And…. We’re Back!

Wow!  It’s been a minute since we posted about what we’ve been up to. 

In our last post, we wrote that our focus for 2025 was to better balance our life, specifically our time, our money, our mental health, as well as physical health.  We took this to heart and spent the first part of this year making the time to really enjoy ourselves while the weather here in Cabo was perfect.

Besides being out and about enjoying our life, our web hosting service for our blog was due to expire mid-April, so we made a bold move and decided to self-host. We needed a new network storage device anyways, so we opted to get one that could also double as a WordPress server. There were a lot of hoops to jump through to make it all work, and there was a bit of downtime while we worked through some of the details, but we’re happily up and running again!

Now it’s time to play catch up and let you know what we’ve been up to since the beginning of the year. So grab a drink and buckle up…. this post is long as we have six months we need to cover!

We were so excited to have my sister Lisa come spend the holidays with us. Our holiday celebrations were very low key, but enjoyable just the same.

For Christmas Eve dinner, we made Cioppino with fresh seafood served with homemade rolls. Later that evening, we listened to Stuart McLean tell the story of “Dave Cooks the Turkey” on Spotify, which always has us doubling over in laughter.

We indulged in a feast of grilled meat (steak and lamb chops) on Christmas Day, along with some asparagus, au gratin potatoes and a nice bottle of wine. Dining outside on the patio for Christmas dinner never gets old!

New Year’s Eve became a party when Lisa surprised me with matching sparkle tops for her and I! We passed the evening playing cards (Cabo Countdown) and then ushered in 2025 watching a huge fireworks show from our patio, bundled up in blankets and sipping some hot chocolate. We had a great time, and were so happy to have Lisa here with us.

We managed to score a reservation at one of our favourite restaurants in Cabo – Edith’s.
Edith’s specializes in Baja California cuisine, focusing on steaks and seafood with local ingredients. It was a first for Lisa and, as usual, Edith’s didn’t disappoint! The food, the atmosphere, it all came together for an amazing evening. But of course, the highlight of the evening is always the flaming coffee!

Lorne took the last week of January off work so we could enjoy a little staycation. We drove up to La Paz and spent a couple of days there (more on this to come), then returned to Cabo to enjoy the rest of the week doing things around town.

During our little staycation, we finally had a chance to eat breakfast at El Huerto, a farm-to-table restaurant just down the hill from where we live. We actually drive past this restaurant going to and from our place, but had never had the opportunity to eat there yet. It’s a beautiful restaurant, with covered outdoor seating, surrounded by gardens and fruit trees. The menu changes seasonally, and contains local and classic dishes, using the freshest ingredients – many straight from their farm.

Along with my latte, I enjoyed the “Eggs Benedict Toasted Croissant” – a croissant stuffed with turkey ham, topped with a poached egg and bearnaise sauce with a farm salad on the side. Lorne ordered a Topo Chico and the “Rancheros El Huerto” – a quesadilla with beans, roasted organic tomato sauce, house made thick bacon, avocado and cotija cheese. Everything was so fresh and so delicious!

Permanent Residency in Mexico offers foreigners all the rights of Mexican citizenship – except the right to vote.  We can now enter and leave Mexico as many times as we wish and there are no time limits on how long we can stay, or how long to remain in Mexico to keep our residency status. 

We decided to treat ourselves at the end of our little staycation with dinner at one of the most amazing restaurants in Cabo San Lucas. Sunset Monalisa is more than a restaurant, it’s an open-air sunset dining experience with magnificent views, that takes you on the most remarkable culinary adventure.

What a difference two days can make! Early February our highs for the day had normally been around 25C (77F), and then out of the blue on Feb 11, our daytime temperature soared to 32C (90F). Just as we were adjusting to the heat again…. wham! On Feb 13 our daytime high only reached 22C (70F). Out came the long pants and hoodies again. A 10 degree drop within a day was a huge difference!

For Valentine’s Day this year we decided to keep it simple and headed out to Domino’s for some pizza. This location is right on the main street going into downtown and perfect for people watching.

After our pizza date, we headed home to enjoy the Texas Sheet Cake I made earlier that day. It’s one of our very favourite cakes, that I’ve learned to scale down for just the two of us. As The Pioneer Woman says – “It’s the best chocolate sheet cake. Ever!” Trust me – IYKYK 😉

February was an exciting month for us, as our son Ryan and his lovely wife Chelsea were coming to visit us. This would be their first time here and we were excited to show them all the fun touristy things as well as how simple and relaxed our life is here.

Our weekends were filled with preparing for their visit. We cleaned and set up the guest room, and rearranged the patio to accommodate four people instead of just the two of us.

