We're back....and we're even.

Jake and I have just returned from a two week trip to California where we renewed our Visas, picked up some extra parts and got some much needed Target time.  My wonderful mother drove us back to Mexico on Friday and spent the weekend with us.  We had the car loaded down praying for the green light at the border.  I actually felt nauseaous at the thought of getting inspected with all of the equipment (not to mention the wine – I was a little over my 1 liter per person limit) I had in the car.  I let out an audible sigh of relief, did a happy dance as much as possible while driving and promptly got lost in Tijuana…added 30 minutes to our 9 our drive.

Jake getting a haircut from Ms. Nicole

Jake having a "smackdown" with Mr. Eric

While we were gone, Andy went back to Refugio and dove with the sea lions.  He took over 700 pictures!  He was able to get some really good ones of the pups and a few of the bulls. 

After a few hours of getting reacquainted with each other he confessed that we’re now even.  I asked “Even for what?”

“I lost the dinghy while you were gone…..but I got it back!”

Lots of laughing filled the air….followed by more laughing….then finally,  “How did you do that?”

Evidently he and Scott went exploring on the beach in Los Rocos and he did put the anchor out.  It appears he didn’t tie a very good knot (unforgivable, right?  He’s retired Navy!).  When they came back, there was a nice big anchor stuck in the beach with no boat.  Luckily, our friends on Puttytat saw it drifting by and grabbed it, so they saved the day.

The next day, we were out at a different anchorage with a lagoon and we were floating out with the tide when, unfortunately, Andy became even with me once again.  He got stung by a stingray.  And…..he was shuffling his feet!  We went back to the boat and promptly stuck his foot in some hot water and started the drill. 

I won’t tell you it was a little bitty stingray the size of a pancake, or I needed a magnifying glass to see the hole to put ointment on it….because that would be mean and just untrue.  I will instead tell you that I have the most hardcore man in the fleet!  He didn’t even cry.  He got over the sting in record breaking time (not because it was so small but because he was hardcore) and promptly returned to his job as Captain and leading the crew.

We’re off today for a few weeks.  We desperately need to get out of the crowd and go spend some time together.  That’s amazing isn’t it?  After all these months 24/7, we actually still like each other.