Sunday, July 31, 2011

Cabo 2011-Two Weeks!!!

Wow- What a Trip. 
I must admit I have felt a little overwhelmed by making this post. What to do with over 1200 photos that I took? How do I tell the story of what a great time we had? Two weeks is a lot to cover. And I am sure you all do not want all the details. But I don't want to forget them either. And since I am no good at keeping a journal, this is the closest I get. 

Here are some of the highlights of the great time we had. 
I will try and cover the Who- What- When & Where at least. 

Who:
Gary -Vincent-Andrew-Myself! My parents Joy and Jerry also joined us for a fun 10 days! 

What:
Vacation to Sunny Mexico! 

When:  
Beginning of July 2011
Two weeks were perfect. Lots of time to do activities and hang out at the pool and relax. 

Where:
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It is at the tip of Baja California. The Very, very tip! 

The Beach
Grandma brought some small kites and the kids had a fun time flying them. They got very high. Andrews took out all the string and Batman went flying out to sea!  We watched him fly away for a long way over the ocean. So sorry for littering. We did not do it on purpose. Grandpa was happy with his chipping wedge on the beach. Lots of area for practicing his golf skills. :-) 


ATV Riding
in the dessert and then to the Pacific Ocean
We had a great time riding thru a dry river bed and followed it to the Ocean. It led us thru a small cattle ranch that was fun. The bulls and cows did not mind us at all. They just looked at us like we were normal everyday visitors. I guess we were in a way. Lots of old dried up cattle bones along the way. They have not had rain for over two years in this area. But I think they did get some the next day for a couple of hours. Grandpa did great riding on his ATV. Andrew rode with me. He is not stupid. He saw how the other boys drove and decided to stay with me for the whole trip. Gary had a close call on his ATV. He was doing doughnuts and had it tip over. I was very happy that no bones were broken. One boy in our group did break his ankle at the end of the trip doing the same thing. They never learn...


A Day at La Paz. 
We drove for about 3 hours to visit the capital of the area. We did get stopped by some armed patrol military men. They did not speak english, so I was glad we had Vincent with us. They had us all get out and they searched the car. Yeah no drugs were found. It helps that there was none with us. I so wanted to take a photo. I had my little camera in my hand even. But I did not want to push my luck with Mexican Military Police. They did not look to friendly. 

We found some beautiful beaches that were not too crowded at all. 
Puerto Balandra is a huge cove about a mile across. You can walk the whole way across even. The deepest part was about chest deep. Not a lot of coral in the cove. So not too many fish. But warm and fun to swim in. Lots of people were kayaking across. 
Telecote was the second beach we went to. What a nice set up it had. It had hardly any tourists there. We were late in the day, so I think what few there were they had left by then. I had suggested we drive to a beach and the car got stuck in the sand. All my fault of course. A nice man helped dig us out. We then went for a short snorkel cruise with him. It was great. We swam with some huge sea lions. It was a little freaky if you asked me. They would swim so close to you they would brush up against your legs unexpectedly. Unfortunetly by then my underwater camera had broken. Lots of fun. It would be nice to go and spend the night in the area to really enjoy the beaches and the town.


Time Share Heaven
We are very lucky to have a few time shares. They let us vacation in style. We also love that they have kitchens and great eating areas. This trip we stayed in two places. 

First we stayed at Playa Grande. Great place with fun pools for the kids. Lots of activities to do with the staff. Very fun atmosphere. We did not stay in our normal room this time. As we switched around the dates. We stayed in a great two bedroom right on the Ocean. Loved it. 

Second we stayed at a brand new place called Grand Solomar. They are still not done building the resort yet. We bought it last year before they had the first phase finished. It was a gamble, but it looked great from what we could tell then. We were right. Very high end and fabulous. All the room look out to the ocean. The pools were very nice. All with those fancy infinity edges looking out over the ocean. It really was top notch. We all felt very spoiled. We had a huge two bedroom with a hide-a-bed for Vincent. 


Pool Time
We had a great small pool right out side of our building. We could look out to it from out porch. We met some very nice people at the pool. Couples from Texas and Georgia and California were our favorites.  We all got along great. Later in the week a few ladies joined us and made some waves that the pool was for adults only. Well no signs were up yet. Everything is so new. But by the end of the week they had them up and the boys had to stop going to this pool. Always a few bad apples in the group. But we only had a few days left and the other pools were awesome also. 


The Beach
Our timeshares are on the Pacific Ocean side of Cabo. The beaches in our area are not safe to swim in. It is even against the Mexican law to swim in them. Every year a couple of people die from the strong currents and rip tides. This year the surfers were coming to our beach. They were fun to watch. But hard to keep telling your kids, you can watch but you can not join them. Just too scary for me. Also the hotel security would not let the patrons go. Eventually the Marine Police came and made them all leave. 


Dolphin Discovery
This was our first time doing this adventure. 25 minutes away in the Marina Puerto Los Cabos is a great new Dolphin pen. In is located in the ocean water and not in a tank like some of the Dolphin places. I was not crazy about supporting dolphins in that environment. I am hoping that this pen in the ocean is a better environment. We had an awesome time. You can tell all of the people who work there really loved the animals.  I will do this again for sure. So fun! 
http://www.dolphindiscovery.com/los_cabos/los-cabos-location-overview.asp


We had a great great trip.  
Zip Lining and snorkeling were lots of fun. No accidents with Jelly fish this year. Yeah!  I was a little nervous and wore a long sleeve swim shirt a couple of times, just in case. 

I am so glad my Mom and Dad were able to join us on this trip. We have been going here for many years.  I would often wish my Mom and Dad were here to enjoy watching the waves with me. I got my wish this year. I am so glad they loved the waves as much as I thought they would. My Dad would sit on the porch and eat his breakfast every morning and watch the waves. They were really fabulous. Gary was not too happy with all the noise the waves made at night. He tried earplugs for a couple of nights even. It was really loud. 

All in all I wish it never had to end. 
I wish I could bring everyone I love to this great place. 
One of the things I love about this place is that I am with my family and the sun shines everyday!  We need that coming from the Northwest. Very very badly. 

My goal is next time I visit I will know a little more spanish. :-) 

2 comments:

Allison Barnes said...

looks like fun!! Glad you had an accident free trip!

Ang and Shawn said...

What a fun vaca. I need to join you one year. And could it be true??? no trips to the emergency room? awesome.

miss you.