Lowell

Cousins Phyllis & Rex reluctantly flew home to Lake Viking near Gallatin last Tuesday after a 5 week visit. Time sure flies during their visits. It only seemed like yesterday they arrived. I’m a little late on photos from the second half of their visit, but better late that never.. Besides there’s some fun photos that will definitely put a smile on your face.

 

Final departure photo for Scott & A after birthday weekend.

 

You’ll see the hats a little later in the blog. We got hi-jacked by a hat salesman.

 

 

 

 

Life settled a bit after birthday weekend.. Sunsets, dinners and cards.

Mike and Gill took us on drive down the coast to a great raw seafood restaurant “ AguaChili” All fresh and cooked in lime juice with hot chili sauce added. So good

 

Stopping at Mayan Place above for piña coladas deserts while we relax at their beach front bar.

 

 

Dinner at Flavio’s on the water front in Penasco

 

Sunset from our dinner table with condos and the Cholla mountain

 

 

And yes, one more time to El Capitan before they say goodbye to Penasco.

 

And you can’t go to El Capitan without stopping at Little Wrecked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Owners Randy & Jeanie hosted us this day and provided shots to the losers of our 99 card game we played on the patio.

 

 

Final sunset photos as we prepare to depart the next morning.

---

Back in Phoenix on the Light Rail stopping at Diamondbacks ball field then on to Tempe for dinner with Walt & Kathy

---

 

During our final week in Phoenix we took a trip north stopping in Camp Verde, then on to Montezuma Castle.

Here’s come Wikipedia on the Castle

Montezuma Castle is near the top of a Verde Valley cliff and is one of the best preserved cliff dwellings in North America. The area was briefly abandoned to due to volcanic ash from the Sunset Crater Volcano. It is likely that the sediment from that aided in agricultural endeavors when the Sinagua arived. During the interim, the Sinagua lived on the hills nearby and sustained themselves on agriculture dependent on rain. After 1125, the Sinagua resettled in the Verde Valley and used irrigation systems left by the Hohokam. The monument itself encloses 826 acres and lies at the intersection of the Colorado Plateau and Basin and Range physiographic provinces. The latest estimated date of Sinagua occupation for any site is for Montezuma Castle National Monument around 1425 AD. The reasons for abandonment of their habitation sites are not yet known, but warfare, drought, and clashes with the newly-arrived Yavapai people have been suggested.

 

 

 

 

Then on to Jerome for lunch at the haunted hambuger. Jerome is an old mining town setting on the hillside overlooking the Verde Valley.

 

 

 

 

Final stop Prescott

---

 

During the final days we arranged to have dinner with Scott, Adrianna and her mom Debbie and sister Carina.

 

More dinners at the house and cards with Kathy & Walt then their flight home with Stella entertaining everybody at the airport.. She rides in her little carrier under the seat and sleeps through the flight.

Fun visit.. We’re looking forward to their next one.. In fact, we’ve made plans to spend a week in Nashville together Sept 8-15 at the end of our Missouri summer visit.

This will be the last Lowell’s Blog until the summer season as we are ready to start our Baja 2012 sailing season..

Join us at www.GatoLocoSailing.com to adventure out on the Sea of Cortez..

Until the next update…

 

 

---

Photos from their stay.

February Amigos celebrating Birthdays at the Kelly Steak Fry. More on that later…

Cousins Rex & Phyllis get the award for furthest traveled coming from Missouri to celebrate Rex’s 65th Bday in the HOOD.  Shortly after their arrival a field trip to our favorite hill top restaurant El Capitan was organized. It turned out to be Rex’s actual Bday so you will better understand the photos of the day. We made sure it was a memorable one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there Rex was wisped down town in the Little Wrecked mobile to the Little Wrecked street side bar. This looks like trouble.. In fact I’m being nice to not post all the photos taken. The  Malacon is looking great after the renovation making it a fun place to hang out.

 

 

Wrecked and heading for the Little Wrecked.!!!

Remember you can click on photos to enlarge.

 

Fun afternoon in Rocky Point.. Especially for Rex

 

No rest for the Bday boy.. Next stop JJ’s Cantina in Cholla Bay to meet more friends.

