THANKSGIVING 2016 in CANCUN

Thanksgiving 2016..... a long weekend in the Sun!

Ray and I had never been to Cancun, so we decided to give it a try. Ray selected the Excellence Hotel at Playa Mujeres just north of the town of Cancun. It's at the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula, really the Eastern most point in Mexico. We are both very happy Ray picked this hotel. It has about 7 pools and 10 restaurants. Food, entertainment, and drinks
are all included! Oh, and ADULTS only!!! We arrived on Wednesday afternoon, November 23rd. The first thing we did after checking in was head to the bar for Mexican Margaritas !

Really pretty hotel, right???

So we went for dinner Wednesday night at "Agave", the Mexican Restaurant at the Hotel.

Afterwards there was a Jersey Boy Show in the bar area. Only 3 guys singing, but good songs and harmonies. Then the deal is you go to a big open air theater for a stage show. 

That night it was an Elvis Presley impersonator. He was good at it. Mom would have loved that show. We didn't stay long. We enjoyed the warm night air on our private ( sort of) patio.....

Thursday , Thanksgiving Day, We took the local Ferry to the nearby Island, Isla Mujeres.

This Island was first populated but the Mayans ( more on them later) and when the Spanish Explorers discovered it, the Mayan people had abandoned the island, but there were lots of female statues , hence the name "Island of the Women."

The place is very touristy now, with a flea market lining the streets. We headed straight to a quieter street with a comfortable looking restaurant. Lunch was yummy! Cervesas and real Mexican dishes. Then we walked down the block to the Playa Norte, one of the most beautiful beaches in all of Mexico, which is saying a lot! And it was a fabulous beach!!

Isla Mujeres Playa Norte...... a perfect beach.  We rented chairs and an umbrella and hung out happily for a couple hours that afternoon.

Thursday evening was dinner at Chez Isabelle, The French place in the Hotel. With another show in the evening. There are a lot of young couples here, many of them on their Honeymoon. Some are in groups. There is a LOT of drinking and partying going on as you can imagine.....

Friday Morning after our buffet breakfast, we headed to the nearby golf course , Playa Mujeres, to play our 9 holes. 

We got on the course and saw a sign about crocodiles on the course, so we kept an eye out.  We saw our first one floating in a little lagoon just watching us. Later on hole 9, there was a very BIG guy lying on the side of the fairway near a pond. He was basking in the sun and didn't seem interested in us. But he was SCARY!!! Ray did not seem too excited, but I was Very happy to leave that course. 

Here's Ray's photo of that crock. His tail goes all they way to that green sign behind him that probably says "Beware of Crocks". We didn't stick around long enough to read it..

Crocodiles have been known to attack golfers in the area. We were lucky.

Friday afternoon, we relaxed at the resort and enjoyed our patio and the "lazy River" pool in back of us. Dinner Friday was a special reservation for a table in the sand by the shore. 

There is a beach here with nice warm water, but a lot of seaweed and debris that rolls in to shore. But it was nighttime so we couldn't see any of that. Dinner was good, not great. We shared Rays entree, as I didn't want to eat mine. It was a very breezy evening by the water too.

After dinner was a great show. A singer who I loved. Ray didn't go with me, but I rocked out!

Her name was Claudia Trevino. She is from Cancun, but sings like an American. You can see her on You Tube.

Saturday we rose early to meet our driver and guide. His name was Wenceslau.... a local guy and father of 3.  His mission was to take us to visit the old Mayan town of 

Chichen Itza.

On our 2 1/2 hour drive to Chichen Itza, we stopped in this small town populated with descendants of the original Mayans. This is the 16th century church there.. It's no longer in use, just a relic of the past and a reason for tourists to stop.

Here we are at the base of the famous pyramid. Chichén Itzá is a world-famous complex of Mayan ruins on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. A massive step pyramid known as El Castillo dominates the 6.5-sq.-km. ancient city, which thrived from around 600 A.D. to the 1200s. Graphic stone carvings survive at structures like the ball court, Temple of the Warriors and the Wall of the Skulls. Nightly sound-and-light shows illuminate the buildings' sophisticated geometry.

This whole complex is dedicated to Mayan religious ceremonies and celebration of the 

Solar equinox, and the sacrificing of people to the God of Rain whenever the weather was too dry..... which was often.

Lots of Crafts for sale at these historic sites......and everywhere else ...

This is a sinkhole near Chichen Itza....... The water is 40 feet deep and the Mayans used to throw people in for sacrifice.

LONDON THEATER TRIP , NOVEMBER 2016

Let's all Go to London and see a few plays!! NOV 8th to the 17th, 2016.

This trip is organized by Weston Playhouse in Weston, VT. My friend , Janet, and I signed up to
join a group of 19 theater lovers to gather at the Montague Hotel in Bloomsbury. We are just next to the British museum and a short walk to Covent Garden.

I arrived in London on the morning of Nov. 9th, just as we were learning the results of the US election between Trump and Hilary Clinton. Trumps victory was stunning and unexpected, so
we all saw our first play in a state of shock.

