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By kilax, July 14, 2015 12:30 pm

Mother Nature was working against me Friday and Saturday!

Or rather, Mother Nature has been working against Kansas City since… May. Ha ha. And we just got to experience some of the aftermath.

It started at the Royals game Friday night. Last year, when Rachel and I traveled to Kansas City for the Psycho Psummer Trail Run, we ended up dropping from the 20 mile to 10 mile distance because the race was taking us longer than we thought it would, and we didn’t want to be too wiped out to enjoy the Royals game the night of the race (priorities!).

So this year, we REALLY wanted to do the full 20 mile distance (two loops on the course), and decided to attend the Friday night Royals game, so we wouldn’t feel like we had to be anywhere after the Saturday race. Perfect planning – attend the game, get to bed by midnight, and get six hours of sleep – that works!

Only… not so much. Ha ha. A storm started coming in right before game start, and then it POURED rain. For almost two hours.

We had fun hanging out and goofing around (and complaining about how much our feet and legs hurt from standing so much) while we waited for the game to start…

Steven and his dad were there too

… but it didn’t start until after 9:00! Eek!

We watched as much of it as we could, but left after the fourth inning so we’d still get a decent amount of sleep before the race. Bummer. But – the Royals won! Woot woot!

Before we got to Kansas City, I was wondering how all of the rain they’d been getting would affect the trail course for the race (and even more so after the pre-race night of rain!). The race organizers (the awesome Trail Nerds!!!) addressed it on their Facebook page and in a race email. They changed the course a bit so less of it would be in the mud, and gave us a warning that the first two miles would be mud, and it would clear up after that.

I was thinking, “Wow, only 2 miles? How is that possible?” followed by “Well, I can deal with it for two miles.”

No. No I can’t. Too much of the course looked like this:

I love trail running, and I love getting dirty – running through puddles and mud, and falling in them doesn’t phase me. I expect to get dirty and fall on the trails, and laugh about it.

I don’t expect to walk, at a 25 minute per mile pace or SLOWER for most of the course (it took us 4:14:30 to cover 10.2 miles – last year it took just under 3 hours). I don’t expect to lose my shoe (ha ha!). I don’t expect to feel completely demoralized. I don’t expect to run only about 10% of the course.

Sigh. This was hard, guys. Mentally, not physically (I wasn’t even sore from the race the next day).

Within the first two miles, yep, Rachel and I were both thinking about dropping to the 10 mile distance. But who was going to say it first? I am happy she did – I thought I was just being weak-minded, but I wasn’t.

And guess what? That mud didn’t stop at two miles (how could it? and could you imagine what a second loop would have been like?! even worse!). I would say 60% of the course was like that. Just when you’d get going, you’d come across more mud. How do you run through this?

That’s not safe for us non-local runners (I really shouldn’t have even stopped to take pics – that alone was dangerous – you could totally fall and hit your head on one of these rocks!) who aren’t good on the large rock terrain to begin with to TRY to run on.

Of course, I am happy the race was still held AT ALL! They could have canceled, due to the trail conditions. And Trail Nerds did a ton of race prep to clear the path (brush, etc) so we could make it through. They had awesome aid stations, amazing volunteers, and a rocking DJ. And race photos included in your entry fee!

I like how deceiving they are about the conditions of the course, ha!

Trail Nerds put on an AWESOME event. Why else would we be back, wanting to go for the full 20, another year? It’s just too bad the trail was like this.

But we felt better when we heard other people coming up behind us (the 10 milers started at 9:00, an hour after us, so they did catch up – HOW DO PEOPLE RUN THROUGH ALL THAT MUD?!) and cussing about the course. We felt better when we saw that TONS of people dropped from the 20 to the 10, and from the 50K to the 20 or 10. We felt bad when we saw posts of people who DNF’d (did not finish) because of the conditions. But… even those people were cheery about it. Trail runners are a happy bunch!

Although I do have to say, I had a very whiny moment on the trail. During mile 2, my right shoe decided to stay behind in the mud when I was walking through it, ha ha. So I fell in the mud and was trying to pull my shoe out (it felt suction cupped in!) to put it on my muddy sock, which took longer than I thought it would. Then I was walking through the mud, when a slippery muddy sock in a muddy shoe.

I looked at my watch and saw that we were almost to an hour and I hadn’t eaten anything since race start. I pulled out a Clif gel to eat and when I tried to open it, the top ripped off but left the package closed, with the gel squirting out the side. My hands were covered in mud, and now the package was too, and I just started whining. Rachel asked what was wrong, probably thinking I was hurt or something, and when I whined “My Clif gel didn’t open right and is coming out the side!” she was just like “… um, why don’t you eat it out the side, then?!” So logical, but I was all EFF THIS CLIF GEL I HATE YOU!

Sigh. Not my best race moment. I was surprised to see myself go to such a dark mental place. That rarely happens to me at races. But, I don’t think I have done a race before that mentally beat me down so much. Rachel and I just wanted to run, but couldn’t.

It was either like this:

or this:

Okay, we did get to run in some spots:

But like I said, we MAYBE ran a mile the entire time. Ha ha! We went out for a (dry paved trail) run on Sunday to make sure we were still runners and get our runner cards back. Luckily, we were successful with that run.

