We met Chris, Brit, and Beckett for dinner at El Guero Canelo on the south side tonight. I’m a huge fan of the place, but my stomach is suffering at the moment because of that. I had four tacos and a nice fat sonoran dog.
After dinner we went to Marymar on 6th for some desserts (cups of icecream and fruit). Beckett demonstrated his skills on the claw machine by winning a little bear. I proposed he name the bear Marymar in memory of the fine establishment we were patronizing.
We had the chance to head down to San Carlos Memorial Day weekend with Jeff, Beth, Chris, and Brittney. We were scheduled to depart early Friday, but as is custom, didn’t leave until after 1pm. The late departure, coupled with stopping in Hermosillo for dinner, had us arrive in Guyamas (next to San Carlos) around 10pm. Still not too late to take the dogs to the beach and test out the water temperature (warm!).
Saturday was spent almost entirely on the beach. We stayed with Abraham (Yun’s brother) as he has a two-floor, three-bedroom house on the beach. I had the chance to finish one book and make some good progress on another. The dogs (Scout, Tila, and Walcott) spent most of the day in the water. It takes a lot to wear them out.
Sunday we spent a good part of the day snorkeling. This was Yun’s second time and she seemed to enjoy it quite a bit (except for the sea urchins). We saw a lot of neat things.
For lunch was stopped at a place in San Carlos for fish tacos. They were so good and we will likely frequent this place when we can. They also sold cigars and so I bought a nice cuban Romeo y Julieta toro for 100 pesos (not bad!).
Later Sunday night we chartered a boat for an hour from the marina to take us out around the bay for an hour. It was not a bad deal at $60/hour. Next time we’re down, it might be fun to have the boat for some remote snorkeling/scuba locations.
Sunday night was spent at the house. Chris, Jeff, and I spent some time perfecting our photography skills with some low light, slow speed pictures. With our trickery, we were able to place ourselves in photos multiple places.
Later we drove out to a lookout point overlooking the sea. We had a full moon and the reflection on the water was beautiful. Yun and I have been to this place quite a few times, but never at night.
Monday morning we woke relatively early and spent some more time with the dogs on the beach. They never seem to tire of playing in the water. Soon they discovered the crabs and the hunt was on. Scout mercilessly killed a few.
We had a great time on this trip and would like to get back as soon as possible. July 4th weekend is coming up, so who knows….
Inspired by our recent trip south to San Carlos/Guaymas (I have yet to add the blog entry for that), I just purchased new mask/snorkel/fins for Yun and me. Last weekend was her first try at snorkeling and she seemed to like it. We saw a lot of neat looking fish and other creatures.
We saw a lot of these King Angels which are neat because of their bright yellow and white colors. They’re pretty friendly and will swim pretty close to you.
There were also a lot of sea urchins where we at which caused a bit of concern in Yun when we floating above rocks that were populated by them. They are completely harmless of course, until you step on one. I did that once in the Aegean Sea and it was extremely painful.
Hopefully the snorkeling will be a gateway to SCUBA for Yun. We have two friends that are Master divers here in Tucson, one of whom is a dive instructor. It would be nice to take advantage of that.
Yun and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary last Friday. I am incredibly blessed to have her for my wife. The last 5 years of my life have been the best. Each year they get better.
I look forward to our anniversary each year because of the tradition we’ve begun over 4 of those years. This year was no exception. Friday after work we went to a spa to enjoy a two hour massage. Two hours goes so quick.
Later we went to Gold (formerly known as the Gold Room) at the Westward Look Resort for dinner. This is my favorite place to eat in Tucson. We both had the fillet and lobster – so good. I left room for dessert.
Yunuen and I drove around this morning looking for a place to charge the a/c system in the Rodeo. We’re doing a road trip to San Carlos next weekend with Jeff, Beth, Chris, and Brittany. The trip is miserable without good a/c. I replaced the compressor a few months back, but never charged the system.
In mid-April Yun and I finally upgraded our phones to those that would provide unlimited internet access. She chose the HTC Droid Eris and I went with the Motorola Droid. Both phones were impressive – I went with the Motorola for the slightly faster processor and slide-out keyboard. I learned soon that I would have no need for the keyboard given the onscreen option and the text-to-speech transcription which works flawlessly.
Last weekend we exchanged these phones for the HTC Incredible which had been released a few days earlier. We were both excited about the switch because the Incredible is far superior to the Droids and unsurpassed by anything on the market today.
It has a 1GHz processor whereas the Droids were around 500MHz. It destroys Apples leading phone which runs on a measly 600MHz. Similarly the Incredible has by far the best camera you’d find on any phone with 8mp. The Droids were 5mp and the I-Phone has an embarrassing 3mp. The Incredible’s camera also has dual flash, auto-focus, and digital zoom. It takes great photos and videos.
The Incredible comes with the Android operating system. We like it a lot – there are thousands of free apps to easily obtain and we use many of them throughout the day. We listen to Pandora (free music stream) all day long at work and in the car. The GPS has proven invaluable on a few road trips and even locally.
The bar-code scanner app is also impressive – it allows you to scan an item in the store and then it will tell you the price of that item at other stores in town and on the internet. I was at Home Depot last week looking to buy a reel for the hose. They had one for $50 that looked to be best. I scanned it and found Home Depot was the cheapest place to buy it (locally or nationally) and then I clicked on the reviews. There were hundreds of reviews of this item that described it as garbage and the problems found after brief use. Naturally I didn’t buy it and was thrilled I could do my research at the store rather than at home. This app will crush most of my impulsive or non-informed purchases.
I played the Pines today with Geoff, Kevin, and James – had a good time with my new driver.
There’s been a major volcanic eruption in Iceland which has delayed flights in the US and Europe. My sister is currently stuck in France as a result.
We had lunch with Jeff and Beth at a Colombian restaurant named Cilantros by our house. It’s a new place and doesn’t seem too terribly popular. The food was ok. We will probably try it again as the owner was very nice.
