FRIDAY...

On Friday, we packed up and moved out of the hellishly uncomfortable... ahem, I mean, um... most wonderful condo ever (it was the site of our engagement, after all!). We dropped our bags at the Seaside Cabanas, the bright-yellow hotel just on the other side of the main pier from the condo. They had luckily had a cancellation and had just the one night available in cabana #4. After breakfast and some wandering around, we parked ourselves in the Seaside Cabanas bar, waiting for our room. The bartender was a friendly woman who was chatting with a young English woman (20s) and a large Hawaiian man. The man turned out to be from Phoenix, sort of. He was the groundskeeper (or whatever that's called) at the super-luxurious golf resort on a neighboring caye. We talked to him about golf, the special salt-tolerant grass needed in tropical climes, and so on. The English woman had been on the caye for a couple of months, and was leaving soon. She was hoping to come back semi-permanently, but I think her tourist visa was expiring. The wait was long and hot, and I was getting tired of drinking Belikins, the local beer. Eventually, we checked in and got to go to our cabana. It was so nice, and the bed was GREAT. I tell you, that condo bed was the WORST.

The cabana had a private roof deck with a hammock and some lounge chairs. Although we didn't use the swimming pool (the only one on the island), we did take advantage of the deck. In the afternoon, we went up to the split and swam. We met up with Molly and Sally and brought them back to enjoy some take out Chinese on our deck for dinner. That evening, we went on a sunset kayak. We had to ask at a couple of different places to find two double kayaks that we could take out that late, but it all worked out. The sunset ended up being pretty undramatic, but it was nice being out on the water and drifting around with my honey.

SATURDAY... APRIL 1...

Nothing very foolish happened that day. We had to catch the boat to the mainland around 12:30 or 1, so we decided to spend the morning exploring the island via bike. They were cheap -- I think it was $10 for two bikes for an hour. We rode all the way down to the bottom tip, and around back up the other side around the tiny airstrip. Parts of the island were pretty dry and empty. We ended up back at the top, near the split, where we found Sally and Molly soaking up the sun. We dipped our sweaty legs in, but didn't want to get too sticky, since we anticipated being on a plane that afternoon... little did we know!

So, the ferry ride... not too exciting... We took a cab from the water taxi terminal to the airport. A bit cramped. We get to the airport, there's a big line. Um, bad news. The flight the day before had been cancelled due to some kind of pilot's union strike or threat of a strike, and everyone from that flight had priority over us (we were flying standby). Not good. Our buddy Mike from Ohio was there with his son, Delta had put them up at the casino the night before because of the cancelled flight. No such luck would there be for us. James and I decided that we should let the girls go if it came down to it, as they were out of money and we could afford to stay another night. And guess what -- it did come down to that, luckily for the girls but not so happy for us. They got the last two seats on the flight. We headed back out into the humid afternoon to figure out what to do with our extra day in paradise.

We talked to a couple of different car companies and ended up with a two-seater without air. It was cheaper than a taxi both ways into Belize City and back. We called a couple of hotels, and decided to check out one or two before settling. The first one was kinda dingy, seemed empty (it was large), and not very welcoming. We walked around the block and checked out the White House (I think that was what it was called...?), which I loved. It was rather luxurious, and a bit pricy, but I was feeling like we needed to stay someplace nice to compensate for the bummer of the missed flight. That night we went to the casino (best forgotten, what a waste of time & money) and had a few drinks in the hotel bar, in the courtyard downstairs. The something-Mermaid was the name of the restaurant/bar. Smoking? No, that can't be it. Sultry? Nah... We had breakfast there the next morning as well.

The flight on Sunday went fine, first class (yeay!), but the flights to SF Sunday night from Atlanta were full, so we ended up back at James' mom's place for the (short) night. We got on the first flight Monday morning, and were home by early afternoon.

Well, that's about it. I'll try to think if I have anything else to add...

I'm starting a wedding blog, to write about the wedding plans, etc. Check it out.

Scuba Man

THURSDAY, MARCH 30 --

Wow, it's been almost a month now since the trip, thus the engagement. I'm feeling pretty comfortably engaged now, and not stressing about wedding planning, as I was beginning to in week two. I think the stress came from the realization of all of the decisions I/we would have to make. Setting the date at vaguely a year from now has given us a comfort zone, and I have allowed myself to relax and decide things as they come, and not set arbitrary deadlines just yet. I bought a book called "The Conscious Bride," which is written by a therapist, and discusses the emotions and upheaval that most women go through when they are planning a wedding. It turns out that the "bridezilla" phenomenon is not just about the event planning, it stems from a deeper psychological place -- the expectations of family and society that everything has to be perfect, when what is really going on is a kind of death of your single self and birth of your new, married self. So the psychological transition that is going on is pretty big, and at the same time you are the one responsible for making the ceremony and party perfect, instead of your community doing it for your benefit. Really, it's kind of a messed up way of going about it, now isn't it? Well, I believe that this event will be a collaboration between James and myself, and I am not exactly the typical bride, expecting to be "a princess" on "my day." It'll be fun, it'll be stressful, it'll be memorable. That's all I can ask.

OK, anyway, on to Thursday of Belize. After a leisurely breakfast, James and I walked around the island looking for a better place to stay. The uncomfortable bed was really getting to us, and we had both slept badly the night before. We wandered around a bit, stopping in at the lazy iguana b&b, which was pretty nice, and had a room for Friday night. It was a bit out of the way, so we told the owner that we would keep looking and give her a call if we wanted to take it. We looked at a couple of other places south of the main pier, but they were all full. As we were looking, we saw a family we had seen in San Ignacio (at breakfast at Hannah's) -- a white couple with an Asian baby. They were biking around looking for a place to stay as well. Finally, we decided to try the Seaside Cabanas, although we thought there was no way that there would be a room there, as it was the nicest place on the island, and the only place with a pool. Our luck was good, though -- they had had a cancellation for Friday night. So we took it. It was around $115 for a cabana, which seemed like a good deal.

Oh, also as we were walking around the island, we stopped in at a dive shop and asked about an intro scuba / resort course for James. They were nice, signed him up and told him to come back around 1 pm. So that was that.

We had a couple hours to kill, now that the hotel and scuba had been sorted, so we decided to hammock. The hammock on our deck was big enough for two, so we brought out a pillow and got comfy. We listened to my iPod together with the headphone splitter James had brought, and just enjoyed the hammock, the breeze, the view... Very nice.

Lunch....?

