Stacy wanted to see the sunrise on the last day with the girls. But since that was 6:15am, and I didn't want to walk the mile plus before that. I asked them to maybe come get me after they did that. So, I meet up with them at 6:45am in our game room. Mike and Chris head out to go deep sea fishing. Reagan is tagging along with us gals for breakfast, but he's not supposed to speak. Kidding! kinda.

We head up 5th Avenue and eventually find an open place to eat breakfast. I had a decent huevos mexicanos and everyone else was meh on theirs. After that, we start to walk back to our hotel. Reagan heads up to our hammocks on our deck to chill, and Stacy, Sarah, and I go hang out at the pool. I have to find shaded areas, which proves tricky. Sarah & Stacy wanted to lay out in the sun, so we head out to the beach where I have to stay shaded and they strip down to their bikinis and lay out. I write in my journal. Oh yah, I've been writing all this for my blog in a journal I brought with me. I didn't want to deal with bringing a laptop, but I still wanted to get all this stuff down. So, I'm doing it old school. Pen and paper, y'all. Holla!

We head back to the pool for 5 minutes, then the girls decide they want to go shopping. I've already told them that this particular event is something I will not do. They decide to go anyway, and I go back to bed. Thus endeth girls' day.

Mike gets back around 2pm, and he chills for a bit, and then cleans up. We head down to our game room to check on some emails and such. Chris shows up with some freshly cooked grouper and red snapper. The red snapper was delicious, the grouper.. not so much. Very cool of him to walk that all the way over to us.

While we are sitting there, Emmie and Wilco of Holland spot us and come over and say HEY! We talk for a really long time, and eventually the rest of the gang joins us. We've already planned to do dinner with Emmie andWilco later, but we just ended up spending a couple or so hours chatting it up with them before too. It was a great time. This moment right here was probably my favorite of the whole trip. Just chilling, chatting it up, meeting new people, and having a bunch of beverages. I finally get a buzz too! There is something seriously weak about the beverages here or something. I've not gotten one buzz until now. It was a good buzz too.

As it starts to get later, and everyone is getting hungry, we all disburse and Emmie, Wilco, Mike and I plan to meet back at our game room at 8pm. We'll walk with them to the restaurant since they have never been. Oh yah, we were going to Yaxche again.

We get to Yaxche, and get seated upstairs. Unfortunately there was no A/C up there. We'd been used to the A/C when we go there, but not so this time. It was a bit annoying for me, cuz I was sweating so bad it was literally running down my legs like urine. And I'm 99.7% sure it wasn't actual urine. This, our last Yaxche meal was a bit disappointing. Not up to our previous visits deliciousness. But, I will always remember it for the first two meals. I will erase this one from my memories right after I type this :D

After we get done with dinner, it's about 10:45pm. Sarah and Reagan have their taxi to the airport coming at 4am, so they are off to pack. Our van meets us at 7:30am, so we decide that is the end of our night too. Emmie, Wilco, Chris & Stacy stay out to have another beverage and chat. We hug everyone buhbye. I triple-kiss the Dutch folk, cuz that's how they roll. I like it. Why don't we do stuff like that? We're such a non-touchy people. Ok, maybe it's just me that's non-touchy. Hey, I'm trying to get better about that. I let people hug me and such now more than ever. It's progress!

All times approximate.

7:00am - Everyone except me meets the bus for Xel Ha

7:30am - I go to breakfast at the hotel solo. Good breakfast. I had Huevos motuleños.

8:15am - Back to the room where I sleep on and off.

12:30pm - Hang out in hammock while the maid cleans our room.

1:45pm - Mosey over to lunch and had some pretty tasty chicken tacos.

2:30pm - Head to game room to check e-mail and general online nonsense.

2:50pm - Back to room for reading, sudoku, sleep, lotion coating - not necessarily in that order.

6pm-ish - Mike arrives back from his day trip and starts to clean up for dinner. Says folks are meeting at our pool in about an hour.

8:00pm - Head to dinner with Mike for Mayan feast night. Quickly ate some Aztec soup and some other random bits before we head over to our pool to meet up with the Webbers.

9:00pm - Head to our pool to meet up with the Webbers. The Knowles' show up shortly after that. We then head across the street from our place to eat at Origenes. I just had dessert. Everyone seemed pretty wiped and subdued, but laughs and good times were had.

11:00pm - We part with plans to meet at 6:45am at our place. Stacy wants to see the sunrise at 6:15am. But I'm not really into getting to her place over a mile away by 6:15am. So, they will come get me after for a girls' day. Mike and Chris will be meeting at 7:15am to go deep sea fishing.

Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.

That sums ups my every thought as I woke up. Every spot of burn stings so bad it's insane. I cannot possibly imagine how I'm going to do anything today.

Mike, being the sweetie he can be, and forgiven from the previous night, goes out for breakfast at our place. He brings me back quite the haul too. Omelet, beans, pineapple, canteloupe, and pastries. He drops that off and I eat while he goes out to get some vinegar for our wicked burns.

