Countdown Mode

The last few days we have found ourselves going through a check list of things we still want to do, or do again, before we leave beautiful San Carlos in a little over a week. We know that our amount of outdoor time will be very limited once we are back in the Northwest because in all likelihood there is still quite a bit of rainy weather ahead, even though it is late in the season.

Yesterday was a Soggy Peso day, with live music on the beach and margaritas in hand. The Soggy Peso is definitely our favorite hangout as Catch 22 beach is unsurpassed in the area for liveliness and sunsets. The beach band was Bad News Blues from Tucson, with some fill-in vocals from a local lady who can really belt it out – we don’t know or can’t remember her name, but she can really sing. We met several people that have sort of become our friends and one fellow NAU alum and his wife, also a Julie, who are moving to San Carlos in the fall.

Every tourists camera, including ours, is full of sunset photographs taken from Catch 22 beach if they have ever been there at that time of day. Since the sun is continually setting somewhere on the planet, and once a day at almost any given point, it should be no big deal, but here we all are snapping away while oohing and aahing and trying not to spill the remains of our margaritas. The margaritas may factor heavily into this equation.

We have seen some beautiful homes and then some really unbelievable villas, especially on the Caracol Peninsula. Some of the views from these high perches create instant melancholy - a primal sense of belonging. Either that or the real estate agent is adding drugs to the bottled water we take along on these outings. Julie has asked Alisha to plunk down weekly money on the lottery back in Oregon in hopes of funding the purchase of one of these Shangri-Las.

This is a simple place and lifestyle compared to our situation at home in Florence and those feelings will always be a draw on our souls, pulling as south again and again. Of course that is what you are supposed to feel while on a vacation, but we really are not on a vacation per-se since we have been semi-retired for so long. Nonetheless, here we are, not wanting to leave because the weather is still perfect, new adventures are commonplace and our sense of relaxation is complete and absolute for now.