And luckily, we were laughing about the race and making fun of ourselves shortly after. I was surprised though, as someone who almost always tries to put a positive spin on my “athletic” endeavors, that I did not hesitate to tell anyone how horrible this was. But! It made us stronger runners, and we got to bond with other people on the trail. And I know Rachel still wants to be my friend after seeing my crazy clif gel frustration. Ha.

Oh, and maybe all that mud is good for our skin? Not. It dried out and felt itchy. As do all the mosquito bites we got on the trail. Hmm, what else can I complain about? The heat? Nah, with this being mostly shaded, it was no big deal that it was 86º with a feel like temperature in the high 90s. I mean, we were soaked, but had no issues other than that!

Now to decide what to do for next year! I love visiting Kansas City with Rachel, but maybe we’ll have to send a scout over to check out the trails before we register for this race again. Or, pick a new race. The I-35 Challenge is calling our names…

I hope this didn’t come off as me complaining about the race organizers, because I am not, at all. They rock. What control would they have over the trail, and rain? They did an amazing job with what they were handed. I could really see myself doing more of their races and hanging with this group if I was local – they seem like a lot of fun. And how amazing would it be to train on those hills and terrain? I would come back to the trail races I do where I live and find them much easier!

And I LOVE the race shirt and cup we got this year. We got a medal too (same one as last year). It may take me awhile to wear that shirt though, ha!

The rest of our day and visit was FANTASTIC! We spent Saturday prepping food with my snister for a cookout, then the three of us went to a local pool (which felt amazing!). After the pool, my in-laws came over to my snister’s for the cookout and games. On Sunday, Rachel and I ran, went to a big cat sanctuary and hung out at my father-in-law’s place before flying back to Chicago. It’s funny, we flew (instead of driving) this year so we’d feel like we had more time there but it still felt SO short! Maybe next year’s trip will be a bit longer!

Dessert recipes here
OMG, this whipped cream is DA BOMB

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By kilax, June 15, 2015 6:23 am

… numerous inside jokes are created

I don’t have a snake burrito photo, so this will have to do. Telestrations is SUCH a fun game. Get it. Play it. Laugh hard. 

… you survive the elevator drop

… running is involved

… plenty of delicious food and drinks are consumed

Blue Koi!

Cookout at Christina and Will’s place!

… there’s a train ride involved

… and numerous drum solos!

… you stay up way past your bedtime and don’t care

… you get to see big cats!

… and little cats!

… and a mama deer and her baby

… the home team wins

… you get to catch up with hometown friends

… you get complimented on your new suit at the pool (no pic, unfortunately)

… there’s a best beard contest

The post gathering survey has Luca in the lead… but four people still need to vote!

… you laugh so hard you cry

… you cry because you have to leave (Gina sent me the cutest photo of poor Luca crying in his car seat when they left to drive back to Texas)

… you get to spend time with your favorite people that you don’t see that often!

… everyone follows the itinerary, heh

… it takes you almost a week to write a post about the trip because you are in post-trip recovery

After Christina and Will’s wedding last year (yesterday was their anniversary, awww!), Steven and I stayed in Kansas City for a few days to hang out with Gina and her family, Steven’s dad and brother, and my parents. We had such a great time, we all decided to get together in June this year as well, but this time, with Christina and Will there!

In order to maximize our time together, Christina, Gina and I made an itinerary for the trip and I distributed it to everyone (my mom even printed it out and had a copy in her purse, ha ha!). I know, I know, that sounds crazy, but we had a few set things on our schedule that made it so we could only do other things we wanted to do on certain days and times… and have you ever organized meals for 11 people on the fly? Yeah, we wanted to avoid that. Saturday was our busiest day, Sunday was less busy, and Monday and Tuesday were even less so. I think it worked out really well, and the post-gathering survey respondents (so far, anyway) have agreed. Muah ha ha.

Next time though, the itinerary needs to have MORE days together! Friday evening, all day Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and Tuesday through lunch just didn’t feel like enough time. Since we don’t see Gina and family that often, our time together feels so intense! In a good way, of course. I lose sense of time, completely forget about work and life back in Illinois, and feel completely relaxed and in the moment. But the recovery from that is SO hard. You miss your people. You wish you could see them more often. And that’s why it’s important to have your next trip planned. And to text a lot. And FaceTime. Ha.

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By kilax, April 29, 2015 5:54 am

Wow! Downtown Indianapolis has a lot of neat public spaces!

I’ve had a few people recommend Indianapolis races to me and honestly… never understood why. Now, I can see the allure to run here! I wonder if the rest of the city is as beautiful.

I am in Indianapolis for a super short work trip. I got in late last night, but with the city being on the western end of the time zone, I still had plenty of light for a run! I mostly ran on the White River Trail.

I do think I’ll have to come back for a race. This is only my second run (ever!) in the state of Indiana, and my first one didn’t go so well… ha ha.

I love seeing new areas through running and am grateful I had this opportunity to see just a (very small, ha ha) bit of Indianapolis!

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By kilax, March 30, 2015 12:49 pm

Does 60 miles seem too far?

Not to us, apparently!

Ha ha, keep in mind, I am searching for vegan donuts. Which, according to the power of Google (which I am not quite sure I trust) means heading to Chicago or Milwaukee. And I will almost always choose driving to Milwaukee. Same distance, less stressful drive*, easier parking, work hasn’t ruined it for me, etc.

