Christmas And Observations

Alex, our daughter, turned to me on the morning of Christmas Eve and asked if I was going to be working on Christmas.  I told her "no" and that we were going to have a family day for the holiday.  She said that it really wouldn't be a "family" day since mommy wasn't home.  Ashley, like 1000's of other flight attendants, were working hard to get other families to their destinations for the holidays.  Little did Alex know that Ashley's schedule was rearranged last minute.  She had a 30 hour window to be able to come home for the evening on Christmas Eve from Atlanta and be here for Christmas presents in the morning and fly out again mid day Christmas to resume her schedule later that night.  Ashley was able to get a ride from the airport with our neighbors who were on the same flight and arrive to surprise the kids Christmas Eve afternoon.  Tired and sick she still made it here to share the holiday with the family and make the day very special for the kids.

As quickly as she arrived she was off again for Atlanta and the next time she saw sleep time was in Santiago, Chile.  So, yes, after getting into Atlanta from a long trip she hopped on a plane to Puerto Vallarta.  The next day she went from Puerto Vallarta back to Atlanta and then from Atlanta to Santiago, Chile.  A bit crazy if you asked me but she wanted to be home for the holiday and she pulled it off.  Everything worked out and the kids were thrilled.

Our 2.5 foot fake tree.

Observations.  This time of year the marketing for gift giving on TV etc is unbelievable.  The commercial push for buying more, more, more is unrelentless.  Even as a kid I remember the toy commercials during Saturday morning cartoons and looking endlessly through the back of the Sears catalog where the toy pages were looking for ways to pad my Christmas list.  The kids knew that Christmas was coming and were excited but not crawling out of their skin like I was at their age.  We had a small tree and when the lights went out on Christmas Eve the few presents were laid out for them.   When they woke up and unwrapped their presents they were totally content and happy and went about playing with some of their gifts.  What happened?  We don't have the exposure to marketing here that we would have in the States.  No TV or radio that we listen to.  The kids spend some time on the computer but that is about it and few of their friend's families have the means or desire for excess.  Take away the avenues for the "marketing machine" to influence and what happens?  Grateful and content children on Christmas morning and in general?  Hmmm, interesting.

Happy Holidays From Our Family To Yours From Sayulita!

Photo by Kirsten Wardman

Mexicuted, Part II

So, where to start.  If you follow the blog, I wrote about our summer travels and had to take the kids to my sisters because I had to work and Ozzy had a huge project that must be completed by the end of August and he couldn't watch the kids.  Well,  that project is still not complete, not because of Ozzy, but because the whole project continues to be behind schedule.  Yes, it's construction but every week since August it has been hurry up and wait.  EVERY SINGLE WEEK!  There is always a time crunch to get the project done that honestly is a mess on all fronts.  Problem solving in our lives needs to be accomplished in a certain time frame because the problems I am solving need to be taken care of in a certain amount of time before I have to get back to the States to work. I (we) depend on information, the right information, not up in the air information or information that we aren't being told. Ozzy can do it, but as I have mentioned he cannot lose hours in the shop working and because the project that "HAD" to be done in August now "HAS" to be done this week, no wait, next week, no, today, no, last week, no, ???.  The kitchen is still not ready for installation, but the pieces need to be in last week, but what needs to be done for the pieces to fit that I told you last week needed to be done are still not figured out therefore the pieces cannot go in today but I have a truck and 9 guys here to carry this 800 pound piece that you told me HAD to go in last week but the area is not ready for it to go in so just set them off to the side and bring the 9 guys back again(paid) when we might be ready yesterday.  Oh yeah, after you get it in place we need you to move it because we are actually not ready for it to go in even though we insisted it go in last week.  And once it is finished, and sealed and glued down we need you to cut holes in it because there are brackets for windows that we did not tell you about when you built it.  When you cut the concrete don't damage it or you will have to replace it. We want perfect cuts with no chips.  Oh wait,  where we told you to cut for the brackets it is not actually where we want you to cut it.  Good thing you didn't cut it yet.  SIGH!!   Sorry, I got off on a tangent.  This has been our hour by hour lives here, our sighs, our, "What the F@#%s".   More Ozzy than me, but when he is a mess it makes me a mess.  I make sure he has plenty of Pacifico and Don Julio.

