No tours, no temples, no ruins (not today anyway).  In thinking about what we were going to do today, my brother and I decided that we needed a vacation from our vacation.  So instead of braving the hot Cancun sun (I’ve been told it’s the same sun beating down on my back everywhere…but I still beg to differ) and humidity to explore, we decided to just hang out along the peninsula and do some zip lining and swimming.

Zipping through the sky over some jungle, some muddy brown water, and some dirt

Pedro is ready

Mi hermano, zipping through the sky

Hola! Mi nombre es Samuel

Pedro was a pro at this

The zipping field

Pedro ain’t so good with the kids

Cambria, Han and Linda joined us a day early…when Ethan and Aaron get here tonight, they will DESTROY her (and by destroy…I mean “play”)

The military does not approve of this kind of behavior, Han

Hope you all enjoyed the post by Peter yesterday (I know I didn’t). Anyway, after the long and drawn out day put on by the tour company yesterday, we decided to forego the free tour to Tulum provided by the hotel (a 12-hr trip filled with more shopping most likely) and mapped out the public bus route to explore Tulum on our own time and on our own terms. Needless to say, even though we spent about 30 minutes longer traveling and the bus wasn’t as nice as the coach bus from yesterday, we still managed to travel 90 miles away from Cancun to see the beachfront fort of Tulum.

I was slightly disappointed to discover that like yesterday, we couldn’t enter or step directly on any of the ruins…but the ruins by the beach were still an amazing sight! Definitely a sight to behold….crystal blue waters, green rolling grass, and ancient stone stacked on top of one another to build a defense fortress.  Even though it’s not one of the 7 wonders, I really liked this place a lot better than Chichen Itza. But then again, I had more freedom to explore today and didn’t have to deal with all the shopping that tours make you do….so of course I’m going to like it better!

Taking the public bus on the way to Tulum – 7.5 pesos each way

Small panoramic of the central portion of Tulum

Some exploring at Tulum…they still allow you to step on some of the ruins, but not all

The remains of the fort city of Tulum

Just a breathtaking view

More ruins

Watchtower

Resting after the 2.5hr bus ride and 2 hours of hiking. Hermano

The fortress by the sea

El Castillo

Fire show – caught it from the hotel at the end of the night

Today was yet another exhausting day.  Zip lining tomorrow and probably some snorkeling!

Yet another early start today in Cancun, but worth it in the end as we marveled at Ancient Mayan arhitecture and got a glimpse of what life was like in 2000 b.c. Since I needed a bit of a break today to do some jacuzing and swimming, I’ll leave the commentary to my brother…

So…it’s Peter here. This is what we did today. We visited chichen itzu. We ate food. We rode home. Fun times. Cancun!  What annoyed me though is that what could have taken a few hours was fluffed by jorge (yes, jorge again! But a different jorge) to a whole days worth of bs, mostly shopping and storytelling. That’s what we get for going with the man, no freedom or independence to explore as much as we wanted.

Goin to the show

The back alleys

At the mercado

Sombrero men

The coolest Mayan on the planet

Quien quieres un sombrero?

Chichen Itza

El Castillo

Another angle

The details

1000 pillars

Got in trouble for using the tripod…who knew?

The world in the palm of the hand

Catherine and Dan had an absolutely beautiful outdoor wedding in Menlo Park this weekend. You couldn’t have asked for a nicer day (especially considering the fact that it was supposed to rain)…and I bet you couldn’t have imagined a more beautiful bride. I still remember the day you two got engaged…I’d like to think that everyone who was there that day (ah-hem….awake, or well…not awake) played some part in nudging Dan to pop the question by laughing at Catherine’s joke. In any case, however it happened, I’m glad it did because you two are going to have one happy life together…and if you don’t, no worries…Catherine pretty much shed all her tears at the wedding, so no need to worry about her crying.

