Day two was a drive from San Quintin to Guerrero Negro, a town about 1/3 the way down Baja on the Pacific Coast. Just below Guerrero Negro is a huge lagoon. This is a favorite spot for grey whales to congregate. Momma whales raise their calves here for a few months in preparation for their migration back up to the arctic waters for the summer months. Our guide told us there were about 1100 whales in the lagoon at the peak, and over 700 during our visit. We found a decent 2 star hotel, and walked over to sign up for a whale tour the next morning. Then, we walked over to the best restaurant in town for a nice seafood dinner. Next to the restaurant was a gift shop. They had some cute T-shirts with whales, and we were anticipating our boat tour the next day with great expectations. In the picture above, Keith checks out the water below the pier where salt barges used to be loaded from the salt evaporation ponds along the edge of the lagoon.

We spent our first night in San Quintin, in a little fishing camp motel on the water. The hotel was primitive, but clean. For Baja, it rates 2 stars. For the US, it rates 1/2 star. The restaurant, however, was good for both dinner and breakfast. There was a pretty deck up above the back of the hotel, and we sat out there and had a drink and played dominoes. I snapped this picture of an old row boat in the back of the hotel.

The first Baja travel day we drove an hour and a half to the Mexican-US border in Texate, and crossed over. We had previously purchased Mexican auto insurance, but stopped at the border to get a Mexican travel visa and then went to the Mexican bank to pay our visa fees. We returned to the immigration office with the paid receipt, an d got our visas and our passports stamped, then headed out on Mexican highway 3. This lovely drive heads out of town to the southwest, travels through some mountains and through the Guadalupe valley where there are some Mexican vineyards and wineries. We stopped and took a look, and Bill bought a bottle of Mexican wine. The highway continues southwest and hooks up with highway 1 just north of Ensenada, about a 2 hour drive from Texate.

On the way to Texate, Mexico we passed through a lovely area that had some huge California Live Oak trees, so I shot a picture of this one for Nancy to paint. She's taking water color classes at our RV resort.

Tuesday morning, March 18, we loaded all our baggage into the Honda CRV, and the girls (Anne and Nancy) followed the boys (Keith and Bill) in the Roadtrek down to Tucson. We dropped off the Roadtrek with Sandy's RV for service. Our microwave door wouldn't open, the charging system on the RV coach batteries wasn't working right, the toilet flush valve wasn't squirting out enough water, and some of the cabinet latches weren't fastening properly. We made arrangements to keep in touch by phone, and then headed for our motel just north of the border near Texate, Mexico.

Nancy's getting into the spirit of our Baja trip, with this Giant Saguaro cactus that is planted in front of one of the "park model" trailers at Tower Point, the RV park where we're wintering in Mesa, AZ. Nancy's sister and her husband, Anne and Keith Jerome, are flying out on Sunday, March 16 to join us on a road trip to Cabo San Lucas!