Back to real Life ...

I have a few moments this afternoon so I thought I'd write a few words about our vacation.

Chris and I had a wonderful time. It was our first trip to Mazatlan, Mexico and our first vacation without kids in a very   l   o   n   g   time.

Honestly, part of vacationing in Mexico always bums me out a little bit. So much of the country is very poor.  Even in the resort areas, evidence of the poverty is all around you. Having said that, I am even more thankful for the many blessing that I have.

We spent more time at the hotel than we have in the past.  Most of our time was spent in the pool with our new friends from Canada. It seems that Canada supplies Mazatlan with most of its tourist money with the USA falling in at third behind Canada and Mexico.  I only met four -- count 'em, four -- other English speaking tourists from the US and the rest of them were from Canada.

Notes about Canadians:

I think that it's common knowledge that 'eh?' is an all purpose ending to just about any Canadian sentence, eh?  What I didn't know is that 'yeah, yeah, yeah' is a common beginning phrase when conversing with our friends from the north.  It's not the same slow 'Yeah,    yeah,    yeah' that you might hear from a US native--you know the kind that really means "Whatever! I'm not really paying attention to you and I have something of real value to add to the conversation."  It's said very quickly; like a single word--yeahyeahyeah, and is a way of agreeing with what you just said before continuing with their contribution to the conversation.

We've been to Mexico during the World Cup and everything really slowed down when Mexico was playing.  Large screen projectors were set up for watching the games (along with the snack bar and drink bar) and hotel employees went out of their way to slowly walk past that area and get a glimpse of the game.
This week was Canada's version of soccer's World Cup--the Stanley Cup.  And true to their national sport, they tracked down a small sports bar that showed the hockey games so that they didn't have to miss a single minute of ice time.

Chris learned that it's best to be careful when saying something funny to a Canadian. One of our new found friends spewed a mouthful of drink right back into Chris' face one afternoon.  Another Canadian just nodded her head and said, "That's the problem with telling a joke to a Canadian -- they're always drinking!"

We talked about family, work, travel, food, weather and life.  We shared our experiences on day trips into town, island excursions, horseback riding, fishing trips and restaurants. We ate together, watched the evening entertainment together and laughed together.  We exchanged e-mail address and parted with a hope that we might meet on vacation another time.

All-in-all, a good week!

Now it's back to work and back to fun. I'm getting ready to head out to a kid's camp where I get to have a little fun with magic and sharing of the Gospel story. Then I'm off to work for another mid-shift.

God is great.
Life is good.

John <><