 

 

 

 

While we enjoyed drinks at JJ’s, Bill & Carol stopped by a panadería shop for a chocolate/banana cake. Yum…

---

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These days we have daily chores as part of our morning walk. All our table scrapes go to the pigs plus a huge helping of carats to the donks and Red the horse.

Rex & Phyllis deliver hay & water on Blanca this day.

Mama pig awaits some slop.

 

 

Brian graces us on the walk also this day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

The week started out on the cold side, fortunately there’s plenty of spirits to keep us warm

Friday night means Pork Tacos and dancing at Wrecked at the Reef

Phyllis had a total knee replacement 9 weeks ago and is out there dancing. Amazing.

---

Carnaval

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carnaval is a huge event in Rocky Point. They stage this parade 3 days for the community. 

 

Heather has always been a big part of our carnaval fun and is missing this year. The ladies pose to honor of her absence.

I think this was the Queen of the festivities but as you can tell there are lots of beautiful ladies.

 

 

 

 

 

Gill’s people (very taaaalllll) are in the parade again this year. Below Gill runs out to celebrate with them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great cultural event.

 

 

---

 

Kelly Steak Fry

 

Owen and Shirley hosted another steak fry evening in honor of 6 February Bdays. Check out those steaks from the Kelly cattle business. How lucky are we? With all the dishes everybody brought what a feast.!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The birthday gang… Scott,Rex, Carol, Alyssa, Owen and Heather..

 

Happy Birthday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

Gato Loco sailing..

 

Actually there are two sailing outings here. The top row of photos were from Sunday where Scott, Adrianne & Alyssa got to spend some time on the boat. It’s been a while since they were on board.

This past Wednesday (Feb 22nd) we sailed Gato Loco to Bird Island 25 miles south east of Rocky Point. About 8 miles out we ran into a huge pod of dolphins. The pod stretched nearly a mile with probably more then a 1000 dolphins. In a recent blog I mentioned we ran into a pod of 50 which was a record. Never have we had a pod this size in the area. A 1000+ will be a record hard to break. Needless to say the cameras were busy.

 

Bird Island

The colony of sea lions is the main attraction of the island but at night the island is covered with birds roosting for the night. Except for the washed shoreline the island is totally white and smells just great. This day the seas are from the west and there were 6 shrimp boats anchored to the east in calm seas resting for another nights work.

.

Finally on our way home we sailed to the shore south of Rocky Point and motored up the coast checking out 10 miles of solid homes build along the beach front. Lots of new ones since we last did this.

The Cholla fun continues… Until the next Update

 

As if we needed an excuse to head back to our house in Cholla! January Jam, the last weekend of January, is a major Cholla music event not to be missed. We skied in Telluride the previous weekend in snowy weather then the sun Gods returned for January Jam. Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers return to their home port of Cholla to pump some excitement into our sleepy little community. This year, on Friday night, we were given an extra treat with Roger performing acoustically with the help from friends at Wrecked at the Reef, our 2nd watering hole on the beach near Cholla. We saw Roger solo in Telluride but the production, guest musicians and Mexico spirit created an awesome evening of music. We hope this will be an annual event.

Not all the HOOD was there but we did have the critical mass for a fun weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Liane made it back to Cholla from Victoria Ca. What was your excuse for not being there??

 

We’re happy to report that Brian is doing great in his recovery and was able to enjoy a fun weekend. In fact, he was a special guest Friday night with front row seats. Yea!!

 

 

 

Friday night’s show not starting until 9:30 gave us time to hit our usual pork taco stand before heading to the show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bill rounds up all the ladies for a photo before giving Lisa a big squeeze.

 

On to the Wrecked….

 

---

 

Stage action at the Reef. One of the bands bus movies is “life Aquatic” hence the red beanie’s.

Check out the video below, a very cool acoustic version of “Marie”.  Thanks to Matthew Shapiro for capturing this.

 

 

 

---

Saturday, January Jam day…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January Jam

January Jam is held at JJ’s Cantina on the patio stage. Music starts in the afternoon and the crowd continues to build until the Peacemakers take the stage just after sunset. I added a RockyPoint360.com link written about the concert to add a local view of the night. They estimate a crowd of 1000 in JJ’s and on the beach below.

