2018 Playa Del Carmen

Welcome to the Riu!

We spent five days/nights in the Playa Del Carmen all-inclusive resort named Riu Palace Mexico from January 10-15, 2018.  We enjoyed our resort very much. The food was excellent. I personally enjoyed the buffet the most because I like to try a bite of nearly everything! I don't think a day went by that we didn't have a pina colada or two (sin alcohol!).  All you had to do was ask. The staff was very friendly and the entertainment was ok - probably typical for a resort.

Never hungry, but we're always eating!

We're happy to be here.

We got into the Cancun Airport around 4:30 local time (two hours ahead of Utah time). Our Lomas Travel agents were waiting with a bus to take us to our resort in Playa Del Carmen - about an hour drive. After checking into our hotel and dropping our luggage off at our room (very nice rooms!) we walked around and explored a bit and enjoyed the buffet dinner which is always open.

Thursday morning we met early with Carmen our excursion planner. She was eager to set us up with some tours, and we let her take care of us (although it would have been more cost-effective to get the tours out on the street from the local vendors). Nevertheless, Lomas Travel took us everywhere we went, and we felt very safe and we enjoyed all of our adventures.

Thursday was a beautiful day and we spent the day enjoying our resort and the beach. Orvil flew his kite which you'll see in the video below. And Roberto finally talked Scott into a parasailing adventure behind a boat for $80 for the two of us. The official parasailing group on the beach was charging $120. He told us it would be 13 minutes in the air, and it was only 8, but it was still a fun adventure.



After parasailing, we cleaned up and walked downtown to find the famous Fifth Avenue. It was fun to explore that. We only hit the south end, but there were lots of vendors and we enjoyed the "floating man" and we also found the ferry terminal which takes you to Cozumel. The walk to Fifth Avenue from our resort takes about 30 minutes.

Street Entertainer - the "floating" man

Friday was our excursion to Tulum. A big bus picked us up and we loved our tour guide. She could flip back and forth from Spanish to English seamlessly and did so the entire time as both languages were needed for those on the bus. The Tulum Ruins were very interesting. The cliff view was my favorite. There were quite a few ruins to view. It was hot on that particular morning. The Mayans were the ones who had anciently inhabited the place. We learned a lot about their culture over the next couple of days.

Tulum Ruins

Tulum

After Tulum we went to Coba to see more ruins. We were able to walk up to the top of this pyramid - 120 steps- monkey style was the best way. It didn't seem like a big deal at the time, but my legs were sore for days afterwards. My favorite part about Coba was the bike taxi and the cute kid that pedaled Scott and I to the pyramid. He spoke little English so it was fun to try to converse in Spanish.

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Coba temple/pyramid

Ball Court played with heavy rubber balls. "Hoops" were on the slanting sides.

They took us to a Cenote which the Yucatan peninsula has hundreds of. We changed into swimming suits and climbed down a narrow spiral staircase to an underground cave with a big pool of water. The water is quite cool, and I put my wet suit on before getting in. We swam around a bit. Scott opted to stay above water and be the photographer.

We also stopped at a Mayan village and observed

Mmmm...homemade tortillas and fixings

the making of tortillas which we were able to help ourselves to, and ate a taco right there on the spot.

We enjoyed their small raised gardens. They grow corn, peppers, tomatoes, squash and some spices.  Beds are replaced with hammocks, and things are very simple.


Somewhere along the way they fed us a nice lunch - a buffet that was very good.

On the bus ride home they "treated" all who wanted to indulge in some tequila. Round after round went around the bus. Then they got fancy and added orange/pineapple juice to it and called it a tequila sunrise. Soon those around us were quite drunk and laughing and singing quite loudly. We were happy to leave the partiers and get back to the serenity of our resort.


Saturday we had lined up an excursion to Cozumel to go snorkeling, but the winds changed and made it unsafe to snorkel there so the excursion was canceled and instead we ended up snorkeling closer by
 in Puerto Morelos. It was $87 for the whole excursion. For future reference we could have gotten a taxi there and back for $50, and the snorkeling if we walked in off the street was $35. We thought it was great snorkeling. It was quite shallow. Just perfect to see things really well. They took us to two different spots. One had more fish, and the other had better coral. I enjoyed it a lot! But my ears were a bit cold, and I was thankful for my wet suit.
They fed us a nice lunch afterwards. I had fish. Scott had a hamburger. We made it back to the resort just after 1:00 and were able to enjoy the afternoon there.

Sunday we had intended to go to church, but it was our only chance to go to Chichen Itza. We decided to do the tour and read church material on the 3-hr ride there. We first made a quick stop in the town of Valladolid. There was a church there that we entered for a few minutes. A service was being held, so we felt we could say "we went to church"(ha ha).

We stopped at the Hubiku Cenote on the way there and this time we all opted to stay dry, but it was a pretty cool-looking cenote, with a hole in the ceiling and birds flying around in a repetitive formation like a Lagoon ride.




We had a nice buffet lunch there and could view another Mayan village.


You hear lots of clapping in the following video because tour guides have you clap in front of the temple and the pyramid answers in the voice of the sacred quetzal bird. You can't hear it in the video, but it sounds pretty cool - just like a bird.




Chichen Itza is supposedly one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was pretty cool.

