Yet Another Installment

I know all three of you have been anxiously awaiting another installment of the Spring Break (did you forget to do the Whoooo! with the rock hand?) 2008 Mexico trip. So, here 'tis....

This was on the front of the Hard Rock Acapulco. It was a waterfall. There was water trickling down over the words. How can one go wrong with a quote from The Beatles?

I love a good sick-sense of humor. Since it's impossible to see it in this picture, the license plate on the car reads "God is my co-pilot."

A stunning view of Acapulco Bay.

This is the beach we layed on/swam in every day. This is a view from the cliffs in Acapulco. The evil air-traffic controllers make sure that every plane that leaves Acapulco airport flies directly over this beach when departing the city. We watched the planes go over each day knowing full well when our day came to leave we'd get one last view of the beach.

"Every beach has its dog." Jimmy, if you like these lyrics, call us. There will be a small copyright fee. This is Aqui....(come here in Spanish, though I probably have it spelled wrong.) He was a perfect gentleman. He just wanted to be petted. I just wanted to take him home.

This is Aqui's girlfriend, Alli (a distorted "there" in Spanish.) I really don't know if she was Aqui's girlfriend, but at least that's the story I conjured up in my mind. She was adorable and chased the birds away when we asked and again, just wanted to be petted. And again, I wanted to just take her home.

All together now....Ahhhhh!

Happy Easter

This pretty much sums up our Easter Sunday. Hope yours was wonderful.

Side Trips

Our trip to Acapulco wasn't all about lounging around the pool and the beach. However, we did have our rear-ends parked in these chairs from about 10:00 a.m. each morning. We waited here all day for sunset. We also worked pretty hard at making our own Corona commercials. You know the one's...crystal blue water, white sand beach with a bucket of icy cold Corona's without another soul around...ah!!! We did take a couple of side trips during the week. The first one was to Taxco. That's about three hours outside Acapulco to the north. This little excursion should have only taken us 3 hours, however, we got a little lost and drove about an hour away from our destination. The scenery was gorgeous, the town we discovered was fabulous but the roads into this town were winding, and mountainous. I was pretty nauseated by the time we finally got to Taxco. The drive was like a never ending roller coaster ride. I was glad to have my feet on the ground finally.

For all you devoted QVC watchers, you are probably already familiar with the town of Taxco. That's were much of the silver is mined in Mexico. It's a great little town with a most wonderful church on the square.

Inside Santa Prisca church, Taxco. The amount of sculpture in this church was just amazing. It was as impressive as any cathedral in Europe I've ever been in. The church was built by a Frenchman in the mid 18th century. The enormous pipe organ was imported from Germany and was sent to the port in Acapulco. It was then brought piece by piece on horse and donkey up into this tiny mountain village of Taxco.

The second side trip we took was to Palma Sola Archaeological Site. That was located just outside Acapulco (so there wasn't much chance of getting lost) however, we did have to battle the horrific traffic in the city. I'm glad I wasn't driving, but watching the way these people drive was quite entertaining. This site is a natural setting for the native petroglyphs (rock carvings). The hike took us approximately 1200 feet above sea level. It was a tough climb too. But the petroglyphs were quite amazing. They have dated the carvings as far back as 600 BCE.

The view from the highest point at Palma Sola....breathtaking!

Spring Break 2008

For the following post, it will be necessary for audience participation. Every time you see the words Spring Break, please insert a WHOOOO! (with the obligatory rock hand sign, devil horns, whatever they're called.)

Last week was spring break for many colleges including Penn State. And like any good college students, we decided to get away to someplace warm since we didn't have any school work to worry about so we went to Acapulco, Mexico. The sun and sand was hot, the beer was cold!

Over the next couple of days, I'll cover the good, the bad and the ugly of the trip, including some pictures.

We flew out last week from Newark airport which is just across the river from New York City. It was tough to be able to see the city and not actually go for a visit. The flights both to and from Spring Break, (did you forget what you were supposed to be doing here????) were part of the bad category. See, we weren't the only Spring Breakers going to or coming from Acapulco. The others were of the 20-something variety however, complete with their iPods, iPod players, Louis Vuitton luggage, iPhones and Blackberries. I only have two out of this list and I've been making a living for longer than these kids have been alive.

During both flights, there was lots of seat exchanging, going to the bathroom, chatting, laughing, standing in the aisles eating and of course drinking then finally some sleeping. Most of this was completely annoying to the over 20-something passengers on the flights.

A major part of the good of this Spring Break trip was where we stayed, The Mayan Palace. I swear, their motto was "how may I kiss your behind today?" This place had three restaurants, not including the outdoor restaurants where you could order drinks and food from a thatched cabana on the beach. One of the restaurants served Crepas (Crepes) both savory and sweet all the time. The other restaurants had buffets of sea food, prim rib or breakfast.

The Palace also had the world's largest pool (and I'm not kidding), it went on forever. There was also a "Lazy River" pool where you could kick back on an innertube while the water slowly moved you along the way. Until you got to the giant bucket of water that dumped about one hundred gallons of water on the people below. I think I drank most of the water on one pass by this bucket while someone who shall remain nameless watched with glee. I'm thinking paybacks....

Choices

In Pennsylvania we're still waiting for our chance to cast our vote in the primary elections. Ours don't roll around till April. I watch the news to get the latest on which candidate is ahead and who is lagging behind.

It fascinates me how much the media truly does dictate where we shop, what t.v. shows we watch, what we believe about the Iraq war and how we vote. Any time the primary elections are discussed, the news mediators speak only about McCain and Huckabee, Obama and Clinton. There are other candidates that are still clinging to life in the primaries.

Ron Paul-he is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and he's a medical doctor, he has been a member of the House Banking Committee and served on Congress. He's not polished or a smooth-talker so when he participates in a debate he often sounds like a bumbling idiot. I can't say that I'm totally in favor of Ron Paul's ideas. I'm not totally in favor of any candidates ideas. It's nice to have options.

Ralph Nader-consumer advocate, but I really have no idea what his political ideas are. And, I found nothing supported by Mr. Nader on the Internet that says anything about his campaign.
Regardless, he is another option to what the media rams down our throats.

I hope everyone that votes in the primaries seriously considers all options, no just the ones the media hypes the most.