So our Sunday morning included a jaunt to Milwaukee for donuts (both of us) and coffee (Steven).

Holey Moley is the lobby of an office building (in the Third Ward district) and doesn’t have seating for one (or two) to consume a box of donuts, so we took them over to the the public market.

Hmm, I feel like one visit to the public market seems to… suffice for awhile? We were there in October, and the shops seemed to be offering the same things as then (and just like during my October trip, I picked up some beer soap (this time for my Grandma with her wash cloths) and had some delicious Egyptian rice again). So we didn’t stay for long but decided we should do something in Milwaukee since we were “all the way up there.” Ha ha.

So! Let’s go on a brewery tour!

Never mind that neither of us hardly drink beer! Ha!

The Lakefront Brewery Tour had awesome reviews on TripAdvisor and costs $8 a person for a 45-minute tour (which included four 6 oz drinks per person, and a complimentary glass at the end). Sounds like a good deal to me!

I went on my first brewery tour last June, to Boulevard Brewing Co, in Kansas City. And yes, even though I rarely drink alcohol (and not typically beer), I thought it was really interesting to learn how beer is made. But… I pretty much forgot most of what I learned then, so this tour was a good refresher. A kind of off-color, dirty-joke filled, refresher (which I liked, ha!). These brewery tour guides seem to really love their jobs (surprise, surprise). Which I think is awesome!

Probably not so awesome… that Steven had to finish almost all of my beer for me. (Wait. Why would that not be awesome?)

Double fisting like a trooper!

Err, at least I tried it? And kind of liked it? What can I say, I am a slooooooow beer drinker.

We both thought Lakefront had decent beer, which, since we don’t drink beer that often, probably means it’s not good at all (but correct me if I’m wrong!).

After our tour we had to fill our bellies with more food so we headed over to the Palomino Bar, which happens to have a few vegan things on the menu. After having chicken fried steak, vegan “eggs,” and vegan fried pie, we called our gastronomic tour of Milwaukee a day… and headed home. Where we made our own version of Egyptian rice for dinner.

Carbs, carbs and more carbs. This is going to be my new pre-long run/race meal!

Would you believe me if I said we both went to bed with a belly ache? Ha ha, well worth it, though!

*minus the oddity of the slow left-lane cruisers on the tri-state in Wisconsin.

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By kilax, March 11, 2015 5:03 am

Minneapolis is a town I went to a few times as a kid. It was a (short?) three+ hour drive from my hometown, and I remember going with my family, as well as on school field trips there (I think I saw Phantom of the Opera and A Christmas Carol several times each in the Guthrie Theater).

But since I was young when I went, I hardly remember anything about the city, except for the theater. I was excited to visit Minneapolis again as an adult, and make more of an effort to understand where I was and what I was seeing. And it was great to do that with Bobbi!

Ha ha, however, if you read any of my Mexico trip recaps, you know I am not really in to planning out things these days, so I didn’t actually have anything in mind I wanted to see in Minneapolis. My #1 request to Bobbi was that we get a hotel with a hot tub. Which we did. And it was lovely to soak in after the race.

Then we had a big decision to make – should we take naps, or go do something? I mentioned the Mill City Museum that I saw during the race to Bobbi and asked if she wanted to check it out. If it ended up being lame, we’d only be out $11. Each. Ha ha.

But, it actually ended up being incredibly NOT lame, and really interesting! I know – who thought learning about flour milling would be interesting, at all?! Not I!

The way the facade of the mill is preserved is really neat:

You guys. This mill was a bit doomed. It opened in 1874 as the Washburn Mill and… exploded in 1878. Did you know flour was super explosive? Yeah, me either.

It was rebuilt in 1880, and lasted more than four years this time (well, the building did – there were still several accidents causing worker death and injury…). Actually, it lasted awhile. Washburn-Crosby became General Mills in 1928, and the building wasn’t destroyed again until 1928, by a fire.

It stayed open until 1965, then was abandoned… well, except for by some homeless people who decided to move in. Then they started a fire that burned down a lot of it in 1991. Apparently, the historical society already had plans to make it in to a museum, so they called the fire department during the fire and asked them to save as much of the facade as possible. Hence, it looking the way it does (I think it looks cool!). It opened as a museum in 2003.

So after learning that history, I had to get this magnet, which makes me giggle:

Hee hee hee.

Our admission included access to the gallery (derr), to the ruin courtyard, a ride in the Flour Tower (!!!) and a film viewing – Minneapolis in 19 Minutes Flat.

The Flour Tower tour was so cool! It kind of reminded me of the Tower of Terror is Disney World – minus the horizontal movement (and dropping, ha!). We were in a giant elevator with stadium seating, and it went up and down through the different levels of the mill to show us what went on on each floor!

I also didn’t realize this before, but milling was (is?) crazy complicated:

It involved moving the grain all over the building until it was finally the finished product. We just saw 5-6 rooms (with animation and video in most), but it gave a really good idea of what it was like to work in a mill (crazy labor intensive, for most people – like the guys who hauled 150+ pound bags on flour on to train cars all. day. long.).

