Hot, Historic Mexico

The second stop on our cruise was in Mexico. We were excited to go to Mexico for the first time! After starting to learn Spanish in 7th grade to minoring in it in college, it was about time to use my Spanish in a Spanish-speaking country! The cruise had two stops in Mexico and the first one was Costa Maya, which is on the southern coast near the border of Belize.

When we got there, we took a bus an hour inland to see the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins. It was awesome to see, touch, and climb these structures that were still standing strong so many centuries after they were first built. It's fascinating to think about the people who once lived there, the lives they led, and the civilization they developed for themselves. Now all that's left are these enduring temples.

Oh, and it was HOT! It was almost 100 degrees there in mid-March! I don't know how the Mayans lived with the heat back then, or how the people who live there today without air-conditioning do it. I suppose you adapt and get used to it. I think if I tried to adapt to living like that I'd have a headache every day and would eventually just die of heat exhaustion. But that's just me.

This was the view of Costa Maya from where the ship docked as we walked down the long dock to land.

It says "Do not cross the red line." And look where he is! John was a stinker that day.

We got in line to get on a big (air-conditioned) bus to go to las ruinas ("the ruins").

This was the first of three temple pyramids we saw. There was ancient history, standing right before us!

It's pretty impressive that I was able to get the shot below with no people in it, because there were a lot of people there that day! 

You could climb the steps up to the first landing, and then it was roped off.

Sam didn't want to cooperate for the family pictures below. He was thirsty and cranky. I kind of was, too.

But it was neat to get our family picture taken here on these ancient steps. 

 I'm amazed at how the Mayans built these structures with their bare hands, and that they've stood for such a long time, since about 700 A.D. What a gifted people they must have been. The structures had to be excavated from where they lay buried underneath hills after being discovered in 1972. (I guess hills just happen as 2,000 years pass by.).

This was the second pyramid we visited.

It had a little "hut" type of thing built into the side that was neat to explore. 

John, pondering history perhaps?

Water bottles were our best friends that day!

Holy steepness!! We had to climb up a very steep stone stairway to get to the third structure. I took this picture from the top of that stairway. It's so steep that you can't even see the stairs, only people climbing up. There was another more kid-friendly way to get up, which is how Peter and Sam went. John and I tackled the steps together.

And this was the third pyramid we saw. I really wanted to get a family picture in front of this one since there weren't as many people around, but Peter was distracted by a woman who had passed out from the heat, so that didn't happen. (She was okay, but she had to be carried down. Lucky her! Well, sort of.) 

John enjoyed playing on the ruins. 

I like the combination of ancient civilization versus modern civilization in this photo: ancient Mayan ruins and a Boston Red Sox t-shirt. What a contrast! 

It was a very memorable and special experience to be able to go the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins that day. But we were hot, tired, and glad when it was time to get on that air-conditioned bus and go back to the ship. Before we walked down the dock there were these funny guys who were dressed up as ancient Mayans (one was an owl!) and we got our pictures taken with them. I talked to the owl guy in Spanish and he was surprised that this blond gringa could speak in his native tongue. How awesome is it that I got to go to Mexico and speak Spanish with a man dressed up like an ancient Mayan owl!? Very awesome indeed. The gods must have been smiling down upon me.

Sloppy-ish pictures of the shore that I took as I walked backward to the ship: 

And that sums up our first trip to Mexico. It was hot and historic! And lots of fun.

We Meet Again, Grand Cayman!

The first stop on our Disney cruise in March was on the island of Grand Cayman (a.k.a., the Cayman Islands). This wasn't a new place to us because we spent a week there five years ago when John was three years old. It's a really nice island (it has my favorite tropical beach I've ever been on, a fantastic little place called Rum Point) and it was fun to be back and see the familiar sites again.

