Seven Years

A couple days ago, Pete and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary. So we decided to celebrate by going to Jasper!

We had lunch and “Jasper Haze’s” at Coco’s, headed to Athabasca Falls and hiked around, made an Inuksuk at the base of the falls by the river, drove to Horshoe Lake where we sat enjoying the view with (my) feet in the freezing water (refreshing!), went to Jasper Park Lodge to wander the grounds and enjoy the scenery there, then had dinner and beers at Jasper Brewhouse.

We had such a great time, that we agreed to go back soon! I am so excited for our next visit, where I hope to cliff jump and swim around in Horshoe Lake, maybe do some horseback riding, the Gondola, and if we’re there for more than a day, drive a bit further to hike Mount Robson.

Here’s to looking forward to another trip to the mountains and another happy 7 years… Cheers!

Left one Paradise, Came Home to Another

Mexico might be beautiful, sunny, hot, and wonderful, but home has our own comfortable bed. It’s been a couple weeks now since I’ve been home from Mexico. It was an amazing trip but man – climbing into my own bed after the trip was heavenly. I’ve never slept so well in my life.

A Deliciously Hot Vacation

This was a much needed and long overdue vacation. It was also mine and Pete’s FIRST vacation EVER together. It’s actually a bit strange. Pete and I are two days away from our six-year anniversary (which is, ironically, also the Star Wars anniversary). And Cuba was our first ever vacation. We have never even gone on a weekend trip to Jasper or Banff together.

There was a brief period where I thought our vacation was going to be miserable, because one of our pieces of luggage was lost, but after three long hours in a non-airconditioned, hot (36 degrees), dusty, stuffy, and muggy airport, we finally retrieved our luggage, got ripped off by a cabbie taking us to our resort (which was a thirty minute drive), and then got settled in. After the stress of thinking our luggage was gone and we were finally at the resort, we started to relax. The airport heat acclimatized us so well that we hardly found the week in Cuba hot, even though it was over thirty degrees every day that we were there.

So alas, here we are:

There were only two kinds of beer, Bucanero and Cristal. Cristal was the better one, and tasted a little bit like Stella Artois. All of the slushy drinks and mixed drinks were way too sweet, until I asked for a Lemon Daiquiri. The lemon was sour enough that it took away from the overly sweetness of the actual daiquiri mix.

We swam in the ocean every single day, snorkeled for at least a couple of hours in the ocean every day, went for long walks along the beach in the evenings, laid in the sun with books (we read a lot), drank a few drinks, ate a lot of tasty food (the fish and shrimp were incredible), and just generally relaxed. After how much eating there was, Pete and I were both surprised that he actually lost three or four pounds and I only gained a half a pound.

I would definitely do another all-inclusive trip, but I would likely want to do one with a few extra people, either a group of friends or with another couple. In Cuba, the sunset was at 7:30 every evening at was done by about 7:40. After that, Pete and I found we got a bit tired of doing nothing in the evenings. Which is why if we went with some more people it would probably have been a bit more lively. Especially because the entertainment at the resort was so incredibly cheesy. I’m hoping to convince my mom and my sister-in-law that the three of us should do an all-inclusive trip together maybe next year. I’m also hoping to convince a couple of mine and Pete’s friends that we should all plan a trip together sometime in the future.

If you want an amusing story, ask Pete about the dead lizard. I won’t tell you about it, but he will.

If you want to check out more pictures from our trip, click here.

Here’s to a great start to a (hopefully) warm and fun summer!

Cheers,

Tess(a)