wandering around the waldorf

we all slept in on our first full day in cabo.  oops.  we totally missed breakfast and the day was in full swing by the time we managed to get ourselves up and ready to check things out around the resort.  i busted out one of my new caftans - probably one of my most favorite amazon finds ever - and we headed out to the market to find some food.

along with our salads and sandwiches, i discovered the coffee bar...and the freshly baked desserts.  this was my first of many iced caramel lattes and a slice of tres leches cake, both of which were surprisingly super delicious.

we spent some time hanging out at the pool and before we knew it, it was already late afternoon and time for us to catch a taxi that would take us to the waldorf astoria resort for dinner in one of their restaurants.  it had come highly recommended by one of the hub's clients and he'd managed to snag us a reservation.

the waldorf in cabo is absolutely gorgeous.

we were a little early for our reservation, so we made our way down to the beach where a champagne bar was set up on the sand.  and instead of regular seats, there were swings all around the bar.

on our way to the restaurant, we spotted a pretty setup on the beach where someone was going to enjoy a nice little intimate dinner for two.

we checked in and then were briefly seated at the bar before being shown to our table.

we had a gorgeous view of the ocean, with the waves crashing just below us and sending a light mist our way that cooled us off nicely.

our server brought the menu to our table and went through the list and offered recommendations for our meal.

and everything we ate was delicious, perfectly seasoned and cooked beautifully.

oh, and we were celebrating our anniversary.  heh.

a quick selfie before we left to wander around the resort a bit.

we decided to hang out at the bar and listen to some live music before heading back to our own resort.

it was a really lovely evening spent together in a beautiful setting, and a wonderful way to end our first day of our vacation.

from cabo with love

we usually try to take at least one big trip at some point during summer break.  and since we'd just been to hawaii in february for the old lady's wedding we decided that it was a good time to try going somewhere we'd never been before - which we'd attempted to do a couple of years ago, but got derailed by...well, you can guess.

the newlyweds had delayed their honeymoon till july, because the groom's job restricts him from taking too many days off at one time.  they spent a good amount of time checking out a whole bunch of different destinations and resorts to book.  the hub found an all-inclusive resort in cabo san lucas that looked pretty nice, and they liked it enough to book it for a week.  

after looking at our calendars and coordinating our schedules for the summer, it turned out that the best window we had available for a trip fell on the week before the kids' honeymoon.  and then we ended up booking a resort in cabo that was happened to be right next door to the one they were going to stay at.  heh.

the nice thing about traveling to cabo is that it's only a 2-hour flight from LAX, which is really nice.  

the hub has access to the admirals club, so once we got ourselves checked in and dropped off our luggage we went inside to relax and grab something to eat.

i started out with a latte, some eggs and bacon and a cup of yogurt.

the hub grabbed himself an avocado toast:

and then i found the cereal bar around the corner, while he went to the bar and grabbed a mimosa for me.  never too early for a mimosa, right?  i mean, it's ORANGE JUICE.

when the bean and i hit the restroom for a potty stop, i fell in love with the scent of the hand soap and lotion at the counter.  i took this so that i could hit the google and hopefully grab a bottle for myself:

(i still have yet to find it, btw. it figures that i find another fragrance that's freaking impossible to buy)

and then it was time to head to the gate and board the plane.

it was such a short flight that i didn't even have time to finish the movie i started watching after takeoff.  it was "the lost city" with channing tatum and sandra bullock, if you were wondering.  super cheesetastic but still entertaining...at least for me because i'm not turning down a chance to watch channing in a movie.

since we hadn't booked the shuttle that would take us to the resort, we ended up getting roped into listening to a sales pitch that was disguised as a taxi stand.  it was pretty annoying once we figured out what had happened, but luckily we got through it and finally made our way to a taxi.

the drive took about half an hour, and then we were pulling into the resort.

of course, we arrived at the same time as a shitton of other people, so checking in took a hot minute.  the lobby was pretty nice, though.

after dodging two different salespeople who were trying to get us to attend a timeshare presentation (free breakfast isn't exactly a big draw when you're already on an all-inclusive plan), we finally had keys and found a driver to take us to our room.  this resort is really big and very hilly, and this was only the first of many, many golf cart rides that week.

we dropped our bags off in our room - which was really nice, with a full kitchen and separate living room and a pretty big balcony.  i know i took pictures of it...somewhere.  anyway, we were pretty hungry by then and so we called for another golf cart to take us to the marketplace, which was back up the hill near the lobby.

the market was set up kind of like a food court, with a bunch of stands that offered everything from sushi rolls to fresh pasta to made-to-order crepes and housemade ice cream.  this ended up being our favorite place to eat in the whole resort.

although i definitely felt judged by my coke can:

we explored a little after we were done eating, checking out the gift shops and other restaurants on property.

the hub had already scoped out a cigar shop to visit, and so our next activity was hopping into another taxi that took us into town.

we wandered around on foot after that, ending up at a pretty nice mall near the marina not too far away.

it was a pretty nice, laid back way to start off our vacation.  we missed being with the kids, but we'd promised to scope things out and report back to them so that they'd be able to plan out their own vacations the following week.

plus, i guess we need to get used to not having them with us all the time.  you know, since they're like grownup married people now.  sigh.

bonding with the bestie

the bean's very best friend from elementary school changed schools when they got into junior high.  they'd really missed each other over the last three years, and we tried to get together with them as often as possible (which, of course, was further complicated by the dang pandemic).  and so they were completely over the moon when they were both accepted into their top pick for high school because that meant that they'd be reunited for at least four more years.

we were stoked when bestie's mom, the doctor, managed to score us tickets for their graduation ceremony.  they had come to support the bean and their other classmates at our celebration, and so we were happy to be able to reciprocate.  

and then a couple of weeks later, they got another chance to spend some time together when we found ourselves with an extra ticket for the bean's year-end cheer banquet.  it was a little bittersweet because we knew this would be the very last year of cheer for the bean.  high school is going to be challenging enough as it is, and i already knew that the schedule wouldn't allow for the extra days we'd become accustomed to taking off for traveling to competitions.  

at least we got to end their cheer career in style though, with an extra lavish gatsby-themed banquet aboard a yacht that cruised around the harbor in marina del rey.

despite their relief at knowing there would be no more practices and competitions, i knew the bean was a little sad to say goodbye to friends they'd made on the team over the years.

ah, well.  one chapter closes and another one begins, amirite?