Last Day, Last Thoughts

Friday was our last full day in Belize and we booked a half day of snorkeling to the popular Hol Chan marine reserve and Shark Ray alley. We originally booked with the same company that took us fishing and we were out on the dock at 8am waiting for our ride when Yolanda came over from the office and told us that they had "a problem with the boat" but we would still be going out, it would just be about an hour delayed.
OK, we're already on the dock, it's a nice morning so we'll hang out and wait. Yolanda stays and talks for a while (about 45 minutes) and then tells us the boat should be here shortly. About half an hour later a boat shows up but they are not with our tour company but I do know that they worked closely with the other company and they are acting like they are our boat so we join their tour. There are already 8 people and we are the last to join so not bad - 10 people.
Of course, that is just our boat and when we get to Hol Chan we see several other boats and they all have way more then 10 people. I am immediately put off by this but we get our gear on and get in the water at which point my camera dies. I'm a bit bummed because it is our only snorkel trip for the whole vaca so I would have really like to have some pics - Oh well, I will just enjoy the view.
Our guide gets in and all 10 of us are trying to follow him while not smacking each other with our fins but honestly, there are just too many people both in our group and overall to avoid smacking or being smacked with fins. That and the fact that our guide seems to be on a speed tour really did not make for the best trip but we did get to see a few neat things and when we got to Shark Ray alley, it was less crowded and we got  to swim with some pretty big nurse sharks. Overall I would not do this snorkel trip again.

The remainder of Friday we hung out around our rental and as usual we discussed our trip, where we went, what we liked, could we live here, etc. and here is a summary of what we discussed.
Overall we liked Belize. We visited Corozal in the northern mainland area because it is a more affordable area but felt that overall it was much dirtier than we would prefer for a place to live. Don't get me wrong, I do not mind poor and I do not expect a place where I can live cheaper to not have some challenges but in this area people went down to the water area, partied hard and just left their trash every where all over the ground. Now, they did seem to have public works come around and clean up the next day but when you watch a stray dog picking at a dirty diaper because someone couldn't throw it in the several trash cans that are around - that's not a place we would prefer to be. However, the people in this area were some of the nicest, most helpful people we've met in any of our travels.

As for the island of Ambergris Caye, we stayed south of town which is a little quieter and definitely more our speed as opposed to being in town where things are much busier. We really like the island but overall it is definitely a little more expensive that I would have preferred. Also, everyone kept telling us that it was the slow season but I thought there were "quite a few people" there and wondered how busy it really gets during the busy season and if we would really be able to handle that even if we did not choose to live "in town".
This and the fact that there are only a few actual walk in beaches that do have sea grass everywhere makes it a little less like the "beach" atmosphere that we prefer.
Again, we knew all this before the trip but seeing and experiencing things is different than reading about them and that after all is why we go and check all these places out.

So we will be plotting out our next adventure/survey trip and see where that brings us next.

Until then, here are a few funny things that stand out about this trip that I've not mentioned before:

There are many sugar came fields and we saw that they seem to frequently burn the fields and we asked 3 different people and got these 3 different responses:

1. They burn some of the crops to create the brown sugar (sounds reasonable)
2. They burn all of the crops to get rid of the snakes because the men have to harvest the cane by hand (this was a little more convincing)
3. They burn the fields after the cane is harvested to make the soil rich so they can grow more sugar cane (I think this guy was just telling us gringos something)

Remember the picture of the iguana in the gutter?

Well, I did not have my camera with me but a couple days later we saw an iguana at least 3 times bigger crawl up into that space behind right behind this guy, right up into the roof!!!! I wonder if they hear him roaming around up there at night...LOL

If we decide to move anywhere where the primary mode of transport is a golf cart, I am going to have to up my insurance to cover road burn from when I keep falling off...LOL

Well, gotta go start planning......

Now This is a Good Fishing Day

If any of you have read some of my other trip blogs or if I talked to you about our trips you probably know that we don't have a lot of luck when we pay for fishing while traveling. While we may have caught things here and there, we rarely have caught more than one fish or had a trip that we would really call successful. Many a captain has tried really hard for us, some even staying out longer than the time we booked but we had pretty much determined that we are jinxed when it comes to paying for fishing on vacation and after our last trip we have sworn to not do that again.

