July 4th and 5th in Mexico

July 4^th, 2011

Greetings from the Melia Cabo Real in Cabo San Lucas Mexico! W

e have arrived and are doing most splendidly!

Yester

day (the 4^th) started our adventure…with a mix up at the airport! The computer system would not let us check in! As it would turn out, Cheap Tickets did not inform us of some flight changes, and we had missed our flight leaving Spokane. After making SURE to tell the ticket counter guy that we were leaving for our honeymoon, he found us a different flight path, got us booked for exit rows (2^nd best to first class – more leg room!), Mom and Dad fixed our shuttle to the hotel, and we were on our way.

The first flight was from Spokane to Portland, and it was very empty. The pilot told us about all the places we were flying over, including Mt. Baker, Mt. Adams, and the Cascade range. Then, the pilot announced that he requested a special, up close flyby of Mt. Hood and that it would be on the left side of the plane. Then he did a wing tip to the left and there it was! We could have touched the mountain…it was so beautiful and definitely a treat!

On our way from Portland to San Francisco, we flew over the Sierra Nevada mountains and saw Mt. Shasta. Both of us were on the lookout for Eagle lake, but none of the lakes we saw looked to be the right shape or big enough.

When we arrived in Mexico and stepped off of the plane, we were hit in the face with massive amounts of humidity and heat. Everything was automatically sticky! Papers do not stay crisp…they are always damp! We made it through customs without incident, pushed our way through the most obnoxious time share people in the world, and our shuttle driver greeted us by name without prompting. More like rescued us…those time share people are everywhere in the airport and it is so easy to become confused. Anyhow, we got on the shuttle and after 20 minutes of INSANE driving, made it to our hotel.

At the hotel, after announcing that we were on our honeymoon, we were upgraded to an ocean view room, our bags were carried everywhere for us, and we had champagne and air conditioning waiting in our ro

om. AC never felt so good! Both of us were so exhausted from being up for some 28 hours, so we just hung around for a bit, unpacked, and…hung up four American Flags so that we could privately celebrate the 4^th of July!

Eventually we went to dinner, where they were serving BBQ. We are wondering if it was the hotel’s tribute to the Americans that are staying here. Whatever the case, the food was delicious! We were not at all disappointed. After dinner we explored the resort a bit more and when it got dark (much earlier than in Washington), we walked on the beach a little bit. We were all alone…the hotel is surprisingly not crowded, nor is the beach. Must be the crazy humidity! Out of nowhere, the Hilton, which is right next door, put on a beautiful fireworks display for the Americans staying there…right over our heads! It was absolutely magical! So, even though we are in Mexico, we celebrated our country as much as possible! As we are writing this…we have FOX News playing on our television…which is also very American and quite exciting for us. We will be watching the shuttle launch on Friday for sure!

So far, we are lovi

ng our honeymoon. The people here are very friendly, and we are trying to pick up on some of the more simple Spanish. The service is amazing and the place is beautiful. Our only disappointment has been the clouds! There are some storms off shore somewhere that are causing it to be very cloudy here. Hopefully it will clear up soon and we will see the sun!

Right now, we are getting ready to head downstairs to the activities director to see what our options are while we are here. We saw a horseback ride on the beach yesterday and are pretty sold on finding a stable and we want to go for a sailboat ride around the peninsula.

We hope everyone had an amazing 4^th of July and we would like to wish Joshua, Heather’s brother, a very Happy 20^th Birthday today! We will update again when we can. For now…adios!

July 5, 2011

In an effort to become acclimated to Cabo, we have made it a point to sleep in everyday. Today was no exception, as we rolled out of bed around 8AM. We had a crazy night last night, and went to bed around 930PM. I know, some of you are thinking that we should take it easy, but our ability to party cannot be matched, so we must take advantage of this skill! In all seriousness though, we are pooped. We’ve still not really caught up on our sleep so we are trying to do that in these first few days.

The food here continues to be amazing. We haven’t had a bad meal yet, and are always looking forward to the next one. They serve real eggs! That by itself is awesome. The rest of the food is divine and is just “frosting on the cake.”

This morning, we ventured out of the confines of the hotel and walked down the beach about a half mile.

The waves are huge and it is no wonder to us why swimming is not advised. You would be pulled out in j

ust a couple

of waves. On our way, we saw a dead crab, and a dead pelican. Heather did not appreciate the former. As we walk on the beach, you can see all these pin holes where crabs dig in overnight. Once in a while we come across a big one, so I am continually on the lookout for the biggest one.

After we got back, we relaxed by the pool for a couple hours and read (Margaritas are generally in hand while pool time is happening). We both enjoy all of the down time. We are planning on heading out to Cabo San Lucas in the next couple days and do some activities like snorkeling, sailing, and horseback riding on the beach, although there are no solid plans to do these at the present.

We ate a delicious dinner at a hotel restaurant where they had Mexican cuisine; it is apparent that they know how to make this food! While there, they had a family playing a marimba that looked to be home-made. The resonators were a little rough, but other than that, it sounded excellent. The dad generally played the melody, which was usually pretty fast, and the 5-7 year old daughter and son were using double mallet technique to accompany him, with little effort but amazing results! For a few songs, the kids just played, which was a blast to watch. After dinner, we watched some piñata activity, and then called it a night. Great day!