So, on to the scuba. I had decided that I wanted to go with, I could do the second dive with James, since his course was basically one test dive, where he'd go over the skills and get used to everything, then one fun dive. While he was doing the first dive I could snorkel, and I'd be there to take pictures and stuff. So the two of us got equipped and ready to go. Our scuba guy was really nice, had a creole-Belizean accent so was a little hard to understand at times. I can't remember his name... Oh well. James' course cost $90 and my dive (with equiptment) was $40. Not bad, eh?

We loaded all of our stuff into a long motor boat -- pretty big for what it was, just an open boat. We headed East and a little South, to the reef. Instructor guy (I'll call him ig) had James throw the anchor out, then moved to the front half of the boat to go over what they'd be doing in the water. I sat in the back and took a couple of pix. When James was ready to go, ig had him jump in (actually fall in backwards), then swim a couple of laps around the boat, getting used to breathing through the scuba regulator. I thought that was a good was to go -- when I first tried scuba in Tahiti, they just had us go straight under, straight down, even though we were just kneeling in shallow water. That freaked me out, and I had to quit, and try again the next day. The next day I conquered my fear, but it was still pretty freaky. Getting used to breathing while swimming around like you're snorkeling makes a lot of sense. Then ig jumped in, and they were off. I put on my wetsuit and did the backwards fall into the water as well -- it was good that I got to practice that without all the scuba gear, as I was a little nervous about getting in that way. Most of my previous dives had been off big boats, where we did the "giant step" method off the back.

Snorkelling was nice, if a bit boring. I got back to the boat before they guys came up, and I couldn't get back in at first. Finally I was able to pop up out of the water enough to get my leg over and pull myself in. When James came up, I asked him how it was -- and he was excited. It had gone well, he had done all the skills and his ears had been fine, though they had only gone down about 15 or 20 feet. After they got in the boat, we motored over to another area and dropped anchor again. I put my gear together, and ig changed tanks on their gear. And then we were off.

It was really cool diving with James. Ig was very mellow and didn't really seem to be leading us, so we just started going wherever we felt like. We were about 30 feet down, there was lots of coral and stuff to look at. We saw a couple of conch and a sea sponge, and generally just tooled around. About halfway into the dive, ig started leading us more, which was good -- we were totally turned around. When we finally came up, James and I had no idea where the boat was, the waves were big enough that you could only see it about 1/3 of the time.

So, after that adventure, I didn't really feel like I needed to do another day of diving on our last full day on the island. We decided we would be mellow instead. I think we went back to the suite and took a nap... I can't remember where we had dinner that night. Hmm, details... starting... to fade....

I do remember that we went back to the I&I that night. Our Canadian boys were there, along with Mike from Ohio. We had a good time, but decided to call it a night around midnight. James was feeling a little anxious about leaving the girls, but figured they could handle themselves at this point, I believe. Oh, wait -- James walked me home, then went out again to chaperone. I think they ended up at the sand-floored bar with a bunch of sketchy characters, so James didn't stay that long in the end, but I was asleep when he came in.

Wow! It's official!

THE PROPOSAL --

So, we get to the roof deck -- it's on the third floor, our suite is on the second -- and, as I expected, the sunset is pretty much over. It's still early twilight, and we enjoy the view of the island, the water and the clouds. James turns to me and looks down at me with a smile. I am not thinking that this is "the moment," just another wonderful moment in a trip filled with many romantic, sweet moments. So when I notice that his breath is a little stinky, I ask him if he brushed his teeth today.

"Yes," he replies, "but I'll brush them again."

... pause ...

He smiles down at me. "I want to marry you."

I gasp. I laugh and hug him. "I want to marry you, too! You know that." Ohmigod I can't believe I just told him his breath stinks. What a moment!

"Marnie, will you marry me?"

"Yes, yes, yes, of course!" Etc etc -- many kisses and giggles and a blur of emotions. I couldn't stop smiling and clinging to him. I was so, so happy -- even though it was understood, even though it was expected, I felt like the luckiest, happiest woman in the world. Just to hear the words and to know for sure that we will be together.... It's indescribable.

So, after basking in love on the roof deck for a while, we went downstairs. I suggested having a beer (we had a couple in the mini fridge). We were both a little shell-shocked and kinda feeling "now what?" Eventually we headed out to meet Molly and Sally. They were at Herbal Tribe (restaurant/bar) munching on some chips & salsa. James told them "she said yes," because of course they knew that he was going to be proposing.

Quick aside -- he had told my parents when we were skiing in February -- that story made me tear up a bit. He hadn't been able to get them alone all weekend, so on Monday at lunch he grabbed a chance while I went to the bathroom. As soon as I left, my dad was about to get up and go to the men's room, but James asked him to sit. He told them, "I want to marry your daughter." One of them (Dad?) said "welcome to the family." Aww, so sweet. Then he asked (can you believe it) when the date was. Um, hello? Usually the bride has some say in that? James also told Denise over email, he wanted her to get my opinion(s) on rings. He had done all this research on diamonds, talking to jewelers and his family, learning all about clarity, cut, etc. Then, when we were in Portland (or maybe before), Denise asked me about it and I said I didn't want a diamond -- they're evil, deBeers is evil, the gold industry (it turns out) is horribly destructive to the earth... So when he found this out, he decided that he would make me a temporary ring while we were in Belize and we would find something when we got back home. He brought a candle and a needle and string to make the ring with, and he was going to find some native plants -- grasses, flowers, etc -- to make the ring with. Well, that plan didn't work out so well, so finally he gave up and decided to buy a ring. While I thought he was out getting the laundry taken care of, he was running around from store to store looking for a ring.

So, Molly and Sally were very excited and happy for us. I remember Molly saying, "Oh, look at you, Marnie, you're so happy!" And Sally saying in that crazy voice "Happy!" a couple times. It turned out that "Happy!" was a quote from Zoolander -- when the Will Farrell character is brainwashing Zoolander... so when I realized that, the "Happy!" thing made more sense. I thought it was just Sally being weird. Sally and Molly are the queens of movie quotes -- esp from "Princess Bride." Many PB references were made that week. And Molly Shannon SNL skits...

We ate dinner -- burrito for me -- and decided that we were too exhausted to go out that night. So we all turned in early, going to bed around 9.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29th --

We had decided the day before to go on an all-day snorkel trip to the Hol Chan Marine Reserve with Ragamuffin Tours, even though James was worried that he would be seasick on a sailboat. He is fine on motor boats and catamarans, but sailboats and large, slow ferries are no good. The australian lady at Ragamuffin assured him that no one ever got sick on their boats, since all the sailing was inside the reef and very calm, and she had dramamine just in case. There was also some worry about rain that day, but it seemed fairly nice when we got up, so all systems were go. James went down to the ragamuffin office to confirm while I showered or slept in or something -- can't remember.

