| Thursday, March 24, 2005 Terry and I left at 2:55 and got to Eileen's 4ish. The Limo arrived shortly after we did. Cherie was still in the shower because the Limo was 1/2 hour early. We picked up Mike In Blue Island and got to O'Hare by 5:30. Check-in and security were pretty good. Jim and Sue were supposed to leave their home at 4:30 but they didn't wake up until 4:37! They made it just fine anyway. I sat between Mike and Terry in an emergency row. We had a decent mini-breakfast. We took off 1/2 hour late and it was a three hour flight. Terry and I slept on and off the whole trip. We got in a very long, annoying line in Immigration. When I got near the front of the line, I noticed I had lost Terry's passport. Oh Lord. This was serious. I checked through immigration and was told to go look for the Ryan International Airline Representative. So I didn't see that Terry was escorted to an "Immigration Room." He was an illegal alien in Mexico! I finally found the Airline Representative and he had the plane searched...no luck. Sue found a woman who spoke very good English so we hung on to her. I asked her what would happen if someone found Terry's passport in line. She found out it would go to Security and that's where it was....whew! Terry was in the special room for about 1/2 hour. So we missed the bus to the resort. But the ten of us were given our own van and driver. Fernando said it would take about 1 1/2 hours to get to the Copacabana. Mike told him to make it an hour...and he did! We checked in our rooms and then went to La Palapa for lunch--very good. I forgot to mention that before coming to Mexico I had a sun tattoo put above my palm tree tattoo and I pierced a fingernail and put a turtle charm on it. Also, I had my hair braided in Rensselaer for $75.00. Three hairdressers spent six man hours putting in my braids and when I got in Jean's van, one braid fell out. At home, I super-glued the beads to my hair. The hair braiding was a Christmas gift from Jean and Laura! Mike said I'm becoming a freak show. At 4:00, we went to an Apple Vacation orientation. Our Apple guy is named Memo. Eileen came to our room and helped me blow up the toy rafts I brought. Then we went in the ocean. The waves were nice and big--we were under a yellow flag (caution), and we had a blast. Then Jim, Sean and Michael joined us. While we were in the water, the flag went to red (no swimming) and we had even more fun. Then we headed to the huge pool. Kyle was there and Sue and Mike joined us. More fun. We went back to our rooms where Terry and I blew up our bed mattresses and I finished unpacking. At 8:30, we met in the lobby and had dinner at La Selva. Very good. I called Jean and she said all was well. Actually, Becky had some major damage to her kitchen: Link to the damage Eileen, Jim, Sue, Terry and I saw the performance of Planet Hollywood. It was a lot of fun. They danced to a lot of songs: SINGING IN THE RAIN, FLASHDANCE, FOOTLOOSE, GREASE, ROMEO AND JULIET, TITANIC AND DIRTY DANCING among others. Then it was back to the room around 10:30. Friday, March 25, 2005 We got up at 8. Terry thanked me for bringing air mattresses to sleep on. We had a very good breakfast and then watched the Biography of Tim Burton. Then we played in the ocean with Mike, Jim, Sean, Kyle and Michael. The waves were great--we were under a yellow flag. We played in the pool. Sue, Eileen and I did some water aerobics---fun yet hard. Terry and I sat in the "hot" tub of warm water. Most of the time, the water in the pool was warmer than the water in the "hot" tubs. Eileen beat me in a game of Scrabble. Lunch was very good. During lunch, Michael asked me to make him a paper plane--so I did. It turns out he was in a paper plane flying contest! He had to name his plane so he named it Ward. He came in second place. The contests were fun to watch because the announcers are so funny.....especially Paco. We collected some money for a gift for Jim and Sue for all of their hard work on this vacation. I picked out a gift in the gift shop for them. Terry and I had our picture taken with parrots. The photographer had me hold one like a baby and he asked me if I breastfed. I told him I did a long time ago and now they are just pacifiers. I napped about an hour and woke up coughing. The pictures of us with the parrots are great so we bought both of them. We gave Jim and Sue a Mexican box, two postcards and money for two half hour massages. They liked that. We had a fun dinner at the Mexican restaurant. Helen, Ron, Charley and Emily arrived around 5:00 p.m. We watched The Godfather and went to bed. Saturday, March 26, 2005 Slept great and got up at 8. We had breakfast in the smoking section. So we're smoking away and they seat a family with little kids next to us. What's up with