Spring vacation is always high drama at our house. There are months of posturing, planning, political maneuvering and undue influence that go into the process of deciding where we should go. Usually we can agree in a reasonable amount of time but this year is different. I've been throwing things up against the wall for months with barely a reaction from the wife.
"How about a dive trip?" "Meh."
"Beach trip?" "Meh."
"Hoboken, New Jersey?" (No reaction)
So, tomorrow night (after the football games, of course), we will sit down and each present three ideas for consideration. The wife is much cooler about this than I am and barely shows any emotion or interest in the subject. This is a good tactic, especially when dealing with one whose interest in Spring vacation rivals that of Ralphie toward his Red Ryder BB Gun.
On Thursday night we went to the brewpub for dinner and I convinced her to play a version of "Twenty Questions" to gain greater insight into her choices. She reluctantly agreed to play. In the end, however, this laborious task revealed little about her choices other than the fact that they are not dive trips. Rats - I was looking forward to diving. I may have to turn up the heat on the political influence today and tomorrow to get my point across.
"Honey, remember that great time that we had diving in Roatan some years ago. Man, that was a great trip! What about when we saw the mermaid off the coast of Belize? What? You didn't see that? Yes, dive vacations are a guaranteed good time, don't you think"?
Somehow I feel that she will see through these ploys and opt for her choices, however undefined.
My choices? I thought you'd never ask.
Mazatlan, Scuba Club Cozumel and, the piece de resistance, Xcalak.
The first two are easy to explain. We went to Mazatlan for a beach vacation several years ago and had a great time. There was a small grocery store across the street from our hotel that sold quarts of Pacifico beer. I beat a path to that store many times that week. There were numerous excellent restaurants scattered around the area and the beach was excellent. Scuba Club Cozumel is a wonderful dive resort on the island of Cozumel, Mexico that offers an all-inclusive dive and dining experience. The diving is great and the food is wonderful. There are better places to dive, however, due to the fact that the currents can be quite strong running through the channel between Cozumel and Playa del Carmen. In a perfect world, we'd prefer lighter currents and have enjoyed some wonderful diving in The Cayman Islands, Bonaire, Curacao as well as many other places with little or no currents to deal with. This one may be a tough sell.
The last one, Xcalak, is one sale that even the best and most conniving used car salesman would have trouble closing. Xcalak is a small fishing village on the extreme southeast corner of Mexico. It is a wonderful eco-tourism destination and reportedly has excellent salt water fly fishing as well as great diving....did I mention that I really want to go diving? Anyway, as with many fantastic destinations, getting there is challenging. In this case, it's a 5-hour drive from Cancun. Yes, five hours on desolate Mexico highways...cattle crossing the road, iguanas the size of golden retrievers, danger lurking around every corner. If the rental car (picture a Yugo with 200,000 miles on it) breaks down, we're toast (or, in this case, tortillas).
I can see how the wife's wheels will be turning when I present this tomorrow. She will have images of Pancho Villa and his gang setting up a roadblock demanding all of our money in exchange for sparing our lives. Or the federales stopping us for a minor traffic infraction that will cost us two weeks in a Mexican jail. Or, worst of all, we'll miss the NCAA Final Four.
More later.
Enjoy your day.
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