When he gets back, we both strip down, head into the shower and spray our burns down with some vinegar. We let that dry, and now we can actually move. I actually feel like I could even wear a bra. So, we get dressed, get into contact with the others, and head out for lunch. A birthday lunch for Senor Christopher's 40th birthday. He chose Yaxche to eat at. Yay! So we cab it over there and eat with them. As much as I enjoyed the Pibil here, I had to trying something different. I chose the Kinich Chicken, which Chris had the previous time we ate there. It tasted even better than it looked. Such great spices and a great sweetness too it. The description on the menu calls it "An erotic kiss from the sun". Hellz yeah it is. It was grilled chicken over a bed of mashed potatoes, with some assorted vegetables. Everything was topped off with a decorative fried plantain. It was just awesome. Yaxche became my favorite place to eat.

After lunch, the rest of the gang head out to Cancun for shopping and walking. Mike and I stay behind to rest and give our skin a break because we do have to go to Xel Ha in the morning. Plus, do not come here as a non-skinny girl and think you're going to do any shopping. Well, maybe you'll find something at Wal-Mart. Shopping is miserable for me. It actually depresses me to watch two other skinny girls check out stuff and be all giggly about it. So, sunburn or no,  a Cancun trip for shopping sounds about as fun as having a sunburn.

Mike and I go back to our place, strip again and reapply the vinegar. The rest of our day will be very uneventful. Read, sudoku, sleep for 4 hours. My burn was stinging like crazy so I opted to switch to lotion this time around. A little more chill time, then Mike and I headed over to dinner at our hotel. We had the salad bar, a chicken noodle-type soup, and a fish dish. We then opted for one of each of the desserts -- fruit tart & vanilla ice cream. The vanilla ice cream was like Amy's Mexican Vanilla ice cream. It was delicious. And now we know why it's called that.

During dinner there was this pretty cat walking around all the tables. At one point he stopped by my feet and gave me those puss-n-boots eyes. Mike insisted I not acknowledge at all. It was SOOOO cute though. It was really hard to ignore him.

After dinner, we hopped online to see if the rest of the gang was back from Cancun. Eventually Chris did get online and say they were back, but they were done for the night. We went out to our beach and looked at some stars and then went back to apply more Banana Boat Aloe After Sun Lotion. We're a mess, but at least we're a mess together.

We wake up and we are redder than ever and in serious pain. But, we get dressed like we're going to Xel Ha, in case we can't change it. Luckily, we get there and we can change it to Thursday. Turns out to be a good thing all around too. Sarah was up all night because their A/C was broken (again!) and her tummy was bothering her too. Chris, Stacy, Reagan, Mike and I head to La Vagabunda for some very mediocre breakfast. Then, we part ways with plans to meet at 12:30 at our place to play some games in our hotel's game room.

As Mike and I arrive back at our place, I see Sarah's bags on our deck's table. Then my eyes start to search around, where they land on one miserable looking Sarah in one of our hammocks. She figured there was no way I would be going to Xel Ha at all, so of course I would be there. The poor thing just wanted some A/C and understanding. Both of which she got.

We head inside and we proceed to sleep for four hours. Mike sleeps in a hammock in bliss for probably the same amount of time. I was glad she was able to get some decent rest with us or with our A/C... whichever.

As we are waking up, Stacy & Chris arrive a bit early and they want to eat. We head over to our hotel's lunch area and eat there with a great view of the beach. The food wasn't bad. We go back to our cabin/hut/room where Reagan is now sleeping in a hammock.

We make plans to head to Sarah's pool instead of playing games, cuz I guess no one is in the mood. Her pool has spots of shade where ours has none. So, I can be in her pool with everyone and I can't be in ours.

Chris & Mike head over to Chris' place to book fishing and Stacy & I grab a cab over to Sarah & Reagan's pool. The cab is for me cuz I can't even walk in the sun covered in clothes. It kills my skin. So, I pay $3 for a very quick cab ride and Stacy tags along to keep me company.

We chill out at the pool. Chris & Mike arrive much later than I thought they would. They chill at the pool briefly, then we all gather while we dry off and whatnot. We watch some really sappy youtube videos (Christian the Lian, Andrew Johnston - Pie Jesu), then we go in search of food. We go to Diablito Cha Cha Cha, but quickly realize it's not going to work. It's a bit asian-y, and a lot seafood-y. We have a few diet restrictions in our group -- a vegetarian (meh, pescatarian now), a gluten-sensitive, a seafood hater, and just a generally semi-picky eater. Usually we don't have too many issues though. But this place just seemed to hit them all.

Instead we go over to our usual breakfast joint at the Hotel Eclipse Restaurant Bar. They deliver our food kind of one at a time and I get mine last. So there was a bit of an incident that proceeded to make me angry the rest of the night. Mike basically told me to shut up and eat since I'm a slow eater. That made me incredibly angry. But, while I ate, I spoke to no one. Meh. Boo.

