Glasgow by Day....and Night....

How about a Hop on Hop Off Bus Tour to orient ourselves to the city?  The tour takes an hour or so and we find the perfect lunch stop to hop off on the second time around....Glasgow Cathedral...with a brewery right down the hill.

Glasgow Cathedral is our first European church of the trip.  

How perfect!  Down the stairs we find small chapels...this one is the Nurses Chapel.  We light a candle for Jessica and write a prayer in the book for Jessica.  Her work as a nurse and an instructor of future nurses is awesome.

Then it’s on to lunch at the local brewery.

How about some soup and rustic bread with smashed avocado, greens and tomatoes to spread upon it?  Oh, and BEER!

Back on our now, walking tour, we stop at the back of St. George’s Church and are struck by the bronze sculpture on the bench....if you are close up you will see the feet have puncture wounds...

Here’s the Duke of Wellington, wearing ...um....a traffic cone?  Seems the practical joke won’t go away, no matter how many times officials remove the cone, it simply reappears.  Now they just leave it.  It’s outside the National Museum of Modern Art.

We are so surprised and pleased to see how “dog friendly” Scotland seems to be.  As it turns out, it’s true for most of the UK.

This is outside the train station in Glasgow.

Our second night in Glasgow we eat at Waxy O’Connors Bar.  It’s quite a place.  And the Irish stew (in Scotland) is great!

The bar and restaurant has many bars within the bar...and many levels.  You can easily get “lost”....so, be careful, Nan!

Tomorrow we meet our ukulele traveling group and begin the GNUF (Great Northern Ukulele Festival) or Bust and Scottish Highlands and Islands Tour!

And Just Like That, We’re in Scotland!

It’s suddenly the merry month of May and we are off on a trip that mixes islands, highlands and ukuleles!  How could this not be a great time?  Our almost 10 hour flight from Seattle to Glasgow, by way of London, Gatwick, is a long...Long...Long...time to be in the air.  Looking at these photos again, I’m pretty sure we look a lot better on take off than landing!







Pretty yummy meal....at 30,000 ft. ....zooming along in a silver tube at 598 mph!





Our flight from Seattle, on Norwegian Air is an hour and a half late, but we have three hours to collect our checked bags, get through immigration and customs, whip around the corner to check in for British Air and present our “tickets” to the counter agent.  I’m always amazed that there really are no “tickets” anymore...all virtual on the computer screen.  We are an hour plus before the plane leaves, but alas, we won’t be leaving with it.  Seems there are no seats left?

British Airways is very sorry, VERY sorry.  Hum, I say sadly.  It’s very important we get to Glasgow by 1:00 p.m. as planned as we are picking up train tickets for the whole tour group we are meeting the next day....we’ve been flying all night, and now it’s day, and we are in London, not Glasgow.  The Duty Manager is called, and long story short, we are offered three options to help solve the problem, and of course, “compensation “ to help us feel better about it all.  By noon we are off on a flight to Edinburgh, met by a private car and driver and delivered to our hotel in Glasgow...by 4:00 p.m.  And, yes, the MasterCard with 443 pounds on it (about $600 USD) DID make us feel better.  

Evening walk in Glasgow complete with a busker playing and singing: Caledonia!  Perfect!

We find many restaurants near our hotel...looking for “local” cuisine, we turn up Italian or Mexican.  We try Italian.  It’s great!

And “Just like that, we are in Scotland!”

Bienvenidos 2018!

It’s time to welcome in this new year, 2018.  I can remember as a child, I would ask my mom, “Do you think I will be alive in the year 2000?”  It seemed SO far away!  Well, living proof...here I am and so far, I’ve zoomed past that awesome future date, and it’s far in the rear view.  

January beach life means another beach birthday (gratefully) and who should appear at our door, but Barb with a “Pink Supreme Birthday Cake!”

Who can resist?  Yummy!  I take it up and down the beach stopping at every campsite to share the sugar!

One of our new “traditions” this year is to go to town every Saturday and pick up a whole roasted chicken dinner.  For 170 pesos (about $7.50) we take home a delicious chicken roasted in an outdoor rotisserie bar-b-que oven, macaroni salad, fresh corn tortillas and homemade spices salsa.  Presto!  Dinner!  Thank you to the family who owns and operates Pollo de Castillios on the roadside leaving Mulege!

Breakfast happens many mornings in our screen tent under the palm tree.  Steve is the master of eggs with tortillas scramble.  Plus, always plenty of fresh oranges cut up.  

There is plenty of time in the day to play....ukulele!  Of course!  We have our Friday afternoon group too to keep us going.  This year we have been assigned to play at the end of season party...soooo....

The addition of a dog enclosure fence from Petco has made life oh so much easier with two dogs to manage.  
Sparky is not too sure it’s the greatest idea, but truthfully, he can at least go “in” and “out” whenever he wants.

