Exploring Colorado

Anyone who knows me knows that I love my home state of Colorado and I love setting my books in scenic locations within the state. Above is a photo of the Garden of the Gods park in Colorado Springs, which is featured in both the first and third mysteries in my Claire Hanover gift basket designer series, A Real Basket Case and A Basket of Trouble.

I encourage anyone who hasn't yet visited Colorado to do so, at the first opportunity! To whet your appetite, I'm going to share some vacation planning links below.

Colorado Ghost Towns

Colorado Creative Districts for the Arts (Including Salida, where Mandy Tanner, my whitewater river ranger sleuth lives. Her latest adventure is Fatal Descent, the third book in my RM Outdoor Adventures series.)

Top Places to Fish in Colorado 

Colorado Wineries and Scenic and Historic Byways

And if those don't whet your traveling appetite, take a look at this list of articles about traveling in Colorado!

Mazatlan, Mexico Working Vacation - Part Two

This is the second half of my post about my two week vacation in Mazatlan, Mexico. For the second week, my husband and I moved to the El Cid El Moro Beach Tower, to a condo on the twenty-second floor overlooking the ocean and the Golden Zone north of Mazatlan. The first photo below is a view of the tower from the beach at low tide and the second fish-eye photo is the view of the beach and Deer and Bird islands from our condo.



The next two photos are of some of the sea life we found in the tide pools among the rocks north of the El Cid complex during low tide: sea urchins in the first photo and one of Mazatlan's famous shrimp species in the second.


A couple of days after we arrived at El Moro, we attended a party for El Cid timeshare owners, complete with drinks, snacks, a short performance by their evening show dancers, and a pinata with prize coupons inside. It was fun watching adults whack away on it!


One of the days we were at the El Moro, we took an excursion on the Kolonahe catamaran to Deer Island. The three photos below are from that trip. The first is on the boat and the second is of a guano-encrusted rock outcropping in the sea a short distance from Old Town where sea birds hung out. The third photo is of me sitting on a banana boat just before we left on a wild ride being pulled behind a power boat--complete with a flip and dunking. Other activities at Deer Island included sea kayaks, snorkeling, a Mexican lunch, and all the drinks you wanted. A fun day!




The photo below is from a dinner we had our last night in Mazatlan at Pedro & Lola's, one of the restaurants lining the lovely square in front of the opera house. The band that the restaurant hired for the evening was from the US, and the percussionist was from Colorado. Plus, the couple eating at the table next to us was from Colorado. Small world!

My husband took most of the photos I've shared here, and he spent a lot of time trying for that perfect sunset shot. I like this one because it includes some horses and walkers on the beach and some sunlit clouds. A fitting goodbye to Mazatlan--until our next visit.

Mazatlan, Mexico Working Vacation - Part One

In the second half of January, my husband and I spent two weeks in Mazatlan, Mexico to break up the long winter in Breckenridge with some sun and sand. Our kids stayed with us the first week, and the second week, we were on our own. I took along some writing work, the galley of Wicked Eddies to proof and two ARCs that I'd agreed to review, but most of the time I was able to relax.

The photo below shows the building in the condominium complex where we stayed the first week, the El Cid Marina Spa & Beach Resort. The photo is taken from beside the large hot tub and across the pool and snack bar, which was called the Iguana Snack Bar.

The reason it was called the Iguana Snack Bar is that large iguanas hung out in the lawn next to the pool (to the left in the photo above), and here's a beauty giving us the eye.


One of the days the first week, we took a city tour, because my daughter had never been to Mazatlan. We drove along the beachside malacon (boardwalk), one of the world's longest at 21 kilometers. Beautiful sculptures are dispersed along the length, such as this one of sea lions below.


We stopped at a fish vendor's stand along the malecon to feed scraps to the sea birds circling overhead. Below is a photo of a sea bird snatching a scrap of fish off the end of a stick that I'm holding aloft. Can anyone identify the species?


Next stop was the shrimp market in old town, where I bought 1.5 kilos of huge shrimp to cook for our dinner. It was enough for two dinners for four, and it tasted delicious, almost like lobster. Yum! Mazatlan is well-known for its huge, delicious shrimp.


Our next stop on the tour was the central square downtown, where we poked our head in the central cathedral, shopped for candy and pastries, and strolled around the square.


