Family Hike at Eb's Trails

 Sept 19, 2020 -- Andrew, Gretchen and Karsten invited Andrew and I to go hiking with them at Eb's Trails. It was a beautiful and fun day! We hiked just over 11 km which was a distance record for Karsten. 

Karsten liked to stop for a short rest on all the benches so, when we got to this one,
I had to tease him by taking up the whole bench! 

Farewell to Dad

Sept 5, 2020 - My family lost a wonderful man today. While the devastation of dementia had its effect, it could never stop dad's personality and sense of humour from shining through. 

His mind is now clear and his body is fit. I imagine he’s dancing a two-step with my mom, putting that extra little hitch into his step that I could never follow. He and my sister, Bev, with the family love of travel, are planning another trip — maybe revisiting Grey Owl’s cabin or hiking the Inca Trail where he was “the king.” 

He and Ross are out in the pasture checking the cows while Blue runs around pretending she’s a herding dog. He’s playing a jig on his violin and chuckling at how he converted Elaine to a fiddle music fan. 

He’s once again making friends out of total strangers, finding those vague connections and of course slipping in a few bragging comments about his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. 

In November he’ll put on his cowboy hat and drive to Regina for Agribition and enjoy swapping stories with all his Simmental buddies. And this winter, look out for him on the ski slopes!

Love you so much, dad!

Murals, Statues, Botanical Gardens - Puerto Vallarta

We returned to Puerto Vallarta for the last couple days of our holiday and again stayed in the old town area along the malecon.

The city has done a great job creating interesting visuals from painted murals, to unique statues, and a temporary exhibit of heart shaped statues featuring paintings that represent various Mexican towns and themes.

This mural of a young boy using a tin can and string to try to communicate with his friend (on his phone) at the other end of the block was my favourite murals. It was not only beautifully done but provided a message that made me think about how our communication, simplicity of life and sense of fun has changed. Not always for the better.

The sheer colourfulness of these next two definitely brightened up the neighborhood.

These next ones, located near the cultural centre, were a bit old and worn but still fun to look at. 

These are just two of the many painted hearts that comprised a temporary exhibit along the malecon.

Andrew and I went for a run/walk early each morning and, while not the best time and lighting for taking photos, it was easier and more pleasant to take photos without many, many tourists also trying to take photos and pose beside these permanent statues. 

Later one morning we went to the botanical gardens which are on the southern outskirts of the city. It's a beautiful place and well worth the visit! It also has a very nice restaurant where we had lunch before catching the bus back to old town.

There are all sorts of warnings about mosquitos and other insects so we brought mosquito spray with us. Neither of us like using it though so we decided just to wait and see how bad they were. While neither of us were bothered at all while walking the trails, we both noticed red welts on our legs a short time later! Thankfully they weren't too itchy.

Andrew is more into taking plant, insect and bird photos that I am, but I did take these few just with my phone.

And just a few more photos of the city. 

The Beauty Behind the Doors

Mexico offers up so many pleasant surprises. One of them is the beauty behind often dull, almost blank walls and doors.

One of our first pleasant surprises was this courtyard of the Pueblo Mágico Hotel in Patzcuaro.

The courtyard of Restaurante San Miguel. (Didn't think to take an outside photo.)

The outside of this hotel in Zitacuaro certainly wasn't dull and had a nice common area inside, these colourful shower taps were what really caught my eye. 

This narrow street in Valle de Bravo was home to both our hotel and a restaurant that we really liked. Just driving by, you would have no idea what was behind the doors or, in the case of the hotel, the gate to the parking.

El Punto Restaurant

Hotel Puestra del Sol

Lake view from the hotel

Colima was a busy place as Valentine's Day grew closer but we managed to get a room at the Hotel La Cosona De Don Jorge which had this beautiful open courtyard. (Again, forgot to take outside photo.)

In Comala, we could have easily missed the small sign for Hotel Posada Comala. It's actually three stories built into the hillside (street level was top floor). At the bottom of a very steep, narrow driveway was a separate building that housed our river-side room.

Upper floor room with river view

Outdoor breakfast area

One of the colourful resident peacocks

The best part is that none of these hotels were all that expensive! Far less that you would ever pay anywhere for a hotel in Canada for sure.