ARRIVE IN CABO SAN LUCAS
By Bob Van Leer

  (CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico, July 13, 2006) – We left Gold Beach Saturday, July 8, for Portland on the first leg of a trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, to attend the wedding of our oldest grandson, Rob Johnson.

  We were to catch a plane in Portland but we went up a day early to visit. Thursday, July 10, we boarded a plane at 6:40 a.m. for the trip to Cabo. There were 21 of us on the plane from Oregon including Betty and Jim and Molly Walker (mother of Rob), Dave and Jean Little, Brian and Miriam Little, Charles, Lisa and Teresa Johnson (father of the groom), all of Gold Beach; Dave, Sally, Jordan and Maya Shuey.

   Flying weather was good and it was 1 hr, 18 minutes on Alaska Air to San Francisco and then another 2 hours, 48 minutes to San Jose del Cabo, the airport serving Cabo. It is a 45 min. drive from the airport to our hotel.

GLASS BOTTOM BOAT TOUR
By Bob Van Leer

  (CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico, July 15, 2006) - Betty, my sister, June Pallardy and I took a scenic tour of the Cabo area this afternoon. We were picked up at the hotel, driven downtown, and then drove over some of the back roads in residential areas. There is little paving here, indeed not even gravel. The streets are simply dust. But our guide, Rolando, said it only rains three-four days a year so it apparently works out. We toured a glass factory, but there was no crew working, so it wasn't very exciting. But what was interesting, we took a tour on a glass-bottom boat out along the reef and around the point into the Pacific Ocean. We passed over one shallow reef that was alive with a variety of fish and growing coral.

TATTOO OBSERVATIONS
By Bob Van Leer

  (CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico, July 17, 2006) – The steak dinner was called off. It was to be on an open sided patio and Cabo had one of its three day per year days of rain and the restaurant couldn’t handle it.

  To put it into perspective, it was such a heavy rain that it only rained on one side of the hotel. In Gold Beach it wouldn’t even be counted as a rain. We dined inside and played cards on the patio for the rest of the evening.