Pic-of-the-Month for December 2019

Hola Amigos,

Can you believe another year has gone by so quickly?  Just a few more days before it's 2020, and it seems like just a little while ago that I was working on the computer systems so things would work when we went to 2000.  (Now I'm just aging myself!)  We hope 2019 was good to you; we had lots of good things happen, and of course, a few bad things.  But we survived to see what 2020 will bring our way as the sun rises on the New Year!  (I love our sunrises here in Baja over the Sea of Cortez...can't get much prettier than that!) 

One of our adventures this month was to take the Jeep on a longer than normal trip, and it worked very well.  We joined our friends Debi and Sandy in their Toyota and drove south to Los Frailes to visit our friends Mel and Katie, whose camp is 4 miles up a canyon from the beach.  The road was in pretty decent shape (many miles are not paved), and the "trail" up the arroyo to Katie and Mel's place had actually been graded!  

We had to get a pic of all of us before we left their lovely camp and headed to lunch at Cabo Pulmo. Mel and Katie are in the middle. When we got to La Palapa restaurant for our tacos, we noticed the cutest little puppy!  She was a mix between a Chihuahua and a Dachshund, we think.  Anyhow, she got some snuggling from both Debi and me.  She was the pup of the owner, Angeles, who sat and visited with us for quite a while.  Sweet little thing!  Anyhow, a few days later, after I posted a couple pictures of the pup on Facebook, Katie told me the pup was available if I knew anyone who wanted it.  (Me?  Debi?)  Both of us said no, but our friend Dalia fell in love with her immediately, and after several attempts, finally was able to connect with the pup and now has her at her home in Los Barriles.  We were able to puppy-sit the day she picked her up while she cleaned house for us.  She took her to the Vet, and she does need some extra special care for a bit, but she seems to be in pretty good shape.  We believe she's 2 months old. 

I haven't decorated our "Charlie Brown" Baja Christmas tree for several years, but our grandkids are coming to visit in early January, so I decided we needed it up this year until they leave.  Fortunately, Katie said she needed a Christmas Tree decorating fix, so I let her do it all.  She loved it!  


There won't be too many gifts under the tree when they come, but maybe enough to keep them happy for a while!  



I'm hoping it will be warm enough for them to go swimming in a heated pool while the kids are here.  Temps have been pretty low (for us!) in the 70's during the day, and 60 or lower at night.  Just remember that most homes here have no heating system; we're more acclimated for warm weather, so pile the blankets on at night and snuggle with the dogs!! (Ha! The dogs are on their own at our house.  They get 2 blankets a piece!)  

We had a lovely Christmas Eve service at our church.  I was asked by Pastor Gregg to do live music for it, so we had a nice group of Karen, Mary K, Stephi K and Craig H to sing the familiar Christmas carols, and I played the piano while Ray did the bass.  It was much appreciated by everyone, since we have only had video music for almost a year.  Hopefully, we'll be able to do more live music in the new year.  

Both Ryan and Rebecca send us wonderful pictures of their children.  Little Olivia is BIG, compared to most of the kids around her.  She is 16 months, and Ryan says she's bigger than most 2 years old children.  And her hair is definitely looking red.  They are currently living and working in Hong Kong. 

Rebecca and Tim and kids are living in Wheaton, Illinois this year, and the kids are attending public school for the first time.  They are loving it, and all the activities that go with it, including singing in the school choir and their church kids' choir.  David is continuing with piano lessons and making great progress.  I think Aaron is doing guitar, and Eleanor did some violin earlier.  

They are coming to visit in just over a week, so we're looking forward to their visit.  Lucky kids get to be out of school a bit longer than normal, but I think they can catch up just fine.  (I told them they can study Spanish while they're here!)  

I have created a 2019 December album with several more pictures, and some cute videos.







Our expanded garden is growing nicely, and I've already harvested some radishes and spinach.  The corn is coming up, and I'll plant my pole beans soon.  Meanwhile, the cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, onions and cilantro continue to grow.  I love my winter Baja garden!  

Ben has decided we need some fresh paint in and out of our casa, and he has started in our master bathroom.  We selected a pretty yellow, and it is WAY brighter than what we've had in there almost 18 years.  It should help wake us up in the mornings!  When he's not working on painting, he's pruning trees around the house, or working on the Jeep, or finding some other project to keep himself busy.  (I just try to stay out of his way, or hold his ladder!!)  😉

We wish you blessings for the New Year, and hope to be able to see many of you in 2020!  God Bless you and keep you in His hands!

