And walkin’s just what they’ll do! Eventually!

I’m so over this cold weather! I want to go outside, to the mountains, and go for a walk. Not in the snow.

The Walks Are The Best Memories

Kim and I have traveled to five continents and dozens of countries and in each of the places we’ve been, it’s the walks we really remember. (helicopters, boats, jeeps, and scuba gear all seem to stick well too!)

A Couple of Amazing Walking Destinations

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil – it’s tough to pin down the best walk we took in Brazil, and we only saw a small part of that amazingly beautiful place. The area around Rio has two don’t miss walks (excluding the beach and city, which could keep you enthralled for months).

The Botanical Gardens – I’ll never forget the rows of absolutely magnificent towering palms lining the main walk through the Jardine Botanico in Rio.

Tijuca National Forest – Wild toucans, views of the city of Rio and Cristo Redentor (Christ The Redeemer) are totally incredible. Only a five minute drive up the mountain from the city, this place feels wild and exotic. I could walk, and walk, and walk.

Waitomo, New Zealand

Of all the jaw dropping things you’ll ever encounter in your life, the glow worm caves of Waitomo, New Zealand will make the short list of “best wow factor”. There is no describing the first-hand view of a dark cavern with a ceiling covered in tiny bio-luminescent creatures that literally…glow!

The area around the caves is amazing and one of my favorite hikes, was just down the road from there. We had an amazing time in an incredible setting where rivers literally pop out of the side of a mountain. And not just water, mind you, but tubers too! They do cavern tubing there where you go into the dark on an inner-tube with nothing but a head-mounted lamp to light your way… and more glow worms!

I’m Hooked On Walking Boots

I’m not sure what it is, but while I’m not one to spend much money on clothes, I’ll sell the farm for some good hiking boots! They just represent freedom and adventure to me in a way that only jeeps and leather backpacks can compete with. I’ve got probably six pairs of great boots. Waterproof boots, leather boots, lightweight boots.

In fact, it was a web page full of walking boots that got me started on this post to begin with!

I’m really yearning to go now!

I know we don’t post much here, but I know some subscribers are still out there… tell me, you loyal ones, where is your favorite place to walk?

Travel has been an integral part of the fabric of our family since day one. Even before Kim and I were married, her parents used to let me come along on family vacations with them. I think they figured that if I wasn’t going, neither was Kim! So they let me come.

Great Trips Always Have Great Food!

One of our favorite family conversation starters always brings one of those trips with Kim and her folks to mind. Here is the question:

What’s the best meal you’ve ever had?

We qualify the question be suggesting that the food itself can’t be the only criteria. The real “best meal” has to take into account the overall scene. Where were you? Who were you with? What was the weather, the surroundings, the sounds and smells. All of that goes into the answer.

It’s no easy task, and after twenty years of playing, we still love this game and then answers still change.

Stir Fried Fresh Fish and Conch – Stingray City Style

Stingray City is a dive site (scuba diving) just off the leeward coast of Grand Cayman, in the Cayman Islands. It is beautiful, it is tropical, and it is way fun! Snorkelers and divers are in for an adrenaline pumping treat as they enter the water surrounded by hundreds of huge stingrays.

We sailed out on a catamaran. About a dozen people, with our group being four of those. I still remember the thrill of laying on the net stretched between the front of the hulls and looking down into the crystal clear water. The ride out was worth the trip!

As we played in the water, the captain (and owner of the small boat) did a little bit of snorkeling of his own, but he had a spear. He speared plenty of fresh fish, and collected some conch shells, which anyone who’s been to Key West knows are great food! Then he stir-fried it all up on the deck of the little sailboat and served it fresh.

Swimming in the ocean one minute, on our plates a few minutes later. That’s fresh.

Of course I was highly enamored with the beautiful young girl who was my date for the trip, which didn’t hurt!

That meal, on the bow net of a catamaran, as the sun dropped low in the sky over the clear waters of Grand Cayman, was…

one of the best meals I’ve ever had!

Do you know what these are? Yes, I know they’re shrimp and that’s not that hard to figure, but these are special! Very special indeed!

