Thursday, December 10, 2009

Made it to Mexico – barely….


We’ve had a couple of days now to unwind from the busy days of semester end, recuperate from the epic journey we made to get here and are beginning to acclimatize to the glorious hot weather here in Mazatlan. Whew!

Semester end – Robin had his final crit that went well, well enough to allow him to leave it all behind for the next 10 days anyways and enjoy a well-deserved vacation with his family. I managed to finish and mail off all the Christmas packages, pack and even clean the house before we took off late Monday evening into what was the start of a country wide snowstorm.

The Journey – We woke up at the awful hour of 4 a.m. in Salt Lake City to several inches of freshly fallen snow and frigid temperatures. A very cold shuttle bus and cranky driver skeptically delivered us to the airport where we checked in and patiently waited at our boarding gate. The kids seemed happy and excited despite the early wake up call, likely because I gave them free reign on the enticing snack bag  mmmmm…chocolate at 6 a.m.

That snack bag became a vital survival tool when we ended up sitting on the runway for an additional two hours after boarding because of weather conditions. Only one runway was open due to the snow accumulation over night which meant waiting our turn for take off privileges, which when finally came round, we had to turn back because too much ice had built up since our initial de-icing and we had to roll on back for a second round. We did finally make it off the ground, two hours late, which meant we only had 15 minutes to connect to our second flight in Phoenix. Fat chance I thought. But wouldn’t you know, we made it. An adequate image of what happened would have been: Robin fighting his way to the front of the plane to get off, boarding passes in hand, loaded down with a duffle bag, snack bag, toy bag, and laptop bag, and running the length of several football fields with me not far behind, pushing Roscoe in an umbrella stroller and Isla hanging off my back legs flailing… and we made it! 

The second flight from Phoenix to Mazatlan was fairly uneventful other than the fact that the kids had been up since 4 a.m., were both starting to get a little wiggy and restless. Luckily we had the entire back row (both sides) to ourselves and could corral them in. The most hilarious part was that they both fell asleep AFTER the plane landed while we were waiting for people to disembark the plane. 

Acclimatizing – The weather is brilliant here. Hot, sunny and not too muggy at all. We’ve already enjoyed a dip in the pool and several trips down to the ocean to feel the sand between our toes. For Roscoe, a trip to the beach means feeling the sand between his toes, fingers, in his hair, ears, up his nose and in his diaper. He doesn’t seem to mind though! And from what we hear of the weather back in Utah, we’re lucky we flew out when we did.

Looking forward to a whole week more of this....

4 comments:

bfreeceramics said...

dude! a? dude!!!!

Julie MacMillan said...

OOOO the treat at the end totally sounds worth the craziness to get there! Enjoy ALL the Vitamin D and think of me momentarily as you gaze out to the horizon!
Loves Ya Julie

kmfm said...

wow...that is quite the story! Glad you did make it! You guys picked a perfect week to be gone. the whole beginning of the week was -6 to 20 degree F and now we have a good 10 inches of snow! It will be beautiful for you to come back to :) I am excited to see your pictures and here your Mexico stories! Hugs from 1500 E.

Shovel Snow and Sew said...

just looking at the pics of you guys on the beach makes me feel warmer already. mmmmmmmmmmmm...
luvya e.