that? Had to stop smoking for a while. Our busboy, Amelio, said my name in Spanish is Katalina. Terry doesn't translate into Spanish. Sue called a 9:30 meeting in the lobby and we got all our trips set up. Everyone except me and Terry went shopping. Terry gave Cherie $20 to get me some t-shirts. When we checked in, they didn't have enough rooms so Mike had to double up with Jim, Sue and the boys. So Mike slept in the boy's room with Sean and Michael---Kyle slept with Jim and Sue. As a reward, Mike was given a suite. He also get the free use of a robe and slippers and he doesn't have to pay $4.00 a day for his safe. He and Jim also get free beer with the free cans of pop we get every day. So today, we went to check out the suite. I was eager to see what a suite looked like compared to our great room. Guess what? We have a suite! We don't get the extra amenities but it's still great--and we even have a tub--which Terry used. We went back to our room for rest and TV time. I turned on our refrigerator. I went to the pool area and had lunch with the shoppers before they left. There were no chairs available at the pool so I went back to the room to watch TV with Terry. I napped a little and then Terry and I took a raft to the ocean. The yellow flag was up so we headed in. The waves were fierce, especially close to shore so I took the raft out a little ways. Terry joined me. We were at a nice place where we rolled with the waves and they weren't breaking on us. Sweeeeet! Until Terry realized we were drifting out. He said we should move in closer because he couldn't touch bottom. So we tried. We quickly realized we were in an undertow. We both struggled like hell. I even commented that it was a stupid way to die. There were no boats in the water to save us because the waves were so high. Then we saw some coral and moved toward it--slowly. When we got to the coral, we knew we were going to make it. But the waves bashed us into the coral and we both had our legs scratched. I yelled, "Terry, I'm being torn up!" He yelled back, "So am I!" We determined that the life threatening part of our ordeal was about 20 minutes--we were terrorized for about 10 of those minutes. Terry compared it to the time he was sinking in mud--and he got rescued when the mud hit his upper chest. And I lost my turtle charm. It was ripped from my pierced fingernail! After we showered off most of the blood on our legs at the outdoor shower by the pool, we met up with the shoppers. We told them about our ordeal. So Jim, Kyle, Michael, Eileen and Cherie went in the ocean. Mike said how stupid it was. He said if we had been bitten by a shark, they would have gone in to get a look at it. "It's the same thing, it's the same damn thing!" he yelled. Sue kept telling Sean to make them come out and he finally did. They were in the ocean about 10-15 minutes. Mike went to Security and told them about our adventure and told them to change the flag from yellow to red---and they did! While shopping, Cherie picked out three real nice t-shirts for me. My favorite says, MY NEXT HUSBAND WILL BE NORMAL. Some members of my family wanted to get one like it for Terry. So a bunch of us played water polo. I was a goalie. Mike was all dry so he stayed out of the water to coach me He did this by yelling things at me like "Open your eyes when the ball comes to you!" He also called my a fathead and idiot--among other things. He even turned our goal around for me so the other team couldn't score--but they caught on to that trick! Michael was the other goalie and he kept yelling to Charley, "Block my Aunt Eileen, block my Aunt Eileen!" We all went to our rooms to get ready for dinner. When I took off my bathing suit, my turtle charm fell out! We had dinner at La Selva and had a lot of laughs. I wore my pink outfit and pink hat. Jim thinks I was a Jamaican in a former life. Sean said I looked very pink. We headed back to the room 8ish. We are happy to be alive and we hope we aren't too sore tomorrow. Sunday, March 27, 2005 We got up at 5--a little sore but alive. We slept 8 hours. After breakfast, we met everyone except Helen and Emily in the lobby for our snorkeling trip to Cozumel. We rode in taxi with Mike (who paid--thanks) and Michael to Playa Del Carmen and from there we took a real nice ferry to Cozumel. We walked a few blocks to our dive store and got set up. Then we went on a boat with three other people (divers) and headed out to sea. We dropped the divers in the water and drove away to snorkel. The first stop was horrible. Combat snorkeling at its worse. Terry didn't go snorkeling at all. The waves were high and there was nothing to see in the murky water except a few fish. I didn't take one picture. When I was getting back in the boat, I took my mask off, set it on the boat