Disney World, July 2011

Well, we just returned from another trip to Dinsey and had lots of fun. Here are a few pics ...

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Jamie LOVED the patriotic Mickey Mouse in the lobby of the Shades of Green Military resort.


Enjoying the view of the golf course from our room.


We had breakfast with the characters and Jamie fell in love with June from the Little Einstein's ... loks like she was feeling the love too.


We also saw Handy Manny, Leo from the Little Einsteins and Special Agent Oso.


We saw Muppets 3-D ...


Walking through the park with Daddy ...


Riding on the carosel horse ...


Riding in the spinning teacups ... Daddy made them go so fast Mommy's tummy felt funny!


Coloring in the room.


Greeting the puppy after Daddy picked him up from the vet!


Love,

Dizzy @ Disney!

What a whirlwind weekend Halloween was! We met Uncle Gordon and Aunt Mindy at Disney World for a day of adventure at Disney's Magic Kingdom. Jamie was really quite impressive and a real trooper. He went from one ride to another, sat through three or four Disney shows.

He loved the Dumbo ride, slept through the whole "It's a Small World" ride and laughed through the Pirates of the Carribean. The Haunted Mansion didn't even phase him, he leaned forward holding the rail and looking at everything he could.

Here are a few photos of our one day vacation!















Until our next cup of tea ...

Our First Christmas ...

Well maybe it wasn't our first Christmas, but it was our first Christmas at home. For the past 7 years we've been together, we've spent our holidays traipsing from one Family event to another. Usually 3 a day. It was so exhausting and left us very cranky and lacking any holiday cheer.

This year we stayed home. Christmas Eve we had a candlelight dinner. George had marinated some steaks and I cooked some veggies and we had a nice bottle of wine before watching a movie. I had to wait for him to fall asleep so that the neighbor could bring over the Craftsman tool chest I'd gotten him. It seemed like it took forver to get it across the street and every noise sounded like a cannon. He was alseep in the livingroom so I was sure he'd hear the garage door. But I got it safety tucked in the garage and then woke him up to go to bed.

Christmas morning we woke up and I made pancakes. Actually first I prepared the ham by marinating it in Bourbon before cooking it in a brown sugar and Bourbon glaze. As you may imagine, Sgt. Major was VERY helpful ... all the way to the fridge ... as seen here ...



Then we opened presents. Puppy first ... we got him this oversized bone and a stuffed animal with squeaker. That damn bone turned him into Cujo and now, two days later we still cannot walk into whatever room he is in without him growling an lunging at us. {sigh} He was such a nice boy before that bone turned him eveil. George and I have decided to take it to the garage. We try this every few months. but those stupid bones turn him into an evil pup. Here he is guarding his treasures ...



What a rotten dog, But I digress.

Next it was our turn to exchange gifts. George got me an 80G Zune and new cell phone, both the same color as my computer. I am so excited that all my electronic toys match! (I know, I'm a total dork, but whatever!) I'll post a pic as soon as I am willing to put them down long enough. He also got me 3 of my top 5 holiday movies ... White Christmas (ultimate favorite, I love Bing Crosby!), Miracle on 34th Street and It's a Wonderful Life. I grew up without a TV and my stepmother never let us help with any decorations, she'd put up the stockings and IF we had a tree while we were all sleeping. So when I grew I kind of reverted to trying to recreate those Christmas memories that most people get when they are children.

George got a BlueRay player, two movies to go with it (something about Star Wars Clones and Tropical Thunder), the Craftsman tool chest, a hat from our college to replace the one he lost and a Texas hitchcover for his new truck (Oh, yeah, I'll have to post a picture of that soon too!)

After than we watched movies and ate luch (ham, green bean casserole and yams) at about 1 p.m. After that we just hung out about the house and played with out new toys while trying to stay out of Cujo's way. For desert we had Port (that is some SWEET tasting stuff) and pumpkin pie. It was an absolutely great day!

Until our next visit ...

What happens in Vegas ... eventually gets posted on my blog!

O.k. so despite the many hours at the hopstial while George was on R&R, we did get a chance to go to Las Vegas ... Crazy fun! We were joined my out closest friends Gordon and Mindy for a 2.5 day whirlwind of fun.

