A quick video of our home and why we love it here.

Mexico has been an amazing experience thus far. Sometimes it's hard to explain to people what life is like here and why we chose to leave a nice home, good jobs, and our friends and family back in the old country. So, Tarah and I have recently made a short video describing what we love, and give you a quick tour of our home. We also made this video as an application for House Hunters International. Hopefully we get picked. Wish us luck.

https://youtu.be/hyz9g6NFWUk

Our Lost Vacation

Keith & I had a dream vacation scheduled to be happening right now, but sadly, due to a missed connection due to Delta delaying us, we missed it.

Right now we should be headed into New Calcedonia before heading to the Fiji islands with Princess Cruises.

It all happened on January 9th when we went to the Orlando airport headed to LA to then catch a flight to Australia for our cruise that left on January 11th (the day we would have arrived). The pilot on the flight to LA decided to wait for two passengers, which then delayed our flight by 30 minutes. Once we arrived to LA, there was a plane at our gate so we had to wait another 10 for them to move. We only had 50 minutes between flights so now we are 40 minutes late. We were told over the loud speaker to head to our gate - there were 7 of us. We raced to the gate only to find out the plane decided to leave 5 minutes early (EARLY!!!), thus we all missed it. They offered to send us the next day but we would have missed our ship so it wouldn't work for us. The ship was at sea for several days so flying to Australia and then off to the next port would have resulted in hotel stays waiting to leave, thus missing 3 days of the cruise. Not something we wanted to do. Plus, it wasn't offered to us. They didn't know what to do with us so they sent us home. Due to the late hour, Princess wasn't open for us to even discuss options - their emergency number for delayed travel has business hours, which we were 8 hours outside of...

We have been fighting with Delta to cover the expense of the cruise as Princess won't cover it, although we are begging them to roll it over into another cruise if possible. We are still waiting on that. Delta told us to file a complaint. I have filed two. I was then told I should hear in 30 days... I have never bought travel insurance as I have never had an issue like this. Our flight was scheduled by Delta directly and they were aware of the cruise times and date when I worked with them on the phone to schedule our flights.

So, as it stands we are now hoping to re-coup the expense from Delta and it's feeling like a battle we will loose. Loosing almost $6,000 isn't an option I am ok with. Will I get travel insurance going forward, yes. But I refuse to let this be a $6,000 lesson. 

If you want to see how our battle is going, here is where it's currently raging. Feel free to leave a comment if you agree this is BS - we need all the support we can get and it only helps Delta pay attention. 

We Officially Moved to Mexico

Sorry, we aren't all that great at updating this page... We are trying..

We officially made the move to Mexico on November 5th and were there for 5 weeks working on our visas, getting furniture, making friends, exploring and just enjoying our time there.

We managed to get our place almost fully furnished thanks to some great sales, especially Buen Fin. We hired a company to screen in our main deck so we can turn that into our "dining area" and free up some space in our condo. We comissioned a few items for the condo, like more cabinets, wine rack, shelving and a bar to be built but those items aren't completed yet. Keith was most excited to furnish our top deck, just in time for our first pizza party with 20 of our neighbors!! 

The people here have been amazing and we have met so many great friends - we feel very thankful to be doing this. To say we are in love with our new home is an understatement. 

At the end of the 5 weeks we had to fly back to the US where we spent the holidays with family, went on a cruise to the Caribbean (that Keith won last year) and are now preparing for another cruise to Fiji.

Currently we are still in FL, where it is ridiculously cold! We are very fortunate to have so many great travels ahead of us but we are very excited to finally get to cross Fiji off our travel list. It's funny really... We are heading to this amazing part of the world that we have both wanted to go to yet we are anxious to get back to Mexico. We miss it terribly!! It feels silly to complain but the reality is we are so in love with our new home that it makes all these other places pale in comparison... Nevertheless, we are thanful for the opportunities given to us and will go and enjoy ourselves.

Mexico, we miss you. We will see you at the end of January... Just in time for me to turn 41.

Our Roadtrip Across the US

Our roadtrip started September 9th from Seattle to FL last 32 days and was over 6500 miles. We visited 25 States.  Weleft Seattle on September 9th with all we could fit in our Hyundai Santa Fe along with our two dogs, Lionel and Chance.