Key West Pinks, that’s what they are! These are not your everyday shrimp by any means.

See how big they are?

On our recent trip to the Keys we treated ourselves to some of the local cuisine. “When in Rome…”, ya know what I mean.

We spent the morning snorkeling and relaxing by the water.

Then A.J. came up and said there was a man there selling “fresh from the boat” shrimp. Well, Tim knew right away what that meant. He was off to talk to this man about some shrimp for me. I say “me” because I am the biggest shrimp fan around! I think I could live on shrimp alone!

He came back with a ton of fresh shrimp for me to cook. I’d like to say that the recipe for this specialty was a little more complex, but it’s not.

Here goes…

• Throw the shrimp in a pot
• Add one beer
• Add enough water to cover the shrimp
• Add salt, pepper, and maybe a little something extra
• Boil for about 10 minutes until they’re bright pink

Even if you can’t stand beer, you need to add it to the shrimp. Trust me on this! I don’t know why, but shrimp like beer. Is that why they live in The Keys?

They are ready to eat! Being extra sharing and caring, I served it with a ton of fresh rolls that my children love. They don’t need to fill up on shrimp! I suggest shrimp sandwiches for the kids. 

This is a simple, simple meal that anyone can make! I’m sure you can add a little of this and that, but we worked with what we had with us. And it’s really not the kind of food that needs all that much added. Can you tell that I love shrimp?

Here are a few more Key West Pink Recipes!

After lunch we did more relaxing, fishing, and snorkeling. This crazy Pelican kept attacking the kid’s fish as they caught them.

Here’s just the fish we needed for dinner…

A Snapper of some kind.

The kids caught a ton of fish and kept Tim cleaning fish for a long time. But, it was worth all the work!

This is just the Snapper. We had three or four times as much fish for dinner. We could hardly eat it all. And that’s really saying something with this crew!

It was a great day with fresh catches, full bellies, and fish tales! 

Can you tell we take eating seriously around here?

Do you ever catch fish to eat?

Stop by Jen’s at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam for Tasty Tuesday!  You don’t want to miss all the great recipes over there!

Who’s schooling who here?

We had no idea how educational and fun homeschooling would be! I could write a thousand posts about ways that Kim and I have been made better as a direct result of homeschooling our boys. We love it and I really can’t say a single negative word about it.

One of the reasons we started home schooling is because we wanted to be able to travel on short notice, sans crowds. The only way to get away from crowds in the best parts of Florida is to get away while the crowds are busy doing something else, like working, or going to school.

As it turns out, the travel made more of a difference than the rest combined. We didn’t know this going in, it’s just been a wonderful surprise!

I have one skill in particular in mind today. One that travel has taught us in a way that nothing else can. here is the word:

I looked up the word improvise because I thought it would make for some awesome blog post fodder. I was right!

Who knew that there was a musical element to the word? I didn’t! In fact, the real root of the word is more in performing and speaking than I knew. I thought it was more like a mechanical thing, like the time I used a 2-liter coke bottle for a water reservoir on my ‘51 Ford Pick-Up. But read this:

I love the way the musical element changes my thinking on the word. Make music, sing, on the spur of the moment, making use of whatever you have…invent! That is a life skill I want to have and I want to teach!

It makes me think of a Travel Tale! One that I hope encourages anyone who is thinking of staying home for all the various reasons people stay home. The most common of which are that:

• they think it’s too hard to travel with kids (especially young kids)
• they think it’s too expensive to travel with kids (or without them!)
• they don’t know where to go, or what to do.

I think this story illustrates that, if you improvise, you can have an amazing time…right now!

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Mark Twain

Aspen, Colorado – June, 2000

This is going way back! AJ was five and Jacob had just turned two! We flew from Tampa to Denver and rented a Jeep. We had no itinerary, no reservations, nobody to visit, no schedule at all other than a return flight in about a week! That is definitely how we roll and we recommend it highly!

We’ve never thought much about traveling with kids, we just do it and it’s fine. In fact, it blows “fine” out of the water; it’s sublime! Sure we deal with problems on airplanes, and we’ve had our challenges with connecting flights. We’ve had the long road trips with the “I need to pee.” and “are we there yet?”

