Moving on to the Gold Coast

We have reached a portion of Mexico known as the Gold Coast.  However, gold in the form of sunshine has been a bit hard to find.  Even with some gray days to remind us of home, we’ve really been enjoying this portion of our trip.

Our original plan had been to stay on the mooring buoy in Yelapa early in the morning, before the pangero came by to collect more money for our stay.  But shortly after all being delivered back to our boats, the crews that would soon dub themselves Belvenache but were still hailing each other Bella Star, Panache and Ventured agreed to leave after dinner.  Describing the mooring field in Yelapa as rolly would be like saying a wooly mammoth was merely fuzzy.   An overnight sail was actually preferable to trying to sleep on a boat imitating our swimwear in a wash cycle.

So off we all went, rounding Cabo Corrientes and turning once again south.  And a bit east – as of my last look we are due south or Roswell, New Mexico.  The overnight sail turned into an early morning motor for a short period of time before discoverd the leak in the fuel line detailed a couple posts ago.  Once it was fixed in the morning we continued and slipped on Chemela near dusk, found an open spot to anchor and caught up on some sleep.

Jenn gets in some shore time.

Walking on solid ground after 36 or so hours on the boat.

Empty, but very scenic beach.

Chemala turned out to be an enjoyable stop.  The next morning we all dinghied ashore, making a successful surf landing.  Many of the anchorages along the Pacific coast of Mexcio involve breaking waves along the beach.  Landing a dinghy takes a combination of patience, timing, and general luck.  Failure to reach the proper combination of the three can result in an upside down dinghy and all of your cargo floating in different directions.  Leaving the beach requires the same set of skills, along with remembering to have the kill switch that inserted in the engine so you can start it (don’t ask me how I know this).  You wait for a lull in the surf, or at least a small set of waves, while hovering a ways off the beach.  When you fill the waves are a manageable size, you ride one in to keep deeper water under the outboard prop, which you need to have spinning to keep the boat going forward, and not sideways to the wave.  As the wave washes up the beach you have to kill the engine, swing the outboard up out of the water, hop out of the dinghy, and start pulling it up the beach. Oh, and time it so the wave brings you up on the beach, but doesn’t break over the stern of your dinghy.  This would all be a bit easier with the huge dinghy wheels many people have on their dinghys that actually extend lower than the outboard prop so you can just drive up on the beach and the wheels prevent the prop from hitting the bottom.  But… I don’t have those.  I did, as promised on the blog, install the less expensive and shallower wheels on the dinghy before we left La Cruz, and they help with pulling they dinghy up the beach on hard packed sand.

Even the few businesses on the beach didn't seem to be packing in crowds.

For you today, practically free - of other tourists. Or even locals.

Anyway – we landed successfully.  As we have a bigger dinghy than Bella Star we all went ashore in ours, and having a couple extra people makes the beach landings and departures much easier.  After a swing through what little bit of a villager there is at the head of the bay, we set off on a beach hike.  I kept wondering what we were missing, as we were hiking on a beautiful beach in a scenic bay with almost no one in site.  There were a few hotels and an RV park in the town, and after that it thinned out to almost nothing.  We (the guys) set our sites on a ruined building a mile or two down the beach.  Somewhere along the line someone heard that it had been dynamited twice, but while crooked, it was still standing.  Upon reaching it everyone took photographs, while Zach and I scrambled up and explored a bit.  While nothing spectacular, it was an interesting structure to scramble around on, and the crooked stairwells gave me the feeling of being a a live MC Escher painting.

Aarron works his magic for the camera.

Just the vacation shot you always wanted, in front of a crumbling resort.

Walking on this probably wasn't brilliant, but health care in Mexico is cheap. Just maybe not readily available in this village.

For reference, Zach is standing up straight.

And one more picture from a bit further back.

Back on the beach, we headed back towards our dinghies, pausing to chat with some fellow beach walkers with three schnauzers and a pug in tow.  Eventually the afternoon sorted itself out in a beach day, with attempted kite flying, boogie boarding, bocci ball, and of course a few cold Pacificos.

The boys playing with their umm, Bocci set.

And suddenly, the sky got all dramatic for a moment.