So, tangent done, the main point is that we are living our lives around this project. I am bidding my work schedule around this project, and our getting things done before I leave so Ozzy doesn't have to spend time doing what I could do because he needs to be here for this project. The problem is that  all of this is being done around the "project peoples" schedules.  Read the above paragraph again if you didn't understand their schedule the first time.  EXACTLY!!

Okay, enough about the "project".  But it is a constant in our lives and has much to do with how the other aspects of our lives fall into place.  This is not necessarily a "Mexico" issue but a reality in our lives at the moment.

It has been our experience in Mexico is what has to be done now takes at least a month because of all of the extra paperwork, the mañanas, the siestas, the communication between chiefs, or lack there of, or when someone is NOT telling you what you can do do help get this moving somewhat efficiently.  Not fast but "efficiently".  We have had so many, "That would have been great information to know back when we..." moments.  Information that would save weeks, if not months, of time.  It would also save us money, mileage, tons of stress, frustrations and questions.  It is just crazy and so F#$%ing annoying.  This is where I want to loose it and go postal and question myself and my strength to live here. But, oh, it is cultural.  I understand that, but it is hard when the culture in which you have lived all but 2 years of your life is slower than what you are used to.  It is hard to understand that it is not at all important to the person with whom you are paying and depending on, the person whose job it is, (meaning, this is their job, the job that they get paid to do to make a living) to get this done today, tomorrow, next week, or next month.

 I am only speaking of our experiences as of late.  We understand things are not the same here and we have to live with that.  We have had incredible experiences with locals helping us ASAP, having all of the information we need, going overboard.  But as we all know it is those shitty experiences that we seem to remember the most.

Stay with me.  I told you I was all over the place,  there is a story here.

But not until Part III.  But that will not be until January because I have to run off to work and miss yet another Christmas with my kids.  So Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, Happy skiing and Happy surfing.

Stay tuned O and A readers.

We have been Mexicuted, Part I

I really don't know where to start and this may be all over the place because that is how our lives have been here for the past four months and I don't think it is possible to organize, especially on paper unless I were a professional writer.   This has also been a reason for the blog post lapse.  Because,  where do you start when you are still in the middle of it, when it is still kicking your ass, when you have made progress but do not want to revisit what happened to get you to the point of only still being in the middle of it.  And then there is the whole thinking of, I don't even want to write this because so many more people are going through so much more and I feel like a total shit for thinking that this is a hard time.  So, let me say, I know I don't have it bad, but this country has been showing us the difficulties, culture, language barriers like we have not experienced before.  And all of this is because we are digging deeper into living here, buying a car, owning a business, being members of this country.  It makes me question myself, am I a wimp, do I not like difficulity?  No, I do not like difficulity. What have I done?  Can I handle this?  I am a strong person, I have been through shit, but why is THIS kicking my ass?   I do know that I like simplicity, peace, knowledge, communication, when it means taking care of business and getting things done.  When people ask me if I like living here right now my answer is no.  They all say, it must be wonderful, and I am thinking, you have no idea.  This could turn into a whole psychology piece of the whys and hows of who you are and what life is teaching you.  Whatever, I am 43 I have been through that ten fold.  After thinking about it, this is nothing more than living in a foreign country not knowing the language and working and living in that country as if you lived their all your life.  A friend once told me that if it were easy living here, then everybody would be doing it.

One thing I know for sure is that Ozzy and I could not do this without each other.  We each have our own battles to fight, him much more than me. We are constantly looking at each other  with a, "what the f#$k?" look, a look of fear, disgust, complete humor, who cares anymore look, we have sighs and knoding of the head in disbelief on an almost hourly basis.

So, about those battles.  Wait a minute, why do I have battles?  Where is Ozzy?  He has taken care of all of that since we moved here.  All I do is go to work and and come home and eat bon bons.  Well not anymore.  Daddy is busy working and cannot get away to take care of business in the home.  There is no more yelling "Ozzy" and telling him what needs to be done or fixed.  I have now become the fix it girl, the bus driver, communicator, and I use that term lightly, for the most part in a world that I know nothing about because my wonderful husband used to do it all.

