travel grateful thankful anniversary – Working Mom

Mexico Adventure Continues

Day 2 was an early start with breakfast down on the beach that left us running to catch our shuttle off to our day of adventure UTV, camel ride, and boat to see lands end.

My husband had never done any of the above before. Up first was the UTV, think ATV, but 2 people sitting side by side. I let him drive. He drives like an old lady. Slow and super safe, also why he was driving and not me. Because I’d be jumping sand dunes and doing all kinds of crazy things that would likely end up in us needing to use that optional insurance we purchased.

From there it was off to ride the camels. Now last time I rode camels it was in Egypt at the Giza pyramids. It was a much different experience here. To start with I didn’t have to haul myself up on the back of a kneeling camel and try not to fall off when it stood up, I simply got on an already standing camel from an elevated platform. Sooo much easier! But, although the beach was a beautiful setting…the pyramids were much cooler.

After a beautiful lunch overlooking the beach we had yet another tequila tasting and then it was off to catch our boat to lands end. It was beautiful as always. But when we returned to the dock is when things went a bit off the plan. While looking for a bathroom in the marina I decided I was hot and thirsty and said “Hey! There is Senior Frogs. They will have a bathroom and even better…cold drinks!”

My husband has never been to Senior Frogs. It was not in the plan so he had no idea and figured it was just another place to eat. Well, several cold drinks and the famous shots poured into your mouth straight from the bottle and we stumbled back to our hotel to get cleaned up for dinner.

Dinner was on the beach to watch the sun set. I don’t know why, but sun sets just seem so pretty in the tropics. Don’t get me wrong, we get some stunning sunsets at home, but I just love watching the sun set over the ocean. Long story short… somehow we ended up with a sand problem in our room for the rest of the trip. The most annoying was all the sand in our bed. Yes, in the bed. Apparently our walk in the water followed by a walk in the sand created sand sticking to our feet that we apparently did not notice (probably due to the cocktails consumed waiting for the sunset)

Sand problem aside…it was a full day of adventure!

Greetings from MEXICO

If you have followed me for a while you know that my husband and I try to get away every year for our anniversary. This year for #14 we went back to Cabo San Lucas Mexico.

Why go back when there is so much of the world to see? Well, although I have been here 20-something times, this is my husbands 3rd trip. But he kinda got ripped off on the first 2. Our 1st trip to Cabo was on a cruise for our 1st anniversary. I was big and pregnant with our 1st son at the time and waddling around. I couldn’t really do any of the excursions on the ship because I was pregnant. So, he kinda got ripped off.

Enter trip to Cabo #2. This was during Covid in an attempt to get away from CA that was closed for 3 years. Because it was covid there were still weird rules and not everything was open so we pretty much just stayed in the resort and lounged in the pool.

So trip #3…the real one where we are finally able to do it all, and do it all we did! The day we arrived we checked into our hotel then ventured out for something to eat and walk around the area after we ate. We ended up at the town square where it looked like they were setting up for something. So we hung out, did a tequila tasting and eventually joined the crowd of locals enjoying the beautiful evening with an art walk and street fair. My husband tried his 1st real churro. It did not disappoint. Then we ended up doing another tequila tasting. And finally wandering back to our hotel.

Take the trip. Time will pass anyway you may as well make it memorable.

Back in the USA

I’m back! Ok, I didn’t say I was actually going anywhere but I did. My husband and I took our annual vacation together for our anniversary and did the trip we didn’t get to do on our 10th anniversary (thanks covid travel restrictions). We went to the UK!

This was my 6th trip there and my husband’s 1st time there. We have only VACATIONED together and have never TRAVELED together before. So this was a learning experience. I have traveled a lot…solo. My husband has never traveled before. So I had to try to adapt my style taking someone else’s wants, needs and desires into account. He had to learn how to travel and not just lounge and relax. It was weird. But after a few days we fell into a groove and started to really enjoy it. We figured out what works for us and by the end of the trip we were really in a groove and had it down.

On the flight home we decided to alternate years and do a chill vacation followed by an active travel experience. Both options have merit and we enjoy both. For us 2025 will be local-ish and we are looking at a spa day and lots of lounging poolside. 2026 will be a couple weeks in Japan. We have barely unpacked and are already started trying to figure out what we want to see there and make a plan.

Travel has always been important to me. It’s really nice to be able to share that love with my husband. There are so many women who miss out because their husbands will not travel with them and they will not go on their own or their husbands are not ok with them traveling alone. Now, I’m quite a bit more adventurous than my husband but he is supportive when I want to go somewhere he has zero interest in going to. When I mention an idea that he doesn’t want to do he will often tell me either “yeah, have fun with that.” Or “That sounds like a good idea for a girls trip.” As in… there is no way in hell I want to do that and I’m totally supportive of you going without me rather than forcing me to go with you.

Thanks bud. I love you too.

So, my next trip is in the fall. I’ll be going to Nepal and Tibet. This is a “have fun with that” trip. I wanted to do something epic for my 50th birthday so I’m ticking off another item off my bucket list and doing the Everest base camp trek. I started getting in shape for it 8 months ago. I’m down a total of 69 lbs so far. I have been a busy girl. I’m still not where I want to be but I’ll get there.

Me on my anniversary trip in 2023 vs 2024

Traveling Again!

That’s right. The time has come and Working Mom, Travel Dreams is traveling again! I’m traveling with my husband to Mexico for our 10th wedding anniversary. Our plan was to enjoy a week in the UK but with the travel restrictions that was not possible. So we regrouped, switched gears and now we are off to Cabo San Lucas. We are leaving the kids at home for our first kid free vacation together in 9 years. our last vacation together was our 1st wedding anniversary where I was big and pregnant and we had to book our travel to make sure we made it back before my “unable to travel internationally” date 2 days later. Yeah, there’s nothing like cutting it close. Traveling while that pregnant was not easy.

