Yesterday we got to the cruiser's monthly swap meet just as the last few people were packing their stuff up to leave. But that was O.K. because we really were just going there to meet up with some of the people we had met our first time through La Paz.

The word had already spread that us "kid boats" had arrived in La Paz and the other boat families were hanging around and planning an impromptu potluck on El Mogote island, which borders the La Paz channel. It started out with 4 or 5 boats of people we knew, but today at church we met some boaters with kids that we hadn't met before and they had heard about the potluck and were coming too. This is one of the great things about the tight-knit cruising community...everyone's excited to get together to share a meal and some fun.

After the swap meet, Tara and Casey hung out at Club Cruceros (the La Paz cruiser's club house) with the boys from Idifix and Flying Cloud, while Sean and I walked a mile to the marine store. When we returned, the kids had made a plan to come back to Adventure for a poker tournament. Of course, Sean and I were NOT invited. We dinghy'ed the kids to our boat and then Sean and I went to walk around down town.

(A quick note about Sean's footwear: even though we're in a very watery environment, Sean wears tennis shoes most of the time. He was always scolding the girls and me for wearing flip flops or going barefoot, even when we got into the hot Sea of Cortez. His warnings about us stubbing our toes or things falling on our bare feet echoed across the anchorages we visited. In San Carlos, Marie from the boat Rondeau Bay noticed that Sean had flipflops on and told him over and over how proud she was that he had finally come to terms with the proper foot attire. He just hung his head and said that he was only wearing flipflops because he was going to the showers...)

When we go to town, we have to pull our dinghy the last few feet through the water and up on the beach, so water sandals or flip flops work well. However, Sean normally puts his tennis shoes on before he jumps into the dinghy, removes them as we get closer to shore, pulls the dinghy ashore, uses his socks to brush the sand off his feet, and then puts his socks and shoes back on. But tonight, Sean must have been distracted by the kids kicking us off the boat and he wore his sandals.

As we walked around town, I looked for a few kitchen items I needed (garlic press, small tongs, small dinner plates, etc.). As soon as Sean realized the pattern of me looking for kitchenware items, he started complaining that he was board, about his legs being tired, and about blisters forming on his feet. "You know how you feel anxious to leave when we go into Radio Shack and I look around for a long time?" he said. "Well, that's how I feel right now, except I'm also getting blisters from walking around in all these stores that have kitchen stuff." (We'd only been to two stores)

It was dinner time, so I thought we could go to a quaint place for dinner - letting Sean relax his tired legs and hurting feet. But Sean really wanted a chocolate milk shake. Not just any chocolate milkshake, but a cheap chocolate milk shake. The day we arrived in La Paz, Sean ordered a grande milkshake. The icecream lady held up her largest milkshake cup. Sean shook his head "no". "Mas grande!" he said while holding his hands about a foot apart indicating the height of the ideal cup. The lady got a REALLY big cup that I think was for some kind of juice and Sean said, "Si!" That was his 70 peso ($7 US) milkshake. So tonight, he wanted a big, less expensive milkshake. So we went to Burger King.

It wasn't really where I wanted to go, but I could see how the draw was too strong for him. Our boat is anchored right off shore from the big, red, glowing Burger King sign. He'd been pushing it to the back of his mind since we got here two days ago and was about to snap.

As soon as we opened the Burger King door, a loud wave of yelling kids almost knocked us backwards. This was a two-story, play ground Burger King. "Let's get our food and then go sit on the Malecone (walkway between the city front and the beach) to eat," I said. There were only 4 people in front of us, so it would be a quick in-and-out...or so we thought.

There was only one cashier, who took an order and then left for 5 or 10 minutes while she watched the food preparers. When the food was done, she bagged it and brought it to the customer who had paid her. Only then did she come to take the next order. I was perplexed by this and watched as several customers left after waiting through several of these cycles and realized it would be quite a while before they could even order.

Having nothing else to do, I tried to read the Spanish signs on the walls. One said something about a guarantee that you'd get your food within 60 seconds after ordering it. "Aha!" I said to Sean. "Because of their guarantee, they don't want to take an order until they fill the previous one." Sean really wanted his milkshake, so we waited.

Our turn to order came 30 minutes after getting in line. I ordered a chocolate milkshake, some fries and a hamburger. "No milkshakes," the lady said.

Sean and I sat on the Malecone, Sean eating fries, me eating a Whopper Jr. that tasted a little different than the ones in the US, but it was still good. The kids called on the VHF radio and told us not to come back to the boat yet. They were going to watch a movie.

"I'll just get the normal-sized large milkshake this time," Sean promised as he smiled. So we set off to the 70-peso milkshake place and Sean didn't complain once about his legs being tired or blisters forming on his feet.