Then the elevator took us to the top of the tower and we were actually in the building next door, where they took the grain to clean it (you know, get insects and rodents, etc. out – and yeah, they used to just dump that waste in the Mississippi River!). We got to see the equipment they used to clean the grain, and got a great view of the city!

Then we rode a different, all glass elevator back down and saw more exhibits, the funny (and educational) film, and we played in the water lab for a bit. Okay, I mostly played. Ha ha! The mill is located by the river because it used the power of Saint Anthony Falls to run, via giant turbines in the water. So there were all these water exhibits (meant for children) that I had to play with, to learn about powering the mill, the apron they built on the falls to control it, and about transferring logs down the river. Hee hee. Now there is only one mill in the Minneapolis area, and it’s powered by electricity.

I was impressed by the museum and found it super interesting! I would recommend it to anyone visiting the area. It has something for everyone (oh yeah, like the baking lab (WITH SAMPLES!!!) we missed because of our Flour Tower tour time – they were eating brownies when we got off the elevator!).

Of course, after visiting a museum about flour, we were pretty hungry. And for CARBS!!! We went to Pizza Lucé for dinner. Pizza Lucé has been a favorite stop of Bobbi’s after she does Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth (she loves the Baked Potato Pizza) , and she didn’t even realize it was a chain, or that they had so many vegan options. I went a bit crazy, and loved it!

Vegan meatballs, “Fire Breathing Dragon” Pizza, Peanut Butter bars (like scotcharoos!)

Gah. Everything was SO. GOOD. I was in heaven. We were both in heaven. We left there very happy.

In fact, we were very happy with our trip! Everything worked out nicely – we got in to town at a decent time Friday night (8:30), found everything easily for the race, I was able to help Bobbi with navigation while she drove, and we enjoyed the museum and LOVED dinner. It was a great trip!

We got wild Saturday night – in our pajamas at 7:30 and asleep by 9:30 (I wanted to stay up to watch my boyfriend on SNL, but was exhausted, and wanted to make sure I could get up to do my speedwork in the am). We hit the road at 7:45 the next morning. It was a quick trip, but a lot of fun! I feel lucky I got to spend this time with Bobbi – our schedules have not linked up very well to hang out this year, and I miss her (despite our daily communication and seeing her at Efit class)! I need one-on-one time with my besties!

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By kilax, March 5, 2015 6:09 am

Once we booked our tickets to Mexico, I started getting really serious with my Duolingo usage (currently on a 170 day streak!). I wanted to re-learn as much Spanish as possible before our trip. I knew I’d probably be around a lot of people who spoke English, but I wanted to give my Spanish a whirl. Why not, right?

Ha, the only problem was that I practiced by listening to the app and writing in Spanish (in the app and with friends, sometimes). Not so much spoken. So… there were a few funny incidences in Mexico, when my brain didn’t work fast enough. Or, almost worked right, but not quite.

There was that time Gina and I were looking at swimsuit covers in Cozuhel and I asked the sales clerk if I could buy two for a certain price. “Quiero comprar un vestido en rojo por mi hermano!” Ha. Ha ha. The sales clerk definitely laughed (in a nice way) that I said I wanted to buy it for my brother (hermano), not my sister (hermana). Oops! “¿Tu hermana, sí?” Yep, I meant my sister. But like Gina said, someone might go in and buy one for their brother (not my brothers)!

The time I couldn’t remember the word for tip, so just guessed and said tipo. Um, that would be type, Kim. It took the waiter awhile to figure out that one (“¿incluye el tipo?” made NO sense). He finally said “¿propina?” Ha ha. I remembered the word after a few days!

There was that time I thought I was doing really well with my Spanish, reserving una mesa por cinco at Babe’s, when the hostess asked for my nombre and I got really confused and thought she wanted my phone number. No, Kim, nombre = name. She didn’t say número.

But you know what? She didn’t give up on me! And that is what I liked, and noticed a lot – even though I was making mistakes with my Spanish, people were patient with me, and let me try, which made me feel empowered to keep trying.

There were quite a few times when I was practicing before the trip that Duolingo taught me a word I didn’t think I would use (or didn’t teach me one I thought I would need) and it actually came up in Mexico…

Like, escalera. Ladder. Why yes indeed, I did have a half English / half Spanish conversation with the man giving me a tattoo on the beach and ladders came up. “¿Cómo se dice escalera en inglés?” “Ladder.” “Ladder, like leather?” Ha ha. So I tried to explain ladder vs. leather pronunciation. Luckily, as someone said to me when I told them this story, “lather” didn’t come up. (This guy also wanted to know the English word for “little people”… interesting conversation indeed.)

The Duolingo app also wanted me to know the word for chain, cadena. Gah, it took me forever to remember that one. And while I did not speak it while I was there, yes, we passed una cadena on every walk to the beach or Fifth Avenue and I always thought about how good it was I learned that word. Ha ha.

It was also very important to Duolingo that I knew tijeras, scissors. When the heck would I need to know that? Oh yes, when the security on the way home stops me because of the knitting scissors in my bag!

Duolingo retaught me spoon (cuchara) and knife (cuchillo) but never fork (tenedor). I didn’t memorize tenedor before I left and was worried I would have to ask for one (just kidding… I didn’t really worry about that). Know what I did have to ask for? Tres cucharas, to share sherbet with Steven and Luca on our date night. It made me laugh so hard that I used the word I learned, not the other one. Duolingo, how did you know?!