That’s why we go by motorhome now. But the move to a motorhome was just a slightly better (in some ways) mode of travel. The travel itself is the goal, the transportation is just part of the fun! Bringing the kids and seeing their faces when they see something incredible for the first time is absolutely amazing, every time, even when they get bigger than you! (that is a whole other subject!)

Back to Aspen…

So, we wound our way through a few towns and ended up in Aspen. I think we spent a night on the way, and then we got to Aspen. I had been there once before during ski season and I wanted to see it in summer.

I was also very much looking forward to the extremely rare pleasure of showing Kim some place that I had been and she had not. Her mom is the Travel Agent, not mine.

Aspen was great, but we had a problem. The hotel rooms in Aspen are the ones with the $$$$ next to them in the guide book. We wanted one with the $ or maybe the $$ designation. Not going to happen in Aspen. We found a great room, but it was $300 a night and we had a few nights to go! Not in the budget.

We had to improvise. Here is what we did:

Y’all got a Wal-Mart around here?

Our travels have a long standing relationship with Wal-Mart and this is where it all began. We headed to the local Wal-Mart and made a bee-line for the camping gear!

We had not planned on camping, we had never been camping as a family, we didn’t know what camping areas were nearby but we had a map and we were in the middle of some of the most incredible natural beauty on earth, so we figured we’d find a spot.

We grabbed the essentials, it was all right there. We picked up a huge tent, sleeping bags, pillows, lanterns, folding camp chairs (another lasting love), towels, food, plates…everything. We got everything for about $200.00 and loaded up the Jeep and rolled out searching for adventure.

We couldn’t afford one of these, so we got a tent!

Marble, Colorado

We found that adventure in Marble, Colorado! What an amazing area! Marble is a tiny little town and we followed a mountain dirt road after the pavement ended, heading into the Maroon Bells Snowmass Wilderness Area.

We had already had some fun off-road experiences in Aspen, but these roads were nuts! Just wide enough for the Jeep and a long way down! After a few hair raising minutes, we found our way to a huge and beautiful riverside campsite.

We set-up camp next to the river and had a blast! We roasted marshmallows by a huge campfire and took baths in the icy river water. AJ is still traumatized by the memory! We hiked around and did a bunch of exploring by Jeep.

The road in was a huge part of the fun and we keep trying to find better and better places to drive off-road, like Moab, Utah. While in the Marble area, we explored deep into the wilderness and saw the much photographed Crystal Mill, near the mountain ghost town of Crystal. Tons to see and do in this area.

We stayed three nights and finally packed-it up! It was a blast and we would recommend it to anyone! You have to get out there, have to leave the pavement and the roadside Motels. Explore, find adventure, improvise!

Visit Monday Memories at Planet M Files for more memorable posts!

I love the way travel changes you! The things you see, the places, the people, it all has a way of shifting your outlook and making you see things from a new perspective. The shared experiences bring you closer.

Hail to the Chiefs

Some of the most special memories are created when we visit famous sites. That’s partially because these places are famous for a reason and they are almost always awesome!

The other neat (and unexpected) side effect is that big landmarks come up in real life all the time. Scenes of places like Niagra Falls, Stonehenge, or Mount Rushmore come up all the time in movies and tv shows. When they do, the whole family (almost in unison, as if choreographed) says “We’ve been there!”. We love that!

When that happens, the stories start to flow and the whole day can be re-lived. Usually that’s a good thing! Take Mount Rushmore for example. We’ll never forget that place and as soon as we see it in pictures or on a screen, everybody says “remember that Hail?”. Take a look:

That is hail covering the ground. In our neck of the woods, hail is pretty rare. Hail like this is something we had never seen before, nor since!

We drove up to Mount Rushmore (check out the awesome motorhome parking!) and hopped out. We made it just up to see the monument when the skies opened up and started pelleting everyone with this big marble sized hail. It was crazy as hundreds of people ran for cover!

