there are two.”  At least it didn’t hurt his sense of humor! He was able to ride the rest of the way home and asked when dinner would be ready! I guess after a 90 mile ride, you know where his priorities lie!

The next day he rode his bike to the repair shop to have it checked out and they determined he was good to go. He stopped to get his glasses adjusted and they are fixed, too. His helmet protected his head, but cracked so he needed to replace it. He has a new helmet purchased so he is ready to go.

I hope that will be the most “excitement” we have on this trip!

October 24, 2018 Las Vegas, NV–Fort Collins, CO

Travel day! We checked out of the hotel and took Uber to the airport. Worst Uber ride ever!! The driver didn’t get out of the car – no assistance with luggage – barely acknowledged us when we got in – didn’t ask which airline or terminal we were going to – played RAP music loudly all the way to the airport. Needless to say, no tip for him.

We spent several hours in the Priority Lounge while waiting for our flight. They had a nice lunch, so that was good. We both caught up on some reading.

Our flight home was great, then we were off to the shuttle to pick up the car and head home. We got back home about 9:30 pm and were greeted with happy cries from our Penny dog. We had a great time, but it is good to be home.

October 23, 2018 - Las Vegas, NV

Today we went shopping – Tobey’s least favorite thing to do! He was a good sport and humored me by going into three stores and helped me find a dress. It didn’t take too long – less than an hour – and I rewarded him by treating him to lunch at the Earl of Sandwich at Planet Hollywood. We actually shared a sandwich and had plenty to eat.

We spent some time looking at different casinos and working our way north along the Strip. One of the gondoliers at The Venetian was singing to his guests on the gondola. Fun to see and hear. We took a break back at our hotel before heading back to Fremont Street for the night. We had decided to eat at Bomb Tacos not far from Fremont Street. They advertised a special of five tacos for $12 on Yelp, but when we arrived, only one of the tacos we wanted to try were on their special. The staff there was really great, however, and offered us a discount on our order. We had two rock shrimp tacos, a potato taco, fish tacos, and a carne asada taco. They were all yummy and we were happy campers. To top off their awesome service, they brought us a complimentary dessert – delicious vanilla ice cream and warm churros! We were stuffed and smiling as we left the restaurant!We checked out some of the sights along our way back to Fremont Street. At Container Park there was an amazing, to scale, moving sculpture of a praying mantis with lights and spouting fire! It was built by aerospace engineer Kirk Jellum to be 150 times the size of a real Mantis, and burns about 50 gallons of propane each night. Flames can reach six stories high. Jellum and a team of 20 built The Mantis just outside Zion National Park in 2010. Five hundred hours of design work and more than 3,000 labor hours went into its construction.

This is a link to the mantis spouting!https://youtu.be/z8qt7PU24Ng

The Mantis actually drives! On two occasions it drove to and appeared in the annual “Burning Man” summer festival held in the Black Rock Desert of Norther Nevada – to this day it is still a street legal kinetic mobile fire art vehicle.

There were several other interesting art sculpture pieces at Container Park. Boys will be boys and Tobey just couldn’t resist taking a peek!Our funny sign for the day:We had fun seeing the sights and sounds along Fremont Street once again. Most of the street is decorated for Halloween and the bands all are joining in the fun by dressing up in costumes. We listened to two sets of music by Alter Igor,  a local rock band. They were really good and had the crowd dancing and singing along to their 70s/80s rock music. Tobey said we should make this an annual trip!

It was close to midnight before we got back to the hotel. Tomorrow we pack and head back to Colorado.

October 22, 2018 - Las Vegas, NV

Today we checked out some of the casinos along the Strip. In the Venetian, we saw the end of an Italian music show – opera singers and court jesters. We somehow always manage to get lost wandering though the “streets” of Venice – not unlike the time we were actually in Venice! The inside of some of these hotels and their shops is amazing. The ceilings make it appear as if you are really outdoors!In-n-Out Burger called my name at lunchtime. We usually try to eat at places we don’t have at home and since we don’t have one in Fort Collins, eating at a chain restaurant was okay. Their milkshakes are so thick and yummy!

Even though I didn’t partake, here is today’s funny sign:Back at the hotel, we attended the required presentation at the Hilton this afternoon and said “no thank you” to their offer to buy into their vacation club and were back on our way to our time!