After we packed up all our stuff, we went to grab some breakfast. Where did we eat that morning? Uh oh, I'm starting to forget these little details -- which is why I started this diary. Anyway, no big deal. Oh, right, I went to find some breakfast while James was off confirming the trip, and I found the bakery. I picked up some cinamon rolls and banana bread at the bakery. After we met up, we stopped at the Herbal Tribe for coffee and a little extra snack. James got a bagel and cream cheese and a smoothie, I just wanted coffee. We never did end up getting the coffee, though, 'cause the machine was acting up or something. The service was terrible -- James tried to cancel the bagel, but the waitress didn't understand English, apparently, and brought it anyway. Then the whole coffee thing... very frustrating.

After breakfast, we went over to the Ragamuffin hut to check in. We ended up waiting on the beach there for around a half hour, which felt like forever. I laid down in the sand, James stood in the knee-deep water a few feet off shore watching the birds. There were frigate birds, pelicans and other seabirds, and they were attracted to a nearby pier where fishermen were gutting some fish. Molly and Sally chatted with the two ladies we had met on the way to Tikal, who were also on our snorkel trip. I went by and chatted for a minute as well -- the women had travelled to Caye Caulker from San Ignacio the day before, like we had, but had made a side-trip to the Thousand Foot Falls -- they said it was a really hellish day. I told them that I had read on a trip report about the trip to the falls, and that it was a really awful, long road with not a lot of payoff at the end. They said that was it exactly, and said they wished they had talked to me before they left. Ah well -- my research paid off for us, haha!

So, finally we loaded on the sailboat and set off. I was sitting hear the back, James was on the side of the boat. I was worried for him, hoping the dramamine would work. The wind was blowing fairly well, so it seemed like we'd make good time. It ended up taking about an hour, though, to get to the first snorkel site, and sailing got a bit boring after a while. James said afterwards that he would've preferred taking a motorboat and just getting there, but I thought it was nice that we weren't expending fossil fuels and polluting the reef...

We visited three sites -- the first was just coral and fish, it was outside the marine reserve so we were on our own. I went off by myself most of the time. The second site was "shark and ray alley," we saw a couple rays and nurse sharks, but also big schools of fish, which was neat. The third location was the main Hol Chan area, there were a bunch of boats there. It is a break in the reef where the channel is about 30 or 60 feet deep -- I forget. The snorkeling there was great. Lunch was pretty mediocre and small -- James and the girls had a choice of fish or chicken on a hamburger bun, I had a slice of American cheese with an iceberg lettuce salad and some macaroni salad. I put the iceberg salad on my sandwich, didn't touch the macaroni. James was starving that night, his sandwich was pretty small. The trip back seemed slower than the trip out - I think it was a little less windy. The guides made us some rum punch with fresh fruit and conch ceviche - but they made me a little vegetarian portion, as well, which seemed a lot like salsa, esp. since it's served with chips. What's the difference between ceviche and salsa, anyway? I couldn't eat much -- it was pretty spicy.

We were all exhausted, so we all went back to our rooms. Sally came by after a little bit and knocked on our door -- Molly had falled asleep but she wasn't tired. I answered the door in my nightgown, which was a little embarrasing, and we made plans to meet up for dinner at the Herbal Tribe later on. I got in bed to take a nap, and James went to run some kind of errand, I forget. Oh, yeah -- he took the laundry to the cleaner. It took a little while, and I asked him what was up, and he made up some story which turned out to be a lie. He was, in fact, out buying me a ring.

We slept for about a half hour, or I did, anyway. James was exhausted but I think he might've been too anxious/excited to sleep. When the alarm went off he jumped out of bed pretty quickly and we got dressed. He wondered aloud whether there was any sunset left to see, and I said I didn't think there was, as the sunset was around 6:10 and it was now 6:30. He went out to the roof deck anyway to check, leaving the door open. So I followed.

More later...

TUESDAY NIGHT AT THE EYE-N-EYE --

OK, talking about the trip last night with Heather and Jaime has inspired me to continue. Onward!

So, the I&I -- that's a reggae/rasta term, if you don't know -- it apparently means me and mine. It was off the main strip, which is why we didn't find it on our first tour around the island -- you have to walk all the way to the southern end of the "main street" then turn right, it's about a "block" down. It's a three story structure, with the bar on the second floor and a roof deck on the third. Lots of buildings in Belize are built on stilts, to protect the main structure from flooding and what-not during hurricanes. I don't know what was on the first floor of the building -- maybe it was where the owners lived? Anyway, out back there was also an elevated deck at approximately the height of the second floor, and a stairway down to ground-level where there were toilets and more hang-out area. Throughout the bar/club there were swings -- mostly simple wood planks and rope. There was a hammock and a hammock chair on the roof deck, as well.

I keep switching between "is" and "was." My experience of the place is past-tense, but the place still exists... so which is correct? Anyway, sorry for the verb tense messiness.

So, arriving at the I&I around 9 or 10 on Tuesday night, there were not many people there. The bar was lit by black light, which made it a little uncomfortable, so we headed straight for the roof. There were only two or three people up there. We starting talking to Mike, from Ohio. Mike seemed young, but at one point mentioned that he was travelling with his 16-year-old son. We found out later that he was 36, and had adopted his wife's infant son when they got married way-back-when. He was a cool guy, but a total pothead. He got into a deep philosophical discussion with James at one point which actually wasn't all that deep -- kinda funny.

I was getting sleepy and not sure about the scene, but I powered through my sleepiness, determined not to be a wet blanket on the evening. When some nice Canadian boys came over and made our acquaintance, my sociability was renewed. A girl from Portland, Lane, also came up around the same time, and we all chatted and joked and flirted while James was off talking with Mike and a local guy whose name was Rambo, I think? The Canadians were three brothers, the oldest of whom was 26 and was taking his two collegiate bros on a trip to broaden their horizons. He definitely seemed the smartest of the three, but the middle brother, we found out on Thursday night, was funny and an Arrested Development fan, and if he hadn't been so wasted might've had a chance with Molly. Ah well. I'm getting ahead of myself.

Around midnight at the old I&I they close the roof deck, to appease the neighbors I am sure. It was a fairly raucous scene at that point, and right in the middle of a bunch of houses, so I'm sure the neighbors hear it every night. We headed downstairs early to snag a good location in the back yard. We bypassed the deck and congregated at ground level. Mike and I were sitting on swings that were attached to the deck when the "near-death incident," according to James, occurred. I didn't think it was quite so serious, but I was a bit wasted when it happened. When the crowd from upstairs finally made their way down, most of them gathered on the deck. Their combined weight, likely aided by my swinging, caused the deck to fall by about six inches to a foot in a sudden crack. The four of us who were below -- me, James, Mike and Rambo -- jumped out from under, but the safety or whatever had halted the collapse. The crowd above also quickly moved off the deck, joining us on ground level. A little later on James mused that someone should talk to the owner about the deck, and Rambo told us he was related to the owner, and that he was aware of the issue.

