Queso all-inclusivo at San Jose del Cabo

We though, enough wet weather! Let’s just jump on a plane and find somewhere hot! And so we did.

Just four hours from Seattle, at the tip of Baja California are Los Cabos. We opted for a charming ’70s resort called La Posada Real.

Friday afternoon – straight out on to the beach with an (all-inclusive) Dos Equis and two nights of fun to look forward to!

Checking out the beach from a lifeguard tower.

You want cheese? I can do cheese!

On the Saturday afternoon, we walked up to town through a fantastic estuary and bird sanctuary that only slightly smelled of sewage.

The town of San Jose del Cabo is pretty darn quaint – and knows it.

The lovely Mission-style church looks out over a square that was home to a fun local festival of food and performance.

We watched the action from La Internacional, a stunningly cool ’40s style diner – it felt like Casablanca (film, not town).

Here’s Karen looking sexier than Ingrid Bergman.

Prancing at the Paramount

What could be better than a behind the scenes tour of the gorgeous Belle Epoque Paramount Theatre downtown? How about a tour with Cornish students giving site-specific modern dance performances? Here they are in the jaw-dropping lobby.

And dancing in the stalls as we hang out on stage. Nice. (Er actually just a minute after I shot this!)

Karen has serious star power!

And the coolest bit of the tour – the projection and electrics room up in the gods.

Mount Rainier snowshoeing

Get ready for these pictures! Somehow we managed to pick the nicest day of the year for our snowshoe excursion to Mount Rainier, with Ben, who was over from the UK for Amazon work, and Maiken.

Ben hadn’t snowshoed before but he was a natural and we were soon up getting lost among the trees. We took a circuitous route up to Reflection Lakes to avoid potential avalanches, but the effort was worth. Here we are enjoying can of Rainier beer at its source!

The attractions of my feta and hummus bagels were too much for this little critter to resist. Apparently, snowshoes make excellent perches while waiting for crumbs!

The walk over the frozen lake was simply sublime.

Here’s a nice contre-jour of me and Karen.

Great views of Rainier along the snowed-in road on the return leg.

Although it was a little nerve-wracking traversing this avalanche field. No sneezing at the back there!

Silicon Valley overnight

Seeing as I was down in Silicon Valley to interview legendary VC Vinod Khosla, I thought I’d pop in on Julie and Tim just a couple of weeks before the twins arrived.

And also to check out Tim’s Pez collection of course!

After my interview, I tackled Windy Hill – a lovely hike but soaking weather. Excuse the blurry lens!

This felt just like being up on the North Yorks moors.

Before my flight, I even had time to sample the San Jose Art Museum – highly recommended!

A Christmas Discovery

Probably the coolest Christmas present Karen got for me was the gift of garden work, courtesy of Adopt An Area at Discovery Park. The idea is very ‘Big Society’ – volunteers take responsibility for a plot at the park, clear out invasives, remove trash and replant.

Here’s our Before shot – REI has been through but there’s still a lot of work to do.

Karen hard at work in the snow.

We also had a few eager helpers – Anna and Dash. Thanks Team Rusen!

The rest of the park has some old Army buildings, a beach, some great woods, an Indian cultural centre and a sewage treatment plant. It’s a pretty cool park.

Another Portland New Years

After the craziness of our London trip, it was great to head down to spend NYE 2010 with Ginger, Kurt and Sam. Here’s Sam helping me with my child-proof meds.

We took it pretty easy, but had a great walk up, er, some cool ravine in Washington Park is it? Lots of ice waterfalls and, especially for the Brit, some birds at the top.

Here’s the smiley crowd…

And me and Sam!