Tales of the Traveling Totes #24 Our Cabo Home

Welcome to our September 2020 edition 
of Tales of the Traveling Totes, where 
blogging friends take their MacKenzie-Childs totes 
on adventures near and far.
Miss Madi K and I were able to venture far, quite 
a few times for this post as we were finishing up 
the rebuilding of our home in Cabo.  Those of you 
who have been with me for years know that we 
purchased a home there 15 years ago and tore it 
down 4 years ago this month.  It took a year to tear 
down and get the building permits, and three years 
to rebuild (much, much longer than we had anticipated),
so in July and August, once tourism opened back 
up in Mexico we went to hold hands with the builders,
and make sure things were done right.

In July we traveled with friends.  Since the house 
wasn't complete, we stayed at the resort we have 
enjoyed through the whole building process - 
Villa La Estancia.

We had a blast - and not just from the waves - and 
everyone enjoyed driving up to the house and 
seeing it in progress.  We had planned a trip with 
these friends and two others for the end of April, 
hoping the house would be done then, but then 
Covid hit and the house wasn't ready, so that 
was postponed. 

Of course, we enjoyed delicious food while 
there, with a few of our favorite restaurants open 
for take out.  These pictures are from The Office, on the beach,
and it opened for sit down by the August trip.

If you remember, we had the opportunity a year and a half 
ago to go to Highpoint, NC for the furniture market, 
so hubby and I handpicked all of the furniture for the home 
from there.  The builder imports over a million dollars a year of furniture to Mexico, so he was able to get us into the very exclusive suppliers that a regular designer wouldn't be able to access.  It was such a fun experience, and the results were spectacular.

The home is ocean front and the most breathtaking view
is down the beach for sunset.

The master bath is huge and we wondered if it would 
be awkward, but the way the furnishings filled it up, 
 turned into a spa retreat.  Miss Madi K loved hanging 
out here. 

The master bedroom is also spacious.  Everything here is much 
nicer and more spacious than my home I live in.  When 
we went to rebuild, the builder said we "couldn't" 
keep any of our old furniture.  We can now see his vision, 
as it was more Hacienda Style in the dark woods. 

 

We did the kitchen all in white with gold accents. 

This is the groin-vaulted colonnade that leads from 
the kitchen to the living on the left and entryway 
on the right.  

The entryway dome is a work of art, as are all of his ceilings.  Fantastic ceilings are this builder's specialty.  We sent him 
a picture of an idea, and they created this masterpiece with plaster.  The craftsmanship is amazing.  The light fixtures are like pieces 
of jewelry.

Our home is in Pedregal, a subdivision that is built 
on seaside cliffs, so there are height restrictions, so 
that you don't impinge on your neighbors' views. 
That made the front of the house one story plus the dome. 

The door is another specialty of this builder and it

 is curved and has 
curved glass and opens with a floor to ceiling pin 
so that it pivots rather than swings.  That was all 
the his idea.  Sometimes we would come to visit 
and get great surprises like this.

This is not a place for people who can't do stairs! 
Bedrooms are on two lower levels and it is 32 
stairs from the lower level up. 

The outside is the party place. Miss Madi K was ready to take a ride down the slide, but the three-way power hadn't been hooked up yet. 

 
The three-way runs the air-conditioning and the 
massive pump needed to put enough water down the 
slide for a two level ride, dumping you into the lower pool.  

The slide actually coils around and goes under the 
upper deck to exit into the lower pool.

The pool gets the beautiful sunset views too.
We are water people, so we spend most of our 
time here in the pool.  You can see the swim up 
bar to the right. 

We were sure by our trip in August they would have 
the power in, but they didn't.  We brought our youngest 
son and his wife and baby, but we decided we were 
staying in the house no matter what.  It was hot and humid 
at night, but pleasant in the pools and with the ocean 
breeze during the days.  We laughed and said we were 
"GLAMPING"!!!