After transferring flights because his dad was in the hospital and then getting a delayed flight, we finally left out at midnight on a Friday night ... first class baby!! Because of the time change, we arrived at 1 a.m. and were met my our limo. We stopped by the hotel and picked up Gordon and Mindy who had taken the original, earlier flight. The we were off for a impromtu guided tour via limo of the Strip and the Freemont Street. It was great.

After heading back to the hotel and checking in (we stayed at the Venitian), we dropped our bags off and headed to the Lux Restaurant where we ate dinner/breakfast at 3 a.m. before heading off to our rooms for a few hours of sleep. This was the entry into the Vienitian (right).

The suite was amazing as well. We stayed in the Venitian tower, where you needed a access card just to get in the elevators. The room was all blue an gold and gave me lots of inspiration for our livingroom. There was a sitting area and dining area. The bed was on a platform and the bathroom was HUGE!

The next day we walked around exploring, played a little at the casino after enjoying the breakfast spread in the Tower Lounge. We also found out that the lounge had a semi-formal tea (LOVED IT!!!) and happy hour.



That night we had dinner at Emeril Lagasse's Delmonico Steakhouse where we had steaks and pork loin (I wanted something different so George and I could share) and a bottle of wine. After dinner George and I went to see the Phantom of the Opera and then Gordon and Mindy joined us for a Showgirls Show. So much fun, after which we stopped by and played at some of the local casinos late into the night before dragging ourselves to bed for a few hours.

The next day we had the breakfast at an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet that have EVERY type of breakfast cusine possible, organized by ethnicity. In the words of Rachael Ray ... Yumm-O!!!Afterwards, George and I went to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum where George got upclose with Jessica Simpson and I spend a little time in bed with Hugh Hefner (I know, it creeps me out just to type that!) I also married George Clooney and George stared down The Rock.

We actually had so much more fun than we thought, but I think it was because we were open to trying something new. Outside of our comfort sone. I also took a picture with Julia Roberts, Bette Midler and Jackie O. George could be seen with the Duke, shook hands with President George W. Bush and dunked on Shaq. They even had a small haunted house that scared the crap out of me!

After that we walked around the inside of the Venitian's shopping area where they had a gondola ride. If you look at the picture you would bet money that it was outside but that sky was actually painted on the ceiling of of shopping area. Even standing beneath it, it was hard to believe that you were not outside.

The gondolas were amazing as they snaked though on building and shops. We were going to ride them but the line was long and I was a little weirded out that people stood at the rails and watched you like stalkers as you rode through. Besides there was no way I wanted to miss the Afternoon Tea at the tower. We had gone the day before with Gordon and Mindy, but them found out that their package didn't include it for them, so they opted not to pay. So they went shopping when we headed to the Wax Museum. The tea was amazing and had some great scones (though I kept saying crumpets because I love tea and crumpets.) I have now discovered that I love rasberry jelly. Who knew!

For dinner we met Gordon and Mindy at the Wolfgang Puck restaurant, Postrio. It was good, we opted for gormet pizzas. Afterwards, we grabbed a taxi and headed off to see The Amazing Johnathan, one of George's favorite comedians.

Aftwards we managed to make it back to Freemont Street to see the midnight light show, then spend a few hours at the casinos until the early hours.

The next morning, Monday, was headed back to reality, but not before grabbing some chocolate covered strawberries at a local gormet shop before heading to the limo.

All in all, it was a great experience and we are saving up to return and see some of the things we didn't get to do and see, like the Bellagio's water show, I always loved those fountain shows. By the end of our whirlwind weekend, we were pretty exhausted with little sleep, but loved every minute of it. My list for next time is already started!



Until our next cup of tea ...

Happy Birthday My Love!

This is where the puppy gets serious ...

It has been an exhausting two weeks, but we have gotten some things figured out. George's dad has been diagnosed with stage 4 cirrhosis of the liver (though he hasn't drank alcohol in 25 years), pancreatic cancer, COPD and 3 bleeding ulcers. He was hospitalized for two days last week for a few surgeries to relieve the preasure in his liver and pancreas and we go back on Friday to see what the next step is. But in the meantime, Sgt. Major has been keeping us all busy laughing our a$$es off! This morning I was awakened to a 65-pound puppy pounce and a big bully face staring down at me. Now if you haven't had the pleasure of being awakened to this, imagine a 65-pound weight being dropped on your stomach and a deep-throat growling monster just inches away from your face breathing a not-so-great-smelling warm aroma inches from your head with a big Joker-like grin on his face ... really can't be beat! Once you are able to breath again, you can't help but laugh. Then George and Sgt. Major westled on the bed while I worked on the computer ... here was the ensuing event ...