I had really wanted to go swimming with dolphins on Grand Cayman, but unfortunately that excursion booked up really fast so we weren't able to do it. Our second choice was to go on a submarine ride (the Cayman Islands have some of the world's best coral reefs), but Sam wasn't old enough for that because the minimum age for kids was four. Stingray City, where you can swim with stingrays on a sandbar in the ocean, was also booked. So we went to the Turtle Farm, where we'd been before in 2008. The turtles there are HUGE! It's a really cool place. And John and Peter had fun going snorkeling while Sam and I played on the beach. (Okay, in the interest of full disclosure, the accurate translation of that sentence would be: John and Peter had fun going snorkeling although John's snorkel didn't really fit so it probably wasn't that fun for him, while Sam played on the beach and I followed along, feeling tired and wishing I were swimming with a dolphin.) It was a good day overall but not the most fun for me. We learned some lessons as first-time cruise goers, such as book your excursions early, pack light for day trips to the shore, and wear your swimsuit under your clothes. The less you have to carry around the better!

The water around the Cayman Islands is SO BLUE. It's beautiful!

  

It looks like artificially-colored water but it's real! 

At the Turtle Farm. The pictures don't do them justice. These are probably the biggest turtles you'll ever see in your life! They are gentle giants of the sea. They're awesome!

These were young giant sea turtles that we were able to see up close. 

John got to hold a cute little baby turtle.

One of the things I'd forgotten about Grand Cayman is that chickens run around on the loose, almost like squirrels. I'm sure it's nothing to the people who live there but to this visitor it's pretty funny. When we were eating lunch at an outdoor cafe, a mother chicken and her little chicks paid us a visit because Sam was spilling rice on the floor as he ate. Those chickens must be able to smell kids 3-and-under from a mile away!

Sam was happy to sit on the beach and play with the sand. Nature is the best toy! 

Here are Peter and John returning from snorkeling. I have to admit that snorkeling scares me a little bit. It must be the claustrophobe in me. And scuba-diving? Forget it! 

The coast of Georgetown, the capital, as we rode a boat back to the ship. 

I was tired and happy to see the ship that afternoon. Home sweet home!

Until next time, Grand Cayman. It was great to see those turtles again, but when we return we will either swim with dolphins or with stingrays or go on a submarine ride beneath your beautiful blue waters!

Five Things for Friday

1. The last day of school was this past Monday, June 3rd. John finished 2nd grade, and it was a good year for him. I think his biggest accomplishments were that his reading and writing skills improved a lot. On a slightly superficial note, I love to see how handsome he's becoming as he grows up--I think he's a quite a good-looking boy (if I do say so myself!). And even though he can be difficult for me at home, he's well-behaved and well-liked at school, which is great. I'd rather he misbehave at home than at school. He likes school and he developed a passion for kickball this year. Kickball is pretty awesome. I loved playing it too when I was in school. We're proud of him and all that he learned and accomplished this year!

Sam finished his year at KidTalk Preschool. It was a wonderful preschool for him. It was a special one for kids with language and speech delays. I was hesitant to start him in it last fall because he had just turned 3 and was so young. But I'm so glad that I did because it was exactly what he needed. He talks so well now and communicates normally like other kids his age. His social skills and confidence are much greater than they were when he first started. Because he met all of his goals, he doesn't qualify for the school next year, so he won't be going back, which is good, but it breaks my heart that he'll never walk into that classroom again or see many of those kids and teachers who he spent so much time with. I have such a hard time with things like that. I'm so sentimental! His teacher and I are going to stay in touch though, and they'd like to receive updates about how he's doing. So that helps me with the transition. Sam, of course, is totally fine. It's me that needs help!

This kid moves too much! :-)

2. We'd been promising the boys power cars for awhile, which they came to really like last summer in their grandparents' big backyard in Rhode Island. Well, we finally got two of our own. We figured it was a fun end-of-school-year gift. Needless to say, they love them. I kind of do too, and I wish I were small enough to get behind the wheel. Why are toy cars so much more fun than real cars?!