Fast forward to this trip.....even before we leave for Belize, Dave is asking me about fishing...where can we fish...what can we catch.....Now he's not necessarily asking about paid fishing but he wants to know if there are places to fish from the shore, etc. I find a web site that tells him everything about fishing in Belize especially on the island we are on right now and tell him - here, see for yourself. He reads through it, finds out a bit of info and is good to go.

Once we actually get here is a different story. Dave has this idea of befriending a local, having them take him fishing and tell him all of their secrets. He finds a little bit of this in Corozal when he goes out with Nathaniel but that is from the shoreline and he wanted a bit more so we book our river fishing trip which I wrote about in a previous post:A Tale of Two Ruins

Now on the island, his fishing itch gets stronger and he talks with everyone he can about fishing....where do you catch big fish....what do you catch...what do you use to catch them with....and on and on.....
Now, people are very nice here and they give him information, maybe holding back just a little but for fishing from shore, it does not seem like there is much to it. Many locals will have some way to catch sardines because live bait is better, a good throw net and good technique is all you need once you can find some of the sardines in shore. If you can't catch them, you can buy frozen sardines and cut them up but the bait doesn't stay on as well and many fish just peck at it to get it off the hook.
With no net to catch them, Dave tries to find locals catching some so he can buy a few but every time he goes to the shore either no one is there catching them or there are no sardines around to catch. He finally resorts to buying the frozen ones but he doesn't have much luck with them. He catches a few very small fish from shore but not enough or big enough to brag about.


We agree that we will do a half day of reef fishing because normally you will catch something.
Dave and I are pretty cheap when it comes to bigger expenses such as fishing on vacation. I think it is hard for us to wrap our heads around paying for something that we get to do "for free" back home. Of course free is after we've bought the boat, the truck to pull the boat, all of the equipment needed to catch fish and even then we only fish lakes and rivers which also keeps expenses down.
So when we go to places that seem to have a lot of options, I try to compare and then book something that I am comfortable paying for (usually middle of the road as far as cost goes). On the island, most places are pretty close in price and for half a day of reef fishing it is $250 - not too bad.
Our captain and guide for the morning is Gavino and he picks us up at he end of our dock at 8:00 am and we're off, but first we have to catch our bait. There are no sardines around our area so we go down to Caye Caulker where Gavino says there is always some bait and he's not wrong. It takes a few passes  and we have to follow the diving pelicans but with
Dave driving the boat and Gavino throwing the net, we soon have a cooler full of bait and so we head to the reefs.

There is a learning curve in this type of fishing versus the bass fishing we do at home. For bass fishing, you have to set the hook hard to make sure the fish won't come off. For reef fishing you have to be a little more gentle in how you do it because it just pulls the hook out of the fishes mouth....Good to know but we still have a hard time not setting the hook so the first couple of hits we get we lose those fish and our bait.
Gavino keeps reminding us and finally I get a hit in which I actual land the fish is it a nice Spanish Mackerel.
Dave hooks onto something that seems really big that gives him an awesome fight but once it gets to the boat Gavino says "Ugh - a shit fish, you don't want to catch those". He explains that these fish are not good to eat and usually they just peck at your sardines. He calls them Bermuda Chubs and while he isn't thrilled because we won't be keeping it, Dave said that it put up a really good fight.
We are slowly trolling while Dave and I are holding our poles and our baits are trailing farther behind, if we let our bait get too close to the boat we will just keep catching these Chubs because they are all hanging out right at the back of the boat while we troll...so weird.
For the next 1/2 an hour or so I catch 2 more mackerel while Dave also catches 2 mackerel plus a nice little jack. It's the not size of the ones we got in the river which are a red flesh fish but a smaller white flesh version that Gavino says is nice left whole and pan fried.
All of a sudden, the bite just quits, I mean not even a nibble. We troll a bit more but the bite is definitely off right now.

