Tom Smith is a good friend of mine from my Aquascape days and we’ve made lots of great Baja memories together over the years. However this year we missed Tom and the Aquascape gang due to our trip to Hawaii in January. When I heard Tom was headed back down with his family, I knew we’d find a way to get to San Jose a hang out. 

I first met Tom’s family about 12 years ago here in Baja. At that time his three girls were just that…girls. Now they’re all grown up and we’re the ones with young kids in tow.  After seeing Tom with our kids, I’m certain of one thing, he’s going to be an amazing grandfather whenever that day comes. 

We started our weekend off by checking into our favorite downtown hotel, El Encanto. From there we headed to Flora Farms where we used the Smith’s dinner reservation as they were tied up with cooking class.  Flora Farms is a first class farm to table restaurant and we enjoyed every bite of amazing food.  We were stuffed to the max, but Morgan chatted up the pizza chef in Spanish and he sent over a chocolate cake as a thank you. See, those Spanish classes are paying off already. 

The next day Tom, his middle daughter Darby, and I headed out for a day of fishing. We caught a bunch of Pargo, Cabrilla, and Cochito that later became our dinner at Los Tamarindos restaurant. At dinner we laughed a lot, ate well, and simply enjoyed some family time together. 

The next day, Easter Sunday, we met the Smiths at Madano Beach with a plan to hike to the Cross that overlooks San Lucas Harbor. However, on Easter, all boat activities screech to a halt and access to the cross wasn’t really possible. Instead we ordered a bucket of Coronas and kicked back to enjoy a beach day. Following the beach fun, the Smiths conducted a basketball minicamp for a local orphanage. 

We pointed Brienne north and headed home to La Paz.