We made it into another year. I just don’t know what to think of that. Last month…last year (yeesh), a lot of little things happened, so instead of drawing it out as I’ve done…only to stop midway and never finish, I’ll condense it today.
G-man was on deployment for a lot of the year, and I never really shared that, only because, well, why dwell. But he returned at the beginning of December and we got to head off to Napa for a long weekend. It was pretty nice. We stayed at the Westin and the service and atmosphere was great.
We did a wine tour with Flex Winery, and though it was nice, it wasn’t as great of an experience as I expected it to be. The driver kept cutting G off while he was talking and all around a bit abrupt, but one thing he did do, was take photos of us…though I admit, my OCD amateur photog self wished I had just done it. There were too many things I wanted to capture that he didn’t.
We got to do some fine dining, relaxed dining, clothes shopping and pretty much whatever we wanted, and it was so nice. The day after Napa, we hopped on a plane for Las Vegas to grab a rental car and drive to my brother’s in Southern Utah to stay for the week.
We had grand plans to drive into the mountains, play in the snow and whatever else, and instead, we stayed on their couch in their warm cozy home…because who wants to go outside in the cold?? It was an odd trip for me. I had my camera and barely touched it. The scenery was breathtaking and yet, I have nothing to show for it. Thankfully I was able to get a couple on my phone of my nieces and brother. My brother who is against his picture being taken and who is passing his loathing of it onto his oldest daughter. I got this after mild begging to both of them.
This little adorable one turned 10 yesterday. Officially double digits is such a big deal! She texts me every single day and something about texting my nieces and nephews just gives me the warm fuzzies. I love they want to talk to me.
After Utah, we drove back to Vegas for a weekend there, and stayed at the Red Rock Hotel and Casino. If you ever want to stay off the strip, stay there. Top notch service, beautiful facility, rooms are gorgeous and the views are breathtaking.
I think we both forgot…multiple times, that it was the weekend before Christmas because we would drive toward the mall and be stuck in traffic for 15-20 minutes just to get away from it. Beyond the ‘blowing way too much money on gambling’, we did get to see The Pawn Shop that’s on tv and let me tell you…it’s a pawn shop. Seedy, messy, jam packed with people and kinda not worth the trip, but at least we can say we did it.
We finally got back to my parents and spent Christmas with them, where my mom made impeccable food and we stayed in our jammies all day every day.
We ended the big long trip in San Francisco. Staying at the Westin there as well, and though it was insanely ridiculously crowded, the guy upgraded us to a double view room that was remarkable. This was in one of the windows. The other window had a completely different view.
After driving through Little Italy and amazingly not kill anyone, we agreed it was impossible to find a parking spot, drove all the way back to the hotel, and got a cab. No wonder people don’t like to drive there. I hadn’t been that stressed and frazzled driving in a very long time. We had some of the best Italian I’ve ever had at North Beach Restaurant, and called it a night before I had to take him to the airport.
I stuck around at a park to watch his plane take off before heading home myself. It was a good time together. One I’ll look back fondly on. One thing that was fun was I didn’t tell him I had cut my hair. He was surprised to say the least, and pushed my bangs off my face as often as he could. He’s not a bangs man, I learned, but thankfully, after seeing a 3rd stylist while in Utah, he (and myself) liked it a thousand times more.
What a relief!
Monday, January 6, 2014
5 trips in 3 weeks
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Mexico part 4
and the last of my little Mexico series.. I’m pretty sure. Nope just kidding, I have one more post for you.
The 2nd night we were there, lia sophia hosted a reception. Over 700 lia sophia advisors who had earned the trip, were there and it was so exciting being among them. We went up the 2nd floor where the reception was being held and were immediately greeted by waiters with drinks for us. Then there were tables on each end full of appetizers.
The place was jam packed with people mingling and G-man and I walked around until we found a quiet area to snack on the food and have our drinks. There were a few who were there that had been enjoying their drinks for a long time before we arrived and while I was playing with my camera, one of them insisted she take a photo of us. For being as ‘enjoyable’ aka drunk as she was she took a pretty good photo of us.
Just imagine you see a cute one below of G-man and I..