We also thought it would be fun to create a special cocktail menu with some fun cocktails we have been enjoying. We felt this could inspire them to try something new if they wanted.

In addition, we created a Family Game Night menu for games to play in the evenings. When Ryan was young, he always requested family game nights, so since he and his wife are big gamers, we thought it only fitting to include a game menu for when they were here.

February 22 finally arrived and it was now time for “Ryan & Chelsea’s Most Awesome Mexican Adventure” to begin. It had been almost five years since we had last seen them and our excitement was off the charts waiting for them to get off the plane, through immigration, grab their bags and get through those doors to where we were waiting for them. And Ryan’s first reaction – “Wow… it’s really warm here!”

We packed so much into that first week they were here. There was sightseeing, ATV adventures, sunset catamaran tours, the San Jose Art Walk, strolling the marina, frozen concoctions, and of course tacos… lots of tacos!

“Ryan & Chelsea’s Most Awesome Mexican Adventure” continued into the first week of March and after doing a lot of the touristy things the first week, the second week of their vacation was a little more laid back and relaxing.

“Cabo Countdown – The COVID-19 Extended Version” is a game Lorne and I created during the pandemic of 2020 while we were still living in Canada. It’s how we passed the time waiting (and waiting) for an opportunity to open up for us to move to Cabo. The game is loosely based on Crazy Eights, but no where near as straight forward. As described in the Family Game Night menu – “The rules are simple until the Queen of Spades or the King of Hearts shows up and then everything gets chaotic. Winning normally occurs by accidental luck. Best played while drinking”. This game causes so much laughter – the kind that makes your face hurt for days!

To enhance the relaxing part of their second week here, we decided to book a day pass at the all-inclusive resort – Solmar. The day pass runs $99USD per person and includes the following:

• Available from 7am – 7pm
• Unlimited dining for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks
• Unlimited domestic drinks (alcohol and non-alcohol)
• Use of beach, pool and whirlpool
• Use of towels, umbrellas and lounge chairs
• Two poolside bars, one swim-up bar
• Indoor and outdoor restaurants

We felt the price was very reasonable for all that was included. Check-in was fast and easy. The resort was clean and the staff were very friendly.

We had an amazing time at the resort. Ryan and Chelsea checked out the restaurant for a late breakfast, and Lorne and I ordered an early lunch poolside. The afternoon was spent with poolside drinks and snacks, swimming and sunbathing, We were all totally exhausted from all the sun and fresh air when it was time to leave.

We rounded the rest of the week out with more tacos, and of course dinner at another favourite restaurant of ours – Solomon’s Landing.

Like all vacations, the two weeks Ryan and Chelsea spent here seemed to fly by and, before we knew it, it was time for them to head back to Vancouver and their busy lives.

We enjoyed every moment of their visit here – the food, the adventures, the games and so much laughter that our faces literally hurt. But above all, we hoped we were able to create some special memories for them along the way.  We are already looking forward to their next visit ❤️

Casa Martin is another restaurant here in Cabo that we love eating at, but up until now, we have only enjoyed dinner there (multiple times!). We were excited to see they recently opened up for breakfast as well, so we thought we would get up early one Saturday morning to check it out.

The atmosphere was totally different for breakfast than for dinner and we were surprised to see how bright and sunny it was inside. It gave the place a totally unique vibe. Lorne ordered a Ceasar to drink and I ordered a latte. We decided to share the fresh fruit plate that included seasonal fruit, berries, mint, mango sorbet, granola and yogurt. It was very fresh and delicious and more than enough for the two of us to share.

For my main course, I ordered the “Marinero Omelet”, that was stuffed with local seafood, seasonal vegetables, organic herbs, then covered in hollandaise sauce, with hashbrowns on the side. Lorne ordered “Ranchero Eggs”, which included fried eggs, quesadilla, black beans, chorizo, cotija cheese, sour cream and avocado. Everything was amazing! Now it will be hard to choose between going for breakfast or for dinner!

We had been talking for awhile about doing a refresh to our home office. When we first arrived here we bought the cheapest desks that could be delivered as fast as possible as we needed something (anything) that would keep Lorne up off the floor. And since he didn’t book off a lot of vacation time for the move, we had to really scramble to get a workspace ready for him.

Over the past few years we have found ourselves complaining on and off about our workspace – wishing we had more storage or drawers or whatever was bugging us at the time. We finally decided it was time to update our home office and we started ordering all the stuff we needed.

