R. Doug Wicker's Blog, page 54

Fun Food Friday — Delightful Mexican lunch at The Pink Store

The Pink Store restaurant

The Pink Store is a place to go for arts and crafts, tequila, mescal, and a whole lot more. Want a drink? There’s a full-service bar with some of the best, and strongest, margaritas on the planet:

The Pink Store’s bar

On this visit, made on 19 April of this year, we brought along two cruise buddies whom, quite by accident, we found live right here in El Paso. We met on an Alaska cruise last year (Part 1 of cruising Alaska off-season here: Cruising in the Age of ...

Palomas, Mexico; Roaming The Pink Store

The Pink Store

Day of the Dead isn’t the only thing celebrated at The Pink Store. And not everything here is on the kitschy side. Far from it. Most of the merchandise here is high-end. Owners Ivonne and Sergio Romero make frequent trips deep into Mexico to search out quality items from some well-known artists and craftsmen. Here are examples of statuary and artisan pottery:

The Pink Store

Is furniture more to your liking? Well, then, take a look at this:

The Pink Store

More pottery,...

Palomas, Mexico; A Return to The Pink Store

The (new) Pink Store (2022) in Palomas, Mexico

I‘m going into coast mode over the next two weeks. That’s for several reasons. First, I just struggled to complete thirty-four articles in rapid order for prescheduled publication. Second, by the time you read this, I’ll have just returned from seventy-one days away, which is why I needed over ten weeks’ worth of blog articles. So, I’m also preparing this two-week series in advance so that I can recover. And, thirdly, it’s been nine years since I...

Seventy-One Days Away, But Now We’re Back

Our latest jaunt began April 27 with a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and it ended 71 days later with a flight from Los Angeles, California to El Paso, Texas. Along the way we took a transatlantic cruise to Spain, a back-to-back follow-on cruise in the Mediterranean to destinations in both France and Spain, a four-night stay in Germany, two nights in the Netherlands, and then three 12-night back-to-back cruises before flying back for a night in Los Angeles.

The Transatlantic adventure ab...

Fun Photo Friday — Southern Caribbean; Dominica Favorites 2

Grandeur Framed by Vendor Huts

This week’s Fun Photo Friday concludes both our visit to Dominica and this series on cruising the Southern Caribbean. Next week I’ll present something a bit closer to home, but which is a lot of fun.

Enjoy Dominica! Pelican Taking a Break Fishes Making Wishes? The “Grandeur” of a Dominica View

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)

Southern Caribbean Cruising — Dominica; Soufrière back to Roseau

That charming church you see above is Saint Mark in the northeastern quadrant of Soufrière just yards from Bubble Beach Spa. The colors and architecture of Saint Mark may at first appear stark until you recall how colorful the surrounding buildings and boats are in this small village. Sat Mark is just a fun, fun structure to photograph when the light hits it right, as it did in this afternoon shot.

Saint Mark closeup

I’m going to present three more images of Soufrière sights, then take ...

Southern Caribbean Cruising — Dominica; Soufrière and Bubble Beach

Heading back north from Scotts Head, our next stop was the small fishing village of Soufrière (good article on things to see and do in Soufrière at this link: 11 Amazing Things to Do in Soufrière, Dominica. Here you’ll find Bubble Beach, in which small Champagne-like bubbles gently rise to the surface from a volcanic vent below. There is even a Bubble Beach Spa here to take advantage of it all, but you can get those bubbles for free just by stepping off the public beach into the water. And, ...

Trashy Amsterdam and the Hellhole of Schipol

Amsterdam:

Once was a great place to visit. Now, it’s pure garbage… literally. Ripped trash bags everywhere. Trash strewn about. Piles of trash on what seemed every corner. Trash floating in the canals. Trash, trash, trash. Has no one in this once great city heard of trash bins? Does no one in this city any longer give a damn about their image, or the impression given to their visitors?

And Schipol Airport? Don’t even get me started on that fiasco. Arrived over five hours early because of ...

Fun Photo Friday — Southern Caribbean; Dominica Favorites 1

Colorful Fleet

Time of the first of two Fun Photo Fridays featuring Dominica favorites:

Southern Caribbean Cruising — Dominica; Scotts Head

Welcome to Roseau, Dominica

Time to step off the ship and head out toward the pickup point for our tour. But before we start heading south here’s another view of the hurricane damaged Our Lady of Fair Haven Cathedral and the Bethesda Methodist Church standing in the foreground:

A pair of churches

Along the way to where the Caribbean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean we would pass by Government House, the official residence of the president of Dominica:

Government House

About halfway to o...