Farewell to Belize, and Farewell to this Blog

After our seven hour layover in San Salvador, we took the short flight back to Belize City followed by an even shorter flight to San Pedro. We stayed at the most excellent Xanadu Resort, where Amy had won a two night stay at a blood drive earlier in the year.

The resort is just off the alley that we rode down every morning on the way to school, and although we'd seen it from the beach hundreds of times, we'd never actually been inside the grounds. It is beautiful, and there are many cool structures, tables, chairs, benches, and other pieces of outdoor furniture made out of local hardwoods. Most of these were made by our friend Rasta Glenn, a super friendly guy we met shortly after we moved to San Pedro.

We stayed in the bottom room of this groovy eco-dome building

The boys checking out the cool trails on the grounds

View from the resort

We had two days in San Pedro to tie up all sorts of loose ends--closing out bank accounts, getting our deposit back from BTL, getting our deposit back from our property managers, etc., but most importantly of all, getting all of our stuff back from our friend Rosemary. Her kids were away for almost the entire time we were traveling, and she very graciously offered to store all of our things in her apartment.

I had texted Rosemary as soon as we were back in Belize, and then again when we were in San Pedro, but didn't hear anything. I figured she was busy working and didn't worry.

The next morning we had the Lausen kids plus their visiting cousin over to hang out with the boys and swim in the pool and play on the beach. In the meantime, Amy and I took turns completing our various errands.

By early afternoon, we still hadn't heard from Rosemary, and since our flight was the next day, we were beginning to feel a little concerned. Amy called her work and was told that she was...in Mexico. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! So we called her boyfriend Jules, who manages the apartment building, and discovered he was, naturally, in Mexico with her. Belizean cell phones do not work in Mexico, so we weren't sure what to do.

Amy suggested we go to Jules' father's house, which is just across the street from the apartment building, and thankfully he was there and let us into the apartment. We had originally planned on using the golf cart we got as part of the two night stay at Xanadu to move our suitcases, but one of the conditions of getting into the apartment was removing everything in one shot, so we hired a taxi. I phoned Orlando and he was there within about 15 minutes (lightning fast by Belize standards!). We loaded all of the stuff into his taxi and took it to Xanadu.

With all of our stuff safely retrieved, we began our final round of goodbyes. We returned the Lausens to their house, and the boys bid farewell to Nicholas and Alexandra. It was a bittersweet parting, but we are hoping we can see them again in Seattle someday.

Saying goodbye to the Lausens

The Three Amigos!

We loaded all of our stuff into one more taxi, then loaded our stuff into a Maya Island Air plane, transferred to the American Airlines plane, and tried to get into the waiting area. As we passed through the scanners at the security checkpoint, a security guy grabbed my backpack, said "Is this yours?" and pulled me aside. He said my u-lock and bike cable could not be carried on to the plane because they were potential weapons (WTF!!) and that we had too many carry-ons. So I schlepped my stuff back to the American counter, paid $150 to check two of our carry-ons, and to his credit, the security guy argued with the American personnel that we should be able to put the bike lock and cable back into one of our checked bags. Unfortunately the American personnel would have none of it, so I gave the guy the key to the u-lock, encouraged him to keep it well lubricated, and headed out to my gate.

On our way from San Pedro to Belize City

Anxiously awaiting our flight back to the US of A. Liam finally found his much coveted stuffed keel-billed toucan!

Flying over the Gulf of Mexico, on our way to Texas

Our flight from Belize to Texas was fairly uneventful, but when we landed in Dallas-Ft Worth, we had to hustle to get our bags re-checked into the connecting flight, and had a palm frond fan that Liam made for Amy confiscated by the Customs personnel. Again, they were very friendly.

And then...we were back in Seattle! It all seemed so surreal, being back home after nearly a year away. Everything seemed so new, shiny, modern, and efficient, in a way it never had before. The sheer size of everything was also overwhelming, from the width of the roads to the height of the buildings. But it was good to be back home.

We spent a couple of weeks just adjusting to being back home, the faster pace, the different vibe, the absolutely overwhelming array of choices for everything. After we were a bit settled in, we invited friends and neighbors over for a slideshow of our adventures. It was a super fun evening, and a great opportunity to share our experiences with lots of people simultaneously.

And that brings this blog to a close. Thank you for reading along! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you'd like to keep up with our activities and adventures here in Seattle, please visit my other (much less frequently updated) blog here.

Farewell Belize!

Lovely welcome home sign from our awesome neighbors

(some of) The Slide Show attendees!