Out back we were chatting with Rambo and his friend, a very hefty black man who was telling us how much he liked Sally. We agreed that she was a very sweet girl, and very genuine. He seemed rather in love with her. Finally someone decided it was time to go -- perhaps me -- and we headed out. Just outside the bar was the cutest puppy -- I absolutely loved it. It was a little black and white dog, maybe related to that dog on Frazier -- what're those called? James said he thought he was an "old soul" -- a very wise little dog. I picked him up and carried him down the street to show Molly and Sally, and James got a couple of pix. We all laughed and were joking around with the puppy, then I set him down and he trotted back to the I&I to wait for his master. We continued on and were yelled at by a woman who sounded American, she called us "lushes." That was kinda funny. And that was our first night on Caye Caulker.

WRITERS BLOCK --

I got a good start on this, but now I'm blocked or something. Here's a pic from our night at the I&I, maybe this'll inspire me to tell all about that fateful night...



Aww, what a cute puppy, eh?

Getting off the water taxi at Caye Caulker

TUESDAY - travel day --

Tuesday morning, James and I had breakfast at Hannah's. Molly and Sally were sleeping in again. At Hannah's I discovered the Belizean specialty, which I am momentarily blanking on the name of, but that is similar to sopapillas or Indian Fry Bread. Fryjacks, that's it! They came with James' egg breakfast, along with some black beans which I don't think he touched. I don't think he ate very much breakfast that morning. I had yogurt, granola and fruit, which included some funky fruit I couldn't identify as well as some jicima.

After breakfast, we hit the road. It was about a two hour drive back to Belize City, which after all the driving the day before seemed like nothing. We turned in the rental car at the other office closer to town, and a guy from the rental car agency dropped us off at the Caye Caulker water taxi station. We got to the station around 12:30 and I found out the next boat was at 1:30. So after buying our tix, we got a locker for our bags and walked a couple of blocks to find some lunch at a local place listed in the Rough Guide. A local guy started walking alongside James on the way there, talking to him. I hung back and didn't hear their conversation, but in the end he ended up giving the guy a couple of bucks. Anyway, the lunch place was a very basic diner-y type of place, the menu was written on a chalkboard and consisted of various meats, all served with rice and beans. I got a plate of r&b with an iceberg lettuce salad.

Back at the taxi station, we had a little while to wait til the 1:30 boat. The station had gotten quite crowded. I paced around a bit, waiting. Finally they started loading a boat for Amgergris Caye, and most of the people started clearing out. Our boat was next. We loaded into the boat and set off. I moved seats to get out of the sun and sat next to a little toddler girl and her mom. She was a little cutie. Sally found a little Narnia toy in her bag and we played with the little girl a little bit.

The trip to Caye Caulker took about 45 minutes. When we got to the island, we headed north along the beach. Someone had recommended the Rainbow, which looked basically like a motel, so James and I decided to keep going while M & S checked it out. We checked the Toucan, which looked really cool, but it was booked. Next we walked around the back side of the island and checked another place, but it looked like a best western -- not enough character -- so we didn't bother asking if they had vacancies. As we were leaving that property, an English couple came up to us, asking if we were looking for a place to stay. Well, it was pretty obvious -- we had our backpacks on our backs. They said that their innkeeper had sent them after us, which was a relief -- I was confused at first why two sunburnt tourists would go to such trouble to help us find a place. We were skeptical and wanted to see what had happened to M & S, so we headed back towards the Rainbow. They weren't there -- there hadn't been any vacancy there, so we were still on our own, looking for a place. I was getting frustrated walking around in the heat with our bags, so we flagged down a golf cart taxi. The guy was really nice, saying he'd drive us around until we found a place we liked for only $5 US. Not bad.

The first place we checked out had a room/cabana, but it was not as nice as our place in SI, with esp. icky wood panelling. So we went to the Auxillou Suites, which was right next to the dock where we had arrived. They had a suite, which was spacious and looked nice, so we took it. It had AC as well as ceiling fans, a kitchenette, small table, a futon and two chairs in the living room area, and a TV with cable. Very deluxe compared to the Tropicool. But it turned out, we discovered that night, that all was not quite as fancy as it seemed. The bed was very, very hard, and made noises every time you shifted your weight. We woke frequently during the night due to the noise and discomfort.

Once we were settled in, we set off to find out what had happened to M & S. Luckily we ran into them fairly soon on the "main street" of the island. They were already lying out in the sun near their lodge. They were staying at the Blue Wave guesthouse, right next to the Ragamuffin Tours hut. M & S had already looked into taking a snorkel trip the next day with Ragamuffin, which had also been recommended by a Belizean in San Ignacio. James wasn't sure about the whole sailing thing, as he has had seasickness on sailboats in the past, but we agreed to give it a try.

James and I had dinner at Rasta Pasta, on the beach near our place. It would've been perfect, except for the wind -- it kicked up around sunset and cooled our food off way too quickly. We found the girls later on on the roof deck of a restaurant/bar near their place. It was pretty empty, I think there was one other couple eating up there. There was a cute kitty that made friends with us, however -- it seemed to take a liking to James especially, climbing up into his lap and curling up there -- so cute!

After a couple of drinks, we set off to explore the nightlife on CC. We headed to "the split," which is basically the end of the populated part of the island. The bar there, the Lazy Lizard, was quiet, so we turned around and headed the other way. I think we made it all the way to the other end of the main street, to a place called Tropical Paradise. We got a couple of beers from the bar there and started walking back towards our hotel -- things were pretty dead, nightlife-wise. We showed M & S our place, then headed back out, and as we passed Rasta Pasta some guys called out, "Are you going to the I & I later?" I made note of this, as it sounded like it might be the place we were looking for. We went to another bar, the Herbal Tribe (I have no idea what that means, it might've had something to do with pot or it might've had something to do with herbal tea, which was on their menu - it was a strange little place). After a drink there, we asked the waiter where the nightlife was. He mentioned the I & I, so we asked him how to get there.

Well, that's it for tonight. I'll have to continue with Tuesday night next time.