We huddled under a cover for a few minutes. It wasn’t long before we realized that the end was not in sight! So we scurried back to the relative safety of the motorhome, where we were greeted by two very concerned looking Chinese Shar-Pei’s.

I thought the motorhome would be damaged for sure, but it all worked out fine. We goofed around and the kids ran out and grabbed hail to play with!

The Black Hills

The whole area surrounding Mount Rushmore is very beautiful! The opportunities for camping and hiking are endless. If you prefer to stay on the pavement, there are few areas that offer better driving roads. I wish we could have stayed longer!

The amount of time we did spend, which was just enough to let the hail stop falling, was sufficient for the place to clear out completely! After the hail, we were able to explore the Mount Rushmore area with no crowds at all!

Motorhome travel with kids rocks! Here are a couple more pictures:

I hope you’ve enjoyed our little trip down memory lane!  Stop by Planet M Files for more Memories! 

Remember, if you do go…take the road less traveled!

A Luxury Spot for the Night!

We’re hooked on travel! We love being on the road and after a couple of months at home, we’ve hit the road again! Just a few days away this time, but I bet we’ll see some good stuff and have a great time!

One of the things we do that people who “just don’t understand” raise their eyebrows at is what you see in the picture. There is a word amongst the RV crowd, Wally-docking (who knows if it’s hyphenated, one word, or two?).

Wallydocking is the practice of spending the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot! Most Wal-Marts welcome RV’s and we’ve spent dozens of nights this way. It’s great for those overnight drives and you just need a safe place to pull over and catch some zzz’s! And in the AM, you run in and stock up on supplies! Perfect.

So, you can see that we’re hooked on Wally docking (I’ve covered all three potential ways of writing it now!) and if you run over to Hooked on Houses, you can see what some other bloggers are hooked on today!

Come back and see some pictures of where we end up this weekend! Who knows? Wherever!

Here is the Top 10 list of places we want to visit in the future!

10. Alaska

Amazing Scenery!

Amazing Wildlife!

We hope to drive our motorhome to Alaska. (maybe this summer!)

9. Norway

Fjords and Seaside Villages

Aurora Borealis – The Northern Lights are great from Norway!

We’ll need a boat or a plane to get us here!

8. Easter Island

Mysterious giant statues and extremely remote! Two thumbs up!

7. Antartica

One of only two continents left to set foot on!

Penguins and sea ice await. But brave heavy seas you must!

6. Bora Bora

We’ve had this one on the list for 20 years!

Stay right over the water! Wow!

5. The Great Wall of China

Some things you just have to see in person. This is one for us.

We’ve been to Hong Kong, which is an incredible stop in China.

4. Africa

Amazing and Incredible Wildlife!

I can’t wait to see a baby elephant! Africa is the other continent we have yet to see!

3. The Amazon

We want to see wild macaws!

And go deep into the wildest jungle!

2. Iguazu Falls

This is a close race for number one!

Adjoining three countries, this is one of the most spectacular sites in the world!

And the Grand Finale!

#1 Place we want to visit is:

Machu Picchu

Hopefully we can get there while still able to walk up the Inca Trail!

Truth be told, ten is way to short of a list. That’s why we have this:

This is something you can pick up and flip through anytime. Especially if you’re like we are and are hooked on travel! I was going to put a link to it on Amazon, but they don’t have it…go figure!

Thanks to Julia for hosting Hooked on Fridays, go check it out to see what other bloggers out there are hooked on!

So, two questions:

1. Have any of you ever been to any of these places?

2. Where is the number one place YOU would want to go? (or 10..)

Sometimes, I wish they would stop walking.

When I took this shot, I knew what it would say to me forever. I knew that what I was seeing in front of me was the eternal conundrum of parenthood, you want them to grow, you want them to walk forward day after day, but then again, maybe not!

You wish they could stay just like they are. I know Kim and I think that way all the time. This picture, printed at poster size and hung on the living room wall, has always reminded me that I better get while the gettin’s good!

Everything Boils Down to Pizza

Pizza! How can pizza lead me to talk about this picture? Well, we’re not talking just any ole pizza here, we’re talking fancy pizza, special pizza, magic pizza. You’ll find out more tomorrow on Tasty Tuesday.

