Gretchen posted on September 15, 2013
Brian came down for a visit over Labor Day and Margie at the last moment decided she couldn't wait for her November visit, so she stocked up on frozen dinners for Sam and booked her ticket south for the same week.
On day 3, Adam and Brian packed up their scuba gear and we left the house, with me driving, at 7:15am for the bus station. From there, they were to take the bus to Playa del Carmen, then walk to the ferry, take the ferry to Cozumel, and walk to their hotel. Unfortunately the car had other ideas. While making a left hand turn about a half-mile from the house, the engine lost power and the little yellow "wrench" light came on. It is a sickening feeling to put the pedal to the metal and get absolutely nothing, right in the middle of a major four-lane road. Luckily we were able to creep over out of harm's way. Unluckily it meant that Brian was about to get a close-up tour of a Mexican repair shop, one that Adam knows well, before taking a taxi to the bus station, and onto Cozumel. And it meant that I would be renting a Chevrolet Aveo before heading to work that morning.
Our car has been a frequent customer at the Ford dealership this year. At the Ford dealer in Cancun, you can (and we do) earn loyalty points good for free oil changes, interior detailing, and a variety of lovely prizes such as a full dishware set, and an iPod shuffle. It's nice that they recognize our loyalty, although it's by default as the only semi-competent auto mechanic in the area, but I'd rather get better prices on our services than the full dishware set.
Despite this little detour, the next few days went by without incident and the Chevy Aveo started growing on me. It was so much smaller and zippier than the Ford Explorer. And maybe I'm dating myself here, but it really took me back rolling down the windows and locking all the doors manually. Margie, Isaac and I even took it to the Costco.
On Friday night we headed down to the Paradisus Playa del Carmen hotel, where we met Adam and Brian for the weekend. We had dinner at Mole, the gourmet Mexican restaurant. Isaac tried lime, and didn't seem nearly as bothered by it as some other babies are. Saturday included pool time with lots of slide action for Isaac, gametime for Gretchen (kickoff weekend!), and snoozy time for Isaac at lunch. Later we had dinner at the hibachi restaurant and enjoyed the show. On Sunday we packed into the Aveo four adults, a baby, eleven bags, two sets of scuba gear, one stroller, and a partridge in a pear tree. Margie, Brian, and Isaac were asleep before we even hit Puerto Morelos.
I took some liberties with the photos below, using all the standard filters offered by Picasa. I also decided to post fewer photos but really good ones that I've cropped and edited, instead of the usual sh**load of same boring shots that I usually upload en masse. It all started because I wanted to crop my boobs out of the title shot (mission accomplished)...
Let me know what you think!