A Weekend Out Of Town

Our friend Carolyn spent a week visiting us, centered around last weekend.  We always do a side trip to make it memorable, after previous visits to the Grand Canyon, San Diego and Los Angeles, and Baja whale watching last year.  This year called for a trip not only out of town and out of state but out of country - another trip to Mexico!  We did 3 days, 2 nights in Rocky Point, or Puerto Penasco for some relaxation time...

Min found that condo rentals were less expensive than a couple hotel rooms, so booked a furnished 2-bedroom condo at a complex still under construction - the 7th floor of the Esmerelda!  We've never stayed in a half-million dollar condo before, but it was pretty nice.  The views of mostly deserted Sandy Beach west of the port couldn't be beat, and of course, the western planetary conjunction in the western sky over the Sea of Cortez was spectacular.  At right was the view of Jupiter and brilliant Venus above, with diminutive Mercury down in the twilight glow.  The picture at left is from a 4-frame mosaic of the west side of the complex.  Our room was in the rightmost of the 4 buildings, the 7th floor above the right corner of the wading pool.  On the right edge of the building, the 3-bedroom condos that wrap around the beach side edge of the building run upwards of a cool million...

The apartment was nice and spacious, nicely furnished, and these days had wide screen TVs in the 2 bedrooms and living room.  Unfortunately not a lot of channel choices, about 8 or so, but one that showed a good variety of movies that we watched most of the time.  There were also 3 big bathrooms, the master bath had a whirlpool bath or jacuzzi that we didn't use.  Appliances were new, and it's a shame we didn't get to use many of them in the couple days there. We spent a LOT of time on the balcony for both Carolyn's smoke breaks and to enjoy the view.  It was a little disconcerting at first with just the glass sheets at the edge of the 80 foot drop, but was a great space to "chill".

While we brought snacks, we ate most of our meals out, hitting all our regular favorites we've developed over the years, and included a new one or two.  Of course, Rocky Point is known for their shrimp, and a lunch of shrimp tacos is shown at left.  We did a little beach walking, but with a moon phase just past first quarter, the tidal range wasn't very great, so no really low tides that are so great for beach combing.  But you can see how little-used the west side of Sandy Beach was on a late Sunday morning.

A little shopping was accomplished - we got a new Talavera sink in anticipation of another bathroom remodeling here in Tucson, and a few knick-knacks.  We certainly didn't go overboard...  Mostly it was a nice getaway trip to relax and spend some time in a place a little less familiar.  An hour before we packed up and left, Melinda spotted a pod of dolphins passing on the beach and I was able to grab a frame, again, from our balcony. 

So another memorable trip w/Carolyn passed.  Rocky Point is just about the closest beach to Tucson, only about 210 miles, 3.5 hours of travel time.  A lot of locals are concerned about travel in Mexico, but the over half dozen trips we've made have never been less than great, and we'll likely be back again soon...