Jan 2nd & 3rd - San Carlos

Jan 2nd - Wed - San Carlos
Lazy morning with some cleaning and a drive to take some pictures and check out a couple of small grocery stores for “future reference”.
We played golf in the afternoon - Rick, Terry & Craig and Pat, Cathy & I. Cathy has not played much golf lately - at least partly due to tendonitis in both elbows. She was rusty but had some great shots so hope it encourages her to play more with us.
Golf was slow due to groups ahead of us so we got back late and it was quite cool. I had asked Rick & Pat to join us for dinner and then we played Canasta again. Pat & I started out great but then the cards failed us and the guys won again. Maybe they forget who cooks the meals!!

Jan 3rd - Thurs - San Carlos/Empalme
Our “group of 8” went sightseeing today. We went through Guaymas & Empalme to Ortiz to see an old fort that a friend in the park had mentioned. It was an interesting drive with a lot of large cultivated fields and a large dairy past Empalme. The fort was quite large but not maintained - lots of garbage & graffiti. A man and several children came over and the man tried to explain the history but his English was not too good. We gathered that the fort was used for protection of farmers but we don’t know from whom.
From there we went to a large beach near Empalme. We were all walking along the beach when a guy in a rickety bar started putting out tables & chairs on the sand and motioning us to come over. We were looking for a place to have lunch so we went over and ordered beer. I needed to use the restroom so asked if there was one available. He said yes and rushed in ahead of me to take a bucket and rag and wipe down the broken toilet. He provided some TP (common in Mexico) and had placed a container of water on the bar for me to wash my hands when I came out. While we were drinking our beer, he came back out first with a plate of chips & cheetos and then with sliced, salted cucumbers with lemon to squeeze over them - good. He also asked if we would buy him a beer - of course we said yes so he came out with his beer and we asked him a couple of questions which he answered with a bit of English and very good pantomime.
We were not encouraged to have lunch (and were not sure he did more than snacks) so stopped for lunch at the Flamingo Hotel in Guaymas. It was quite good but a couple of orders got confused and Terry & Rick ended up with lamb. They did not figure it out until they had both eaten part of their meal. Geri ended up with enough lamb for a meal.