2-18-2010

The last of the wedding visitors left on the Alaska flight yesterday. It was Judy’s sister Linda and her cousin Ginny. They were here for two weeks. On their last full day, Tuesday, we took them to Berra De Potosi. The trip on the bus and the truck is always a novelty for all parties. We had not been down there for a couple of years. A lot of changes have happened. For one, there are realtors trying to sell lots in small developments across from the beach in Berra. The sales office consists of a palapa and a table. Time will tell how it works out.

The beach restaurants were busy that day. There was three buses at the one next door to where we went. It appeared to be Mexican seniors on a day trip. They were having a great time. We enjoyed the water and the beach and had a big red snapper for lunch. After spending most of the day there, we headed home and went for a light dinner down the street from the house.

Today is a what ever day for us. Judy just headed to town with Vera and I am heading to the beach soon. It is overcast today and a light breeze blowing off shore. There is a cruise ship in the harbor this morning. I believe it is the Radiance of the Sea, owned by Norwegian line. Tomorrow we have some friends from Bellingham coming in on the Carnival Spirit for the day. They want to come to the beach. Hopefully the clouds will be gone. The forecast shows partly cloudy.

Town is full of a lot of new faces this week. Presidents day week is one of the busiest weeks in February. Lots of sunburns!

I’ve run out of news for now, and it’s time to head to the beach.

Warren

Some wedding photos

The upload stars were in the right alignment this morning so I added some wedding photos. There are lots more, but for now you can get the idea of what we had.

Oops! You have to load the last pictures first and the first pictures last. Makes perfect sense. This is the Mariachi band that played for an hour after the wedding ceremony.
flowers floating on the pool and candles around the edge.
Issac played prior to the wedding and for the procession in.
Sean escorts Judy into the ceremony.

Sean and Ellie exchange their vows. Notice the Yenta in the front row admiring his work.
Sean and Ellie with Joe and Fanny. Joe was the Yenta. Joe called Sean 2 years ago after they were here. "Listen, you have to marry that girl". Joe and Fanny had front row seats of honor for the wedding. They are from Montreal.Some of our sedate friends at the reception.

2-14

A little more of the dust has settled on the Wedding. This morning Sean and Ellie left the house at 6 AM for an 8 AM flight to Huston and then on to Baltimore, they hope. They were scheduled to leave this last Friday, but rescheduled due to the heavy snow in Baltimore. They are in transit as I write this. Camille and my Mother are in route to Seattle this morning after staying in LA overnight. They should arrive in Seattle about 1 PM this afternoon. That leaves us with Judy’s sister and Cousin until Wednesday. It is real quiet here this morning, but that is about to be shattered by the visit of the “God Children” for swimming and lunch. They have been wanting to come over since we arrived, but the other events have kept us busy. They did attend the wedding and had a great time. The girls spent most of their time after dinner gathering up balloons the DJ turned loose during the dancing.

We are going to try to get out to Berra De Potisi maybe tomorrow. Linda and Virginia would like to see it before they head home. The bus ride and the trip in the back of the truck to the beach is always fun. Hopefully that will all come together. It will be quiet here after Wednesday and Judy and I will spend the rest of our time visiting with our friends down here until they leave. We do have some friends coming in on a cruise ship this coming Thursday for a day visit. They want to see the house and the beach. That won’t be tough.

We have also decided that we will be moving to a smaller location next year. The three bedroom house has served us well this year and last year, but it is time to downsize again. Besides, we have never stayed in the same location for more than 3 years. Change is good. We are moving to a one bedroom suite that is located right behind the house we are in now. It is owned by a couple of guys from Edmonton. He is making us a great deal for the rent, including wifi and Sky satellite TV, kitchen and a little better view of the water. Just like our trailer, drinks for six, dinner for 4, sleeps 2.

Here is the latest update on the Telcel bill and activation. I mentioned in a previous entry how I went to Ixtapa to pay the bill for my wireless internet. He told me to come back before the 13^thof February and bring the device so they could update the chip. So, last Wednesday I went to the office with Camille. She wanted to see Ixtapa. I walked in and all seven windows had customer service people working them. There was no line, and I am thinking what a score. No waiting in line for an hour. I spoke with the receptionist and she told me I couldn’t update the chip until the next day after 10:30 AM! Sooo, I went back the next day in the afternoon to take care of it again. This was my third trip. Of course when I arrived there were only three customer service agents working the seven windows. Another forty minute wait in line and it was my turn. The same person that was working the reception desk the day before was now helping me at the service window. She remembered me and got a cell phone, pulled the chip out of my little wireless gizmo and updated it. Ah, Mexico, where people wait in line at the bank for hours sometimes to conduct their banking.

By now most of you, hopefully have seen some of the wedding photos on Judy’s Facebook page. There will be more coming eventually somewhere. We downloaded photos from our friend’s cameras and we are still in the process of sorting through all of those. Needless to say, there are lots of them. The waiters at La Escollera told the kids that it was one of the best parties they have had there in a long time. They were even dancing.

Carnival has been going on all of this week. We just didn’t have the energy to attend any of the events. I heard that the parade yesterday was pretty good with lots of floats. It ended last night with a big fireworks show, but once again we didn’t have the energy to get up and watch it.

