Time to continue this blog...it's been awhile!

Today is April 27, and it's been quite awhile since I last wrote in this blog (Oct. 29, 2015)! I guess I need to get back on track, so here goes...

   

Alitza was in 4-H, and in these photos she was showing our Shetland Sheepdog, Lady, at the Hancock County Junior 4-H Fair. Lady won a first place ribbon. She was such a good dog, that when the judge told Alitza to go away from the shelter where the dog show was being held (so that Lady couldn't see her), Lady continued laying in place, looking around constantly to see if she could find Alitza, but she didn't get up or move from where she had been told to 'lay.' She was such a good dog...

 

That fall, in 1993, Alitza was a sophomore in high school, and was 15 years old in this photo. I was working at the Kanawha Reporter newspaper Mondays, Tuesdays, and until noon on Wednesdays when we needed to have the paper pasted up and ready to take to the printers. Life at the research farm got busy in the fall, with the crops getting ready to harvest, and with fall field work taking up much of David's time.

Lady Joins Our Family

Above are Lady's parents - Willcroft's Carlota Rose Marè (above) and Willcroft's Encore (below). In 1989, we had decided we wanted to get a dog, and David had experience with Shelties in his youth, and felt they were extremely nice dogs. So, I did some research and found a gal who was involved in the Iowa Shetland Sheepdog organization. She recommended me to a woman in Ft. Dodge who had Shelties for sale, and these dogs were from some of her own stock, so she was confident in their quality. We contacted this lady, and made arrangements to go and see the puppies she had left. There were just two of them remaining, and Lady was one. The other puppy was very cute, somewhat larger than Lady, and a bit skittish, which is sometimes a Sheltie trait. But, Lady was calm, very friendly, and very cute. So, we bought her, and took her home. Lady's registered name was 'Sophisticated Lady Rose.'

Here is Lady, both as an adult, and in a couple of photos taken when she was a new member of our family. She was 4 months old when we got her, and she was very sweet. She was also very easy to house-train, and was completely house-broken in a week. We have found that most Shelties will do almost anything to avoid having an accident in the house. None of our dogs ever learned to 'go to the door' when they wanted to go out, but sometimes when they were about to burst, they would go from room to room, as if looking for a way to get out so they wouldn't have an accident!

Lady was a very friendly and sweet dog. In the photo above, she is making acquaintance of my oldest grandson, Russell, at holiday time in 1989. My son, Doug, is laying in the recliner, enjoying the show!

As she grew older, Lady always had a fascination with bunnies. Our daughter raised rabbits for 4-H, and in the center photo above, Lady is trying to 'make friends' with 'Bunny,' and she is so excited that her head is a blur! On the left is Alitza working on obedience training with Lady, and on the upper right is a photo of Lady following Bunny as she hopped around the yard.

Lady was a charmer. She made friends everywhere we went with her. Often kids would come up and ask if they could pet her, and we always told them 'Yes.' She was good at posing for photos, and would sit very still until I 'released' her.

In 1992, when David's brother got married in Washington State, we rented an RV and drove to their wedding, with Lady along. She was not a calm rider...and sometimes got car sick from her nervousness. But she was always a good dog, and seemed to enjoy the various places we visited, once we left the movement of the RV. 

Later in 1992, we had Lady bred to a show-quality Shetland Sheepdog, thinking that we might try raising Shelties. But, Lady had been the runt of the litter as a pup, and I think she was just not cut out to be a brood dog. The first breeding took place at the home of the owner of Wolfgang Mozart (or Wolf) - seen below. This was the same gal I had contacted earlier, and she was studying to be a vet at Ames. Her male dog was a show dog, and was a handsome fellow. But, Lady was so nervous at being away from our home for a week that she stopped eating. We picked Lady up after the week was over, and brought her home to wait for some anticipated puppies. Well, at about the correct time, Lady began showing the signs of an approaching labor, so I put her into our kitchen with the doggie gate in place, and kept an eye on her. After some time, she did have a brief labor, but no puppy. Since I had signed a stud contract with the owner of Wolf, I contacted her and we agreed to try again. The next time, I picked up Wolf, and brought him to Kanawha (Lady's 'home turf!'), and I assisted with the breeding a few times during the week he stayed at our house. I will have to explain my comment about 'assisting.' Wolf was about 3 times larger than our petite Lady, and in order for him to mate with her, I had to support her. After the breeding, Wolf's owner decided to meet me at the veterinarian clinic in Ames at the ISU campus to have Lady artificially inseminated, thus making certain that the breeding worked. So, I took both dogs down to Ames and we did that. And we finally got a positive pregnancy! From this breeding, unfortunately, we only got one puppy, and that little girl was more than 50% white (not good for future solid Sheltie stock). 