MONDAY, THE NEW FRIDAY --

Monday night back in San Ignacio town. We were really enjoying the town at this point, grooving on the nice folks and cheap beers. After cleaning up, we met up at Hannah's for dinner. This, I believe, is where we discovered the "panty ripper," the drink that would become our best friend for the rest of the trip. We won't go into the issues involved when a drink becomes your best friend... but I think its probably not good. Anyway, a panty ripper, for non-bartender-types out there, is coconut rum and pineapple juice. Very sweet and yummy. Hannah's was listed in the guidebook (the book I was using, by the way, was the Rough Guide, after having depended on the Moon Guide for planning and realizing that it (moon) sucked) as basically the best restaurant in Belize. Well, we weren't so sure we agreed with that, but it was pretty good. Molly, Sally and I all got vegetarian Indian entrees and split them three ways. There was a coconut curry that wasn't very coconutty and something like chana masala and something vaguely paneer-like (fresh spinach, not all creamed up). So the food was more Indian-esque than actual Indian. James had something with chicken, I think.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we ran into the birdman at the border. Eric, Everild's brother, that is. Once we had passed through the border, the cute American horse guide from Barton Creek and Eric were waiting on the other side. After chatting with the American (Aaron, I think his name was), Eric approached us. Apparently he needed a ride back to town, so he squeezed in with Molly and Sally in the backseat. I asked what he was doing at the border, and he replied "There's not much to do at the border." Which we found hilarious -- he didn't exactly answer the question, now, did he? So he had been drinking at the border (with friends, I suppose) since around 2 in the afternoon. He was very boisterous on the ride back to SI, and kept us very entertained. When we got back to town, though, we wanted to clean up, so we told him we'd see him at Hannah's later. When we didn't see him around before dinner, James started to worry that he'd be mad. Eric seemed a little possessive of us, his American friends.

We did end up seeing him after dinner when we were hanging out at Chingo's or Eva's, though. Eric was drinking water and trying to sober up, I believe, and Sally made fun of him for it. We managed to hook up with a couple of other locals and a couple of Canadians sitting outside of Eva's and drinking Belikins. One of the locals was either crazy, drunk, or both, and was very funny. Sally and Molly kept taking pictures of him and the other guys -- I thought to myself that digital cameras are interesting social tools. Taking pictures with and of the Belizians and then showing them around was frequently a major part of our interactions with them. This was probably aided by the many beers that were being consumed -- things seemed much more amusing with the help of many beers.

Someone suggested moving on to the Kokopelli, a bar upstairs from the Natural Foods store. That's right, SI had a natural foods store AND a vegan restaurant. I never made it to either, unfortunately. But I'm a pretty un-militant vegetarian, so I didn't really feel the need to check them out on the trip. Anyway, the Kokopelli was the place, James said, that we had been looking for the previous couple nights. It was happening. There were tons of people playing darts, pool, and just hanging out. James played darts with a Canadian and James (Jaime?), aka "smiles for miles." He was a really sweet, nice guy. He introduced us to his friend Eduardo, who is an artist. He was also nice, and was the only local to buy us beer. He bought two rounds. Eric, meanwhile, was pouting -- he warned us about five times that he was leaving, hoping for us to convince him to stay, I suppose. When the Kokopelli started shutting down, Eduardo and James (smiles for miles) tried to convince M&S to go to the casino with them. James and I were ready to head in, but he trusted the guys to take care of the girls -- they were good guys. M&S decided to turn in as well, however.

PHOTOS

1. Ciba Tree
2. James next to Temple II
3. View from Temple IV

MONDAY, MARCH 27 - TIKAL --

We woke up early-ish on Monday so we could get on the road to Tikal at a reasonable hour. By the time we had dressed and were ready to go, Molly and Sally were still asleep. We knocked on their door and roused them, then headed off to find supplies for the road. We had borrowed a cooler from the rental car agency, so we were looking for fruit, drinks, etc. to put in it. We walked away from the center of town towards the "supermarket" listed in the guidebook. There were maybe around ten people waiting outside, some of them dressed in school uniforms... It seemed the store wasn't open yet. I think it was around 8 am, James says maybe it was 7:30. Just as we were about to turn around, giving up hope on the store, it opened. So we continued on and went into the store. It was more like a mini-mart than a supermarket, with very little in the way of produce, so we picked up some beers, juice and yogurt there. Then James had to make a pitstop (I thought he had to take a dump, but it turned out to be one of several unsuccessful ring-making attempts. That's right -- he was trying to MAKE me an engagement ring. But more on that later). So I continued the shopping, stopping at another minimart for ice and at a roadside stand in the center of town for fruit. The fruit was super yummy -- fresh pineapple, bananas, papaya and watermelon. So, everyone met up and we set off around 8:30. We got to the border around 9.

Crossing the border into Guatemala was quite an interesting experience. There were many currency exchange people hanging out on both sides of the border (and even in the center of town in San Ignacio, we came to realize eventually), identifiable by their receipt books that they carried. Other than that, they just looked like guys loitering around. So when one of them started to assist us in the convoluted process of crossing the border with our rental car, we didn't even realize at first that he was a money dude. I just thought he was an official of some sort from one of the countries. I guess I didn't think about it too much, actually. Anyway, he was a really nice guy to kept ushering us from one desk to the next, telling us what to do next -- "Now you go to the cashier and pay them $40 Belize." (which is $20 US) "Now you give the receipt to this person." Etc etc. Getting a car across the border is quite a hassle, with many steps, including spraying the outside bottom half with insecticide. But it actually didn't take too long, maybe a half hour all told. When we were done, we headed into Guatemala. We crossed a river immediately, and on the other side was a little guard house. There was no sign, so we continued on, but it turned out, on our return, that we were supposed to stop there and pay another fee. Hmm, kinda iffy. Anyway, we continued on into the Guatemalan town on the border, and I immediately made a wrong turn. There was no sign, so I took the road that looked better -- the road that went straight immediately became a dirt road, whereas the road to the right was paved. I took the right-hand road, which turned out to go through the town. It was a little town, which felt a little like driving through the Mission, but with the occasional goat or something. Country-Mission. Eventually the road petered out, so James asked some guys in Spanish about the road to Tikal. We had pretty much figured that it had to be the other road, and they confirmed it. So we went back through town, with the locals staring at us the whole way -- fun! It's always interesting to see people's reactions to you. They seemed pretty curious about us. Maybe the fact that James is just so damn white...!

The first 20 or so miles of the road were dirt. The countryside was beautiful -- much more like America than I expected. Mostly farmland, and not all that tropical seeming. But all of the trees, etc. were very different from the ones we are used to here. The large ciba trees were especially cool -- they were/are sacred to the Maya, who considered them the axis of the earth, a connection between heaven and the underworld. Or something like that. They are very large and majestic, and frequently stand alone in the fields cleared of other trees and brush. We came across a funny looking cow along the road, and a herd of goats smack dab in the middle of the road, seemingly roaming around on their own. This was also true of the cats and dogs in Belize and Guatemala -- they frequently roamed free, even when they had collars and were obviously owned by someone. But I digress.