Hasta el proximo año,
Tus amigos de Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey

Pic-of-the-Month for November 2019

Hola Amigos!

Whoa!  Where did the time go?  We have been so busy, but today, after the Fashion Show and before Thanksgiving, I thought I'd take a bit of time to catch up.  

This is a  heron fishing on the beach during my sunrise walk with Zoey.  

Zoey and I have been walking most days, and we came across this in the road a few weeks ago.  Thankfully, they were both dead.  I moved one over so you could see them together.  They're each probably 3" to 4" long.  We also found a few of these around our house, and a couple Tarantulas, and lately, big old centipedes.  It may be the rain, or the fact that our neighbor replaced his palapa roof (at least for the centipedes).  

There are a lot of other, prettier things on my walks, including many flowering plants.  With all the rain we've had this fall, things are blooming very nicely.  This pretty yellow flower grows on a bush, and we finally found it in our Baja Plant book; it is a wild cotton plant!  We also have beautiful blue Morning Glory, trees blooming, wild flowers galore, like the Datura (Jimsonweed) below.     

I've only been up to the Flag Monument a few times, but now that the weather is starting to be cooler in the mornings, I think Zoey and I are up to going the extra mile.  Right now, we're going 2 miles most mornings.  

Ben and I were both very, very busy organizing our Fashion Show for Feeding the Hungry.  With the proceeds from the show, we buy food vouchers from the local grocery store and give them to Chuy Castro, who administers the food program for our church.  He gives these vouchers worth about $14 US weekly to families who need a little extra help.  They can use them to buy meat, vegetables, fruit or whatever the family needs that week. (No alcohol or soft drinks).  We had a nice crowd of people attending, some great presenters, a lovely venue with delicious food, some hard working helpers, and did a pretty good job raising some money for this next year.  We were very surprised when we got there and found that the owners of the restaurant had a runway installed for the show!  Fantastic!!  The show was held on the 21st, and we both breathed a big sigh of relief that it was over for another year!  Now, we need to get our supplies organized and wrap it up to see what we need to do for the next time.  Here's a link to the pics the photographer took that night.  FASHION SHOW

We invited our friends Janet & Tony K to come and present at this year's show.  Janet owns a dress shop in Sisters, Oregon, and used to have a very popular one down here in Los Barriles.  She was a hit with the ladies, and did a great job helping us here.  We're sorry to see them leaving today!  

Los Barriles held the Revolution Day parade 2 days late this year, because of the huge rainstorm (Tropical storm Raymond) that came through on the previous weekend.  The freshly cleaned streets were covered with sand and mud!!  City crews feverishly worked to get the streets cleaned again, and had the parade on Friday, the day after the Fashion Show.  So, Ben and I got up early, and with our friend Sandy helping to drive, took all three Model A's  to Los Barriles for the parade.  I drove the '29 pickup, Sandy drove the '28 Woody, and Ben drove the '30 Roadster.  We each had "royalty" in our vehicles.  

These are kindergarten kids on a float. 

And this guy is just too cute!  









The next day, Saturday, Ben loaded up the Roadster for a trip to La Paz and a 2-day car show!  (You think we have a relaxing lifestyle down here??)  First stop in La Paz was at Majalca's Repintado, where we had the body work and painting done earlier.  They wanted to "show it some love" for the show!

We enjoyed the time in La Paz at a cute little "boutique" hotel.  Boutique means that you've got to call the hostess (there's no desk) and meet her to get your keys.  You need a key to the front metal gate, a key to the door of the hotel, a key to your room, and the garage door opener that works the huge doors where we have secure parking for the Model A across the street!  

Ben won a prize again, this time for "Best Ford".  I think Hector Manuel made up that prize, and gave it to Ben in spite of him asking to not give him any more prizes!  (He's running out of wall space in his garage!)  Anyhow, it was fun to see all the other cars and people there.  That's Edgar Majalca standing next to Ben; he owns the paint and body shop.  (The gals are the "Quaker State" girls).  

This car, like our others, is a popular place to get your picture taken!

I think we can start to take it easier now, other than we've got guests coming for Thanksgiving Day dinner!  

We expanded our garden space, and just about have it ready to plant some things, but we had that huge rainstorm a week ago, and another one is coming this way tomorrow!  When things get dried out a bit, I hope we can plant some more things!  