At the top is our 'Sophisticated Lady Rose' who had been registered with the American Kennel Club. Below her is Willcroft Wolfgang Mozart, the sire of the breeding. Even though the breeding gave us a puppy who had too much white, and therefore was not good breed stock, we grew to love this little imp, and she held a special place in my heart until her death at the age of 8 years old on November 26, 2001 (and I still think of her....) Her death was somewhat a mystery, but I will relate more of that later...

Here are some kids who came to the research farm to see our huge pumpkins. Lady always was a good 'hostess' to anyone who came to visit.  The photo page below describes the effort made to get our little 'Solo' after bringing the stud to our house for the breeding...

This page is from Lady's scrapbook, and tells the story of Solo's birth (she was named Carali's Solo Silhouette). She was born June 10, 1993. Her birth was a bit difficult as she was born breech. I had to assist with her delivery, but she was a healthy puppy, and Lady was a good mother, so Solo grew nicely. But, that experience brought a quick end to 'Carali's Kennels.' (Carali was the combination of my name and our daughter's name.) Due to her coloring and the likelihood that any puppies Solo might have in the future might have had some defect that would render them unsuitable for breeding (blindness, hip dysplasia and other problems arise when Shelties have too much inbreeding, and that sometimes happens when attempts are made to assure the standard for the Shetland Sheepdog by keeping the breeding within purebred stock.) So, the decision was made to have both dogs spade as soon as Solo reached an acceptable age for that, usually around six months.

Lady was our companion on all of our vacations, even though she didn't like riding in vehicles. When David, Alitza and I went to Mexico, David's mom met us at the 'Boondocks' (gas station and restaurant on I-35, about midway between Kanawha and Cedar Falls), and she took care of Lady while we were gone.

After Solo arrived, we had two dogs to take with us on trips, and most of the time it was just fine. I do remember the first trip we took when Solo was a puppy. She was not yet house-trained, and we had her in a crate in the back seat of the car. She was such a 'busy' little puppy...

Even as she got older, Solo was always more of a 'challenge' than Lady. Here are photos of her as a puppy...very cute, but also very curious, and quite an 'imp.'

The lower right photo above shows Solo as she checks out a chipmunk on our trip to Western Colorado. 

I had intended to sell any puppies we got from breeding Lady, but after trying a bit to find a buyer for her, I realized no one would equal the stud fee we paid to get her. I had also devised a contract a buyer would have to sign to promise she would be in a fenced yard or on a leash any time she was outside, but the few people who responded to my ads were not willing to do that. So, we kept her. Above are some more photos of our trip to Colorado. Lady did all she could to make Solo behave, and their bond was pretty complete by the time Solo was full grown. Eventually, Solo stopped being so pesky, and became our very beloved pet. We had our two beautiful Shelties, and all was good.

When you raise Shelties, one thing you try to do is get them to look like the breed 'standard.' With Shelties, ears are very important. They are supposed to look perky, but just barely tip on the ends. So, often our dogs had little pieces of sheep wool glued to the inside tip of their ears to 'weigh' them down a bit so they would shape into the desired Sheltie ear. As you can see from these photos, she has one ear that just wouldn't cooperate!

In the photo above, both dogs are being very good at the Christmas celebration at the home of my sister Jean. I would tell them to come and 'lay' near me, and they would usually do that most of the time. I usually let them wander around after the work in the kitchen was done, but during that busy time, I tried to keep them from getting under foot.