Eventually the road became paved, and we continued through villages until we reached the town of El Remate on the shore of a lake. The town and lake were so picturesque, we stopped to take a couple of pix and I decided to get a soda. I wasn't sure how to ask for a diet coke, so I decided to get an orange soda -- I was pretty sure I could manage that with my little bit of spanish I had picked up from the online course I took. With moral support from James, I asked the ladies at a little store, "Hay sodas?" They said si, so I said, "Naranja?" They told us the price and we paid. A very smooth transaction!

We climbed a hill and left the town and lake behind. After maybe another half and hour, we came to the gate of the Tikal park. There were a bunch of men standing around who managed to convey the fact that we should park and pay. The girls and I waited while James went up the hill to the entrance booth to pay. As we were waiting, we got out to stretch our legs and the guys standing around pointed out some monkeys in the trees. That was very cool. After this short delay, we piled back into the car and one of the men tried to explain to us (in Spanish) that we should keep our speed below 50 kph. James said he thought that he said something about 5 km til the real park entrance, but Sally and I thought he was saying something about speed, esp as he was pointing at the tachometer as he was saying it. That was funny -- I thought James was supposed to be the Spanish speaker! But he's apparently not so good at the understanding part.

The speed limit was in order to protect the wildlife, of which we saw exactly none. But we did see lots of signs with various monkeys, snakes, and ROUSes on them. What's an ROUS, you say? Well, you have to see "The Princess Bride" to understand that reference.

We arrived at the little town-like area just outside the ruins and parked. We had lunch on the patio of the Jaguar Hotel, which is a real American-backpacker type place. The toilets were all backed up, and Molly and Sally were desperate, so they used the urinal instead -- they probably are not thrilled that I am sharing that info. Part of the Jaguar Hotel was a hammock area, where the backpackers could rent a hammock for around $5 a night -- they were really crammed in there, though. We all agreed that we couldn't sleep like that. We waited so long to be served, we thought maybe we had misunderstood and were supposed to order at the counter. Eventually, after lunch (I had a very interesting "spanish omelet" which was very dense and cheesy) we stopped at an outdoor store/kiosk and James and Molly bought hats for about $7.

Entering the park, we walked through the forest for about 15 minutes. It was hard to imagine that hundreds of thousands of Mayans lived in this area at one time -- it was so wild. The first structure that we came upon was a housing development. At the time I was glad that we stumbled on this outlying structure first -- we were able to climb all over it and explore it's nooks and crannies. I kept thinking about what a different experience it would've been in the US -- much less freedom, much more structured and boring. We were even able to climb up onto the roof! There was some guilt, however, that we were perhaps damaging the structure by climbing all over it. But oh well, what can you do?

We moved on to the main plaza area, which had the major temples, I and II. I has been closed to visitors since a couple of people fell to their deaths, I read in the guidebook, so we climbed Temple II via the wooden stairs erected on the outside of the temple. It was around noon at this point, and quite warm, but not unbearable. I'm sure you wouldn't want to climb anything at noon in May, for example -- I hear it gets really bad then. From the top of Temple II, James thought some stairs in the plaza were tracks -- the perspective was so wacky, being so high and looking almost straight down on the plaza. When we got down, he realized that the "tracks" he thought he was looking at were really just three or four steps that ran the width of the plaza.

Next we climbed around the structures on the north side of the plaza, then moved on to Temple IV, the tallest temple which is set a bit back from the rest. On our way to IV we met some people coming back who said there were howler monkeys near the top of IV. James made some kind of joke, which they completely missed, and they said that the monkeys sounded like lions. We never heard them make a sound, unfortunately. But the view from IV was great. Apparently that view was used by Lucas in "Return of the Jedi," as a view of the Ewok world. You could see over the canopy for miles, with the tops of the other large structures just peeking through.

The last structure we climbed was the pyramid. It was getting late, and we had to be back at the border before dark, so we had decided we needed to leave the park by 4 pm. I was getting tired, and Molly decided not to climb the pyramid, but James, Sally and I toughed it out. This structure was the only one we climbed that didn't have wooden stairs, so we had to climb the extra-large steps directly. There was a Guatemalan man who was already at the top, and he struck up a conversation with James when he got to the top. He had apparently been a migrant worker in many parts of the US, and had recently moved back to Guatemala. Again, it was neat that some of the tourists were locals, and not just Americans like us.

Sally had me take a couple pix of her, then headed down. The Guatemalan man also headed down, and James made as if to follow. I called to him, saying, "Hey, we're alone... Wait a second." Um, hint hint? We kissed and enjoyed the view for a second, but it obviously wasn't "the moment." Hmm, I wondered. Is he really going to ask me to marry him on this trip? I was pretty sure that he was, but after that moment passed on top of the pyramid, I had a bit of doubt. I decided that if he hadn't said anything by Friday, I would bring it up, maybe even ask him to marry me. Hey, I'm a modern woman! No need to wait, right?

So, we were on our way out of the park. We passed by Temple V, which was pretty neat -- they had originally thought it was the youngest, but it turned out to be the oldest. All of the temples dated from around 500 to 800 AD. We ran into two women near Temple V that Molly and Sally had talked to at the border -- they had rented a car that they were not able to take across the border without realizing, and had to take a minibus/taxi from the border to the park. We would end up running into these same women again a couple of times on the trip, oddly enough.

As we were exiting the park, James saw on a map that there was a tree that you could climb near the Jaguar Inn, and he decided he wanted to climb it. The rest of us were tired of climbing, and I wanted to see the Crocodile Lake, which was near the tree, so we headed in the same direction. After getting directions from the Inn, he picked up the car -- it turned out that both the tree and the lake were a 20 minute walk down the road. So we all piled in and headed down the little dirt road, further into the park. The lake was closed off for some sort of breeding program (birds?), so we all headed down the trail to the tree. When we got there, it was another rickety wooden staircase, but much iffier than the stairs on the temples. It was a little scary, but James and I managed to climb it and get another view across the canopy. We climbed back down, went back to the car, and set off back to Belize.

The ride back was basically uneventful. We managed to get back to the border by around 5 pm, well before dark, which was a relief. We were not set upon by banditos. In fact, we saw less people on the way back than we did on the way out. Maybe everyone was having dinner. Actually, I forgot to mention that on the way out we passed many schools, all of which seemed to be at recess. What's up with that?

OK, I still have to talk about Monday night in San Ignacio, but I'm getting tired. This is a long entry! So I'll save that for the next posting.

