Zabels At Sea

Why waiting for the Oscar nominations, you ask – because, for the first time, and I am quite certain the only time, we have a (very small) personal connection.  There is a very good chance that Jeremy Renner will be nominated for Best Actor.  There is pretty much a 100% chance that the picture he was in this year, “The Hurt Locker”, and its director, Kathryn Bigelow, will be nominated for best picture and best director.

Jeremy Renner came to Modesto Junior College in the fall of 1990 and auditioned for the role of the Scarecrow in our production of “The Wizard of Oz”.  We cast him in the role, and the rest, as they say, is history.  My best friend, Elizabeth (Brady’s mom) was our Wicked Witch of the East with the green make-up.  Many more of you receiving e-mail messages regarding website updates were part of that production.  You know who you are. 

Anyway, when Larry and I heard about this movie last summer, we went to see it.  We agree with all of the many-starred reviews that this is a terrific movie.  Jeremy’s performance and Bigelow’s direction are both stunning.  If you haven’t seen it, you must make a point of buying a copy of the DVD of “The Hurt Locker”.  My favorite scene – in the desert, taking out the snipers.  Fun fact – Kathryn Bigelow is the ex-wife of James Cameron, the director of this year’s Big Movie “Avatar”.  I would put the odds at better than good that she will take the director’s award while his movie gets the best picture nod.  The director and movie wins are usually for the same movie, but money talks in Hollywood.  “Avatar” is taking it in by the bucketload.

So, back to La Paz, Larry will be leaving in the next couple of days for points east.  He is going to Mazatlan on a boat called Chat de Mer.  We have spent a bit of time recently with the Skipper and First Mate, Leo and Cecile, and they are adding much fun to our lives here in La Paz.  The trip to Mazatlan is timed to coincide with Carnaval, Feb. 11-16.  Larry will return on a different boat, Carefree II, since Chat de Mer will continue cruising south on the mainland of Mexico.

Cecile and I joined a group that traveled to Todos Santos on Saturday.  TS is on the Pacific side of Baja, about an hour’s drive away.  The migrating whales are sometimes visible from the beaches there, and we got lucky.  There was a whale that spent over 45 minutes near the surf line, blowing and swimming, a little spy-hopping, and once rolling in a wave parallel to the beach.  Of course, I got not a single bit of evidence of this on film, but I took lots of pictures of the surf!

This gorgeous beach is only accessible by dirt track with 4-wheel drive.  The route is not marked.

Earlier, the group had lunch at the Hotel California.  This beautiful hotel and restaurant is nicer than anything we saw in Cabo:

Silvie from Puddytat took the picture:

I just had to put her picture in here, because she was such great fun all day long with great stories and lots of laughs.  This lady was born and raised in, and carries a passport issued by, Zimbabwe.  Many of her stories explained, from a very personal point of view, what it was like to live in a country run by scary people.  Cecile, myself, and Sylvie spent the late afternoon on our own, browsing through the galleries and art shops at leisure.  We also found the best ice cream in Baja.  It was so delicious and creamy that we went back again later and had some more!

Sometime during the afternoon, we stopped at the bus station and purchased tickets for a 7:00 pm return bus.  Then we called my husband, who spent the day with Leo, skipper of Chat de Mer, and told them they had a few hours before they had to send the dancing girls away – LOL!  On the bus ride home, we saw the second half of a missable movie called “Wild America”.  It caught my eye, though, because a Ryan PT-22 airplane figured prominently in the drama.  This is a primary trainer from WWII.  My father owned one of these planes  for about 10 years in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s.  The movie brought back a lot of fond memories.  When we were first married, Larry used to ride in that plane with my dad when he (my dad) competed in “spot landing” contests at fly-ins.  They took first place more than once, as I recall, mostly due to all the weight Larry added!  It made putting the plane down in a specific spot a lot easier!

Earlier last week, Larry had already visited TS when another friend here, Roger on Avalon, took his wife, Jean, to the airport near Cabo.  They asked us to come along because I have a Costco card (yes, Elizabeth, I finally have my own card!) and they didn’t.  The only Costco store down here in southern Baja is in Cabo, so we did a Costco run last week after delivering Jean to the airport.  Then on the way back to La Paz, we stopped in TS for lunch and a quick look around.  We had lunch at Hotel California that day, too:

Kind of a funny picture of a funny guy!  (Actually, this is a cellphone picture.)

Three musicians on the roof:

Metal sculptures!

Last but not least, Muggs had a birthday, so we went out to dinner with friends, Donna and Greg of Magic Carpet.  They helped us out by taking this picture:

Note that Larry is wearing a jacket!  It’s a little cool in the evenings, sometimes.  You see that I am NOT wearing a jacket, and we were both comfortable.

I fly to California on Saturday for a two week visit with a busy calendar.  I hope to see many of you then.