Speaking of Steven, he didn’t learn any Spanish for the trip (he took German in college) but he did a fantastic job with it there. He asked me a lot of questions about what words were, and memorized them. I would tell him how to ask a question in Spanish (then he’d ask it), then I would tell him what the person said (more or less, of course) and how to answer back. It was fun to share my (very limited) knowledge with him!

And it took both of us awhile after we got back to stop saying hola and gracias to people! I still say sí, all the time, like I did before.

I am still continuing with the app, and have seriously thought about getting a tutor or taking a class to work on my skillz! Spanish is fun to learn! “¡Me gustan las reglas dela lengua!” I like the rules of the language… as I told our boat driver in Tulum after he mentioned how hard it is to learn English. Yeah, I said a bunch of messed up stuff to them in Spanish too. Ha ha. I could keep going and going with this post…

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By kilax, March 2, 2015 4:21 am

Day 7! Our last full day in Playa del Carmen. Cry!

Funny that this was well over two weeks ago on February 11th! I’ve been enjoying reviewing my photos and writing these recaps. I like having this sort of thing documented, even if it’s only interesting to me. Ha ha. Anyway…

I think this was Steven’s favorite day in Mexico, because… we spent the morning driving a dune buggy in the jungle!

One time when I was running in Playacar I saw a bunch of people drive by on dune buggies and was all “OMG I NEED TO DO THAT.” I got back and told Steven about it and he had the same reaction. Luckily, we were able to get a tour booked for our last full morning in Playa del Carmen!

Similar to our snorkel adventure, we didn’t really know what this excursion included (or, when it would be over). We read this blog review of it the night before and freaked out – in a good way and a bad way. Good because, we’d get to see a cenote! We had no idea the tour would include that when we signed up – we had been trying to figure out how to visit a cenote, and here was our answer! And, bad because it sounded like an all day excursion, including a visit to a village to hand out candy (???), and stopping at a place for lunch that did not serve vegan food (heaven forbid I miss a meal!).

It was very clear on the website that your clothes were going to get trashed, and that you’d be muddy and want something covering your face. I was worried about this, because I stopped to get bandannas before the trip, but couldn’t find any. Happily, the tour guides had bandannas and goggles (which they pronounce “googles,” hee hee, because they were French) for us. And fortunately, we found out the tour would be over by 1:00 (because I wanted to spend our last afternoon at the beach!!!).

This business is run out of the owners’ home in Playacar. The husband leads the tour from one buggy with an assistant, and the five other buggies follow him. We happened to be on a tour with a family from Canada – the mom and dad, and their three kids and partners. What a fun trip to take with your family (to Mexico) and what a fun excursion to do together. We found out they had been to Playa del Carmen many times before. I can see why people keep coming back!

For the first part of the tour, we drove on the highway to get gas. It was amusing to be driving a little dune buggy on the highway! I wonder if the other cars think it’s odd, or if it’s just another normal commute sighting?

After we got gas, the tour guide (how awesome that I never caught his name… oops) did tell us we’d be stopping in a Mayan village and that he likes to buy a few things to hand out to the people there. He said he likes to do it because the people don’t have much, and, as a thank you for us driving through their village each day on his dune buggy tour.

It felt odd to us. Especially to have people come rushing up when they see you show up, so you can hand things out. But we did participate. And really, we probably spent the equivalent of $6 on some noodles, oatmeal, and beans. But, it was never about the money. Just feeling put on the spot, really. Anyway.

It was eye-opening to see the conditions the families were living in. No plumbing. No electricity. I guess I got to see a real part of Mexico that I wasn’t ready for. Or expecting.

After that, we were on our way to the cenote. I was happy for the goggles and bandanna. It was dusty! Oh, and they came in handy when we drove through this:

Sigh. That water was so, so cold. Hence, the squealing in the video. And guess what doesn’t come out of your clothes? Jungle dirt, apparently. Ha ha! No worries. We knew we were going to get muddy!

Which made going in to the cenote all the more refreshing!

Ahh. I am just… so pleased we got to experience one of these. Apparently, this region of Mexico has tons of centoes (sink holes turned fresh water caves and underground rivers!). The water is clear, so you can see almost all the way to the bottom!

It was really neat when the sun beams shined in through the water!

We wanted to visit a cenote but so many of them around the area we were staying in were part of, for lack of a better word, amusement parks. We had looked for one in a natural area/park we could visit on our own, but came up with nothing. Luckily, that is exactly what our tour guide took us to – some random one in the jungle that the locals showed him and not many people know about! I can see why it’s gone unnoticed – it’s hidden! We walked on a rocky hilly path for awhile, then all of a sudden, it appeared!

We spent an hour or so there. Our tour guide brought snorkels and goggles, and we enjoyed exploring the water. I was also brave enough to climb in to the back of the cave and jump off one of the lower rock formations – but only once! Ha ha!

I didn’t realize it, but I had water on my GoPro lens (duh, make sense), so most of my photos didn’t turn out (the low lighting didn’t help, either). But I did get a short video of what it was like inside:

Such a cool space. That might be my favorite part of the trip, and I didn’t even know we’d get to do it! Wouldn’t it be amazing to live near one of those? We talked with a local there, who used to live in Washington state and missed cenotes while he was there, so he makes a point to visit that one every morning.

