Vacation Time!

We took several photos during our time at Craig & Sandy's house for Christmas with the kids - and grandkid (soon to be plural). I am posting some photos here so that the rest of the family can see them without me sending an email and filling up your alls InBox.  You're welcome.  Enjoy.... What things looked like BEFORE the storm THE INFAMOUS Stair picture Will got a football in his stocking and seems to be enjoying it Aunt Shelby's present of a Ball Pit - For the Win! Will driving his new truck - and he's not even 1 yet Will sharing his snacks with Axle Night, night.  It's been a LONG day

Our last full day here started on the sun deck, but we had to be back in the room by 11 to trade out to another room.  The bellhop didn't come until Noon.  We grabbed a quick bite here at the hotel and then back to the sun deck until 4. We turned in our beach towels and took showers.  We went to the Kukulcan mall and bought more things for Will.  Then across the street we went to eat at La Distilleria again.  We both had flavored margaritas - and they were epic. We have the Penn State / Wisconsin football game on TV.  We leave here at 0600 tomorrow and return to the land of the cold, dark, and work.  That last bit, that's the down side. So, no more posts on this here blog until our next vacation - whenever that will be.  March 2017 to somewhere. Thanks for reading.  You've been a lovely audience. Our balcony view - overlooking the pool. The Royal Caribbean Resort, Cancun, MX. Saturday, 03 DEC 2016 For those of you sti...

I rolled at 9:45 this morning and my room was already empty.  I looked toward the pool and saw my bride already sunning herself.  There was no wind today, so we quickly left the Sahara-like pool side and hit the sun deck, where the breeze was slightly better than zero. We ate lunch at the Trade Winds restaurant here at the hotel.  We split two appetizers - barbecue chicken wings and nachos grande.  Back to the sun deck until 4:30.  We took showers and then headed off to Lorenzillo's for dinner.  We sat on the deck overlooking the lagoon and watched the sun set for the day. Sun setting over the lagoon in Cancun, MX Sandy ordered the stuffed filet minot - stuffed with lobster, shrimp, and mushrooms.  I got the Lorenzillo's special - which looked like this: Craig's dinner at Lorenzillo's It cooled off at least ten degrees while we ate and the sun went down.  We enjoyed our French onion soup appetizer and our meals in general. ...

Got an email from Kathy that her son Will likes to entertain himself during bath time.  Me?  I think he enjoys seafood!  He'd fit right in down here in Cancun. Will "eating" his bath toy fish.  Poor Dory! I asked Grandma Sandy if she was missing the little guy.  Bad idea.  She misses him something fierce!  We're biased, but we think he's a pretty awesome little dude... Next trip we kidnap him and bring him with us!

Hey everybody, it's December and the first Thursday.  I'm missing poker night, but I'm winning since the low here is 74 F. It was 'posed to rain today and when we arose this morning it was mostly cloudy.  We called an audible "Oklahoma!" and took a bus to the La Isla mall for a day of shopping.  We had lunch at Johnny Rockets, and enjoyed the burgers quite a bit.  We shopped - and in fact, we completed our shopping for this trip.  The sun broke out, so we came back to the hotel and switched to our suits and hit the sun deck. I talked Sandy into joining me in the ocean.  Yes, that is correct.  This is not a typo.  Sandy went into the ocean.  We could walk out almost 100 yards before it got deep enough to be a concern.  So she took her phone and her little hiney out there with me.  Check out the pictures: In the ocean, looking North up the island of Cancun. Photo taken on a Samsung Galaxy S5 Active phone. One of Sandy's c...

