Three Years!

I had known it was coming, but wasn't sure to dread or look forward to the third anniversary of Melinda's passing this last 22 September. I decided to embrace it, and when a friend told me she had business in Puerto Peñasco, the die was cast! Melinda and I had travelled many times to the little port an hour south of the SW Arizona border, so invited myself along and retraced some of our steps there! PP has the closest beaches to Tucson, and the port on the Sea of Cortez is best known for its prized shrimp. Most of our trips down across the border were to visit our friend Margie, who spends much of the winter there, but have also made other trips with friends, so drew from that trip too. Shown here are a trio of my favorite photos of her there.

At left is an early photo, taken the day before my birthday (December 15, 2006), just a few months after we started dating. It is a spectacular photo - some thought it was taken in front of a mural, but is actually a live sunset from the patio of a favorite restaurant "Casa del Capitan" atop a large hill next to a lighthouse overlooking the port. It is often windy out there but this evening it was calm and spectacular not only watching the sun set, but seeing the stars come out as the evening progressed - a memorable evening indeed!

Fast forward 5 years and a few months, and we were down again with her good friend Carolyn. Margie wasn't available this trip, so Melinda found a 2 bedroom condo rental for a long weekend that was less expensive than a hotel at the still-under-construction Esmeralda. We only saw one other room in the huge building that was occupied, even though it was near the peak of the influx of tourists (4 March, 2012). At right is a photo of her relaxing on our 7th floor balcony overlooking the Sea of Cortez towards the west.

Finally a year and a half later we returned for the Christmas holiday (23 December, 2013) at Margie's. She has a beautiful place there, including this outside eating location when the weather is good (most of the time!). Margie has it strung with Christmas lights and the view of the post-sunset sky and scattering of colored lights was too magical to pass up! This was taken 5 months into the start of her cancer treatments, but the Melinda smile is still bright!


This trip I insisted on dinner atop the lighthouse hill where the top photo was taken. It was a nice evening - storms to the east, but a nice sunset. Dinner was at Pane e Vino Ristotante, adjacent to Captain's, a pizza place below and upscale Italian above. There was an excellent view of the sunset and port below from the high perch I'm guessing a couple hundred feet above the Sea of Cortez. The sunset shots here are handheld with a 200mm lens. It seems to set so quickly over the water. Distant mountaintops from Baja can be seen to the nearly due west, since this was taken nearly on the Autumnal equinox... When you click and enlarge them, I love the "crepuscular rays" emanating upwards from cloud structure or mountains, even after the sun had set from my location...


The natural lights of twilight faded quickly and the lights of Puerto Peñasco came up at the same time. Back to the kit zoom lens, the wide shot here is a 3-frame HDR, a combination of 3 frames of different exposures to record more light levels. At lower left is "the Malacon", the commercial center of Puerto Peñasco, including restaurants, fish and shrimp mongers, dentists, pharmacies and tourist trinkets - most anything you want in an over-the-border destination! Across the bay are the high rises and condos of "Sandy Beach, and the body of water leads to the right to the port where hundreds of shrimping boats are docked before heading out. You can see why we have loved the view from there when weather conditions allow a meal out there!

So it was a nice trip - not particularly emotional for me, though shed a few tears when I re-read my blog entries of her last days 3 years before - the first I've reviewed them since putting down those thoughts... Melinda will always be a part of me, our decade together among my happiest. I know all of you who knew her also have a special place in your heart for her.