After that, back on the buggies, for the real jungle adventure. Before we were on somewhat open dirt roads like this:

Then it was on to more tree coverage and even more twists and turns:

Oh yeah, and a few more puddles:

Honestly, we were driving a long time (Steven drove the entire time)! I tracked where we went with my Garmin watch, and we spent over two and a half hours driving, and went over 40 miles (top speed of 34 mph). I enjoyed it, and I know Steven did, but I wonder if this excursion is for everyone. The dune buggies are loud, and smelly, and when you aren’t moving, you get pretty hot! I may or may have not fallen asleep on the ride back, too. Ha!

We stopped once for someone to use the bathroom, a few times to fix broken down buggies, to visit some native Mayans in the jungle, then we were back in Playacar, just after 1:00. The lunch mentioned in the blog post we read was no longer part of the trip, which was fine with us (they did provide a snack at the cenote, and water, though)!

Wish I would have known our buggy had a GoPro mount on the front! I would have brought the right adapter for it!

We took a taxi back to the condo (we were kind of muddy… oops) and ate some leftovers from the second Mexican feast we made, then headed over to a beach club,

where we enjoyed drinks and fries,

and where I got a new tattoo.

We met up with Gina, Steve and Luca (they spent the day on Isla Mujeres near Cancún) and walked on the beach a bit.

I was sad to be leaving. Sad it was our last night. And… sad my stomach decided to revolt against something I consumed. Yeah. The last night there was not pretty! The five of us had one last meal out, finding a place with several options for food, since Gina and I were so over Mexican cuisine at that point (the boys weren’t though!).

Steven and I shopped a bit after dinner and got him one last marquesita, and packed. I was in agony for a lot of it due to my stomach. Not much sleep that last night, and unfortunately, not because I was out partying!

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By kilax, February 24, 2015 5:18 am

Once it dawned (ha, pun) on me that we were by a body of water that faces east, I knew I’d have to get up for a sunrise run.

The thing is though… you can’t really run along the beach to see the sunrise unless you are running in the sand (because all of the buildings along the beach front block the view of the water). Yeah, I actually wanted to move, so I wasn’t doing that! So my run to see the sunrise included a lot of me running to the peer, seeing it wasn’t up yet, running up and down the street, and coming back. It was worth it, though (when isn’t it?!)! This brought back memories of when my dad and I got up early to see the sunrise over the Alboran Sea in Spain!

After a few miles on my own, I stopped back at the condo to see if anyone had bitten on the note I left “running a few, back at 8:00 if anyone wants to join me!” I got back and Steve was in his gear, ready to go!

I took him to a street Gina and I had discovered a few days earlier. I mentioned the owner of our condo told us a few places to run – Playacar, the bike path along 10th Avenue, and a track, north of the condo. Err, even with my best intentions, I never made it to the track! But I think Gina and I may have run close to it, when we took the 10th Avenue bike path north, and discovered it stops pretty soon after it leaves the touristy area.

But on that run, we cut back over to Fifth Avenue, just north of where the touristy part of it ends, and discovered a paved trail that runs along the road. We saw lots of other people working out there, and felt safe.

And we got to see lots of beautiful tags as we ran! So I took Steve there, to see it, as well.

I am surprised the condo owner didn’t tell us about this street, as well! It seemed like you could run out a good amount on it!

The rest of this day was laaaaaaaaaaazy. We hit up the pool around midday. I read a bit, swam a bit, knitted a bit…

I managed to get an AWESOME sunburn, which just peeled last week. If you look at the photo below, it’s the two red marks, under my shoulders. Yeah… I put some sunscreen on my shoulders, and didn’t get much further than that! (Ignore the weird dark lines on our backs – that’s a shadow!)

The afternoon included me teaching Gina how to knit!

She got off to a great start! Unfortunately though, I didn’t get to show her too much, because Steven and I had a date to go to that night… with Luca!

Date night included a stop to see Pedra, and give her treats:

table-made guac at dinner:

a Mayan Flyer show (yes, they climb up that thing then swing their way down!):

We also had tips from our condo neighbor to see the “fire show” – a Mayan dance show!

first dance without fire

second dance with fire

Luca really got in to the dancing! It was so cute (I was dancing with him too… I won’t be posting that video, ha ha!)!

Obviously, date night needed to include some sugar, right before bed time:

Ha ha!

Luca is such a good boy! He listened to us the whole night, and was very good about going to bed when we got back. We had a lot of fun taking him out!

When Gina and Steve came back from their date night, they had a gift for me and Steven: tía and tío bracelets they had custom made (Gina also got me a beautiful scarf, too!!!)!

Those are the Spanish words for aunt and uncle, and it really meant a lot to me that they got those for us – I cherish that Luca calls us “Aunt Kim” and “Uncle Steven”! (Ha ha, as I write this, I am remembering he asked on this trip, what “aunt” and “uncle” mean, and I said “it’s your mom or dad’s brother or sister.” We were all like “he’s asking tooooo sooooooon!” But earlier that day I had called myself his honorary aunt (when someone called me his mom), so we used that word. You know. Since little kids understand the word “honorary.”)

