Day 143: May 23 - Don't make me go home!

One of our new travel friends put it best in the lobby at checkout when she said, "This is the most depressing thing ever." No one likes to leave vacation, especially when it's been so relaxing and calm.

We left this scene, took our flight home, and arrived at SFO to a very, very cold and windy San Francisco as well as a dead battery in Peter's car. Oh, how I wanted to go back to the beach!

Day 142: May 22 - New travel friends

It takes about three days of vacation and relaxing to settle in, make new friends, and go from relaxing to partying. At least that's what it took for Peter and I.

By the end of our trip, we had hooked up with a group of 11 friends from Denver (who we quickly exchanged email addresses with for house swapping vacations in the future) and a couple from Brooklyn (who we were stupid to not swap info with). Too many tequila shots later, I had a rough end to the first day of being 30, but all in all, it was a great, fun day.


Pictured are Sarah and Billy, who I'm certain I had deep, intellectual conversations with while getting sunburned in the pool. What they were about is long-since lost on me, but I remember enough to know that Sarah and I were certain we were sisters from another mother, and that Sarah learned on this trip to always pack a carry-on, since her luggage was lost.

Day 141: May 21 - The big 3-0

A couple years ago at Christmas, Peter's mom, Maureen, gave me this book. At the time I wasn't quite nearing 30 so I thought I'd have to put it away and get to it later. While packing for the Cancun trip, I thew it in my bag thinking there would be no better time to give it a read.

It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Very inspirational, perfect beach read since they were short little stories and, after a cocktail or two, I found myself tagging pages. I'll give y'all a full book review later, I'm sure, but for now just know that I went into my 30th birthday feeling like the next 10 years are going to be amazing. Thanks Mum for giving me such a great read.

Day 140: May 20 - Love the upgrade

Please excuse this terrible iPhone photo. That big white light you see is really the view of the Cancun sun and ocean from our room, but the camera didn't quite understand the importance of this.
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Luckily, the front desk staff at the Gran Melia resort did. They upgraded us at check-in to their "Red Level" tower, which meant we had a junior suite, a special pool and cabana area that only red-levelers could get to, and a special restaurant area. Pretty spiffy if I do say so.

I don't know what about us made us upgrade worthy, but it made for a very fantastic stay. The only problem is now I don't think I'd ever be able to go back and be one of the commoners!

Day 139: May 19 - Cancun-bound

Each airline offers different advantage and disadvantages. Peter and I quickly realized on our Virgin America flight that we missed Mexicana Airlines, which had gone out of business last year.

Mexicana offered free luggage, meals, snacks AND alcohol. It was amazing. Probably why they went out of business, since these things are nearly unheard of these days in the world of flying.

I love Virgin America, and I love that we had a straight-through flight to Cancun, but I didn't like the cost of the alcohol. Lucky for me, the stewardess dropped half a drop of ginger ale on me when she passed it to Peter so she decided I should have whatever I wanted to drink as an "I'm sorry." I was drinking coke so I picked rum. Then I dumped the whole rum into my coke. ... into one of those tiny little airplane cups. Bad move!

It was way too strong, but I sucked it up, since it was free, pounded it, and then promptly drifted off to la-la land into a Dramamine-and-Bacardi induced nap.

Day 138: May 18 - Baseball boyfriend

When it comes to men, I sure know how to pick 'em. Hey! Keep those snickers to your self! I picked Peter, right? And I definitely had it right last year when I picked my very first Baseball Boyfriend to be Buster Posey.

We were at an A's/Giants game last year for my birthday and I decided that although baseball isn't really my sport of choice, maybe I could make it more interesting for myself if I picked one of these cute men as my BB. I looked up, and there he was ... a massive poster of Buster. I decided that although he was super young, he could be my man for the season. If he turned out to be a terrible player that I never got to see do anything cool, I'd trade him in the next year.

One World Series season later, I'd say I did pretty good.

Nick, who collects hundreds, maybe thousands of baseball cards, mailed me this rookie card for my birthday. yay!

Day 137: May 17 - Cheesy joke

You know how sometimes a joke can go so long you can't even really remember how it started? My cousin, Nick, and I have one of those that revolves around cheese.

I think the story goes that I was cutting up some cheddar when I was visiting and that little punk came over and at it when I walked away for just a moment. If my memory is right, I think I was very angry with him while he (mind you, he was about 11 at the time) just  laughed and laughed thinking he was the funniest thing ever.

Now every time we visit with each other he asks me if I'd like some cheese, or waves it in front of me just out of reach.

For my birthday, the crafty kid sent me a t-shirt. I have zero idea where to wear this puppy, but the thought was hilarious. Maybe I shall frame it:)