The View From Casa Estrella

OK, we'd be lying if we said we didn't have a kick-ass view from the house we rent here in Sayulita.  Our landlord's apartment, upstairs, has one of the best views in the whole town.  Add the fact that he is a fantastic photographer and "Wah-lah"... award winning photo taken just a few steps from our rental!  Sayulita Life had a photo contest and this photo won the best "Scenic" photo of those submitted.  Keep this one on your screen saver as the temps up north keep coming down and think warm thoughts as you sip your cocoa.

Photo by Vadja

What You Might Find In Your Board Shorts After A Swim

Perspectives From A New Family At Escuela Del Mundo

A family's take/blog post as they learn life lessons and their experience at Escuela Del Mundo.

Click on this link to go to the blog.

http://homegrownhub.org/2013/10/realizing-passion/

Sayulita - "Not For Everybody"??

For many years the standard for information for the visitor and local alike in Sayulita has been Sayulita Life. All things Sayulita can be found there from lodging, retail, forums, maps, classifieds etc. Now there is a new player in town and this site has been gaining steam attracting the talents of a few local writers, photographers, business folks, web designer etc. Sayulitabeach.com is the new site and their tag line is that Sayulita is "Not For Everybody" and I feel that they are right.  Sayulita is certainly not exclusive as it absolutely welcomes all people but it does NOT cater to all people. No one is going to hold your hand here, brush the dust off your car or scrape the dog crap off your flip flops.  The new site has much of the same information as Sayulita Life but the new site has a little more color, fun graphics and photos, a little more edge and lot more swagger. They are both great sites so check them both out.

See also a related post from our "Month in Sayulita" blog.  Is Sayulita "All That Great"?

El Iticate

El Iticate is hands down, the BEST taco restaurant in Sayulita.  The only way I can describe it is "a party in the mouth".  The restaurant is closed in the summer so we are usually chomping at the bit for the reopening each fall. If you can call it that, it feels like the middle of summer right now.  The owners, Jorge and Tania, are great.  Tania is also a teacher at the kids school, Escuela Del Mundo.

The location is a great spot on one of the main roads, Jose Mariscal, with the tables in the street so you can watch all the action as it goes by.  Carlos, Alex's skateboard and sometimes surf instructor, is the waiter so it is fun to see him and his always smiling face.

The best taco place in Sayulita

Finally!!! Open for business!  Everyone is stoked!

Trace chatting it up with Jorge, the owner and awesome taco maker, no doubt in spanish

The wonderful toppings for your taco

Arrachera con rajas, an Ozzy favorite

Breaded arrachera, atun(tuna) and arrachera tacos,  my dinner.  Obviously I was starving!  The breaded arrachera and atun are new on the menu this year.  Definately my two new favorites.

Not sure what to say about this, except Trace looks like he was smoking a little while we were eating 

Kids favorite ice cream place, Wakika

After El Iticate we usually treat the kids to ice cream at Wakika and then go to the plaza for more people watching and socializing, and for the kids, running and playing.  There is always someone there that we or the kids know.

This pretty much rounds up a perfect night for us older folk with kids in Sayulita.

"Making Change"

When we lived in the States we basically did every money transaction with a credit card, debit card, online transfer or check.  I rarely carried cash at all and had no reason to because virtually every business was set up to accept payments in these ways.  Here, unless you are shopping at a major chain like Costco, Home Depot or large grocery store these payment methods are not usually accepted.  But, having "cash" is not the solution to all things.  If you have the "wrong cash" you probably won't be able to function very well either.  ATM machines love to spit out 500 peso bills(about $38 US) so that is what many people, especially visitors, have in their pockets to spend.  Most small business, though happy to have your business, hate to see these kind of bills come in to the store for payment unless it is within a few pesos of the actual charge.