We walked up 5th Avenue some more cuz we had to do a sneaky watch buying thing for Chris' birthday. I got the sense he knew exactly what we were doing. It wasn't really like we were that subtle. Mike bought a couple guayaberas at Kin Mayab. An orange one, and a red one. I spoke to him briefly enough to get my opinion of them across and that was that.

We ate some really expensive Haagen-Dazs, then slowly made out way back down 5th to La Parilla for everyone to grab a Coco Mango or beer. Then we parted ways with plans to meet at 12:30pm at the Webbers.

YES! A late starting day. Just what I've been waiting for!

Hotel Eclipse Cafe @ 9:40am. Hey, we're Oliviers, we're late. However, Mike and I are there first, which is odd. Never happens. With the help of our walkie-talkies, we all get in contact with each other. Eventually everyone shows up. Then we proceed to have another great breakfast.

Afterwards, Mike and I head over to Wal-Mart to grab a couple things and the other four folks head over to buy us tickets to Xel Ha and Tulum. Not really stuff I want to do at all. But I'm with a group and I gotta go with the group I guess. After Wal-Mart, Mike and I grab a taxi to get back to our place. We've planned to meet everyone back here at our hotel where we will do pool and beach. While at the pool, we meet a newlywed couple from Holland, Emmie and Wilco, and we talk to them forever. Extremely nice and funny.

We then head to the beach, which is all of a fifty foot walk. Chris, Reagan, Mike and I go into the water where we proceed to get smacked around by the waves. Smacked like hos who owe their pimps a month worth of back pay. It was awesome. The only part I didn't like about all that is the part of discovering that half of the ocean's sand is now in your bathing suit. Yuck. As we head out, Mike notices that I look a bit pink. That's so not good. If I'm looking a little pink that actually means I'm going to be lobster red.

I lay under some shade. Mike, Sarah, Chris & Stacy walk off to find some place to get Sarah's ears candled. They'd been bugging her and she wanted them cleaned. Eventually, I head back to our room so I can start getting cleaned up and dressed for dinner, cuz I know Stacy is getting hungry. When Mike shows back up to our place, freshly massaged on his sunburned body, he says the Webbers left to eat cuz they couldn't wait. He also said Reagan told him that him and Sarah would be up to our room shortly. Many, many, many, many minutes later, that definitely turned out not to happen. We tried to raise people on the walkies, but no luck.

We fall asleep while we were waiting. When we wake up we decide no one is waiting for us so we'll go find something to eat. We feel like Italian, so we head out. We eventually arrive at Ristorante da Bruno and order Prosecco and salad to start. Why did we think alcohol was a good idea when we were burnt to crisps? No idea. I take one, maybe two sips, but I'm guzzling the bottled water we ordered. We eat our salad and while we wait for our entree, I start to get seriously nauseous and hot. I head downstairs to the bathroom and proceed to have a hurl fest. Then I get back to our table and step right back into things and eat my very tasty strozzapreti pomodoro. While I was busy in the bathroom, Mike gets Chris & Stacy on the walkies to see if we can drop off my food their place in case I can't eat. They said sure. But that ended up not being necessary. Then somehow we find them out with Sarah & Reagan. My natural inclination here is to feel rejected cuz no one asked us out. But I fight it. After we leave Sarah & Stacy in the Diamonds International store, Mike voices the same opinion. He didn't understand why everyone ditched us and hung out without us. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who felt it.

We head home, got to sleep with our vicious sunburns. The plan for the morning is to meet up at 7am for our trip to Xel Ha. We're so red and uncomfortable, our plan is to meet up at 7am to see if we can change ours to a different day.

We met up with Sarah & Reagan at the Starbucks, and went over to Chris & Stacy's. Or rather, a cafe right next door to them called Hotel Eclipse Restaurant & Bar. Chris & Stacy are early buggers so they had already eaten breakfast, but they sat with us while we enjoyed a most amazing breakfast. Mike and I both ate chilaquiles.

Let me take a break here and let you know that by the time Mike and I get to this breakfast, I am absolutely pouring with sweat. Everywhere. I am miserable. I have never sweat like this, so it's not something I've been able to get accustomed to over time. I enjoyed the great breakfast, but I could never seem to stop sweating the whole time. As we leave breakfast, they (everyone else) make plans to walk 5th Avenue some more. Yay, NO. All I want is to be clean and dry, so I wuss out and walk back to our hotel. Where I shower, unpack our bags, and eventually take a nap. Mike pings me on the walkie-talkie -- oh yeah, we brought walkie-talkie since we couldn't use our cell phones for less than the price of our first born. Our rooms don't have phones either. So, he pings me a while later and tells me he is on his way back to our room.

Mike chills for a bit, and eventually we head over to Sarah & Reagan's pool area for some much needed pool time. We have some adult beverages, we have some laughs, I compare Chris to High Fructose Corn Syrup (sweet, but not necessarily good for you -- it was funny, trust me), Mike jumps in the pool with his iPhone in his pocket... fun was had by all.