Ben has been trying to get our Jeep in good shape, but it still isn't running quite right.  He had Tony look at it while he was here, and Tony (an excellent mechanic) found some screwy things with the carburetor and automatic choke. Ben took it back to our mechanic (with Tony) and questioned the mechanic about the very used "new" choke.  (Like, new in 1966!)  Needless to say, he is working on it again, hopefully wiring it correctly and putting in all the correct parts.  We have plans for this Jeep and places to explore around here, and need to have it running CORRECTLY soon!  

We have a few other projects we can start thinking about now, like clearing more limbs from trees on our new lot, and doing some serious pruning on the Mesquite tree behind our veranda.  In fact, Ben has purchased a small chain saw to help him with the project.  Hopefully it will work well.  We've enjoyed visiting with our new neighbors, who have cleared the lot next to us, and are thinking about starting to build part of it (garage and casita) within the year.  With the heavy rain storms we've been having, we're finding some "leaky" places in our house, and will try to see what we can do about that (more buckets, maybe?)  We would also like to add a new opening in our fence to get in and out of our new lot easier.  Of course, we'll need a gate for that, as I don't think we can afford a cattle guard at this time. 

Our neighbor Peter, on the other side, replaced his palapa (palm leaf) roof a few weeks ago.  Sam and Zoey were very happy about that, because the old roof had a lot of leather straps holding things down.  Sam harvested as many of those as he could find and brought them home!  (All great except the ones with nails in them!)  This one is still in the shape of the log it was wrapped around, but clamped securely in his jaw!  It was interesting to watch them put on the new roof as it was a wrapped style, and ended up being a double layer, at least.  Very pretty and smooth from the inside, and nice and fluffy on the outside! 

More pictures are in our 2019 November album.  

We hope you are all staying warm and dry.  We're warm, but probably won't be very dry tomorrow when the next storm comes through!  We wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, and thank God for all our blessings this year.  

Hasta la proxima vez,
Tus amigos de Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey

Pic-of-the-Month for October 2019

Hola Amigos!

Ben, I and the dogs are back home in Baja, safe and sound after our busy summer and another 2000+ mile road trip from Oregon back to Mexico!  We're sorry if you missed reading about our adventures.  We really didn't do much of anything "new" or "different", so you didn't miss much!  We are all very happy to be back in our spacious house (after living in a small travel trailer for 3 months!) and things are in pretty good shape here.  

After we posted our last update, we visited friends in Salem,  went camping with friends, visited doctors, went to the Pendleton Roundup, visited doctors, I had a colonoscopy(!)  (results were good), visited friends, ate out a lot, tried to get a flu shot (they were out of the good stuff!), and went camping with friends!  There!  Is that enough detail?  Oh, you probably want a picture or two.   (None of the doctor visits, though!)

We saw this Osprey while camping on the Crooked River with Katie & Mel.  Short time, but nice and relaxing.  

 The next camping trip was with Gary and Debbie at some of our favorite camping spots in Oregon.  They hadn't been there, so we were their guides.  
This picture is of the little old school house by Summer Lake on Hwy 31 on our way to our camping spots.  

We stayed the first night at Juniper Reservoir RV park in Lakeview, one of our favorite summer resting spots.  They were setting up "glamping" tents for the weekend (the county fair was going on in town).  I think the cost for staying in one was $250 per night! I'll stick with our trailer for $40 for the night at the park!!  

From there, we went east to Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge.  Big open spaces, but not too many antelope were spotted this year.  I'm sure Gary and Debbie's dog would have loved to try to herd some of them!  

After a few days at Hart Mountain (and enjoying the hot springs there), we packed up and headed to the east to the Steens Mountains.  Unfortunately for Gary and Debbie, it was a gravel road, and they found their trailer completely full of dust when we got to our campsite near Frenchglen.  Ugh!  Fortunately, we had electricity and water, so they were able to clean up.  Seems the bottom of their newer trailer wasn't sealed as well as it could have been, and they left a few vents open (oops!)  We enjoyed doing the tour of the rim.  It was sad that a hunter had fallen to his death at one gorge the day before we got there.  We came across many search and rescue and police vehicles.  

We had some time back in Bend after that trip to give Shirley a ride in the Model A Roadster.  We had bought it from her two summers ago.  She was duly impressed and enjoyed the ride!