The next morning we made long haul to some islands a couple miles away, and after some probing around anchored in front a small sandy beach, maybe 400 to 500 feet long.  The island appeared to be home to quite a few birds, including some baby pelicans in nests. Again we made use of our day by snorkeling from the dinghy, and collecting up wood on the beach.  Aarron beefed up the existing fire pit, and built up a stack of woods in a ready to ignite form.  As evening approached, Zach set off with his Hawaiian sling, used to spear fish and bagged three fish for ceviche.  The rest of us used ingredients on our boat to make some dishes we all brought to the beach for a potluck dinner.  As we finished our delicious feast and dusk arrived, we lit the fire and celebrated the full moon with a raging bonfire.  It was quite a party, as we had collected enough wood for a few hours of bonfire, and Nicole even produced the ingredients for smores.

I still find it a bit bizarre to see cactus growing right next to the ocean.

Our own private beach, perfect for a day of sun and sand. And a night of bonfire.

The ladies do some floating.

A close of of some of giant cacti growing on the island.

Prepped and ready for sundown.

The hermit crab races worked better in theory than reality.

More floating the day away.

A thrown together potluck dinner takes shape.

This hermit crab was a bit clingy.

The gang, minus Jenn the photographer. And yes, I'm due for a haircut.

Some of the many birds on the island roost for the evening.

And it begins...

Long exposure of the full moon rising.

The bonfire, with Steve standing nearby for scale.

Full moon and fire, a fun combination for our evening.

The whole Chemela experience was quite a highlight of the trip, a very beautiful area  with very little development, no mega resorts on the beach, and a sense of isolation but with access to some little stores that have enough supplies to keep you fed.  However, we are currently traveling with some boats that are participating in the El Salvador Rally and while they aren’t hurrying, there won’t be any more month long stops like La Cruz.  So our time there was limited to a couple days filled with full throttle relaxing.  I’m pretty sure we’ll stop in Chemela on the way back north, both because it is a convenient anchorage, and because it will be a nice spot to feel isolated before the jump back to civilization in Banderas Bay.  However, it will be missing something without Panache and Bella Star there to share in the fun.

Yelapa in pictures

Despite my recent trashing of Yelapa on the blog, it was a scenic location. I didn’t go crazy with the photos, but here are a few to give you a visual or our experience there.

Local boys with an improvised water slide.

Why I haven't tried skimming the water on my boogie board, I don't need to bruise my butt on the beach.

Either a giant staircase, or a terraced hotel.

A scenic mooring field. We prefer anchoring.

From a little higher up, showing the estuary behind the beach.

A bird for Melissa to identify for us.

Yelapa "cars".

A sidestreet off of the main road, err, path.

Or course I take pictures of the animals.

Cutouts a woodshop making wooden bowls.

All this walking for a somewhat underwhelming waterfall, but it was refreshing!

Jenn rests at the waterfall.

I was afraid to hold my hand next to this spider for comparison as it was about as big as my palm.

Yelapa's slum district.

The required picture of Ventured from the beach.

Minion fell in the bleach.

 

And fade to sunset...

Goodbye La Cruz, Good riddance Yelapa

It has been about a week, and we still miss La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. There is the still the occasional joke about making it back to La Cruz in time for happy hour at the Hunacaxtle Bar and Cafe. The group we hung out with in La Cruz really settled in, and the place began to feel like home. I’ll confess, when we did finally get our plans together to leave there was some discussion on our boat if we really had to. I’m sure we could have stayed, but with friends moving on it wouldn’t have been the same so we decided to migrate south.

I’m not sure what exactly made La Cruz so special, but it was. There was the warm climate, a good group of friends, sailing on Profligate, a visit from my sister, lots of good food stores, delicious street tacos, live music and easy, fun day trips to beach locations. And of course, the Huanacaxtle Bar and Cafe. It took as a while to clue in, but once we did the fun usually began around 4:00 pm, when two hours of Happy Hour began. Draft beer ran about .77 cents and there were wings and nachos to snack on. After Happy Hour we usually found some tacos at a local stand, and more and more frequently returned to the Huanacaxtle for their live music or what were usually private karaoke parties. The staff wasn’t just friendly, they actually became our friends. We will be passing back through and I can’t wait to go in and say hi to everyone.