Since January, we surmised that with our luck the house 
would get finished right at hurricane season.  Wednesday, 
August 19th, we were scheduled to have the three-way power 
connected for the AC, and that very day Hurricane Genevieve 
hit.  The rains were torrential and the winds were severe 
enough out on the point of our property to take down 
our two newly planted palms.  This is to be our "sandy beach" 
with a hammock strung between the palms. 

 
Cabo has already been hurt so badly by the coronavirus 
and even when tourism has opened up, there are few 
tourists here.  Now they were hit with a hurricane 

and there are two more storms forming off the coast.  

Our hearts and prayers go out to 
the beautiful people of Cabo.  They are so careful with 
protecting everyone from the virus.  You step into a tray 
of disinfectant before you enter a store or restaurant.  They 
even had that tray on our job site.  They squirt your hands 
with disinfectant before you enter and they were wearing 
masks long before we were.  They are sooooo grateful for 
visitors, and make you feel so welcome.  
We hope they can turn things around. 

 

Now for the fun giveaway.  These adorable coasters in Parchment Check are the giveaway for this time.Leave a comment with Rita and Miss Luna to have a chance at winning.
Visit all of our ladies and see where their totes have traveled to this summer of 2020.
Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths 

Emily with Miss Courtney Childs@ The French Hutch

Jenna with Miss Coquille @The Painted Apron

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Patti with Miss Kenzie @ Pandora's Box  

Rita with Miss Luna C @ Panoply 

Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul

Ricki Jill and Countess De Monet @ The Sketchy Reader

Cherry Kay and Carrie Ann Hall @ Entertaining Women  

Cabo Home and Coronavirus

(A partially finished half bath)

Many of you know we headed down to Cabo last week to 

crack the whip on the construction of our never-ending 

build in Cabo.  We had decided that we could self-isolate 

there, since there was no presence of Coronavirus in 

lower Baja Mexico.  

We packed our bags with the intent to stay two to four 

weeks as they finished up construction. 

We were some of the handful of people who wore 

masks on the way down.  Someone needs to work 

with hubby on proper use of mask while sleeping!!

We had warned them in January that we would be bringing 

a group of 4 down this week for my son's Spring Break. 

We asked that they have two bedrooms and baths ready.  

But knowing how things go, we decided to also book a room 

at Villa La Estancia, where we have stayed during 

the construction process. 

That way we could continue to enjoy pools and their 

incredible shrimp nachos at the pool. 

As we had suspected, the house was nowhere near ready 

to stay at, although they had two bedrooms and baths 

that we could have stayed in, but there wasn't glass 

in the front door - haha - didn't feel that comfortable 

to be staying in a house that was wide open. 

My son and his wife weren't able to make it, but we had 

great friends who had volunteered to drive our 15 passenger 

van down the Baja, filled with household goods.  

This will be our last in-restaurant dining for a while, so 

we had to get our picture taken. 

Everything was business as usual at Cabo, with some cancellations, 

and definitely not as busy as Spring Break would usually feel.

We enjoyed the sun and water, food and pools, 

but you may have heard that our area experienced 

a 5.7 earthquake on Wednesday morning.  Their teenage 

daughter was at home with his brother and wife, but 

that kind of freaked her out.  They decided to go 

home a day early.  The airport was closed half a day 

because of broken water pipes.  If Coronavirus fears weren't 

enough, the earthquake made people tremble even more. 

False rumors were started that a 9.0 would follow within 

30 minutes!!  All was well at home.  My daughter went to 

check and a decorative metal platter had fallen off of 

the pizza oven, but that was about all.  

Meanwhile, my daughter got laid off that day, and so 

did my niece - both working in restaurants. 

Despite all of this, we felt comfortable with our decision to stay awhile 

and keep people finishing up the house - also making critical 

design decisions.  

The people in Cabo also told us to stay - that we were safer down 

there, where there was no Coronavirus.

