Cabo San Lucas

New Year

~ Girlmom ~ Leave a comment

Dammit you guys, it’s been a hot minute. I have excuses if you want to hear them. But do they really matter?

Since we’ve last chatted almost everyone (in our home) started a new school year.

I took a trip down to Cabo!

We watched the LA Galaxy win it ALL!

Averi had her acting debut in a Finding Nemo musical’

… and last but most important, we celebrated the best man in our lives turn 80. But That will have it’s own post!

So, with that, here is the proof.

Some back to school shopping, first day of school pictures.

I am not ready to talk about how old they are getting.

Oh Cabo, the last time wasn’t fantastic, so why do we repeat history? ( wow there is so much in that question)

As we were booking this trip I whispered to myself, “this time it will be amazing”.

Because this time we were going to do things different. We were going to stay at a smaller hotel. We were going to forgo San Diego International and leave out of Tijuana. That’s what everyone said we should do, it’s cheaper, easier..

Side note: we live 10 miles away from San Diego International Airport. We live 26 miles from the CBX crossing.

So, I book a flight from Tijuana to Cabo. The Uber showed up on time and 25 minutes later we are at the CBX border. We got out of the car with our luggage and all the of the paperwork filled out. (you have to have your shit together otherwise you’ll be filling out papers leaning against vending machines before they let you through, oh and they don’t have pens so bring your own.)

We proudly show our paperwork and make our way across the tunnel (border) and into the TJ airport. The walk took about 10 minutes. And then we hit the line for the custom passport check and guess what, we weren’t alone. We were in line for about 30 minutes. After that, there was another check point and then there was a luggage check. We left a lot of time, I’m talking hours to get through everything. But luckily we reached our gate with minutes to spare. We jumped in line and then realized that we weren’t even boarding our plane, we were just getting on a bus to take us to our plane. WTF?

We eventually made it to our plane.

We landed in Cabo without any problems. Once we collected our luggage and walked outside I realized that we werent at the same terminal we were used to. I don’t actually know how manyYou know, the terminal that has the bars?

Little things like that aren’t a big deal, shouldn’t be a big deal. but at that moment I wanted to be where everyone else was. I wanted to the terminal with the bars, I wanted to be where everyone else was.

Our transfer arrived not long after and we were headed to our hotel.

 

This was a smaller hotel that was a short beach walk to Medano beach.

We sat on the beach all day every day . Had the best churros ever.

We ate fresh fish, molé enchiladas. Fireworks every night and stormy weather.

https://videopress.com/v/Dtd91AOB?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

I need to mention that those fireworks went off every night. It sounded like we were being gunned down (Hi, I am that old. ) Also, the flamingos underneath us sounded like they were screaming for their lives. I’m not a fan of either of those.

With that being said, it was a nice trip. But I think Cabo can be put on the back burner for awhile.

The trip home was SO much easier even with a delayed flight, go figure.

 

LA Galaxy, if you know me then you know that I am a soccer person. We are the OG LA Galaxy fans. When we lived in San Ramon (1990’s) we watched the San Franscisco Bay Blackhawks. This is before there was MLS. Eric Wynalda was on the team and I remember running up to him after a win with my friends. Can’t do that anymore.

Nevertheless we are still a footy family. OG Galaxy fans!

 

LA Galaxy MLS Champions!

Now onto my Averi.

I want to be her when I grow up. She’s just so confident, she has that chutzpah, you know.. so sure of herself.

https://videopress.com/v/nENcljex?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

When I wonder what she got from me, she runs into walls and spills shit.

That concludes that last 8 months…maybe?

Next we talk about my dad!

 

 

 

New Year

~ Girlmom ~ Leave a comment

Dammit you guys, it’s been a hot minute. I have excuses if you want to hear them. But do they really matter?

Since we’ve last chatted almost everyone (in our home) started a new school year.

I took a trip down to Cabo!

We watched the LA Galaxy win it ALL!

Averi had her acting debut in a Finding Nemo musical’

… and last but most important, we celebrated the best man in our lives turn 80. But That will have it’s own post!

So, with that, here is the proof.

Some back to school shopping, first day of school pictures.

I am not ready to talk about how old they are getting.

Oh Cabo, the last time wasn’t fantastic, so why do we repeat history? ( wow there is so much in that question)

As we were booking this trip I whispered to myself, “this time it will be amazing”.

Because this time we were going to do things different. We were going to stay at a smaller hotel. We were going to forgo San Diego International and leave out of Tijuana. That’s what everyone said we should do, it’s cheaper, easier..

Side note: we live 10 miles away from San Diego International Airport. We live 26 miles from the CBX crossing.

