Spent

La Paz, BCS, Mexico

The big shop-a-thon spending spree is over for the moment.  We are back on board the boat.

We had a great time in San Diego.  We got pretty much everything on our shopping list, saw some parts of the town that we had missed before, and the weather was fantastic.  While the rest of the country (USA) was in the middle of a heat wave, San Diego was the coolest place in the nation.  The daytime highs were around 21 degrees and the nights around 17.  This was a welcome relief for us after the heat of La Paz over the last couple of weeks - we even used jackets in the evening.

The hotel was also great.  The rooms at the Sofia are quite small, being an older hotel, which made them only about twice the size of our usual domicile.  Air conditioning, English-language TV and a queen-sized bed - such luxury!

A lot of our time was spent going around to the marine chandlers, comparing prices and finding just the right item for each purchase.  We didn't bother getting a car - just used the public buses and trolleys - for $15 you get an unlimited 4-day pass and everything we wanted was close to a bus stop somewhere.  Admittedly it does sometimes take longer to get places but we had a whole week to work with.

Some of us have it and some of us don't

When it comes to buses, patience is everything

In our spare (non-shopping) time, we managed to explore some more of San Diego.  We spent an afternoon on Coronado island, visiting the Hotel del Coronado, most famous as the setting for the movie "Some Like It Hot".  We checked out the room rates and found that we could have stayed in a nice sea-side suite for a little over $900 per night (plus taxes, resort fees and such of course).  We opted to just look instead.  FYI, the washrooms were very nice.

We paid a visit to our old haunt at the public docks on Shelter island.  Not very busy this time of year.  Can't say the same for the other marinas though.  Note: The rates for the public docks have gone up as of February, 2012.  They now charge $1 per foot per day, with a maximum stay of 15 days in a 40 day period.  Quite a bit higher than they used to be, but still the best deal in San Diego.

No, we did not even ask what the price would be here!

Our trip back to La Paz was quite a bit easier than going the other way.  We did use Greyhound again, but now we knew the bus routes and were able to get to their San Diego station without having to carry our bags more than a few feet.  The Mexican border was much more laid-back than its US counterpart - just get off the bus, push the button to see if they need to look at your bags, then re-board and ride to the airport.  At the airport, we had to go through the same ritual again, pushing the magic button once more.  Fortunately we got the "green" light each time, as I really did not want to get into explaining all the recently acquired booty in our bags.

Speaking of booty, here is the haul.  Believe it or not, that is over $1000 of goods.  Just put the word "marine" on anything if you want to increase its value!

One big item, a new bob-stay to replace the one rusting away on the front of the boat, is being shipped down, as it was just too awkward to take with us.  Should have it in about 2 weeks.

Now all we have to do is install all this stuff.  My days will be very full for the foreseeable future.

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