(Edited by Cynthia)

Cancun is hot and humid. It condenses in drops and rivulets on our air conditioned windows. This should not be a surprise since it’s 85 degrees. It’s the perfect temperature for Cynthia.

We are not buying a timeshare, but I see why people like it. The view from the room we have is amazing.

(click for more pics)

Playing in the breaking waves is amazing. The pool with swim up bar is amazing.

We went to the orientation this morning and welcome party this afternoon and drank free beer and rum ‘n coke. Our personal concierge gave us insider info for our tours here. We’re gonna get less ripped off than most..

We’ve been to two restaurants for dinner so far, the first good, the second better, both Mexican. We tried to go to a Chinese restaurant tonight, but it was no longer in existence. I expected things to be cheaper here – prices are the same as they are at home. The only good deal at the resort is when drinks are half price at happy hour (which thankfully starts at 3). Also, apparently couples in their late 20’s do not buy timeshares, because we are the only ones who aren’t teenagers or baby boomers here.

Yesterday we braved the bus and went to Walmart – just like Walmart in Folsom, but everything is in pesos. They still use the dollar sign, so a bag of chips looks like it’s $24. We got some stuff for “Mediterranean lunch” – salami, prosciutto, cheese, bread.

They have free sailing for a hour per day on the resort’s Sunfishes, and went for a short cruise today. Cynthia took the tiller for a while and dumped me into the lagoon on an inadvertent tack. We will go sailing again. There is a regatta on Friday, and we will try to win it. I will drill Cynthia hard. I’m not sure she has the strength to hold the main sheet though, and there’s not enough time for the proper conditioning. (Cynthia thinks Pat is an arrogant jerk).

Tomorrow we’ll chill at the Isle Mujeras and maybe do some snorkeling (we practiced in the pool today and learned it was comically easy). Tuesday is Tulum and more snorkeling. I’m also strongly considering paying an obnoxious amount of money to fly fish for bonefish as well.

Dance lessons, boogie boarding, and tennis also on the docket..

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I’m sad to say we’ve made it to our last full day in Michigan.  Sabbatical is not yet halfway over, but the first phase of it is, arguably the one I was looking forward to the most.  Unlike most trips here where I frantically try to pack everything in, this version featured the down time and the diversity to make it truly decompressing.  I should be writing that it was a good time, a great time even, but other undiscussed factors erupted and hung over, casting a net of doubt and uncertainty over every minute and every place.  The curse is stronger and more malignant than it at first seemed.

We drove home from Caseville and AML lamented there no Amish farmers out working 1890′s style.  Then we left with Louis for the Tiger game.  We saved by eating before the game at a Coney Island attached to the stadium, and then went to our seat and met friends there.  Remember the curse?  It started raining after an inning, followed by what ended up being a 2.5 hour delay after they stopped the game in the middle of the fourth.  With babysitters and jobs calling, the group gave up on waiting at about 10:30 and headed back.  I watched some of the game at home after it eventually restarted at 11:05, but was dozing off and so went to bed missing their eventual win.

Thursday morning we went to the airport to pick up Sean and then took a small detour to pick up some pina colada slushy mix for Dave’s graduation party on Saturday (which we will miss flying to Mexico).  Then, back to the Cera’s for spaghetti lunch (click for all the pictures from this entry):

We left at about 4:30 and stopped at the cemetery, and then proceeded on our way to the Vani Castle.  After a long drive to the north, no one answered the door,  it ended up they were all in the shower.  Eventually, Tony let us in and gave us a tour of endless travertine.   We watched Arianna (who we met for the first time) their tour (a 7000 sq ft house takes a while to tour) when later arrivals got their tour.  Arianna is a prodigious puker, and twice dispensed what seemed like an unnatural volume for a two month old – on both Cynthia and I.   I especially got a kick out of the her managing to get some all the way down Cynthia’s shirt.  At dusk Marissa wanted to see some deer,  so Dave an I headed out to the porch, pointed two out within 15 seconds, and then came back in.  The others were amazed by the raw power of our forestsense, and immediately built a grand shrine in our honor.