Here are Solo and Lady in the front yard at the research farm. They were really cooperative for pictures!

One of the cool events at Kanawha was when foreign students came to visit Kanawha, and we often hosted some of them at our house overnight. In the photo above, two boys from Central America were our guests, and they really loved having the dogs to play with. We hosted people from Japan, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Central America. We also entertained young people from Germany who came to work at the research farm various summers. Our dogs may have helped some of these young people feel welcome when they were so far from their homes.

Here are a few more photos with the dogs. In the circular photo, David had cut down a big elm tree, and he posed the two dogs on top of the fallen trunk for that shot. The photo on the right shows the two dogs at the top of Harney Peak in the Black Hills on one of our trips. The two little girls enjoyed being allowed to hold onto their leashes. And, of course, the photo on the left is of a jack-o-lantern carved by Alitza, and the two dogs posing beside her.

On my next blog post, I will continue my stories about our two Shelties, Solo and Lady. We enjoyed being in their presence for so many years...

  

Life in the 1990's...adventures with a teenager in the house...

Our daughter's Blue Ribbon Challah Bread - 4-H Project (with help from Mom...)

David, with our daughter and me - Family photo, May 1991

 This was our daughter's school picture when she was 13. Long hair gone...pretty face...sweet disposition...so far, so good!

 Grandma Rueber lighting our daughter's birthday cake...the Jordan girls and Katie Tveiten look on...

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This photo may have been taken at our daughter's 13th birthday (not absolutely sure of the year...) Here, left to right, are Ann Rueber (Grandma), Phil Jordan (next door neighbor to Ann with two daughters...), Lisa (I think) and Katy Jordan, our daughter, and Katie Tveiten, her best-bud.

In August of 1992, we rented a small motor home, and traveled across the country to Olympia, Washington, where David's brother Mark lived. Mark was getting married, and the whole family was gathering for the occasion.

On our way out there, we stopped briefly at Gilford Pinchot State Forest in Washington for lunch and a little hike in the woods.

 Our daughter and David wade across a stream in Gilford Pinchot State Forest, Washington.

 

Here is the family photo from Mark and Jill's wedding. Standing, left to right - Betsy Rueber, Craig Timmermann, Bill Timmermann, Jill and Mark Rueber, Carol Rueber. Front row, left to right - Joel Rueber and Tabitha, Lois Timmermann, Ann Rueber, David Rueber, our daughter, and Madelyn Peregrim.

David with our daughter and me - Mark's wedding in August of 1992

After the wedding celebrations were over and everyone else was heading back home, David, our daughter, and I took the rented camper around the Olympic peninsula, rode the ferry from Port Townsend to Whidby Island, and then drove up into British Columbia, Banff, and the Icefield Parkway. 

 We were camped with the motor home at Driftwood Acres Campground west of Olympia, Washington - Copalis Beach. It was on this beach that I found a very cool piece of driftwood, and took it home. It became a Santa Claus wall hanging that I still hang up every Christmas. Later in my blog, I will post some of my holiday decorations, and this driftwood Santa will be in the collection.

We had our Sheltie, Lady, with us on this trip. Here our daughter, Lady and David are hiking the Bow Summit Trail in the Canadian Rockies. I am up there too, taking this photo!

Somewhere I have photos of the rain forest on the Olympic Peninsula, the receding glaciers in the Canadian Rockies, and some of our trip through other parts of the Canadian Rockies, but for now, I'll just post the photos that I've saved to gold disks for our daughter. I'll add more travel photos as I locate them.

This is beautiful Lake Louise, and there was a Tyrolean horn player performing as we hiked past on our way up the mountains to Agnes' Tea House. 

On our hike up the mountains, we passed a couple of lakes, and ended up at a well-known tea house at the top of the mountain called Agnes' Tea House. This is the railing on the porch of that establishment, and here is a bird, hoping for a crumb or two. Beyond you can see the lake. Students often work up at the tea house all summer, and just live up there. I was interested to find out that the water used to make the tea comes directly out of the lake. It is still so pristine up there that there is no need to treat the water beyond boiling it for your tea. It was chilly up there, but invigorating, and I am so glad we made the effort to hike up. It was indeed a 'mountaintop experience!'