Our friend Eric and family just left after about 4 hours here in the pool. Judy and I are worn out after this one. A good time was had by all. The kids really enjoy coming over for an afternoon of fun and food.

Time to get this posted, if it will upload. This time of day my Telcel internet is a little sluggish. If not today, maybe in the morning. We are on Mexican time.

Warren

We are moving to this location next year. It is about 100 yards behind the house we are in now. The large open window in the middle is the one bedroom suite we want.
Eric and Adrianna brought the kids over for an afternoon of swimming. It was wild to say the least.

Wedding Pictures

There are now lots of pictures from different cameras out on Facebook. Go to Facebook for Judy Vose to see some of them. We will probably be posting some out on Snapfish later also.

The girls just left for town for shopping this morning and left me alone. Darn! I'm heading to the beach to stare at the water for a few hours.

Warren

The Wedding

I know everyone wants pictures, but we don't have any of them on the computer right now. Just wanted to say that you all missed what I think is an all time best for the Voses. We finally pulled the plug about 11:30 last night, we started at 5:30. The wedding ceremony was great, the bride was beautiful, and everything went off flawless. We had about 65 people, a Mariachi band, live music prior to the wedding, and a great DJ. Needless to say a great time was had by all. We will get the pictures and more details out soon as we can get them gathered up. Judy and I didn't take any pictures because we didn't want to mess with a camera. There were lots of other cameras going non stop.

Some of the guests are heading home today, tomorrow and through the week. I made 6 trips to the airport in the last week.

More to come soon.

Warren

2-5-2010

This will be a quick entry due to the fact that we have been a little busy this week. I made 5 trips to the airport this week to meet people coming in for the wedding. I have showed Sean the ropes on how to get there on the Combi. It is only 10 pesos.

The biggest story this week is the rain! That’s right, rain. It started on Wednesday morning about 3 AM with a huge thunder and lightning show that lasted a couple of hours. The rain started about 3:30 AM and rained hard for over twelve hours. How hard you ask? It appears that we got 12 plus inches in the last 36 hours. Needless to say there is mud and water running everywhere. This morning the sun is shinning and the forecast is sunny for at least a few days. The forecast for Saturday is sunny and 86 degrees for the wedding. Everything seems to be in place for the big day. We are having the rehearsal dinner at Jungle Pizza tonight, even though there isn’t going to be a rehearsal. We will just call it the wedding party party.

I am going to close this out for now, because I need to start running some errands. I will include some photos of the rain.

Warren

The construction workers headed up the work in the morning, as usual but soon returned to head home. On one of my trips to the airport I did notice a lot of workers under some of the store awnings playing some sort of dice gambling game.
Mexican rain coat. This is not an original idea.
It rained like this for at least 12 hours on Wednesday.

I'm trying to keep up, but we're a little busy this week

As you can see, Mom won the shopping contest in Ixtapa.

2-1

It has been busy here the last few days. Sean and Ellie arrived on Friday, Mom and Camille arrived Saturday. We have been getting everyone settled in and moving forward with wedding plans. Sean and Ellie are up at La Escollera as I write this working on plans. They are meeting with the Judge that is performing the service for them, the manager of La Escollera who has done most of the arrangements, and a musician who will be playing pre wedding. Tomorrow they move up there for the rest of their time here this year. They have a couple of very nice rooms that they out rent up there. It has a beautiful view overlooking Zihuatanejo bay and La Ropa beach.

Today, Judy and I took Mom to Ixtapa for some shopping. I needed to pay for my Telcel wireless internet card for next month. More on that subject in a moment. Judy took Mom to her favorite clothing store for some retail therapy. All I can say is it is a good thing that I went to the ATM for Mom this morning.

I had to go to the Telcel office to pay my bill. This is where the fun started, sorta. I waited in line for one of the three customer service people out of the seven stations that were available. I had plenty of time to observe how some of this worked. Most of the people were dealing with cell phone issues. I waited in line for close to an hour. Then I went to the counter for my turn. He spoke pretty good English, so that wasn’t a problem. I soon found out that I should have brought the wireless gizmo with me so they could communicate with it and let it know that I am paid up. Then he sent me over to the cashier to pay the bill. While I was doing that he didn’t start waiting on anyone else. I could see that coming from my hour of observation in the line. I still need to make another trip to Ixtapa to handle the last part of the transaction. That office is the only place I can pay the bill, even though there are numerous locations around downtown Zihuatanejo. Oh well it’s Mexico! You should see the Banks on Friday afternoons and Saturdays. The locals are lined up out the door just to use the ATM, if it still has money in it. We Americans are spoiled when it comes to banking. I went to the bank the other day to try and pay some wedding bills with Celine the manager from La Escollera, and I counted 35 people waiting in the lobby of the bank for their turn. The businesses get some priority, but they have to request it. You come in the front door and swipe your card to get a number. Why do they have 7 windows but only 3 people working them? Mexico, you got to love it!

I must admit that our connection with the world has been much better this year with a more reliable internet connection and Skype. We have made many calls back to the States for no additional charge beyond the $36 dollars for three months of international calling. I wish that we had Skype a few years ago when I had some cell bills that looked like the National debt.

This is like the calm before the storm. I will be making trips to the airport for three days in a row starting on Wednesday mid day. There are 11 people on the Alaska flight on Thursday. Looks like the count is at about 65 people for the wedding. More on that subject to come.

Warren