Today I shipped some  gear that I don’t need for the rest of the trip back to Cali – fishing stuff mostly.  I also sent my broken rod back to Sage with some pictures and am hoping for liberal interpretation of the lifetime guarantee.  Then G&G Jacques arrived to set up their tent for the graduation party, and I helped.  During the process, AML arrived to go out to lunch downtown, and so once the tent was in reasonable shape, we left for the Ren Cen with Sean and had a nice late lunch at Seldom Blues (I had yankee pot roast).  Of course, it rained on us as we strolled the riverwalk and we had to scramble back to the car.  Precipitation has been the theme of this trip.

Now the rain is coming down torrentially, and my mom is stuggling to keep the tarp-tent from collapsing from the weight of the water.   We’ll have a family dinner tonight, finish packing, and leave to catch our flight early in the morning.  I assume I’ll continue to have wi-fi access, but if not, posting will obviously be more sporadic.  Until next time, from Cancun . . .

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(Click to view pics)

On Tuesday, left Grandma and Grandpa Cera’s at 8:30am with my Aunt.  Corn was plentiful during the drive.  When my Aunt would take us up to the thumb as a kid, we would always have smoked whitefish as a pre-dinner appetizer, so before arriving at the cottage we stopped at the authentic Bayport Fish Market to pick up a hunk along with more whitefish for dinner.  I should have bought more.

My Aunt has done a lot to make the place her own since I was last here years ago.  At noon we had lunch mediterranean style (olives, cheese, bread, meat and uh, beer).  Killed the afternoon walking the beach and I even had a chance to jet-ski (woot) when one of the neighbors offered me their key.  It was out of gas in 20 minutes and the water was flat, but that was just about all the time I needed.  The lake was warm and temps in the mid 70′s . . . basically perfect.  I’ve now hit 3 Great Lakes in just a couple weeks – Erie (sailing), Michigan (Spring Lake), and Huron today.

Double whitefish (smoked and grilled) with salad and rice-a-roni was our simple dinner out on the screened porch, then Bailey’s on the beach deck for sunset.  As darkness set in, we played pouce, a group solitaire game that I’ve always played with my Aunt.  Cynthia complained that she didn’t know how to play and was confused, but she ended up beating me so I had little sympathy.

I took a couple naps on Tuesday (once on the drive and once after the beach), but I still managed to sleep till 9:30 on Wednesday morning.  The trend of laziness comtinued, as we just hung out on the porch basically (I did fix a hole in the side door weatherstrip).  Now, it’s time to clean things off to head back to the D for the Tiger game.

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I uploaded my grandpa’s pictures from boat salvage and integrated them into my own.  It makes the photostory more complete, and adds the picture of all the stuff I managed to hand lasso.

This morning, we cleaned up and drove back from the cottage, and Cynthia and I used the leftovers to make some fajitas for the fam for dinner.  Cynthia expressed her awe at the automatic can depost return machine at CVS pharmacy, and deeply regretted the labels she’d peeled off that made them unreturnable (not really).

After dinner, I dragged Louis along to Best Buy to picked up a camera for the rest of the trip – a Canon SD 870 IS.  Tomorrow, Caseville.

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Cuidado! Extra long post to document a long weekend of fun! (logged by pat, edited by cyn).  I exposed everyone to all the western Michigan experiences that I had as a kid, plus some extras.

Everybody had arrived by 9pm Saturday, and we commenced setting up tents, drinking beer and exchanging conversation into the night. The sun didn’t set until 9:27. Summer solstice and being in the extreme west of the time zone makes for very late twilight. Down the street from our humble cottage a man added ambiance with his prodigious karaoke skills. He serenaded us with everything from George Michael’s Faith to Nate Dog and Warren G’s Regulate. The next morning Dave and I renewed our "big breakfast" ritual (bacon, sausage, hash browns, pancakes, cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs coffee, and OJ).  A delicious and gluttonous tradition. Then we went to P.J. Hoffmaster State park for dune climbing and lounging on the beach – the finest sands in the world IMO, but that title will be put to the test over the next weeks in our world travels.  The temperature was just right, at least when the sun was out.