Gavino says we are going to go out to the deep reefs and just drop off the side for a while - he's the boss!!!
He rigs our lines with plenty of weight and a nice fresh, lively sardine on the end and tells us to slowly let our line out until it hits the bottom and slacks and then immediately reel up a little so that you are just on the bottom. He keeps an eye on me and helps me determine when I hit bottom and tells me to keep it just above bottom now. Then I feel it - I have snagged the reef - I tell Gavino and he says "No Mum, you have a fish reel, reel, reel.....". I will admit that I am not as strong as I once was but I cannot reel this damn pole for the life of me so Gavino helps me out and gets this fish out of the reef, then he gives me the pole, coaches me along and I land the biggest damn snapper I've ever seen.
Once we get the fish on board, he gets me some new bait and we're off to try again. This time, while my bait is going down, something takes it. Again, Gavino - "Mum you have a fish on there, lock the reel and start reeling". Again he gets it started but hands me the rod so I can fight yet another big fish. About half way through I am already spent so I ask Dave if he wants some of this action and he comes over and reels a bit and then just like that, the fish is off. Damn.
We head to another spot on the reefs which is even deeper and try again. This is where Dave catches my dinner, a Red Snapper - this is what I was looking for - a perfectly sized red snapper that I am going to have grilled to perfection and just enjoy!!!

Dave fighting a big fish

Dave also hooks onto what appears to be another big fish but he loses that one too - it seems this one may have brought him into the reef because his whole line is cut. He was trying to be a little careful and not man handle the fish too much because Gavino told him that was why mine got off but I guess he may have gone too far the other way because now Gavino is telling him, you always have to keep the tension on and keep that fish pointing upwards because once he gets sideways or gets to point down, it's all over. Live and learn. I almost feel bad that I had absolutely no technique, game plan or strategy in catching my fish and I just crossed my fingers (well, not literally because that would have made it even harder to reel)!





Overall I'd say this was our most successful (paid) fishing day ever. Back at the dock, Gavino cleans all the fish we caught. We kept the whole red snapper which I will have grilled up for me and we took half of the large snapper to give to the people we are renting from and we let Gavino have the rest - 5 mackerel, 1 jack and half of the big snapper including the head for fish soup!!! Everyone wins today - well, except for my knees - the boat doesn't really have any seat on the back except for the side of the boat and you can't really sit while reeling in some of these fish. that along with the height of the boat being just above my knees and me not having the best balance and the boat moving with the waves - the only way to keep myself stable (and it didn't work all the time) was to try to lock my knees against the boat - of course they only just kept banging on the side of the boat. So today I have nice matching knee bruises - small price to pay for a good day!!!

A Couple of Well Deserved Beach Days

On Saturday Dave and I left the Corozal region of Belize.
We drove the 2 hours back to Belize City to return our rental.
It was a pretty dull ride except for when we ended up behind the huge sugar crop trucks. It can be pretty scary when the road is a bit bumpy and you see pieces of cane falling off of the truck just hoping that none of it hits the rental (we did not get the collision damage waiver...LOL).
Dave usually tries to pass these guys as soon as possible because he knows how nervous I am riding behind them.

We get our rental back in one piece, full of gas. They barely look over the vehicle - Dave must look like a reliably good driver - and then they give us a ride down to the pier so we can catch the water taxi over to Ambergris Caye and in about 45 minutes we are on our way over to the island.
One thing that always make me go Hmmmm when we travel is the lack of personal space that you are given in most other countries especially Latin American ones. On the boat ride over, this young girl maybe 10-12 years old was sitting next to me and as if the boat wasn't cramped enough already, she kept getting up and sitting half in my lap. I wasn't sure if she was just fidgety or of she was really trying to get me to move over so she could keep getting more space??? It couldn't be the latter because she just kept moving down and sitting on me...Oh well - good thing the ride was only about 90 minutes total and I probably smelt anyway...LOL

Finally we make it to the island and are met by our golf cart rental company who helps gather our bags and gets us on our way.
What is it about a golf cart that makes Dave thinks he is a NASCAR Driver? And when will he realize that there are bumps and dips in the road to prevent people like him from going too fast???

Sunday was a lazy day by the house we rented. It is south of San Pedro town and nice and peaceful in this area. A few steps from our house is the beach. The beaches here are a little different in that some have nice sand but there is much sea grass in the area so many times people enter in the water via docks because just off the shore, the water is much clearer.
Where there is sand it is pretty fine and there are tons of really small shells in the sand as well - Dave found a few that were still intact.

 And what beach day wouldn't be complete with some dog trying to make friends with us. This guy just came and plopped down at the end of Dave's chair.