This is what we call a
"pig in a blanket!"



The hazzards of being a photojournalist is you get caught up in the action!



(Don't worry, he doesn't actually bite me, he licks!)



It's been a busy week to include a weekend in Vegas for the two of us and George's birthday dinner. So I'll continue to post in between doctor's visits!

Until our next cup of tea ...

A Welcome Home, A Hospital Visit and and Anniversary ...

Greetings my dear friends and visitors! What a emotional rollercoater this week has been. I was set to leave yesterday to go to Houston to meet George for his R&R(deployment leave). I was crazy excited, trying desperately to get homework done and turned in, bags packed for out three week stay in Houston as well as getting everything completed to get my unit's Families through my vacation. But on Monday, all of that changed.

My father-in-law was scheduled for a scope proceedure for some stomach and other pain that has been plaguing him for months. He hasn't eaten any solid food for three weeks and George and I were set to sit down with his doctors and get a straight answer once he got home. But at noon I recieved a call from his niece that the doctors felt something was wrong. He was very jaundiced (think school bus yellow) weak and has lost another 10 pounds or so since I'd see him over the Fourth of July. They ran test and discovered that on top of the liver disease they were already treating him for, he also had pancreatic cancer and would need surgery soon. They were concerned that it was such a high risk proceedure that the initiated a Red Cross messsage (as had I already) to bring George home early. I had already (thankfully) talked to George and had told him what was going on because no one needs to be surprised like that. The doctor's Red Cross message went so far to say that without surgery his dad would only have 3-4 months.

My command team sent me home to pack and I left for Houston early Tuesday with the promise from my command team of any help they could offer to get George home. He arrived on Thursday and we met with the specialist yesterday. His diagnosis is the same, but his options are better. We're taking it one day at a time and I'll post more as we know, but I will be off and on the next few weeks.

On a lighter note, my 3-year blog-iversary! I'd meant to write a reflective piece about how my page has evolved over the years, settling for a "life in the military" theme. Reflect on those who've been here from the beginning (Lime!), the new friends and those who have become a source of inspiration and support. Thank you all for your friendship!

Until our next cup tea ...

A holiday review ...

Hi all! I hope you all had a great holiday and ate to you're heart's content (although our waist lines may now be complaining!)

The holidays were definately different this year with George gone. The drama was low compared to most years as my aunt had baby 3 months ago so she was the center of attention. Although, my poor father-in-law seems to think it was filled with all sorts of drama and I didn;t have the heart to tell him this was a good year!

I was a bit overwhelmed by my family. They seemed to think that since George was gone, I wouldn't need to spend much time with his family so they called me alomst daily to join them in some sort of activity. I tried to say I was busy but that just turned into guilt from them. It was hard because I was really banking on spending a few of those days in my pjs on the sofa with the puppy.

I wish I could have spend more time with his best friend G and his future bride MD (dude, get her a ring already!) We had a few days of fun and I spent New Years at their house playing drunk Monopoly (you just had to have been there!)

I also had the chance to grab dinner with some friends from college. They too were/are military couples so it was fun to spend an evening with people who understand. We shared stories of then and now and had fun catching up.



One of my closest friends from college was E (left). We would spend countless hours making fun of the rotating door of girlfriends that other cadets brought to the parties, had "girl's beauty time" whenever there was a military ball, and showed the boys who was really in charge when they needed to be reminded. Her husband was deployed for 16 months before leaving the Army, so if anyone knows what I'm going through, that's my girl. On top of it they were stationed in Alaska, so she was "on her own" so to speak, although both of their families are amazingly supportive of them.