 

From our local internet Rockypoint360 …… Following the opening tunes of Jason Boots, the up-close-and-personal January Jam, shared with about 1,000 other people filling the multi-level spots of JJ’s Cantina along with groups gathered on the stony beach out front huddled around bonfires, began with “Mexico” from the band’s The Refreshments days …or as better understood “…here comes another song about Mexicooooo… I just can’t help myself….”  Donning straw cowboy hats, sombreros, and serapes, while toting cervezas as well as tequila, the RCPM faithful picked up easily when suddenly Roger’s “mic” took a siesta early on in the show. Roger and the band kept the contagious guitar strumming rock going while the sound was being fixed and the crowd obliged by filling the air with RCPM’s lyrics. …Read more  http://rockypoint360.com/rcpm-january-jam/

 

---

 

A little fire action after the concert with our house guest, Debbie, Pam, Trish and their escort Mark. Tuff duty for MARK!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

Cholla News

---

During the weekend Roger launched his new Silver  Mexican MoonShine tequila.. Very smooth sipping !

 

 

---

Kitchen Remodel

Original white cabinet come down and Jose installs new brown ones.

After the weekend things quickly became a work session with new upper cabinets being built and installed. Our 50 year old Tappan stove got painted black and a new counter addition to the island with a new wine cooler installed. We’re now ready for Rex & Phyllis’s visit.

---

Our good deed each day

While in Cholla we’ve taken on a daily chore to help a local care for his horse. Red loves the oat/meal mix feed I’m hand feeding along with mustard weeds and alfalfa. We’re trying to help fatten him up. We hope he can find a better home and doing what we can to help.. If any of our Cholla friends want to help that would be great. Hay has gotten very expense for locals resulting in his condition. We’ve been buying bales at $19 each. He’s located near sand hill along with Patrick’s pen with 3 donkeys and 15 pigs. They all love carrots we bring.

---

 

Sandy Beach Marina plans have been funded and should start soon. Here’s the master plan which shows the breakwater for the marina area which is the first phase and should start soon (that’s a Mexican soon). Cholla will become a island when the inter marina and canal home sites are completed. All of this will help the area, especially Cholla.

Very cool

 

 

That’s it…

Until the next update

 

Another great Arizona Days in Telluride hosted by Mike’s AZ Fun & Leisure. The concern of marginal snow was quickly doused as we hit the slopes finding great conditions and sunshine on Friday. It’s always nice to be able to ski with our friends as well as friends we’ve made over the years on Mikes trips.

Friday’s sun gave way to a snowy Saturday that continued into Saturday night giving us desert dwellers an awesome snow filled weekend. Skiing Saturday was both snowy and windy with 40 m/h gusts at the top of the mountain. Best of all, it wasn’t that cold.

The weekend was filled with music with Roger headlining the weekend at the Sheridan Opera House theater on Saturday night with snow flying outside. We were also treated to Teddy entertaining us on Thursday and Friday nights. Finally the snow cleared late morning Sunday allowing us to have a safe quick bus ride home.. Fun Fun Fun weekend.

Frankie relaxing on the ice bar, shots on the slops, Teddy at Friday happy hour.

Challenging conditions on top Saturday, Mike hosts Saturday mid-day..

Roger starts the show with a little Mexican Moonshine which he shared with the crowd.

See the entire weekend in a slideshow Below

Take a ride down “See For Ever” and watch Alyssa’s big jump  “OUCH”

Mountain Village after the big dump.

Watch Teddy sing his new song about Rocky Point

Main street Sunday morning

 

 

Lots of great memories.

No injuries.

Perfect conditions.

Great friends.

Doesn’t get any better.

 

PLAY ON

Until the next Update

 

Jan Jam this weekend!!

---

As I mentioned in the last update, we had a dolphin encounter off Sandy Beach unlike any we’ve experienced here in Penasco before. It’s very common to see this many further south in the Sea of Cortez but a little unusual for a pod that size here. After seeing them all there was probably more than 50 and they were with us for 30 minutes.

Happy New Year.

 

Until the next update