U.S.A. Recap

Welp, our month-long trip in the states flew by in a whirlwind of family, friends and traveling. It was hard to leave everyone, but there is some relief at the thought of being back home on our boat again. We have been living out of bags for six weeks, and it is very old.

We are in Durango, Mexico now, with the first leg of our 3-day trip back to La Paz completed. Tomorrow night we will stay with our dear friends Gary and Lois in Copala before we hop on the ferry back across the sea.

I wanted to give a summary of our U.S. trip and share a few photos from our travels. It was a perfect dose of family and friends that we needed to keep traveling. We are in a weird crossroads between vagabonds and stability.

You may recall that we had to drive all the way up the baja and over to Galveston, TX to meet Tim’s family and work friends for the Centennial Roofing (Tim’s parents’ family business) Cruise. We had a difficult time adjusting to the amount of people and the outrageous expenses on the ship. We were not quite prepared for so much America so fast. We found ourselves a little out of place until we really just cut loose and enjoyed ourselves with family. I got to know Tim’s family much better before the end and It was really the best part of the entire trip. We did really enjoy ourselves on the day we got off the boat in Cozumel – the complete other side of Mexico from where we came.

We wandered off the boat and found ourselves renting a little scooter that we took halfway around the little island of Cozumel that was crawling with tourists. We stopped off at some Mayan ruins and a great hole-on-the-beach restaurant on the way.

After the cruise we left Galveston and headed to Austin to see my aunts, uncles, cousin and grandma. It had been some time since we had been down in Austin and Tim and I have vowed to spend more time there. We loved seeing more family and doing some Austin tourist stuff, too. We ate at the original Chuy’s (Mexican food, of course!) and went bowling at UT.

From Austin we headed for Dallas. We tried to see as many friends and family as we could, and enjoyed just hanging out. We went to some favorite places with our favorite people, and we saw tons of movies! We had only seen one flick while in La Paz, so we really got our fill of catching up at the box office. For some reason, I took no photos of our Dallas potions of the trip… I suppose because I don’t know how to be a tourist in my own town. It is really a shame. We did get to soak up our nieces and nephew, my brother and my cousin who is pregnant with her first child. She and my sister are due only three days apart in July and I am just thrilled to be Auntie Mere for my sixth and seventh nieces or nephews!

After about two weeks in DFW we cut out to spend about two weeks in Evergreen with my parents, sister and her family. We played in the snow a lot – going snowshoeing and snowboarding/skiing the weekend we arrived. It had been over a year since Tim and I had gone and it took some warming up too. I took a couple hard falls before I got more cautious. It was so cool to ski with my 4-year-old niece and 6-year-old nephew. They are great skiers already hitting up full green and blue runs with the whole family. Too cute.

It was really tough to tell my family goodbye again. It was helpful to know a definite date of when I will see them again for my sister and cousin’s baby shower on May 27. I know I will get another dose of them soon. We headed back down to Dallas for a quick week to celebrate Tim’s birthday and wrap up some last-minute business before leaving. We got to hang out with a bunch of good friends for Tim’s birthday – a couple who we finally convinced to come visit us in La Paz! We will be expecting them on our boat very soon.

Off to Corpus Christi, TX for my friend Heather’s wedding to the love of her life, David. It was a great full weekend of events for the lovely couple. We arrived to their amazing home on Thursday, had bridal party manicures and pedicures, rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on Friday, wedding on Saturday and sunday brunch. The entire weekend went perfectly and was so much fun! Heather was the easiest-going bride ever, and she and David really made me and Tim feel so welcomed. It was a perfect end to our U.S. tour.