Fully Alive…Ready to Smile

posted by erin on Mar 14

What can I say about my vacation?  It was warm.  Nuf said!  

No?  That’s not enough?  Okay, where to begin…

I wish I had stories of grand adventures to tell you.  But I don’t.  Some peoples’ idea of a holiday is being busy all the time, sightseeing, cramming every minute full.  My idea of a holiday is 80% relaxation and doing as little as possible, 20% other.  I was perfectly happy to sit my butt down on a lounge chair by the pool and just enjoy the nothingness.  I haven’t had so little to think about in 6 years and it was refreshing to empty my mind of responsibility and just be.  I forgot what it was like to feel that relaxed.  It was what I needed and I came home with a new perspective and a clear head, ready to take on life again.  

Well, that was how I felt yesterday, anyhow.  Today I’d like to be back there.  I swear my tan is already falling off in this ridiculous dryness

I guess because I’ve been there so many times, I didn’t feel the NEED to do anything.  We did a lot of the so called “touristy” things the first couple times that I was there with my family and now it’s just a place that I feel at home and able to relax.  We ate so much good food.  We played cards in the evenings.  We laughed and had fun.  We walked on the beach and swam in the ocean.  Jer and Chad went boogie boarding and hunting for lobster (which they did find and we ate).        

I spent most days lying by the pool, soaking up the sun and admiring the pool boy reading my books.  I did, however, pull myself away from my perch a few times.  We did some shopping (although all I came home with was a bottle of vanilla and a gift for my girls…the stuff doesn’t change from one year to the next and I’ve been there, done that, got the t-shirt…literally!).  We went to the mercado (market) one morning and bought fresh seafood for dinner.  We went to the cathedral (which I had never seen in all my trips there) and looked around for a while.  I could have spent hours there taking pictures, but it felt really disrespectful of the people that were there to worship and pray.  We took a boat tour to one of the islands across from the mainland (Deer Island) and saw sealions and dolphins and spent the afternoon on the island snorkeling, having banana boat rides and relaxing.  On our last night we went to a Mexican fiesta.

I reached a milestone while out there.  I ate seafood.  Maybe not shocking to most people, but I have spent 28 years avoiding seafood like the plague.  I have always turned my nose up at it.  Farted in it’s general direction.  Well, Mazatlan is the shrimp capital and how can you stay for two weeks in a seafood capital and not eat seafood?  I’ve done it 5 times before (this was my 6th time in Mazatlan) and it was my goal to be brave and at least try it while there.  I think I did better than that.  I ate swordfish (amazing!!), salmon, octopus, squid, lobster and shrimp.  And I actually enjoyed it!

In fact, I enjoyed it so much that yesterday when I went grocery shopping I went into the seafood section for the very first time EVER and bought salmon and made it for my family.  Jer was shocked.  The girls loved it (who thinks hearing a 5 and 3 year old exclaim, “OOOOH, this salmon is delicious!!!” is weird?).

Another milestone for me…One tequila, two tequila, three tequila…why is the world spinning?  Just kidding…kind of…let’s just say the “All you can drink margaritas” shouldn’t be taken seriously.  :D  Moving on…  

Here is my holiday in a few words (with pictures for each, of course).  

Awesome friends.

Pool.  

Sun.  

Books.  

Tequila Go Team Mango!  

 No pictures for that one…ahem.

Pina Colada.  

Beach. 

And of course there are lots and lots more pictures, but I’m not going to post them individually.  I’ll try and put together a slide show soon.  There is also one for every day on my photo blog.

All in all it was an awesome time.  The people that we travelled with were fantastic and I think everyone got along superbly.  I won’t lie, it was really tough to come back to winter, but I did miss my girls and it’s great to be back with them.  And lucky for us, the weather is on the upward swing to spring now, so it’s easier to swallow the sight of snow.  :)