We all then get changed or whatever and head out to dinner at La Parrilla. I ate sesame chicken fajitas which were fine but nothing crazy awesome. Mike, however, had some amazing dishes. He had Aztec Soup, which was a tomato based soup with avocados, tortillas, cheese, and just some really great spices. His main entree was a fish in a Vera Cruz style. It has tomato, onions, bell peppers, olives, capers. Freakin' amazing -- unreal. Just straight up my alley. Mike thoroughly enjoyed it too, which I always like to see. He seems to eat some fish like it's a weird necessity and he'll struggle through. However, he really enjoyed this one. I think he ate every last bite and it was a big fish.

While the mens paid for dinner, Sarah and I hopped into an actual local merchant's store across the street to look at a dress for me. Sarah was just bound and determined to get me into a dress or something. Her theory was less clothing would help with the sweating. See, Sarah is skinny now, and has apparently forgotten about some basic fat girl issues. One being that sweat and thighs rubbing together with or without cloth is just a freakin' nightmare. Anyhoo, her intentions were pure. She wanted me to feel better in this sweltering heat. Sweltering, suffocating, miserable, heat. While I wanted the dress to work, it only made me look like a dirigible.

We walked a bit up 5th Avenue, in & out of shops and all that. We stopped at Starbucks and just chillaxed while Stacy ate some big apple pie. It was a bit tasty. Afterwards, she was crazy stuffed, but Reagan kept trying to bet her she couldn't eat three scoops of Haagen-Dazs ice cream.

--A couple of notes here. Stacy is super competitive. So if you tell her she can't, boy she wants to prove you wrong. And just a reiteration that you can't walk 10 feet without running into another Haagen-Dazs store. Seriously more prevalent than Starbucks in the U.S. Kinda creepy. The confusing part of them being everywhere is that they are crazy expensive. Like $9-10 US for two scoops.

Surprisingly, disgustingly full, Stacy never fell for the ice cream eating bet. Good for you girl!

Eventually we all head over to Sarah's place to get our stuff and then we all split for the night at 10pm. Plans are meet at the Hotel Eclipse Restaurant at 9:30am.

Ahhhhhh. Playa del Carmen.

Sounds exquisite to some. Sounds like a town in Mexico to me. Ya see, I would be completely okay with never stepping foot in Mexico. EVER. In this particular area, you can consider me a terrified American. One that has taken in all the bad stereotypes from TV & Movie and filed them away as fact. So, I really don't feel the need to visit Mexico. I like my kidneys thankyouverymuch. Despite these feelings, Mike and I agreed to a multi-couples vacation to this very place. I've never been on vacation with other couples, so the idea was intriguing. I would just have to get over the fact that our destination was going to be Mexico. Now that you have some background, let's fast-foward to our day of departure.

Zwip Zwip Zwip (that's my fast-forward noise)

Per our usual travel habits, Mike and I finish packing about three hours before we need to leave for the airport. Then, I have a hard time getting to sleep. So let's say I got 2 hours of rest. Mike wanted to be out of the house by 6:30am. So, obviously, we were leaving at 7am. I couldn't remember the exact time of our flight and I kept it this way. If I didn't know, I couldn't panic. However, all went well, we got through with 30 minutes before boarding.

Mike goes to Maudie's for breakfast, I go over to Schlotzsky's cuz I'm curious about these breakfast quesadillas they have. I wait about 15 minutes for so-so food. Mike waits an additional 5-10 minutes for his migas that end up being covered in sausage. He trades them in for some breakfast tacos and we head to our gate where the last few people are boarding. Awesome timing. Boop. We're on the plane.

It may have been a 30-minute flight, but I slept the whole way. Which made me look forward to the longer flight so I could sleep even longer. Ahhhh, but that was not to be so. Our seats were not together and we weren't able to switch. I can't just sleep on a place willy nilly. I can only do it if I'm sitting next to Mike. So, no sleep for me. The flight was just under two hours, but the fun was just about the begin.

Once we arrived in Cancun, we had to enter the immigration area. It looked like a room full of crowded angry livestock. There at least 2,000 people in there. It was also very hot. There was A/C on, but maybe it was some tiny window unit on one end or something. Cuz it was hot and sweaty in there. My previous experiences with immigration went pretty fast, so I wasn't too concerned. Not until about 10-15 minutes in and we've barely moved. Over two hours later, we finally get through. I will admit to not being in a very good mood at this point. But, we must carry on. We then have to get our baggage and go through customs. That took us about 15 or so minutes and luckily I get a green light when I pushed their inspection button. Red means you get searched.

It was at this point that Mike instructed me to put on my headphones and not talk to anyone. I couldn't find my earbuds fast enough so I just decided to be brave. We went through this weird gauntlet of time share vultures first. I don't know what it was about Mike, but they parted like the Red Sea when he came walking by. Then we were outside with 100-ish taxi drivers with signs. First I'm struck by the sheer number of people, then I'm struck by the disgusting amount of humidity in the air. Add that with the heat, and EW. Anyhoo, we quickly look for our driver and kept walking. We walked too far, but eventually someone showed us the way. We found our driver and we were off. We had an extremely well cooled van all to ourselves, so I was off to sleep almost immediately. I kept falling asleep, but Mike would keep telling me to look at stuff on the drive. At one point, I fell asleep in mid-air so Mike just palmed by forehead until I woke up again. I guess I was quite tired.

