What a great vacation in Mexico

We just got back in town from a tremendous trip "South of the Border" to Mexico. Our resort was stunning and the prices were great thanks to the economy and the whole "Swine Flu Scare". For the record, we saw no traces of Swine Flu besides the serious downturn in the tourist industry as a result of people's fears of dying from a sickness no worse than the common cold. GO TO MEXICO, folks! There is nothing to be afraid of!

In 4 nights/5 days, we struck a balance between one crazy "excursion" day (which consisted of visiting the ruins of Coba, climbing the 2nd tallest pyramid in Mexico, rapelling and zip-lining into and across a sunken Cenote (underground freshwater lakes), as well as actually going inside a Cenote and taking a dip in the crystal clear water.

Outside of the crazy day, there was a lot of relaxing (I read a book!), sitting by the ocean, sitting by the pool, getting in the pool, repeating the cycle... Plus we ventured into the Spa and had massages. It was my first massage and it was really pretty nice.

The best part of the trip? Getting away from everything and spending 5 days with my gorgeous wife of 5 years. No interruptions, no stress, just fun. Happy (late) Anniversary dear!

Here are the pictures (below). You know the routine... click on the slideshow to bring up the full screen pictures.

Snowmobile Trip in Pennsylvania

I had to wait a few days to "respect" Holly's Tim Duncan autograph, but I now have clearance to make a post of my own.

Dad and I went snowmobiling while Holly was enjoying her San Antonio Spurs game. We met up in the Allegheny mountains on a Saturday night, then hit the trails on Sunday morning. It was incredibly scenic, and the snow was fresh (it snowed about 4 inches the night before, and we were on the trails early). It was nice to get on a snowmobile again--it had been 2 years since I was last on a trip. We went 120.5 miles which was quite a bit for one day of riding.

It was a great time and I'm already looking forward to potentially doing another trip next year!

Oh, and on a geeky note. I took these pictures on my new cell phone. I was able to finagle with Sprint to get free internet and text messages on my phone (and Holly got free text messages). Since we got new features and our phone contract was up, we went out and got new phones. I splurged a bit on my phone, and ended up getting an HTC Touch Diamond (review here). It takes beautiful pictures, and can do just about anything. I even used the GPS to navigate to and from the snowmobile trip. Yes, Holly got a very nice phone as well... but since she is a self-described cell-phone dropper, she got one that suits her needs but is not quite as hard to replace ;-).

Pictures from Spain

I've got a selection of pictures from Spain posted online (and also to Grandma's picture frame).

This was a tremendous vacation, and hopefully you can see how busy we were, and how much we were able to do in just 4 short days! We took 492 pictures, but we chose the top 100 to share with ChalkBoard Nation. Spain is truly a beautiful place, and the places that we visited (in order--Madrid, Toledo, Escorial, then back in Madrid) were all tremendous. Further, the people there were all very friendly and accommodating of our less-than-fluent Spanish... let's just say that Holly can't make fun of me anymore for not being able to communicate in France.

Below, the pictures should automatically scroll, but if you want the "full size" pictures, click on them and it will bring up the Picasa web site, where you can see them at "full" size.

Home Safe and Sound

All,

Just wanted to let everyone know that we have made it home safely from our trip to Madrid, Spain. It was a crazy weekend, but a lot of fun. We got in late last night, but both made it into work this morning!

Pictures will be coming probably this weekend when we have time to catch our breath!

Finally... Our Europe Pictures

Hello dedicated readers (you must be dedicated if you are checking this website after our 1 month hiatus!).

Holly and I have settled into our home in Maryland. We've finally gotten high-speed internet and the time to put up the long-ago-promised Europe pictures that we took from our vacation last month. I went through and pulled 132 pictures out of the over 2,200 pictures we took that best captured our vacation. We saw so much that we couldn't possibly cram all the pictures online... but hopefully these pictures will represent the scope of what we saw during our time overseas.

As the house gets fully settled, we'll post back in a week or two with house pictures with our stuff in it. It's really starting to take shape. Plus, I'm sure that Holly will be posting pictures of her sweet office at McDaniel.

Until then, this should be enough to keep you busy:

Europe Trip -- Rome - Paris - London

Back in the USA

Holly and I are back to the States and safe after an interesting fight home. We're now putting our energy fully into getting ready for the big move. We'll be putting pictures from our vacation up sometime in the next couple of weeks, once we've gotten settled in Maryland and Jenn's wedding is over.

Stay tuned!

Still Surviving

Hi everyone,

I wanted to make my own post to tell you that (despite a constant schedule from 9 AM to 9 PM everyday) Jason hasn't killed me yet. There have been some minor injuries (the aforementioned sprained ankle, etc), but nothing major. After our last 12 hour day (by 8:30 PM at the Louvre), Jason was kind enough to tell me that I could go home.... if I was bleeding!!!! :) He's been pretty tough on me, but we've seen EVERYTHING, so it's been worth it. Talk to you all when we get home. Love you!

Holly

Survived Paris, now in London...

After 3 action-packed days in Paris, we are now in London. Safe, but definitely feeling like we've walked the probably 10 miles a day that we've been averaging.

We've been able to navigate two cities and as many languages succesfully, but are happy to be back to where the keyboard is at least somewhat typeable, the food is mostly cooked, and museums, street signs, and metro stops are all in English.

Some numbers for our trip so far...

Average temperature in Rome: 90's
Average temperature in Paris: Rain and low 60's
Temperature today in London: Sunny and 70's (after leaving 60's in Paris earlier in the day).

Pictures taken: ~ 1,400

Recognition from strangers regarding Jason's OSU t-shirts:
Rome (3-days wearing OSU shirts): 3
Paris (2 1/2 days wearing OSU shirts--partially covered by coats): 7
London (1/2 day so far): 1... she went to Malabar High School back in the day.

See you all when we get back!
--Jason and Holly

We are checking in from the shadow of the Colosseum, in Rome, Italy! We are well and everything has been great. Jason is typing, and unfamiliar with the Italian keyboard layout... so forgive any misspellings or missing punctuation.

We have been walking around like crazy, and have thus far succesfully dodged the MILLIONS of crazy scooter drivers out here (Dad, you are ahead of your time with the whole scooter idea). All of the walking, sore feet, twisted ankle (Holly is fine), have been worth it, as we are having an amazing time.

Tomorrow we leave for Paris at the end of the day. So far we have over 700 pictures to share with you all when we get back. It has truly been a wonderful trip!

Talk to everyone when we return to the states!
Jason and Holly