Monday was Secret Beach day which sounds more romantic than it actually is. First of all, the beach is not much of a secret anymore and the ride out there is not the best. Granted it is only 4 miles north, then take a left and go 4 more miles which sounds easy peasy right? Except when doing it in a golf cart along some bumpy roads.
Dave has also been itchin for some fishing and on the road to the beach we find a small spot in the lagoon where he was able to nab a bone fish. Now it's not huge but it is strong and actually gave quite a fight and took off screaming at one point.

Now on to the beach which is a beautiful sandy walk in beach where the water is clear and warn and the place is just awesome. IT's not huge but most people came and went all day while Dave and I must have stayed in the water for about 3 hours straight....really it was that great.
After the beach, a quick stop at the Palapa Bar for some fish and shrimp tacos and we are done for the day.
This is a great way to start this week out!!!

A Tale of Two Ruins

Wednesday and Thursday were our do something days for this week.

Wednesday was fishing and the Cerros ruins. We arranged to go out with Our Island Tours and in true fishing fashion we had to get up early in our to get the fish.
So, we wake at 5:00 am and head down to the dock to meet our captain Carlo and head out. Chetumal Bay actually feeds a couple of rivers, one of them being the New River which is across the bay from where we are. Less than twenty minutes later we are across the bay and we begin trolling in hopes of catching a big tarpon - actually with our record of fishing on vacation we would like to catch anything that swims, well maybe not a crocodile but you know what I mean....
The ride along the river is very nice, there's a cool breeze going, there are a few birds flying around and so far no crocs. About 15 minutes in we encounter the hand bridge. It is a bridge that connects Corozal with a couple of points east including the farthest town of Sartenajo. We have to stop because they are in the middle of transporting a large truck and even though they are moving this bridge by hand, it is not too far and they are quick about it. We have to reel in the lines in order to pass over the cable which is also a bit of a trick because we have to make sure the motor doesn't catch the cable but Carlo has done this before so no problem.
Just after we pass the bridge we let the lines out again and not too long after is when we get the first bite and Dave reels in his jack. Once we have the fish in the boat, Carlo circles back because of course jacks travel in schools and he thinks we have a good chance to catch another. It take a second pass but that is when we got the second bite and my much bigger jack.
We then head into a narrow section of the river and we start to fish for large mouth bass.....that's right, large mouth bass in Belize. Now, it doesn't sound like they get very big but Dave's excited, but like most of our fishing trips, we can't seem to get anything to bite. Granted it is already extremely hot and I can't imagine the bass are moving around too much at this point but Dave does get one thing to come up to his lure and he does get one bite but nothing makes it to the boat.
So we troll our way out and head over to Cerros ruins which is just another 10 minutes over on the same side of the bay but we are heading towards the opening if the bay and the waves are coming in so it is a spine jarring ride over.
The Cerros site is smaller compared to others in the area and I had heard that it is mosquito heaven so we start to put on bug spray but I get bit about 6 times before I even finish getting bug spray on.....I got some sweet blood that those mossies just love!!
Unfortunately the trails are not well marked and the mosquitos are relentless so we see a few of the ruins but then head out a little quickly. We do get to see quite a few Humming Birds on our way out.


Thursday I arranged to go to Lamanai ruins. To get to these ruins we drive about 45 minutes down to Orange Walk Town (yes, I did make us take the long dirt road instead of paved highway part of the way...LOL). From here we meet up with Antonio and we traveled just south of town to an area where we boarded our boat. There were only 5 of us plus our guide. One of the guys happened to be a local doctor of sorts, "the snake doctor" he can cure snake bites among many other health issues and is a very interesting guy.
This trip is well worth it -  on the ride along the river our guide Alberto points out many interesting things - a spider monkey, hawks, and some Jacana birds which are known as the Jesus Christ bird as they seem to walk on water. Last year in Costa Rica we saw the Jesus Christ Lizard and now the bird version.

Dave and I often find plants and tress just as interesting as the animals we see, such as the aptly named fruit of the Horse Balls tree 

And the different ruins in this area are just amazing:

And what better way to highlight the day than with a howler money visit...babies and all!!!

Hitting Our Stride

OK, so after having a little bit of a rough start, it took a couple of days to kind of get into a grove but we're in full vaca mode now.

We started off very laid back the first couple of days. Sunday we hung out around our rental while I tried to regain my strength and sanity.
Monday we drove around looking at a few of the "expat" communities that are being developed around the area. One of those is Consejo Shores which is the farthest out, about 7 miles north of town. It is the most advertised and is a very quiet area which if you like that sort of thing, this is the place for you. It still seems like it has several lots available, some of the houses seemed unfinished and it is supposed to have 2 restaurants and a store but we didn't see those.
As we drove back, we saw there were a few other developments along the road that seemed to be in the very early stages of development, maybe they are actually stalled developments??

