Sabbatical week 13 - final week

In Mazatlán, Mexico

This picture was taken in the back of a taxi pickup truck that took us from Old Mazatlán to New Mazatlán.

We had lunch here one day at The Shrimp Factory – very good. Mazatlán exports over 40 million pounds of shrimp each year.

Caleb likes the shrimp. We had shrimp cocktail, breaded jumbo shrimp, beer battered shrimp, grilled jumbo shrimp, imperial jumbo and coconut grilled and breaded shrimp - it's all good.

This is a place called Señor Frog’s that is a higher end clothing line for children.

We visited the main Catholic Church in Mazatlán, founded by Spanish missionaries with construction beginning in the late 1800’s.

90 % of the population of Mexico is Catholic.

This really is a cathedral.

The front of the church.

Gold plated chandelier, we were told it was the heaviest in Mexico.

What a chair, or should I say throne.

Continuing on with the Stations of the Cross in the church in Mazatlán, the sixth station is of Veronica wiping Jesus' face with her veil (there is no reference of a Veronica in the Gospels as not all of the Stations of the Cross have scriptural basis).

The seventh station is Jesus falling a second time.

The eighth station is Jesus encountering the daughters of Jerusalem.

The ninth station is Jesus falling a third time.

The tenth station is Jesus being stripped of His garments.

I don’t believe there’s a beach in Oregon that can compare with the beaches in Mazatlán.

We had swimsuits for the boys...

...but didn't have time to get them on them before their shirts were off and they were in the warm water.

The beaches in Mazatlán were our favorite.

"Found a sea shell, see?" Caleb came home with a bag full of shells.

Next stop, beautiful Puerto Vallarta on the Mexican Riviera.

Where we were greeted by these guys who stood on this pole 90 feet in the air and began a circular, aesthetic descent.

Slowly and gracefully they decend...

...until they make their final decent. It was quite impressive to say the least. These guys earn their living on tips from tourists.

The area at the top of the street is where Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor owned homes and had their rendezvous.

We visited the main Catholic Church in Puerto Vallarta, built in the late 1800’s.

A magnificent structure.

Here in the church in Puerto Vallarta, the eleventh station is the Crucifixion, Jesus being nailed to the cross.

The twelfth station is when Jesus dies on the cross.

The thirteenth station is the Lamentation, Jesus' body being removed from the cross.

The fourteenth station is Jesus being laid in the tomb and covered in incense.

Not all Catholic churches have the 15th station (the ones in Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta didn’t), but the church in Cabo San Lucas did, so I included this 15th station from the Cabo church - Jesus rising from the tomb.

Inside the church in Puerto Vallarta. What a pulpit.

Quite ornate

Catholic Church in Puerto Vallarta.

Making friends with a couple of iguanas. They really took to me.

Overlooking a resort in Puerto Vallarta.

Beach in Puerto Vallarta.

Those are big waves.

Checking out the waves.

Playing in the sand.

A picture perfect afternoon.

Here comes another wave!

Playing as the sun is about to set.

We love Mexico!

Doing some shopping in an outdoor market.

This is how Tiger Woods started out.

This is really just a regular sized checkers game, we just shrunk and became really tiny.

Sunday morning we attended the Redding First Church of the Nazarene.

Where Pastor Campbell was preaching through a Lenton sermon series.

Last day of sabbatical, we are back home, and Micah and I visited Caleb at school and had lunch with him and his friends.