 Taco stands, beach vendors, small grocery and retail stores etc will most likely not have change for large bills like $500 peso bills or even $200 peso bills.  Most of these operations are small time and just don't carry a large bank to make change. If they do, they might be cleaned out as far as making change goes for the day.  This inability to make change can effect a lot of things you do like eat, shop and buy groceries.  Certain places will be able to handle a larger peso bill and you might have to go elsewhere if they can't.  Yes, we have made spending decisions based only on whether or not the business would accept a 200 or 500 peso bill.  Usually businesses will make every effort to go down the street to another store or find another vendor who may have change for a larger bill.  I will always ask before I sit down or try to buy something just to be sure they'll take it.  So, if you are out about town I would suggest having a good supply of smaller bills and coins in your pocket rather than just a few large bills.  It will make everyone you buy from very happy to see you.

Yep

Things You Just Won't See in the USA - Crackin me up!

There are so many things about this country that crack me up, (especially coming from the USA with all their rules and government regulations), and things that people do here because many times that is the only way to get it done.  We have mentioned this in blog posts, about using what you have on hand to get the job done.

This is to warn drivers that there is a huge hole in the road. A tire stuck in the hole with a stick, white flag and red streamer.  At least someone cared enough to let others know.  The hole is still there and growing.

Sayulita Scenes

Another great shot by mi amigo, Seani Galloway.  Pre-2012 downtown remodel.  Our grocery store of choice in Sayulita.  No, they don't have everything so you have to know where to go to find things in all the stores in town or just make things work somehow.  Cold beer and liquor?  They have it covered.

Agua

Did you know that:
-Each person uses about 100 gallons of water a day at home
-The average automatic dishwasher uses 9-12 gallons of water while hand washing dishes can take up to 20 gallons and many precious hours          
-The average 5 minute shower takes between 20-50 gallons of water
-The average toilet uses 2 gallons of clean water in a single flush

So...I feel like it is the same story over and over, I was home only eleven days this summer so when it was time for me to come home for a stretch of time I was beyond excited, practically jumping out of my skin.  And of course when I get here the internet is out, we run out of water, Alex has lice( 'tis the season) and we cannot get it under control because we cannot wash linens. And I am scratching my head as I write this, sure that I have lice as well.   I can live without the internet, actually it is very nice, the water is another thing.  So what happened was that the pump that water to the tinanco from the cistern has blown up.  We ran out of water on the 7th, today is the 18th.  Pump is not even close to being fixed.

We have had bouts of creativity, good luck, discovery, something to help us along.
A tinanco is a large water tank that usually sits on the top of every single building in Mexico to feed water to that building.  Our house has two tinancos, only one of which is connected to the house, not sure why the other is there but we have learned to keep it full to use as the "oh shit" tinanco. We learned that when the city turns on the water, which is usually on Tuesday and Thursday it will fill the tinancos without the pump working, we have used rain water and even discovered how to borrow water from our neighbor.  We were so happy until we saw that the water was green.

Here is how it has gone:
Ran out of water on Sunday
Used 5 gallon buckets to fill with the lower tinanco water to clean dishes, take sponge baths and flush toilets
The city turned on water so we fill the tinancos on tuesday and thursday and washed clothes and linens all day, took showers, tried to kill lice
From thursday thru today, wednesday we have done everything to conserve water, ie. used the lower tinanco, not shower and instead take sponge baths out of a 5 gallon bucket, only flush when necessary and when you are dealing with the heat and humidity here necessary is very often.

Yesterday we ran out of the lower tinanco water just as I was washing the last of the dishes and the city has yet to turn on the water.  So, we have no water and the buckets are empty, crap!  Oh wait, here comes more rain, yeah, I can collect rain water in my buckets so we can at least flush the toilets.  I have given up on trying to fight the lice, just not possible right now.  Oh well, I leave here on Thursday to go back to work, hopefully without any critters, Ozzy can deal with the rest.

Water is very precious and necessary, as are systems that get the water to you.  I have learned this over and over since I have lived in Mexico.  But as of late I have also realized how much water we actually use since I have been carrying it all in with 5 gallon buckets.  We use a ton of water even when conserving.

My 5 gallon buckets,  it is necessary to make sure these are always full

Trace helping me fill the bucket with the tinanco water

Me carrying my bucket in to do the dishes

Oh good, here comes more rain so I can collect rain water

My last go to, collecting rain water that pours off the roof.  No we do not cook or wash dishes with this water.