and it fell in the ocean. I was sickened because it was the mask Pat gave me for Christmas and it was the very first time I used it. So then we had a horrible lunch. Some broiled chicken-like bird, orangish spaghetti, bread and condiments. The pop was good. The divers had a great first dive. Jimmy said it was wonderful. Our second snorkel stop was great. We saw a lot of tiger fish and neat coral. We dropped the divers off again and went to our third snorkel place. This was the best--the biggest parrot fish I ever saw. Our guide Eric would point at stuff for me to take a picture of. Then he dove to point out stuff and I dove to take a picture. I think he was impressed because I had to dive several more times to take pictures. When we went back to the dive area, we learned Jimmy and Michael had been waiting for the boat for 20 minutes because Michael was stung in three places by yellowfish. He was fine after some pain. It was windy. Whenever we let something blow down or dropped something, Mike would yell, "You stupid Gringo!" It cracked me up....and the three Mexicans who ran the boat too. We finally got back to Cozumel and got the 5:00 ferry to Playa Del Carmen. A girl asked Terry if he wanted a drink. He said, "What?" She said, "Do you want a drink?" He said, "What?" Instead of talking louder, she asked him again in a different language! I cracked up. Terry bought me a yellow mask and snorkel for $25.00. We took a taxi with Mike and Sean. Mike paid in advance with a generous tip. We had to stop for gas so Mike called the driver a fathead and told him to shut up. He asked him if he ever passed other cars and he said no. Later he passed a car and Mike asked him if he was OK. Terry told the driver that Choo Choo Mike was the head of the Corbitti Family in Chicago and Terry called Mike Godfather. The driver patted him on the shoulder and said, "Oh, The Family!" What a ride. We all had dinner. Terry went with the guys to the bar and I went back to the room to shower, putter and write in my journal. I called Laura to wish Daphne a Happy Birthday. All is well. Terry, Eileen, Sue, Ron, Helen, Sean and I went to the "Michael Jackson" Show. Before the show there was a dance contest. Sean, Ron and I participated but didn't make it to the finals We did have fun and "learned to dance." Actually, we considered ourselves winners because when the girl who picked out the final five contestants walked right by us, she didn't slap our faces! The winner, Staci, was sitting behind me and Terry and when Sean walked by, I thanked him for dancing with me and I said I couldn't believe we lost to Staci. Staci and her date cracked up. The "Michael Jackson" Show did not have the fake Michael Jackson until the last four or five songs. He was very late but very good. We enjoyed the show. We were back in our room around 11:00. Monday, March 28, 2005 We were lethargically inclined so we wandered down to breakfast around 8:45. Everyone except me, Terry and Mike were going on a trip to see some ruins so we visited with them for a while. We looked for Mike but he wasn't in the bar so we went back to our room to relax. We were watching TV and the next thing I knew, I woke up at 1:45! We greased up and headed to the pool. We met up with Mike and the rest of the group (who went to the ruins). They said the trip the ruins was covered in gnats but it was interesting. Sean and I played "Mexican Games" for fake money. I lost all three games I played (darts and throwing balls). Sean won one fake dollar. We played in the pool after a light lunch. I had pizza and Mike and Terry had ice cream. I took pictures of Sean playing tequila volleyball on the beach and Michael showed up in one shot. Sean's team came in second. We headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. We had a "turkey towel." Terry said these people have too much time on their hands! I thought it was adorable. We met everyone except Eileen and Cherie at the Steak and Lobster place. Terry and I paid $30.00 each for surf and turf. The salad had lettuce, cheese and apples with ranch dressing. The soup was a delicious creamy mushroom soup. Our surf and turf was excellent. And dessert was a truffle--excellent. Dinner was from 7-9. We then headed back to our room. Tuesday, March 29, 2005 Breakfast was great--as usual. Terry said, once again, how glad he was I brought the rafts for the bed. There was an iguana outside of our room. He guarded our room in the morning and then left. We met everyone except the divers (Jim, Sean and Michael) on the beach at 9:15. We got in a van and drove to some cenotes. Our guide was Attila from Hungary. He was very nice and helpful. The cenote water was cold at first but we got used to it. Eileen and Cherie stayed at the first one while the rest of us moved