The cold and snow often drive us away from Kansas at spring break – we’ve had enough. This year, we headed south to Puerto Vallarte, Mexico. This west coast city of 200,000 is full of hotels, resorts, and old architecture. It’s also the area where humpback whales head each winter (maybe they’re sick of the cold and snow too). We went there 3 years ago along with Linda’s parents and had a wonderful time doing tours of the city and whale watching out on a boat.

This year, we went with the plan to just relax. And that is just what we did. We stayed at an all-inclusive resort – Barcelo – about 30 minutes south of town near the Los Arcos beach and rock formations.

We mostly sat around the pool and ventured out to the beach for fun in the waves. Although the waves were so fun that, while smiling so big, a large wave blasted Emily and her retainer fell out into the ocean. What luck!

We had plenty to eat with buffet meals at breakfast, lunch at a poolside cafe each afternoon, and a different formal restaurant each evening. For dinner we had Italian, Spanish, and Mexican themed dinners – all wonderful. We had a gorgeous view of the sunset at dinner time.

What did we do through the day? Mostly a lot of this:

and of course, I had plenty of this:

Our last full day there was the day that the Kansas State Wildcats mens basketball team played in the NCAA tournament. Although televised on a channel that we could get in our room and in the bar downstairs, the channel cut away to the Mexico-Honduras soccer game during that time. The basketball game before ours and the one afterwards were shown, but ours was not. How frustrating. So, we did the next best thing – Linda found a radio broadcast over the internet that we were able to stream with our WiFi connection. This is how we tried to enjoy the game (that we ended up losing):

In all, we had a great time – and really preferred where we were over the 6 inches of snow that arrived as we got home to Kansas. Already looking forward to next spring break…

This is a bit late, but I’ve been meaning to tell everyone about this one awesome morning. After receiving just over 13 inches of snow just 4 days before, the Kansas City area received an additional 12 or so inches of snow on Tuesday, February 24. This gave us a total of about 2 feet of snow. The snow was heavy and wet; it was causing limbs to come down everywhere.

Reluctantly, at about 9:00 am, I bundled up (along with my brother-in-law) and attacked the driveway with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. Within the next 30 minutes, neighbors of about 5 houses were also out doing the same. Linda was out there with us, too. Eventually, we congregated together and completed each others driveway as a team. By the end of our time together, we had 10 people wielding snow shovels. We went up and down our block cleaning driveways, front steps, and sidewalks. It was a wonderful feeling of community.

At some point, one of the neighbors announced Beer at Bill’s house when we’re done. There were chuckles all around, but I quieted the snickers when I replied that I had plenty for all and would welcome having such good friends over for drinks after such hard work.

After we finished the heavy work, each person returned to their home to shower. The following hour found all of my good neighbors in my living room in front of the fireplace and enjoying good craft beer. The following picture was taken by Linda, therefore she is not in it!

The Kansas City area was hit with a pretty impressive snow storm yesterday. Our neighborhood received 13.5 inches of snow. Traveling was crippled as multiple cars were stranded throughout the side streets and highways. Fortunately, we didn’t have to get out that much – only for an orthodontist appointment early in the morning (more on that later).

It took 4 separate sessions of shoveling the snow to keep the driveway clear. The first was the worst as there was already about 6 or 7 inches on the ground. After completing about 3/4 of the driveway, the neighbor showed up with his snowblower. Then, we completed 4 other driveways in the neighborhood – all with the help of the neighbors. At one point we had 7 people out shoveling and snowblowing.

Finally, a snowplow came through late in the evening and cleared the street – covering the end of the driveway with a 2-foot wall of snow. Out one more time to clear the wall.

My hands are aching today from gripping the snow shovel for so long yesterday.

Kansas State won over West Virginia tonight 71-61, beating former head coach Bob Huggins. After being in a 3-way tie for 1st place in the Big 12, we have pulled away with this win to be solely in first…at least for now.

We will enjoy it while we can.

Picture courtesy K-State Sports