Still no water and it looks like the rain has let up.  I guess we are dead in the uh.. water?  I leave tomorrow for a first stop at my parents house.  I will be bringing a trash bag full of dirty laundry, just like college, and will be taking a nice long hot shower.  I feel sorry for all of the people who have to sit beside me on my three leg, 12 hour journey.

Tropical Storm Manuel

We have received more than a few emails concerned with how we were doing during storm season.  This one, Tropical Storm Manuel, is expected to go inland well to the south of us.  Gray skies and rain here but not much else.  Most folks are hoping that the storm will bring some summer waves.

'tis the season so I'm sure this will not be the last storm that will come close.

This Is Why...

I found this guy on my towel today.  I don't know if he was one to be afraid of so I helped him back outside and into the jungle after all we just share this place with them.  It was a good reminder of one of the rules we have down here..."Always shake out your clothes, shoes, towels, blankets etc".  You never know who has taken up residence in one of your belongings so don't forget to "shake it out".

First Day of School 2013 - Escuela del Mundo

The kids started their second year this morning at Escuela del Mundo, aka the "Hippie Jungle School".  A few butterflies for sure but they charged right into their classroom just like they always do.  This year Alex and Trace will share a classroom as Trace has moved up into "Taller 1" that accommodates first through third graders.  Taller 1 also has a new teacher and assistant this year which is certainly creating a buzz amongst the parents.  Last year, the classroom situation in Taller 1 was less than adequate and the school has made some positive changes in our children's class as well as advances throughout the school.  The school has downsized a bit, made some staffing changes, sent teaching staff off for additional Montessori training in the offseason, purchase new equipment and recruited a real Montessori trained professional and an assistant.  The overall objective in preparation for this year, as I understand it, was to get smaller and increase quality so that the school can slowly grow again and keep to the Montessori vision the school intended when it began.

2013

2012

2011

Will all these changes be good for our kids and the school?  This is yet to be seen and only time will tell but we are excited about the possibilities for the school year.  Meeting new families has already begun and we look forward to seeing old friends coming back this fall.

One question does remain at the end of the day for me.  "If today was such a big day for the niños, then why am I the one who's totally exhausted"?

Summer Adventures, Part 4

Park City

The final push and my most anticipated visit is underway.  The only way to get from Columbia to Salt Lake City on Delta is to first fly to Atlanta.  After that you pretty much hope, pray and get very creative as to how you are going to get to Salt Lake.  The flights did not look good the day before which means that the day of would be horrible.  One thing that all airline employees just cannot figure out is that you can go to bed at 11:00 pm and the flight you want to take the next morning looks decent,  meaning there are enough seats available and you have a good chance of getting on.  You wake up at 5:00 am to check your flight again and it is oversold by up to 20 seats some times.  Aren't people supposed to be sleeping in the middle of the night?  Who is buying all of these tickets?  It totally screws us.  Columbia is about one hour away from Charlotte, NC's airport, major hub for USAirways.  I checked on the flight from Charlotte to SLC, on Delta  and it looked so good that I decided we would take a shuttle from Columbia to Charlotte.  Avoid Atlanta,  wahoo.  We get to the airport in Charlotte and guess what?  Yep, the flight got full over night.  I was frieking a little but luckily there were flights to Detroit and Minneapolis we could get on as a back up.
But...once again the Delta gods were in our favor and we got on and even got seats together.  Aspen Lane here we come.

So happy to be on the plane and sitting together

The main reason for this stop was to get our house ready for new renters and I wanted to liquidate all of our belongings.  When we moved to Mexico we really didn't know if it would work out or how long we would stay so we packed everything we owned and put it in our detached  one car garage.  We filled the garage so full that you couldn't even walk in it.
Since we have decided to stay we don't need or want all of that "stuff", ie, material goods.
The kids and I arrived Saturday morning at around 11 am and I hit the ground running,  tearing through the garage.  Omg, we had so much, but when it was all in the house it didn't seem like we had a lot. I worked all day Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and finally by Tuesday I felt like I had made progress.  I was organizing, moving, throwing away, recycling, deciding what to keep, what to take back to Mexico.  I was in over my head but I had been wanting to do this for two years.  I had a deadline for Thursday because I was having a garage sale on Friday and Saturday.  With Ozzy's help I managed to separate out our lives, putting memoirs, books, camping gear, a few items of winter clothing and kitchen gear in our 10x10 shed that is behind our garage, everything else went back into the garage and on display for the two day sale.  So the garage was jam packed and we had all of the large stuff in the driveway and it was filled as well.

