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Sep 02 2009

10th Year Wedding Anniversary… Cancun!

Published by Bridge under bridge

(MAX AND BRIDGE – PLEASE IGNORE THE CLEAVAGE)

For my 10th year wedding anniversary my husband and I decided to go to Mexico. My first choice would have been Italy. My husband’s first choice would have been Hawaii. Both were very expensive. We opted to go the swine flu route and planned a trip to Mexico.

Mexico was CHEAP. For $1,300 both my husband and I were able to fly to Cancun and stay in an all-inclusive resort. Just our plane tickets to fly to Florida to book a cruise were about that.

Oh… we booked our trip through cheapcarribean.com in case you were wondering.

Cancun was HOT. Cancun was HUMID. Even the ocean was hot. I would take showers in “cold” water, but it was still warm.

Our resort, Grand Oasis Caribbean Resort, was fine. I hear that the resorts farther south from where we were are nicer, but it was perfectly fine. I read a lot of reviews on Travel Advisor, and half of them were negative. I am beginning to think the people that made those reviews were extra picky. The hotel was hot, but so is everywhere in the Caribbean. The air conditioner in our room worked great. The service was exceptional. Anytime I was in the vicinity of a worker they would stop and greet me. So polite.

When we went to our room the first day my husband realized he had LOST HIS PASSPORT. An employee of the hotel called the airport for us, and they were going to look and call the hotel back. Well the airport didn’t call back. The next morning a representative from cheapcarribean.com named George called his coworkers at the airport and they tracked down the passport. They even delivered it to George who in turn delivered it to us. Thanks again George!

(THE OCEAN VIEW FROM THE HOTEL LOBBY)

Now let me tell you about some of the people we met in Cancun. We met two cool chicks from New York on vacation for a 30th birthday. Mayra and Carlixta were there names. We consumed a lot of beer with them. A lot of tequila too. I can thank Ernesto the bartender for that. This picture was taken right after I told him I didn’t want any tequila. He said, “I don’t care.” And then he poured me a shot of tequila. It didn’t matter how long the drink line was. If I asked for a drink he would get it for me first. Tipping goes a LONG way.

(ERNESTO… THE BEST BARTENDER EVER)

For one of our excursions, Max and I went to see Chichen Itza. It was amazing. I have to put it on par with seeing Stonehenge. People talk about feeling energy. I definitely did. My tour was AMAZING. It was run by Olympus Tours. They picked us up at our hotel in the morning and then gave us coffee, fruit and bread. Later that day they were giving us Coronas and sodas. Never before have I had such great service on a tour. Two of the four tour guides were even Mayan. They were so enthusiastic about everything and it really showed. I learned more about the Mayans and other Mexicans in one day than I have ever in my entire life. Who knew it wasn’t the Mayans who did the sacrifices? Until the tour I had no idea.

(CHICHEN ITZA)

(THESE HATS SAVED OUR LIVES. NOT ONLY DID WE LOOK LIKE DORKS, BUT WE DIDN’T GET SUNSTROKE. NOTICE THE LOVELY SACRAFICIAL TEMPLE IN THE BACKGROUND.)
)

After Chichen Itza the tour took us to a cenote to swim. It is basically a huge hole in the ground that connects to the underground rivers. It was very refreshing, beautiful, and also kind of creepy. Some of these cenotes were used to sacrifice.

(CENOTE)

My husband and I also decided to go snorkeling. We were also supposed to go scuba diving, but had problems finding the tour. Anyways, the snorkeling was great as well. They took us out 3 times to the reef, and they even fed us. Oh, they also gave us as much beer as we wanted. I love Mexico. I saw: two rays, tons of random fish, brain coral, an octopus, a starfish, a hermit crab, conch shells, a box fish, and a jelly fish. Luckily I didn’t see a shark. /whew

(MAX BEFORE SNORKLING. YES HATS LIKE THIS ARE A MUST.)

My advice to anyone who is going to visit Mexico anytime soon is to take a lot of $1 bills. We would have spent a lot less money and tipped way more if we had. No one seemed to have change. Also learn how to haggle. It is annoying, but you really can talk them down. I am not sure if I got any “good” deals on the few things I brought back, but I know I didn’t get “bad” deals.

