Got up fairly early but didn’t leave to go out until mid-morning. Had a nice cup of tea first, followed by breakfast and a second cup of tea before heading out for a walk to the beach. Went thru the park across the street from the hotel, then down one short street to the seaside.

A lot of the beach is ‘private’ and there are only certain places you can actually access the water at ‘free’ beaches. Passed one cafe that had a bunch of flags on it – at least the maple leaf was right-side up this time as opposed to the one we saw yesterday on the way into town that was hung upside down.

Walked along a ways until we came to a nice little cafe that we chose to stop at for a drink. By now the sun was out and I wished I had put on my shorts. Sat for a bit in the sun, watched the waves hit the shore – couldn’t decide whether the tide was coming in or going out. Planes coming in to land at the airport nearby were basically lined up on the same path every few minutes for awhile, then just stopped – guess the wind direction changed, or else all of the aircraft controllers were gone for a 3 hour lunch like most of the shopkeepers here do (just kidding – maybe they were joining the police for a quick donut break).

An Italian man sat down at the table next to us and the doggies both went over to make friends – they think anyone that’s nice to them has sausages or treats in their pockets just waiting to hand them out to cuties like them. We started chatting with him and ended up talking for over an hour. His name is Roberto and usually he has his red Irish setter with him but today he was alone. He’s now retired but is the former CEO of the largest book/printing company in Italy and has travelled extensively, including living for a couple of years in different countries. He and his wife (his third) have adopted two Ugandan orphans and are going to visit them soon.

He’s going to go to Baja California in January to see the whales that give birth there, then is going to Vancouver Island in June to see the whales there, and maybe some bears as well.

We had seen a cute cat that was curled up in a planter below us – it was watching a gecko that was on some steps – running back and forth trying to crawl up to the next step but slipping back down every time. At one point we noticed that the cat was no longer in the planter, but was walking at the bottom of the steps with the gecko’s tail hanging out of his mouth.

Shortly after Roberto left Colin and the doggies and I continued our walk, and stopped at another cafe back the way we’d come. We were sitting outside and enjoying the sea and the sunshine when poor little Bennie got sick. The bus-boy wasn’t very helpful – he indicated that he wasn’t going to clean it up, but at least gave Colin some paper towels.

Some of the older buildings must have been really something many years ago – I imagine this place was a great weekend getaway for rich folks from Rome.

Back near the hotel we went to a store at the next corner but it was closed – that pesky 4 hour lunch again. Read news a bit, then went back to the store after 5 and it was open. Read more news, did some puzzles – another quiet evening.

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