But for today, I’ll just tell you that this particular pie reminds us of a trip to New Zealand and Australia we took in December 2004 (Dec. is summer Down Under). It was an amazing trip, an unforgettable string of days that we would recommend to everyone!

Red Tale Sale

It started with a sale on tickets. Some people are a sucker for shoes on sale, some for furniture, some (like my dad) for the best clothes at 80% off. Kim and I, we’re suckers for an air fare sale.

What a sale! Qantas had a sale that had the total price of the tickets at hundreds lower per person than the best fares we’d seen. We haven’t seen them as low since. On an impulse, we booked ‘em. Cool!

The dance went like this: We’re goin’ to Austrail-ya, we’re going to Austrail-ya…excitement filled the house. New Zealand was part of the itinerary too, but we had no idea how magical of a place it is.

New Zealand is Beyond Description

We flew into Auckland from LAX and arrived at about 6:30 am local time. We had not slept much in about 30 hours. But the excitement and the early hour gave us the energy to push ahead.

We rented an SUV and we were off. I was mentally competing against the Amazing Race contestants I had seen get so lost leaving this very airport. I did not get lost. We would so win that show.

Waitomo Glow Worm Caves

Our first stop was just completely out of this world! Really. The Waitomo Glow Worm Caves has to be one of the most amazing displays of God’s creation that we’ve ever witnessed.

Caverns alone are pretty neat. Awesome caverns (a technical term) are a step up. Awesome caverns with little actual glow-in-the-dark bio-luminescent little creatures all over the ceiling is just something else altogether.

The whole area around the caves is a beautiful hilly area with farms, sheep, and all the uniqueness of a foreign culture.

The immediate surrounds of the cave facility is captivating in it’s natural beauty. The place is very nicely done and blends in with the landscape perfectly.

The tour through the caves is magnificent and the highlight is a boat ride, on an underground river with glow worms all over the ceiling. Check out the picture to the right!

Unreal! Sure enough, the light at the end of the tunnel appears and the boat emerges into a rain forest. Truly a highlight of all of our travels.

The Show Must Go On

We only had three nights in New Zealand and a whole list of things we wanted to see, so we moved on pretty fast. We left the caves and asked around for directions for a place to go on a hike in these amazing forests.

After a bit of confusion about the word “hike”, Kiwi’s call it a “bushwalk”, we were directed to a great hike nearby. After that we had an incredible meal of New Zealand Style Barbecue (this was lunch!). And we were off.

The Huka Jet

A few hours of travel through the countryside brought us to one of the things New Zealnd is famous for: Jet Boating. Wow! Take a look at the smiles on our faces:

That was in this: After doing this:

The Huka Jet ride is best explained by video at their website. You really want to see this.

What Could Top That?

Would you believe that the trip kept getting better? Kim and I often discuss which of the umpteen amazing experiences on this trip was the most thrilling. She often settle on the Huka Jet (unless we count Australia). For new Zealand I usually settle on the next place we went.

Rotorua, New Zealand

Adventure central! This medium sized city is surrounded by endless outlets for the adrenaline junkies of the world! New Zealand has some different rules about lawsuits and insurance, so they can get away with more than we can.

Like this for example:

That’s AJ and I in a tricked out dune buggy out letting it rip on a racetrack (and off)! We did this at Off Road New Zealand, just outside of Rotorua. Of course, there is another adrenaline pumping, airline ticket selling, video at the website.

Next?

ZORBING

Adjectives fail me. How do I describe being put inside a giant inflated plastic ball with a little core in the middle (that’s where they put you). This core is lubricated with hot water (free from the geothermal activity in the area) so you basically feel like you’re in a giant washing machine. And then they shove you down a mountain, okay a hill. A big hill.

This is what they call a Zorb:

And here is the hill you roll down in it:

We all laughed as hard as we could all the way down, and came out saying “Dad, can we go again?” Oh wait, I am the dad…I wish my dad had sent his credit card! Um, let me think, I could choose fiscal responsibility, OR, I could choose another trip (or two) down that hill for the most amazing experience EVER. “Oh yeah, we’re goin’ again!”