I probably shouldn’t say negative things since I’m out here living the dream, but the low point of La Cruz was Philos, a restaurant with live music and featuring a menu of pizzas. We were told this would be the cruiser hangout in La Cruz, and it even had a blurb in our guide book. But we found the food mediocre, the beers overpriced and the service abysmal and in stark contrast to the friendly folks at the Huanacaxtle. While we were not there for the excitement, several of our friends had the staff threaten to call the police on them over a disagreement on the bill, which our friends were in the right over. Kind of a mistake on Philos part, these were not two guys who’s bar business you wanted to lose. I would have given these two a free beer if it meant they kept coming to my establishment! I did enjoy the music one night, but then realized pretty much every night the owner sang lead and he does not have a voice I wanted to listen to multiple times. It also seemed the patrons were less any cruisers we knew, and mostly Gringos who now live in the area.

As long as I’m on my negative streak, let me move on to our next stop, Yelapa. It is about 15 miles from La Cruz, across Banderas Bay and is touted as a beautiful little village, populated by native people that own the land as a collective. Sunday morning around 7:00 am, we set sail motor for Yelapa. Let’s just say Yelapa got off on the wrong foot with us, and never got back on the right one. Because it is a deep bay, there are mooring buoys to tie up to – for a fee. I already had heard several stories about boats dragging the buoy, or swinging into each other. When the panga came out as we approached, Nicole on Bella Star tried to negotiate a deal with him as we had three boats coming in. Rather than bargain, he just drove off, and approached our boat. Thanks to the VHF, we were already aware of what had happened to her, but tried to bargain too. He gave us an off hand wave of his hand and drove away. Apparently he knew if we were coming in, we were getting a buoy from him and paying full price for it. Well, sometimes cruising costs money, so we took a buoy and paid up – it cost more than a night in the marina in Mazatlan. The price did include a dinghy ride ashore, so after waiting a bit to make sure we were staying in place (and backing down on the buoy after the panga left since he was telling me not to pull on it) we headed ashore to wait for Panache to arrive. Of course, the panga dropped us off in front of the palapa he worked for who encouraged us to sit down and have some drinks. I was a bit surprised beer was only 20 pesos, actually cheaper than at Philos. This in a town with no road to it, so everything is brought in by boat. We had a some beer and nachos and as Zack and Steve from Panache arrived requested our bill. Our waiter gave us a total 35 pesos higher than it should have been, and when we questioned it he corrected it by “realizing” we only had two beers, not four. Okay – maybe he did make a mistake, but he still pretty much flat out asked Jenn for more of a tip as he was giving her change.

With the Panache crew ashore, we decided our time was a bit short so we hiked to the closer, smaller waterfall. The trip though town was fun, the street was more of a path with enough room for the occasional 4 wheeler and pedestrians. We climbed a staircase with branching paths to various doors to arrive on the path, and walked about 30 minutes to a small waterfall where a few of us braved the cool water to splash around a bit. Then a walk back down to the beach, where we sat back down at the palapa for another round of beer to cool down from all the hiking walking. Steve from Panache asked our waiter (same one as earlier) how much the nachos were. He replied “80 pesos”. Funny – when we looked at the menu on our earlier visit and ordered them, they were 60 pesos. A question of the price brought a menu and a correction. I’ll say this, maybe our waiter just made a couple honest mistakes, but it sure felt like he was trying to pocket some extra pesos if we weren’t on our toes. He did make it up a bit by bringing us a couple free shots of Racilla, a moonshine version of tequila that was surprisingly smooth with a nice smokey flavor.

After our afternoon session at the palapa, and an unsuccessful quick scan of the beach establishments for the Super Bowl on a TV we headed back to our boats. I managed to get a slow internet connection with our Banda Ancha and tried to call the Super Bowl party I was hosting in spirit, but while I could here Andre and the crowd saying Hi to me, my voice was not reaching them. Still, hearing some friends back home was enough to make up for not being able to watch the game. The small bay was very rolly and it didn’t take long for all of us to get on the radio and agree that after dinner we were going to head for the next stop down the coast rather than wait till morning.

So, goodbye La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, until we meet again and we will. And good riddance Yelapa, I doubt we’ll be returning. While your town is in a picturesque bay, we have found other places with their own beauty, better anchorages, and waiters less prone to arithmetic errors in their favor.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I’m still on a pretty slow internet connection. We’ll be heading to a bigger town today or tomorrow and I’ll upload some pictures from Yelapa and La Cruz. And despite my little grumbling, I’m having a great time even if we are experiencing so much gray and rain that I’m not sure if we are in Seattle or Mexico.