Our bus driver was our tour guide, and I was amazed at the stories and knowledge he could tell us about the place. Supposedly all the Mayan records were destroyed by the Spanish when they came and took over, but they have pieced together quite a bit of information about their culture. It was very cool.

The word "Chichen Itza" translates to "The mouth of the well of the people of Itza", and it refers to a reservoir of water that is there down a path lined with vendors.


The famous big pyramid is called the
Temple of Kukulkan (feathered serpent). There was a large area with only pillars left where commerce took place. And the largest "ball court" in the area where sporting events took place. Supposedly the winner at some of these tournaments was beheaded and sacrificed to their Gods. These heads were stacked up on poles and posted along the wall of the City to act as a
warning to would-be marauders. Every 52 years they would sacrifice a woman on top of another structure and offer her heart to the Gods. Very gruesome.

Temple of Kukulkan

We walked around and enjoyed the sunshine when it peeked out of the clouds. On the bus ride home, the tequila was brought out once again. It's quite a popular thing, and they acted surprised that anyone wouldn't want to join in the toasting.

Can't get enough of that beach view!

We'll miss all the delicious food!

Monday Scott and I walked back down to 5th avenue to finish up some shopping. We bought a beach bag, a couple of necklaces, a couple of hats and a t-shirt. Then we enjoyed a final sit at the beach, another pina colada, packed our bags, had lunch and headed home.

We thought the whole vacation was VERY enjoyable and look forward to returning again at some future time.

2017 The Narrows and the Newsies

Julie, Katie, Hunter and I had a fun two days (filled with much driving) going to Saint George to see "The Newsies" at Tuacahn and then hiking the Narrows the following morning.

This is at the lovely petting zoo in Scipio along the way. The camel is my favorite!

We stayed at the World Mark in St. George. It was great! The first little tender mercy is that we made it all the way to St. George on 1 tank of gas. The reason this was a tender mercy is that I couldn't see the gas light when it came on (which was probably several miles out of St. George), and when I did notice it after we had arrived, it said we had a range of 4 more miles before we ran out of gas. The gas gauge is something I unfortunately am not in the habit of keeping an eye on. We easily could have ran right out of gas before making our destination. We were very grateful to pull into the gas station and fill up!

Hunter and Katie enjoyed a swim in the pool, and after our dinner of tacos at the condo, we headed for the theater. The Newsies at Tuacahn was wonderful!  They do a great job. It wasn't quite as hot as last time we went in August. There was a little breeze, and we were prepared with squirt bottles and cold water to drink.

We left around 8:30 the next morning for Zion's, and enjoyed spending several hours with our feet wet and sandy and a spectacular view every inch of the way!

Julie's friend, Annette, joined us. She lives in Cedar City.

"Floating Rock" - the end of the trail for us.

We drove home after the fun day and pulled into the driveway at 11 p.m.
So much fun! I had forgotton how spectacular the scenery is. Definitely something to do again! Next time we're bringing Scott, Mom, Norm, and all of you!

Hiawatha Bike Trail and Coeur D'Alene, Idaho 2017

August 8-12, 2017

Our group consisted of Scott, Hunter and Me, Mike and Sherrie Webb and Julie.

Tuesday was a drive day - taking about 9 hours (driving largely through Montana) to get to Mullan, Idaho, where our house was located. We stopped in Lima, Montana for lunch at Jan's Cafe. We weren't overly impressed. We suggest going one city further (Dillon) for more options.

 Here's a pic of the house we stayed in (found on VRBO). We liked it a lot.

The kitchen

We ate dinner that night at the City Limit's Brew Club in Wallace- Hunter enjoyed his huge hamburger.

We left Wednesday morning for the Hiawatha Bike Trail. The trail was really awesome. The views could have been even more stunning if there hadn't been so much smoke/haze in the air.

We really enjoyed the new bike rack - 6 bikes? No problem!

We all enjoyed our bikes while Mike jogged the trail (jk).

There were several tunnels along the trail. Good head-lights or bike-lights were a must!

Beautiful scenery - albeit a little hazy.

There were several of these trestles. We loved them!

There was a charming little side path we took that led to this spot. There was a fun little ferret or some-such critter here too.

Wednesday night we went to the grocery store in Wallace and bought pizza and salad for dinner. It was enjoyed by all.

The next day we went to Coeur De'Alene and spent the day hiking, walking, and eating. It is beautiful there...but once again, it was a bit smoky/hazy.

Mineral Ridge Scenic Trail

We ate lunch at "Rustic" and highly recommend it! Great salad and sandwich shop.

After lunch we started on a hike around Tubb's Hill. Tubb's Hill is right close by this park and water-front area. It gives you a view of the lake for most of the hike, but it was rather a warm afternoon when we tried it, so Scott, Hunter and I turned back, but the others carried on around the whole "hill" and enjoyed it.

Mike helping Julie "duct tape" a blistering toe on Tubb's Hill - worked great!

Cooling off!

These beautiful geraniums were everywhere!

We spent the day Friday driving. We stopped at an interesting sandwich place in Dillon called Muffaletta's. I'd vote for Subway next time. But it was very quaint.

Great adventure!  Wish it wasn't so far away -- I'd do it again. You can even ride the Hiawatha trail twice in one day for no extra charge ($19 for trail pass and shuttle ticket). Fun, Fun!!