The drive to our hotel was pretty much my vision of Mexico. Poor, a bit dirty, but of lot of pretty beach-y bits. I think this was quite the highlight for Mike actually.

We arrive at our hotel, Mahekal Beach Resort, and poof! While we are checking in, our friends Chris & Stacy show up. So we put our stuff away, put on some shorts, and head out to get something to eat. My feet are so swollen from a recent blood pressure problem and traveling, so the idea of walking makes my skin crawl, but I am hungry. So, off we go. We walk down this main touristy street - 5th Avenue - and we eventually stop at a place called 1847. Mike had Chris had Sol, but Mike's was substantially larger. Hilariously larger. I ordered a veggie burrito that had sweet corn, beans and rice in it. It was very tasty. I could eat that corn forever. We had some good chips too. They came out with six difference salsas/sauces, all of which were very different from the last. We leave there and walk further down 5th Avenue, where Chris & Stacy show us around. They've been here several times and really know their way around. My quick and dirty impression of 5th Avenue is I don't like it. It's not authentic to Mexico, it's only a huge tourist area that has been made for white consumers (mainly Americans) to feel just like they are at home. Or to get them to buy as much as possible. Sad thing is, it obviously works.

We walk here, there, everywhere. At some point we stop at Senor Frogs and get a drink. We sit watching the crazy-ass choppy water and the ferry's trying to negotiate that mess. It was making Mike have sea sickness flashbacks just watching that.

We eventually slowly mosey our way over to Sarah & Reagan's condos - Aldea Thai. We wait there for a while and they eventually show up. After some hello's and some mutual immigration horror stories, we head out to get some grub.

We stumble upon Yaxche, a Mayan cuisine restaurant. The first thing I see on the menu is Cochinita Pibil, and since my mom and brother would kill me if I didn't try any, I did. It was awesome. The pork was so tender it was crazy. It was a bit fattier than I've had, but it really was out of this world. The pickled onions were not quite as pickled as I generally prefer, but the two flavors did very well together. It came with handmade corn tortillas that just sealed the deal.

After that we all disbursed and went to our abodes for the night. We made plans to meet Sarah & Reagan at 10:30am at the Starbucks. Yes, Starbucks. Every corner, and I mean EVERY corner also has a Haagen-Dazs shop. Anyway... after we meet up with them, we'll walk them over to Chris & Stacy's area for breakfast.

Today, Mike and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. We decided to go all out for dinner and made reservations at Wink.

We ordered the 5-course vegetarian chef's tasting menu with paired wines. We've done this 3 or 4 times before, and it's divine. I've never understood wines going with food until we had done this at Wink. Our first course was a sungold tomato salad with parsley and a basil pesto. It was paired with a Rosé wine. It was very good. I was bummed about tomatoes this year, cuz I hadn't had any decent ones. But hurrah! Finally, some really delicious tomatoes.

Second course was a sweet corn cake with grape tomatoes, sauteed zephyr squash, arugula, and black pepper honey. This was paired with an Alsace Pinot Gris. OMG. OMG. This dish was divine. Sweet lovely heaven. The wine was paired to perfection. There was a slight honey flavor going on in the wine, that went well with the bit of black pepper honey in the dish. Delicious.

Third course was spaghetti squash with Boggy Creek Farms green beans & rapini, chicken  fried mushrooms in a brown butter sauce. And by butter, they mean BUTTER. This was really good. I especially enjoyed the green beans and mushrooms. This was paired with a White Burgundy wine. Very good pairing.

Fourth course was a hand-rolled couscous with brassica greens, truffel oil, a bit of shaved truffels, baby carrots, and grilled red onions. This was paired with red wine that I forget what it was called. It was super strong smelling, and had a very strong flavor, but went with the very earthy taste of the course. This was Mike's favorite course by far. He said it might even be his favorite course he's ever had at Wink. Oooh-la-la. Big words.

The last course of the tasting menu was an italian cheeseplate. It consisted of fior di langa, vento d'estate, pecorino stagionato, & gorgonzola naturale. I think this was paired with a 2005 Hekate Vino Passito. But not 100% sure.

We did end up ordering a desert, which we've never done before. Usually the five course meal comes with a desert, and I guess this one did (the cheeseplate), but we were wanting something sweet. We ordered the Wink Trio which consists of a sampling of their lemon meringue pot, crème brûlée, & el rey chocolate cake. I think my favorite is still their lemon merigue pot, while Mike is a sucker for any flourless chocolate cake.

We probably should have stopped with the five course meal like we usually do, but we got greedy with the dessert, so we walked out a bit more stuffed than we generally like. But still, it was one of the best meals we've had in awhile. Definitely worth the very steep price tag.

We ended the night by going to Whole Foods to pick up some Dirty Girl tomatoes that our waitress suggested. I can't wait to try those tomorrow!

