Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning how to dance in the rain.



Sunday, November 29, 2009

Girls Gone Wild in Cozumel






My daughter, Lanell and I left early Sunday morning to catch our flight to Cozumel for a "Girl's Trip". We checked into our room at Casa Del Mar, made a stop at the Mega Store for snacks and went into town for dinner at Casa Dennis, they have GREAT mango margaritas. The locals had gathered in the square for Sunday evening Salsa dancing and we enjoyed watching.
The next morning we joined Cristina with Dive with Crisitna at the Caleta marina and boarded her boat the "Nena". Lanell decided to snorkel with Tony the deck hand while I made my two dives. The first dive of the day was my 100th, and we celebrated on the boat afterward. We captured a juvenile lionfish on the second dive of the day. Back at the hotel we got in the pool and enjoyed a drink before supper.

Dinner that night was at Especias, the food was great with hugs and kisses from all our old friends. The next day Lanell decided to do a Scuba Resort Course...to see how she liked diving. Luis, Cristina's husband was her teacher for the course. She took a brief class on the way out and geared up for a shallow dive. She did good and made a second dive later in the day.

We had two great dives, visibility was outstanding and the current wasn't to strong. That night we decided to try a new restaurant, Kinta.........the food was amazing and the garden setting was beautiful.
We had a Cream of Black Bean Soup that was to die for. We walked around the square, shopped, and took a taxi back to the hotel. Our last day of diving we arose to cloudy skies, had breakfast and took a taxi to the marina to meet our dive boat. The water was calm as we set out to dive Palancar Bricks, but we did see some dark clouds over towards Cancun. Lanell was diving again with Luis plus a father and his young son. We followed Cristina swimming thru many openings and coming out on the wall at about 80 feet. I noticed how dark it seemed and as we got shallower I could see the wave action above.

Cristina wrote on her slate that a bad storm had hit, the surface looked like a washing machine. Wind gust were reported at 30 mph with 6 to 8 foot seas during the storm. We stayed down as long as possible hoping the storm would pass, but finally surfaced to find the storm howling. I got on the boat only to find that Luis and his group weren't on yet....that was scary!!! We finally picked them up and headed back to the marina. It was a long, rough, ride.....many on the boat got seasick. Finally we pulled into the marina......boy were we glad to step foot on dry land.
Back at the hotel all the divers sat around
telling their "Storm Stories".


We got up Thanksgiving morning, had a late breakfast, took a taxi to the airport and
caught our flight to Houston. We had a great trip, Lanell got a taste of diving, we
survived a terrible storm, captured another lionfish, and I completed my
100th dive.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Lunch Bunch


Drove over to El Campo this morning for the monthly "Lunch Bunch" at the Firehouse Bar and Grill.

"Lunch Bunch" is a monthly get together with Dale's classmates from the 1961 graduating class of El Campo High School. We had missed the last several meetings, so it was good to see everyone again.

We all ordered lunch and spent time catching up, laughing, and having a great time.

Monday, November 9, 2009

A Wild Weekend


Friday started off with a guided fishing trip in Rockport on an air boat, my first air boat ride. We left the dock in a fog and headed out across the bay.
Fishing was slow, because the tide was high, the Reds were scattered. We ran all over the place, catching a Red or two. We saw 3 whopping cranes, a fat coyote and lots of birds. We caught our limit and headed back to the dock at Goose Island State Park. It was a great trip and lots of fun!!!

Saturday morning we took off to visit Jean and Jim in Marble Falls at their new place in an air park. We made it as far as Gonzales before we landed because of ground fog. We took off again after spending almost an hour on the ground and landed at their place just before lunch. We grabbed some lunch and went to a Car Show in Marble Falls......looking at bunch of cars, street rods, etc.







We had planned to depart Sunday after lunch, but low ceilings and thunderstorms canceled our plans and we spent another night with Jim and Jean. Finally about 2 pm on Monday the skies cleared enough to head back home, so we said goodbye and lifted off headed South.
We landed safe and sound, put the plane up and got home before 5 pm. A long, long weekend!