4 responses so far

Aug 31 2009

Cache County Fair

Published by Bridge under al, bridge

The Cache County Fair brings back a lot of memories… Unfortunately one of those memories involves puking into a garbage can after riding the Graviton four times in a row. NOT RECOMENDED. As a teenager I often would dress up to hang out with boys. I even officially started dating my husband 15 years ago at the fair. Yeah… this year was our 15 year “fair” anniversary. It was also our 10 year wedding anniversary, but that was celebrated in Mexico.

Back to the fair. This year Al happened to be in Logan.

~~Luckily~~ unfortunately for her she happened to be hanging out with me the day we were going.

(THIS IS THE BEST PICTURE I HAVE TAKEN THIS YEAR. MAKES ME LAUGH.)

(AL AND BRIDGE)

(OUR “WATER”)

(OVERVIEW OF FAIR AND AL AND BRIDGE.)

(MAX AND NAT EATING COTTON CANDY.)

(MAX AND BRIDGE AT THE FAIR… 15 YEAR FAIR ANNIVERSARY.)

3 responses so far

Aug 29 2009

So where in the hell are Al, Bridge & Jess???

Published by Bridge under bridge

Obviously we haven’t been on our blog.

/sigh

I have to admit I couldn’t remember my password.

No… not because I hadn’t been on for so long…

Jess had some problems with Twitter and our blog about the time I had my knee surgery. She changed my password for me and fixed the problem. Finally someone besides me fixed a problem on our blog. (Insert Bridge cheering here!) Anyways, thanks to painkillers I couldn’t remember my password.

Yeah for painkillers! They go well with beer.

Um… did I just recommend mixing narcotics and alcohol? /gulp

I should now make a statement about how mixing “drugs” is not a good thing. Honestly it isn’t. Running on a trail if your name is Al is also not a good thing. You can see photo evidence from her previous post. I cringe every time I see those photos.

Are you sure you missed me writing on this blog? I am guessing the answer is no.

So what have I been up to? Everything. Nothing.

Everything covers therapy, cleaning, camping, gardening, school shopping, working a little, kids having play dates, 15 year reunion, going to Mexico, ext.

Nothing covers everything that actually needed to get done. Basically work. I am sooooo behind on work. I have also been a lame friend. I’ve hung out more with Al this summer than most of my friends. Al lives far enough away that it requires a plane ride to hang out with her. Luckily she was the one that rode on the plane and visited me. So to all my friends… I am sorry.

In conclusion (yes I feel that I have to type that) expect more posts from me now. Kids are in school and I will have little excuse not to write. I’ll even post a lot of posts I should have posted this summer.

Wow that last sentence had the word “post” in it a lot.

Oh… Jess is probably at home asleep, Al is probably at home and asleep, and I am at home and should be going to sleep. That is where in the hell we are.

2 responses so far

Apr 28 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AL!!!

Published by Bridge under bridge

Happy Birthday Al! I hope your day is great. Here are some fun pictures I took of you this year. Obviously I picked out funny ones.

(AL NEXT TO THE WEINER… LOVE THIS PHOTO.)

(AL ON A CANAL BOAT. LOVE THE SMILE!)

(AL ON A TOUR BUS. TOTAL GEEK STYLE WITH THE HEADPHONES. YOU HAVE TO LOVE LONDON.)

(AL IN FRONT OF THE TOWER BRIDGE. PROVES WE WERE IN LONDON.)

(AL AT DOVER… TOTAL COOL.)

(NO WORDS ARE NECESSARY… HAHAHA.)

(THAT IS THE MONA LISA BEHIND AL.)

(I TOTALLY MADE AL POSE FOR THIS PICTURE. NOTICE ALL THE TOURISTS IN THE TOUR BUS TAKING A PICTURE OF WHAT IS BEHIND ME…)
Eden Lake rip

(AL AT STONEHENGE.)
The Tale of Despereaux film Good Boy! the movie Chasing Liberty movies

One response so far

Apr 26 2009

Edinburgh and Loch Ness…

Published by Al under bridge

You all may not have noticed this but Bridge and I have not yet posted our last post about our time in Scotland. And since Bridge is busy with kids and work, and I am just busy with drinking beer, cooking bok choy, running and drinking beer, you’ll have to deal with me writing this post instead of Bridge. So please excuse the lack of spitting-on-your-computer-screen hilarity that you expect from Bridge and try to deal with the lameness that is an Al post… Bridge here… my comments will be in bold and italic. I’ve been changing my life around since my Europe trip and haven’t had time to be on here.

