Travel day, usually my LEAST favorite day of a vacay. But his one was pretty fantastic! From first class airplane seats to welcome cocktails at our hotel in Tulum, we enjoyed the entire day. (I’ll share my tips for getting into premium class airplane seats for MUCH less than you think it costs, sometime soon. Like, we paid less for these round trip first class seats than Dave used to pay to fly from South Bend to Destin when we were long-distancing our relationship.)
After gliding through security we hit up the United Club lounge for a couple hours. We had hoped for a decent breakfast option up there, but it was extremely unimpressive. Not to worry though because the airplane meal did NOT disappoint. The first big highlight of the trip was breakfast on the plane… (As I type that sentence, I’m starting to wonder though…are we too easily impressed?)
They had two options, an egg, cheese and veggie calzone or a cheese stuffed crepe with cinnamon apple and raison compote. Both were served with fresh fruit, coffee, greek yogurt and OJ. YES, that’s real silverware, plates and cups – SEE, you’re into it too. When the flight attendant walked by and offered my hubby a CINNAMON ROLL and inquired if he wanted a splash of champagne in his OJ, he turned to me with a grin and said “I’m SO IN.” And by “in” he meant into first class service, forever, as long as we both shall live – right Dave?. A gal can dream.
Cancun Airport was a breeze, nothing exciting happened there. Although we did realize as a guy was offering to make a call for us that we were probably going to have to tip him for said call. Oh. Well. It happened too fast, ya know? We picked up our rental car and then we were OFF and RUNNING on the streets of Mexico.
We arrived at our beautiful, boutique hotel, Mezzanine. It has 12 rooms, is on the ocean and has one of the best restaurants in Tulum. Oddly enough, the restaurant isn’t Mexican cuisine. It’s Thai infused food, courtesy of a very talented ex-pat chef from New York. The hotel welcomed us with homemade margaritas (smooth… that’s all I’m sayin!). 
Something pretty neat about this hotel is that they have doTerra essential oils and diffusers in each room, so you’re asked to pick a signature scent to be put in your room each evening when they bring you a hot tea and chocolate – wild orange blossom for the Millers. You also get to choose a special hand-made, organic bar of soap – I picked mint and Dave went with avocado. Sort of a fun, little touch.
Dinner at the hotel was literally the best Thai food I’ve ever had the pleasure of tasting. Not a sentence I was expecting to say about my first meal in Mexico. But wow, it blew us both away.
Guacamole, was the starter with pickled onion and a pretty incredible fire roasted habanero pepper on the side. Our expat Thai chef makes a mean guac!
I ordered a coconut shrimp salad – glass noodles, shrimp, fresh veggies, vinegar dressing. This was the star of the evening for us both. Dave ended up eating most of my shrimp salad because it wasn’t too spicy, and he left me with a pretty tasty pad Thai, served in a banana leaf. I ordered it “expatriate hot” which is somewhere between zero spice and face melt… but to be honest, my taste buds were still searing from that habanero pepper. Who really knows if the pad Thai was even hot?
I’ll leave you with a final thought from Mr. Miller… “We’re gonna have to get our real estate licenses here so we can spend part of the year here.” That was either one heck of a first day, or maybe, just maybe… the margaritas are too strong. Is that even a thing though?
Salud, mi amigos!