We returned back to the cottage for showers and lasagna, only to head back to Grand Haven to walk the pier, get ice cream and witness the performance of the World’s Largest Musical Fountain.  The best laid plans. Of course, Michigan weather being capricious and schizophrenic, we had to wait out a brief shower (or downpour, if you ask Cynthia) before venturing to the Pier Peddler ice cream shop which was uncharacteristically (or characteristically, if you ask Cynthia) closed before sunset.  Did I mention the double rainbow?

Frustrated by the lack of summer sugar in our veins, or just desperate to feel more alive after surviving diabetic coma, we continued to forage for frozen treats. The group, pretty lukewarm about the idea of the musical fountain in general, suddenly discovered great enthusiasm(or was it well-disguised sarcasm?) upon spotting it in the distance.   Nothing says "Grand Haven, Michigan" like Margaritaville and Wipeout to frantic, spastic dancing children doing that peace-sign-finger-in-front-of-the-eye move made famous by Pulp Fiction against the backdrop of swaying spouts of water and mediocre spotlight color-change technology.  Subsequently, we found an open ice-cream shop.  They had five sizes of flurry, the largest requiring drop shipment delivery.  Cynthia and I split a small Heath mashup, but lacked the insulin fortitude to see it to the end.

Back at the cottage, most of the women faded early (Cynthia was the lone trooper), and my eyelids were feeling heavy.  Ross came to the rescue with a pile of dry wood and the manly idea to burn it on the cottage’s micro-beach.  The fire was warm on a cool night, and we were up till 3AM leching, laughing and reminiscing.

Today, another breakfast, a game of trivial pursuit, and then we said our goodbyes (not to worry, most will be back together on Wednesday for the Tiger game).  Then a change of gear at my cousin’s graduation party just a few blocks away. I got to see some Casslemans I hadn’t since our wedding. Another of my cousins is flying out to Cancun the same day and flight we are, crazy.

Cynthia and I watched the sunset on the porch, some much needed alone time.

All in all, a great weekend . . . meeting my intrinsic need for ritual, friends and family.  Work is a distant memory as endless possibility looms in the foreground.

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I’m at the cottage now, and Bill and Tony are here with others to arrive soon; sitting on the lawn and borrowing unsecured wi-fi from the neighbor. This weekend almost didn’t happen.

Found out on Wednesday that the plumbing wasn’t winterized properly, so the toilet had cracked. ETA for a new toilet was at least a week, and I had visions of having to tell 10 people that they had to drive up to McDonalds to take a leak. I worked with my dad and uncle to get a new toilet delivered on site, and me and Cynthia drove up Thursday night to install it. Upon arrival, I noticed that it was easier to categorize what wasn’t leaking or dripping (the shower and the bathroom faucet) rather than what was (3 leaks in the crawlspace, one significant, the kitchen sink, and the bathroom water supply valve. I left the water off for the night after we brushed our teeth.

The next morning I removed the old toilet and installed the new one with a couple of trips to Home Depot thrown in for parts and tools. Then I went to work on fixing the big leak in the crawlspace without much luck. The toilet works, we’ll just have to turn the water on and off as we need it. The weekend is saved.

We went out to lunch in Grand Haven and then stopped at Meijer to get food for the weekend. Everyone took a quick nap, now I should probably get the BBQ going.

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I uploaded our sailing pictures (click the image above), plus a GPX file you can drop into Google Earth.

We set out from Put-in-Bay at about 7:30am. The wind was 15-20 mph out of the North-northwest, so we set the 120% jib (instead of the 155% we’d used coming down) and put the first reef in the main. We motored out of the bay and took a couple of short tacks – the GPS proscribed bearing was almost directly into the wind, and it looked like it was going to be a long slog . It had been blowing all night, jerking the boat around even at the dock . . . my Dad said he would stress out every time he woke up and heard the wind howling.

The waves on the lake were big and we were getting hammered, but soon wind shifted and we were able to take a long beat right on course. About 2/3 of the way across, we ran into some weather that looked a bit menacing. We literally battened down the hatches and prepared for the worst, but we ended up slipping past most of it and only had to deal with about 10 minutes of rain. Unsurprisingly, the wind shifted after the rain passed (you can see this on the track) and this knocked us off course enough that even when it subsided more tacking was required. It seemed to take forever as we worked ourselves over to the mouth of the river, and it was a big relief when we finally made it at about 4pm. The tacking had probably cost us about 2 hours.