So, on a daily basis we saw things progress - like this outdoor shower,

and this saying put up down by the lower pool,

and furniture being unpacked.  The original plan was for the kids 

and their kids to come down April 6th for their Spring Break, 

although at this point, we doubted that would be happening.

On the second day we noticed a cruise ship pull into the bay.  

We wondered at that and finally found an article about it.  

It is a Holland America ship.  There are not enough places for 

cruise ships to dock, so they had received permission from Cabo 

to anchor their boat.  There are 800 crew members living onboard.  

Had you thought about what happened to crew members when 

the cruise lines stopped?  They can't afford to fly home and are 

under contract, so they are living on the ships, wherever they 

could dock or anchor.  

Our friends decided to fly home on Thursday, as their daughter 

wanted them home.  

We had originally planned this trip for our college son's Spring Break 

from Monday to Saturday, but right before dinner Friday night 

we decided to see if there would be flights home a week later.  If we 

stayed one more week we could get a lot of things wrapped up on 

the house.  There was a pretty full flight, so we thought we wouldn't 

get trapped in Cabo like so many had in Europe.  We booked the 

flight and booked another week at the resort.  Off to dinner we went. 

As we were eating, the waiter asked when we were leaving.  Then he 

told us that the resorts and restaurants were all shutting down 

on Monday since the border was closing Saturday.  

We had followed 

that story, but it was the land border that 

was closing and Delta showed pretty full flights 

leaving the next weekend.  

These pictures are from a happier dinner, earlier 

in the week,  because as we heard that,

hubby left to go back to the room 

to try and change our flights back to the following day

 - Saturday.  He never returned to the table, so I 

had them box up our main dishes.  We had both 

kind of lost our appetites.

Saturday morning we went to the house a final time

 with staples that we had purchased for a long stay. 

 As we drove through the town, there were no tourists left.

  The rental car companies had their parking lots spilling

onto the streets. 

The airport was packed and people everywhere now

 were wearing masks.  

(Hubby wore his correctly on the way home - just a little 

humor to deal with the stress!) 

Arriving in the Salt Lake City 

airport was like being in an apocalyptic movie - 

the roads were 

empty and tons of planes were parked out on the tarmac.  

My heart hurt so badly for the Mexican people we left behind.  

They have so little and their incomes depend on the tourist 

industry, and literally overnight the city was emptied.  

This rock down on the beach below our house has always looked 

like a turtle (I didn't show the turtle's shell) or a lop-eared bunny, 

but this time we could see Ariel - in a tribute to the closed Disney parks. So much is changing so quickly, and without much 

notice.  We have no idea how our income will be 

impacted, and those of our children.  One daughter has 

already been laid off. 

We don't have to self quarantine, but we decided that since 

we were around so many passengers on the plane, we would 

stay away from people for awhile.  

My children with kids home from school are doing their 

best with homework and boredom.  The weather hasn't been 

great, so even though they could play outside, it hasn't been 

nice enough to.  We have decided no family dinners for

the next while.  We truly want everyone to isolate.

We have plenty of food and supplies with the exception of 

antiseptic wipes, but I got on YouTube and saw how to 

make those with a bleach solution and baby wipes or paper towels.  

You already know I love to cook, so that is enjoyable, but 

I will probably gain weight over this!  Haha.

Hubby is able to do his Bishop interviews over Facetime.  We 

can talk to the grandkids over Facetime too.  

How are you coping in this time unlike any we have seen?

We hope you are all well and stay safe.  Our business 

acquaintances in China said they learned to stay 

inside for 30 days and if you had to go out - keep 

your face covered.   

I will be posting with

Metamorphosis Monday 

and 

Love Your Creativity

Fun in the Sun Tales of the Traveling Totes

Welcome to a special edition of

Tales of the Traveling Totes

Fun in the Sun.