Tuesdays this year means it’s time for “Taco Tuesday” at Buenaventura, a restaurant about 6 km down the road.  Sometimes music, but always great tacos...coconut shrimp,  pork, chicken, bratwurst (really), or fish.

January is off to a pretty good start.  Check. Out the blue sky and summer clothes!  

Ho, Ho, Ho....Deciembre 25, 2017!!

How did this happen?  Sunshine?  Clear blue sky?  Calm wind?  It’s a matter of “changes in latitudes!  Here we are somewhere around 26 degrees, 32 minutes north, .which is WAY different from San Juan Island at 48 degrees north!  Once again, we are lucky to be enjoying a Christmas Day, so different from the 30 we spent at home in the PNW.  

This Christmas morning we head out by kayak to join in a cinnamon bun and coffee extravaganza down the beach.  Of course there is also the annual White Elephant Gift Exchange and this year, a huge sombrero hoisted up for photo ops!

About 60 folks showed up for Susan’s incredible cinnamon wonder buns...and then it was time to head back to our beach and prepare for the annual Beach Potluck Dinner.  

Here’s Steve with one of our potluck special dishes.  You can load it up in a circle (Not too much!  Not too little!) The center is a drink holder, but in this case, we reserve it for Janelle’s fabulous home grown and canned cherries...baked into a cobbler!  Fill that part first, because if you wait...there won’t be any.  This we know!

Just in case you wondered....here’s the cherry cobbler!

And here’s Janelle, standing guard over the food until the dinner bell rings!

Doesn’t everyone have watermelon for Christmas Dinner?

Our uke group had a Christmas song uke circle and people actually stuck around to sing....and...wait for it....applaud!

Playa el Coyote por Deciembre!

We are here!  Here! Once again, it's Christmas on the playa.  First we wait a week for a regular campsite....

Then we go to work filling it up!  Up goes the bug tent...put together the paddle board stand, nail down the mats, set up the outdoor kitchen...oh yes, and deal with the satellite internet connection.

A few days later and Campo Simpson is ready to enjoy!

Steve likes to cook outside and the propane oven and grill are just the right "appliances."  Whatever mi chef wants...I'm for it...

The outdoor kitchen is ready!

Time for coffee and the ration of Costco biscoti!

We get out in the peddle kayaks right away.  Sparky is always sure to be aboard when we cast off.  He doesn't like being left behind.  Ever.  This includes on the paddle boards.

Catptain Steve and First Mate Sparky on the water again!

Wednesday night is movie night at JC's Restaurante up the road.  Every week he fixes great pork carnitas and all the stuff to pile into the tortilla.  Then comes the movie of the week.

How about the first margarita of the season?

 December also means it's time for the beach party for the kids at the local "Children's Home" from town.  This has been an anual tradition for the Coyote Beach folks for three years now.  It's really fun to give the kids a swim and water toy party, then hot dog lunch and of course, there must be a piñata!

Piñata time for Casa Hogar Kids!

This year the kids sang a special song for us right before they loaded back up into the cars to go home.  It was SO sweet.  It's amazing to see how each of the kids have grown over the years.

A little song for us!

 Oh yes, this year the parking lot "sculpture" coyote is one you can climb up and have a good photo op...or just sit down beside.  Creator Bill says it's not finished yet....by a long shot.  The goal is to have a great sculpture to set into a huge campfire at the end of the camping season.  This nightr will also be used to "pass the basket" for donations to local charities.

El Coyote!

Now it's onward to Christmas Day 2017.

Hello Friends!

Due to heavy traffic (always true in southern California) and short daylight hours, we decide to stop along the way at GlennEllen State Park.  It’s a little pocket of an RV spot, trees and hook ups, nestled in a most unlikely spot: right between where I-15 and I-215 make a junction!?  Camper buddies told us about this place in case we ever had a reason to stop for the night in the mess of congested and busy freeways.

We arrive at Marie and Gaby’s house in Jamul, CA at noon.  I am excited to give our little book buddy a new book.  This one is special as it is personally autographed by the authors, who we had the pleasure of meeting in Hawaii this year, Audrey and Don Wood!

Gaby and Steve do a little lego exploration and then she begs and begs to do high flying “dance” routines!?  Who knew?

Fly Gaby, FLY!

One day Marie surprises us with a trip out to “Lions, Tigers and Bears!”  This is a rescue sanctuary in Alpine, California for...well, mostly lions, tigers and bears.  There are a few other wildcats as well.  The two hour experience is educational and the stories about each individual animal and how they were brought to this facility are fascinating.  

All too soon it’s time to move on, nudging our way south.  Next stop:  South Carlsbad State Beach Park to visit Pete and Nancy.