After assuring the Department of Homeland Security we weren’t terrorists several times they finally let us on the boat. Waiting for us in our room was the first of several towel animals. Aliciana ends up hiding them everyday in the closet so she can study their construction before the steward has a chance to take them.
Catalina is absolutely beautiful! After boarding a small boat that ferries us to the island, we set off to explore the waterfront. Next, we decide to take a tour bus around the entire town of Avalon. This tour was about 1 hour long and gave us some great views of the island.
After a tour we had lunch at a fish house on the bay and then played a round of miniature golf. After all our excitement, we had to get back to the boat because it set off for Ensenada at 4:30pm. I would have loved to stay during the night so I could have taken Aliciana to see the flying fish… they are such weird animals. I guess that will give us something to do next time we go to the island.
We left the boat in the late morning to explore this little part of Mexico. The downtown area was filled with the type of junk shops you would expect for a tourist trap. The only two memorable things about Ensenada was the huge Mexican flag flying at the local park and the amazing amount of pollution in it’s bay. The water was a dark brown color and reeked horribly. We spent the rest of the day on the boat relaxing and trying to ignore the smell of the bay. The difference between the beauty of Catalina and the squaller of Ensenada was pretty amazing and sad.
Nothing to do out at sea but relax, read, and enjoy the company of each other and our towel animals. The sunset was stunning, as you can see from the photos below.
Not much visible progress on our house this week. They bolted together the frame and took out the diagonal support beams. The windows were also installed.
The walls of our new house are now filled with wires, air ducts, and water pipes. All the roof tiles are siting up on top in nice little piles just waiting to be nailed down. Hopefully our house will be complete in 6 weeks!
The outer insulation is installed and the outside is all ready to be stuccoed. Drywall is stacked throughout the house so that should go up soon too.
Our house is starting to look like a real structure! The walls are filled with fuzzy pink insulation and skinned with drywall. Hopefully it will be completed in 5 weeks.
The gaps and holes in the drywall are now pasted up. The outside is also ready to have the stucco sprayed on it. Aaron and Mel were in town so we brought them by the house to have a look.
Aliciana and I checked out the Kern County Fair and got to witness the spectacle of wiener dog races. While not as majestic as a greyhound, what these dogs lack in speed they make up in heart. I have never seen so many wiener dogs in my life!
We also saw the usual collection of cows, goats, horses, and collections of everyone’s crap. Check out the photos below for a view of the car wash for cows… what I like to think as a “cow wash”.
The tiles have been put in place on the roof and our house now has doors throughout its insides. It is going to be ours on November 10th!
The house is making great progress. The cabinets and most interior tiles are in place. We were a little worried that the tiles and cabinets weren’t going to look good together when we saw them in place but the colors look great together! Photos can’t do it justice but I included some below anyways.
Our front yard is done! We can’t get into the house until our first walk-through next week, but it doesn’t look like they have done much inside. I am going to have a ton of lawn to mow 🙂
Well, the house is still pretty bare but at least we found time to get a Christmas tree.