Funny story time - I have a poor sense of direction (almost non-existent), and there is not a ton of signage here in Belize for street signs. I have a map but it's not that detailed and I found a nice little free app for my phone called Here - you can download whatever country maps you need (they have a ton) and you can use it with the true GPS signal in your phone without having to have a data connection.
So, armed with my average map and my phone app we head out to find Consejo Shores which is not on the main road (or so I thought). We head north and finally I say to Dave - OK, Take this right - we head onto a dirt road and it looks like we are heading in the right direction, we drive through miles of sugar cane fields, some of which are being burned, others that are being harvested and every once in a while we see a large truck overfilled with the harvested cane, hoping it will not fall over onto us.
We keep driving along and I say to Dave - "Well, I see why not many people chose to live up here" because even though it is listed at 7 miles outside of town, it takes a lot to get up this way on this windy dirt road.
Just then we come to a T in the road and realize (because there are cars coming from the right) that this road, which is somewhat paved, leads right back to Corozal!!!
Good thing Dave and I like to take the road less traveled...LOL

On Tuesday we arrange our fishing and trip to the Cerros ruins with Our Island Tours for Wednesday and then we hang out down by the water.
A few things to note about the area, there are no real sand beaches here. The area is located on the Chetumal Bay and there are a couple of places along the banks to get into the water to swim but most of the area is surrounded by a rock wall which also has rock and coral below so you wouldn't jump off from there either.
But we hang out a bit here and then have lunch at a good place right on the water.

Dave has "made friends" with Nathaniel who does maintenance around the property we are renting and he arranges to go fishing with him just off the docks and such down the street. So they head out about 4:15 and I stay back at our rental. It's nice to have a little time to myself and I read a little, watch a little TV and then I look out the window and realize it is dark out, Dave's not home. I check the time and it's only 7:00 so I tell myself...no problem, it's early. But then I also tell myself, it's dark, he's alone, we are in another country....etc.
Don't get me wrong, I feel completely safe here and I would not have let him go (or go alone) if I felt anything else, but I am a little bit of an anxious person and I can easily get in my own head so I try to think about other things and watch the game on (hoping Lebron loses) and next I look, it's 8:00. Now I am wondering what time is it that I should panic but I keep my cool...finally about 8:30ish he comes home. Nathaniel is with him and they show the fish that they've caught (Nate caught them all) and Nate has one of his sons with him as well. We talk for a little bit about how they caught them and such and then they head home.
Dave had a good time in learning how they do things here - they go down to the little brooks and use a small net to catch some sardines, then they take those and go down to the bay using a hand line trying to catch fish.
Nate also has a nice throw net that he used to catch some of the fish they brought home too.
I don't really tell Dave about my anxieties but I mention that I did have a couple of thoughts that I just pushed aside. I am glad that he had a good time and got to see how the locals do it.
In all, a couple of good days to ease into things - good thing we have 2 weeks or we would have spent half our vaca getting into vaca mode!!!

Off To A Rough Start

It's now Sunday just before noon in Belize and the first 18-20 hours of our "vacation" time have been a bit less than pleasant (at least for me).

I'm somewhat of a planner and I have been so crazy busy at work that I haven't had time to plan much about this vacation except where we are staying and how we are getting there. Now, I'm not the type that plans our every second but I try to familiarize myself with where we are headed so that I know what options we have for things to do and I always try to figure out if we can fit in any fishing for Dave, but as I've said, I've not done any of that for this vacation.
No problem really, we will just wing it until that moment when Dave will say to me, "So, what are we going to do today" and I will respond with "I don't know".

So, because I am planner and I've not planned anything for this trip, I have a bit of anxiety before we get going. I have this feeling that I've not studied for a really important test tomorrow.

It's Friday morning, we drop Roxie off at the kennel, go back home and finish packing and cleaning (because you know I don't want some thief to see I have a dirty house??).
As I said, I already have a little anxiety and about half way to our hotel for Friday night I get a call from the kennel, "Roxie has been getting sick and they are a little worried about her". Great thanks, now I am as well.
What do we do, how bad is it, we are horrible people if we go on vacation and our dog is sick.
I speak with the kennel people and since our vet is right next door to them and they have the authority to bring her there, they will try to arrange that.