So we both got some better rest last night.  We rolled at 10 and hit the pool, which quickly turned to the sun deck to avoid loud neighbors and smoke.  We had lunch at the restaurant next to the pool, the Trade Winds.  I finally felt like eating, but just a little. Sandy returned to the sun deck while I stayed in the room and finished a book.  The maid arrived and I met Sandy on the sun deck.  As I was walking around, an older lady asked what I thought about the "ship" we've been seeing offshore each day.  I told her that I suspected that it was military - and she replied that she knew it was because a friend was deep sea fishing yesterday and was stopped by said ship.  She said it had guns and the friend was "held captive" for 45 minutes while they searched the fishing boat and checked their story.  She said it worried her.  I told her that it should make her more comfortable - as the target is being hardened.  She then asked about th...

So I spent the day on the couch.  I ate little to nothing.  Sandy went out for some sun and just tried to stay away from me. We have attempted to figure out what caused this "bug" without much success.  Sandy remembers that "last time" this happened.  Funny.  I would remember something like this, no? So I looked up my blog.  I actually got ill the last day of our trip one year ago.  Same thing.  Oh well, for the most part I am over it. Sadly though, I have slept all day and am not tired.  Here are a couple of pictures that Sandy took from the sun deck today.  Yep, it's still awesome here!

Not much different than the past three days.... What are we going to do today, Brain? Same thing we do every day, Pinky - try to take over the world. I saw in the ocean a bit.  We ate a Pacos Tacos for lunch. After showers, my head started to hurt.  I took some aspirin and then my wittle tummy got upset. We tried to eat dinner at the Cove, but I did not participate.  Sandy enjoyed her dinner though. I spent the night getting up every two hours - and on the third wake-up I would take a hot shower to try and warm up.  Not fun.

So it appears as though Cancun is trying to cash in on yet another 'touristy' item.  And I quote: "Our handcrafted Hefeweizen beer is golden in color with a smooth body from the wheat malt, with hints of spices and orange peel from our local farm combine to create the real El Jefe Cancun." And I must say that after having consumed two of these Jefe's, that description pretty much covers it.  This is an unfiltered wheat beer, with hints of orange - think Blue Moon, but lighter.  It has a rich taste with a light finish.  This is not a one & done type of beer, but one you could enjoy all day long sitting by the pool, or by the beach...come to think of it, I'll have another... Is it the best beer I've ever had?  Not by a long shot.  It does, however, beat the crap out of Corona. One thing though, the name cracks me up.  If you did not see 22 Jump Street then you probably don't find it as funny.  RePhil?  He's doubled over right n...

We called it quits last night at 10:15 pm.  We rolled out at 8:45 am.  Pretty good sleepy time. We hit the pool deck, had lunch, and then relocated to the sun deck later in the day.  Today was the picnic, so we avoided the sun deck for that time. It was a bit more breezy today, but only up to about 10 mph.  It reached 84 F today.  Mostly sunny.  Hardly a sprinkle. We walked next door to the traditional Mayan dinner outside.  We took pictures of the corn chowder for the girls.  There was a crocodile there sunning herself. We walked back to the hotel and had some key lime pie.  Back in the room now, watching the football games.  Rough, rough day. I do not recall sharing my adventure in the ocean yesterday.  I went out to the beach, walked past the volleyball court, and laid my shirt & sunglasses on the chair closest to the court.  Then I went in.  The water got really deep really fast, as in like 10' from shore...

So we crashed after Jeopardy! last night - and got up promptly with our alarm at 7:30 am.  Why did we have a 7:30 alarm, you ask?  We didn't.  The person here before us was kind enough to leave that sucker on.  We went back to sleep afterwards, and rolled about 9.  That's 13 hours of catch up, and we needed it. We hit the pool.  There was almost no one here, like ten people total.  That increased as the day wore on.  We stayed and ate lunch by the pool.  We moved to the sun deck about 2.  A very light rain that lasted about 30 seconds hit us, but did not deter us.  We stayed out until about 4:30. Showers and then a bus ride to Lorenzillo's.  I had the lobster burrito and Sandy had the filet with portobello mushrooms.  Of course we had the bread basket and the onion soup, as always!  Fantastic meal. We did not watch much football today.  We saw where Harbaugh's Wolverines lost in double-overtime to THE Ohio ...

