December 30th, 2021

Up earlier than expected at 1:30am to a text noting our back up flight to SFO had been cancelled. We also received several email notifications that flights into and out of Seattle were likely to be cancelled due to weather and crew shortages (Covid). We quickly rebooked this to a later flight into SFO and decided to book a third option into Seattle the following day. This is where things really started to unravel. The extra flight put us over our CC credit limit as we had just paid for a complete furnace replacement. After a call to the CC company they cancelled our card and told us it could take 48hr before someone could review the account. We booked the alternate flight on our debit card and went back to sleep at 4am wondering if we would get home today.

We intently watched to if our inbound flight was running on time figuring that was a good indicator of how things would play out. Once it took off we began to enjoy our last day pool side. Floating in the tubes, watching the Iguanas and winning a hand of Bingo were our big accomplishments. 

Ultimately our flight was only an hour late and we made it home with relatively no fuss. We cancelled our other flight options and walked out of the airport into freezing temps in shorts. The shuttle to the car wasn’t running so we took an Uber since nothing about getting home has been easy. Hudson though was very happy it wound up being a Tesla. A quick ride through the snow and we are officially home and excited to see the puppy tomorrow.       

 

Some extras we forgot to mention in previous posts:

Towards the end of the day (at Ziva) we all took a hot tub. Across from us is young guy of about 15years old looking pretty wasted. After finishing his drink he tilts his head back and nods off. This provides a solid hour of entertainment for the kids creating his back story and wondering if he might pitch forward drowning himself. Someone eventually woke him up and he of course stumbled back to the bar for his next drink. We had met his parents earlier in the day and can confirm they let this kid down. Their ice breaker conversations included “What would you do in prison” scenarios and preferences for body hair shaving.

Carmen our personal chef for a day was a gift. Energetic 60ish and in spectacles with an equal love for food and family. She is from a family of 20 and had all these fascinating perspectives. “Oh the Mexican men need to be macho and always have their wives pregnant”, “my sisters always are teasing me, but I love them”, “I loved to cook always, when I was little I would talk to the vegetables, you are going to be a salsa Mr. Tomatillo”, “with a big family we had very large pots”, “we are more natural here, when someone passes the family prepares the body”.

She did all the shopping, prepared her family’s recipes in our kitchen for 6 hours and fed us a memorable meal. All of the flavors were deeper and more intense than other Mexican food we tried. Even things like a little Poblano in the Guacamole made common things unique and taste better. We tried things we’d never had before like Aquachiles and blue corn Empanades. The Carnitas and Mole were the best ever and we had leftovers for days.