Just Us Four!

Gavin aboard the Grover's Catamaran

Alas, celebrating New Year's in San Carlos, was a fabulous, stress-free way to spend the earliest days of our New Year; no cooking, no cleaning, no school or work. What more could you want? Well, we could have used some HEAT as the normal 80 degree temperatures were replaced by 60 degrees thanks to the Ole Collins Black-Cloud phenomena and a cold front courtesy of Canada. However, given our pioneering attitude, we found it only stopped us from one activity-swimming in the ocean!

Gavin preparing for his first ride

Ness-happy to be in a saddle again

We lounged around the lovely pool, with the beach as our boundary and our condo just steps away. Denny and Carla Grover took us sailing across the bay, lent us sea kayaks and helped us navigate to the best shrimp for freezer stock-up. Gavin really enjoyed sailing and I do believe, could manage a real voyage, without issue. He met a friend, who frequents the condo's, and spent most of his days with her on the beach, in the pool or at the nearby bird estuary. Her Mother is a wildlife biologist and told us more than one-hundred species visit the area. Eric and I really enjoyed the non-parenting time while they played and appreciate Gavin getting older and being so trustworthy.

Morning Dolphins

The beach was quiet, a side-benefit of the cooler weather, and Bandit and I ran the 3.5 mile stretch each day, accompanied by dolphins and huge pelicans. Each time a pelican hit the water for a fish you would have thought a small plane was crashing nearby. Amazing creatures and an apt way to workout off the margarita's, shrimp taco's and chips!

Our Ruidoso friends, and frequent San Carlos visitors,' developed a travel itinerary for us and having it on hand prevented us from several poor decisions while traveling and while on site. We had incredible food, live music to dance to and visited all the major sites they suggested. Surely, this made the entire trip even more enjoyable. The condo's were very secure and ours was quite large. The pup traveled like a champ, sleeping nearly the entire time. He practiced his mating gyrations on all the other dogs and a few poles so I have concluded his neutering is due. :) Our trip back over the border was long, and involved urinating among literally dozens of strangers, with zero foliage, while intermittently watching Harry Potter on the IPAD to kill the 3.5 hour wait time. Next time, we bring either a bladder bag or a diaper and we leave on a weekday!

After a nights rest with dear friends in Tuscon, my Jeep smelled like an ocean-dipped dogs ass and a cooler full of shrimp, thus making the return home, timely. We brought home a bounty of shells, countless memories and the intent to return to this peaceful village again.

Happy Belated New Year!