White Christmas

Culture shock!

From the burning desert (ok, it wasn't that hot), to the frozen north (ok, not that cold either), we flew.

Christmas in Edmonton with Susanne's family.

Some assembly required.

Now we enter into the non-stop whirlwind of holiday parties and excitement...

Baking in the Desert - Not!

We travelled from San Diego to Palm Springs in the pouring rain. Temperatures hovered around 5 C during much of the drive along the Mexican border.

Spent three wonderful nights courtesy of my sister and her husband, who took us to all of the local hiking spots around the area. In spite of their best efforts to wear us out, we survived the ordeal.

The weather was cool and we even got to see snow in the desert. Apparently they have winter down here too - all those tales our friends have told us about the wonderful golfing paradise are complete fabrications.

Sue says that I exaggerate somewhat, but it was really not the blistering heat I was led to expect.

So it was with some trepidation that we left the freezing valley of Palm Springs to travel to the real desert in Nevada. We stayed overnight in Laughlin before heading for Las Vegas. We had breakfast in California, lunch in Arizona and dinner in Nevada. Still jacket weather but at least it stopped raining for a while.

Las Vegas is pretty cool - a lot different than we remember it from 20 years ago. Not many of the old hotels are still a going concern, and a lot of the new ones are hurting because of the down turn in the economy. This is all good news if you are looking for cheap accommodations, so we are taking advantage by staying her for more than a week. We are using the Las Vegas Hilton as our temporary home.

Because there are less people in town, and the hotels are offering a lot of deals, we are actually enjoying ourselves a lot more than we thought we would. About the only real complaint we have is that the Internet is not very readily available here unless you are willing to spend some money (which is just against our basic nature) - that is my excuse for not updating this site sooner.

Our original plan was to drive to Edmonton for Christmas, then go back to the coast. But the weather reports we are getting from the north do not sound very encouraging, and we are really enjoying this extended drive though the south. So we are now going to stay put here for a few more days, then fly to Edmonton for Christmas and New Years, then back to Las Vegas to continue the journey.

Goodbye San Diego

Yes, that is "Bats in a Bell Tree", one of many eclectic statues that line the bay in San Diego, demonstrating the odd mixture of silly and scary that are San Diego. You can be strolling down the docks admiring the cruise ships, tall sailing ships and private yachts, while F14 fighters scream overhead, taking off from the nearby naval base.

After more than two weeks of SD bliss, winter is catching up with us. The daytime highs are not under 20 degrees C and it starting to be "jacket" weather with occasional threat of rain. So it is time to move on - hopefully the desert will be warm and dry.

Christmas is coming and nowhere do you see this more than here at the marina. An incredible number of boats are decorated with lights - more every day. Pictures just cannot do it justice. Of course this just reinforces the need for us to get moving if we want to make it to Edmonton by Christmas. At the rate we travel it could take a while.

All and all, we quite liked it here and hopefully we will be back next year - by sea this time.

San Diego Interlude

We are pretty laid back right now.

Settled into our temporary home on Shelter island, we spend the days walking, reading, eating and soaking up the sun. As you can see it is pretty exciting here.

We have checked out the local zoo and some museums and spent almost an entire day exploring the USS Midway aircraft carrier berthed by the cruise ships - that was surprisingly interesting.

For the most part, we have been trying to be a little more responsible in our spending habits, finding some cheaper places to eat (like the local bakery we found a 1/2 mile away), and doing most of our sight-seeing on foot, peering over the fences till someone chases us away, etc.

The local marine stores are fascinating for us, from the huge West Marine mega-mart to the smaller cruiser-oriented local chandlers. Everyone is super nice to us even though we haven't bought anything.

We visit the police dock regularly to see what boats are passing through but there is less and less action as most south-bound boats have already left for Mexico and there are very few north-bound vessels at this time of year. We checked on the local marina moorage rates and determined that this would be a very expensive place to stay for any length of time.

Although we really like it here, we have decided to move on next week. We will most likely drive over the mountains (hills?) to Palm Springs, where we are sure my sister and brother-in-law would love to put us up for a couple of months while they teach us how to golf (whatever that is).