After crashing at about 11 pm Thanksgiving night, the alarm went off at 3 am this morning.  Our flight went wheels up at 0710 in Indy.  We hit Atlanta, grabbed a quick bite during our 45 minute layover, and then headed off to Cancun. We arrived here 15 minutes early, so we sat on the tarmac while a gate came open.  We made it through immigration, got our luggage (Sandy's was about 3rd off the plane!), and then through customs.  We made it to the hotel by 12:15.  We checked in and then had our credit card denied. Yes, I called the credit card companies last night and told them that we would be in Mexico and the charges most likely were legitimate.  So we headed downstairs and ordered lunch.  While I sipped on liquid refreshment, I called the credit card company again.  It seems that our paying for a taxi at the airport and then trying to put a week's worth of hotel charges on the card within 30 minutes tripped the Fraud alert.  Criminals w...

Sandy beat the maid out this morning, but that's only because she (the maid) turned off the main air conditioner.  Thus, it was 80 degrees in the living room and 70 in our bedroom - which means warm humid air meeting dry cooler air which equals water - water condensing on our return air fan and on our lights - and said water dripping onto the floor.  All this got Sandy up around 7 am.  Not me.  True Seager that I am, I slept right through it. It was slightly overcast today, but just barely.  We hit the pool, then lunch here, then sun deck.  I did go out in the ocean to say goodbye for this trip.  It was rough today. We hit the road about 5:15 to eat dinner at Lorenzillo's again.  We had the clams au gratin on the half shell for appetizers.  Then we each had the Trafalgar - that's Lorenzillo's name for French Onion Soup.  Then we had stuffed meats.  I had the grouper, Sandy the steak.  Each was stuffed with shrimp, lobster, ...

Maid got us out of bed this morning at 9:50.  We hit the pool until lunch. We walked next door to Paco's Taco's.  We ordered the chilpolte chicken nachos as an appetizer. Sandy got the chimmi-chunga and I got the Gringas (pork tacos with pineapple).  I ordered these for Kathy and Shelby since they were not here.  I passed on the orange sauce, which after just a taste, burned my mouth for the duration of the meal. We saw the cousin doing paintings on tile.  What Sandy thought was a surfboard in the painting was actually a boat - and not a good rendition of either.  We passed on the tile art all around. After lunch we hit the sun deck and I went to the ocean.  After a nap, we headed to the paint shop - they had a Nemo bank - but alas, since they are closed Saturdays, there was not enough time.  Oh well.  We'll just have to come back. We took showers and then the bus to La Distilleria for dinner.  We each ordered a different version...

Up and out at about the usual this morning.  However, our maid likes to come earlier and earlier each morning.  She was here at 9:45 today.  Oh well.  We hit the chairs next to the pool bar. I did take a moment to type some snarky comments on FB to sister Joan on her BD. We stayed there until lunch, where we walked next door and ate outside under Paco's Taco's.  The wait staff had on green hats for St. Paddy's Day.  They also served us green chips with our salsa.  Back to the room to reslather with sun screen and then off to the sun deck.  We spent the rest of the afternoon there.  I wore my brilliant orange PF shirt today, so anyone watching the hotel camera should have been able to pick me out. Dinner tonight was walking over to el Cap-i-tan.  Sandy took a photo of the mints and texted them to the kids.  That's because she is a meanie-head. We did not get to watch the Purdue game, but saw the outcome.  Texts and FB...

Got up and hit the pool by 10.  Sandy moved us down by the water aerobics pool.  And our new neighbor was a cigar smoker.  We moved to the pool bar.  We ate lunch outside next to the pool bar. We reslathered with sun screen and hit the ocean - yes, even Sandy got in the ocean. We stayed there until it got too hot.  Moved back up to the sun deck. I was wet most of the day:  pool to ocean to pool and back again. If you are watching the hotel camera, look for my Pheasants Forever shirt - it's bright orange.  We are on the sun deck in the afternoons. After showers we decided to try a new restaurant for dinner.  So we walked down to Puerto Modero, an Argentinian steak house (there was no chicken on the menu at all!).  Sandy tried the 13 oz Wagyu beef tenderloin (ordered medium - which was about tartar - and I had to finish it).  I tried the Alaskan King Crab legs in tempura.  Overall a nice meal at a nice price.  We agreed we...