Another amazing video is available at the website: Zorb Rotorua

Agrodome

After all of that, Kim and I figured we could use a little break from the non-stop action. We thought the Agrodome would provide a little breather. While it wasn’t non-stop thrills, the place was amazing. Here is the website for Agrodome. They have a whole menu of things to do, we stuck with the tame Farm Show and it was awesome. The petting zoo was a big highlight:

Back to Auckland

We wrapped up our stay in New Zealand back in Auckland which could be a whole post in itself, but I’ll just put up a simple picture that warms my heart.

I doubt myself sometimes. I worry that I should have buried the money we spent on this trip in a coffee can in the backyard. Not only this trip, but all of the travel we’ve done. But then I look at the picture at the top of this post, and this picture here and I realize that the time with the family, the experiences we’ve shared, the places we’ve seen…they’re priceless.

Two final things I’d like to say:

1. For most of us who can’t afford a trip like this right now (and I’m right with you, it should be obvious that we know how to SPEND money!) there are very inexpensive ways to get memories like this. I’m going to write a post soon about camping with kids, either in an RV or in a tent (which we’ve done for a week in Colorado). That will be a little more down to earth.

2. For those of you who DID bury your money in a coffee can. My advice is to do the following…click on this link right here… Qantas Airlines

They are having another sale…not a bad one either. $720 round trip fare.

To see some more photos, check out our Photobucket Album

Matlacha (Matt-la-shay) is a colorful little town full of big, colorful art! Lovegrove Gallery is always on my list of stops! This has been one of my favorite places to find art for years now! We are talking “Island Art“ at its finest around here! It’s located on Pine Island, Florida, and you might miss it if you’re not looking for it!

It’s about 25 minutes from Punta Gorda and today was a pretty nice day to visit…a little cold for me, but nice. Jacob and I even had some ice cream. I know I said it was cold out, but they had homemade ice cream! Girl Scout Thin Mint Ice Cream! It wasn’t too cold to have a little!

The photo above was taken in the Lovegrove backyard! As we entered the gallery today they were passing out marshmallows for roasting around their firepit! Jacob really enjoyed that! The town is swarming with visitors at this time of the year and the shops and galleries are extremely busy! I thought it was wonderful to see this art community thriving!

Pine Bay Art and Antiques has a great selection of local art, and they have wonderful books by Robert Macomber that Tim loves! He lives on Pine Island and writes great historical fiction novels. I happened to find a cute little purse here today…wearable art!

There’s a great hotel to stay at located right in the heart of everything.  It’s actually built out OVER the water, with fishing just out the door to your room! That’s right…you walk out your door onto the dock with chairs waiting for you to sit down and “catch the big one” for dinner! Bridge Water Inn is great for families! Can you tell I practically grew up in my Mom’s travel agency?

Here’s one of my favorite things from Matlacha…The Giant Fish! We really should name him because he hangs out on the wall in the kitchen everyday! This is one of the many “colorful art” pieces that decorate the inside and outside of our house.

Here’s another one of my earlier purchases…

Here’s more backyard art at the gallery…a reminder of Hurricane Charley that did so much damage in this area.

Colorful art really does brighten everything up a bit!

LIVE IN COLOR!

Stop by Hooked on Houses to see what others have to share.  It’s “Hooked on Fridays!”

Today at The Inspired Room  you can find links for all the others participating in “A Wonderful Life!” 

There are so many great ideas at Hooked on Houses and The Inspired Room!  

We’ve been home about, what, 2 1/2 weeks? And our last trip included enough harrowing experiences to settle us down, right? Yet the itch is there. Where can we go? It’s SOOO COLD everywhere!

That got me to thinking…”where have we been in January before?” Oh yeah, I remember…The Planning Cruise!

First, Ditch the Kids!

It’s been right at two years since we headed out from Tampa on the Carnival Sensation headed to Key West and Cozumel, Mexico. Now, we’re all about family travel, and we rarely leave the boys behind, but this cruise had a purpose! We were on a mission to get serious about life and make some plans for the new year. You know, a “take the bull by the horns!” kind of thing. So we left the boys with Grandma and we were off.