(It does look quite a bit nicer now than when we bought it!)  

We missed going to the Pendleton Roundup last year, so were happy to get over there again for this year's show.  I have a whole album of the Pendleton Roundup here.  Most photos are captioned.  Needless to say, we had a grand time and will be back next year.  It's nice that my niece has a nice place for us to park our trailer and a fenced yard to keep our dogs while we're gone.  Thanks again, Anne! 

We left Pendleton and the Roundup excitement for our last gasp camping trip with George and Carolyn from Salem.  We met them in Burns, after waiting out a few very rainy days in Eastern Oregon.  Yes, it does rain over there!  We did some touring of Burns, including the local museum, ate at some good restaurants, and filled the time.  After they joined us, and the rains slowed down, we went out to The Narrows, toward Frenchglen.  There's a pretty nice RV park there, and Ben and Carolyn were ready to look for rocks.  We also spent one drive looking for the Kiger Mustang horses.  Never saw any, but it was a neat drive in a part of the Steens we've never been before.  

Since more rocks was on Ben and Carolyn's agenda, we headed for Glass Butte near Hampton, Oregon.  We found a neat camping spot in the midst of the area and they found lots of obsidian.  They're talking about going back next year now that they know where to camp and what to look for!  I ask the question "what are you going to do with these pretty rocks", and he says "I'll figure something out!"  We had no room to bring them home with us, so they'll be waiting for him at his brother's house in Bend!!  

We packed our truck between rainstorms (we can't believe how much it rained in Central Oregon this summer), and got the trailer put away again at our friends' place in Tygh Valley (bless you Chris & Ed!).  We again managed to get all packed up a day early, so left Oregon on September 30, leaving behind several inches of snow in Bend!  We decided to go through Klamath Falls this time, and stopped for breakfast at the Mohawk restaurant in Gilchrist, Oregon.  If you get a chance, stop there.  The food was good, but the decor was amazing!  It was full of commemorative liquor bottles lining most of the walls, plus a bunch of stuffed wild animals and birds.  Wow.  

We hurried on down through California and Nevada and California again (Hwy 395 meanders a bit!) but managed to stop and visit Mike and Mary in Reno, who had more baggage for us to carry down, and to have breakfast with old friends Michele and Don in Minden.  We've known them since the 70's when they were poor students at University of Oregon.  Now they're retired!  How time flies! 

Crossing the border at Tecate was a piece of cake.  They wanted Ben to start the engine on the Model A we were towing and show them the registration.  After that was done we were free to go!  We had a truck load of "STUFF", so were very happy to be on our way.  Plus, we managed to avoid the corrupt police that like to stop tourists as they go through town to and from the border.  Good all the way around!  We decided to take our time driving through Baja and took 4 days, (remember, we did leave a day early!)  Ben wanted to be at the Oasis Hotel in Loreto for their Saturday Night Clam feed, so we had a few short driving days, which is just fine with us at our advanced age, and siestas are a good thing!  We were able to get to Catavina early enough in the day to get reservations, since there was a road rally that ended there that day (motorcycles).  That happened when we went through last year, and their was no room at the Inn!  Phew.  If you're in Catavina, there are not many choices of places to stay, and you'll have to travel at least 3 more hours to get to the next city large enough to have a hotel.  Plus, there is no cell service, nor internet (unless you pay big pesos for it).   
We had no trouble getting through San Ignacio this time; their construction around the plaza was done.  The clam feed at Oasis was as good as we expected, and he's already planning his next trip back!!  

The roads were in pretty good shape, as they've repaved many long stretches that had more potholes than was decent.  They are also working hard on the Santo Thomas grade, which will be beautiful when they're done. Now, it's generally a 1/2 hour wait while construction goes on, then one lane of traffic at a time through the construction areas.  They are moving rocks the size of houses here! 

Now that we are home, we've unpacked everything and most things have found their "place".  The dogs are happy to be back to their normal haunts, and we're waiting for some of the local restaurants to open back up.  We have had very hard rain showers for the last several days, but today is sunny and beautiful, with a southerly breeze to dry things out a bit.  We are almost ready for company, when our summer house sitter moves out, so get ready to buy your tickets!  

For more pictures, I've created a September / October album.

Not sure when the next issue will be ... we're going to be getting busy with our Fashion Show organization.  If you want to hear from us, just send us an email.  We WILL answer you!

