Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Jen's Birthday Fiesta - Playa del Carmen

The house had 6 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms; this was the view from my bed.
My good friend Jen had a big birthday this year; a milestone number, one might say. But since no one would ever guess what number by looking at her, I'm not going to state it here. What I will say is that she had the incredibly generous idea to rent a house in Mexico and invite her closest friends to join her for a week of fun and sun. So a group of her friends from Lexington, KY where Jen lives, Seattle, San Antonio, and L.A., showed up in Playa del Carmen last week to celebrate and relax and wish Jen a happy birthday. I had met one of the guests, Elaine, in passing a few times with Jen in Seattle, but the others were complete strangers -- but by the end of the week, I felt like I had a ton of new friends. Here's a recap of the week --

First dinner out. Our taxi driver Julio took us here and told us to get the "tacos locos"
which nearly all of us did, and they were indeed locos.
Elaine, me, Jen, Erin, Amy, Elizabeth, and Jason.
 

Birthday dinner on Saturday night.
From left: Ashley, me, Peter, Erin, Elaine, Jen, Lisa, Elizabeth, Jason, and Amy.




Another dinner out; only my arm and my tarmarindo drink made it into the photo. 
 Birthday breakfast on Jen's actual birthday prepared by chef Michelle:

 



Little Jen in a big chair

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Call of the Wild

Torunn came to visit from college last weekend, so of course I took her on an animal-centric adventure. We visited Predators of the Heart, an animal sanctuary in Anacortes, and communed with some wolves, sloths, and assorted other creatures.