So, I book a flight from Tijuana to Cabo. The Uber showed up on time and 25 minutes later we are at the CBX border. We got out of the car with our luggage and all the of the paperwork filled out. (you have to have your shit together otherwise you’ll be filling out papers leaning against vending machines before they let you through, oh and they don’t have pens so bring your own.)

We proudly show our paperwork and make our way across the tunnel (border) and into the TJ airport. The walk took about 10 minutes. And then we hit the line for the custom passport check and guess what, we weren’t alone. We were in line for about 30 minutes. After that, there was another check point and then there was a luggage check. We left a lot of time, I’m talking hours to get through everything. But luckily we reached our gate with minutes to spare. We jumped in line and then realized that we weren’t even boarding our plane, we were just getting on a bus to take us to our plane. WTF?

We eventually made it to our plane.

We landed in Cabo without any problems. Once we collected our luggage and walked outside I realized that we werent at the same terminal we were used to. I don’t actually know how manyYou know, the terminal that has the bars?

Little things like that aren’t a big deal, shouldn’t be a big deal. but at that moment I wanted to be where everyone else was. I wanted to the terminal with the bars, I wanted to be where everyone else was.

Our transfer arrived not long after and we were headed to our hotel.

This was a smaller hotel that was a short beach walk to Medano beach.

We sat on the beach all day every day . Had the best churros ever.

We ate fresh fish, molé enchiladas. Fireworks every night and stormy weather.

I need to mention that those fireworks went off every night. It sounded like we were being gunned down (Hi, I am that old. ) Also, the flamingos underneath us sounded like they were screaming for their lives. I’m not a fan of either of those.

With that being said, it was a nice trip. But I think Cabo can be put on the back burner for awhile.

The trip home was SO much easier even with a delayed flight, go figure.

LA Galaxy, if you know me then you know that I am a soccer person. We are the OG LA Galaxy fans. When we lived in San Ramon (1990’s) we watched the San Franscisco Bay Blackhawks. This is before there was MLS. Eric Wynalda was on the team and I remember running up to him after a win with my friends. Can’t do that anymore.

Nevertheless we are still a footy family. OG Galaxy fans!

LA Galaxy MLS Champions!

Now onto my Averi.

I want to be her when I grow up. She’s just so confident, she has that chutzpah, you know.. so sure of herself.

When I wonder what she got from me, she runs into walls and spills shit.

That concludes that last 8 months…maybe?

Next we talk about my dad!

Cabo 2023

~ Girlmom ~ Leave a comment

We took advantage of the extreme temps and low rates that Cabo had to offer at the end of summer. A favorite spot on our Mexican Riveria cruise, we thought exploring it more than a day sounded like a nice getaway. We chose a RIU resort and as beautiful as the grounds were, we didn’t love it and wouldn’t recommend it.

This was the view from the lobby bar, by far the best bar at the resort in terms of drink options, bartenders and service.

We hung out staring at this view until our room was ready. A few beers and tequila shots later we unpacked our luggage in our just ‘fine room’. The room seemed damp the entire week, and had a musty smell but it was extremely humid during our stay, maybe that is why.

Then we hit one of the two adults only pool. They both were smaller infinity pools with a swim up bar. It was so hot outside we were sweating with excitement to jump into some cool water. You guys ALL the pool water was warm and there wasn’t any shade, that was a tough pill to swallow.

But it was beautiful.

We found a couple of lounge chairs, pulled over an umbrella, walked down to the beach and bought two hats.

For dinner we ate at a fusion restaurant. I think we ordered a fish dish and a lamb dish which was obviously not memorable. Unfortunately none of the food or drinks for that matter, were great. The buffet which we hit up for breakfast had a lot of options but some of it was questionable after sitting out for hours.

The next morning we had some coffee and fruit sent up to our room and enjoyed our patio.

We spent a couple of our days in town. The beach in front of our resort (and most of the resorts nearby) wasn’t swimmable. I researched this before we booked and never saw that it was dangerous, so that was a real let down when we found that black flag waving. We took advantage of the ocean (which was cooler than the pool) down at Medano beach. Reachable by foot but way too hot for that, we took a short taxi ride to town. Our first stop was at the Sand Bar, a favorite of ours from our cruise stop to Cabo.

We also popped into Cabo Wabo for a drink.

A little window shopping and then a stop at another favorite of ours, The Monkey Bar.

A very small bar with a handful of stools, great margaritas and country music.

Then we walked by an even smaller bar, or so they claim.

Our resort had some questionable entertainment each night. Karaoke night was by far the most fun. I was a judge which I took very seriously.

