Bill and Traci: 7 days in Paradise- Day 1

Traci and I just returned from a 7 day journey to Mexico. After turning 3 shades darker, sampling some of the hottest chili ever, and floating around in the pool until our fingers pruned up, we returned home. Rather than write about every day in one posting, I will spread it out over a handful of posts. :-)

Day 1 (Sunday Aug. 2nd)

After staying up until about 1am, Traci and I dragged ourselves out of bed at5am and made out way to the airport. Our flight would take us from Kansas City to Houston and finally to Cancun. We made our first leg without event; however, once in Houston the games began. We travelled from one end of the airport to the other to make our connection and upon reaching our gate learned that our plane was being worked on and would leave about an hour later than expected. The flight was overbook so they were offering $300, food, and a hotel room to leave the following morning. It was a very temping offer and we would have taken it but we had to meet up with our friends Catherine and Michael in Mexico.

After 30 minutes of waiting for the repairs to be completed, an announcement was made that our plane had been grounded and we needed to head to an alternate gate for a new plane. The new gate was of course on the other side of the airport where we initially landed. At this point, the airline had sweetened the overbooked deal and was offering $500, a hotel room, food and first class tickets on the first flight in the morning. Had we been able to call our friends, we would have gladly given up 24 hours of our vacation.

Once we boarded the plane, there was a newly wed couple who were sitting apart and wanted to be seated next to each other. Ahhhh, how sweet... The lady was sitting next to us and her husband was a few rows up. The flight attendant offered a seat in first class to anyone who was willing to move so these two could sit together. As I leaned over to tell Traci to go for it, she was already half way down the aisle with all her personal belongings ready to jump into her big comfy 1st class seat. Needless to say, most of the peole on the flight burst out laughing at her willingness to leave me sitting alone.

Minutes before she left me for 1st class

Off the coast of Cancun

Jungle, jungle, jungle, runway - whew

This trip had been in the works for the past 6 months when Catherine and Michael invited us to join them on their Mexican get away. I went to college with Michael and we both took a job at Cerner in 2003. I worked with Catherine during my first year at Cerner and they met at a Halloween party. They ended up getting married and now live in Phoenix... Ahhh, yet another sweet story.

We met Catherine and Michael outside of Customs at the Cancun airport and boarded a shuttle that would take us to what was to be our home away from home. We arrived at The Grand Mayan and checked into our room. We each had our own room complete with Jacuzzi tub, a kitchen, living room and a pool on the balcony. Directly behind our room there was a jungle and to the East a view of the ocean .

The Lobby

Check in desk - check out the thatch roof

Welcome to the Jungle

Our room

The bed was so big it was almost like having the bed to myself

The kitchen

Living room

The balcony pool

We spent the remainder of our day walking the grounds gawking at how beautiful everything was, checking out all the pools and eating our first Mexican meal at the hotel restaurant. We were treated to a lightening storm and were amazed to see all the crazy people swimming while it was going on. When we got back to our room, the bed had been turned down and a couple of chocolate kisses had been left.