As soon as my alarm sounded, I rolled over to check my phone. The kids' passports had still not arrived but were on their way from New York overnight. We were scheduled to pick them up at 8:00 am at the Fed Ex facility at the airport.
The morning went smoothly as we took showers, got breakfast and packed our final items.
We loaded up around 7:30 am and headed to the airport. As we passed 8th Avenue, the Wielhouwers were waiting at the corner... we didn't waste a moment. The morning was running smoothly, thank you Jesus! Its been a rough few weeks for all of us and what we need, more than ever, is things to go our way.
We arrive at the Fed Ex building as scheduled but wait outside the door because they cannot find the woman who opens. 10 minutes late, she finally emerges. I kinda chuckle at how nervous I was getting... Everything is fine. I almost didn't believe my ears when she said she wouldn't have the package until 10:00 am. Um, excuse me?
She was more than sympathetic to our situation and immediately got on the phone with another Fed Ex location to find a solution. They agreed to pull the package and hold it for us. It was after 8:35 when we finally found the location and had those passports in hand... Phew.
Let's be honest, it wasn't terrible... but the added stress of these expired passports has taken its toll this week. I'm ready for a vacation!
We checked in, dropped our luggage, got through security... all without incident. We sat down at a quiet gate and enjoyed some down time. It was good to catch up and giggle a bit and it was obvious that the kids were excited!
We shifted down to our gate just prior to boarding. We settled into our seats in First Class and prepped for the flight. The kids sat together and did amazing!
We landed in Atlanta about 2 hours later and headed took the train to our terminal. We stopped for lunch at McDonalds, Villiage Pizza and Arbys before finding our gate. We boarded our next flight and were on our way. Both kids did awesome on the trip... I didn't use a timer or small gifts for Samantha and she never had an issue. I am so proud of how far we've come.
We breezed through immigration, got our luggage and headed through customs. The process was incredibly smooth. Then we headed outdoors to find our driver. Within minutes he had loaded our luggage on a cart and we were headed to our van. Luis drove us to the Superama grocery store where we found lots of options for food at the condo. We loaded up on snacks and a few meals and headed back to the van.
We arrived at the condo around 5:00 pm (Cancun is one hour behind home). We waited a bit to be introduced to Francis, the property manager. Francis gave us a quick tour the property on the way to ourcondo. We boarded the elevator (all 7 of us) only to be over the weight limit. So we all chuckled and deboarded. Unfortunately the elevator wouldn't reset so we had to wait for maintenance to arrive.
Well, we did wait a bit but our sweet travel party has been on the go all day. We are tired, and our bodies have not yet adjusted to the 90* temps. So in order to proceed, we opted to walk the steps up to the condo... 7 floors!
Once in, Francis showed us around and got us settled. While we were busy with that, the bellman brought up our groceries and luggage (after the elevator was fixed).
We were all ready to eat so rather than taking the time to cook something we decided to head across the street to this little place called 19.5. (The Hotel Zone is a peninsula that is appx 7 miles long. It is essentially a strip of land (appx 100-300 yds wide) with the Gulf of Mexico on the east and with a fresh water bay on the west which separates it from the mainland. You can only enter the Hotel Zone from the north or south and to discuss location, you use the kilometer markers... like the ferry is at 7 kilometers. It actually is really useful to us tourists). Our little restaurant is at kilometer 19.5!
We were greeted and brought to our table under the tiki roof and on the deck on the bay. It was a gorgeous evening and the food was AMAZING. The service was quick and everyone who came to our table was hospitable and kind.
We headed home with full bellies and smiles on our faces. We got unpacked and settled into our rooms. Shared some stories in the living room and called it a day around 10:30pm.
Its been a great day! It is enough.