 It was such a break for me to have the garage and being able to leave everything in the driveway for three nights without having to worry about anyone taking anything, so all I had to do was show up when the sale started which was Friday at 11 am because I had to take Ozzy to the airport in the morning.(That is another oh shit non rev story).  People started showing up at 9.  Someone even came the night before and bought a ton of stuff.  The sale did awesome on Friday, the neighbors couldn't believe all of the traffic.  Even Saturday did well, stragglers were buying tons of little things that you wouldn't think anyone would want.  Our neighborhood is tough for garage sales so I was shocked at the traffic, and so grateful because I needed to move everything.

Going

Going

GONE!!!!

Done and done, our material lives now belong to other people, we have half of a shed of what we deem important and maybe necessary in the future.

This is all we have left in the USA, camping gear, memoirs, books, tools to fix the house and kitchen necessities

And of course a house with furniture that is being enjoyed by three awesome thirty something's, at least we hope they are awesome.  They seemed like good people.  Just about everything sold and what didn't was donated to Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Not much left

 And now the garage is empty and available to the renters for all of their gear. And Ozzy and I feel like we took a huge dump.  I feel so light right now.  Going through all that stuff I asked Ozzy at one point how did we pay for all of this stuff?  This is what we spent our hard earned money on?  I am not knocking material goods, we are just in a different place now, and living in Mexico has really contributed to us learning that we can live with very little.  That just being together and happy (with surf) is all we need.

Alex and Trace had a complete blast being back in the hood.  Our part time neighbor, Ray was in town with his grand kids, Elaina, 6 and Angel 9ish, and Berkley and Misha who live up the street and the kids have known since birth. Also, Lilly from across the street would join in the fun. The six kids went hard core every day from about 9 until 9, riding bikes borrowed from our other neighbors, running around in a pack, going from house to house, playing, eating, watching movies, playing on computers and jungle gyms.  I have to thank Mike, Lilly's dad, for helping Trace learn to ride the bike again. Alex and Trace did go to camp from 9-1 Monday thru Thursday but immediately came back to join the gang.  Ray was awesome and took them to free concerts and the local pool, Corrie and her mom Abigale stayed outside with them to make sure they were okay, and Erin and Tyson took Trace in when he had had enough and needed peace and quiet.  I would literally not see them all day unless they came screaming into the driveway on their bikes.  I feel so badly that I could not contribute to the care taking of the kids as I had originally planned.  Thank you neighbors for being the awesome people that you are and have always been.

The "gang" in Ray's driveway

At Emily and Chad's for a BBQ

Newpark music concert, yes that is gum in all of their mouths

Charlie's angels. Charlie decided to join in this picture

We did manage to squeeze in a birthday party for Alex on Tuesday night.  All of the hood came and we had pizza, cake and of course, a piñata.  I don't think she even noticed that we never gave her a birthday present.

Thank you Carrie for the cake

Alex going after the Pinata

Hugh Hefner, Jr. going after the Pinata and daddy being very brave .  Just check out how close the bat is to him

Ozzy's good friend Lampe and his beautiful baby daughter Vivian.  If you look up perfect in the dictionary her picture will be there

The girls playing with one of Alex's gifts, a barbie that can you can dye her hair

Thank you so much to Erin and Tyson for taking us in when there were not softball games, birthday parties or neighborhood BBQ's.  Thank you for loving my children and thank you for keeping the Don Julio and wine flowing as well as the food.  Tyson even gave Trace his first Kite Surfing lesson.  Oh shit!  Trace is psyched to continue and will get his first water lesson when Erin and Tyson come to visit soon.  Bucerias here we come.  Good thing Tyson is going to be Trace's sponsor:)

Trace's first lesson with his sponsor

So, after the garage sale I had to concentrate on cleaning the house for the new renters.  Our previous renters left the house in amazing shape and I thought it would take me two hours max to clean it.  Wrong.  It took me eight hours to clean the top floor, which is the largest and main floor and includes the kitchen.  I vacuumed wood beams, moved appliances, washed windows, cleaned floor boards, vacuumed nooks and crannies.  I don't think the house had been that clean since we left two years ago.

