Wichita Mountains Trip

I've been making trips to the Wichita Mountains (which contrary to popular belief are NOT in Wichita Falls, but rather in Oklahoma) most of my life. I always have a blast and talk about it to my friends, so we decided we all needed to make a trip.

There is a town close to the mountains called Medicine Park. It was founded in the early 1900s and most of the buildings are made of cobblestone. Since it's less than 2 hours from WF, I've never stayed the night, but have always wanted to stay in one of the cabins there.

I'm usually not the one in charge of planning trips (I'm not the best). But since I had been there a lot, I figured I'd take charge. It's a super small town, so there weren't many options that would fit 7 people. I tried two other cabins before this one and they were booked, so this is where we stayed: https://resnexus.com/resnexus/book/more.aspx?B=28&ID=811&ResID=25814.

So we all assumed from the pictures that these were all separate rooms (living room, kitchen, bedroom). But oh were we wrong. This was all ONE room that was smaller than a two-car garage...for 7 people (Andrea, Annette, Sherrie, Jana, Rustin, Casey and me)! We made do though - Andrea and Annette slept in the "loft" which should be more accurately called a crawl space. Annette even took a nasty fall early Saturday morning, which woke everyone up laughing. 

Sherrie and Jana were going to sleep in the pull-out bed, but upon opening it, found a pair of dirty socks and a stick??

I guess it was too many girls for poor Casey because he slept on the porch. But I must add that I'm pretty sure the wrap-around, screened-in porch was bigger than the cabin. 

During all my previous visits, it has NEVER rained, so of course it rained all day while we were there. Luckily it wasn't coming down too hard so we went for a hike anyway. 

After our hike, we went to the Visitor Center and then to eat at Meers. It was DELICIOUS as always. If you're not familiar, Meers is a hundred-year-old restaurant that serves longhorn burgers the size of pie plates. 

Back at Medicine Park, we went to the lake there. There were a lot of fish, ducks and turtles around for us to feed. 

The next morning we decided to go to the only bakery in town. To be honest, we didn't have that high of expectations but it was really good! They had these "muffins" that were made of biscuit mix, sausage and cheese and served with gravy all over them. 

There are many other funny stories to tell, but most of them are the "you had to be there" type. Hopefully I can talk them into going again and we can get a bigger cabin and no rain! 

Cozumel Vacation

I feel like I need to go to the beach every year. When I was growing up we went to see my dad's side of the family in Florida every summer, so I guess that's where it came from. It's just so relaxing and does something for my soul.  I also need to sleep in once a week (or so I thought when I was working. You didn't want to mess with me the next week if I missed my Saturday sleep in day). So seeing that I haven't slept in in an entire YEAR, I really needed a vacation!!

We planned our trip quite a while back. I figured Avery would be close to a year, so maybe I would feel more comfortable leaving her. We looked into different options (Cancun, Dominican Republic) but decided on Cozumel. I know, I know, there's travel advisories to Mexico, etc. but we weren't going to the border, and there haven't been any "drug cartel" problems where we went.

I first went to Cozumel when Andrea and my cruise ship stopped there for the day back in 2004. Then in 2005, Andrea, Vanessa and I stayed there-

It was such a fun vacation, so I suggested we stay at the same place - El Cozumeleno. Rustin was skeptical though. He thought maybe since that was the first time I ever stayed in Mexico at an all-inclusive resort, and I was fresh out of college... how should I say... my standards weren't as high?

But he gave in, and we had a BLAST (yes even Rustin was very impressed)! Here are a few pictures of the resort -

View from our hotel room  

We spent most of our time relaxing under those little huts by the beach. This is also where I got stung by bee. More on that later.  

The beach area was a little rocky, but that made it great for snorkeling. We saw tons of fish! The water was so clear and blue.  

And the food was amazing! We have never been really impressed with the food at all-inclusives in Mexico, but we were pleasantly surprised. There were only two restaurants - one casual, open-air one by the beach, then the fancy dinner restaurant.

I loved eating breakfast and drinking coffee while looking out at the ocean.  

Ah and then there's the dinner restaurant that apparently has a dress code. Men have to wear long pants and closed toed shoes, and since we were going on vacation to the beach, Rustin packed neither. Our only option was waiting until 9:30pm when there was no dress code. That sounds super late (especially since that's usually my bedtime) but it wasn't that bad. We'd eat a late snack and stay out by the beach/pool really late. Then by the time we got ready and hung out in the lobby for a little while, it was time to eat.


It was funny - the second night we were back home I was starving late at night and couldn't figure out why. Then I looked at the clock and it was 9:30! I guess my body was used to a four course meal at that time.

We both thought the food rivaled nice Dallas restaurants.

Then we (or should I say "I" since I don't think Rustin was ever worried about it) got brave and ventured into town. I was nervous, but when we got there, there was tons of other Americans because the cruise ships port there. It was a lot of fun exploring the area.

Then that night at the resort they had live music and dinner on the beach. We were expecting a mariachi band, but the band was actually pretty good and sang mainly covers of American songs. The best was when they sang "Chicken Fried" by the Zac Brown Band with their accents haha!

Now for the bad part of the trip that I mentioned earlier - I was stung by a bee for the first time. So Rustin and I were hanging out at the beach and suddenly I felt this awful pain on my inner bicep. It hurt so bad and I started crying and freaking out. Rustin thought it was weird since he's been stung by a bee and I guess it didn't hurt that bad. But I'm very allergic to things, and I felt my hands and feet going numb and Rustin could tell (and I could feel) my face and lips swelling. I also felt my throat getting tight. We ran into the lobby where Rustin found a paramedic. At this point I was also sweating profusely. I was so scared because I know when people are really allergic to things, their throat closes up. I know this may sound dramatic but that is the first time in my life I was truly scared I might die. If my throat closed up, an ambulance couldn't get there fast enough, plus I was in Mexico. I just kept praying for God to not let me die.

Rustin and a lady from the hotel ran up to our room and got Benadryl for me. I took 3, and the paramedic called the hospital. They said if I wasn't better in 10-15 minutes after the Benadryl, I would need to go there. Praise the Lord, I did get better. I just looked like I had a lot of Botox the rest of the day.

As I'm writing this, it's Sunday night (this happened Wed.) and I still have a rash that itches so much it keeps me up every night, and I am constantly putting cream on it. I tried to take a picture of it last night.

We are thankful for such an awesome vacation. I would miss it more, but I was so happy to get home and see Avery. I think she had a great time with her Nana though (my mom).

I'll close with a few more pictures -