Wait, I need some music.
AHHH that’s better. A little Toad the Wet Sprocket, anyone?

“We spotted the Ocean at the head of the trail, where are we going so far away? Somebody told me that this is the place where everything’s better and everything’s safe.” Sounds like a perfect intro to Scotland…

So when we were originally planning our trip, we wanted to ride the train from London to Edinburgh. That is, until we found out that it would take us half a day and cost us more than if we flew. So we flew. On British Airways. AND. THEY. WERE. AWESOME. I completely agree with Al on this. The flight was quick and easy and I felt appreciated as a customer. Much better than the experience Jess just had.

I cannot stress this enough. We had free breakfast that included at least 2 types of meat (Bridge, what were they again?), eggs, coffee, juice, and some bread. AND the flight attendants were some of the nicest I’ve ever had the pleasure of flying with. I can’t remember the meat Al. I totally forgot! download kryptos

HERE’S OUR VIEWPOINT OF THE NORTH SEA AS WE’RE COMING IN FOR OUR LANDING AT THE EDINBURGH AIRPORT buy Resistance
flying into Edinburgh

Is anyone else here worried that Al didn’t mention the delta in the last picture? I am. We successfully navigate yet another airport and bus system and check into our hotel (our room here was at least 75 times larger than the one in London) where we promptly figure out how to get to the Castle. Getting back to our hotel was a different story. Our bus driver was supposed to take us back near the airport and then loop back to our hotel, but he decided to drop us off “early” so it would save us time. A mile later we arrived at our hotel after that same bus passed us.

EDINBURGH CASTLE FROM THE BUS

I didn't know Edinburgh Castle was built on a volcanic neck. I overheard this tidbit of info from a chick on the bus, who was explaining the whole thing to her BF. Lucky me... Saved me the trouble of explaining it to Bridge. (A volcanic neck is... you see why this is important!)
Blah, blah, geology.... I must of missed the part about the volcanic neck Al. I did hear volcano, but then I heard something about a pub and I was diverted.

BRIDGE ENTERING THE CASTLE. BEST ENTRY BY FAR ON THE TRIP

We finally get into the Castle and wouldn’t you know it but there’s a wedding taking place in St. Mary’s Church. So I forced Bridge to video the bagpipest (is this the right word) so we could preserve it for her posterity and I snapped a photo of the guy in the kilt (sorry, ladies, because it was a wedding we decided NOT to find out if the rumors were true…)

BAGPIPEST AND GROOMSMEN IN THE WEDDING PARTY

BRIDGE LOOKING LIKE AN IDIOT

AL LOOKING LIKE AN IDIOT

These were examples of the armor, etc. that Scottish soldiers (?) wore during the Galloglass period of Scottish history, from the late 1200s to the early 1600s. And let me tell you, this stuff was HEAVY! It must have weighed at least 40 lbs. But we were laughing our assess off when putting them on so it was worth it. A line formed behind us to put on the armor. Everyone had to copy us. Thirteen ipod

Most of the Castle was closed to the public so we didn’t spend as much time there as we thought we would. So, we decided to go find a pub (surprise, surprise, right?), have a few beers, and grab some dinner. Remember the guy who kept hitting on us Al? It was like 4 in the afternoon and he was already drunk. I blame you for wanting to go into another White Horse pub. How many pubs did we go in that had the same name?

WE DID NOT GO HERE… BUT SHOULD HAVE

Loch Ness, Oh Loch Ness! You may have been the thing Bridge was looking forward to the most (after seeing her family, of course). That is, until our first stop where she saw this house… Which she wanted to buy so she could raise and slaughter sheep! Yeah, Loch Ness was where I really wanted to go. I’ve wanted to go there since I was little. That house rocked. I would move in tomorrow. I would want the cute fluffy sheep with the black heads. I still think they are probably yummier than the plain white sheep.

BRIDGE’S NEXT HOUSE (START SAVING MAX!)

Our tour guide talked in a continuous stream about the villages we were driving through, the rivers we were passing… etc. Most of it was pointless and Bridge was upset that of all the bridges we passed, one of them WASN’T the Harry Potter bridge (I wouldn’t have known even if it was…). Al should mention here that we did see where they film Haggrids hut, but she probably didn’t care. /sigh Oh, and our tour guide harased us the entire trip. Although most everyone was from America, he particularly picked on us. He would talk really slow and very loud to us. Then he would ask us to repeat it in English. It could have been annoying, but that day I thought it was funny.

