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A Life Less Ordinary

Tag: beaches

Baja Bound (Part Two) – Beach Time!

March 23, 2021 / / 42 Comments

I’m running a little behind with my Baja blogs. Sorry! Blame my lack of internet. Or, just blame me. I haven’t felt like sitting behind my computer lately, or scanning thousands of new photos. I’ll get there. When time and WiFi availability allow. Soon. 😊

Who wants to sit inside, behind a computer, when this view can be had while relaxing outside?

(As always, hover over or click on photos in galleries to read the captions. My images are heavily resized for easier downloading and uploading; I apologize for their inferior quality.)

From West to East

The Baja California peninsula is relatively narrow, so it doesn’t take long to get from one side to the other. Mex 1 is the main “highway” in this part of Mexico. It predominantly runs along the coasts with a few zigzags back and forth. After our stop in Guerrero Negro, where I left off in a previous post, Zesty transported us through the narrow middle, past desolate landscapes, cacti, dry terrain, barren hills, and small settlements.

Many times, we are passed by cars and trucks who cross the solid yellow line. I waited for an incident right at the “no passing” sign…
Heading towards the east coast of Baja again – nobody cares about the “no passing” yellow line…
Approaching one of the military checkpoints, with a volcano in the background

We decided to stop in the oasis of San Ignacio, a lush and tropical reprieve from the desert that is Baja California. The town is exceptionally clean and well taken care of. Highlights are the town square and the mission, Misión San Ignacio Kadakaamán, which was founded by the Jesuit missionary Juan Bautista de Luyando in 1728.

Mission San Ignacio
The door was locked, but looked pretty cool!
View of downtown, seen from the mission
Downtown San Ignacio
Around the square
One of the restaurants around the town square
Walking back to the campground, five minutes from downtown, we often met roaming horses.
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Baja Bound (Part One) – A Change of Scenery

February 24, 2021 / / 66 Comments

The Plan

Mark and I had been playing around with the idea of going to Baja California, Mexico, during the winter since the fall of 2020. But as long as I needed reliable internet every day (first to publish my book, then to promote it, on top of other jobs and blogging commitments), crossing the border was not going to happen.

As January approached and we found ourselves in an uninspiring, windy California desert that turned even more chilly from the moment the sun set (before 5pm), the desire to find warmer weather grew. Don’t forget our home measures only 80sq feet, so being able to live outside is a requirement. Whenever my live webinar/presentation for the Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA) was delivered, we would leave the US for a chunk of time.

Except, the day after my “performance,” rumor had it that the border officials in Mexicali were cranking down on non-essential travel into their municipality. Would they turn us back if we crossed there, even when only driving through? We didn’t want to lie about our reason for visiting (saying that we were going to Mexico for dental work for example), besides, I’d just been to the dentist.

So we changed our plans, added a few more days to prepping our crossing, which now included an extra drive back east to a different border town after doing laundry, washing Zesty, and stocking up the van in Yuma, AZ, instead of El Centro, CA.

The interior of Baja California seen from the interior of Zesty

(As always, hover over or click on photos in galleries to read the captions. My photos are heavily resized for easier loading of the page.)

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Laguna Beach, CA – On a Shoestring

February 10, 2017 / / 41 Comments

One of the reasons Mark and I have been house sitting for over a year is so we can live “for free”, taking care of people’s home and pets, while they are away. For us, it is a perfect exchange, with quite a few perks, one of which is the variety of places we get to live in. We don’t seek out super desirable locations and make the destination our highlight as many other sitters do, but prefer longer term sits and weekend explorations in each area we find ourselves in. The United States has interesting parks, beaches and cities everywhere!

On the most beautiful day during our three-week sit in Costa Mesa, Southern California, we put on shorts and flip-flops and headed for the beach; Laguna Beach to be precise. Continue reading

Truro (Cape Cod), MA: September 24th – September 30th, 2016

October 28, 2016 / / 14 Comments

“I’ve always wanted to visit Cape Cod,” I say to Mark, “I can’t believe I have never been there in all these years of our residence being in Massachusetts!”

“You are not missing much,” Mark replies, “It is busy, built-up, touristy and the beaches are fair compared to what we have been used to all these years.” He doesn’t mention that he has only been partway up the Cape.

“Well, I’d like to see it for myself one day and I think, with our plans of going to California in a month, we have to go soon, because who knows when we will be back on the East Coast,” I add.

“You can’t be serious,” Mark continues, clearly thinking I am losing my mind with all the plans we have coming up already, “We seriously do not have time for another excursion this month and we couldn’t afford a weekend on the Cape anyway.”

And that is the end of the discussion. He is right. It is the beginning of September and we have just wrapped up our four-and-a-half-month house sit in Heath. All our stuff is spread out in the room of our home base in Newburyport, where Mark’s parents are happy to have us around for a bit. We have doctor visits scheduled, errands to run, friends and family to catch up with and a five-day vacation to look forward to…

Every day, I get house sitting notifications in my inbox from the sites we have signed up and paid for. None of them look very interesting or promising, so I delete them. One day, when sitting in the waiting room of the oncology department at Dana Farber, a particular listing grabs my attention: a one-week house sit in Truro, Cape Cod, with one dog, the last week in September. Perfect! “Listen to this…” I read the description to Mark, “And, it is the last part of the month. We don’t have much planned then.”

“Sure,” he gives in, “Write them an email and we will see what comes of it. They will probably get a lot of applications, because it is on Cape Cod.”

Within 24 hours, I have written the owner, she replied, we had a conversation over Skype and Mark and I are “hired”! We were going to Cape Cod and hoped the weather would be as pleasant as it usually is that time of the year.

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Cape Cod Adventure – Towns, Beaches, and Lighthouses

September 30, 2016 / / 14 Comments

I am interrupting my Acadia broadcasts with an unexpected development: Mark and I recently stumbled upon a six-day house and pet sitting assignment in Truro, Cape Cod. We couldn’t resist applying and within 24 hours, we secured “the job”. The timing was perfect: we didn’t have much planned at our home base the last week of September and, usually, this is one of the best times of the year to visit the Cape. We also, coincidentally, happened to be asked to babysit our twin nieces, right over the bridge onto Cape Cod on Friday, so we had a decent start on Saturday, September 24th, to explore the sights between there and Truro. It was a bit chilly, but the sun was out. And of that, we took full advantage! Continue reading

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