In a followup to my Hint & MetroMint post a while back, I thought I would add that MetroMint has put out a new flavor. It's ChocolateMint. And it's friggin' divine. You might think it does not sound refreshing, but you would be oh-so-incorrect. It's very nice, light, and cool. Perhaps a good way to think of it is... it tastes like drinking a MetroMint Peppermint water after you've finished a chocolate bar (probably dark). I saw it on their website, and yes, the dork in me ordered a 5-pack to check it out. A couple weeks later, and it's already in my local H.E.B. I love my H.E.B. They are quite quick to carry some unusual stuff. Another water I've just discovered from my latest grocery store trek is Ayala's Herbal Water. OMG, delish! I've only tried two flavors so far, but I think I'm hooked. I've had their jasmine vanilla & cloves cardamom cinnamon. The ccc one was a bit strong in flavor (according to Mikey), but I loved it. Very different, very natural tasting, and plenty sweet enough without actually using any sweetener. The jasmine vanilla was a bit lighter in flavor. They also have lemongrass mint vanilla, lavender mint lemongrass thyme, cinnamon orange peel, & ginger lemon peel. I can't wait to try them all. Another bonus about Ayala is they are a carbon neutral company. Can you get much better than that?

I have some weird issues with drinking enough water. I go through stages where it is next to impossible to drink water. I can guzzle diet coke like nobody's business. But water. It's like it's non-potable sludge. However, if I flavor it up with some lime or something I can usually drink the day away with it. I used to drink FruitWater by Glaceau. The same people who do VitaminWater. Back when I used to drink it, they had tons of flavors like watermelon, cucumber, grape, lime. Probably like 10 or more flavors. Then suddenly they stopped making all those, and only made 4 flavors - raspberry, lime, grape, peach. The other stinger is they are now "lightly sweetened". If there's one thing I most certainly cannot tolerate in my water is a sweetener. I get migraines, and so I'm very sensitive to sugar, caffeine, and hydration in general. So, when I say I got nuts with DC it's not that crazy because the caffeine can become too much. Anyhoo, I digress. Once my FruitWater had gone and betrayed me with sweetener, I had to find other alternatives. I can't remember how long, but it wasn't terribly quick, I discovered MetroMint water... peppermint water that is not sweetened. And they say it's not "flavored" since they use real mint. It is delightful. So refreshing. It's been a couple years I think, and now they have 3 new flavors -- spearmint, orangemint, and lemonmint. My least favorite is the spearmint, but I do love them all. At the beginning of this summer, while on a mission to get some Function Urban Detox (excellent for hangovers - drink half before bed, half when you wake) at the Whole Foods downtown I saw a bottle I hadn't seen before. It appeared to be a flavored water, so I inspect the label to see what sweetener is used or how many calories it has. And I see the most loveliest of slogans on the bottle "Drink Water, Not Sugar". I was immediately in love, so I wanted to buy everything they had. Mike, being the more sane of us, told me to just get a couple in case it tasted like complete ass. He's wise, that one. So, after we get home and I get one chilled enough (beverages have to be damn cold for me), I tried one. It was the tropical punch one. I just confirmed the love at first site thing. It was amazing. I had found me a proper replacement. It is called Hint, and it's such an appropriate name. It's water with just a slight hint of flavor. Enough to be not straight up water for my tastes. I have personally tried about 9 flavors -- Tropical Punch, Pomegranate-Tangerine, Lime, Raspberry-Lime, Peppermint, Pear, Strawberry Kiwi, and Cucumber. My least favorite was Cucumber, and not just cuz it's Cucumber. I've loved that flavor of water in the past so I was really excited to try it. For some reason to me, it tasted like plastic. I'm hoping it was maybe a bad batch or something, and I will attempt to try it again later, cuz it did seem to have some promise. I drink so much of this stuff, it's insane. I pretty much fill up a cart at Whole Foods or H.E.B., any time I buy it. People look at me funny. The last time I went to Whole Foods, the guy was kind enough to give me their case discount, and told me I should just think of buying it in cases in the future. That's a good idea. I think I'll do that from now on. I've even gotten my brother hooked on it. I'm just evil rotten that way.

Ok, first, I obviously was full of crapola last time when I said I would be faster. I have no idea why I'm having such a hard time with this. This usually comes so naturally to me. Anyhoo...

So, we finish off the Ring of Kerry and then have a rather difficult time finding our next B&B, Weston's Lot in Dundrum, County Tipperary. So, after passing it several times, we finally found a local that knew what we were talking about and gave us much better directions, and we found it right away. This was a really nice B&B. Really big and it felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. The next day we go a town over in Cashel, and check out the Rock of Cashel. It was a gorgeous day with a great breeze, at least while we were up on the Rock. Very serene, I thought. Afterwards we grabbed a good sandwich around the corner before we headed off to Waterford.