On another day, we headed off into the countryside for a tour. We stopped at a small village to observe a small cheese-making factory (see below), an even smaller caramel candy factory, a farm for raising fighting cocks, a horse farm where we received a demonstration of some fancy hoof-work (horse dancing), and a leather-working shop.


Then came the highlight of the tour, the Los Osuna tequila factory. Their reposado (rested) sipping tequila won a double gold medal at the San Francisco World Spirit Competition. After you paid for your first shot of the reposado at their tasting patio, all subsequent tastes were free, and my family of four managed to down away sixteen of them (before lunch!). We bought three bottles to take home with us. Then we ate lunch at a small cafe and snoozed on the van ride back to Mazatlan. A great tour!

The rest of the week was spent sunning by the pool or on the beach and eating out at various restaurants, including Senor Frog's, where yes, we donned balloon hats. Below is a fun photo of the four of us behind the tequila tasting bar of the La Cascada Mexican restaurant, which served excellent food.

Tomorrow, I'll post some photos from our second week, when we stayed at the El Cid El Moro Beach Hotel without the kids.

On Vacation!

From January 14 - 28, I'm taking a vacation from blogging. Please check back on January 30th or 31st, and you'll find out what I've been up to. ;-)

Avoiding Flooding during our Texas Hill Country Vacation

I've been off-line from the Internet for the past 10 days while vacationing in the Texas Hill Country, and I must say that being out-of-touch felt great, really great. Feeling rested and renewed, I'm now ready to plow back into the world of my electronic friends with a summary of our trip. My husband and I spent a week at the Silverleaf Hill Country Resort at Canyon Lake, and my son and his college roommate joined us for three nights and two days of their Utah/Nevada/Texas road trip. Later, I may add some photos to this, but in most of the ones of me, I look pretty wilted. I'm not used to the heat and humidity of central Texas summers!

Our first full day there, Monday, my hubby and I had a great time tubing on the Guadaloupe River, followed by a scrumptious dinner at the Gristmill restaurant located in an old cotton gin in Gruene, Texas. I recommend their amazing onion rings. Tuesday we toured the Alamo and two of the other four Spanish missions established in the San Antonio area. I fixed a pasta dinner in the condo for the two young men after they arrived that evening. That night, the mass of thunderstorms that later caused all those deaths in Arkansas swept through our area. The repetitive thunder and lightning kept us up all night, and 10-12 inches of rain poured down.

The next morning, Wednesday, we drove to Austin in the rain, taking an extra hour to detour around flooded low spots in roadways. We toured the aquariums and taxidermy animal displays in the huge Cabela's store in Buda, Texas and everyone found something to buy. Then we toured the state capital building in Austin and the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, appropriately viewing their 4D movie on Texas weather. We had a delicious dinner at El Sol y La Luna on Austin's historic Sixth Street, then meandered up and down the street, popping into stores that caught our fancy.

Thursday morning we scouted the flood damaged area in Gruene, near New Braunfels on our way to the Schlitterbahn water park. The RockinR outfitter's building where we checked out after tubing the river two days before had been totally demolished, along with other buildings along the river. Old school buses, used to shuttle customers, were wrapped around trees and scattered across the property. From the debris and mud lines we saw, the water rose almost 20 feet above the level on which we had floated. This is a dam-controlled river, but all that rain was concentrated in the area below the Canyon Lake dam. There was only one death that we heard of. The local fire department managed 89 high water rescue calls from people in trees, trucks and homes. One man saved an 11-year-old girl after she'd been in the river for almost two hours. He heard her calls for help after waking up and rushing out of his own flooded home. Schlitterbahn had been flooded, too, and only about one of the three park areas was open. We managed to amuse ourselves on the available rides, though, and came back sunburned and worn out to dine on pizza at the condo.

After the guys left Friday morning, my hubby and I drove to Pedernales Falls State Park and spent a couple of hours hiking up and down the rocks of the falls and taking photos. After a barbecue lunch, we sampled wines at five wineries in the Stonewall and Fredericksburg area, purchasing ten bottles to bring home, then dined at Der Lindenbaum German restaurant in town, figuring we should sample the local cuisine. Saturday, we returned to San Antonio to take a river taxi ride along the whole length of the Riverwalk from the Pearl Brewery to the Convention Center, then had lunch at the Chart House restaurant at the top of the Tower of the Americas so we could see the sweeping views of the city. Wilted by the heat, we returned to the Silverleaf Resort to laze in their pool. The next morning we departed on our two-day drive home.