We were on fire for organization at the time. I mean it was for real! We had files for everything, and each one was labeled, and not by hand, uh uh, these were printed out with a label maker. Yup.

Getting Things Done!

It was all brought on by the book you see in the picture here. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity, by David Allenis a great book on how to organize your life.

The more you have going on, the more you’ll love this book. It promises early on that it IS possible to have amazing, incredible (enough for fifty people, I want to jump off a bridge!) amounts of work to do and still feel great, and calm, and soothed. (as I calmly relieve the force on the keyboard buttons). Shhhhhh…it’s okay.

Anyway, the book is a great book and I would recommend it.

So we were off to plan out 2007. We were going to figure it all out ahead of time. This way it would flow perfectly. Right? What are you laughing at?

Needless to say, things didn’t go as planned. Not a thing. In fact, not much of anything has gone as planned ever since that cruise! Maybe it was something in the food. Or the tequila…

One Tequila, Two Tequila, Three Tequila, Floor!!!

That’s what the funny T-Shirt in Cozumel Mexico said on it. Still Cracks me up! We had a great time, and we didn’t partake in too much of the local flavor. But, like I said, it was a really fun time and we took time off from the planning while we were in port.

We started off having breakfast in a great little restaurant right in the center of town. I wish I could remember the name of it, but at least I know how to find it when we return.

One of my favorite parts of breakfast was the building itself! If you look closely in the picture to the right, you’ll see the huge glass shutters/doors/windows. Awesome! I had to have a picture so I can make some…soon too; I had forgotten! I love the tone of Mexican woodworking. Really very detailed, but not too perfect. You can tell it was made by hand. Love it.

Rent a Mexican Moped, Dude!

We rented a scooter first thing when we got off the boat. So when we were done looking around a little after breakfast we had to hit the road. Where to? The road less traveled of course!

The downtown area near the ships is packed. It’s fun but after being stuck on that ship, we wanted to get away from the crowds for awhile. We headed directly across the island toward the beaches on the opposite coast. I’d read about a little watering hole over there called Mescalito’s. It sounded interesting so we decided to check it out.

While a little more horsepower on the moped might have helped, we did eventually make it, but not before stopping and buying an awesome tropical colored Mexican blanket. It was supposed to be Kim’s, but I’ve since confiscated it. I love that thing!

The Path Less Traveled!

Here is what we found when we got off the beaten path:

The beach was beautiful! The water was perfect! Kim scoured the sands and found a mother load of incredible sea glass. She can walk on a beach for hours and I’m happy to watch her.

We took the long coast road back, narrowly escaping certain death when I had to pull some moves out of my boyhood days. I know the guys know, but I wonder how many of you ladies know what a “bunny-hop” is?

Anyway, I had to do one with a scooter carrying two people at 40mph! We were just cruising and wouldn’t you know it, right as a big truck was coming the other way, a huge pothole appeared out of nowhere! I swear, I wasn’t looking at the ocean and the scenery! Really! Anyway, we flew over that thing and I still don’t know how. It was the size of…hmmm (in terms the readers could understand?) a fire pit from Target! Same size! I bet you can picture that!

Be the Last People On-Board!

Having made it safely back to town we spent the rest of the day exploring the area near the port. It was a blast!

Kim found this beautiful bright yellow dress and had to have it. She wore it right out of the store! I think it’s the only time I’ve ever seen her do that! She was raised to know how to have a good time in a tropical island port-of-call. I lucked out big time!

She let me talk her into getting one of those temporary tattoos. It was fun. Really fun!

The Plans?

Like I said, no joy on the plans we made. So much has changed! But our love for foreign places (especially in the Tropics) will never change. So we’ll be heading somewhere soon. Maybe a little closer to home this time…

But you know, I have a job right next to where that cruise ship docks in Tampa. Every few weeks I’ll happen to be there on the day the ship is in and I’ll stand out on the 17th floor balcony and look down at that ship and think…”it would be fun to go again!” Just not in January…water is too rough!

Forever…Wherever!!!