Happy Days Are Here Again

When my granddaughter, Jordyn, was about 4 years old, now 6, I was not happy about something and either I told her to be nice or stay out of something or something like that, she turned around and looked at me and said, "today is a happy day". Well that just put Joel and I into stitches and we just laughed and laughed. We have remembered that ever since. Now if there is something that is bothering us, we look at each other and Joel and I say, "today is a happy day".

Well, I am having many happy days here. I very seldom have any pain, certainly not stressed and look forward to each day with any activities that are happening. I've met many new friends. Everyone is so relaxed here. Saturday night I had a small group of new friends over for a BBQ. Tomorrow these same friends and I are going out to do a little shopping and out for lunch. Today a friend and her husband and I went to Spanish class, out to lunch and then walk a mile or two around some back streets, asked directions along the way and ended up at a house for rent that was about 1/3 of the way up a hill. I'm checking out different options for our next year rental. This house was made for people under 5'8". The doorways weren't very tall. The back patio was bigger then the house and overlooked the El Centro area of Mazatlan. For various reasons, this house is not for us. One being the doorways. Joel is 6'1" and I'm 5'9" so we'd have to bend down slightly just to walk into each room. Well that was just the beginning of our walk. We then found out if we went just a little further, we'd find stairs back to where we started and it will be a shortcut. Hmm, not! We must have climbed over 100 or more stairs and had a birds eye view of not only the city, but the ocean, etc. This was beautiful but we were just exhausted and could hardly appreciate the view. Our legs felt like rubber, we were out of breath, and...did not know where we were to get down the other side of Ice Box Hill. We continued to walk in the direction we thought we should go and found stairs that went (almost) straight down. So what goes up must come down. Slow but sure we took each step at a time. We got down to the bottom and Mike ordered 3 beers for us. Well I don't like beer and never have but I ordered my self a limonada. Basically limeade. It was so refreshing.


What I really want to tell you about is our drive north east of here that 7 of us took to a little village called El Quelite on Sunday. It is full of homes that are all painted bright colors, and none the same. Porches on all with rocking chairs on most. Yesterday was Sunday, so many people were on their porches and we waved or nodded as we drove by. It was a cobblestone street, with people walking, cars going by, donkeys, horses, and the motorcycles. We walked around and saw some interesting sights in this little town and then went for lunch at El Meson d los Laureanos. They have valet parking at this place, people on ear/speaker systems that help direct the restaurant traffic. The restaurant was set outside under trees and umbrellas. Their lunches were absolutely wonderful and came with appetizers, main dish and dessert. I had a Mexican local drink, don't know the name, but it had rice milk, coconut milk and a splash of cinnamon. Very refreshing. All this for under $100 pesos which is about $7.50. I haven't been very good at taking pictures. If I had you might understand more why this place is a must see if you want more authentic ideas of the Mexican way of life here.

The reason I have entitled this "happy days are here again", I have been feeling so much better and have the energy and desire to do things once more. I'm loving life again. Ollie has met many small dogs that live in and out of this complex and has had a few play dates. We are doing well. Almost everyone that lives here in Mazatlan that I've met has been so friendly and hospitable. This may very well become our home during the late fall - spring season once Joel retires.