Okay, I got your attention, now you'll have to read my report to know the juice...haha!
So I thought I'd throw together somewhat of a trip report...it may not be as detailed as those I've done in the past though, so be forewarned. But it'll be brutally honest, with lots of photos!
Day 1:
Having not yet slept, we left the house at about 12:30 in the morning to head to the airport at Seatac. We wanted to leave ample time in case of a car breakdown, a strip search at the border, etc. It is a 2 1/2 hour drive to Seatac from our place, and we had to be there by 4am.
When we had put the kids to bed the night before, they both cried. It was mostly Jorden though. He was bawling! He really didn't want us to go. Secretly, I think he was just mad because he wasn't coming; nonetheless, I still felt very guilty for leaving them home at that time. We hadn't left them home even overnight without us since they were 2 and 3.
So on the road we went, guilt in tow. We were, of course, stopped at the border and had to go in to speak with immigration. That took just a few minutes and we were on our way. I fell asleep on the way for about an hour and a half, then woke up when the snow and sleet started. We were both in our shorts and sandals, prepared for Playa and not here and we were freezing! We got to the airport way too early, and went to Denny's for breaky. As we ordered I said to John, "who the hell eats pancakes at 3am??? I'm in the twilight zone." We had planned to leave our big coats in the car at the airport. We had also planned to park at one of the cheaper lots with a shuttle to the airport. But after getting back into the cold car after breaky, we said f$#* it and decided to park in the Seatac lot so we wouldn't have far to go in the cold.
We got our boarding passes from the e-ticket checkin and proceeded to our gate. I was going to grab a Starbucks, but I wasn't feeling very well. We got to the gate, and John was so over-stressed about our carry-on totes, and that the airline would make us check them. He began this process of rearranging and squashing and then carrying them over to the measuring basket to see if they'd fit. I just sat and giggled, then lay down to get some sleep. Before I went to sleep, though, John bet me a massage on the beach to a certain-something-else-for-him on the beach that they would make us check the bags. I took that bet (and I won..haha.)
I slept for a little while, until lots of people showed up and I felt self-conscious lying all hitherto on the bench, drooling and snoring. So I sat up and John came back to sit beside me.
Soon we were boarding, and finding our assigned seats. For a long time no-one sat beside John in the third seat, and we were watching and hoping no one would sit there and we'd have the whole row to ourselves. Our dream came true, and we were happy to stretch out a little.
We both slept a bit on the plane, waking long enought to take a photo of the sunrise:
but it was only about 2 hours to LAX where we had a one hour stopover. Landing in LAX is kinda freaky, because it looks like you are going to just land in the middle of the city. I grabbed some neat pics out the window as we came in over LA.
We then back on the plane for the 5 hour trip to Cancun. I took some more photos of California:
and then we got a few more hours of sleep. Soon enough we were heading over the Gulf of Mexico, and could see the costa Esmerelda of Mexico below, as well as a few atolls out in the water:
As we travelled over the Yucatan, I spotted what I think may have been Progresso on the Gulf:
and soon enough we were rolling into Cancun. Yay! We had made arrangements with BonnyW and MikeW to meet them outside of the airport as they were arriving a few minutes before us. We were renting a car and so offered them a ride into Playa.
We got off the plane and it was an effortless walk through immigration, no line-ups at all! Since we had no baggage to claim, it was then straight through to Customs were we got the green, and within about 20 minutes of landing we were outside. We saw Mike and Bonny right away. Mike looked VERY different than his avatar! Our car person was waiting for us (we rented through Buster Car Rental) and they took all of us over to their outlet on the highway. After a few minutes of haggling over promised prices, pickup places and times, we were on our way.
We decided to all go to Babe's Noodles for dinner. We parked the car and walked down. We had a great dinner together, getting to know each other better.
After dinner, we walked back to the car to get Bonny and Mike's bags out for them. they had reservations in Tulum for a few nights and were headed down there. We then went to hotel after hotel trying to find a room for the night. We were also planning on heading to Tulum the next day, but didn't want to head there at night without a reservation. Every hotel we tried was full, and we ended up finally at Mom's Hotel. I know there are people who recommend this place, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I'm no princess, and am used to staying at budget hotels, but this puts budget to the test. The sheets were paper thin, and were all wet for some reason. It would be a sleep-on-the-bedspread night for sure. There were also a lot of bugs in the bathroom at night when we turned the light on. Yuck!
We got changed into some cooler clothes and decided to go for a walk through town. We walked along fifth, just enjoying the familiar sites and sounds of Playa. We decided to go back to our room for some much needed sleep, and as we passed by the beer-bucket we heard a voice..."GINGER!!!!!!!!!" I turned to see Jez calling my name. We went over for a great big hug, and chatted with Jez for awhile. Before long some of the usual suspects happened along, inluding the Bumpers whom in was great to see again. I ran in for my first Bumper Hug of the trip. Then I spot a familiar face....daddyb!! I ran over to introduce myself and he gave me that wonderful European double kiss. My first question? "What's your REAL name???" Of course, he looks just like a Paolo.
We also met PlayaBum and YWGDon&Deb who are great folks, and finally Jacko and Linda. Linda is wonderful, always with such interesting things to say and talk about, and she is so animate. I loved her! Oh, and Jacko's ok too.
(Love ya', Jack!). I met my new good friend Robert (Synestere) this night as well, and we started talking about McVities cookies. Robert started telling me about how he just wished he could get some digestives with CHOCOlATE on them. "well...." I said, "I happen to have a roll with me that I originally brought for someone else, but they are already starting to melt and I would love for someone to get them before that happens." Robert was very pleased! So we worked it out that I would leave them at Bloody Chica's, a small restaurant across from Mom's Hotel.
Synestere and John:
Michael came and we said our hellos. It was great to see our pal again, and in Playa again this time. He dragged us off to DJ's bar. DJ's was okay, but we are non-smokers and we found it to be too closed it with lots of people smoking and the smoke was a little unbearable. So we decided to call it a night and hit the hay, so we make our way back to the roach hotel..er, I mean Mom's Hotel. Off to bed to rest our tired eyes.