I have been to Cabo oodles of times since it’s a quick getaway from California. You can usually find long weekend package deals for $500 or less pretty easy so it’s the alternative to Vegas for many of us Californians who are not into gambling but still want to enjoy some fun in the sun. With all the restrictions in California I find people are flocking to Mexico just to get away from it all and enjoy a little bit of freedom again. I have 1 coworker and a friend who are in Cabo right now and know several people that have gone in the last month.

The airports are pretty empty still. They only had one shuttle running at SFO and the long term parking was maybe 1/4 full. It’s really different than my last trip where SFO was packed in Sept 2019. The flights were sure full despite the empty parking. Snacks and beverages were distributed a little different with everyone getting a small snack bag. I actually preferred it that way for this short flight but a bagged lunch meal for dinner could be annoying on a longer international flight.

At the resort nearly everyone we met was vaccinated. The ones who were not vaccinated had covid around the holidays and it’s still too soon for them to get vaccinated. Pretty much everyone hated the masking and wore them as little as possible. There was a lot of annoyance on things like the rule that you have to wear a mask while walking around the resort…except in the pool area. So I don’t have to wear a mask in the pool area but if I go to the snack bar, bathroom or non-swim up bar I need a mask. Swim up bar no mask. Someone brings my drink to me at the table, no mask. I take 5 steps to the bar to get a drink, I need a mask. (FYI all the bars are outdoors).

We followed the rules, no matter how crazy. It was still a lot less restrictive than California and it was FANTASTIC to see people’s faces and socialize. We got our covid tests to return home and they were negative. Even though we were fully vaccinated AND had negative covid tests our kids therapy sessions were canceled for 2 weeks when we returned because we left the country. If we stayed in the country it would have been fine. California paranoia at its best here. CDC says vaccinated people can live normal lives. But here in California we are still on house arrest and shamed for attempting normal.

Traveling again!

A couple months ago everything was closed in California. With our 10th wedding anniversary approaching this weekend we didn’t want to spend it eating a frozen pizza like last year. In California you can’t make plans farther out than a few days. Our Governor changes the rules constantly keeping us as the most restricted state in the country. So to avoid spending another anniversary with a frozen pizza with our plans get canceled the day before we opted to not only leave the state, but leave the country. You know what’s open? Mexico.

We dusted off our passports and booked an all inclusive resort in Cabo San Lucas for 5 days. Yes, we understand there is a pandemic. But we are both fully vaccinated. There are also masking mandates in the enclosed areas of the resort and things are spread out more to allow for social distancing. Our resort has free covid tests prior to your departure and if you fail it you stay at the resort for free with room service to quarantine for 2 weeks. Not a bad deal.

At some point life needs to go back to normal. Living in the most restricted state for the last year has really taken its toll on all of us. There is a reason people and businesses are fleeing California to other states that are more open. I’m not saying to go lick sick people or purposely cough in others faces. But we all need to make decisions for ourselves. Everything comes with risk. It is up to us to decide what risks we are willing to take and what safety measures we want to use.

In our case, we need a break. I’m all work and no play and my husband has been locked inside in distance learning hell for a year. We are totally burnt out by the pandemic. We looked at moving to another state but it just didn’t make sense for us financially so we are sticking it out for a little while longer. Who knows…maybe if we stay locked down for another year it will be enough to take the financial hit for freedom.

Until then the countdown to Mexico is on!

Being grateful for what we have

Today is my friend’s birthday. We were talking about Covid messing up our plans and celebrations. I have a friend who’s wedding was canceled three times and finally held a “protest of social distancing” for a small group of family and close friends in another friends’ backyard.

My 9th wedding anniversary was also canceled because of covid. Our hopes were to take a long weekend together and have a friend of mine watch the kids. We tossed around several ideas. I, of course, started out exotic and tried to stretch the planned 4 days into 5 with mentions of London, Paris or all inclusive tropical resorts in the Caribbean. my husband looked at me like I sprouted a second head every time. I don’t think any of my options were crazy I have done all of them on long weekends before. We were still deciding on a destination the world closed.

We stayed hopeful and hoped that it would open again before our anniversary and started talking about places closer to home but far enough that a long weekend would be needed… San Diego, Catalina Island, Ashland or Cabo San Lucas we’re top choices. As it became evident that we were still going to be quarantined we hoped to at least be able to go out to a nice dinner. Well that was squashed as well so we ended up with boring Netflix and take out like any other Friday night.

It’s easy to look at this and be sad or angry that our plans have been crushed. But we have decided to be happy that we have a home and are together.

My sister is currently homeless. She isn’t staying in an encampment somewhere, she is staying at my parents house. Her husband is staying at his moms house. Their son goes between the two homes. They have been homeless since their house caught on fire in February. They are all fine but had to move out while repairs were made to the house. The plan was to stay with the parents as inconvenient as it was to save money to take a couple long weekend trips a month through the 6-12 months repairs were going to take. So they would then turn it into a positive thing by having mini adventures as a family rotating between everyone picking what they want to do. Well, like us her travel plans have also been crushed. But, since the construction company is not getting any new jobs her house is almost done a couple months ahead of schedule.

So many people are struggling. I feel fortunate that we are in a good place. Sure, I’m annoyed that I wasn’t relaxing on a tropical beach at an all inclusive resort celebrating our anniversary. But I’m still hopeful that we can make it to Hawaii in December for a week to celebrate my husbands 40th birthday, although chances of that happening are looking pretty slim as well.