3. Sephora is opening a store in my mall this summer. I am soooo excited about this! I love Sephora! I first discovered it in downtown Manhattan (in Times Square, to be exact) nine years ago when I was going into the city for editing classes at NYU a few evenings a week and I had time to walk around and do some shopping before class. Since then I've only been able to go once a year when I go to my mall in Massachusetts; the rest of the time I have to order everything I want from them online. It will be so nice to have the store to shop in now! I've made some of my best beauty discoveries at Sephora!

4. And as if that weren't enough, there's supposed to be a Dunkin' Donuts opening nearby this year. This is too good to be true! (I hope not!) Here's the news article about it. I think I'm more excited about this than Sephora! Dunkin' Donuts is a New England staple. They have the best glazed donuts and Boston Cream donuts, and a good hot chocolate selection too. And yummy flatbread sandwiches. I'm so happy! The East Coast is slowly but surely moving west!

5. So here's my blogging plan for the rest of the month. I want to finish my posts about our Disney cruise before I take my summer blogging break, so I'm planning on my next several posts being about the cruise until I'm done with them. If there's time I'll do a few other posts after that, but no matter what I'll be taking a blogging break at the end of June when we leave to go East, and I won't start up again until August or more likely September. That's the plan and I'm sticking to it! :-)

Catfight

We adopted our two cats, Brody and Bentwood, from a shelter in Hartford, Connecticut seven years ago when we moved into our house in CT and found that it had quite a mouse problem. They had been rescued from homelessness (Brody was part of a litter of newborn kittens that was found outside in the freezing winter; he was the only one to survive). I think it's nice for animals to have a playmate of their own species, which is why we have two cats and two dogs instead of one of each. I'm also a big-time softie when it comes to separating animals who have grown attached to each other in a shelter, which Brody and Bentwood had done, being fostered in the same home together.

So Brody and Bentwood are lifelong friends, and just like our dogs, they like to tussle and wrestle with each other. I get a kick out of it when they do this, with their stalking and meows and yelps and little tufts of fur going flying. These are some pictures I took recently of one of their catfights. It was very entertaining!

Brody is batting at Bentwood's face, goading him on...

...which Bentwood is totally falling for. Look at his face; he's ticked off and ready to pounce!

"You asked for it, Brody!"

And then, suddenly, it's over. Bentwood says: "My work here is done. I am the victor." He always thinks he's won. He's the bigger, fatter, more dominant cat, while Brody is the smaller, faster, younger one.

Cue the Celine Dion: "All by myself, don't wanna be, all by myself..."

And a few minutes later they're out on the porch resting together like the old friends that they are.

I think we humans have something to learn from catfights. Fight hard, make up quickly, and then go take a nap together.

Lest you think I'm a crazy cat lady...sometimes I definitely am.

Oh Deer!

Lately I've been seeing a lot of deer in the fields around our house, which I don't mind at all because I don't have a garden, and I've always thought deer were cool. The week that we moved to Iowa I saw a mother deer and four of the cutest little baby deer in our yard one sunny beautiful evening and I took it as a very good sign. 

I like that deer are shy and anti-social with humans but not with each other, and that they're graceful and live in the woods and run fast. (I used to be a sprinter on my high-school track team, and one of my tricks for running races was to pretend that I was a fast animal like a deer or my dog Christy and that beating these humans was the easiest thing in the world. It worked! Well, sometimes.) A few weeks ago I woke up one morning and looked out the window and I saw a deer eating all of the birdseed out of one of our birdfeeders. I found it very amusing. I guess it's a deer-feeder then!

This is another time, but see the birdfeeder hanging on the tree branch? It's completely empty! I think this deer is grazing for the bits that were on the ground.  

When our dog Boo Boo noticed that there were deer in the yard, he stood quietly and stared intently out of the window. I was impressed by his level of self-control.

Our other dog, Yogi, on the other hand, exercised little self-control. When he saw the deer from another window he went postal and started barking his head off, which alerted the deer to the fact that they were not so alone after all. And those two deer high-tailed it right out of there. Literally!

"We'll come back and do our snacking another time, thankyouverymuch!"