We spent some time deciding on a dinner location and ended up at the Thai Street Food Café. It had high ratings and great reviews, but we were disappointed. It is actually located off the Strip about a half mile, in an industrial area strip mall. We broke our own rule of not eating at a place where there were no other people, but we thought it might have been too early. ANYWAY, a few other people did come in later, but it was still a so-so meal. I had pad Thai with shrimp and Tobey had the orange chicken. Neither were remarkable and we wondered what the people in the reviews had chosen!

After dinner, it was off to the gaming tables! Tobey played hold-em poker and I am always drawn to the roulette table. Tyler had told us earlier in the evening about a study by some Harvard professor about the odds and placing bets on red vs. black at the roulette table. Apparently, if the one color hits six or more consecutive times, you should bet on the opposite color. The table I was at was going crazy with red. This is when it had gone 10 times red. On the 15th roll, I finally bet on black and it was! Even money bet, and I am not a big gambler, but I won $5.00. Big spender! I should have splurged, but I would rather play longer!I did go away a winner after going back to playing numbers (which I usually do). Tobey wasn’t as lucky, but he still had fun. Tomorrow will be another day!

October 21, 2018 Fort Collins, CO to Las Vegas, NV

We’re in Vegas, baby!

We are forever getting phone calls inviting us to visit this property or that for a discounted price, and you only need to attend their presentation. We hadn’t been to Las Vegas for a few years, so we decided to go ahead and take the Hilton Grand Vacations up on their offer.

Our 8:30 am flight meant getting up at 4:15 (in the morning!!!) so we could arrive at the airport on time. Gosh, that is SO early! We both slept on the plane and arrived safely, even though it was a pretty bumpy flight.

Tobey had checked out some food reviews before coming and we took the bus (using our 3-day pass) to the Season Buffet at the Silverton Lodge and Casino. We had read that if you got a players card, you would get a $2 discount, so we thought, why not? After signing up for their Players Club, we both got a coupon for 50% off your entire order at the buffet – so it was an even better deal – both of us for $19.95! We grazed our way through the peel and eat shrimp, stuffed crab, Eggs Benedict, sushi (Tobey), egg drop soup, and other goodies and finished up with ice cream. It even included mimosas, and other assorted champagne drinks. I guess getting up at 4:15 this morning was worth it!There was a Bass Pro Shop connected to the casino and we took a while and looked around. They even had a mermaid swimming in the huge aquarium at the entrance!

After our lunch, we took the bus back to the transfer station and made our way to the Hilton. After checking in and getting settled we both took naps. I didn’t wake up until 6:15, but I felt so much better!

We headed out to Tacos El Gordo for dinner because it was supposed to have the best street tacos in Vegas. There was a long line out the door when we arrived – and mostly local Hispanics. There are three or four locations here in Las Vegas and one not far from our hotel.We ordered two carne asada tacos and two tacos al pastor. Not 7 pesos – about 35 cents - each like we pay in Tulum, but $2.50 each. They were pretty good and the place does a booming business. We would go back again!After dinner we went downtown to Fremont Street. What a wild and crazy place! There were three bands playing and the Mighty Mighty Boss Tones drew the largest crowd.We watched as folks were doing the zipline down Fremont Street. We have ziplined before and I much prefer going through a jungle than the idea of zipping over a bunch of people!The laser light show is always fun and we enjoyed watching the people as much as the show!This guy was posing on this bike for the longest time without moving! I don’t know how they do it, but it was interesting to see!We took the bus back to the Hilton around 11 pm after a busy day. Day 1 in Vegas a success!

October 9, 2018 - Cabo, Mexico

Today was our last full day in Mexico, so we made it a beach day. We went into Cabo San Lucas to hang out at Medano Beach, one of the swimmable beaches in the area. There were quite a few people  on the beach because a Disney ship was in “port” today. The cruise ships that stop here have to anchor offshore and shuttle the passengers in because the marina cannot accommodate the large cruise ships. It was actually fun to see so many families traveling together. It certainly kept the beach vendors busy!

