The trip back to the Sea of Cortez by car!

After a wonderfully hot and dry summer in Vancouver, we set off on our very long drive from Vancouver, BC to our marina right outside of Loreto, Mexico on October 4th. Driving gave us the opportunity to bring a serviced life raft, boat parts and other things we needed for our boat. We decided to take our time to enjoy some areas where we had only scratched the surface previously, and see some others that we have never seen. Since we have spent a ton of time in Seattle (one of our favorite cities) we only spent one night there in the Capitol Hill area at the dog centered Pineapple hotel. We then ventured on to Portland, where we spent two nights downtown, again at the Pineapple! (Great for people with dogs). Upon entering downtown we couldn’t help but notice the amount of trash and the number of tents along the highways and right on the sidewalks downtown.We have read that this is an issue there but we did see it with our own eyes. We explored the city and it was very cool and fun. We went to breweries, hiked the Columbia River Gorge, and saw the wine country of Willamette Valley. We bought some great Pinot Noirs to bring down to Mexico! We also went through Salem, where Murphy was born :). Then we headed to Sonoma, California to buy more wine! Did tastings right in the town of Sonoma at the tasting rooms and bought more great Pinot Noir, and some heavier reds! Next on the agenda was San Francisco. We stayed downtown and spent most of our time walking the streets and seeing the sights. We loved the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. We went to the wharf and went to dinner at a Filipino Restaurant.I had never had Filipino food, but Darryn has as he has spent a ton of time in the Philippines for work in the past. It was delicious! Went up to Coit Tower to look over the harbor…beautiful. We drove over to the other side to see Oakland and drove through the UC Berkeley campus. Oakland is a bit rough around the edges, but we did have lunch in a cool neighborhood called Temescal.  Then off to Sacramento. 

Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art - Diego Mural

Alcatraz 

Sacramento was a lovely, clean town. We stayed at a hotel right across the street from the state capitol. We walked the beautiful gardens and grounds of the capitol campus. There was a lovely rose garden that is quite well known apparently. We found a cool area called The Ice Blocks and had dinner there. The next morning we ate at an awesome breakfast restaurant (Tower Cafe) known for the best French toast and it was true! A must stop for anyone visiting this city. Next stop... Stockton. We wanted to visit our friends Claude and Mary Lou’s marina. They purchased a large marina here a few years ago and have made major improvements and it was impressive! Very fun to see! They live on a house boat here at the marina, town home in Lake Tahoe and a sailboat in Mexico (where we met them). From there we drove to Monterrey and spent one night. We loved It! Our hotel was in the perfect spot as we were able to walk to the ocean and do a long walk along the coast. We went into Carmel for lunch and we drove along the coast through some unbelievable neighborhoods! I had been in Carmel in high school but didn’t remember how wonderful it is. We continued our drive down the coast to Santa Barbara, one of our favorite cities. We only spent two quick nights but enjoyed every minute with walks down State Street, enjoyed our stay out in Goleta at a cool Kimpton hotel, and a few great meals around town. Next stop...LA! 

Beautiful Santa Barbara

Ladybird for lunch in LA!    

Drove through LA and stopped for an awesome lunch at a trendy place called Ladybird. It was unseasonably hot but fun to eat outside. Drove by Dodger Stadium as well. Next stop Dana Point to visit our friends Tom and Dawn. They have a house overlooking the ocean and the Dana Point marina… spectacular view. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with them. Went to dinner and stayed up til 3:30 am watching music videos and drinking wine. Went to breakfast in San Juan Capistrano the next morning and then took off for Vista, CA.In Vista, CA we stayed with our friends Tiffany and Martin. So much fun to see them, their son, and their house and meet their puppy Sequoa, a big fluffy Bernadoodle! Murphy and Sequoa played constantly while we were there. They had so much fun! We had dinner at their home and enjoyed catching up. They have passion fruit and a pink lemonade tree in their backyard. Martin made me a tequila passion fruit drink…yum! The next morning we went running on some awesome nearby trails then headed to San Diego. Our three nights in San Diego was mainly spent running errands and purchasing things we needed to bring down across the border, as well as getting our J &J booster shot. But we did enjoy the oceanfront a bit and went to a Russian restaurant with our friends Dean and Liz, who now live in Menifee. I’ve never eaten at a Russian restaurant and it was very good and very interesting! I had borscht, a dirty dill martini, and a few other interesting items. Dean is an illustrator, works mainly on political cartoons. His version of Biden is really impressive! On October 21st we crossed the Mexican border in Tijuana. Boy has this city grown! No issues, passed right through. Did the trip in two days, one night with a stay in Cataviña. It was a difficult drive as the so called "highway" is very treacherous. No shoulder, two way road, cows and donkeys as obstacles, and hair pin turns. We were glad to be back at the marina! It was a long drive but 18 days of fun times and new memories. 

Our view of the Dana Point marina from our friends house

We're almost to Marina Puerto Escondido! 

October 22-October 31 Our first week at the marina was spent getting the boat ready for our voyage across the Sea of Cortez to the mainland Mexico. Lots of systems to be tested, things to be fixed and cleaned, etc. Both of our fridges went out, and we had to have them fixed. But we did find time to do our favorite things, including the sunrise hikes, pickle ball, drink margaritas and good tequila, and spend time with our friends especially Hilda and Jeremy, Deanna and Rob, and Claude and Mary Lou. It was very hot, average high of 88. We did a voyage out to a few islands the weekend of the 30th/31st. Isla Danzante the first day with snorkeling and swimming, grilling out on the water. The second day we went to Bahia Cobre off Isla Carmen. This particular area of the island was very steep and rocky with different colors of brown, green and copper volcanic rock. It was hard to capture with a camera as they were stunning. We also went to V Cove which had a beautiful sand beach, sand dunes, and caves everywhere! We swam, through the stick to Murf in the water, and drove around in our dinghy into the coves and caves. Stunning! We spent Halloween at the marina. The restaurant had a costume contest in which I made the top three finalists. My friend Deanna borrowed me a costume...went as a pirate wench! :) 

Murphy's hiking buddies!

Enjoying a beer on our boat...feels good to be back!

Day of The Dead! 

We spent our last night out in the town of Loreto with our friends Rob and Deanna celebrating Day of the Dead. Such a fun time with these two! Set off for La Paz the next morning to pick up our fridge. Left at 4:45 am and had a fairly smooth day with some periods of following seas which made it difficult at times. A pod of dolphins did swim with our boat for a while which was a treat. We arrived at Espiruto, an anchorage fairly close to La Paz at 7:00 pm. The next morning was a 3 1/2 hour cruise to La Paz. We stayed at Marina Palmira (new marina for us) and we enjoyed it. Fun to look at the big yachts in this marina! We enjoyed a nice dinner with our boating friends Vince and Linda. Left the next day for our 40 hour journey across the Sea of Cortez to mainland Mexico, specifically Mazatlan! Stay tuned!