This is one of the photos I took as we hiked. I should make a watercolor of this scene...it is truly beautiful. You can almost smell the pine trees and feel the cool air as you look at it!

This is foggy Lake Agnes...with the person on the far right and those at the bottom of this photo, you can get a bit of perspective of the grandeur of this place. The railing is part of the porch on Agnes' Tea House. Fabulous experience!

On our way home, we stopped at Calgary, Alberta. David has always had visions of taking a ride on the luge, and the Olympic Park was located at Calgary, so we went there to see if he could get a ride. Well, turned out only the bottom quarter of the track is open, and with the warmer weather in the summer, it was expensive to keep even that part of the track iced, so if you wanted a ride, you had to pay 'big bucks.' He decided he didn't need to go that bad. (Later, I saw a commercial for York Peppermint Patties that showed a man reclining in his chair at his home, eating a York Peppermint Patty and imagining that he was feeling the 'cool' and experiencing the thrill of riding the luge. I told David about it, and asked him if he wanted me to buy him some York Peppermint Patties. He said, "No."

We drove through the tar sands in on the plains of lower Alberta...nasty stuff, sulfur smell was overpowering. I'm absolutely sure we don't want the Keystone Pipeline dredging up that stuff, and shipping it over the Ogalalla Aquifer (source of most of the drinking water for huge parts of the Midwest) in leaky pipes that can break and create a monstrous environmental crisis!

We drove through Saskatchewan, and found a campground on that huge prairie that was not only shady and cool, but very interesting as well. It was 'Buffalo Pound' campground, and as we approached it, there seemed to be only scrub brush around, and we couldn't see any trees, but when we got closer, we saw that the land dipped into a big depression with a lake and plenty of shade trees all around. This place got its name from First Nation people using it as a place where they could drive bison herds and drive them over a cliff into this depression, and then harvest a lot of meat and hides for their people. Now, there is a fenced in field with a small buffalo herd, and the campground was very pretty and cool. We had a nice evening there, and explored some of the place the next day. 

After that, we went to Regina and visited the Science Museum there. I had a bit of a scare at one exhibit because I sat my purse down on the floor beside me, and forgot to pick it up as I moved on to the next exhibit. But, someone had found it and turned it in, and nothing was gone. Whew! (One nice thing about a self-contained camper is that you can leave the dog in it, if it's not a hot day - and even then, if you have an electric hook-up and can run the air-conditioner. Cars are not that forgiving...you have to take the dog with you most of the time...)

We drove home through Manitoba and into North Dakota, then on home. It was a great trip...and time for school to start that fall.

Here's her school photo at the age of 14. Such a great smile...and a lot of hair when it was permed. I am jealous of all of that hair, now that I'm losing mine bit by bit...

Here are our daughter and Lady (can hardly see Lady with all of that black fur...good thing she had a white chest!) Winter, 1992

Sort of caught our daughter in an odd pose, but here we are, sitting on our couch in the living room at the research farm...shot of me is not too bad.

And, here's a nice shot of our daughter and David...winter outside, warm inside!

So, that's all for this post. The 1990s were a busy decade...our daughter was in junior high and high school, and then she graduated and went to Coe College. Our lives suddenly got very quiet...and sort of sad. Hard to adjust to not having a kid around at all...

Come on back...I'll post on Facebook each time I finish a blog post so you can link to the blog that way as I go along... At this point, my mother was living in her apartment, but as the middle of the 1990s approached, she found out she had macular degeneration, and reading became impossible for her. She was never a television person, so David's mother suggested getting a tape recorder and books on tape from the Iowa Commission on the Blind, and Mother did that. I know that helped her pass the time, as her physical abilities grew less reliable. But, until she reached her 96th birthday, she was still able to cook, clean and stay alone. More on her life as we get to those years...

Later, folks...

Mexico...an amazing place...so much to learn from such an ancient people...

It was the 4th of January, 1991, and we were heading back to reality.