I met up with my long time friend and we waited to go inside. We’ve been friends for almost 19 years. That’s crazy to think about. As I like to tell the story, and it’s a true story at that, we’re only friend’s because she was dating the boy I had a major crush on in the 7th grade and I wanted to get the ‘in’ on him, so I befriended her even though I pretty much hated her.
And I may or may not have laughed when I watched him break up with her down the hall.. 7th grade, people.. I was in the 7th grade.. Through it and so much more, we’ve remained best closest life long friends. (that’s all for you, Jos.)
We finally were able to go inside for a big buffet waiting for us and a show.
This was probably one of the few times it was lacking. The food… it just wasn’t good at all. And the show… if you’ve been to a Hawaiian luau, well, nothing will compare to the extravagance of their shows. We weren’t entirely feeling the Mayan/Mexican version so we ended up leaving early and called it a night.
After having a welcome breakfast, enjoying a couples relaxing massage and the reception dinner, we agreed it was the perfect start to our vacation.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Xplor - Mexico {part 3}
We were told it was a big huge park that had 14 zip lines. Some having you fly high above the trees. And others that have you landing in the water. I brought my bathing suit, but figured I would start out doing the dry zip lines and then change into my wet shoes and wear only my bathing suit, and then go do the wet zip lines. That was my plan..
They also had a 4 wheeling adventure as well as paddle “boating” through the caves full of stalagmites and stalactites. It was so neat to see. What was so fun about the whole park was they told us if you ever get lost, just follow the sound of the heart. They had this big giant heart in the center of the entire park that beat just like a heart would. So you could hear it from far away and follow it to get back to where you needed to go.
I forgot to ask for the girl’s ok to post their faces, so they join G-man in the blurred group.
We all got in line to begin the zip lines. As we waited to get our harnesses on, we would watch everyone coming back completely soaked. I declared to our group that I would prefer doing the dry first then changing and doing the wet (as I said above) and they all agreed that would be ok.
We do our first one and it takes us to the next zip line. I had fun, promise.
What was so neat was they had cameras set up everywhere so you didn’t have to bother lugging your camera around. You could take as many as you wanted and later pay for the thumb drive. It’s a lot.. don’t get me wrong, but it was nice not having to ‘get the shot’. I could just be silly. -Please notice my full attire-
As we zip from one to the next, we see they’re all connected. There’s no ‘getting off this ride’. You zip from one to the next to the next with pretty much little choice in the matter, but we didn’t mind because (for me) they were all the dry, up high zip lines, so I was happy.
And then, we follow the path that takes us down the spiral staircase to the next open door and as I round the curve I see the worker standing there waiting… at the top of the water slide.
The only way down is the water slide. I just started laughing. She asked if I was ready and I said no! I didn’t plan to get wet yet! But I had no choice, so I crawled under the bar and down I went.
Ah, my poor clothes and shoes. Naturally what’s at the end of the water slide but a huge body of water. I was soaked from head to toe. As G-man picked up the rear, we were laughing at the unexpected surprise.
What followed that were many more unexpected {for me} zip lines into the water.
We were starving afterward and took a break for lunch and sunbathed in the sun while we dried off and rested, while our food went down. Our next stop were the paddle boats through the caves!
yes, I have the dreaded ‘wet spots’.
Notice how our paddles are on our hands. That was a new experience for us that left our shoulders burning.
We only had a short time left, so we rushed over to the 4 wheeling adventure and hopped in. It’s obvious I only know one expression…at least I’m not alone with it.
I promise, I’m a grown adult.
By the end, we were so far behind time, G-man and I ended up running all the way back to the bus in hopes they wouldn’t leave us. That’s running through caves, up hills, around bends and out to the parking lot. It has to be a good 1/4 mile. Thankfully we made it. All of us fell asleep on the long drive back completely wiped out, but we had such a great time.
I definitely recommend making a day of Xplor. I’m pretty sure you’ll have just a great a time as we did. Pin It Now!
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Chichen Itza or chicken pizza {part 2}
Is that a dumb question?