The water was pretty calm and warm. We had fun cooling off in the water then soaking up the sun.We walked back into town for lunch at Restaurante El Pescador. I had the shrimp tacos and Tobey had the fish tacos. Both were a disappointment. After lunch we both remembered that we had wanted to try Tacos Gardenias, a place we had eaten at 4 years ago when we were here. Oh well! After lunch it was back to the beach. We met a couple from California on vacation with their kids and enjoyed visiting with them for quite a while. After deciding we had been toasting in the sun long enough, it was back to the main street and the bus home. On our way, we passed today’s funny sign.For dinner tonight, we opted to eat at Mama Mia’s Restaurant here at the Coral Baja. Tobey had the red snapper almandine and I had the red snapper with garlic. Both were delicious. They also served some yummy dinner rolls with a cream cheese filling. What a fun taste surprise! As we were finishing our dinner, we watched as a group went by the resort on horseback. While it looked like they were having fun, riding horses on the beach is not on my bucket list of must do activities!So our trip is coming to an end and we need to pack for our return to Colorado tomorrow.

October 8, 2018 - Cabo, Mexico

We took the bus into Cabo San Lucas this afternoon and treated ourselves to 90 minute massages. Aahhh – the simple pleasures in life! We spent a little time walking around town and this is the funny sign for today.On our way back to the bus stop, we met a young couple from the Carnival cruise ship and we took a picture of them, so they reciprocated. It is fun to actually be in pictures together!We relaxed for a while after getting back to our resort, then cleaned up and took a taxi over to Herringbone’s Restaurant. We shared the “Sailboat” entrée which included shrimp, crab, clams and ceviche. It usually comes with oysters, but neither of us is fond of them, so they substituted more shrimp – YUMMY! We did a pretty good job of finishing most of it!We opted to walk back to our resort after dinner to walk off some of our dinner. It only took about 20 minutes and was really pleasant. We stopped at the little market just outside and treated ourselves to ice cream sandwiches for dessert. Not bad for a Monday!

October 7, 2018 - Cabo, Mexico

We had a pretty quiet day today. We took a walk on the beach and stopped to watch some of the surfers. The waves aren’t real big, but they were having a good time.There are several trees around the resort they have trimmed into interesting shapes. A couple near the lobby are the rooster and a kangaroo. There are dinosaurs in another area so I will need to get some pictures of those, too! There are some plumeria trees, also. They are pretty, but not quite as fragrant than the ones we have seen in Hawaii.We followed the Broncos game online only to be disappointed with their loss. Then our poor Rockies ended their season with a loss to the Brewers. We’re going to watch a movie and hang out tonight.

October 6, 2018 - Cabo, Mexico

We had a busy day today. We took the bus into San Jose del Cabo to check out the old town. Our first stop was the Mission de San Jose del Cabo Anuiti Catholic Church. The mission was the southernmost of the Jesuit missions established during the colonial period of the Baja. The building as it stands today was restored in 1940 and is the most visited tourist attraction downtown. The first San Jose del Cabo Church was built when the San Jose del Cabo Anuiti Mission was founded in April 8th 1730 by Jesuitical Friar Nicolas Tamaral.The plaza across from the mission was deserted today while we were in town. Actually, almost everywhere we went in the old town had very few visitors. From the mission we walked to the estuary to check it out. We spotted a few egrets and other waterfowl, but not many. We did watch as one egret chased the black bird around for a while. That was the excitement at the bird sanctuary!We stopped at the public market which was very small and had lunch at Loncheria Sonia. I tried the chicken mole and Tobey tried their fish tacos (no surprise there!). Lunch was filling and pretty good. From the market we headed back to our condo for a rest from the heat and sun.

Around 4, we headed back into Los Cabos for a sunset dinner cruise to Los Arcos (the arches).We were on the Oceanus. It was a pretty large boat, but not overly crowded. We had nice views looking back at the city.There were lots of boats – all sizes cruising around the arch.We bought a photo that the ship photographer took of us, but of course, we have no way to scan it, so we will settle for our selfie for this blog!We also spotted a sealion catching the last rays of sunshine on one of the rocks.Views of some of the resorts on the Pacific side of the peninsula were lovely as the sun was going down.We were treated to a beautiful sunset before our boat turned around and headed back toward the marina.We enjoyed a leisurely stroll through town before catching the bus back to our condo.

The funny sign for today:We are both beat after walking so much in the heat today. Plans for tomorrow include a walk on the beach, then trying to catch part of the Broncos game and the Rockies game.