Steve
08/18/2012

San Miguel de Allende is a vibrant, lively and VERY unique Mexican town, which is located about 4 hours north of Mexico City (by car). When I last visited my friend Sharon 4 years ago, I remember how impressed I was with the fun little city. Now that I've been to umpteen different mexican towns/cities/villages, I can say that San Miguel is in a class by itself. The narrow cobblestone streets are lined with colorful buildings, and even in this off season are filled with people. San Miguel has recently been recognized by several tourist organizations and magazines as one of the top places in the World to visit. The town is full of art galleries, chic little restaurants, boutique style hotels and shops of all sorts.
At an elevation of 6,500 feet, the days are MUCH cooler and drier than what I left in Puerto Vallarta. Yes, I no longer walk around covered in sweat and at night I actually need a blanket.
This picture is looking across the town square, called "The Jardin", which means the garden. The Jardin is one of the most lively town squares that I've seen here in Mexico. Along with the constant coming and goings of both local and tourists, there are also many organized events of which I hope to see one or two of while I'm here.
If you've never been to San Miguel de Allende, you may want to consider putting it on your list of places to visit...you won't be disappointed.

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Steve
08/15/2012

Guadalajara is the second largest city in Mexico and the state capitol of Jalisco. Guadalajara was founded somewhere between 1532 and 1542, the reason for the discrepancy in the dates is because the natives fought and chased the Spanish explorers around the large valley for 10 years until the Spanish finally found a defendable place to set up shop. That was in 1542 and is where the current location of the city is. Guadalajara is a huge commercial, industrial and cultural center and due to its central location is one of the most important hubs in all of Latin America. While walking around the central historical district yesterday afternoon I was impressed with how many plazas and parks there are just in this small area of town. The tree lined streets and walkways reminded me a lot of Madrid, Spain. As typical there are also many Churches and temples....none of which I went into. It's not that I'm anti religious, I'm definitely not....it's just that over the years I've grown tired of seeing the waste of money building and maintaining these elaborate monstrosities while the people of the land go without. This is true all over the world and with most if not all religions.
Today I will continue my exploring of the city and tomorrow morning I will hop on another autobus and make my way to San Miguel de Allende.

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Steve
08/14/2012, Guadalajara

I decided to take another boat break and do a road trip. I left the marina this morning before 7:00, boarded an autobus, and 4.5 hours later I am in Guadalajara. The drive was beautiful, first we wound our way through a dense rain forrest and then into lush green valleys, which were full of agricultural fields (pic). As soon as I finish writing this blog I'll begin exploring "el centro historic" of which my hotel is in the middle and also a part of. I'll continue exploring Guadalajara tonight and tomorrow and on Thursday I will be off to San Miguel de Allende by bus, to visit my long time friend Sharon Milligan.
Well time to start exploring Guadalajara.

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Steve
08/09/2012, most boats

Most non-boaters that go onto another persons boat notice that the boat doesn't quite smell like their land based home. Whenever someone has the audacity to make a comment about it, most of us shrug it off and say "hey it's a boat".
When i first moved onto Si Bon 2 years ago I noticed that my clothes started getting a certain funny smell to them. It wasn't really a stinky smell like a fart..but more like a musty, leathery, salty smell (good luck imagining that, but trust me it's better than a fart). I tried spraying fabreeze, putting soap and cedar planks in my drawers, spraying lysol around, but nothing seemed to work. Eventually the smell went away...or so I thought.
One of the first things I noticed when I returned to the states was that smell that I had long ago forgotten. Yes, upon arriving at Kim and Paul's house I noticed that my suitcase, my shaving kit and yes even my clothes had "the smell". After being away from Si Bon for two weeks and doing a load of laundry at Paul and Kim's, everything was smelling like roses.
I made my way back to Banderas Bay today, Si Bon looked a little dirty, but other than that she was doing good...till I opened up the companionway and went below....what is that smell?
The good news is that I took the soap and cedar planks out of my drawers and it is much more comfortable without them.

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Steve
08/06/2012, So cal

Yesterday I met up with my youngest daughter Ashley. Ashley is getting ready to start her second year of law school at Pepperdine University School of Law. Ashley spent most of the summer working within the legal system in Uganda....it was her third trip to Africa. Ashley and I ran some errands in San Diego then headed up to Los Angeles....The City of Angels. As we made our way through "Stop and go traffic", I had to remind myself several times that even the "stop" part at 20-25 MPH, was still faster than Si Bon goes. Today I met Ashley at Pepperdine for lunch, what a beautiful campus (pic) over looking the amazing Pacific Ocean. What a difference a few years makes....not only is Ashley now almost as tall as I am (hey, she's wearing heals), but now it's Ashley in a suit and I'm wearing shorts....HA HA, love it.
All in all it's been a great, but whirlwind trip. I was able to spend a good amount of time with both Amber and Ashley. I was able to spend some quality time with my good friends Paul & Kim (hope I didn't wear out my welcome), and I have visited with numerous other friends. The bad news is that there are MANY friends that I either haven't seen....or haven't seen much of. So I'll be returning to the states the first of September for a 3-4 week visit.
So I'll be heading back to San Diego tomorrow, I'll have breakfast with Ashley before I leave and Dinner with Amber when I get back, and Thursday morning I'll be on a plane to Puerto Vallarta....as much as I've enjoyed my time here in So cal....I'm anxious to get back to my home....Si Bon.

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Steve
07/31/2012, Bahia de San Diego

Yesterday I took my oldest daughter Amber and her "little" brother Ben, and a group of Amber's friends sailing. We rented a 27 foot Catalina and headed out for a four hour tour of San Diego Bay. It was a beautiful San Diego day with the sunny skies and light winds making it perfect for a relaxing sail. It was the first time sailing for 4 out of our group of 7, so the light winds gave them a nice mellow look at the world of sailing. In keeping with the "never a dull moment" theme of sailing, as we were coming back in the boats engine wouldn't start. The rental company had to jump start it before we left and now it was dead again. We called the company and told them to get ready to catch us, as we were going to be sailing into the slip. Sailing into a slip is not the most favorite thing on most skippers lists....no matter what the size of boat. So after one failed attempt at the end tie, I told the guy I was just going to take it into the slip and in we went without much fanfare.
All in all it was a wonderful day of sailing and it made me realize how much I love San Diego.

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