on to the second one. It was great--crystal clear water over limestone and just a few small fish. Attila, Sue, Ron, Charley and I went in to the bat cave. Attila had one light and I had the other so I had to stay at the rear. The bat cave didn't have any bats and some of the formations were lighted. We had a very good sandwich for lunch and headed back to the Copa. I lost my new mask on the beach before we left and it was gone when I checked. I checked the dive shop and lost and found. I never even got to use the damned thing! The divers had an OK time on their dive. Eileen, Cherie, Sean, Michael, Emily, Charley and I went to paint things. I painted a small pitcher for $8.00. I played a game of chess with Eileen. After she beat me, she beat Michael and Sean. Sean was in a ping-pong tournament and came in second place out of ten players. I played in the pool with Mike, Jim, Kyle and Michael for a while then Terry and I went to dinner--excellent--as usual. I called Jean and all is well. Terry watched a movie about Hitler--only to learn it was the beginning of a mini-series. I fell asleep between 8:30 and 9. Terry about 10. Wednesday, March 30, 2005 I got up at 8--Terry at 8:30. I called Laura--all is well. They are getting storms today so she and Jean are parking in our garages. After breakfast, I went down to the pool while Terry watched TV. Some coral cuts on his feet are sore. He put on Neosporin. Eileen beat me yet again in chess--but it was a close game. She also beat Mike and Jim. Then Sean and I learned how to dance the Salsa. We had a half hour lesson at the pool with some others beginners. We did pretty good! After lunch, we took some pictures. Sean and Michael were in ping-pong tournaments. I had a wonderful 1/2 massage in the hut by the pool. I swear, when my masseuse was working on my head, I felt like I was floating! Jim, Sue, Ron, Helen, Sean and Michael also had massages. Mike had at least two. Michael fell asleep after his massage. He slept for 1/2 before Sue finally woke him up. Sean was in a kayak race with seven other guys against eight girls. Sean's team came in second place! I picked up the pitcher I painted and we bought t-shirts for the grandkids and mini-Corona bottles for the girls. We played two fierce games of water polo. I was on both losing teams. Sigh. Jimmy beat Eileen in chess because he wouldn't let her use the black pieces (she's been using the black pieces since she was 7 years old!). After dinner, we headed back to our room. Terry's shoulder hurt so he didn't sleep. He showered and soaked in the tub for 1/2 hour. He moaned a lot but I slept through it as best I could. Thursday, March 31, 2005 I finally got up at 4:20. I put IcyHot on Terry's shoulder and gave him some pain killers. We got all packed up and we even checked out just before Mike did! We had another great breakfast then boarded the bus to the airport at 8:30. After stops at two hotels, we got to the airport a little after 10. It took a little over an hour to check in but security was very quick. Terry and I had mini-shrimp shish-k-bobs. Mike and Jimmy joined us. Mike stopped at a bar in the Cancun airport for a shot of Bailey's. It was kinda small so he had the bartender add another shot. Cost? $17.25. He then went in the duty free shop and saw a bottle of Bailey's for $20.00. Whenever Mike would start to tease me about something, I would reach for his hand and say, "Godfather, you should wear a ring so I can kiss it!" I actually got to kiss his hand a few times before he caught on to what I was doing and started jerking his hand away from me. Before we boarded the bus to the airplane, an airport worker grabbed the two boarding passes out of my hand and gave one to Terry saying, "You have to hold your own pass, Amigo." Then he grabbed the five passes from Sue and threw them down. He called them God-damned stupid Americans and said it didn't take too much intelligence to follow directions--but none of us ever got the "directions!" The rude airport worker got on our bus and when we got to the plane, he dropped a large folder of papers and stuff and several people had to run around to pick it all up. Jim and I laughed out loud at the guy. Really, don't ever mess with Sue! Terry and I got aisle seats so his shoulder would not bump against anyone. Dinner was pretty good. Beef, veggies, potatoes. Terry and I both wore some of it home on the front of our shirts. Terry was in a lot of pain because of his shoulder. Immigration was an hour wait. Then Jim and I waited forever for our last bags. Customs was pretty fast and our limo was there quickly. We dropped Mike off in Blue Island and then Eileen and Cherie. We hopped in our car and were home by 8:45. No one got sick and we never saw a drop of rain. This vacation was wonderful! |