Hasta la proxima vez,
Tus amigos de Baja,
Ben, Harriet, Sam & Zoey

Pic-of-the-Month for July / August 2019

Hello from Oregon, Friends!

Looks like Ben isn't going to get around to writing one of these, and I have some time today, so I'll try to catch you up on what we've done so far this summer.  

We had a good trip up, other than a cop in Tecate trying to give us a "made up" ticket.  He said we left rubber on the road (our car trailer brakes were catching on one side when we stopped), and that was illegal in Mexico (!?!).  He told us to pay him the fine, or go with him to the police station to pay it.  He made sure we had the pesos, and told us to follow him.  He took our registration and Ben's license, and we followed him in slow traffic about 50', when one of the cops came back to our car and said "we have an emergency, you're free to go.  Here are your papers!" Basically, they knew that if we got to the station, their trumped up charge wouldn't pass muster, so they gave up on the mordida (bribe money) this time.

  
Oh!  And looking back at our pictures, I remember that we got stuck for a bit in a tight corner in a detour in San Ignacio.  No warning, but the main street that goes in front of the Cathedral above was blocked off.  They were evidently paving the street around the plaza there.  So we were directed by arrows to follow city streets around the back side of the plaza.  The nasty corner was a narrow street with stone walls on both sides, and tighter than 90 degrees.  Ugh.  It took me and 3 or 4 Mexicans directing Ben back and forth until we could get through that corner with our truck and car trailer.  Then we needed directions to the hotel after that!  We got there, and looked at Google maps.  We figured we'd have to go back through that skinny corner to get out of town!  Ugh.  However, when Ben took our first suitcases out to the truck the next morning, a Mexican man told him "you are too long, senor.  You need to go out another way, and I'll show you".  Thank goodness!  The "other way" was through the back wall of the hotel where we were staying.  It went through a palm forest right out to the main road out to the highway!  Too bad we didn't know about that when we arrived the day before! 

Sorry the pic is dark.  The sun wasn't quite up yet, and this area had been burned recently.  

The truck and the Roadster got VERY dirty going through construction areas and some rain showers while we were still in Mexico.  This picture was at a rest stop on Hwy 395, with the Sierra Nevada Mountains behind.

Anyhow, we made it to Ken and Bea's, got the rigs both washed (had to do the Model A twice to get all the road grime off!) 

Ben drove the Roadster into Sisters for the 4th of July Fly-in / Car Show that was being held there, and burned up the generator!  After much detective work and trying this and that, he and our Model A savvy friend Mike figured out the problem and fixed it.  It is running much better now!  We hauled it over to Eugene, and had our friend Jim Carmickle (the expert) pin-stripe it for us.  He does beautiful work!

Then Rebecca, Tim and kids came to Oregon!  It was so great to see them.  We missed them last summer, what with our crazy schedule last year, and the fact that they didn't make it to Oregon then either.  It was a shorter trip than they'd originally planned, because Rebecca needed to get back to Chicago for some surgery.  But while they were here, they got to ride in the Model A, play with the dogs, play in Tom and Karan's sand pile, and DRIVE farm equipment (cousin Tom ran the gas and brake pedals)!  Pretty exciting stuff.

When they went back to Chicago, I went with them, and helped take care of the kids and their house while Rebecca had surgery and was recovering.  Phew!  It pretty much wore this Grandma out!  But we had some great times.  I took them to the local park, to a nearby thrift store where they spent their allowance money, to the library; we went to piano lessons, kid's club meetings, church, and out for pizza.  Of course, Tim drove us as needed, but we did a lot of walking to and from.  Then there was laundry and dishes and cooking and cleaning.  I flew back to Oregon on the 7th.  While I was gone, Ben visited friends in Salem and got the Model A back to Bend.  (Can't pull the house trailer and car trailer in one trip!)  

On August 12, our granddaughter Olivia celebrated her 1st birthday!  She is a happy little girl, and the hair I see on her pretty head looks red to me!

We've got the rest of the summer pretty fully booked; can't hardly believe our summer is almost half over.  We haven't even been out camping yet, but plan to this weekend, and most of September we plan to do more camping ....somewhere!  

I've created a July/August 2019 picture album with more photos.  Help yourself to a peek!