Steven, Gina and Steve and I stayed up a bit after they came back, being giggly and sharing stories of our nights and planning future get-togethers. Also, as I write this, I realize we didn’t have a ton of that sitting around and chit-chatting, like we typically do during our get-togethers, probably because we were on the go quite a bit, and the four of us weren’t always together. I hope our next trip includes more of that! More goofing around, please!

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By kilax, February 20, 2015 4:31 am

I had a very short “must do” list for Mexico, that looked like this:

1. Beach
2. Ruins
3. Snorkel or Scuba

We got the beach taken care of right away! Then it was on to the next two things!

Playa del Carmen is relatively close to the Tulum and Chichen Itza ruins. Before the trip, we were undecided on which to visit, but had a recommendation for Tulum. Tulum was 40 miles away (Chichen Itza was 112), located right on the coast (potential for water activities after seeing the ruins), and a cheap Colectivo ride away. We went with Tulum!

At first we weren’t sure how to get there, but Steven did a bit of research and found out about Colectivo – a shared van that drops and picks people up along highway 307 between Cancún and Tulum (and beyond?). Cheaper than a taxi, and quicker than a bus… and the price was right at 40 pesos per person one way (about $2.70). AND – it gave us control over the schedule. I didn’t want to sign up for a tour and have to be on someone else’s schedule. This is my vacation, damnit!

That doesn’t mean we didn’t get up early, though. Ha ha, that was our earliest day there! We had read online to get to the ruins before the tour buses showed up and the sun got too hot, and that was a good tip. We got there around 8:30 am, right after they opened, and got to enjoy the ruins a bit before the crowds arrived.

The Colectivo dropped us off on the highway, then it was about a ten minute walk to the ruins site. You pay to get in (64 pesos), but I didn’t pay for a guided tour (and as it turns out, a lot of the English portions of the signs, explaining what things are, were rubbed away), so my only knowledge of what I was looking at was what I had read before the trip (and what I overhead English-speaking tour guides say, ha ha):

• (I think) Tulum was the only walled Mayan city – tulúm is also the Yucatan Mayan word for wall.
• Tulum was an important trading post, as it had access to land and sea routes.
• Only the important peeps got to live in the walled city – the rest lived outside of it.
• Yep. That’s all I knew.

Upon returning to the states, I read more about Tulum on wikipedia (where else?) which was more interesting for me to read, after being there.

These pics make the space look kind of small, but if you check out this map, you’ll see it’s quite large!

We spent an hour or so walking around, which was just the right amount of time for me! Then we ventured out of there. The ruins have some touristy shops close by, but the city of Tulum is just down the highway, about 1.7 miles from the ruins, so we walked there to check it out. There was actually a paved path along the highway, the entire way!

It would have been helpful to have data (the service, not our cat, ha ha) on my phone when we got to Tulum. Before we went to Mexico, I downloaded an “offline” map to my phone of Playa del Carmen (using the Google Maps app) but couldn’t get it to work for Tulum on our very limited wifi in the condo (I should note, the internet is very unreliable in Mexico, where we were). So… we weren’t quite sure where the town center was, and ventured off the highway too soon. I stopped at a little shop and asked in Spanish where all the restaurants and shops were. They kind of directed be back toward the highway, but said to go the opposite direction, back toward the ruins. Maybe that is what they thought we wanted?

Anyway. We eventually figured it out, and found some lunch,

then split for the day, after. Steven and I wanted to walk around and find out about diving or snorkeling, and Gina, Steve and Luca were going to go to the beach.

And what Steven and I found out about scuba diving is that most of the places wanted to take us to dive in a cenote, and that most of the trips started at 8 am and ended at 1 pm – we had already missed them for the day.

The idea of getting up early the next day (when I knew we had an am excursion the following day, our last day there) was NOT appealing to either of us. And we weren’t sure if scuba-diving in a cenote was, either.

So we decided to hit up the beach, and see what we could find there for snorkeling and scuba diving.

Oh gosh. So we got a taxi, from the funniest old Spanish dude who didn’t speak much English at all.

I asked him to take us to the beach (in Spanish), to which he asked “which one?” (makes sense to ask that…). I said, “no sé,” so he starts rattling off lists of names of local beaches… eek. I had no idea! We just told him to take us to the best one and that we wanted to snorkel, so he took us to El Paraiso.

The first thing that happened when we walked up to the beach was a waiter from the local restaurant/hotel asked us if we wanted to pay to rent an umbrella or table (lots of beach clubs do this so you don’t have to haul your own stuff around). I actually told him we wanted to snorkel, and he took us over to this little table that we probably never would have noticed, and we found out a snorkel adventure was leaving in 10 minutes!

Ha ha, again, these conversations were all in Spanish, so that meant I was only getting the gist of them (but I felt comfortable with that). I knew we were paying about $30 a person to go out on the boat and snorkel, and that we would be gone just over an hour. The woman telling us about it mentioned something about a ride then snorkeling,  but I wasn’t following, and didn’t figure it out until we were out on the boat.

Oh my gosh! They took us right by the ruins! That was so darn cool! I actually thought it was neater to see them from the sea, than to see them up close, in person!

And after that, they took us over to the reef, which is apparently part of the second largest in the world. For about 35 minutes we followed our guide around (trying hard not to swim over the coral, or choke in too much salt water) while he showed us different things.