I started having some stomach issues halfway through our stay. Luckily OTC meds helped enough and allowed me to enjoy the last few days.

We spent another day at the pool chatting up the people we had met. But the pools were sort of gross, and it gives me chills thinking back on it now. Older folks sitting in the pool at the bar for hours, never getting out to use the toilet. Questionable things floating in the corners of the warm pool water, ew.

On our final day we decided to stay out of the pool and head back into town.

After some souvenir shopping for the girls, we stopped at Uno Mas for a margarita, it’s another cute little bar outside the marina.

We ended up back at the Sandbar where we sat for hours eating the most delicious octopus and fried fish. Sipping cold Chardonnay and floating in the ocean.

Our last evening we walked to the steakhouse for dinner and then the lobby bar for a couple of espresso martini’s.

We both wound up feeling terrible by the time we were heading home and were sick for a good week later. I blame the buffet, the pools and one pool bartender.

Final thoughts; find a better resort to spend your money on.

Cabo no Wabo

~ Girlmom ~ Leave a comment

We anchored in Cabo San Lucas just before 11:00am on Tuesday.

Desperate for lunch on the beach, we made our way downstairs to get the tender tickets. I’m not going to sugar coat it, this cruise ship had a lot of older folks, so getting into that Tender from the Ship, was bit of a slow process. Luckily, we sat next to the best group of Texans (you won’t hear me say that very often). They told us that a friend of their’s, who is a singer, was singing at Karlito’s Cantina on the marina, and we had to stop by to see her.

We told them that we had a date with Playa El Médano for lunch, but we would absolutely stop by later.

We strolled through the marina, stopping to browse and for photo ops along the way.

Once we hit the beach, we walked in the water until we spotted a spot that we could sit, eat, drink and swim. The weather was perfect and the water was pretty warm, warm enough to swim in.

We stopped at Omega’s where we soaked it all in for a couple of hours. This is also where I had the most delicious shrimp tacos with a fresh habanero salsa. I’ve thought about those tacos every day since.

Fully satisfied, we made our way back to the marina to see what was happening at Karlito’s. Our tender Texan friends, Pattie and her husband John, were already there, “but the fun don’t start til I walk in“. Kesha, get it?

Everybody there was so nice, the lady singing (I am horrible at names, luckily Shawna has an elephant’s memory, is that even a real fact, like how do we know that?)

Anyhow, Leslie Blasing used to be a back up singer for Reba, she lives in South Padre Island but just happened to be in Cabo visiting friends. She was singing on this sunny Tuesday at Karlito’s as a favor, ya, she is that nice of a person.

We decided to eat dinner in the dining room on the ship, so we said our goodbyes, and tootled back to the tender.

I’m guessing you know what we did after dinner, but you are going to have to hear it again.

As our group of friends grew larger with each trip to the bar, we all took turns saving seats in our favorite corner booth. That way we were always together listening to the music.


I can’t forget to mention that the Holland America bartenders make a first-class espresso martini! Pretty sure that’s one of our martini’s being shaken in the background of the video, ha.

When the clock strikes (who knows, I never knew what time it was) I should say, when the pianos stopped, the dancing began.


And when the lights went out, it was time for bed.

Just to wake up and do it all over again.

But this time, we woke up in Mazatlán.

Once we stepped off the ship we hopped in a cab with another couple and headed, well we didn’t know where we were headed. We asked to be taken to where the action was at.

We landed at Joe’s Oyster Bar.

Not bad, not bad at all. After wetting our palate, we strolled along some shops and…shit, I just remembered that I bought vanilla there, I wonder where that is, hm.

It was time for lunch and as we do, we asked a local where we should go. The next thing we knew we were dropped off between two beach restaurants. We rock paper scissored to see which one we would eat at, and it was a good choice.

I mean come on, grilled pulpo on the beach…. with a margarita, can it get any better? (insert Chandler Bings voice)

After lunch we wandered along the streets but nothing was really calling out to us. Mazatlán is pretty in some sorts and not so pretty in others, just like anywhere, but there wasn’t anything that we really had to do there. So we made our way back to the ship and hit the pool, well I’m pretty sure that’s what we did, I mean it’s been a week you guys.

Fun fact, Mazatlán’s malecón is the largest in the world. I don’t remember how long it is, but I am sure Google does, or Alexa, I’ll ask…Nope, she doesn’t know either. Oh well, here is a glimpse of the longest malecón in the world.

Once we were sun soaked, it was that time again.

That’s Johnny Tocco on the guitar, isn’t he good?

You know how the first part of a vacay moves at a perfect pace, and then all of the sudden BAAAAM, it’s over? Ya, well that started in Puerto Vallarta….stay tuned.