Congrats you two…here’s a preview of some of the shots from the wedding:

Conveniently left by the bridesmaids on this bench while they went to fulfill their bridesmaid duties

A sneak peak before everyone showed up

That’s my name alright…

Party table number 4!

Karmic overflow

Congratulations Catherine Campbell (I guess it’s Stapleton now) and Dan Stapleton!  More pictures to follow soon…I promise!

So I was at the park with my nephew the other day, feeding some ducks (shh…don’t tell the park people), running around, and climbing some monkey bars, when we got to the swings. Like all kids, Aaron asked me to push him…push him “as high as the sky” he says, and I do. But while I was doing this, I thought…why does everyone push their kids from the back?

Sure…it’s cute to see kids spread their legs out eagle style, trying to fly and touch the sky. But aren’t we missing the best part by pushing them from the back? I decided to change it up a bit and push from the front…it was definitely much more rewarding.

A full set of toes

Some laughter and smiles

And the priceless, “I’m so high it’s scary, but this is so much fun!” expression

I don’t have a lot of experience with parenting or pushing swings. I mean, I’m no parent myself and have only a quarter of a century in wisdom under my belt (and slowly growing), but why does everyone push their kids from the back? They’re missing the best part! Afterall, if you’re going to put in the effort, might as well reap some of the rewards.

More pics of A-a-r-o-n at the park

Had a little family dental day today. Full set of pictures here at the nephew/niece blog. These of course were taken before my procedure, which ended up sidelining me for the rest of the night.

Smoke and mirrors at the dentist

So the Korean duo of Judy and Rex finally tied the knot this weekend! It was an absolutely beautiful wedding in perfect sunny southern California weather! Everyone who went had a fantastic time, but it was especially great for me because I’ve gotten to know Judy and Rex so well. We had a great time at the UCSF table and even managed to keep the medicine talk to a minimum as well (fairly easy tonight given the Lakers were playing game 3 against Denver). Anyway, here are some shots from the wedding…

But first, some of the sillyness of Judy and Rex from our little photo session a month ago:

And now to some of the shots from the wedding:

Shot with the Canon G10 at ISO 1600 (after noise ninja)

“I want to kiss the girl…shalalalala don’t look now”

The happy couple

Wink and the nod from Tristan and the rest of the UCSF super crew

UCSF’ers (photo credit: Tristan Beaudette)

Always take a second to stop and smell the roses Mrs. Wu-Beaudette

Table 8 is great! (but table 15 had no people there..hence the picture)

The party people’s

Yes, ladies and gentleman, she went ahead and hyphenated her last name…*shakes head in disapproval

More Photos here

The wedding was so much fun, but after the wedding ended, the real adventure began! At about 11pm, Tristan (code name: Papa Smurf), Erica, Danielle and I decided to hunt down the infamous Kogi Taco Truck. We checked the twitter page and found that it was parked somewhere in the San Fernando Valley (Reseda and Devonshire), so we packed the cars and took a 30 minute journey to the valley.

Google maps is the best

We got there at about 11:40pm and found a long, long, long line for some tacos. It was cold, we were hungry, and it seemed like it was going to take an eternity! Since there was so much hype about this place though, we decided to wait it out (and by “we”, I mean Tristan and I…Erica and Danielle waited in the warm car). After about 2 hours in line and having to serve as bouncers for the truck (owner told us that we were the last ones they were going to serve), we got our tacos. They ran out of everything on the menu except for their most coveted item (tacos), so we just ordered a million of those! To be honest, I think it’s a little over-hyped and probably not worth waiting 3 hours in line for…but if you’ve got nothing to do and want some delicious tacos, google the Kogi taco truck and find where they’re parked…it’s definitely something very unique that you should at least try once in your life!

Recommendations:

• Korean Short Rib Taco and Shredded Pork Tacos
• Kim Chi Quesadilla
• Sliders
• Short Rib and Shredded Pork Burrito

Kogi truck in the wild

Kogi truck – Roja

Kogi Menu