Although it's not quite rainy season yet, and there were some sputtering starts along the way, we actually got rained on last night.
Rain has been predicted this week, but only a small chance of it. That usually means there may be a cloud or two in the sky. But yesterday afternoon there were some sprinkles: small drops at first, then larger ones, a roll of thunder ... and then everything stopped.
After dinner, the wind came up, rattling our windows and French doors. Dogs went into frightened mode, quivering while laying under our computer desks. A great, loud crash was the result of our bedroom's French door swinging open and then closing rapidly in the wind. More terror for the dogs!
Eventually everyone went to bed, drifting off to sleep in a hot, humid atmosphere - only to awake close to midnight to the pitter-pat of soft rain falling. It felt glorious and it was falling so slowly that the rain should have a chance to soak into the earth rather than just run off. Just the kind of rain we needed!
Now if only the 'real' rainy season will arrive and continue to shower down upon us. Michael said that last year - when I was in the MidWest - it was unreasonably hot before the storms arrived. It did reach 91F yesterday. Let's hope it doesn't make it that high any time soon!
Friday, May 24, 2013
Monday, May 20, 2013
Vacationing from Retirement
We will now try to book all our trips from our 'local' airport (only an hour or so away), rather than Mexico City. That long bus trip (3-1/2 hours) is especially painful (even in an executive class bus with spacious seats) at the end of the vacation. And we tried to save a few bucks on the trip to Mexico City and chose a bus line that stopped every few miles to pick up riders. Mistake! It became a 4-hour trip, but had left earlier, so it got us to the bus station in DF earlier than the other lines, which was a good thing, as it turned out.
It didn't help that the taxi-ticket-seller person sold us a taxi ticket to the Centro Historico district instead of the Aeropuerto - which cost us an extra $100 peso tip to the driver to take us to the airport instead. And then, upon arrival at the International terminal for our flight to Houston, we found out that all United flights are from the Domestic Terminal...so the taxi driver reloaded our luggage and took us to the other terminal - which has no direct connection to the international terminal - and when he drove out of Terminal 2 with passengers, the Federales stopped him and we had to show them our plane reservations for the flight from Terminal One before they would let us go. Needless to say, he got an extra tip of another $100 pesos. (I think he was shocked at that.) At least we got to the correct terminal and checked in with time to spare.
However, once on the plane to Houston International (I still can't bring myself to call it B*** International) things went swell. Their customs/immigration lines were really long, but moved along nicely. Disney had provided a limo to take us to Galveston where we stayed in the Galvez Hotel - it's a Wyndham hotel across the street from the waterfront (unfortunately the lobby was all torn up making it more wonderful) - and then Disney picked us up the next morning by bus and took us to the ship.
Our table mates for dinner were a couple from northern Scotland and another couple from Texas, but they'd lived all over the world and were civilized folk. We always were the last table out of the restaurant each night!
Anyway, we had a nice cruise with several sea days (which we quite enjoy) and stops at Disney's private island (Castaway Cay - which is completely and solely Disney), a day at Walt Disney World with parkhopper tix (we splurged and took two private tours: Wild Africa Trek in Animal Kingdom and a dessert party while we saw the IllumiNations fireworks show in EPCOT; the AK trek was fabulous, the dessert party not so much), and in Key West we had booked breakfast at the Latitudes restaurant on the beach at the Westin Resort on their private island just off the coast. Then a few more sea days and we were back to reality!
The Disney Magic was next to cross the Atlantic (we have friends on it) and do a summer of Mediterranean cruises before an extensive dry dock to upgrade it to something closer to the new Fantasy and Dream ships.
Once we made our way back to Mexico City, we chose the wrong bus line: we went with the 3-across seating bus instead of the 4-across seating bus. Both were executive class but the bus line we chose left an hour later.... At least we finally ended up in San Miguel and caught a cab home and were greeted by exuberant doggies just before midnight!
Sunday we spent unpacking and washing multiple loads of clothing - even though we'd done laundry while on the ship. We hadn't restocked our cabinets, so it was dinner out last night. And it will be dinner out tonight if I don't zip over to the grocery store when I finish this entry!