SUNDAY, continued -

Everild (James says this is the correct spelling of his name, it was on the van, though we remembered his name as Avril with an E so that's how I spelled it in my mind) said the group in front of us was from Northern Belize, which was interesting. It wasn't just rich Americans tourists doing this trip. Though the outpost was owned by Americans, which seemed odd. They had a couple of blond kids running around, one of which, Logan, took a shine to Molly and Sally. And vice-versa. He was a little cutie. Here's a pic:

Anyway, after a bit we loaded into the two canoes and set off. We brought car batteries with hand-held spotlights to light our way, one per canoe. It was a pretty amazing trip, very quiet and peaceful. The cave was hundreds of feet tall most of the time, but occasionally we had to lie flat in the canoe in order to pass under hanging stallagtites. Very cool. We canoed in for about an hour, then turned around and headed out. It was really cool turning off the lights and floating in the dark for short stretches. One time I turned the light back on just in time -- I was about to hit my head on a stallagtite.

So, after our cave expedition, we swam at the swimming hole, had a yummy lunch at the outpost, and hung around in hammocks. Sally and Molly met a cute American guy who was living & working in Belize, and was accompanying a group to the cave that day. Maybe he had something to do with horses? Not sure. Some checkers were played. We chatted with Logan about his stuffed monkey. Then it was time to go. On our way back we took another road through the Mennonite community. Lots of orchards, mostly. Everild stopped the van and told James to get out and pick some fruit by the side of the road. When he got back in with cherry-type fruits for each of us, Everild said that he sent the white guy because the Mennonites might shoot at him, whereas James was probably safe. Hehe. The fruit was a kind of sour cherry -- interesting.

So, back in San Ignacio, I was tired. Molly, Sally and I decided to go back to the Tropicool for a nap, but James headed down to the river with Everild. There were a bunch of people hanging out near the "low bridge," at a bar made out of a canoe. Eventually James ended up driving around a bit with Everild and another guy, spotting Iguanas in the trees. James, any details you want to add? I had a really nice nap. :-)

That night was pretty quiet. We went to Martha's for dinner - they have a nice patio with xmas lights and greenery all around. I had pizza with pineapple. After, we checked out the scene at Chingo's again. The same dude was playing music, and we talked a bit with him. A friendly drunk guy came over and sat with us. He was hitting on Molly, calling her Blondie and Barbie. His friend said he was a "player." And also apparently an ex-soccer player, perhaps pro? We were discussing where to go next after San Ignacio, and he suggested Caye Caulker. For some reason, this seemed to resonate with us -- it just sounded like it would be a fun place, cheaper and easier to get to than Placencia or Tobacco Caye, which is off the coast near Dangriga. I think we turned in early that night...?

This is the Barton Creek Outpost, where we began our cave canoing journey.

SUNDAY, MARCH 26 - James' 34th bday

The next morning, we had a pretty awful breakfast -- was that orange juice really Tang? Molly and Sally were slow to rise, so they got some food for the road and we loaded into Everil's massive van. Oh, but first James and I searched the town for beach towels. It seemed like nothing was open, which I suppose was because it was Sunday morning, and all the stores had been open late on Saturday. Guess we should've gotten our shopping done then. We got some very colorful touristy beach towels for $10 a piece - kinda pricey, but oh well.

Everil's van, it turned out, ran on propane. Interesting. He had converted it himself. The road to the creek was very rough... very rough. At the end we forded a stream, and Everil joked that we had to get out and walk across in case the van got swept away. We all sort of believed him, Molly most of all -- I think he realized early on that she was pretty gullible, so he continued to tease her with these sorts of things all day.

We arrived at the Barton Creek outpost. There was a group of hispanic-looking people getting ready to head out, so we had a bit of time to kill. We hung out on the porch (the whole building was basically a porch surrounding a kitchen) and in the hammocks on the river bank.

More next time, I'm jet-lagged and sleepy and it's time for bed. :-)

SATURDAY, MARCH 25

When Jim left us Friday night, he said he'd be back around 10 am to take us to the airport again. It was so nice of him to shuttle us around like that. Anyway, we woke up excited to be on our way, pretty certain that we'd be in Belize in a couple of hours. Fran made us a good ole' fashioned breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon (of course, no bacon for me) before hitting the road again with Jim. Upon arriving at the airport, we checked in a the under-construction Delta international area. The lady behind the counter said that we should've gone to the employee travel center to check in, but she gave us our seat requests and checked our bags in anyway. Fairly painless process. Little did we know how unhelpful and mean this same lady would be a week hence! But I'll get to that later.

We got on the flight to Belize without a hitch. Molly and Sally were in the first row (no biz or first class on that flight) and James and I were in the last. There was no movie on the flight, just the same "television" programming that we had seen the day before on our flight from SF after the hideous movie, Aeon Flux, which I quit watching about half-way through. I was really expecting better from the director of "Girlfight," Karen Kusama (sp?). Anyway.

ARRIVAL IN BELIZE

We arrived. De-planed via stairs, always makes you feel like you're really travelling, doesn't it? And headed into customs. Molly almost got us in trouble with the local customs guys by taking pix -- our customs guy said something to another customs guy about a girl taking photos in a mix of English and Creole/Spanish, we looked over, realized it was Molly, and promptly told her to quit before she could take our picture. That was kinda funny. We headed out the door and across the street to pick up our rental car. It was a tiny little "suv" that barely qualified for the name, but it fit the four of us and our luggage, so it was fine. After seemingly forever, we were finally able to hit the road. We asked the dude for a recommendation for food on the way to San Ignacio and he pointed to the menu for Amigos on the rack. We decided to head there, and got directions from the dude.

James drove the first leg. We headed north and east from the airport, and took a left just before the police checkpoint. We never really found out what they were checking for (there were a few of them we ran into across the country), but I think it was insurance and/or immigration related. We passed a prison with a gift store and snack bar, which Sally really wanted to stop at, but we pressed on. We travelled through the "towns" of Burrell Boom and Hattieville, past the zoo and finally got to Amigos about 4:45 in the afternoon. Apparently happy hour started at 5, but we tried to convince the waitress to start it early for us, not even knowing what happy hour really entailed. It turned out, 15 minutes later, that our drinks started arriving with red napkins twisted around the tops of the bottles instead of white. The drinks, by the way, were mostly Belikin beer, the one-and-only Belizean beer. Sally drank a lot of stouts through the week, Molly was half stout half regular, James was all regular, and I was mostly regular with some Lighthouse beers (a lighter brew) thrown in.

So, the red napkins -- it turned out that for each red napkin, you got a chance to shoot a basket seated at a barstool at the bar. The basket was approx. bar-level over the wastebasket on the opposite side of the bar. If you made the basket, you got a free beer. We all drank a couple of beers, but none of us ended up making a basket. By the end of our visit, the bar had gone from completely empty to slightly happening -- I guess a lot of people knew about happy hour.