During the night before, I got up to use the bathroom, and a little lizard whizzed down the wall near the sink, and under the counter. That was the only time I saw one in our room, but who knows how many 'played' around while we were sleeping. They aren't much to be frightened of, but they can startle the heck out of you when you are barely awake, and when your head feels sort of like a huge papaya!

We arose and got ready to leave. We enjoyed a very nice pineapple (yes, we ate the whole thing!) It was very sweet and juicy, and so much larger than the ones we see here in the states. 

We left the hotel, well-burdened with all of our packages and suitcases. We took a cab to the airport and check in at about 9:55 a.m.

Our itinerary took us first back to Mexico City, and from there we were supposed to fly into Dallas. The flight to Mexico City was fine with only one stop - at Guadalajara. Upon reaching Mexico City at about 12 noon, and getting our bags checked, we went through customs. The customs official would not let our daughter take her bow and arrows on board (when they asked me what was in the newspaper-wrapped package, I told them toys, but when that didn't seem to be understood, I mentioned 'toy weapon....bow and arrows'  ....WRONG! Never suggest that you may be carrying a weapon, even if it is just a toy. Anyway, we had to go back and stand in line again to get the package labeled for the baggage area. When we finally got our turn, the people at the desk said they would give it to the airline attendant, and she would give it to us when we landed in Dallas. 

We went to our gate after eating lunch in a restaurant in the airport. We all had ham and cheese sandwiches and a beverage. Upon arriving at the departure gate, we found out that the plane would be delayed because of ice in Dallas - no planes were landing or taking off from the Dallas airport. So, we waited until 5:15 p.m., when our plane finally took off. During our time with the customs agent, we explained all of our food purchases, and had no trouble getting through. David had even gone to the American Embassy in Mexico to see if it was okay to take the brown sugar (piloncillo) and chocolate out of the country. They didn't envision any difficulty, and they were right.

We did get to our gate in time at Dallas, and took off about 8:30 p.m. We arrived in Des Moines about 11 p.m., and it was snowing pretty heavily when we landed. During the descent, my left ear gave me quite a bit of discomfort and it was plugged almost all night - but finally it cleared up. I was just glad my eardrum hadn't ruptured!

On the return flight we met a man from Forest City who has had a real adventure during his life. His name is Dr. Christian, and he was an instructor in Spanish at Waldorf College there. He spent his early working years as a medical doctor in Central and South America. He said he at one time had an area the size of Iowa as his territory, and there were no roads. He did all his traveling by canoe! At the time we talked with him, he was taking tour groups down to Mexico and Central America during his breaks from teaching. He took our address, and I was thinking of inviting him to come down to Kanawha some time for a Mexican meal (but I never did that...and in fact, I had forgotten all about him until I read this journal again, all these years later...)

We spent the night at the Hampton Inn in Des Moines and took our time getting going in the morning. We ate the motel's continental breakfast with Dr. Christian, and enjoyed visiting with him again. 

Then, we dug out car out, loaded up, and headed for home. It was interesting to leave tropical Puerto Vallarta with the humidity and warm temperatures, and to arrive in Des Moines with snow coming down. All the same, it was good to be home. 

I would love to go to Mexico again...if health and money would permit. It is a very interesting country - and we saw so little of it. 

Since our trip (now 25 years ago...), we still cook from our Mexican cookbooks fairly often, and we like to buy the mole sauce that can now be found in grocery stores. In fact, Waterloo has a good Mexican grocery store, and I plan to go there now and then to get ingredients that are not available in other grocery stores. Even though we don't travel out of the country all that often, at least we 'travel' through our meals!

Below are the sayings we saw at Las Tres Huastecas, the restaurant in Puerto Vallarta - "the writings on the wall"

"La pobre madre lloraba al ver que su muchacho en nada le ayudabapues era un gran borracho y de tanto que tomaba se le murio de un empacho." (Your poor mother is crying to see her son doing nothing to help her because he is falling-down drunk, and is acting stupid.)

"Esto lo dice Vicente bonito es Puerto Vallarta Ingar de mucho ambiente Playa los Muertos y Yelapa lo vista muchagente." (This is to tell Vincent that Puerto Vallarta Ingar is a very beautiful beach, and Yelapa is also a good place where many people come to visit.)