Just booked our shuttle transport for January so things are aligned for our visit to Cabo to see my brother and his wife while at their condo in Cabo.
We only have one other trip between now and then - a week at the Santa Fe Opera in August featuring Traviata, La Donna del Lago, the Duchess of Gerolstein, Marriage of Figaro, and a world premier of Oscar with David Daniels (new, hot countertenor in The Enchanted Island at the Met). The Lady of the Lake and Duchess each feature one of Santa Fe's semi-resident (they each own a house in Santa Fe that our friends' business takes care of when they're not around) divas: Susan Graham (in Les Troyens at the Met) and Joyce Di Donato (in Maria Stuarda at the Met).
Then it's on to Cabo! I think next year may be a year of respite....
It didn't help that the taxi-ticket-seller person sold us a taxi ticket to the Centro Historico district instead of the Aeropuerto - which cost us an extra $100 peso tip to the driver to take us to the airport instead. And then, upon arrival at the International terminal for our flight to Houston, we found out that all United flights are from the Domestic Terminal...so the taxi driver reloaded our luggage and took us to the other terminal - which has no direct connection to the international terminal - and when he drove out of Terminal 2 with passengers, the Federales stopped him and we had to show them our plane reservations for the flight from Terminal One before they would let us go. Needless to say, he got an extra tip of another $100 pesos. (I think he was shocked at that.) At least we got to the correct terminal and checked in with time to spare.
However, once on the plane to Houston International (I still can't bring myself to call it B*** International) things went swell. Their customs/immigration lines were really long, but moved along nicely. Disney had provided a limo to take us to Galveston where we stayed in the Galvez Hotel - it's a Wyndham hotel across the street from the waterfront (unfortunately the lobby was all torn up making it more wonderful) - and then Disney picked us up the next morning by bus and took us to the ship.
Our table mates for dinner were a couple from northern Scotland and another couple from Texas, but they'd lived all over the world and were civilized folk. We always were the last table out of the restaurant each night!
Anyway, we had a nice cruise with several sea days (which we quite enjoy) and stops at Disney's private island (Castaway Cay - which is completely and solely Disney), a day at Walt Disney World with parkhopper tix (we splurged and took two private tours: Wild Africa Trek in Animal Kingdom and a dessert party while we saw the IllumiNations fireworks show in EPCOT; the AK trek was fabulous, the dessert party not so much), and in Key West we had booked breakfast at the Latitudes restaurant on the beach at the Westin Resort on their private island just off the coast. Then a few more sea days and we were back to reality!
The Disney Magic was next to cross the Atlantic (we have friends on it) and do a summer of Mediterranean cruises before an extensive dry dock to upgrade it to something closer to the new Fantasy and Dream ships.
Once we made our way back to Mexico City, we chose the wrong bus line: we went with the 3-across seating bus instead of the 4-across seating bus. Both were executive class but the bus line we chose left an hour later.... At least we finally ended up in San Miguel and caught a cab home and were greeted by exuberant doggies just before midnight!
Sunday we spent unpacking and washing multiple loads of clothing - even though we'd done laundry while on the ship. We hadn't restocked our cabinets, so it was dinner out last night. And it will be dinner out tonight if I don't zip over to the grocery store when I finish this entry!
Just booked our shuttle transport for January so things are aligned for our visit to Cabo to see my brother and his wife while at their condo in Cabo.
We only have one other trip between now and then - a week at the Santa Fe Opera in August featuring Traviata, La Donna del Lago, the Duchess of Gerolstein, Marriage of Figaro, and a world premier of Oscar with David Daniels (new, hot countertenor in The Enchanted Island at the Met). The Lady of the Lake and Duchess each feature one of Santa Fe's semi-resident (they each own a house in Santa Fe that our friends' business takes care of when they're not around) divas: Susan Graham (in Les Troyens at the Met) and Joyce Di Donato (in Maria Stuarda at the Met).
Then it's on to Cabo! I think next year may be a year of respite....
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