It’s not all sunsets and cocktails

As promised in the last post, admittedly a while back, here is what happened after we treated Ventured to a good cleaning and some general TLC.  Once the crew was done cleaning our boat, we headed back to the anchorage where we belong.  While the docks can have a lot of socializing and become their own little community, we prefer the cost of the anchorage.

A couple days after re-anchoring, we did a provision run and returned to the boat with bags of groceries to stow away.  It really doesn’t work on the boat to just set the groceries on the counter and deal with them later, one asshole overzealous powerboat running through the anchorage can send the contents of the counter to the floor quite quickly.  As we were stowing groceries, Jenn felt some heat near the stairs down into the cabin that cover the engine.  About the same time I suddenly smelled a burning electrical smell.  After a quick check through several cabinets I pulled the engine cover off to witness several wires arching onto the engine block, setting the insulation on fire.  Luckily Jenn’s suggestion to turn off the batteries solved stopped the arching, and the small bursts of flame from the insulation also stopped.  Once things calmed down, I began checking the damage.  Five wires melted through, in a less then easily accessible spot.

This is not the way your wiring should look.

Luckily our fridge runs directly from the battery bank (a combination of laziness and convenience due to the installed location), we can hand pump water, there aren’t any anchor light nazis and we have a handheld VHF that covers the area we were anchored in.  So I had some time to work on this, which was fortunate cause it took a couple days.  I had to sort out all the wired, unwrap them from their shielding, splice in new wires to replace the melted pieces (and this is the temporary fix, I need rerun the wires) and take out the alternator to have it tested.

Once all the new wires were in, I set out with the alternator to find a testing location.  I stopped to say hi to Deep Playa and ended up looking at their Nigel Caulder book (an accidental omission to my cruising library) and reading how to do some of the tests myself.  I then spoke with my mechanical expert David, co-owner of Cheers Automotive in Spokane, and he felt the voltage from the alternator wouldn’t be sufficient to blow holes in the insulation.  I more likely culprit is the combination of age, friction, vibration and heat cycling, as the wires lay right on top of the engine.  After several days of keeping the batteries off while we weren’t on the boat, and watching the new wires while we were on the boat, my repairs seem to be working and  there has been no more arching, fires or melted insulation.

Fast forward to our resumed travels (yes, I’m jumping out of chronological order, I’ll come back to leaving La Cruz and visiting Yelapa) and becoming becalmed a few miles south of Cabo Corrientes around 3 am.  Jenn fired up the engine, and I poked my head in the engine compartment for a quick look and noticed fuel dripping off of a line.  Quite close to the location of the wiring fix, actually.  After looking things over I decided the leak was coming from a line that returns excess fuel delivered by the fuel pump to the fuel tank.  One end of the hose unscrewed easily with a wrench, but the other end took a wrench, vice grip and choice words.  Once it was off I found a spot where the protective cover and hose had chafed through, most likely unrelated to the wiring issue.  What I couldn’t find was a replacement hose or something to seal with.  As it was late, dark and we were both tired, we decided to wait till morning to fix it.  Our speed dropped from 3 knots to .1 knot as the wind died and we ended up essentially adrift, but far enough off shore and with no traffic in sight.

At least I found the problem.

Prepped for a fix.

When dawn arrived to tackled the search for a host sealant.  I got lucky and found the Rescue Tape I thought I had in the second place I looked.  I’ve never used it before, the the instructions were straightforward and half an hour later I had the hose back in place.  We fired up the engine and so far so good, although I’m continuing to monitor it.  I’m hoping it will hold to Manzillo, a couple stops down the coast where I think I can find a replacement hose.  So far I’m very impressed with rescue tape, but not my ability to remember where I put things.

Rescue tape to the, uh, rescue.

Rescue tape works wonders, when you can find it.

So Ventured is still shiny and clean on the outside, but having some internal bleeding I’ve stopped with my boat first aid skills, but need some surgery to fix for the long term.

Spa Day

After several thousand miles of sailing, and our arrival in warmer waters, I noticed our bottom paint is not holding up well.  When we bought the boat it was moored in fresh water and the bottom looked great during the haul out for the survey.  And on the trip down, with pretty constant movement and cold water, I didn’t notice any growth (granted I didn’t jump in to check).  But after some time anchored in La Paz, I noticed some growth starting, and by the time we sat in Banderas Bay for a few weeks, it was getting disturbing.  It turns out this a a good place for disturbing bottom growth, as the going rate for bottom cleaning is a whopping $1 per foot.  I would have paid $3.  But beyond that I probably would have dug out the scuba gear.  Although after watching another cruiser spend a good chunk of two days in the water, maybe not.  But fortunately the rate stays the same regardless of the condition of your bottom.