Slept in a little bit today as well.  Headed for the pool at 10.  Our seat mates next to us were smokers so we relocated to the pool bar. We ate lunch here at the hotel, sitting on the outside deck across from the pool bar.  We spent the rest of the day on the sun deck.  We alternated from pool to sun deck to beach to sun deck, etc.  Some of us spent more time in the water today than on the lounge chair.  I'll let you decide which one of us that was.  The other one?  She spent more time in the chair than in the pool, but she did get wet at least 3 times. I took a photo of the beach.  Up until today there has been ZERO seaweed.  The hotel had to scrounge around to find enough to create their welcome sign.  Today there was some, but I still would consider it none, relatively speaking. We came up to the room right at 3 today for showers.  We've taken in plenty of sun and are sure to have some peeling and dry skin to contend ...

Had to do a restart - pictures now working.  Enjoy! Had our waiter take this picture for us. Yet another gorgeous sunset over the Lagoon in Cancun, MX. The sign reads. "I fed the Fish at Lorenzillo's" which in fact I did. And, the fishes fed me too.

Slept in just a little today - but did not sleep well last night.  Still tired.  We hung around the room until 11 and then went out for shopping and lunch.  We got all of our shopping done! I tried to get Grandma to pick just ONE outfit for Will - she said Why?  We're grandparents and we're supposed to buy lots and lots....and we did.... Back to the room for naps.  They were wonderful!  Read for a bit too. Went out to Lorenzillo's for dinner.  Took some great sunset pictures. Back at the room for some TV and catch up on FB and email. Tonight was LOI for the boys.  We tried to send texts and see how it went.  I don't think the texts went through. Forecast shows that maybe we'll see some rain tomorrow or late Wednesday.  We'll see. And now I cannot get my pictures to load on this blog.  Will reset and try again.

We went to bed last night here at 8 pm.  We got up this morning at 10 am.  14 hours of sleep.  Pretty rare - especially for Sandy.  Yes, we were tired.  Refreshed, we tried to apply liberal amounts of sun screen before hitting the pool.  And at 11 am, we had to take what we could get.  It was crowded. And just so you know, Cancun does not change time zones.  So while you all in Indiana "sprung ahead" an hour, we did not lose an hour of vacation.  Thus, we are now one hour behind you at home. We went next door to eat lunch and then back to the pool.  I ran into my SCUBA instructor - the one who certified me.  We chatted about new dive possibilities.  No surprise that Sandy is out. We laid around, skipped the Welcome Party (although I did walk down and get a free beer), and then headed upstairs at 4 to shower.  We applied sunscreen only once today - which is not a good idea.  We both have places that are tende...

After a very short night, we rolled out at 3:30 am for the Indy International airport.  Crowds were busy, but not record breaking.  It is, after all, Spring Break. Loaded the airplane, no problem.  Then we waited.  Something mechanical was wrong - and we were waiting on the mechanics.  Seems that the guy across the aisle from us WAS a Delta mechanic.  He went out and fixed the problem.  We left 1 hour behind schedule. We arrived in Atlanta at 8:30 and pulled up toward our gate.  Stop.  Gate was not working.  Had to switch gates.  We laughed that the door would probably be frozen shut and we would not be able to even get off the plane. We grabbed the train and went directly to our connection.  They were already loading.  We put wheels on the ground in Cancun at 12:10 pm. We got off the plane okay, but the lines in Immigration were enormous.  We had never seen lines this long.  We hit the far right line and...