Ladd Photos

Aliciana and I drove to Redlands for the day to spend Christmas Day with her side of the family. The little ones were very excited and hyper.

We left bright and early on a 6:30am flight from Bakersfield to Phoenix. After changing planes in Phoenix we flew on to the San Jose del Cabo Airport. My Mom and Grandma picked us up in a tiny rental car and we drove the 40 minutes to the tip of Baja California, Cabo San Lucas.

We stayed at the Sol Mar Resort where my Grandma Hauslein has a timeshare. Accompanying us on our trip were my Mom and Dad, my Grandma Hauslein, and my parent’s foster child, AJ.

After resting for a bit we started our Mexico experience off with a bang with a “Fiesta” buffet and live entertainment. There was tons of great food, mariachis, singers, and ballet de folklorico dancers.

My Mom wanted to go to church in an old mission so we headed to the nearest one, in San Jose del Cabo. Aliciana and I explored the shops around the mission plaza at the center of the town while my Dad and AJ relaxed in the shade. It wasn’t too hot during our trip in Mexico, but the humidity felt pretty high.

The amount of construction going on in the Cabo area was pretty impressive. The only place I have seen a similar level of building going on is in Las Vegas. My Mom tells me that there are plans for resorts to be built pretty much all the way up both sides of Baja California. Some of the resorts are built right on top of the surrounding hills… which is pretty scary when you think about the lack of building codes in Mexico.

Aliciana and I took a walk along the beach to see how far along the tip of Baja California we could get. The resort is along the Pacific Ocean, not the Sea of Cortez, which meant the water wasn’t safe for swimming. This was obvious when we saw how hard the waves were crashing against the shore. The consistency of the beach was closer to rocks than sand, so it wasn’t the greatest thing to walk on. Still, it was pretty much deserted, so it was nice to escape from all the other tourists.

We spent much of this day exploring the marina area of Cabo and the beaches along the Sea of Cortez. There wasn’t much wildlife to see in Cabo… it is very much a desert, where the undeveloped land was nothing but dirt, shrubs, and cacti. We did see some pelicans which cooperated with me long enough to get their pictures taken.

This was our tourist day, we took a guided tour of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo. The tour started off with a glass bottom boat tour to see the famous Cabo Arch and where the tip of Baja California ends and the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific ocean meet. Then we went to a glass factory to see how they take recycled glass and melt it into various cups, bowls, and even figurines. The workers showed off their skills by making a dolphin right in front of us. We finished off the tour with some lunch and shopping in San Jose del Cabo.

Aliciana and I just got back from a relaxing trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. We spent a good portion of the trip reading by the pool and eating lots of good food. My favorite food of the trip was definitely the guacamole… it was fresh and served with almost every meal.

We caught a plane back to Phoenix and then to Bakersfield on Saturday, after some minor trouble. The line to get our tickets at the Mexico airport was unbelievably long, because they hand searched all checked luggage right there on the spot. Because of the delay we ended up missing our flight, but we got on one that left an hour later, so we still made our connecting flight. So, lesson learned… if you are going to fly out of Mexico make sure to get to the airport 3 hours early!

As you can see from the photos below, my soon to be little brother AJ had quite a busy first birthday party. My brother Nick, his fiancé Jessie, and the world famous Zeus the Pug made a long drive from Seattle to Las Vegas. My sister also flew in from Oregon for the holidays. My Aunt Bonnie was on hand to help out my mom and grandma. Aliciana and I made the trip from Bakersfield earlier in the day. Lots of people, lots of fun, and lots of blue frosting all over the baby.

The Wynn casino is quite extravagant.

Happy 21st birthday Grandpa Walo! (at least that is the age he is claiming). We drove down to Redlands for the day to visit with Aliciana’s side of the family and to go out to eat. Unfortunately, we had to leave the party before the birthday cake.

The baby in the pictures below is Gina monster #4, Diego. He is a ham for getting his photo taken… just like the other nephews, besides Marco, who bolts at the sight of a camera.

Cutest baby ever!

My in-laws and nephew Papis came for the weekend to see the beautiful sights of Bakersfield. No, not really, Bakersfield is close to the ugliest city in California. They came to wish us goodbye before we move up to Seattle. We will be leaving for Washington in a couple more weeks to get settled before I start my new job at Amazon.com. More on that to follow when I get time.

We didn’t do much in Bakersfield besides go to CALM to see some California wildlife (and be entertained by the flock of sheep in the field across the street). We also had a nice walk in the park and some yummy dinners.

We started at 7:00am… I should say the movers started at 7:00am. We just sat there and answered questions. The movers finished packing and loading everything 12 hours later, at around 7:00pm. It was much easier having the movers pack everything and worry about getting it up to Seattle, but it was still very boring. It is very hard to entertain yourself when all you have available is a couple of lawn chairs.