Wednesday, October 14, 2009

When it Rains...It Hurricanes

As we left Seattle, we were so excited for our relaxing honeymoon on the beach in Los Cabos, Mexico. We never imagined what we were in for. (actually, those who know Caleb, wouldn't be surprised at all by this story. And now that he and I are one...I get to share in the adventure) After the wedding we were so ready to kick back, relax and enjoy and well deserved vacation. We arrived in Los Cabos Sunday evening and were in awe of our resort. Had our own private plunge pool, pool chairs, right on the beach...we were so ready to check everything out the next morning. We woke up to a somewhat overcast day, but that wasn't going to stop us. We got ready to head down to the pool, when we found a note from the resort slid under our door. It said something along the lines of, "Due to the impending arrival of Hurricane Jimena, we are advising our guests to leave Los Cabos this evening as the SJD airport will be closing Tuesday morning indefinitely."

Hmm.....not quite how we planned it. We head to the lobby to talk with someone who might know what's going on. And this is what he showed us.


Hurrican Jimena. At the time she was a borderline category 5 hurricane. The biggest hurricane ever to head towards the area and the first hurricane to hit in the last 4 years.

Next step, figure out how we can get out...or hunker down, make a huge Mega run (like a big Wal-Mart) and hope for the best. After being on the phone with our airlines (which wasn't helpful) and checking online, we finally made the decision to pack up and head for the airport, hoping that somehow we could get out. The rain had started by the time we were heading to the airport with a forecast to only get worse as the hurricane came closer. Thankfully we were able to change our ticket to a standby. American Airlines created a brand new flight just to come rescue all of us stranded tourists. Thank goodness we got on! Later we heard the "eye" of the hurricane missed Los Cabos, but this left Los Cabos on the east side of the storm, which tends to be the most violent. Most of the resort guests were moved into storm shelters towards the mountains...needless to say, I think we made the right decision.

While still in Los Cabos we contacted some gracious friends who had offered us travel points for our honeymoon. We already had Cabo set up, but they added "well if anything happens, give us a call"... Jimena happened, so we called. We were able to finish our honeymoon in Vail, CO. Which was amazing! So relaxing, so beautiful!

We are SO thankful to the friends who offered us both vacations, we're glad we got to fully enjoy at least one. It reminds us how blessed we are by the friendships we have. Thank you to The Watanabes for Cabo and Thank you to The Cryers for Vail!

Here are a few pictures from our time in Vail. 13 hours in Cabo didn't leave us much time to document much...actually, anything :( We'll make it back someday. In the meantime, here are the memories we have

We took a gondola ride to the top of Vail Resort to see a beautiful sunset!


Happy Tourists!


Labor Day weekend was also Gourmet on Gore weekend.
A great food festival with great bites from around the town.
Our favorite were the Stellas (my favorite beer :).
We even got to keep the glasses!