In tandem with arranging for the bottom to be cleaned, I dug out the receipt the previous owner left on the boat for what I’m assuming is the last bottom painting, and realized I’m having issues because it was dated 2008.  Bottoms Up Marine Service in Port Townsend was very responsive to my email and helpful with advice about how to prep the current paint (or what is left of it) for the next bottom painting.

Having worked out and date and time with one of the local bottom cleaning crews in the marina, we arranged for a slip and brought the boat in for the dreaded exercise in docking.  This is only the third time I’ve docked the boat in Mexico, but with a couple friends on the dock to catch lines it went smoothly.  Because the dinghy dock at the La Cruz marina is usually packed, and a bit of a walk from the happening spots we’ve been slipping in between Bella Star and Jace (aka Knee Deep).  Since Jace pulled out the day before we went into the marina, we grabbed their spot since we were already so familiar with it.

We arrived mid morning, and our cleaning crew showed up within 10 minutes or our appointment.  Not shabby for Mexican time!  They were done within an hour, and stuck with the original quoted price.  I pitched in a few extra pesos for a job well done.  With the bottom clean, we started to think about the topsides.  Of course we had given the boat the mandatory scrubbing that comes with getting a slip in a marina after weeks of anchoring.  But there were some crews that do topside cleaning, and one of the cruisers on the dock I had been talking to about boat cleaning had just hired a crew that was well regarded.  He sent the Jeffe, Ernesto, down to talk to me, and the quote was pretty reasonable.  So, we took the plunge and hired them to start the next day on our boat.  Of course this also meant a few extra days in the marina, but the rate wasn’t unreasonable and since Aaron’s birthday coming up it would be nice to be able to walk back to the boat after a night out rather than taking the dinghy on the search through the anchorage for our boat we sometimes find ourselves involved in after dark.

It took Ernesto’s crew two days to polish and wax the stainless steel on our boat, clean and wax the topsides, and buff and wax the hull.  Ventured looks great, except now my motivation to do something with the teak toe rails is a little stronger.  We’ll be working on that soon.  We also spent the time in the marina to let the growth on our anchor chain die off by spreading it up and down the dock beside our boat.  I never anticipated scrubbing my anchor chain as part of the cruising life.

The house and car, looking shiny and clean.

Next post – How Ventured thanked us for all the TLC.

While the boat was being cleaned, Nicole arrived back from Seattle with a couple goodies from Seattle including our new Coast Guard documentation and some cat toys for Minion, kind of a late birthday present for him.  And speaking of birthdays, she arrived on her husband Aaron’s birthday so we headed out on the town.  After some happy hour draft beers at the Huanacaxtle Cafe, it was time for some tacos.  Full from our trip to Red Chair Tacos, and approaching cruiser midnight, we poked our noses into the Huanacaxtle Cafe to say hi to their friendly beyond description staff on our way back to the boats.  They waved us in and despite an approaching closing time offered to serve us more beverages, and agreed to let us plug in a computer and play our own music so we could dance.  I had my laptop and soon started playing DJ, trying to play songs everyone knows and loves rather than dipping into my obscure collection.  And then… the karaoke book came out.  It didn’t take long for the door to be closed and our own private karaoke party to begin.  We didn’t even have to request songs, we just ducked in the back room and punched in the number for the songs we wanted and they queued up.  Besides ourselves and the birthday couple, we were joined by the Deep Playa, Panache and Wings of the Dawn crews, and the eight of us tore it up.  The staff even joined in some songs while keeping our social lubricants flowing.  It was a great time that would have been hard to top if we hadn’t returned a couple nights later for another karaoke party, this time joined by crews from Jace and Popoki along with their kids.  If you ever find yourself in La Cruz, go say hi to the folks at the Huanacaxtle Cafe, they are delightful, friendly and have the best wings we’ve found in Mexico.  Their Happy Hour draft beer is 10 pesos (we’ve agreed you can’t afford not to drink it) and the cocktails are 2 for 1 and they bring the bottle and mixer to your table and pour the alcohol till you say stop.  And they don’t chicken out.  But I have – I’ve yet to order a mixed drink but I need to do it once before we head out.