I also had the chance to catch up with some old friends from my hometown. It was a complicated relationship. The parents were a substitite for my own parents' lack of support during college, I used to babysit their two girls who are now 12 I think, and I was friends with their older son (even had a crush for a while.) It had been about 4 years sonce I last saw them and now I talk to the younger son more and we realized that all those year (nearly 15) we both had some of the same dreams, goals and sense of adventure and sometimes I regret that we didn't figure it out sooner. I thought he was a great "kid" then, but now realize he has to potiental to be a great friend. Ah, the lessons we learn fro our youth!

There were about 5 Christmas parties in 10 days and I was exhausted. That didn't include my usual CHristmas gift of a small shopping spree (get all the things I need that I can't find here in the near desolate land of Polk). I got a new phone (finally!) because my old one was getting to be a pain with dropped calls, refusing to charge and not ringing. I also picked up a small camera to carry with me so I never miss a photo opportunity.

All in all it was fun, but I am glad to be home. But it's not over. This weekend I am traveling with the pup to Baton ROuge to visit my Dad's side of the family. It's been about 3 years and I am anxious to see my grandparent's, especially my grandfather. I've come to appreciate his quite, serious personality over the past few years and regret not visiting more.

Well, that's the recap of the holiday activities. I had fun hanging out with my brother's girls most of all and look forward to seeing them again this weekend. But now, I guess it's time to start packing again.

Until our next cup of tea ...

Holiday happenings ...

Saturday was much better. As I said in the previous post, I woke up at 9 a.m. and spent the morning lounging. Not five minutes after I jumped in the shower George called, so I hurried to get dressed while he talked to his dad. After chatting about what we'd both been up to since we'd last spoke, I finished getting ready and his dad and I headed to PetSmart with Sgt. Major.

Horrible mother that I am, I had left every toy at the house, so we headed out to get him some early Christmas presents. I love taking him to PetSmart because he is so funny about it and way too smart.

We went to the bones first to pick up something for him to chew on. As soon as he picked on out he headed for the front door and we were in trouble from then on. We dragged him to get some squeaky toys, another "Baby" for when he sleeps and some wet food since he had to take a few pills twice a day and shoving them down his throat wasn't all that fun. When we finnaly go everything we needed we had to pry the bone from his mouth to pay for it, then back home we headed to let him play. My father-in-law tried to lift him out of the Tahoe and Sgt. Major got snipity, growling because he thought he was after his bone. The only option was to let him jump out himself. Far fall for a fat bully, but I didn't want him to snap at me either.

That's something that my husband mistakenly taught him as a puppy when he would try to wrestly his bines from him like he did the toys. The toys were a game, but the bones were serious business.

After dropping him off, we went to Wal-Mart for some groceries, then headed back home to relax before I headed to G&M's house and later to a party.

G&M and I excahanged presents before heading to the Christmas Party. I gave them brushed metal bar set, wine bucket and matching wine stoppers since their kitchen is 1950s inspired. I also got M three different sets of 4 1950s inspired icecream bowls, soda fountain glasses and ice cream cups. I got a beautiful silver teapot night light (above) and massager and Sgt. Major got a champagne bottle squeaky toy which he LOVED.

Next we we went to a party at one of George's childhood friends. At first I was worried that it would be weird, because he hasn't spent a lot of time with them since we've been together because of the Army life. Not surprisingly, they accepted me readily, pulling me into conversations and I was laughing and joking within minutes. It was a lot of fun, though we only stayed until about 11 p.m.

I hurried home and after playing with Sgt. Major, crawled into bed with him and his new toy, to rest for another day.



Until our next cup of tea ...

Holiday craze begins ...

Myspace Christmas Graphics


Well, the holidays are here. As much as I've been avoiding them, I think I'm read. If nothing else, I've had a lot to do. My friends are determined to keep me busy.
On Thursday night, a friend, MO, came to visit. Her husband and mine worked together and became close friends during the last deployment. We've become closer in the past few months. She and her son whom I shall call "Rowdy" ame to visit for the Battalion's Christmas Party Friday morning. Rowdy and Sgt. Major ran each other ragged. She's was yelling "Stop running!" I was yelling "Stop humping!" It was a holiday tradition in the making.

After finally getting Rowdy to bed and Sgt. Major rashed in his kennel, we stayed up until after 2 a.m. chatting and laughing until we realized both "hildren" would be up early and if we were going to be able to umpire, we'd need sleep. The night was uneventful, although she said Sgt. Major did crawl into bed with them at some point. Silly guy!

