Los Cabos 2011

2011 Cabo Trip


January 16 through February 8, 2011

This year my mother, Glenna, didn’t accompany us on or annual trip to Los Cabos. We made arrangements for Barbara Smith to fly in from Iowa to stay with her at the house. Barbara is Wendy Barnhart’s sister, gerri's sister-in-law. Barbara came to the house on Saturday the 15th and we briefed her on things around the house and Glenna’s routine.

I won’t be writing about what we did on some days since while in Los Cabos are pretty much the same routine. I will try to hit some highlights.

January 16;

This year we decided to fly to Los Cabos from San Diego. Almost any airport is preferable to McCarran. Gerri and I drove to San Diego, leaving home about 10:30 AM. Our plan was to take advantage of Montyne and John Connolly’s hospitality on their boat at Coronado Cays for the night before our flight. Montyne is Gerri’s sister and of course John is her brother-in-law. Montyne was off to Ireland or someplace, she is a flight attendant for Omni Airlines. San Diego is a straight drive from Las Vegas via I-15 to the I-5 and they intersect just south of Coronado. We got to the boat at about 5:30 PM. John grilled chicken breasts and Italian sausage. It was an excellent meal and good company. We slept well while being gently rocked by the boat’s movement.

January 17;

We were up early because we had to be at the airport at 8 AM. John drove us and dropped us off in plenty of time to catch our 10 AM flight. Man I hate flying, empty your pockets remove your shoes and belt and still have to go through the scanner and just when we thought we had rid our suitcases of everything that wasn’t allowed in our carry on’s we were advised to open one of our carryon bags. At the last minute we had placed our stainless steel coffee cups and the scanner can’t see through the cups…so, after the agent swabbed our fingers and hands he checked out the cups and then we were able to proceed.. The flight to Cabo was smooth and uneventful. After deplaning we caught a shuttle to the Hacienda Del Mar arriving there at about 2:30 PM. As luck would have it our room was ready, which was unusual. Our room was a one bedroom with two baths, on the ground floor room 1411. We had a garden view with a nice backyard with a covered patio besides the one just outside our door.

After checking in and getting moved in we walked around the pool area of the Hacienda. We finally settled on supper at Tomatoes. It was Italian Buffet night. It was another great meal.

Internet access at the Hacienda Del Mar is about 18 USD, but we get 30 minutes free each day. Before leaving Las Vegas we had purchased a calling plan that gave us 700 minutes anywhere in North America. We didn’t want a repeat of our 2008 $600+ cell bill. Before leaving Las Vegas I inquired about the use of our broadband system in Mexico and was told if it could pick-up a cell tower it would work. I turned it on and retrieved e-mail. While we were walking to supper, I got a text message that we had incurred $50 in usage fee’s. Gerri quickly went to the room and turned off the MiFi unit.
January 18;

This was our first full day in Los Cabos. We started by doing nothing except reading. Before this trip was over I read ten novels. We did manage to make it to the pool for Mexican Bingo, Lotteria. We didn’t win any games.

January 19;

I rented a car for a week after the Mexican Bingo games. We still haven’t won a game.

January 20;

We drove to the airport in San Jose Del Cabo and picked up Gerri’s mother, Neva. We had supper at Pancho’s in downtown Cabo San Lucas after unloading Neva’s luggage.

January 21;

I did two caches in Cabo San Lucas today. I was checking around a pay phone outside Pancho’s when a man across the street motioned to me and said it was inside Pancho’s. A waiter pointed the container out. I met a couple of other cachers who had just signed the log and we talked for awhile. The funny thing was that the cache was about 12’ away from where we ate dinner yesterday.

January 23;

Moving day. Our first week which was an exchange through RCI was over. Our next week was our regular week at Hacienda Del Mar as owners. We were allowed to stay in our first room until the next unit was ready. At about noon we moved to a unit on the fourth floor of building 11, unit 1141. This was one of only two units on the top floor. The rest of the floor is occupied by a restaurant, Girasoles de la Hacienda.

January 25; We had to get up early today. We booked a whale watching trip and had to be at the marina at 8 AM. The trip started with an excellent breakfast. We saw a lot of whales, but I was only able to catch one whale tail with the camera. We got some great pictures off the arch and Lover’s Beach. There were a lot of boats out so it was difficult to get a picture without them between us and the whales and the arch, but we did manage a few.

January 26; Today we decided to do some shopping in Cabo San Lucas and have fish tacos at Solomon’s Landing. We also did some souvenir shopping and took pictures around the downtown area.

January 27;

Following our plan to dine a new to us restaurants, we ate at an Italian restaurant downtown called Doc. Excellent food, Gerri and Neva said the lasagna was the best they ever had.

January 28;

Unlike most of the days here in Cabo, there was no sun today. Of course that doesn’t stop our reading or the Lotteria games.

Both Gerri and I won a game of Mexican Bingo.

February 1;

This was another moving day, this time to the Club Regina in San Jose Del Cabo. While checking in we noticed that the Adult Pool where we spend the most of our time was closed for repairs.

February 4; We took a taxi into San Jose for shopping and lunch. We took pictures at the plaza and fountain and visited several shops. We had a late lunch at the El Herradero restaurant. This was another new place for us.

February 7;

Going home day. We checked out at 10 AM and settled up our bill. After that we took a taxi to the airport. We arrived before the Alaska Airline counter opened at 11:30 AM. Mexico searches all checked on luggage on out going fights. They have the usual security procedures before the boarding areas. Off with our shoes and belt, empty your pockets, put everything in bins and walk through the metal detector. After check in and going through security we still had almost two hours before our flight. We did get to board early since Neva had put on her ticket that she needed extra time to board, so we were among the first to board.

Another smooth flight, for some reason it takes longer to fly back to San Diego than it does going in the other direction. After going through US Customs and picking up our bags we contacted John to come pick us up. On the way back to the boat, John took us on a tour of Coronado. Neva had never been there before. We also drove further south to check out a nearby RV park and the town of Imperial Beach.

We had supper with John and Montyne at the Coronado Cays Yacht Club. It was an excellent dinner. For desert we had the last of the Christmas cake that John and Montyne had helped Neva make.

February 8;

We left San Diego after photos around the Yacht Club. We were underway at about 10:30 AM for the long drive to Las Vegas. We had planned to stop for a Nessie Burger in Escondido, but it was too early. We stopped for fuel and relief at the Costco in Victorville. We opted to eat at the IN and Out, Neva had never been to an In and Out. By the time we dropped Neva off at her house it was after dark. After we got home Wendy came to pick up Barbara.

This concluded our 2011 Mexican adventure. Gerri has posted several pictures on her facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=1616875321&aid=92552