Today we set out on a new adventure! In celebration of 30 years of marriage this April, Tom and I decided it was time for a more-than-usual getaway. After much debate and research, we decided on Zihuatanejo (ZEE-wa-ten-ay-ho), Mexico. A lesser-known (than Cancun) tourist destination on the Pacific ocean, we heard about "Zihua" (ZEE-wa) from Tom's cousins Nancy and Dave, who have vacationed there several times from their home in Alaska. We found a half-price deal on a brand new, beautiful resort that promised miles of open, quiet beachfront, gorgeous sunsets, a private plunge pool on our balcony, great service and restaurant, and accommodations that surpassed many others I considered, at least based on the photos. Let me just say that "Marea Beachfront Villas" is living up to all these promises and did NOT disappoint!

The trip really started on Easter/April Fools Day, 2018. After a crazy week of entertaining our kids and their various friends/significant others, and a busy day that involved church and Easter dinner for eleven of us all together, we finished our last minute packing and headed over to my sister Beth's house in Lombard which is only a half hour from O'Hare airport. Since our flight was leaving at 5:15 a.m., we crashed for about an hour on their couches before getting up and heading to the airport at 1:45 a.m.

We had already arranged for a parking spot at a nearby hotel (I highly recommend the ParkWhiz app!), and took their free shuttle over to the airport. Once we arrived, we discovered we could have slept for another hour, as the airport security didn't even open until 3:30. The entry area seemed to have the A/C cranked up even though it was very cold outside, so we sat shivering (we wouldn't need our winter jackets in Mexico so had left them in the car) while we waited for the line to open. Once it did, we slipped quickly through security just in time to sit and wait for another hour-plus before boarding. Gotta' love airports!

After two flights and a 4-hour layover in Houston, we finally arrived at our destination, at 2:45 p.m., about 13 hours after we left Beth's house. Our adventure had truly begun.

Entering this "new-to-us" world was immediately a bit unsettling. As we listened to conversations around us, we heard very little English. There were obviously other tourists arriving, but even they seemed to be primarily Spanish-speaking. It also took a bit to figure out the bank machines and exchange our dollars for pesos. We found our hotel transportation driver without any trouble, however found out later we paid over five times more for the ride than it would have cost with a normal taxi. Still, not knowing anything about the area, we had already decided it was worth any extra to get settled easily until we got our bearings.

We spent the remainder of the day taking in the beauty of our resort! We enjoyed a couple of margaritas and an early supper at the resort restaurant, relaxed in our private plunge pool, watched/dozed through Toy Story 3 (Haha...don't ask me why we chose that one!) and crawled into bed early, exhausted from the previous 48 hours. Although it took me a bit to settle into sleep with what sounded like a continuous thunderstorm outside (actually the waves crashing into the shore), I eventually drifted off, dreaming of sunshine and sandy beaches.

How we arrived in Mexico