Second Week of Sun-filled Vacation (Sat, 12/30/06 - Fri, 1/5/07)

Now we are back in Seattle expecting another round of high winds and snowstorm. Looking back, the 2nd week of our vacation slipped away extremely fast considering we really didn't do a whole lot. But then again, what accounts as "doing things?" We slept alot. We ate a lot. We laughed a lot. We hung out with family and friends a lot. We walked around the Plaza Principal a lot. We also kept the fan on a lot to keep the mosquitos away. I guess we did do a lot; more importanly, we enjoyed every minute of it.

M's brother, his wife and their two babies also joined us at Casa Contenta on the last day of 2006 - a big family reunion outside of the U.S.! We walked to the city center to see the New Year's fireworks and embraced 2007 like an old friend - no boisterous cheering or clinking wineglasses around. The next day (Monday) the whole family had the 1st lunch of 2007 at Hyatt.

On Tuesday morning, we went shopping for foods and ingredients for Thursday's dinner party at Casa Contenta, and I was the appointed chef. That afternoon, we went to see a bullfight, the first ever for me (more on that in a separate entry). On Wednesday, I and M's sister stayed at home chilling and preparing for the next day's big dinner, while the other half of the visting fam did a day trip to cenotes (sink holes) near Merida.
On Thursdsay, with help from Blanquita and M's sister, I cooked 9 different dishes and really put my cooking and prepping skills to test. The dishes came out well; I thought that the flavor was good and I need to work on display and color. Fortunately, there was no picky eater at the table; everybody was very generous in giving compliments.


On Friday, M's sister left early in the morning. In the afternoon, the rest of us went to Dzibilchaltun and visited a Mayan ruin (more on that later) there.


The next day we started our journey back home around noon, hopped on our connecting flight in Atlanta, and by 11pm, we were finally back home breathing the familiar, crispy, clean and fresh Seattle air again under gathering stormy clouds.