It isn't a Mexican karaoke birthday party without the birthday boy wearing a sombrero.

I couldn't let Aaron have all the fun.

Jenn doesn't want to be left out of the fun.

Dawn (SV Deep Playa) and Oliver, patron of the Huanacaxtle Cafe, play along to Sweet Child of Mine.

Karaoke night round two, this time with children. It didn't keep things any tamer as one of the mothers (who shall remain nameless) sang Why Don't we Get Drunk and Screw.

After just two days Ventured was sparkly clean, the hull shiny enough to reflect the sun hitting the ripples of water dancing around the boat.  Since we had to do something to keep ourselves from feeling too guilty for paying others to work on the boat, we scrubbed the dinghy and installed the dinghy wheels (finally).  We returned to the anchorage, happy with our investment and hoping Ventured enjoyed two days of spa treatment.

Bucerias Street Fair, a photo essay

I think I can see my house.

I’ve had a hard time getting a chance to upload some pictures from a street fair in Bucerias, the next down south of La Cruz where we are staying.  Jenn and I took a bus down and wandered around for a few hours.  I think we missed the real party with the locals, as we had to take the last bus back around 9:00 pm (and there was some concern we had missed the last bus for a few minutes…).  Still, it was fun to check out the vendors and carnival booths.  Somehow not winning a prize when you’ve spend .40 cents is a lot easier to live with.  Plus, the prizes were mostly not cheap stuffed animals.  One booth even had bottles of alcohol as prizes, but you had to step up and spend about $1.60 to try and win that.  So, in one of my least wordy posts over, here are some pictures from the evening.

A senorita does some shopping.

Jenn kills some time sharpening her Fruit Ninja skills while we wait for the fair to get going

I'm a little sketchy on the mechanics of this ride.

I'm not sure this a licensed image of Winnie the Pooh.

Just some typical booths.

The sign does not encourage my business.

The futures so bright...

I love Mexican snacks.

Colorful local outfits.

These are prizes I would want to win.

A vendor arranging her wares just so.

A focused young motorcycle rider.

Apparently riding trains doesn't take as much focus as motorcycles.

I'm not sure I would look happy riding this ride either...

...especially when the attendant has to push the coaster to assist the start.

Someone is enjoy the ride!

Several tries did not yield a winning dart throw, but at least it was cheap and you could win cookies instead of cheap stuffed animals.

Some of the trinkets for sale, and my attempt to be artistic photographing them.

A young markswoman takes aim.

When I said full bar, I wasn't kidding.

Somehow people rolled marbles to try to win prizes. I need to learn a lot more Spanish to ask how this worked.

Our tasty dinner being cooked.

Jenn waits with anticipation, and a pittance of Pesos to pay for two hamburgers.

While probably tasty, we ordered food cooked to order.

A double decker trampoline. The mind kind of boggles. If I ever return to Burning Man, bringing one of these would be on my list.

A vendor demonstrates a toy - whether or not that is helping I'm not sure.

Some fresh doughnuts and a bus ride home complete the evening.

And that completes our evening at the street fair.  I’m off to finish some boat projects, and then we will start prepping to head south down the coast for a bit.  We are having a wonderful time in La Cruz, but it feels like time to head out, and we will be heading back by on our way north for the summer so we can catch back up with our favorite taco stands and the Huanacaxtle Cafe then.

Housekeeping

As the sharp eyed reader may notice, we’ve made a few changes to the blog (ie, we picked a new theme from a list of hundreds available). I’m also trying to post bigger pictures so you don’t have to click on the small ones to see a more viewable image. I still need to do a little fixing on the last post – or leave it and focus on future posts.

We’ve (and by we, I mean Jenn) added some widgets to the side bar including a Blog Roll of boats we’ve met and enjoy keeping up with both in person and online. Feel free to check out our friends – just as long as you don’t like their blogs better!

I’m attempting to go through my old posts and clean up the tags and categories so the blog will be a bit better organized. I know, exciting stuff but I have to come up with something to amuse myself with all my free time.

And just to keep up the visual interest, here is a picture for all of you dealing with Snowmagaddon back in Seattle.

Beach in Still Life (Photo Credit to Jenn)