QCR (Quick Cancun Recap)

So let me just start by saying I used to love that night flight on Continental from Portland to Houston but the next time I go back (if I go back) (and that, my friends, is what you call "foreshadowing") (so you guys better read this and the next few posts) I am totally taking the US Air one through Phoenix that leaves at like 6am. Not only did I have to leave for the airport on Thursday night for an 11:50pm flight, but I had to leave in the middle of the fourth quarter of the Oregon-Oregon State game and that almost killed me. But once we won (I learned while crossing over the Marquam Bridge) I was able to get fired up about my vacation. Seriously. This game was so flipping huge I wasn't able to even think about the trip beforehand.

My layover was like six hours. I started to feel like Tom Hanks in that movie "Terminal". I slept, I charged my phone, I read, I wandered the airport, I had some breakfast, I drank a ton of Starbucks, and still the hours just dragged. By the time I got through the second flight, through immigration (thanks, Arturo, it was fun being pulled out of line by an immigration agent and making everyone else in line wonder what the hell was going on) and in to Kimberley's car, I was a hot, sweaty, tired mess.

Kim cooked the hell out of a gigantic meal while I sipped cold Montejo beer and chatted with her. That Beckla came over for dinner, Arturo was home from work, and Friday night was a great great night. Saturday morning Kim ran me all over town twice and back to the airport to pick up that Cece and the vacation experience began. It was nice to a) shower and b) settle in and plan our rigourous tanning schedule.

Saturday night I hosted a little cocktail party with some friends from town that I hadn't seen in a while. Kim and Arturo, Beckla, Susan, Lynda, Marita and Dave, and even a cameo from that Lizard, all hanging out together on the deck. Afterward, most of us made it to centro and met up with my little Tio at La Taberna and then Los Arcos, like old times, except I promised not to have any Jaeger Bombs and I ended up doing like four (according to Dave, even though I still think it was three, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt). Home by around 3am maybe. Up at around 7am. Noodle legs. And pool time. Lots of it.

Our agenda basically centered around the sun - beach in the morning, pool after noon. Cece and I definitely gelled on that end because there is nothing I can think of to do when it is 85 degrees and sunny out that could ever take precedence over tanning. VCI is a fantastic place and everyone remembered me after my three year abscence. It was great to feel like I was home. It was great to have so many flowers brought to me (even if two of them were flamboyan, the only thing on the planet I am allergic to). It was great to sit at happy hour with Angel and Manuel and have them keep giving us free shots and then going out afterward for a TripAdvisor meetup and getting hammered all over again. And it was great being able to have no real agenda beyond laying down for a week.

Wednesday we took a day trip and Thursday we went over to the pool at the Royal Sands, but Friday again was full sun, the last of that until next summer. In the midst of all that we went to dinner at Tacos Rigo, Captains Cove and Marakame, spent most of our money on taxis, smoked packs and packs of cigarettes, swilled iced tea and Royal Roast coffee drinks, shopped at the Walmart but barely ate any of it, discussed Cece's Kindle with any number of people, dipped in the pool, ate french dip sandwiches, lost my voice constantly, dodged flying cockroaches (some of us better than others...), chatted at length, wasted time, turned tanner and tanner and best of all, relaxed.

It was an awesome trip.

I'm doing laundry now, and have a million things to do, and I don't want to shower so much but will have to, and it's cold out, but I'm home with the kitties and drinking coffee planning my day. Yes, it's back to life, but you always feel so good after vacation that it almost doesn't matter. Things will come back to me, and I will tell some stories, but my goal today was to recap. I think I've accomplished that. Now let's see how much more I can accomplish today.