I won't bore you with details of each stop but I will lay out where we went:

Seattle, WA - (drove through Idaho) - Montana - Wyoming - South Dakota (we drove by Mt. Rushmore) - (drove through Minnesota and Wisconsin (we stopped for cheese and a pink elephant!)) - Illinois (we went to see our friend Jessie and to see a Cubs game) - (drove through Indiana and stopped at our favorite candy company) - Ohio (we stayed here for 10 days with my folks - we went to a Reds game, drove to KY for a day, went to a beer festival and spent lots of time with the fam) - Pennsylvania (Stayed in Hershey and then stopped to see the Flight 93 Memorial) - Connecticut (Lunch with Keith's Coast Guard buddy, Bill, and then dinner at Mystic Pizza) - New Hampshire (stayed in Salem by accident, apparently there is more than one Salem in that area. Either way we still visited Salem, MA. We also made a day trip to Portland, Maine where we had the BEST lobster roll and oysters. On our way back to the hotel we spent a few hours in Kennebunkport. We spent one day in Boston as well where we went to a Red Sox game. One the way to RI, we drove through Cape Cod so I could see it.) - Rhode Island (We went to the Coast Guard base to look for the Willow, but it wasn't there... We had dinner at one of Keith's old hangouts when he lived there.) - New Jersey (We had breakfast with our friend Bonnie and lunch with Keith's Uncle, we drove through NY and saw Manhattan from a distance) - Pennsylvania (We stayed in Philly but had dinner with one of Keith's friends) - (drove through Maryland and Delaware)  - Virginia (We stayed in an airbnb in a cute house on the water and we visited with friends in the area) - Tennessee (we stayed here several days so I could show Keith where I grew up, my college, high school and my friends threw a BBQ for us) -  (drove through Gerogia, planned to stop in Savannah for a night but hurricane Irma was happening so we skipped it and went through) - Florida (our final stop in Ocala at my Mom's)

Cubs game with Jessie!

Red's game with my dad!

BBQ in Nashville with friends!

BB

Things we learned on this last trip...

We just got back from our most recent trip to Akumal, where we finally closed on our new condo. We spent 9 days down there getting the condo together as best we could in the time allocated. We managed to get a TV, two king sized mattresses, washer/dryer (they don't hook it up for you, if you were wondering) by Telebodega. We also ordered many items from an amazing store called Liverpool but we had to delay that delivery until we return. We managed to find a couch, rug, dining table, bedding and a dresser. It's finally coming together!

I'd love to share a few things we learned and experienced on this last trip as they were interesting and at times, odd.

• The water there makes everything have a residue and you have to run and flush your water often or it startes to smell... It's hard water that has a softener in it where we live...
• Ants like to come inside when it rains and I don't mean one, I mean like tons!! Also I hear scorpions come up the drain but sounds like we don't have to worry since we live on the top floor... Still, I had no idea! Oh and the bats, they poop on everything there... Our white walls and deck will eventually get stained by the poop so you have to clean it often. BAT POOP!!!
• Gas stations in Mexico are expensive (gas is like $3.49 a gallon) and they typically won't allow cards even though they have card machines. They pump the gas for you and there are over 10 different scams they try to pull. The best way to make sure you don't get taken advantage of is to get out and watch them pump the gas the whole time... Make sure you show them your money and state exactly what it is you are handing them while showing it to them so they don't try and switch your 100 pesos for a 10... Make sure they zero out the meter so you actually get your 200 pesos of gas and not 100 because the guy before you also got a 100 and they left it at 100... We found it best to just how much pesos you want to spend on gas vs. telling them to fill it up. 
• Getting pulled over by the police is a scary experience in regards to they don't know English and they want to take your license and possibly even your plates. Then they expect you to go to their station to pay the fine to get them back. I had read to pretend you understand NO Spanish and to try and confuse them as much as you can. I guess the paperwork is time consuming for them so many times they will give up and send you on your way. This is what we did and we were told to go on our way... no fine, no bribery, no nothing... The poor guy looking relieved when we left. However, if you do get pulled over, have your license already pulled out, don't let them see your cash. I have been told they won't ask for it. One friend said they have 200 pesos in their wallet (that's like $10), just in case... But make sure the rest is not in sight. I didn't experience this so I can't speak on it first hand... just the confusion part. that worked for us this time but who knows about next time.
• Confusion can happen easily if you don't speak Spanish. So when it comes to numbers, write them down and make sure both parties agree that it's what was meant. 200 pesos and 1200 pesos are very different, had we just written it down we wouldn't have gotten stuck owing our delivery driver more money than what we had on us... Fun times.
• The grocery store was fun to just walk around and look at their products. there are many products we sell here but many are a lot more expensive as they are imported. Walmart is not a place I would suggest as the products there were cheaply made but not necessarlity cheap - there are more stores available to you with better products. 

That's it for now, or at least all I can think of at the moment. This trip was a huge learning experience and I equate it as a child having to re-learn how to live life. Our priority #1 is to learn Spanish now as our elementary school Spanish just wasn't cutting it as much as we would have liked.

Adios for now!

18 Days & Counting...

It's insane, but we only have 18 days until we leave our home in WA and start this new adventure. 

We plan to start our U.S. Tour on the 9th and stop in atleast 21 states (over 5,000 miles) to see friends and family before the big move to Mexico on Dec 28th.

If you'd like to follow us on the tour, check out this link.

Stay tuned for updates - we plan to blog more so we will have a record of our adventure.

-Tarah & Keith