The plan was for Lorne to take the Easter week off (Apr 14 – 18) and we would pack up all our office stuff, move the current furniture out, build the new furniture and unpack all our stuff. But of course, it didn’t happen that way. He still had that week off, but we changed direction (a few times) and the one week we planned for the refresh ended up extending to over a month or more to finish. As of now, we are finally unpacked and fully functional in our updated home office. But wow…. there was a time I thought we would be forever working out of boxes! More to come on our big office refresh in a future blog post.

The Canadian Federal Election was scheduled for April 28 this year, and we wanted to find out if it would be possible for us to vote from Mexico, and it turns out, we could!

We first had to be added to the International Register of Electors and then apply online to vote abroad. The application indicated that they would mail us a voting kit, however, our local community does not receive regular mail delivery. We contacted our Canadian Consulate office to ask what we should do, and they advised us to use their mailing address since their location receives regular mail delivery. So we did, and when our ballots arrived at their office on April 7, they emailed us to advise we could vote at their office anytime from April 9 – April 26, between 9am – 10am without an appointment. They would then send our ballot back to Elections Canada same day via DHL.

 

Bright and early on April 21, we headed out to the Canadian Consulate to vote. It was the first time in almost five years we had set foot in a Canadian Government office, and it made us a bit homesick. The voting process was simple, they brought us into a small room and gave us our personalized ballots. We voted, then followed all the instructions of putting this envelope into that envelope and into another envelope… until everything was sealed up into one envelope! We brought them back to the person who had been assisting us, and she assured us they would be couriered out that afternoon. As we left the consulate office, we were surprised to see a lineup had formed of Canadians all waiting to also go in and vote. Glad we got there early!

When storm season ends in November, we bring all our patio furniture, decor and deck tiles out of storage to set up for us to enjoy during the nicer weather. Then on the flip side, when storm season begins, we need to start thinking about bringing everything in. Big storms don’t usually come to our area until Aug/Sep, so we have a bit of time before we need to bring the table and chairs in, but July is just way too hot to be bending over and picking up all the deck tiles. So this year, we packed up all the deck tiles on May 1.

The above pictures show our patio with the deck tiles, then Lorne packing them up, and then our patio without them. We just pack them up into the boxes they arrived in and normally store them in the guest room. However, on May 1, the guest room was still full of all our office furniture, so the tiles had to just wait in the hallway until the office refresh was over and they could be stored properly for the season.

We will most likely bring the table and chairs in at the end of June. Currently it’s around 33C (91F) on the patio (under the umbrella) at lunch time and it’s getting a little too hot to eat out there each day.

In Mexico, Mother’s Day is celebrated annually on May 10, and then in Canada and the US, Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May. This year, they both ended up on the same weekend.

Since our kids are so far away, we often don’t do much for Mother’s Day, but this year I felt like having a nice brunch on the patio.

We made quiche Lorraine, along with a salad of arugula, blueberries, pecans, goat cheese and a balsamic vinaigrette, and to drink we made a fancy blueberry gin cocktail. Lorne bought me a lovely bouquet of pink roses when he went out to pick up some fresh croissants. Then after our meal, I enjoyed a cup of tea (in my fancy new single serve teapot) along with homemade lemon blueberry scones I baked up fresh that morning. It was so much fun to decorate the table and bring out some of our fancy things to use. We don’t do it nearly enough!

And speaking of storm season, the 2025 season officially began on May 15 and will run until November 30. In contrast to last season, which got off to a record slow start, there has been a flurry of early season activity already this year.

Tropical Storm Alvin formed off the coast of southern Mexico on May 28. Typically the first storms of the season head west, however this storm decided to head north instead, directly for the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula, where we live. Being so early in the season, the ocean water near us had not yet heated up, so the storm lost most of it’s momentum and on May 31 brought only remnant moisture to our area.

It was a day of grey skies with a constant light drizzle of rain and temperatures still around 32C (90F). The next day, the sun was back out, but so much humidity hung in the air. It took a couple of days for the humidity to disperse and we finally had some cooler weather again. That’s the only good part of having a storm pass by, we get to enjoy some cooler days again.

Wow… we warned you this was going to be long!

So, that pretty much sums up what we have been doing since the beginning of the year. As you can see we have been living our best life, enjoying the weather, the local food and of course our visitors.

Now that things have settled down a bit, we will be back to blogging more regularly again. Stay tuned as we will have a few blog posts coming soon regarding our trip to La Paz, and of course, our office refresh.

Looking forward to what the next six months holds for us!

“The best things in life are the people you love, the places you have seen,
and the memories you have made along the way” – Anonymous

ps…  Don’t forget to check out the latest Snippets!