Yes, that Waterford. And of course, one cannot visit the city of Waterford without touring the Waterford Crystal Factory. I will admit to being in a foul, grumpy mood this day. This was probably my worst day as far as moods go, I think. You might need to ask Mike on that. My knee was just excruciatingly painful by this point and I since we never had a bathtub in our rooms (just showers), I never got to soak it or anything to help it not hurt as much. Anyway, I have no problem admitting I was not a pleasure to be around. However, I did enjoy the Waterford Tour a lot. I never realized that every single piece of crystal that comes out of there is hand made. I thought that was just absolutely mind blowing. It also allowed me to understand their pricing a bit more too. Another thing I was thoroughly impressed with was how little they waste. I think the tour guide said their waste percentage per year is like 2%. Every extra bit of crystal, like a messed up piece, is recycled back into crystal to be used later. On the blades that they cut with, water is sprayed on them to keep it cool, and from there the dust that is made, is sucked back into the system and sent back to be reused also. So incredibly efficient I thought. Waste not, want not, and all that. So, back to my grumpy mood. After the tour we ended up in the store, mais bien sur, and Mike was ready to let me loose and buy whatever I wanted. I could have bought an entire set of crystal that cost a ton, and would have probably been ok with it. So, what do I do, I buy absolutely nothing. Not even a christmas ornament. I was just in one of those moods where I would not have been able to actually pick something I wanted. So, yes, it did suck that I did not buy anything, however, it was probably for the best as I most likely would have purchased something that I wasn't really into. And really, when you think about it, Mike doesn't know how lucky he really was that I was in such a foul non-shopping mood. I would probably have spent a small fortune. See? You can truly find the positive in anything if you try. :D

Our next B&B was in Ashord, County Wicklow - Mount Usher View. The garden/yard area of this B&B was really beautiful and taken care of impeccably. Besides sleeping & having a meal, we didn't stay too long here.

The next day we were headed back to Dublin as our flight was at 5pm. On our way we stopped in Glendalough, which means Glen of Two Lakes. Near the Lower Lake is a monastery that originated in the 6th century by St. Kevin. There are some seriously old ruins here, and they were surrounded by some of the most beautiful mountains & trees. I could definitely understand why a hermit priest would settle here. We then drove up to the Upper Lake which actually cost us something ridiculous like €5 and we couldn't stay for too too long. But, I guess if it helps them take care of the area, it's all good. We parked, went to the lake which is only feet away from the parking area, took some pictures and ooohed and aaahed over the insane view. You only see these types of things in pictures. Just breathtaking. Mike wanted to do some hiking and I really couldn't because of my knee, so he went off for a bit, and I sat in the car and read/slept. He came back running. I guess we were on a time table that I wasn't really paying too much attention to. So, we left quickly and zoomed fast fast towards Dublin. We dropped off the car, talked to some other folks who did our same B&B deal, and got on the plane without having to wait too too long.

So, my summary of the trip. I adore Ireland. As most people are already aware I plan on opening my own B&B in Doolin and my mom can open a restaurant that goes along side it or next door or something. Seriously, one day. Our trip was a helluva lot more hectic than I wanted. We were constantly on the go and I wish I could have relaxed more. Especially when my knee always felt like it wanted to explode. A couples notes for anyone thinking of going -- be aware that every bed in Ireland appears to be slightly more comfortable than a slab of rock and take all the clothing you'll need. There's not one laundromat in the entire country. Having to wash your unmentionables in a sink is just something I could have lived my whole life never having to do. So, besides the uncomfy beds and the hectic pace, this was an amazing trip. AND! I only wigged out from panic/anxiety once! It helped that the Irish are some of the most friendly people.

Now, off to New York...

So, after my lovely experience with Blood Pudding/Black Sausage/Nasty Stuff, we headed out of Galway. Our next area of visitation is the Cliffs of Moher. On our way there we saw some gorgeous countryside. We pulled over a few times and took pictures. One time we pulled over where we saw a bunch of cars near a lake. The tide was out so it was kinda smelly, but apparently that's a great time to go crab fishing. We watching some kids do just that, and it was pretty cool to watch. We went through a little cute town called Lisdoonvarna. I remember it being very colorful. We ended up stopping in Doolin for lunch. There were a lot of people packed into this tiny town of population 200. We walked into a couple shops there before we went to grab something to eat. We had the best fish & chips in a pub here. The Guinness wasn't half bad either. Man, my mouth is watering now. After we finished eating it was time to start looking for some place to stay. We had one in mind we wanted, and drove over there to see if there were any vacancies. Unfortunately, other people must have had this idea too, but much earlier than us, because they were full. But, the lady pointed us to across the street to a B&B her cousin or niece owns. We went there and sure enough, we got a room. This place was very nice, but nothing beat the view we had here. I think it might have been this cozy place and the stellar view where I first got the feeling of "I could live in this town".  Mmmmmm, just give me a moment. Even the thought of it just sends me back there. Gorgeous, cozy, no stress. Mmmmm. OK. Back to the business at hand. We dropped off our stuff there, rested for a sec, freshened up, and then headed out to the Cliffs of Moher. Since Mike had been there in October, they had changed the tourists area just a wee bit. The visitors center is now built into the side of the cliffs. Very unobtrusive. Inside was a gift shop, a cafe, and a self-paced tour called "The Atlantic Edge". The self-paced tour did cost an additional fee, and while I would not say that the tour is necessary, Mike brought up a good point and said it does help fund them. The cliffs themselves were just amazing. Literally, breathtaking. We then headed over to The Burren. An area that is completely limestone rock. We walked out to the shore and had a blast trying to take pictures of the waves as they crashed up. Afterwards we went searching for some place to get a meal. This would continue to be our dilemma while in Ireland. Generally we eat late as it is. However, with the sun setting at 10pm, our sense of time was just whacked. We would generally be trying to find a place to eat after 9pm. Everything closes at 9pm. We always did find places, but geeeeeeez, what a hassle. In Doolin, we found a place called Doolin Cafe. It was run by an Italian girl and a South African guy. The guy was the cook and the girl was the waitress. I had a steak dish and mike had a spinach and goat cheese risotta. We both loved our meals. We talked with the owners a bit afterwards and they sounded like some very cool interesting people. They had just taken over the restaurant 6 months ago. I hope they do well!