See the blue fish between the corral and rock? I kept thinking “Dory! I found you!” Ha ha. 

I brought the GoPro just for this, and am so happy I did! We took a ton of underwater pics when we were snorkeling!

The snorkel trip was just what we wanted – short and sweet, and we got to see some corral and fish! Steven and I were so happy we stumbled across it (thanks to that taxi driver)!

We had a few drinks and a snack on the beach (it felt so funny to be ordering from a waiter, wearing only a bikini, ha ha!),

before we took a taxi back in to town then rode Colectivo back to the condo (and yeah, the taxi ride cost more than for both of us to ride Colectivo home)!

We got to the condo (after saying hi to Pedra, of course),

and it rained for a few minutes. That was the only time we had “bad” weather while we were there. And that certainly wasn’t bad!

Steven and I went out for dinner and got something we hadn’t had in awhile (since arriving to Mexico, I mean) – Middle Eastern food!

Ha ha. So, the owner of the restaurant was sitting out in front of the shop with his family and all these people would come up to chat to him while we were there. Every once in awhile, he would get up, walk to the back of the restaurant and turn up the radio really loud – which was miserable – I couldn’t hear Steven, and it wasn’t coming in. Then as soon as the owner sat back down, our waitress would turn it down. This went back and forth while we were there, and made us giggle (and grateful the waitress kept turning it down).

We also stopped for gelato/sherbet, after!

It was fun when we got back and got to hear about Gina, Steve and Luca’s adventures for the day! They ended up on the beach really close to the one we went to. I still need to figure out where it was, exactly – that would be funny if they were somehow on the same beach, or in our beach pics from the boat!

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By kilax, February 18, 2015 5:02 am

Maybe I should have saved this post for tomorrow, when my area has a high of 3°F for the day (9°F today isn’t much better!)? Ha ha! That’s okay, I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing since we got back – looking at vacation pics for virtual warmth!

Our weekend in Playa del Carmen was all about the beach (la playa)! Each day started with a run:

Food consumption:

And meandering over to the beach:

I did bring my GoPro to Mexico! More on that in later posts!

You can’t really tell in any of the pics, but I wore these bikinis (tops here, bottoms here) while in Mexico, and really liked them (I bought them just for this trip – looking forward to wearing them this summer, too!). 

One day we got crazy, and went to the pool, after we got back from the beach. I was amused by the fact that I was working on knitting a super warm scarf, while wearing a bathing suit:

This is exactly what I wanted most of the vacation to be like – totally chill (ha, relaxing, not the temps). No schedule. Lazing about. Getting to things, eh, whenever we got to them. Perfection.

We did have a few adventures other than the beach. On Saturday night, we went to Babe’s, a Swedish owned restaurant with a specialty for Thai noodles and “Asian European” cuisine. I got the recommendation for Babe’s from a super enthusiastic coworker, who said it’s the best Thai food she’s ever had.

I used my Spanish a bit there (with a lot of mistakes, but more on that in a later post!) which was fun. And I did find out that almost all of the dishes had fish sauce in them, so they made a special dish for me and Steven!

That was not the highlight of dinner though. The first was this Daiquiri:

Then Steven and Gina working on this masterpiece:

And Luca asking if he could use my phone to take pictures. So I gave it to him and asked him to take a picture of the four of us.

Oh my gosh, we were laughing so hard. And that got the attention of the ladies at the table next to us who did come over and take a picture of us five – now it’s one of my favorite pics!

We had a fun time at Babe’s.

And after, Steven got what he said was the best thing he ate the whole time in Mexico – a Marquesita – a sort of crepe (made with flour and milk), cooked on the spot, then filled with something sweet or savory of your choice (Steven chose Nutella).

And our wild adventure the following day (Sunday)? Prepare for this folks, I party hard.

Laundry.

Ha!

Steven and I packed with the intent of doing laundry while we were there. And there was a laundromat right by our place! Gina and I bought soap on Saturday and headed over on Sunday to check out the laundromat… only to find it closed. Drat! I spoke in Spanish to the lady at the smoothie shop next door to ask here if she knew of another – no luck!

But! We had passed a laundry place the day before, that was also really close. Would it be open? Ding ding, it was

And. AND! I didn’t even have to wash it! I gave my instructions in Spanish (lavar en frío, secar en delicado), with some use of writing on a notepad too, and paid, with instructions to pick it up at 8:00 pm.

GUYS. I paid the equivalent of, like, $4 USD for someone to wash all these clothes (my bag only) and fold them so nicely!

Does that service exist in the states at that price?! Gina and I were a bit excited!

Oh, and since you can’t have too much Mexican food (wait! you CAN!), we made it for dinner that night, too! It wasn’t getting old to me… yet…

Don’t worry, we saw Pedro on the weekend, too. Only, we figured out she might be a girl, and re-named her Pedra. After that day, every time we left the condo, Luca would call for her. So darn cute (and super funny to me to imagine what the locals were thinking to hear a little boy call “Pedro! Pedro! Where are you?!”)!

We bought her some cat treats and started carrying them with us (just like I did in Rome, ha ha). She would see us and come running to us! It’s dorky, but it made me miss Data a bit less (and feel guilty for giving another cat some love at the same time)!