Thank goodness the kids were done and decided to sleep in to let me get started on the cleaning.

Nothing better than a cold basement with a heavy down comforter for the perfect nights sleep

Monday was Dr. appointment day.  My good friend Carrie took the kids while I had to get to an appointment in south Salt Lake.  I don't think they minded a bit.  Pancakes and a visit to Tracey Aviary to see some cool birds.

They love their Aunt Carrie

Okay, the party is over, the summer adventures have come to an end, families have been visited, awesome times have been had, our material life has been liquidated and home rented, now for the most dreaded part of the whole trip.  How in the hell do we get back to Mexico in time for us to sit standby, get the kids home and me make it back to Atlanta in time to work on Saturday?  If you remember the other posts all of the flights were great, standby worked in our favor every time.  That just doesn't happen so I knew that this last and most important flight(s) would be a shit show.  I didn't start looking until Monday how the loads looked.  There is no reason to look too early.  I narrowed it down to two choices:  fly US Air thru Phoenix and on to Puerto Vallarta or fly Delta thru Los Angeles and on to Puerto Vallarta.  I had to stay on the same airline for both flights because I was checking two very large bags.  There wasn't time to get bags and recheck especially if it would also involve a train or bus ride to another concourse.  What to do? Take my chances and pick the least expensive route or pay more  and maybe not get on.  Actually neither choice looked very good.  I chose Delta!   Because the flight from SLC to LAX looked better and it was much less expensive and because Carrie suggested I just go with Delta. She is an airline person and travels a ton and just has good karma.  The kids and I get to the airport on Tuesday and the flight did not break down.  In other words it did not oversell in the middle of the night.  We got on!  Wahoo.  I think we got the last three seats.  We were not able to sit together but the kids handled it like mature adults and knew that at any time in our adventures we may not be able to sit together.  I even got kudos from the man sitting beside Trace.  He told me that I had a great travel partner.  The flight was late leaving SLC and we only had 45 minutes to make our connection to PVR. Which was one of my concerns when I was deciding which route to travel in the first place. Not a problem if we are on time, our connecting flight is in the same concourse AND if the agent does not close the door 15 minutes early because all of the paying passengers are on board.  So, we were late leaving SLC, arrived on time BUT sat on the tarmac for 15 minutes before being towed to the gate.  Starting to get nervous. We are at 30 minutes with 15 minutes to get our bags and get to the next gate IF they close the door early.  Finally, we are towed to the gate, we get off and run to our next gate which is in the same concourse, yeah!!  We get our boarding passes and BAM!!  Not only did we make it to the gate on time and not only are their seats available but we get First Class seats!  BAM!  This was the first time the kids have sat in first class and they were full of questions like, why do we get to sit here, why are the seats so big, we get food? Why haven't we sat here before?  The second we sit down and get settled they close the door, 15 MINUTES EARLY.  So close, we were so close to missing the flight.  I had already planned on Guadalajara as a back up so I knew we would at least get into Mexico.
Ahhh, we are on our way home,  I was so sure that these last few flights were going to be a nightmare.  I did my homework, picked a good day to travel, hoped, prayed and listened to Carrie.  Thank you once again Delta gods!!!  It is unheard of that we have had such good luck non reving during the summer.  Thank you Delta gods!!!

Trace is so excited, actually he could have cared less where he sat

Alex looking like she does this all the time

MMM, lunch, with a hot towel and linen.  Notice my beverage in the fore ground.  I think the flight attendant was trying to get me hammered.

Alex enjoying her lunch

We made it!  A whirl wind tour, non reving, visiting family, parties, liquidating.  We are home and it is so good to be back.  I think the kids are happy as well.  What a wonderful summer though! Unforgettable!! Thank you everyone for taking care of the Mexicans, loving us, feeding us, lodging us, and just dealing with us!  We love you all!!!!!!!!

Back home!