The party was fun, they had all kinds of food and games for the kids, even Santa, but I was intrquied the single cup coffee maker. Small things, I guess!
After the party, we went back to the house where they packed for the drive back to Houston. I finished paking for our trip and spent a little time with our favorite neightbors who were PCSing (moving). Their girls were sad to say goodbye to Sgt. Major. It was sad, but I managed to not cry. Those girls were a bright spot on a dark day and it was sad to see our friends leave.

We left shortly after they did, Sgt. Major driving me CRAZY once he saw that his bags were packed.

After a brief vet visit, where we got meds for an ear infection and skin infaction. There have been some heavy rainstorms at the installation the past few weeks and the rain sits on the ground and that causes problems for him.

We finally got to Houston at about 6:20 p.m. I was exhausted and still had a party that night, but eventually realized that I would not be good company so called my friend and said I'd take her to lunh for hr birthday later this week.

It seemed like every mile closer to "home" was hard and eventually I cried because it is beginning to be real that George will not be home for Christmas. It's harder than I thought, but I've just got to get through the next 7 days.

I unloaded the truck and fell asleep on the sofa by 8 p.m. I woke up at 9 a.m. with a brighter outlook on Saturdat. I'll write about it later, but breakfast just arrived thanks to my father-in-law (and Waffle House).

Until our next cup of tea,



Editor's note: Mari-Nanci and others who are wondering ... yes, Sgt. Major goes everywhere with me, but my family as well as unit activities and such do not allow him, so he stays with Grandpa or at Grandpa's house when we go to George's cousin's house for their holiday party. He is very spoiled and loves his grandpa. He even gets presents from our friends, but that's a story for later.

Cup of tea ... a tiny one any way

Remember a few posts back when I said I picked up another tea cup? Well, I finally got around to taking a picture of it this weekend and a few more days to actually post it. I said it was a miniature tea cup, but to show just how tiny it is, here is a picture of it next to the tea cup I got in Mexico in December.



I noticed when looking at the Mexican tea cups that unlike most the design is not centered with the handle on the left, they are centered in the middle of the cup. I don't know if they are all like that or just the ones local to the Cancun/Playa del Carmen area.

Vacation in Mexico Day 5

O.k. I promise I'm almost done.

Thursday was a day of nothing. We laid about at the pool, drank cold beverages and chatted with others at the pool. But first we had breakfast at one of the resturants to be different. There was a buffet of undescribeable proportions. They had everything from cereal and milk (various percents and soy as well) to scrambled eggs. They also had a collection of Mexican pastries ... Mmmmm. They had some that my great mother used to have when I was younger. It was heaven!
After a few hours of laying out by the pool we had a lunch at the Burger and Pizza Place we hung out in the room and watched TV and just enjoyed being in the air condition.
That night we ate at the same restaurant but at night it was Oriental-theme. Now I'm not usually big on that type of food, but I gave it a try (they had SEVEN courses at this restaurant) and loved it! I think it was my favorite! I even tried sake!
We called it an early night (I was beginning to miss my puppy) so we crawled into bed and watched a little more TV before going to sleep. I have to say my favorite part about wathcing TV there was that in the commercials the actors spoke in English but the voiceover was in Spanish. I totally loved it!
The next morning we packed our bags then headed off to have another buffet breakfast at another restaurnat. We found out that most of them had buffet breakfast's but you could also order from a menu and that was what followed the theme of the restaurant.
SInce this one was a Mexican-gormet themed restaurnat, I ordered a breakfast taco with streak and potatoes. It also was the largest buffet and this one served the Mexican pastries, but also had a chocolate fountain and a variety of traditional and local fruits. Half of them I didn't even know what it was but it was delicious.
After finishing breakfast, we went back to the bedroom and had about an hour before checkout so we laid on the bed and watched some Sci-Fi movie with "Joey" from Friends. George said it was Lost in Space, but I'd never seen that or the Robinsons which it was based off of.
George hired another limo to take us back to the airport and I was quickly learning to love the high life. A few drinks later we were at the airport and zooming through the lines once again because we were in first class, we grabbed a bit to eat at once of the restaurants and looked around the duty-free store and some others while waiting for our plane. Boarding first, we settled in with our drinks for a smooth ride back to reality. Sigh~ I guess you can't stay in paradise forever!

