Non Traditional Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving.... over two weeks late. I hope it was wonderful :) We've been gone since the end of November, but I'm so happy to be home!

We celebrated Friendsgiving the Tuesday before with our Village. I cooked my first turkey and managed not to screw it up! (Thanks, Williams-Sonoma Brine!)

Only 'group photo' we took... whoops. That could have gone better.

Getting ready for dessert!

We had a great time. If you notice all the funny hats, they are from our Christmas Crackers we each had. Have you ever done them? When I lived in London, everyone had them around the holidays and I thought they were so much fun. You always get a paper crown, and some type of toy, riddle or gadget. They're kind of silly, but it's a fun tradition that I stole from the Brits, because it's just fun :) I bought them at TJ Maxx, but have also seen them at Target.

The morning of Thanksgiving, we boarded a plane! We spent 90% of our Turkey Day on three different planes and in four different airports.... whew! Luckily, our second flight had free satellite tv, so I was able to watch the Macy's Parade! Gotta love technology.

I mentioned our Honeymoon in Mexico at a resort called Capella Ixtapa in the Zihuatanejo region. It's beautiful and remote, and we just love it.

there.

We were blessed enough to find that gorgeous resort on a Flash Sale via Jet Setter (seriously, sign up NOW) for about 60% off regular cost, and decided to take a mini-cation to celebrate our first anniversary and have ourselves a non-traditional Thanksgiving. 

We tacked it onto another trip, which I'll explain more about in the next few posts.

But as assumed, it did not disappoint.

We ate and drank to our hearts content, enjoyed every sunset on the balcony, swam in the pool, visited the shops in town, finished a few books and just generally enjoyed each others company while being unplugged. We even saw three whales playing out by the islands in the bay, schools of fish jumping around, and tons of beautiful birds. So pretty!

view from the balcony

inside

outside. Paradise, right?

First sunset.

Reading by the pool!

Enjoying the chips, salsa, guac and cervezas they delivered to our room each night!

Dip in our personal pool.

Down by the hotel pool

Tapas menu and my Diet Coke.... i only drink it in Mexico!

We were really stressed, as you can see.

Matt asked for "Chips and Salsa, Mas Grande" for lunch.... and this is what happened. DELICIOUS.

Sunset.

Never gets old.

bathing suits are on, i promise!

After breakfast one perfect morning.

I mean seriously. What a forecast for November/December!

These are all iPhone pics, I have a few on my camera as well. But I think it's so beautiful, it almost doesn't matter the quality of the pictures!

Can it be our anniversary every day?

I want to go back.... NOW. I asked if the hotel was hiring, and I was only half kidding.... because if I could live there, I think I would! Also, we were leaving Mexico and heading straight to Bozeman, Montana.... aka, the Arctic Tundra. More on that later... but let me give you a hint: 100 degree difference in temperature. YIKES! 

Have you been to Mexico? If you are married, have you ever revisited where you honeymooned?

xo

Wanderlust Wednesday: Ixtapa, Mexico

The only part of the "wedding" process that I was TRULY interested in was - where the heck are we going on our honeymoon!

It was one of the first things i started putting my research into. Venue? Dress? I got to them eventually :)

There are a lot of things to weigh in on your options for a honeymoon: warm + exotic, or cozy + cold? Removed from society or tourist destination? Do you want to relax the entire time, or have activities? There are tons more. We decided on: exotic, warm, slightly removed, and RELAX. This directed us to mexico, the caribbean, the pacific islands, hawaii, etc.

We started searching everything, and it was totally overwhelming. The next question - all inclusive or not? We did the math on some of the nicer resorts vs. all inclusive, and we ended up spending slightly less on drink and food for the week, and we always had exactly what we wanted (some all-inclusives are limiting on the restaurants you can eat at, etc).

Our answer: Capella Ixtapa in Ixtapa, Mexico.

the view

We found Capella through a website called Jetsetter.com and i have to tell you - it's my favorite website on the planet. They only feature five star resorts in the most beautiful places in the world, and nothing they offer is less than incredible. That being said, they also offer them at incredibly low rates (i'm talking $500 a night hotels for $150 at times) - making this a win-win for us. 

Ixtapa is in the Zihuatanejo region... which is about 2hrs north of Acapulco. Zihuatanejo is the beach that they talk about at the end of Shawshank Redemption :) It's a quiet little place on the side of a cliff... 

winning.

This place was true paradise. It's built into a side of a cliff, so each room has an infinity pool. The two large pools at the bottom are for all guests, and they're also beautiful. They have the most kind, helpful staff i've ever met in my entire life. One of the servers HUGGED Matt on our last night there, saying he would miss us. I believe a lot of this success is the low density of the hotel. It only has 50 rooms or so, and each room only has 1 king bed. So it's mostly couples, and you've got 100 people there at a time, max. The resort is large enough to where you'd barely notice. 

The food is probably the biggest reason to visit - it was truly the most amazing breakfasts i've ever had in my life! Roasted eggs, fresh tortillas and tomatoes.... divine. I just recently read an article in Conde Nast Traveler about the top 500 hotels in the world. Capella wasn't only listed as one of them, but it was the only place to receive a perfect 100 score for food and dining.... and i completely agree! Just order everything.

 

And as a little bonus, they deliver house made chips and guac to your room EVERY SINGLE DAY at 5pm. It's accompanied with dos cerveza. Absolutely perfect.

I'm especially reminiscent on our time right now because in one month exactly, we'll be back there to celebrate our first anniversary (a few weeks delayed).

  

This place was heaven on earth for us. I don't think you'd hate it either.
xo