Now I am really feeling anxious.

The kennel calls back a little later and they've arranged to bring her to the vet but they're not sure if the vet will be able to see her tonight. So we still don't know much and still don't know what we should do about it.
When we get to the hotel, Dave calls the vet and they confirm that the doctor will be in to see her and they will call us back after that.

Now I am sick to my stomach, anxiety about the trip, worry about my baby girl and just an overall bad feeling that I can't seem to shake and finally the waterfall of tears.

Dave is a great guy, he just lets me get it all out without trying to stress me out about making any more decisions and then the vet calls.
She thinks that Roxie will be OK, she has given her IV's and they will keep her overnight and see what happens. Dave explains that we are due to fly out tomorrow morning early and she says that she'll call once she's seen her and leave a VM if necessary.

So now Dave and I try to get bed early Friday night because again - the flight is at 5:00 am and we need to wake up at 2:30 to check our bags and get through security.
It is a restless sleep for both of us but probably more so for me - it takes everything I have to think of things other than the things that are on my mind.

Overall our check-in, and security process is smooth and we board our first flight to Miami and head out. Once in Miami we check and there's no word yet from the vet but it is still early.
So, we board our flight to Belize and arrive at what is 10:00 (central no DST). Our phones only work via wi-fi but there is none at the airport or our car rental place so we pick up our car and stick to our plan which is to head out to the Belize Zoo.
The zoo is nice, a little overpriced but if we wanted, we could have stayed there longer but we are also hot and tired and so we head out to Corozal which is about 2 1/2 hours away.
We get to our rental and the manager is telling us things and we are like yeah, yeah, Dave only wants to get connected to check his voice mail and I only want to pass out.
Well, Dave does get his VM and the vet said that Roxie is doing better and they are going to keep her one more night to make sure she is really turning around and then they'll bring her back to the kennel.
Now we have to go out and find groceries and a place to eat and I'm so tired now that I'm not in the mood for either so we drive around a bit and every place that Dave points out I just shrug and say sure, whatever.
Finally we stop, get our groceries, bring them back to the cottage and then go get some food.
The food was good although I ate very little because almost as soon as I started eating, I was full....Dave really enjoyed his chicken with rice and beans though so that's good.
We head back to the cottage, shower off the past 24 hours of sweat and tears and head to bed early to catch up on some sleep.

This morning things look a little brighter, Dave made our usual vaca breakfast (yummy) and the vet called and said that Roxie is doing much better so they will bring her back to the kennel today.

So, while for me this was the roughest start I've ever had to a vacation, things are better today and now we will begin our adventures albeit maybe a day late.

Here We Go Again

So, Dave and I are off again.......

In our quest to find a nice laid back affordable place to retire early, we are now heading to see what Belize may have to offer.
As some may know, we have gone to Costa Rica twice, each time traveling to different areas to try to see if there was one that would fit us best. There is much to like about CR and it is not totally off the list but if we will be retiring in the next few years we are interested in a nice Caribbean beach vibe and there is not as much of that in CR.

Next on the list then is Belize. This country hasn't been high on my list because the country is a little more expensive for the most desired areas to live: Placencia, Caye Caulker and Ambergris Caye and the countries health care is a bit behind other countries in Central America. On the flip side, it is English speaking, it is close to Mexico which has excellent health care and even though many areas are becoming more traveled, it seems like there are still plenty of times in which the visitors are fewer and things seem more slower paced.
So, we'll be spending our time in 2 different areas. The first will be in the farthest north area in Corozal which is on the bay of Chetumal and just minutes to the Mexican border. It is still a very laid back less developed area so it will be a good test for us to see if we can handle that type of environment.
Our next stop will take us to Ambergris Caye which is the busier of the northern cayes and will give us a good idea of what our real costs could be if we chose to live on an island.

Aside from all this let's find a place to live stuff, it is still vacation so we hope to see a few things, do a few things and take a few pictures along the way.

In typical style (although not entirely my fault - thanks American Airlines) - our flight out is at 5:00AM Saturday morning - Dave is not impressed!!!

Stayed tuned and see what exciting (or maybe not-so exciting) adventures that Dave and I might stumble into.