When you hear your whole life the Mayans were completely wiped out, it makes you scratch your head when you stand in front of someone who says they’re from Mayan decent. He even speaks Mayan. I thought it was interesting how he said the generation of today, are refusing to learn Mayan. They only want to speak Spanish and English because that’s where the money is. Makes me think of those I know who’s parents refused to speak their native language to their kids because they thought it was beneath them.
Regardless, our tour guide, Raul, was sad that its becoming a dying language.
It took 1 1/2 hours to get to the Yucatan. It was long. Especially in a van where everyone didn’t talk. Strangers and all, but thankfully, Raul dropped his front seat, flipped around and talked to us all about the Mayan history.
Driving through the little village was honestly just what I expected a Mexican town to look like. Trash, skinny dogs everywhere and run down everything. What I wasn’t expecting were the Police with automatic weapons and oozies standing all around in the streets.
One truck drove by us with the police and their uzi's standing in the back of the truck, leaning over the cabin. Just about everyone’s eyes bulged as it drove by, with a ‘we aren’t in Kansas anymore’ look.
The ruins were amazing to see. Knowing it was all built so so very long ago and still standing, amazes me.
For whatever reason, the iguanas there were captivating. I’ve seen iguanas before..but on a Mayan ruin?? I couldn’t stop staring.
The sky was incredibly blue. No haze, no smog, no pollutants, just beautiful deep clear blue without a cloud in the sky.
{{love a good photo bomb-she was a part of our group}}
I wish I could convey to you how short this woman was. Maybe 4ft. So very very tiny.
Did you know all the ruins used to be painted? They were in reds and greens and blues. Everything was all covered in color. We found this fascinating.
On our way back to the hotel, we stopped for some delicious food where we all sat around the table (we were a small group of 8) and really got to know each other. We all became fast friends and even though I’m sure we all would have loved to talk the entire way back, every single one of us fell asleep. Walking around for 6 hours in the hot sun with no shade can wipe a group out fast. Even the tour guide was asleep.
The only thing I really wanted to do but couldn’t was walk up the pyramid and tour the inside of all the ruins. They stopped doing this in 2007 or 2008 due to vandalism and it was really disappointing to hear we wouldn’t get that opportunity. Regardless, I highly recommend this tour if you’re ever in the Cancun area. I think you’ll enjoy it as much as we did. Pin It Now!
Monday, March 11, 2013
Mexico {part 1}
Hi friends, I’m back!
Mexico was so great, I can’t wait to tell you all about it. Free food, drinks and nightly delivery of gifts? How can it not be great!?
To ease the minds of those who were concerned (thank you by the way) I miraculously was almost 100% better the day before flying out. It was amazing how quickly it went away. That Thursday night, I drug myself at 11pm to the grocery store to get the stuff to make “magic mouthwash”, only I was so out of it, I ended up standing there for 10 minutes in a daze, unable to figure out what to get. I grabbed 2 things that I don’t necessarily think were supposed to be what I needed to get, but I mixed them together, gargled and went to bed.
The next morning, my friend dropped off coconut oil for me to gargle, which I did and voila, by mid day, I was almost completely better. After work, I gargled again, drove all the way to L.A (where I have a very scary story to tell later) and crashed in my hotel room at 12am, ready to wake up by 4:30.
I gave myself plenty of time to drop my car off at the parking lot, get on the shuttle to the airport and squeeze in breakfast… until I couldn’t find the parking lot and drove up and down the street for 15-20 minutes looking for it. I finally called them and the guy informed me it was directly across the street from my hotel. Directly. across the street. from my hotel.
I felt like an idiot.
The rest of the day was uneventful and I was happy to arrive at my hotel with G-man ready to greet me.
Here’s a peek at the hotel..
the view from our balcony.
Somebunny was glad to see us..
looking down at the lobby.
I hope everyone had a great week while I was gone. Even though they had wi-fi, I maybe checked my email 3 times the whole week, and never bothered with my phone, and I have to be honest, it was the most wonderful thing. I’m reluctant to jump back into twitter and any other social media since its so nice not being weighed down by it all.
If you’ve taken a break from everything, did you have a hard time getting back into it? Or were you eager to catch up on everyone and everything?
{{and don’t forget! My Target giveaway ends tomorrow! if you haven’t entered yet.}}
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