Bits and Pieces

No pictures to share - just a few items to blog about!

The Christmas decorations are up, even the tree!  I find it's really nice to try and get it done the weekend BEFORE Thanksgiving so when we do get home from our Denver get together with the kids and grand kids, I can start the wrapping of the gifts that I just KNOW I'll buy on Black Friday!

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Last Thursday we had a delightful evening with friends Dick and Jane at the Mona Lisa Fondue restaurant!  Of course it was the coldest night so far this season and had snowed during the day so the roads were slick but we managed to make it down the pass just fine!  Our meals were 1/2 price, due to a Groupon I had bought for both of us and we really had a fun evening.  Dick and Jane had never been to a fondue place before and we all stuffed ourselves, almost to the point that we couldn't even eat all of the dark chocolate for dessert!

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Saturday we looked at 5th wheels!  I have a check off list that is required for the 5th wheel that we purchase and since we're looking for a smaller one, they're few and far between!  But one popped up on the Internet this last week and by the pictures, it looked perfect!  SO we headed out in the snow and gloom and cold on Saturday and after stopping for breakfast, headed to Pueblo to take a peek at it!  It was everything I was hoping for -  and had a couch/table combination unlike anything I'd seen before so I was thrilled with it!  We had another one to look at in Colorado Springs so didn't make an offer on it but I'm hoping Glenn will call today because I do want it!!

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After checking out another 5th wheel in Colorado Springs and then stopping for some great coffee and a sandwich, we headed back up to Woodland Park and saw "The Hunger Games" - yes, it was just as good as the first segment and followed the book pretty well!  The theater was packed as you can imagine and it always makes me smile when our little theater up here gets opening movies quite often!!

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Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

An Evan and Kenzie Weekend

Check out these two cuties!!  They're excited because I bought them smoothies!!

It was babysitting weekend for Glenn and I as Jessi and Gary headed to Mt Princeton Hot Springs for 2 nights of fun and relaxation!!  They dropped off the kids at work and luckily Evan and Kenzie are VERY patient kids as I had clients in for almost 2 hours straight and they had to hang out upstairs -  I had brought colors and paper and Jessi had left her IPAD so they were content until it was FINALLY time to head out the door!

I walked in the house when I got home and Jessi had left a beautiful bouquet of flowers for us (they had stopped at the house to get water and Glenn's bathrobe) - they  opened during the weekend and were sure pretty!!

It was a great weekend except it was very windy outside so we couldn't spend a lot of time out there - but we found plenty of other things to do!!  Like exercise?????

I had the kids pick out what they wanted to eat for the weekend - pizza was on the agenda for Friday night along with homemade popcorn by Papa and juice boxes!!  We watched "Monsters University" and it was sure cute!!

The marble game is always fun to build - although I think Jessi does a much better job than I do - must be that year she took of engineering!

Evan requested cinnamon rolls!!

Besides making the place cards for our Thanksgiving dinner, we also did the pine cones covered in bird seed!  I tried Karo syrup this year instead of peanut butter and it seemed to work just fine!

Hot dogs and French fries were on the docket for Saturday night - along with chocolate ice cream!!  We watched Epic that night.

Also enjoyed playing Bingo with the kids using Smarties candy as markers!!  The kids had brought me an entire baggie full of them from their Halloween candy so we had plenty!!

The kids went to bed great and slept all night which is always a bonus for us old folks!!  We had a great time babysitting them and I know they'll look forward to coming back again!!

Good Bye Tulum....................

One last look at the Xamach beach - the day dawned cloudy so there was no spectacular sunrise but at least the clouds moved out while we packed up!

We had a great breakfast of fresh fruit and banana pancakes!

Here's 2 of our new friends - mother and daughter - relaxing in the hammock!!

We said our goodbyes and headed out!

We knew the road would be bad from all the rain and sure enough, it looked like this the majority of the way!!

But then it got worse....................