"Aqui digo lo que siento queremos atenderlo bien para que se vaya contento pero nos entienda tambien. Su servicio requiere tiempo. 

                                                   Su amigo El Querreque"   (I tell you to sit here - I want to take good care of you, and I want you to go away happy, but there is never enough time. Your good service requires more time. Your friend, El Querreque)

"Yo vi a una presumida por las Calles de Vallarta se hacia la engradecida se paseaba de corbata sin saber que en la vida no es mas quela misma gata." (I see a conceited lady on Vallarta Street who makes a big decision to promenade with her bow, knowing that in life there is nothing more vain than the she-cat.)

"En el Rest Las Tres Huastecas cuando este verso escribi uno se estaba asomando pero antes una sopa pedi enseguida un huachinango y que sobroso comi." (In the restaurant of Las Tres Huastecas when this poem is written - one brief appearance - but before one eats the soup, demand immediately a red snapper, and what an abundant feast!)

"El amor, la bondad, la delicadeza, la dulzura, le economica y la esperanz traen la felicidad. La audacia, el carpicho, la colera, el temor, la desesperacion y la envidia traen la destgracia." (Love, goodness, delicacy, gentleness, economy, and hope bring happiness. Audacity, whim, anger, fear, despair, and envy bring the misfortune.)

So, folks, that's it about our trip to Mexico. We haven't been back, but who knows?

Keep reading my blog. My mother was 92 in 1991, and the rest of her life's story, along with our busy lives will fill the coming posts. See you later...

Our last full day in Mexico...and back to snowy, cold Iowa...

I woke up about 7:15 a.m., and ate a roll and some yogurt on the porch. By the time I finished eating, David was up and shared one of the huge oranges with me. It was delicious! A man was sweeping all the cobblestone sidewalks again. It must take quite a few people to run a place like this, and it provides a lot of jobs for locals. It was very relaxing to sit on the porch and eat, write, and listen to the surf, watching people walking and jogging along the beach. It was sort of hazy that morning. I was hoping for some fantastic sunset shots with my camera, but I found that it clouded up every afternoon, and the sun couldn't be seen as it set.

I went to the bank to cash some traveler's checks, and then went to the market. David and our daughter rested at the room. I found some sterling silver earrings, a nice serape which I wanted for a table cloth, and a chess set made of marble. The chess set was really heavy, and I knew I would be carrying it as we left Mexico, because I didn't want it to get broken. When I bought the chess set, I had shopped in the central market in the center of Puerto Vallarta near the Ocean. The market was similar to the indoor markets in Mexico City, and offered just about anything you could want. They even had a whole row of stalls selling fresh fish, fresh meat of various kinds, and lots of onyx and marble chess sets. I began to bargain for a small onyx chess set, and got confused on the value of pesos, so I backed off, telling the fellow that I changed my mind. Later, when I passed their stall again, he came out and offered me the same chess set for about half of what I had offered the last time. I said, "Really?" And, he shook his head, and turned away from me, saying, "I changed my mind!" Ooops! I guess I had offended him, but it was not intentional. Anyway, I was glad I hadn't bought that one, because when I found the marble one that I really wanted, I got a very good deal for it - and didn't get lost in the bargaining. (Later, at home, my son Dave told me that my set was missing crosses for the tops of the 'kings' crowns...oh well...) I did find that prices in Puerto Vallarta were higher than in other areas we had visited. They get plenty of tourist business, so they can afford to lose one customer, I guess. But, everything is so reasonable anyway, that you really can't complain. Of course, just when I was getting good at bargaining, it was time to think about leaving!

After I returned from the market, we went to Las Tres Huastecas restaurant for lunch. This place was recommended in the travel guides as a good restaurant. It was quite a small place, and not so fancy, but had sayings displayed on the walls which were interesting when translated. I'll post those after I complete posting this journal of our trip.