I drove the next leg. It was getting toward sunset and we were slightly nervous about arriving in San Ignacio in the dark. James and Sally shot a couple of cool pix of the sunset while we were driving. The coastal area of Belize is extremely flat, so it was exciting to start getting into some hilly country, with more exotic-looking forest around. We all noticed the proliferation of kids and dogs along the road, with each house seeming to have at least three of each. Every once in a while there would be a speed bump -- but not your normal, American-style speed bump. These were often large, flat on top and marked with a sign about 50 feet ahead of time. If you hit it too fast, it could definitely damage your car. The interesting thing about the speed bumps was the variety of kinds of bumps as well as the different kinds of signage throughout Belize and Guatemala. It definitely kept the driver (and even navigator) on their toes, esp. on our first drive into the interior of the country.

SAN IGNACIO

San Ignacio is a funky, fun little town. It was intimidating at first, arriving there on a Saturday night, when the "downtown" was full of people and cars. Esp. intimidating were the taxi drivers lounging around their cars in the center of town and checking out everyone who walked by. We parked quickly and started looking for a place to stay. We headed towards Martha's, the favorite guest house of everyone who has ever been to SI, apparently. We kept hearing about Marthas in our research before the trip, and once we reached Belize a couple of people mentioned it upon hearing that we were heading to SI. Unfortunately, we already knew that it was booked up, but we thought they might have rooms in their other property, or point us towards some other decent rooms. Neither of these hopes panned out, but on our way there we were accosted (nicely) by a tour guide asking us what we wanted to do the next day. James apparently got a good vibe from the guy, because he quickly decided that we should book our excursion the next day with him. But first, we needed to find a place to stay.

After investigating a couple of places that were full, we checked out the Tropicool. The guidebook said they had cabins in their garden, which sounded great to me. We met Wally, the proprietor, an Englishman who had been in Belize for over 15 years. He showed us two cabins which were perfect, and only around $28 a night -- what a deal. They each had their own bathroom with excellent water pressure, reasonably comfortable beds, ceiling fans and little TVs with cable. We decided to stay there for at least the next two nights, and eventually decided to stay on a third night.

We went back and spoke to the guide, whose name was Everild. James wanted to do some adventurous canoing, and Everil recommended the Barton Creek Cave. It was only about a half-day trip, but we could hang out at the swimming hole after, and there was a rope swing. Rope swing?!? James was sold! And since he was the birthday boy, we were all in. We paid Everil and he made out the receipt to "James birthday boy." He told us to remind him to bring the bottle of Sorrel wine to celebrate. I think it was made from cashews...? Well, it sounded interesting, anyway. We asked Everild what we should do on our first night in Belize, and he recommended the Pigpen. No, make that the Pitpan -- a local bar/club that was basically outdoors near the river and had some music going on that night.

After freshening up, we had dinner...? I don't actually remember eating... Maybe we just considered Amigos our dinner...? Anyway, I remember going to the Pitpan (way too loud) then to another place with a really broken-down pool table and drinking lots of Belikins. I was getting sleepy, so I headed to bed around 10. James and the girls stayed out, and ended up meeting one of Everild's brothers, Eric, who is a bird guide of some sort. I heard the story the next day, but at first they didn't believe that he really was Everil's brother -- but it turned out that he was. Eric took them to an LA-style club owned by a cousin, which James said felt like a strip club without the strippers. Fun! So sorry I missed that! (No, not really.)

Oh, James just reminded me that we stopped first at Chingo's a restaurant/bar next door to the tropicool that had live music on Saturday and Sunday nights while we were there. We heard the music while we were going to check out the cottages, and the song that was playing happened to be "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps." James was thinking to himself, he told me later, of the lyrics to that song -- "If you can't make your mind up, we'll never get started," and since we were trying to decide on a place to stay and it was the start of the vacation, he decided even before seeing the cottage that we should take it. So we did. :-) Anyway, the live music turned out to be one guy on a keyboard with some pre-programmed tracks to back him up. Later he was joined by a guy drumming on a turtle shell, and other guy on a small hand drum, perhaps a kind of Garifuna drum...

THE TRIP

So, I decided I really wanted to remember this trip for the rest of my life, given the major life-change that has resulted, so I'm going to write it all down.

The trip began on Friday, March 24th. We were originally going to fly on the red-eye to Atlanta, but James & Molly's Uncle Jerry (who got us the buddy passes, he used to be a Delta pilot, and is now retired) suggested we take the Friday afternoon flight instead, the odds were better that we'd get a seat. We were flying stand-by, after all. Work was crazy that morning, but not as crazy as I thought it would be -- Kevin and I thought that we would be meeting with Harry to show him the rough-cut of the Antitrust doc, but it turned out that he was out of town (David should've let us know, but he was on a shoot Weds & Thurs and didn't call and let us know). Anyway, I managed to clean up my desk and get most things wrapped up nicely for my vacation, which is a nice way to start. Jessie (intern/assistant) gave me a ride to the airport in Kevin's car, where I met up with James and Molly, who had taken BART. When we got to the airport, however, we found out that our flight had been delayed by about two hours.

We checked our bags and headed to TGI Fridays for lunch. Molly was upset/excited by the news that her roommate Karen would be moving out. Karen and Molly had been having issues. Molly was thinking it'd be cool if she could move into Karen's room, as her room on the street was noisy and didn't have a closet. I encouraged her to make her desires known to Kelly, the third roomie and holder of the lease. After lunch, while waiting for the plane to arrive, Molly gave Kelly a call. Kelly apparently freaked out, and Molly was soon begging her to let her get off the phone -- saying, "I get it, I get it, please... No, I understand, I get it, I get it.... OK, OK, I'm freaking out here waiting for the plane that I'm not even sure if we'll get on... please, I have to go...." And so on. Wow, what an ordeal. (Ed. note - Molly decided when she got home to give Kelly notice, as well -- she's moving out the beg. of April. Just not worth the craziness, difficult parking and the street noise, she's going to try to find someplace cheaper).

So, finally, we were on our way. We got into Atlanta close to midnight. Sally was waiting -- her flight from LA had gotten in about an hour earlier. Molly and Sally were originally planning on going out with some friends of Molly's, but because of the delay they decided to cancel and head to James & Molly's mom's house with us instead. Their dad, Jim, had come to the airport to pick us up. Jim and Fran divorced about 5 or 6 years ago, and have only recently started getting along again, apparently thanks to their #1 (and only) grandson, Zack. Jim drove us to Fran's, going about 45 mph at times when he inadvertantly got stuck behind a slow driver -- he's one of those drivers that gets in one lane and stays there. After chatting for a bit with the 'rents, we headed to bed.

Here we go. My first post. Pix from Belize. Enjoy!