Luckily we had the high clearance jeep so there was no problem getting through the water and we made it back to Tulum and then on back to Cancun to turn in the rental car!

Believe it or not, the trip back home was uneventful - the best kind of flight!  And it was nice to set our clocks back that hour too!   Until next time Mexico.....................

Party Time

This picture was supposed to be a WHOLE lot prettier than it shows - I saw it the first day on my walk but didn't have my camera and by the time I got back there on the last day, there was no sun shining............

Glenn fished some more and caught this very small snapper but decided he needed one more fishing picture so I snapped it!

Early evening we had a barbecue!  The sun was just setting so it was gorgeous outside!

The Argentine sausage and steak was so good and the rib was tasty too!!  They did baked potatoes on the grill too so we had a feast!!

And then it was party time - here's the help standing behind the bar!

This is Dan the owner who plays a mean air guitar on a paddle!  Glenn and I started dancing and soon we had most everybody out there dancing away............

I actually played the BEST air guitar but of course since I'm the photographer, nobody took a picture of me.........gosh we had fun!!!

We danced to some oldies but goodies and some great Mexican music but after that great meal and some pina coladas, we didn't last too late!!

The Elusive Sun

I kept waiting for that beautiful sunrise but it just wouldn't happen because of all the clouds - sometimes there would be a morning shower but if not, the sun still hid behind the clouds!!

 

Morning coffee was always out by the time we got up - Glenn was their best customer!

 

 

Raking the sand was a daily occurrence and here is Hugo's daughter, raking away!

Breakfast was always delicious - with all the fresh fruit available in Mexico, Glenn and I were always happy to devour a plate!!

Huevos Rancheros was on the menu Thursday morning - a little spicy for me but I managed!

Let's see - what did I do all day?  3 guesses huh? I'm sure I was on my 4th book by now so my day was spent between the balcony and the hammock - with a few breaks to check the email and blog!

I panicked when I checked the business email as there was an attachment from our work comp people which was a "First Report of Injury" and then another email with a list of medical providers to use - I immediately emailed Charles (who was in charge) and said I needed to know IMMEDIATELY who got hurt!!!  He was probably typing me an email at the same time and in a few minutes he let me know that one of the guys had hurt his finger and because they wouldn't treat him at emergency care because it was a work related injury, Charles had to turn it into work comp and get him to the hospital ER - but everything turned out fine he said and I breathed a sigh of relief!!

Glenn spent most of the day fishing and helping the guys rake the seaweed!  The resort was having an over abundance of seaweed wash up every day on the beach and what a job to rake that up and get rid of it!!

A typical lunch at Xamach - absolutely delicious!!

The fisherman coming in from fishing with NO FISH!!  What's up with that?????

But because Glenn helped the guys rake the beach, they went out in the boat later on and did catch a couple of fish!

At least we had one decent sunset, even though it was the reflection as the sun set on the other side of the ocean.

Glenn, Hugo and Armando................

Late afternoon we had 2 more sets of people arrive so now we weren't the only ones there!!  One couple was from Berlin, Germany and they were fun to talk to - they spoke very good English!  The other 2 couples were Sherry and Barry from San Francisco and their daughter and her fiance, Samantha and Lane!   After visiting with them, it was fun to discover that Sherry's mom and dad live in Woodland Park and Sherry has a rental property there - small world!!

It was a fun evening EXCEPT for the mosquitoes and the noseeums - they were relentless that night as there wasn't much of a breeze and I got bit up so bad!  That darn rain just kept those biting things around and the bug spray was sure in demand that night!!

No Worries..................

My morning walk is the above picture - the first time I walked it, I had visions of the jaguar coming out of the jungle - but luckily he didn't appear!!  It was fun to walk along the shore and see what the tide had brought in that morning - shoes, bottles, ropes - it's amazing how much washes up!

Another picture of our treetop cabana which didn't get posted the day before - our home away from home!