I ordered red snapper with garlic sauce for our main meal at Las Tres Huastecas. David had Fish Veracruz, and our daughter had a hot ham and cheese sandwich. After dinner, we decided to get some vanilla at the market. Then we went to swim in the ocean near the hotel, but the surf near that beach is dangerous and too rough, so we swam in the hotel swimming pools. I enjoyed laying in the sun for awhile, and we all sat in the jacuzzi and visited with a couple from Wichita and a man from New Orleans. The man from New Orleans said our daughter had 'lily petal skin, just like her mama.' I enjoyed that - I had always thought I was just plain pale!

 Who is that lady with the 'lily petal skin?' (Sunbathing at Molino de Agua)

 The man from New Orleans and David in the jacuzzi.

We returned to our room about 4:30 p.m. and got ready to go to the Bouganvillas Sheraton for their Mexican Fiesta. We took a cab to the Sheraton which was around the Bay of Banderas to the north of the city. (I was amazed at how the shocks on those cabs could hold up - Puerto Vallarta has a rule saying that all streets must be cobblestone - to help retain the fishing village atmosphere, I guess. But it has to be hard on the vehicles as they drive speedily from here to there, trying to get their clients to their appointments in a hurry so they can pick up another customer.)

I was feeling really pretty miserable by this time because of my head cold. My head was plugged up and I was coughing. I'm sure the people who had to share our table at the Fiesta were wishing I would go back to the hotel. Anyway, I enjoyed myself as best I could in that condition, and I did try to cover my coughs.

The Sheraton was huge and very nice, but I still prefer the Molino de Agua as a place to stay in Puerto Vallarta - much more cozy and not so touristy. When we arrived, we each received a small red clay mug on a yarn string to hang around our necks. The mugs were filled with tequila for David and me. Our daughter had to pass, of course. We all received a miniature serape attached to a tiny sombrero as a lapel pin. The food was presented on a banquet table, and looked great! Lots of serapes and candles, flowers, etc. decorating the serving tables and the patio where the festival was held.

Before eating, some mariachis played and sang. Then the emcee had a few drinking contests - the other tourists seemed to enjoy that. There were a lot of college-age people in Puerto Vallarta when we were there, so that kind of entertainment (?) goes over well with them, I guess. A lady who was supposed to be a famous Mexican singer gave a short concert of Mexican songs. Then, the meal was served - lots of variety, but David and I agreed later that it was pretty bland. During the meal, the mariachis played, and after the meal, some young couples performed folk dances and one fellow did some rope twirling with a lariat. I guess we were a little disappointed with that part of the evening. We had been spoiled by the excellence of the Ballet de Folklorico. Nothing could top the troupe we had seen in Mexico City. I would certainly go see them again, if they came to Ames or Iowa City - the Ballet de Folklorico, that is!

After the Fiesta, we took a cab back to the hotel and went to bed.

Here are some random photos I took while we were in Puerto Vallarta. Our daughter and David did swim in one of the motel's pools near the ocean, and while we were on the beach outside the ocean entrance to the hotel grounds, a little girl came around selling Chicklets... that was sort of a common occurrence in various places where people gathered. 

 The ocean-side entrance to the Molino de Agua grounds. You can see the Bay of Banderas to the left. 

 This is the pool near the ocean-side entrance to the hotel grounds. There is a bar that you can see in the background. The whole complex is very nice, and we really enjoyed our time staying there.

 This was the view of the ocean and pool from inside the bar area.

Here David and our daughter are enjoying the ocean-side pool, along with another unidentified kid. Very nice...

 David and our daughter sitting on the porch outside our hotel room...such a relaxing spot!

 When we were in town one day, I took some photos of the area near the Bay of Banderas. This is a pretty archway, and like in this shot, people enjoyed posing near it for photos.

 Near the arches was this sculpture of two dolphins, leaping. There was also a sculpture of a Zeus figure, but I seem to have misplaced that photo. One could probably see it online after a search for Puerto Vallarta photos.

This was the 'sunset' shot I got of the Pacific Ocean on our last day...not very colorful, but still was beautiful in a way in which cold, snowy Iowa would not be able to compete!

In the next post, I will tell about our trip home, and will post translations of some of the sayings that were on the walls of the restaurant - Las Tres Huastecas. Come on back!