December in San Carlos-Arrival and Visit from the Lyons

As usual, it's been a busy December, getting settled and getting ready for Christmas.  When we arrived, the weather was suitable for swimming, but in the last week before Christmas, it has been balmy but unusually foggy and rainy.  On the 22nd, we even had a good old-fashioned downpour.  In the three years we've been coming, we've only experienced one or two rainy days.  Jim and I love a good excuse to hunker down with a good book or cooking something new and different, so, we are not disappointed;  we are actually elated.  Boo, however, does not care for rain.  We literally have to drag him outside to do his business!  The weird weather made for some great photo ops!

My favorite-from the Bahia

Our neighborhood with the fog over the marina

The Bahia

The Bahia

The desert

San Nicolas looked like an oil painting this day.

The sea literally turned red in the sunrise.

We had great plans for our anniversary on the 13th but the night before, Jim's eye met a rock in our cobblestone cactus garden (remember the infamous cactus garden?) and we ended up at Rescate, our emergency medical clinic.  They bandaged him up, talked to his doc and decided to send him home to return the next day for stitches.   We even managed dinner out with friends at Tortuga's. 

Rescate nurse-they actually
had to make butterfly bandages-
they didn't have any!

The waitress at Tortuga's fixed him up with her first aid kit
when the bandages weren't holding.

We managed to just catch Lady of Guadalupe Day celebrants walking to the church on our way to dinner.

He didn't look so good the next day.

 When Dr. Mike looked at him, he decided not to put in stitches because he was so swollen with blood.  He put some kind of wonder bandage on him (he was hoping for a pirate eye patch) and we did manage to stop by a friend's party for awhile afterwards.  See his disguise, below:

You'd hardly notice!

They surprised us at the party with a champagne toast!

And out we went to Bonifacio's, The Cotton Club, for a fabulous lunch and a stroll on the beach to celebrate a memorable 47th!

A wine for me and a margarita for Jim and a great lunch of
grilled artichokes, pizzeta with bacon, goat cheese and
dates and coconut shrimp!

Anniversary selfie

You can see the Baja in the distance.

December's full moon graced us on the 13th!

 Some random pictures of walks around our new neighborhood-the Caracol Peninsula:

Lots of houses and lots for sale

The Bahia

Some beautiful houses:

Our "not too beautiful" entrance.  See our margarita
deck on top which is our favorite for sunsets.  Our
car just barely fits in this gated garage.

 Our rental this year:  it isn't as modern or fancy as we've had before but the views are to die for and it is quite comfortable and roomy (an over-statement:  we don't need half this much room).

Dining room

Living area-our owner isn't much for decoration-we do our best!

Kitchen-great dishes and glasses and pots and pans but
missing lots of basics like measuring cups, salad bowl,
dish rack, coffee maker (that works), etc.

Deck-it's just a plywood table but my tablecloth from
Jackalope works perfectly.

My herb garden (on what looks like it was once a grill
of some sort)

On The Road and Our First Few Weeks in San Carlos-December 2016

We left Erin and Todd's house in Golden on the 28th of November and drove to Albuquerque, NM-our usual dog friendly La Quinta was the first night's destination.  We spent two days in Tucson, getting supplies, purchasing a new IPhone for Jim (which took FOREVER) and visiting our favorite haunt here, Tucson Botanical Gardens.  This year they had a special exhibit, Frida Kahlo, Art, Garden and Life.  It examined her art through the lens of her botanical interests and displayed replicas of her gardens.  Her depictions of flowers, botanicals and fruits helped define the art that followed the Mexican Revolution.

I love these tile benches which are here and there in the gardens

Agave

Organ Pipe Cactus

Such a sweet altar

Can't remember the name but beautiful

And these photographs of Frida really captured her unusual beauty and flair for the exotic.

Check out her earrings!

The flowers in her hair!

Ethnic dress always

Perhaps my favorite

Don't miss the eyebrows and the mustache!

We got together with some friends for a delightful dinner in Green Valley and then left for the border on the first.  We had no problems at all crossing and the lines at Kilometer 21 were thankfully short.
The roads to Hermosillo were quite nice but once we got on the other side of Hermosillo, there was an over-abundance of road construction, reducing a four lane highway to two.  And, without shoulders and with lots of crazy fast Mexican drivers passing us, it was a bit white knuckled driving to the cut off for San Carlos.  We tucked in behind some of the big semis so, if anyone was going to take the hit, it wouldn't be us!  We arrived at Encantado Realty around 3:30 and Thonda drove with us to our new rental on the Caracol Peninsula.  The first year, we were at the Bahia, and we thought we'd always want to live in the Bahia area.  The second and third year, we lived in Villa Hermosa and thought we'd never want to leave there.  This year we are on the Caracol (means snail in Spanish) and, so far, we don't think we'll ever want to leave here either.

Here are a few first pictures, taken in early December:

Those three pictures are from our deck, our first night here.  Wish I knew how to do a panorama-maybe I'll learn sometime soon.

This is the street side of the house and the infamous cactus garden with
the cobblestone path.

We bought a mini Christmas tree...and
decorated the fountain with paper flowers
and the beginnings of this year's shell
collection.

We have a resident committee of turkey vultures.

Beautiful sunrises

A girls' Christmas party with homemade biscotti and wonderful
coffee at Norma's:
Sylvia, Norma, Graciela, Heidi, Gisella, Leticia
and, in back, Margene, Maggie, Debbie and Jackie

I've kept up with the birding group, who know about 99% more than I do about birds-I'm learning.

There were 52 white egrets at the Esterito this morning.
(We are in the midst of the Christmas bird count)

One of the settlement ponds in the desert-we saw lots of
ducks this day.

The back side of the Tetakawis

A cactus forest outside Paradiso

Can you believe the algae on this pond!!!?

Algodones Beach area by the old Club Med

SO MUCH MORE TO COME!