Trip to Mexico

Hey everyone! I won't be listing many frugal accomplishments this week because we spent the majority of it in Cancun with my sister. So I thought I'd share a few highlights and pictures.

It was Baby's first plane ride! Well, her first FOUR plane rides, to be exact. We had a short 40-minute ride first, a layover in Chicago, and then another 3.5 hour ride down to Cancun. Baby Girl did great on all of the rides. Of course she had a few minutes of fussiness here and there, but she spend most of the flights sleeping or playing on our laps. I think four months is a great age to travel with a baby. We didn't have to worry about food because she's still nursing, plus she's not old enough to throw a real fit or need toys to be entertained. Plus she's not even mobile, so.... win.

There was good news and bad news in Mexico. The bad news was that it never got hot enough to go swimming. Boo! The good news is that I never took the tags off of Baby Girl's cute little $14.00 swimsuit. So I'm returning it. Our primary souvenir from our Mexico was a nebulizer... which is a long story in itself. But hey, at least it was a practical purchase! I think I'm going to find a Cancun sticker somewhere and put it on the machine. Leaving for Cancun right on the tail of a horrible cold was not ideal. We ended up taking Baby to the doctor (which was only half the cost of a well-baby visit... yay!) and I had a nasty cold sore the whole week with a touch of breathing difficulty. Fun right? 

We intentionally picked a very easy all-inclusive resort vacation this year instead of a backpacking trip or road trip. We had a lot of fun going to the coffee shop for warm beverages, walking along the beach, sitting by the pool eating french fries and watching shows in the evening. My favorite show was a circus show. The Mexican show was also good, but their "American" show had some raunchy parts. It only had one English song! We figured out at the end that it was more of a South/Central "American" show than a North American show.

One of the highlights for me was having two real date nights with my Hubs! My sister came along with us and was able to babysit for a few nights. Hubs made a reservation at the resort's fanciest restaurant, which featured a six-course meal. I tried so many new things! 

Baby octopus

In another life, I would've loved to be a chef. At two of the restaurants I got to try things I've only read about in books. Things like poached quail eggs, foie gras, crab croquettes and truffle mayonnaise. I had to explain to Hubs that truffles are a type of mushroom and not chocolate. LOL!

Yellow fin tuna tartar

Tequila sunrise

Poached pear with prosecco

As much as I loved trying new oddities though, I don't think I could live on the stuff. Too many weird flavors! I still love a good hamburger, fries and ice cream for dessert. One thing I found interesting about the "fancy" food was that it included stuff most of us would throw out. For example, some ingredients on the menu were things like purslane (a common weed in our area), huitlacoche (fungus that grows on sweet corn), pumpkin blossoms and pea shoots. As a frugal home cook, it was interesting for me to see these "free" ingredients mixed right in with the expensive ones. One person's trash is another one's treasure.

Another "first" for me was getting a professional manicure. It cost somewhere between $40.00 and $50.00 (price was in pesos), which is why I've never had one done before. I upgraded to gel polish so it would last longer. It's been four days since I had it done, and no chips so far. Gel polish is a bit more expensive (it has to be cured with UV or LED light, not just air-dried), plus there are some health concerns with its frequent and long-term use. However, I haven't painted my fingernails in years because the polish chips when I wash dishes (which is every day). Not only that, but with a baby now I don't have an hour to let multiple coats of polish dry. With an LED lamp, a coat of gel polish will dry in 30 seconds. Right now there's not room in our personal care budget for a $40.00 nail polish setup, but if I save a dollar or two every week there might be room by the end of the year.

While I'm very happy with the polish job, the nail tech didn't do a perfect job with the filing or cuticle clipping. I don't think a nail polish job is worth $40.00 or $50.00, so I probably won't be getting another professional manicure done for a very long time. 

On our last day of vacation, we visited some Mayan ruins at Tulum. While these were nowhere near as old as the ruins we saw in Guatemala (Tikal), they were still pretty cool. Most of us were feeling better by Friday, the weather had finally warmed up and it was a great day.

Baby girl had her own fan following of complete strangers. These were just two of her fans.

Our last night on vacation.

So that is all I have to share for the week! As always, it's great to be back home and working on projects again. I look forward to giving a good frugal accomplishments report next week.

​-Bethany