We decided to take Amherstburg channel back in hopes that the current would be weaker, and were able to reach for a while the beginning. This was probably my favorite part of the whole trip, silently sailing up the flat river, with cars driving by just a few yards away. We were only doing about 4 knots against the current, and so decided to try something we’d never done before: motor-sailing. We dropped the Jib and started the engine . . . I think keeping the main up only added a knot or so, but it saved us some gas and at least an hour on the water. We were doing 5-6 knots consistently as we made our way back upriver. We stuck to the Canadian side on the way back . . . . motoring for 5 hours, On the way, I made some bean dip on the stove while underway (its viscosity an asset in the slightly rolling boat) and we saw a boat coming from a race with a bent mast . . . glad it wasn’t us. We pulled into Neff Park at about 9pm, exhausted. Total trip length was 119 nautical miles (137 statute miles).

We took the essentials off the boat and drove home. I took a quick shower and shaved off my man-time beard before leaving for the airport with Dave to pick up Cynthia. She was starving on west coast time, so offered her the leftover bean dip to finish. I might have also had some, and maybe a leftover slice of pizza.

Today we slept in till 11, and then I did some wash and we got the remaining gear off the boat. One of the powerboats belonging to a neighbor down the street in the harbor had sunk overnight, and we watched a salvage team recover it with come-alongs and pumps (the second boat recovery of my sabbatical . . .)

Tonight, my Dad has his Wednesday night sail race, so I think we’ll crew for him so Cynthia can experience one of those things I used to do all the time when I was a kit.

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We made it safe and sound.

I’m sitting on a covered patio right now at the Miller Marina in a super comfortable chaise lounge.  They have wifi (90% signal strength), and I plug so I can recharge all of my various electronics.  Fish fly’s keep landing on me as the sun sets.  Life is good.

This morning we left the WYC at 7:55am and motored down to the end of the river. . . there was a really cool barrier protected channel at the end, and then we were in Lake Erie. The wind was favorable – moderate out of the west, seas were relatively calm . . . basically perfect conditions for the situation. My wrist top GPS worked awesome, gave us a bearing, and 40 miles later we were at Put-in-Bay, pulling in around 2:20. We averaged more than 6 knots, as well as we could have possibly hoped, and much earlier than we had estimated. Tomorrow will not be as easy – we’ll be going against the wind, and it will be choppier, and we have to go all 57 miles.  I think we’ll average about 5 knots, so it will take 11 hours or so.  We’re going to get as early a start as possible.

Upon arrival we went exploring – me wearing my Hawaiian "Friday Shirt", floppy hat, sunglasses and beard -  first to the Perry Memorial, which is a 200 foot granite tower that we could see from about 25 miles away, where we watched a 15 minute video of the battle of Lake Erie.  Then, I decided to rent a golf cart for $10 an hour to more easily explore the island (plus we were exhausted from the sail anyway).  We explored all the nooks and crannies, including a "winery".  I can tell I’ve become a California wine snob, as I sneered during the tour about their aged-less-than 1 year varietals, the fact that they add sugar to most of them after fermentation, and that they don’t use 55 gallon oak barrels.  Also, the wine I had tasted like turpentine.  Most of the grapes are native varieties local to the islands, so I guess you can’t expect much.  I experienced a repeated thought I’ve had during this "man-time" . . . Cynthia would not enjoy this at all.  Randomly, the winery was also home to the worlds largest geode, which was a cave 40 feet underground that you could actually walk around in (barely) with crystals sticking out from all angles.  I’ll post this and all of the pics when I get back to Grosse Pointe and the requisite data cable.

This place it’s pretty much what you’d expect from a resort area, a bunch of shops full of overpriced trinkets staffed by teenagers.  There only variance of note is a substantial number of bars.  It’s apparently where Ohio goes to party on the weekends, but on this Monday, it was nearly deserted.

After returning the golf cart, my Dad did some shopping for my Mom’s birthday tomorrow in the single strip of shops on the island, and we surveyed restaurant menus to find one to our liking – my dad wanted perch and/or walleye.  We found a good restaurant (the boardwalk) that had a special including both, and we each had an order.