We brought Hugo a Broncos hat and he loved it! 

This will be a pretty boring post because all I did all day long was READ - it was heavenly!!  I would rotate between the chair on our balcony and the hammock - and then stop in between for meals - ha ha!!

We did have some sun on Wednesday - it was sure hard to come by though..........lots of storm clouds and sometimes lots of wind but I still had the perfect spot as the table and chairs in our cabana was right in front of the screens that looked out on the beach - yes I could see myself sitting here hour after hour on my computer, just typing and peeking out at that beautiful beach!

Glenn fished whenever it wasn't too windy and caught more snapper for dinner that evening!

Ah, one of my favorite spots!

 

Here's the view from the hammock - as you can see, it was blue blue sky when I took this picture!

Glenn at happy hour later that day - he was all smiles after catching some fish!

The noseeum's and mosquitoes were relentless that evening as there was no breeze - we used up all of the bug spray we had and borrowed some to get us through the evening - dinner was snapper again and it's amazing how good the food tasted eating it all outside!

The owner Dan and the chef played their nightly game of chess before we headed to bed that night!

Yes, that's my pink IPOD case on the table - they had a huge boom box at the restaurant so I would bring my IPOD over and plug it in while we ate since we were still the only couple there!

Sleeping was fine that night and you can just imagine what it did during the night once again - yup it rained once again...............

Our Next Adventure at Xamach Dos

As promised, the sunset pics from the night before!

I would like to say that it didn't rain again during the night but I can't - by now we were getting used to that softy gently falling sound and it lulled us to sleep all 3 nights!

Tuesday morning was move day - after another delicious breakfast, we loaded our bags in the jeep and said goodbye to Nueva Vida de Ramiro - I truly love that place and if possible, will stay there again!

And then we were off to Xamach Dos!  The actual distance to this off the grid place is about 25 km but we knew it would take awhile with the bad roads - to the tune of 1 hour and 40 minutes!!  The road was hideous - huge, huge water holes which you didn't know how deep or how many rocks were in them - and a bumpy rocky road when there wasn't water!!  Yes, the rain had virtually destroyed this road and we were so glad we had the jeep!

Check out this picture that I took as we were driving - the size of those water holes is what we encountered the entire way!

We actually joked about instead of riding an ATV on the rocky trails of Colorado, we were riding in a jeep down a jungle trail filled with water!  Many of the water holes stretched from one side of the road to the other.

I had visions of a jaguar popping out of those trees at any time and was surprised to find out when we got there that a jaguar has been seen on the road and had killed 5 local dogs this last summer!

We had booked the treehouse - and here again we are talking VERY rustic!!  The owner Dan has built each cabana and he uses a lot of driftwood and shells for décor - quite unique!

 

Quite the bathtub in this tree house - but the instant hot water was wonderful!

This is the view from the bed - it couldn't be beat!

Their new chef served us a delicious lunch of chicken, rice and beans and while Glenn started in on the beer, I stuck with wonderful fruit juice!

Glenn immediately grabbed his fishing gear and started in while I unpacked and discovered the cute little balcony that was inviting me - book #3 was calling!

My view of the beach from the balcony - sunny at times, shady at other times so a perfect blend!

Glenn caught dinner for all of us (well the help and us - we were the only guests at this time) and we had some yummy snapper with garlic butter for dinner that evening - I was so hungry by this time as they eat later than we usually do, that I forgot to take a picture of our plates so here is the extra snapper and he tasted just as good as he looked!

Pictures are hard to take at night since the lighting is subdued but we took one anyway!  It was a fun night just sitting around with Dan the owner, Michelle (Dan's daughter who runs the place), her guy Hugo, the new chef Adrian and the handyman Armando!  Some chess was played, some wine, beer and tequila consumed, and lots of talk - it was great!

We both slept like logs that first night - and I knew Glenn was already dreaming about the big fish he was going to catch the next day!!