The Beauties and The BeastLings

Beauties in our lives are on all fronts.

My dear "daughter", Maria and granddaughter, Lia, joined us with a friend for Spring Break. A shop-till-you-drop experience brought on by the lack of malls in downtown Manson. We are proud to announce that Lia got her driver's license on the first try and is qualified to be her mother's lackey!

We spend as much time as we can with Jan's cousin, Wendy, and her sweet girls. At Payton's birthday party we were lucky to meet Kuzi's parents and his sister as well asvisit with Wendy's Mom, Dar, again. It was a lovely party and the girls were gorgeous. We are blessed to be Aunt Jan and Uncle Doug to such beautiful children!

More Beauties are coming. Doug's daughter, Shari and her handsome husband, Ryan, are expecting in July. The gender of the baby will be a surprise to everyone but Beavers come in boys and girls!

My nephew, Seth, and his beautiful wife, Meghan, are expecting identical twin girls in a couple of weeks. Ah, the become a Greatest Aunt Jan and Greatest Uncle Doug. "Ant" Jan has been knitting!

And then there are the Ling Cod Beasts. It took us 15 minutes to catch our daily limit of one each. Good eating but certainly not beauties.

Season to Season Part 2 (Mexico)

Somehow I don't think that we have things quite right. When the weather is beautiful in Washington we head north to Canada. When the drizzles of November and the snows of December come we hunker down in Olympia. It is just not right. This year we got a bit smarter and spent a month in Mexico. We had no issues and things in Puerto Vallarta were fine.

Our biggest fear was being unwilling participants in the Puerto Vallarta 500 which is held daily courtesy of the public bus drivers who pull up to stop lights only to find that their testosterone had gone wild. Revving their engines and slyly watching one another they bolt out of the intersection at break neck speed. Pedestrians beware.

Our friends, Jerry and Mary Lee, were delayed and so we headed to a funky little town named Yelapa which was a 60's haven for draft dodger and musicians. Our bungalow had three walls and a curtain looking out over the river. We were treated to a morning show by the Pale Billed woodpecker which is a close relative of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker.

Back in Puerto Vallarta we met Jerry and Mary Lee and new friends, Gale and Dana who live most of the year in PV. We ate wonderful food, enjoyed the botanical gardens and were treated to a wonderful night of Karoke in which Mary Lee was the star. We took a quick trip to Manzanillo aboard the Sea Story. We enjoyed turtles and whales in route and like Manzanillo.

It was a nice break that ended the last day of March. We came back to low land snow. Our ticket for next fall is one way - we will call for a weather report before returning!

Season to Season Part 1

I have been remiss in my blogging - we have been having too much fun. Last September we watched a pair of charming grizzly cubs for days and then headed south to Victoria. We stayed at the Canadian Sailing Club and played in a nearby bridge tournament. Each evening we stopped in for a beer and a visit with the Old Salts.

We did well at the tournament and met several new Canadian friends. We enjoyed an Emily Carr exhibit and had our Canadian Beer picture taken. After a quick trip to Chelan and lunch with dear friends we headed to Florida and an East Coast Road trip that lasted six weeks. We drove to Indianapolis and enjoyed a visit with Doug's daughter, Shari, and her husband Ryan. Savannah and Charleston are as charming as usual.

By March we were wondering what we were doing in the northwest rain and snow and headed for Mexico.