I am a sun girl!  I always say I was dropped by 

the stork in the wrong state - I was meant to go 

to Hawaii, or someplace tropical, not Wisconsin! 

Sun is in my blood and I am happiest when I 

am somewhere sunny.

As many of you know, we had a home in 

Cabo, which we tore down two years ago, 

and it has been under construction since then. 

There is nothing fast about building in a 

foreign country, but we have tried to make it 

fun by staying in a lovely place when we go 

down to check on construction.

Miss Madi K is always invited along for 

the plane ride.  She quite enjoys the sun too.  

We lucked out by choosing Villa La Estancia on 

Medano Beach in Cabo.

 It is 

beach front, which is easy to find in Cabo, but it 

looks out at the famous arch and is convenient to 

our construction site.  What we really love about it 

though is that it is a fractional ownership resort, 

so it isn't overrun by timeshare owners.  It never 

seems crowded, and they keep the pool at a wonderful 

90 degrees! Nobody does that.  I love it.  

There are three properties right next to each other 

that make up The Villa Group, and we have checked 

out all of their pools - the other two are much colder, 

and they are much more crowded.  They are both 

timeshare properties.  

Hubby beware - because I have gotten used to 

someone else taking care of me, rather than me 

taking care of a houseful of people, and I really, 

really, really like it.  There is something magical 

about swimming up to the bar, or motioning over 

a waiter and having delicious shrimp nachos 

served to you.  There is no making the pico or 

guacamole, grilling the shrimp, shredding the 

cheese, or blending the smoothies!!! 

I could get used to this kind of life down in Cabo!!! 

Every room has a view of the ocean, which we love.

I just couldn't resist creating a tablescape

with a view like this!

I just grabbed the tableware and table decor

 in the condo

to create this fun summer table. 

Of course Miss Madi K wanted in on the party!

Notice the checked ball on the table; that looks 

a lot like Courtly Check.

Imagine my surprise to find this cute ball 

in the condo that coordinated beautifully with 

my traveling tote.  

Even the plates coordinated perfectly with 

Miss Madi K.

This is the view from our lot!  It still takes my 

breath away, and I am sure 

it will end up being worth it.  

Here are a couple more sneak peaks - 

this is the garage.

This is part of the slide.  It is being covered 

with rocks and steps are being added to

reach the top.

Although the construction has been painfully slow, 

we have had fun along the way, and 

Villa La Estancia has made it a great journey. 

Of course, several full weeks of our summers are spent 

in the sun down at Lake Powell, and Miss Madi K 

always gets invited along.  She really loves to 

carry so much for me!!!

But we are getting ready for a backpacking trip 

to Havasupai in Arizona, and she just doesn't 

qualify weight wise for backpacking, but I 

might be able to sneak along a MacKenzie-Childs 

mug, even though it weighs a lot more than my 

backpacking cup - we will see.  

My pack is getting heavier by the day.  

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, as it has 

become almost impossible to secure a permit 

to hike Havasupai, but we were lucky enough to 

get permits, but I won't be back in time to 

include it in this post.  Stay tuned for more 

Fun in the Sun!  I hope you are having lots of 

fun in the sun!  Summer always passes too quickly.

Visit the rest of our fabulous

Traveling Tote Group 

to see what fun they have been having in the sun.

Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths 

Emily with Miss Courtney Childs@ The French Hutch

 Patti with Miss Kenzie @ Pandora's Box

Jenna with Miss Coquille @The Painted Apron

Katie with Miss Daisy @ Preppy Empty Nester

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Linda with Miss Rosie @ More Fun Less Laundry

Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul

Rita with Miss Luna C @ Panoply 
Ricki Jill and Countess De Monet @ The Sketchy Reader

Cherry Kay and Carrie Ann Hall @ Entertaining Women  

Come back again on September 1st 
for our next adventure of 
Tales of the Traveling Tote
and a fun MacKenzie-Childs giveaway.