Our guide did tell us of a village where most of the inhabitants were slaughtered during some clan wars. Except there were 3 sisters that got away and hid in this glen. It was one of the most beautiful landscapes I think I’ve ever seen. What Al is not telling you here is that she wanted to barf. The bus was going a million miles per hour around sharp corners on a quaint road that winded around the landscape.

THE HIDDEN GLEN

AL WONDERING HOW LONG SHE COULD SURVIVE IN THE HIDDEN GLEN

All of these things were just a build up to Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness. The people who used to live here (I think they were of the Urquhart Clan, I was not feeling well during the little video they showed) blew up their own castle during a battle because they didn’t want any one else to live there. What Al means is they raised their own castle so the other clan could not have its strategic position.

I WONDER WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO LIVE IN A CASTLE THAT WAS SOOOO CLOSE TO NESSIE?

We wandered around the remains of the Castle and talked about how great it was going to be when we saw Nessie (on our boat tour from the Castle to Inverness).

AL CONTEMPLATING HOW TO CALL NESSIE TO THE BOAT

And as it turns out, Bridge is deathly

afraid of lake monsters!

BRIDGE HIDING FROM NESSIE.

The boat tour was awesome! It was only the 2nd time the entire trip that we felt a rain drop! Good thing Bridge had Nessie beer to help her cope. It was a black beer. Not a porter, but a black. DELICIOUS! Oh, and I also had an umbrella to help me cope that I put into good use until it totally almost blew away. I was filming at the time and the dance I did with a beer, the video camera, and my umbrella was priceless.

NESSIE BEER… IF HAVE A FEW, YOU’RE GUARANTEED TO SEE NESSIE. Gnaw hd

We didn’t see Nessie… we were so disappointed and Al even cried a little. But at least we got to see the infamous Loch before heading back to the good ol’ US of A. I really miss Al now. I had such a great time with her and was glad she went with me. I’ve been a friend of Al’s for a long time now, but this trip made me realize how much I appreciate her. At first I had reservations about traveling to Europe with her. I eat meat. She doesn’t eat meat. Things like that. I thought that after a week we would want to kill each other. We didn’t. I can honestly say that Al is the best traveling companion I have ever had. Thanks Al.

LOCH NESS’S SHORE NEAR BOAT DOCK

6 responses so far

Apr 20 2009

Max’s Chicken Curry

Published by Bridge under bridge

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This recipe is one of my favorites. NOT VERY SPICY SO KIDS WILL EAT IT. It is easily made by watching your husband cook it. I am usually drinking beer while my husband slaves away in the kitchen like a good little cook. The way to accomplish this is to buy the ingredients and then pretend there is NO WAY you could actually make it. It would NEVER turn out as good as they way THEY make it. So far it works for me.

You will need:

• 1 tsp. Coriander
• 1 tsp. Ginger
• 1 tsp. Cumin
• Dash of Garlic Powder
• Dash of Onion Powder
• Dash of White Pepper
• 2 or 3 Dashes of Turmeric
• Dash Salt
• Pinch of Nutmeg
• 2 tbsp. of Coconut Oil
• 1 Can Coconut Milk (or 2 cups of Heavy Whipping Cream)
• 1-2 Pounds of Chicken Tenders
• 1 Yellow Onion
• Shit load of Garlic (3-5 slices)

(You can replace Coriander, Turmeric, Cumin, Ginger, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, and Nutmeg with the equivalent of Curry Powder.)

What you need to do:

Start cooking the chicken in a pan with the Coconut Oil over a low heat setting. (Again… watch THEM cook the chicken. You drink a beer.)

Dice then add garlic. (Fight off a vampire.)

Dice an onion and add it. (Watch THEM cry when they do this. Laugh.)

Slowly start adding the spices in no particular order. (Feel free to ask THEM if they know what THEY are doing. The look THEY give you is totally worth it.)

When the chicken is almost done add the coconut milk. (Pretend you’re a Hawaiian and do the hula.)

Continue to cook until coconut milk is nice and hot. (Suddenly realize this is a CURRY and you shouldn’t have been dancing the hula. Drink another beer.)

Serve over rice or pasta. (Drink straight out of a mug to have a heart attack. Wait… you are drinking beer. Serve over rice or pasta.)

(Steal the last beer.)whitesnake 1987 mp3 download

Silk video

2 responses so far

Apr 20 2009