Vacation in Mexico Day 4

(This is a picture of the bath with the roses and candles the staff set up while we were at dinner.)


So sorry to have kept you waiting. I have been fighting blogger and my computer these last few day and came to realize that my Yahoo Messenger was causing computer glitches (Sorry Tommy Gunn no IMing for now!) But alas, I am back to tell you of the wonders of Day 4 in Mexico. I think you will agree that it is the best day ... but on to the story ...

We woke up bright and early with a day of indulgence ahead. Now as many of you know, I am a curious creature and my husband is one who does not fall for smoke and mirrors, so when we heard there was a "presentation" (of course that means looking for unsuspecting people to buy timeshares) on the new resort that was being built with even MORE of an "exclusive" nature my husband and I signed up. We wanted to see what the "new infinity casitas" would entail because you know this princess only gets the best (we'd rather go all out with less vacations than moderate vacations more often that leave us feeling cheated.)

So after a quick breakfast at the health bar ... o.k. let me stop here. The health bar was my biggest REGRET last time because we never got to enjoy it. We kept putting it off. Well the second day there we stopped in for "energy drinks" and I got one called Power. It was chocolate, banana, honey, vanilla extract and oatmeal. OMG! It was so good so we decided to do breakfast before the presentation. I got the same drink with a fruit plate. It was tropical fruit with honey, vanilla yogurt, oats and almonds. AMAZING! Seriously if this is "healthly" I'd eat it all day, every day. It's that wheat germ and alfalfa stuff I can bear to smell much less drink.

So after this scrumptious meal we head over to the presentation. After signing in they said that we'd get a $50 check just for attending, but if we give them our credit card numbers they would enter us into a drawing for $800 ... one entry for each. HA! Do they know who they are dealing with?

"We didn't bring any CCs," we said.

"Well, even if they are in the room we can get the numbers later or the one you used to pay for the trip," they said.

"Didn't bring any on the trip and we paid for the trip by check," we said.

"That's too bad. We can't enter you in the drawing," they replied.

"That's o.k. we'll just take the $50," my hubby said with a smile.

Suckers! We're not as dumb as we look, we're just curious.

So after a 30-45 minute presentation of the "value of buying membership," most of which we spent drink the free memosas and eating their chocolate cover strawberries, they offered to take us to see the new rooms!

Score, that what we wanted because you see the membership was to purchase a 30% discount for the resort. You still had to pay for the room when you book it. Duh! Simple math proves that's a scam. But the new resort was amazing. The rooms are individuals on the second floor. They have a kitchenette with a PERSONAL CHEF, personal pool on the second floor porch overlooking the community pool. The porch also extends over the beach with a dining are overlooking the ocean. It was awesome! We're totally staying there next time.

So after declining their offer with the excuse of, "Man, if we were 15 years older we'd love to start planning for retirement, but right now we are saving for starting out family!" we headed for a quick lunch becasue my favorite part of the day was about to begin.

My husband had scheduled me for a two hour massage, starting with a chocolate scrub exfoliation, followed by a slight too cold shower. Then they wrapped me, yes wrapped me in chocolate and I literally fell asleep during the 30 minute facial massage. Then after showeing off in a much warmer shower, I headed off to a chocolate bath. (I think part of my tan is actually a stain from the chocolate.) OMG! It was sooo relaxing but the best part (I know you'd love this Lime) was that I actually smelled and tasted like chocolate all night! (Yes, Lime I did try to take a straw with me in the bath, but the thought that might not be healthy!)

After I dragged my completely relaxed body to the room. We watched TV for a bit before heading off to get ready for my dinner surprise. It wasn't really a surprise, but it was special. George had signed us up for dinner on the beach complete with music by a saxaphonist who walked from each individual cabana turned gauze cover dining area playing. We took off our shoes and enjoyed a 5-course lobster-themed dinner (except dessert of course!) For the main course I had mushroom stuffed chicken and George had a lobster, but the salad, soup and appitizer were all lobster based.

We ordered a bottle of French wine so we took the champagne back to the room where George had the staff put candles and rose petals all over and they ran a bath with bubbles and roses. I actually fell asleep in the bath after an alcohol-aided relaxing day. So after the water got cold, George woke me up and I dragged myself to bed.