Wednesday afternoon matinee was The Wyndam's Theater to see NO MAN'S LAND,  by Harold Pinter, starring Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart.  In the evening we took our private coach to
Chelsea for a "Welcome Dinner" at a wonderful restaurant called BLUEBIRD. A duck salad and amazing Daube de Boeuf. Excellent meal. I was the only Republican in the whole group and my fellow travelers didn't know how or what to say to me since I represented the "rednecks" who voted for Trump ( an actual quote).  It was very awkward for a while, but things did settle down in time.


Thursday Morning, we had a conversation with the other 2 actors from "No Man's Land". Owen Teale and Damien Malony  are also great actors. The show was very well cast. The session was moderated by our theater tour leader, Giles Ramsay. Giles has been leading this tour for many years. He is a London theater professional who is very knowledgeable about all things thespian, and also great at managing a group of Americans.

Thursday afternoon, Janet and I bought Oyster Cards and rode the Underground to Harrods to shop.
Then lunch in the amazing food Court. We went to the fish area and had Bouillabaisse and Fish Pie, and some lovely wines.

Thursday evening was The Garrick Theater to see "The Entertainer" starring Kenneth Branagh and Greta Sacchi. This one didn't really do it for me. After No Mans Land, it was a real disappointment.
But hey, you can't love it all, right?

Friday morning, we rode our coach to Sands Films. they make movies and they make all the costumes for their movies, plus design and make period costumes for others, but film and live theater.
It was fascinating. Lunch after was Fish and Chips at the Mayflower Pub. It dates back to the 1600s.
A must do!

Friday evening was a Great play at the Young Vic Theater called "THE NEST".....By Xaver Kroetz,
and translated from German to English by Conor McPherson. I'll tell you about this and any other play if you ask, but I'm not going into the synopsis here. I loved this 2 actor play.

The big event on Saturday was the matinee performance at the OLD VIC Theater of Shakespeare's KING LEAR.  In a stark and modern world reality, Lear is played by a stunning female British actor,
Glenda Jackson. She is now about 80 years old , and a formidable actor . She was amazing in this supremely challenging tragic role.  Saturday evening Janet and I took a walk to an Indian restaurant
called THE RED FORT. We had the tasting menu and loved the food.

Sunday was a concert at Wigmore Hall. It's a former piano showroom which is now a concert hall.
I skipped this event and took a long walk around the neighborhood instead. In the afternoon, Janet and I took a walk to Covent Garden. It isn't far from the Hotel. Looking up at the spectacle that is Covent Garden, Janet missed a stone step,   and fell down onto a solid stone floor. She picked herself up and brushed off, saying she thought no damage was done. Very relieved, the two of us kept going. We shopped and walked on to St Martins Church for the 5pm Evensong service there. As we approached, the bells were ringing in the church's tower to welcome all coming for the service.
It's a lovely place and we both enjoyed the service and the music. Next off to a nice Thai Restaurant to meet Giles, our guide, for a glass of wine and a chat, then dinner. It was called Patara at #7 Maddox Street. Yummy!

Monday morning, Janet woke up with a swollen and sore knee. She decided to get it checked by a doctor, and spent that day and the next resting that knee and dealing with general bruising and soreness everywhere after that fall. Such a shame, and not too surprising that she was hurting after that jarring fall.

I went to the British Museum on Monday to see the exhibit on Sunken Cities in Egypt. A coastal city near Alexandria was abandoned in the 8th Century ( 700s) as it slowly but surely sank into the Mediterranean Sea. It was discovered in the 20th Century and excavated. Statues of Kings and gods
were cleaned off after centuries buried in sand and silt. Lots of good Egyptian history there.

Our show on Monday night was called ( get ready)...... AN INTELLIGENT HOMOSEXUAL'S GUIDE TO CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM WITH A KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES
by Tony Kushner ( he's the author of Angels in America). This is a challenging and very engaging piece about a union organizer who feels he sold out and that his life was a waste. He hosts an outrageous family reunion with his 3 adult kids who try hard to dissuade him from committing suicide.

Tuesday started with a discussion with Edward Snape, a London producer. I missed that talk as I overslept.

At 3pm I met with Piper, another trip leader, to see Lin Manuel Miranda's ( Hamilton creator) first musical, IN THE HEIGHTS. It was fantastic, and a musical was a great antidote to the selection of straight plays , all dramas, that were on the tour.

Piper and I took the underground "Tube" to Our final show. Love the tube..... it's clean orderly, not too noisy, and very civilized public transport.  The NATIONAL THEATER is an amazing State funded arts institution.  We saw THE RED BARN, a psychological thriller by David Hare, at the Lyttleton Theater. The sets and technical effects are great, not so much the play. The group returned to the hotel, and like most evenings, we spent an hour or so in the bar hanging out, munching on bar sandwiches and having a drink.. or two.

We met Wednesday morning to discuss with Piper the last 3 shows that we saw together, then we were joined by Giles and Matt Wolf. He's an American who has worked in London as a Theater Critic
for over 25 years. Good session.
I had lunch with Janet, who is feeling better, in the hotel restaurant. A London afternoon walk around and through Russell Square, some reading and a nap, and I'm ready for our final  "Farewell" dinner
at the YORK AND ALBANY restaurant, located near Regent's Park. It is a Gordon Ramsey owned
eatery in a former 1820's coaching inn.