Isla Mujeres is photogenic in every direction. It was our first stop with Dave and we loved it!
I have a million pictures of these guys, they were everywhere in Mexico, LOVE them!
On Isla Contoy National Park, lots of incredible birds and turquoise waters, palm trees.
Lovely day trip with snorkeling and a fish barbecue and all sorts of incredible birds. We actually went to see a frigate bird colony, the males have red balloons on their chest that they inflate when they are ready to mate and you can see them from really far away. They're so cool!
This is how I remember Mexico, with the perfect waters and boat docks and palm lined beaches.
The sea turtle nursery on Isla Mujeres.
Sunset on the beach with coronas on Isla Mujeres, a great start to our vacation.
Plaza Grande in Merida at night. Such colorful buildings by day and a lovely walk through the park and pretty lights at night.
Our hotel in Celestun came with peacocks.
The thousands of flamingos in Celestun Biosphere Reserve were worth the drive and my second favorite part of our Mexico trip (second to Dave proposing of course). Can't describe how surreal it felt to be amongst so many of them and they're actually quite large especially when they fly off or land.
We visited 8 different ruins, and here is the most famous, Chichen-Itza during the non touristy hour, meaning in the morning. Loved them all, as they were all unique.
Our first Cenote blew me away. They are limestone caves with fresh cold water and sometimes awesome stalactites and bats, turtles and really good underwater visibility. We visited several.
This was at Ek Balam ruins which we loved. Coba nearby was also incredible, as were the ones on the Ruta Puuc which were conveniently near the old Haciendas that remind me of the old cotton plantation houses in our American south. Huge, gorgeous.
This the Sisal Convent from 1552 in Valladolid, a lovely small town with incredible colonial architecture. We stayed here for a few days and also Merida, a bigger town and the cultural capital with lots of incredible old churches and colonial mansions. Would love to go back there.
Our first day of ruin touring had four different sites, this one being the best preserved.
This was our favorite lunch spot in Mexico, on the beach outside of Tulum city. We stayed the night. Best fish tacos ever, except for a place up in Cordova, Alaska of all places.
Brian and Julie joined us for a week. They called it vacation crashing but it was such a pleasure to hang out with them and always so good to see friends. We met them on Isla Cozumel and went diving with them, ate lots, took scenic drives and then back to the mainland to see some cenotes and ruins...this is at Tulum which was the most scenic.
So great to family vacation too, for our last week in Mexico at Sandos Caracol Eco Resort in Playa del Carmen. We got to eat together, play cards, enjoy drinks on the beach, watch monkeys...awesome!
We were all neighbors at the resort and we have some group photos too, but they're on the beach and I wasn't sure about sharing swimsuit photos of folks without asking. The resort had some natural cenotes (so pretty little lakes), some biking trails, some ruins, and plenty of birds and other creatures as well as flowering trees like this one.
Dad took this one before dinner, we were right on the beach!
This photo Julie took, she was hiding in the bushes. I had no idea it was going to happen at all. I just thought that Dave used his usual charm and good Spanish to talk the girls at the front desk into having a private dinner on the beach in lovely tent with flowers and billowing silk curtains....wait a minute, now it seems obvious, but honestly I just thought it was the usual night with Dave.
And fast forward another three weeks to Alaska where we spent Dave's three weeks off. Here is the boat harbor in Cordova Alaska. There is no road to get there, just a ferry or plane, we took both.
The closest we've seen a bald eagle, ripping out some fish parts. They are huge!
Our Alaska trip was incredibly beautiful, but we caught mostly rainy days so this was a typical hike. We actually spent 8 days in Cordova hiking through the mountains, camping in our tent and cabins and seeing glaciers, the Copper River delta and it's birds and pretty trees.
This is near Cordova too. We saw lots of huge moose here, one small plane crash, attack swans and bald eagles.
I liked the planked hikes with the fishing nets for traction, since Cordova is a fishing village.
One of the lovely cabins we stayed in, this one had two swans on the lake.
View from our other favorite cabin at Power Creek where we had a nice fire in the stove.
We had a bit of sun on the ferry from Cordova to Whittier so I took a lot of mountain pics of the gorgeous snow covered mountains and huge glaciers. All the snowy pictures below are from the ferry ride. Ferries by the way in Alaska, the best way to travel by far!
The boat harbor in Whittier. We had a great overnight hike to a glacier and sun the whole day! One of a few days we had sun. So basically when the sun is out in Alaska, there is no better scenery.
This was at Portage Lake, our day trip from Whittier. We heard the glacier across the lake calving at night and during the day.
I finally got to meet some of Dave's coworkers and we all went 4-wheeling at Jim's Creek near Palmer for a good 8 hours. I drove it like a rental. :)
This was the start of our 3 day kaying trip out of Seward. Cold, but awesome. We saw a humpback whale, porpoises, 5 dolphins, sea otters, seals, eagles and thousands of jellyfish.
After our trip, we went up to Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park and met up with my good friends from Antarctica.
This is a King Eider duck, I love them. And below is a puffin which I think are even more exciting than penguins. We loved the Aquarium in Seward, and also our friend Kevin's wedding in Seward.
I took a million pictures in Mexico and none of these are edited at all, it's that beautiful in both places. Oh what a great summer! After Indiana and Chicago, Dave went back to work and I, luckypants, got to spend some time with Dave's family before leaving to Colorado to river raft four days in a row on the Arkansas river, and catch up with friends. Then our incredible trip to Mexico that I can't even describe adequately because the colors were so rich and the plants lush, wildlife incredibly close and stunning. Then a beautiful engagement surprise and family time, and back to the USA. I took a Wilderness First Responder class in Denver before visiting my family in Reno and flying up to Alaska. I even got to see my Grandparents! Alaska was beautiful and we were out in the wilderness almost the entire time, so it was a great trip. Hard to leave Dave as usual.
I got my dream job last minute and leave in a day to start. I'm really excited and a bit nervous because I'm new at it, but I will be a Marine Tech on the research vessel the Laurence M. Gould. We will be going on 4 fishing forays and then I will be the Boating Coordinator at Palmer Station, and I will be done October 5th. We're fishing for specimens (fish) for an awesome scientist I met back in 2002, Art Devries. We Marine Techs will be a team of three, including a guy who has fished on the Bering Sea for 22 years (like in the Deadliest Catch show on tv). I'm off to become a sailor! Dave can't wait to say "pardon her language, my wife is a sailor."
I'm really bummed to miss Dave's 40th birthday in Ireland, and hope you can all get in touch with him by email there, and he plans to come to Reno in August or September and also see Idaho then so we're leaving gifts for him here and you can do the same. Love you all very much, hope to see you soon!