This is a picture of George's lobster dinner. I probably would have taken the picture from a better angle if I hadn't been so damn drunk. I'm lucky I made it back to the room!

Vacation in Mexico Day 3

(This is a picture of an Indian we saw when shopping in Playa del Carmen. Click to see a larger image.)

O.k. Sorry I forgot to post yesterday, but the hubby and I were hanging out then met his best friend for dinner and … well I forgot ‘cause I was indulging in Starbuck’s new Pumpkin Spice Latte (try it, it’s yummy!)

Last Tuesday we woke up and had breakfast served to us in the room again. This time I had egg omelet with bacon and potatoes … YUM!!!

We had planned to spend the afternoon at Playa de Carmen doing some shopping so we got ready for the day and hung out at the pool. We checked in with the concierge about getting a taxi and double checked the reservations for the massages and dinner on the beach the next day.

More drinks and laying in the sun at the beach on the cabanas. It was another lazy day. We read the newspaper (they deliver the Miami Herald Cancun edition each morning) and talked about what we wanted to get in town and do before we leave.

We decided to have room service serve us lunch in our room. I had a wonderful oriental salad with chicken and beef and an apple turnover with vanilla sauce. After lunch we headed to the lobby to get a taxi and head off for a fun filled day of shopping.

Now let me tell you, if you want to know how NOT to drive … go to Mexico! They drive like there are no rules. Our driver was all over the road and we almost got into an accident when the driver of a stalled car in the center lane decided to push his disabled vehicle across three lanes of traffic similar to a US interstate. It was crazy.

When we got into town, we headed to the far part of the main tourist area. The thing to know about shopping in Mexico is:
1. Haggle … in most cases we got stuff for at least half of the original price
2. Be willing to walk away … they may or may not drop the price lower but there is always someone else selling the same thing.
3. Get off the beaten path … the prices are higher on the main street. Especially those in areas where cruises dock, there are popular eateries like Senor Frogs, and near the money exchanges and transportation depots (like buses or trains.)
4. The best place to look is in the alleys. BE CAREFUL but in the case of Playa, the locals get the best spots while the Indians from Tulum (the Mayans) and females are forced to the cheaper, less visited areas. In fact, a little off topic, but the Mayan blankets (we got one a few years ago and then one for a friend this visit) are made at a higher quality than the Mexican ones. You can actually watch the Indians make the blankets in Tulum and they are much larger. (Our Indian blanket is made for a double bed while the Mexican blankets are more for lap size or the width of the top of a twin- nothing to tuck on sides. We have both, but only use the Indian blanket and they are much softer too.) O.k. enough of the marketing for the Indian vendors, back to the story.

Its usually best to have an idea of what you are looking for or at least whom, otherwise you’ll end up with a bunch of stuff. I wanted to get a elephant (preferably pink) for MD and a colorful bracelet for KG because (she always has the cutest outfits!) I was of course looking for a tea cup and maybe a cute piece of jewelry. George had decided he wanted a blanket for G-man, so off we were to find our treasures.

I think the negotiating was the best part. The streets were filled with vendors calling to tourists. Some were even funny, others kept yelling even after you had passed. I liked some of the smaller stores. There were tons of trinkets and whatcha-ma-call-its.

After a few hours of shopping we had found everything we wanted, as well as a belt George gave his dad and a pink sarong for me. A little tired, we headed back to the resort for dinner.

For dinner we headed to Fuentes, an adorable restaurant where the chef does a cooking presentation each night, though we missed it because it was later than we were that night. This was the only night that we were disappointed with the service (distracted server) but the meal was as amazing as any of the others.

After dinner we walked over to the Guacamayas Bar (spelling?) for some after dinner entertainment. This bar had a different entertainment program each night. On Tuesdays they have the International Show which was a dance program with styles from around the world. We had seen it last year and loved it, but didn’t want to see it again so we sat and listened to the live band for a while and had (more free) drinks, leaving shortly before the show started so someone that was standing could have our seats.

We headed back to the room for some champagne and relaxed on the porch before going to bed. Wednesday would be an eventful, yet relaxing day!



This is a picture of the stores in Playa del Carmen!