The Honeymoon is Definitely Over!

Today was crazy busy! We got home last night just after 11:30 pm. I blogged, checked e-mail and bank accounts on-line before we went to bed. We are two hours behind still from Mexico time, so trying to adjust ourselves still. As soon as we got up this morning, however, we have been running. I guess it was good practice to get us back up to pace for our return to work tomorrow. We started off by heading to the post office to collect our vacation mail, restart our mail, and to inform the postal service of my name change. We found the copy of our certified marriage license in our mail. (Thank you, Jacinda, for the fast processing of the paper work!) So, with the certified copy I was able to go to the DMV and get my name changed on my license. That was a big job done as I will need that changed before I can do any other changes, and I am not sure when I would have gotten a long enough lunch break to try and drive up to the DMV on a work day. From the DMV, we headed to Pet Agree to pick up our babies. I then opened a new simply free checking account with my new name. And then I coordinated a pick up with the courier in Concord so I could get my luggage back. And while I went grocery shopping, Michael went to the Verizon store down the road to upgrade his phone. Still craving Mexico, I made Salsa from scratch in the food processor (Thanks Deb, Gary & Maya) and we had fish crusted in tortilla chips and peppers for dinner. It was a bit disappointing though to not have the big dessert buffet after dinner with all of the tiny little dessert offerings to chose from. And nobody brought me a frozen drink today either.

Our Last Day in Mexico

Today is our last full day in Mexico. We have had fantastic weather! Upon arrival last Monday afternoon, we heard rumor that the resort had just finished a 3 day period of rain. We had rain once, but it was after we left the pool area for the day. We had changed our clothes for dinner and went outside and realized it had just poured.

We have completely caught up on sleep, however, I am not sure how well we will do with the time change when we get home. Thankfully, Ann from Lake Opechee Inn mentioned to us on Thursday before the wedding that it was the spring ahead clock change weekend. So we sprung ahead an hour on Sunday, and then we went back 2 hours on Monday upon arriving in Cancun. Apparently, Mexico is not observing the early daylight savings time change. It may take a little bit for us to realize what time it is when we get home. I am looking forward to having it stay brighter into the evening though.

I think that we will be ready to go home tomorrow. We are rested. We have spent some quality time together. I am really starting to miss Elleigh May and Lucas. Probably my biggest complaint about our vacation would have to be the stiff bed and the limp pillows, so I will be glad to get into my own bed again.

Despite knitting most days, I Have very little to show for it. I did wind two skeins of sock yarn by hand, so that took some time. Otherwise, I don' have a lot of progress to show on my sock projects. It has been very leisurely knitting.

Hola from Mexico

We have finally gotten the TV internet to work in our resort room so we can send an update about our honeymoon. We have a little wireless keyboard that sometimes skips letters we have typed, and the space bar hasn't worked right since it fell off the keyboard. And we can only see about 1/4 of the normal computer screen at a time as we try to scroll through web pages. And of course, spell check isn't working. Or at least I can't seem to get it to work.

We spent another day in Mexico the same as most others so far. We seem to have caught up on our sleep, getting in at least ten hours a night. We get up when we want, go to the breakfast buffet on the way to the pool, find as shady as a spot as possible so I won't completely fry, then Michael reads and I knit while sipping frozen drinks until 1 pm when we go to the lunch buffet. After lunch, we resume sipping, reading or knitting, and then will eventually get into one of the pools for swimming and water walking. It takes about 15 minutes to walk one lap around the big pool while in it. It has all sorts of nooks and a lot of people. The lap takes even longer if we stop at the swim-up bar. It's actually one of the shadiest place in the pool since the bar's roof consists of a faux cave rock with a waterfall coming down over it. (I can't wait to get some photos added to these blog entries.). By 5 pm, we head back to our room where we get ready for dinner by jumping in the hot tub on our terrace.

We have had dinner reservations at a different restaurant at the resort each night. Tonight, we are going to the seafood restaurant (La Marina) and last night we had steak at El Rancho.

Tomorrow is our last day, and I doubt our itinerary will change much, except we are going to the Japanese restaurant for dinner. And then we fly home on Monday morning, arriving in Boston late in the evening and probably not getting back to our house until the wee hours on Tuesday morning.

Hola, Mexico!!

We finally booked our honeymoon today with our travel agent! We are going to jet off at dawn from Boston on the Monday morning after the wedding and spend 7 nights in Mexico. We are going to the Iberostar Paraiso Lindo located on the beach of Playa de Paraíso about a half hour from the Cancun airport. We are familiar with the Iberostar properties since we stayed in the Iberostar Quetzal in Playa del Carmen in Mexico several years ago. And we stayed in an Iberostar in Punta Cana two winters ago. And of course, we enjoyed the Playa del Carmen trip we took previously, especially the Mayan culture and our day trips seeing the ruins in Tulum and snorkeling. I think our honeymoon will be more about staying put at the resort and enjoying their unique swimming pools, our suite, and the restaurants at the resort. The Paraiso Linda has five pools that include a wave pool, a lazy river pool designed to encourage floating around on an innertube, and a lake style pool. They have a swim-up bar too so we can enjoy a frozen drink without even getting out of the water. Because we have been to this area of Mexico before, we won't have to try and read any travel books between now and the wedding. And we know we will love the area.

passport

I ordered my passport from the Concord post office at the very end of the business day on 11/28/07. I was nervous that I was going to be worrying just before the honeymoon, waiting for the passport to show up so I could travel somewhere warm and tropical. I had seen on the news not that long ago that people were waiting months for their passports to show up. I am happy to report that I got my passport on December 13th, just two weeks. And everything even looks correct. Apparently, the government has figured out a way to process the passport requests promptly now.

Wedding Planning

Lots of fun wedding stuff happened today!

On the way home from work tonight, I beat the Halloween Howl crowd to Main Street in Concord and I went to Apollo Travel Services. I spoke with Carmen Martin, a travel consultant, and set Michael and I up with a wedding registry for our honeymoon trip. I remember when Allison and Jay were married, they registered for their honeymoon trip to Barbados and I thought it was a great idea. Michael and I are still thinking we might like to go to Costa Rica, but we still have plenty of time to decide on the exact destination and what resort we'd like to stay at.

I definitely need to start the process for getting my passport. I hear that the passports are not taking near as long as before, but I still need to leave enough time for processing.

Nancy brought me several tuxedo rental pamphlets from the Laconia area today, and Allison told me how she and Jay were happy when they used Mr. Tux in Concord for their wedding rentals. Michael still needs to decide on what attire he would like for himself and the groomsmen, but if rentals are involved, it might be easier to rent them in Laconia since it will be closer to Lake Opechee Inn.

And then for dinner tonight, Michael and I met with Rick and Carolyn Bowie, and Nancy and Dale at The Weathervane in Chichester. It was really nice to meet Rick, as he is going to be our wedding DJ. Both Michael and I are excited since he's got a great personality and seems like he will be able to get people moving on the dance floor. We look forward to our meeting with Rick in February when we will go through lists of music for the wedding.

And then after dinner, Michael and I went to Jared's (The Galleria) to look at wedding bands for Michael. He found a few things he liked, so we took model numbers and will stop in there again to see if he still likes the same styles, as well as check a few other stores.