Tan and glad to be home

I know, can you believe I said that?? "Glad to be home"?? What is she thinking??

Mazatlan was beautiful, don't get me wrong. A pristine mile long beach to walk. Soft, smooth golden sand to lay on. Colorful and exotic shells to search for. Palm trees in place of Evergreens. The best - and strongest - margaritas I've ever had. Being practically clothes-less for 12 hours of the day. And sharing the whole experience with my brother and sister. It was Heaven.

We had a blast, to say the least! Other than my brother getting heat stroke the 2nd day we were there and then pulling a calf muscle helping with a banana boat, we all seemed to have a restful vacation.

I think we all went down there with the mindset of doing close to nothing. We all ventured to the Juarez Mercado to do a bit of "local" shopping on Sunday. What an adventure! It was a local street fair/swap meet freestyle. Tons of color and flavor of the city. They even saw pig heads on sticks. ( If you know me, you get the fact that "they" saw them. It's all hear-say to me ) We saw a man blowing fire on the street corner. And met a man holding his Chihuahua who growled at us every time we came any closer, "He no like gringo's".

But really, the trip consisted of us sitting on lounge chairs on the beach. Taking in all the rays we could manage. When we left SeaTac, it was a record 26 straight days of rain. And my sister and her girlfriend, coming from Minneapolis where it barely gets over 30 degrees for 6 months in a row. We needed this. Our biggest dilemma was where to eat every night. We were all a bit disappointed with that as well. The food pretty much sucked. No real, authentic Mexican food to be found. I think they were just trying too hard to make it more "Americanized". Everything came with refried beans!! No whole beans whatsoever. And believe it or not, their refried beans were worse than Azteca. Tsk, tsk.

I did get some great new silver rings, :) an X-rated photo with Mr. Senor Frog himself, fantastic photos of the palms and flowers, and even a resident iguana - at our pool! The margaritas still stick in my mind. My poor sober sister had to deal with her drunken sister all week. Ugh. ( many apologies! ) They even wrote my room # on a slip of paper from the hotel and stuck it in my pocket - just in case. :) Ohhhh.......... good times. ( "Solamente!" )

I missed Cole more than I knew how to handle. With my siblings and their talk of "missing their dogs", I was about to scream! ( I love y'all to death, but...) I left my 4 year old at home !!! I was scared to call home to my parents for fear that if I heard his voice I would crumble. I didn't want him to get sad and weepy on the phone because that would make me sad and weepy. Ugh. Kids. There were so many kids at the hotel, too! Which made me miss him even more. I've realized that he'll go with next time. No matter what my situation is. If I'm single or if I'm married, he'll go too. It's too hard otherwise. By the time I pulled into my parents driveway and saw him playing outside I was in tears. I was just so happy to see him. :) Oh.... that boy....

Back to reality. Which is good. Sometimes you need a vacation to give you a little clarity. To make you realize what is most important in your life. To make you appreciate your roots and realize that you have wings hidden back there as well.