Whew! The next day, we continued to head south. We experienced some interesting roads along our way, of course, and then hopped onto a ferry to cross the River Shannon. After more driving and random stops we entered the Ring of Kerry. It sounds weirder than it really is. It's basicd ally a road that goes in a loop around this particular area of County Kerry. Now this sounds odd to say about a country that is so scenic it's just not natural (heh!), but this had to be the most scenic area I've ever seen. Such pristine natural beauty that seems to be truly cherished and well taken care of. Absolutely amazing stuff. We ended up in Cahersiveen for the night. This time, we almost kinda sorda went looking for dinner at a more appropriate hours. Like 8. We read our travel guides and both mentioned a particular restaurant in the area, so we figured if they both agreed, then we would give it a try. After just a little drive, we arrived in Waterville to eat at The Smuggler's Inn. It's located near the entrance of a famous golf course and literally just a stone's throw from the ocean. On the outside it just looked like a typical brick pub building. However, upon entering, we quickly discovered that our t-shirts and scuzzy jeans might be a tad bit underdressed. But, we needed to eat, and it wasn't too busy, so we soldiered on. You couldn't ask for a more gorgeous view while you're eating. Just spectacular. I had a cod & scampi dish and Mike feasted on halibut. Both were very good dishes, but I think I liked Mike's just a tad bit more. The service was excellent here and the people were super friendly. Afterwards we ordered an irish coffee, and a bailey's coffee. While waiting for that, Mike headed out to the patio area. After paying and getting our coffees I headed out to sit with him out there. It was chilly, but so relaxing and enjoyable, and with out coffees it took the chilly edge off.

The next day saw us complete the Ring of Kerry while seeing some of the most insane views ever. The fog was heavy and low in some areas but it just made things seem that much more mystical. While on top of this large hill/mountain, I was looking out to the ocean and could see the top of one of the skelligs peaking out of the low clouds/fog. Mike walked in a different direction to get some pictures, and I stayed up there just in complete awe -- while wearing a "Keep Austin Weird" t-shirt. You may think this is an odd bit of information. Why would you care what I was wearing? Well, I'm getting there, so hush.  While standing there in my gorgeous shirt, a girl came up from behind me and said "So, you're from Austin?", I confirmed, and then she told me she and her two friends just graduated from Texas A&M. Seriously small world. Especially if you consider that I may live in Austin, but I'm an Aggie through and through :D  We continue on and see some insane views.

Ok, I'm posting this now. I promise to be speedier about the final installment of our Ireland adventure.

Yesterday, Mike and I went to the Sunset Valley Farmers Market to pick up some veggies and other bits that caught our eye. We've been trying to go as often as we remember to go. We'd rather get our produce there than in a grocery store. It supports our local farmers and businesses and the quality is far superior to anything at the big grocers (except Whole Foods, of course). Since we've gone a few times, and we tend to go a bit crazy, I bought us a collapsible market tote from bb&b. I was kind to Mike and didn't buy the bright pink one that I really wanted. Well, we filled up that basket within the first 10 minutes and Mike just hauled it all over the place. For some reason this weekend, the market had about 2.5 times the amount of vendors as it usually does. It was huge! Alot of the extra vendors were services that were kind to the environment, like rainwater collection, and gardening, and even a couple furniture makers. We ended up getting a bunch of veggies, like usual, but with Mike's help I got bold and actually bought some beef ribs from a vendor there - Bandera Grassland. They say their cows are never injected with hormones and are grassfed, and all that other hippie stuff. We'll have to see how good they are. We also got some Maine Root Sarsaparilla. I am a sarsaparilla freak. This one was a bit mild for my tastes. I don't taste much difference compared to their Root Beer, which I had at the market. After that we went to FoodHeads. This great cafe in a house. I'm gonna write a review for that for Scratch 'N' Sniff, shortly. I'll link over to it when I do.