We asked around to find a gas pump, I walked our only empty gas can to one of the docks to pay $4.98 a gallon . . . new record for me, but I was only buying 2.5 gallons so I suppose it had a silver lining.

Long trip home tomorrow, and then it’s off to the airport to pick up Cynthia.  Man time is coming to an end, but I don’t mind because I miss her a ton.

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We made it safe and sound to the Wayondotte Yacht Club after some minor complications. Motoring the whole way, we averaged about 7 knots (about 8 mph)) . . . great time, but we had old charts so we went to the Wayandotte Yacht Club circa 1990 and not the Wyandotte Yacht Club cicra 2008 . . . the new one is about a mile upriver from the old. This cost us two extra miles and about half an hour. Luckily, I had bought my dad a new chart for Father’s Day (among other boat supplies), and so upon consulting that the true location was revealed. don’t ask me why We weren’t using the new chart in the first place.

We cooked linguine with tomato sauce for dinner, this is the fifth day I’ve had pasta in a row. It started at the Hook and Horn on Wednesday, then there were left overs as a side with the hot dog main course on Thursday. My Mom had made homemade sauce for Friday dinner when I returned to Grosse Pointe, and then of course at Grandma and Grandpa Cera’s mostacolli and Grandma’s sauce was in order. Today, pasta was the meal of choice because we had calm water in the marina (rolling seas do not mix with scalding hot water, I’ll make a viscous cheesy bean dip under those conditions). I’m going to give myself diabetes.

The Wyandotte Yacht Club is not especially fancy despite it’s upscale sounding name (although surprisingly, they have wifi). We are the only sailboat here; this part of the river is not a prime sailing location because it’s too far to get to either Lake St. Claire or Lake Erie unless you are on some sort of multi-day adventure like us. They do have a bar though, and we had a nice chat with Donna the barkeep over regular priced $2.25 beers. I tipped her at California beer prices because we were the only people there, a slow night because of the intermittent rains. I’m reminded that it only rains here for about 10 minutes at a time . . . not the "it’s going to rain all day" standard of Sacramento winters.

As we scrambled to get all the supplies ready today, I also realized how my father and I are different, a difference that’s become accentuated over time, I was the one who suggested making a list of things we needed the night before, and I’m the one who was stressed as our departure dragged all the way to 3:45. My Dad is more of a last minute, go with the flow. make it work type person. I think I used to be that way based on his model, but Cynthia’s perfectionism has strongly influenced me, and I’ve seen the light in heavy duty planning and in having the right tools for the job. As we were unloading stuff onto the boat this afternoon, we had to call my brother to bring boat key, and then sent him again to get ice. Cynthia would have been going crazy. I was going only half crazy. I think ten years ago it wouldn’t have bothered me at all. Same with his style of fixing things. . . I’m very much of the "do it right the first time school", he’s in the "just get it done". It bothers me when all of my tools aren’t in their assigned drawers of the tool cart in my garage. Justin showed me how well that system will work. you can always find the tool you need in 5 seconds. When I bought my dad a tool cart of his own for Christmas 2 years ago, he returned it (although I think he felt a bit guilty about it). It looks like a bomb when off in his workshop . . . I’ve spent 10 minutes finding tools already here and I haven’t even really fixed anything.

I did manage to completley destroy my camera . . . I totally dissassembed it to get the lens cleaned (which I suceeded in doing), but in the course of putting it back together, I ripped one of the printed circuit cables for the memory card reader. When I powewred it on, it came up with "lens error" because seems that the lens wasn’t put beack together properly even though everthing seemed to fit. I’m not upset about it . . . I’m surprised I was able to revive it at all, and it was too old for me to pay $100 plus to have it professionally cleaned. It wasn’t usable without some sort of lens cleaning (I’d decided that pictures were defintely going to be fuzzy forever), so this was the only option. Would have been nice to get it back though. I’m using my brothers camera on this cruise, but I don’t have the right cables or reader, so the pictures will have to wait until I get back It will be a long day tomorrow . . . have to go three times as far as we went today to make it to Put-in Bay. Hoping to be there in time to go out to dinner.

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We’ve left and are heading down the river. Hope to be at Wayandotte
yacht club before dark.

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