Your friends,

Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey 

Pic-of-the-Month for June 2019

Hola Amigos,

You all get one last news flash while we're still in Baja!  We are heading out this Saturday, the 22nd, and plan to be in Oregon by June 28th.  AND....we plan on spending July through September there (or in the Pacific Northwest) this summer!  Yea!  So, if you want to see us, be sure to drop us a line and we'll try our hardest to fit you into our schedule.  

This pair was just next to our driveway, along with two other pairs of Mama cows with their new calves; they were all having their morning breakfast!  They sure are cute now, and we keep seeing more new little ones!  This is also why we have a cattle guard and fences around our property!!  Here are the first two pairs we saw on our way home.  Can you see our house just beyond this first pair?  (And yes, we took Sam for a short walk that day....very short!  He told me where to turn around!)  

We are busy getting things ready to go.  We will have a house sitter (our friend Perla) so we don't have to close up the house and empty the refrigerators (thank goodness!)  We tried hard to get our freezers down to empty, but didn't make it, in spite of having lots of company over.  We will finish the pork ribs tonight, since we've invited our new neighbors who bought the lot next to us.  Hopefully, we won't have too many long power outages this summer, and we might come home to some good stuff left over in the fall!  

We plan on taking our 1930 Roadster with us to get a few things done on it, including pin-striping.  We also hope to take the lady from whom we bought it for a ride.  Even though we didn't paint it red, I think she'll like it!   Who knows, maybe you'll get a ride, too, if you're lucky!  Maybe in the rumble seat!!  😏

Ben spent some time the last several days working on the Jeep, trying to get the speedometer out of the dash, since the indicator needle had fallen out and was lying on the bottom of the gauge!  Well....it was a bit of a problem; actually turned out to be a major project!   And it is such a long story, that it requires diagrams and pictures and lots of hand gestures, you'll have to wait until you see us next time to learn the whole story!  Suffice it to say, things are different on the dashboard now!  

Don't you love the original dashboard, the paint job, and all the holes?  Ben spent a lot of time with his head down there on the passenger side, trying to see the wiring for the gauges!  Ugh!  He did take the passenger seat out, and we padded it nicely, so that helped some.  And yes, he did fix the needle on the gas gauge!!  And yes, the pretty wood is going back on to cover up the ugly metal dash.

Before Ben took the Jeep apart, and before our friends Debi and Sandy left for their home in Washington, we all took a tour up to the San Dionisio Canyon.  We hadn't been there this year, so it was nice to drive up in the Jeep and show them around.  We stopped and walked down to the little stream in the bottom of the canyon, and it was very refreshing.  There were even little fish in there!  

No, they weren't quite as big as Ben is indicating!  Just little bitty toe biters.  

The boulders in these mountains are very impressive.  We hope they stay where they are for now!

On the way back home, we took a route we've never done before; down the Santiago Arroyo to a large cave that we can see from the main road, but have never visited.  We were quite impressed!  It was huge, it had bee hives and bats in it, and all kinds of interesting formations.  

 We were surprised that there was a little pond in front of the cave (with little fish!)

It was an interesting place to explore, until Debi saw some bats flying around further back.  Check out more photos in our June 2019 album.  

Zoey and I cut back on our walks as soon as the weather changed to hot and humid!  If we do go out, it's a much shorter distance.  Both our tongues are dragging by the time we get home on these hot days!   One of the things we can't miss on our walks is a new project on the beach.  Someone bought the piece of property right next to, (and almost in) the arroyo just to the south of our house.  They rapidly cleared the ground, took out a 40+ year old stone wall, and layed out the lines of the house.  Last time I walked by, they were digging out some soil, and it looked like sand all the way down to me!   Not sure how you're supposed to build on that, but we'll see what they come up with.  Someone (40+ years ago) had bought that property, built a really nice looking wall, parked their trailer, and then there was a hurricane which was serious enough that they moved!  (Ben just now tells me that the trailer washed out to sea!  I didn't know that part of the story!)  It's been bare ground ever since, with a "temporary" road cutting through it.  (It's one of the popular ways to get to the beach from our house.)  

The wall is now rubble.  Hopefully they'll use it to build a wall on the property line.  

I will be missing my daily walks.... on the beach....

Up the Flag Monument Hill....

And through the wilderness looking for cactus blooms....

But it will all be waiting for our return next October!  

I can't promise any letters this summer when Ben's in charge.  So....

Hasta la proxima vez,
Tus amigos en Baja for a few more days,
Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey

PS. Can't forget the pictures of the grandkids!