Season 10 Greattasticly Ever After Blog 14: Bad Days 2

 Bad Days 2

Before we get into this installment, I need to tell you about my bad habit of biting my nails. I’ve been wanting to stop, and Paige REALLY wants me to, but I still haven't been able to kick the habit.

I returned to work for the 2026-27 school year on Wednesday, August 5th, 2026, and in the two weeks between that and Nicole’s wedding, not much happened because Paige and I spent most of those two weeks recovering from our summer-long honeymoon. In other words, I was ready for school to start. Another reason is that New Story started a mentorship program. The idea is that veteran staff members mentor incoming staff. I am a mentor, and I was looking forward to that new role. 

In the two weeks before the kiddos showed up, we were told that this year we are having some teachers from Kenya come into the school. With those teachers, we became fully staffed. Unfortunately, there was an issue, and now they will be starting sporadically throughout the first month and a half of school. The classroom I support was assigned a teacher from Kenya, so it was my and my coworker Lexi’s responsibility to get the classroom set up for the start-of-year open house. 

On the day of the open house, Thursday, August 13th, Lexi and I were a little behind because we didn’t have the help we usually get from a teacher in the room. A ton of people came together to help us get ready, and during that time the principal came in and told me our teacher would be starting the following Tuesday (the 18th), and that she would be fully trained the week after. In the meantime, I would be running the classroom! I was honored that my boss trusted me enough to give me this temporary promotion, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little anxious about it. 

Shortly after my boss told me the news, my wedding ring started bothering me; it just felt really tight. Now, at this point, Paige and I had been married for only 3 months, and most of that was our honeymoon, so my anxiety was relatively low. Therefore, I assumed my sudden aversion to the ring was due to sensory overload as a result of anxiety… boy was I wrong.

That night, I struggled to get my ring off my finger before bed, and I only managed it because I used some soap; I also noticed the tip of my finger was a bit swollen. I woke up at 1:00 a.m. in excruciating pain, and the only way I was able to get back to sleep was by using my thighs to apply pressure to my hand. When I woke the next morning, I couldn’t fit the ring back on even with soap. When I got to work, my coworkers, Joel and Elizabeth, gave me ibuprofen and told me to see the nurse. The nurse then told me that my finger was infected. 

I scheduled an appointment for 4:10 at the CVS Minute Clinic by the school. They were running behind, so I finally got in around 4:30. I had a lot of recording to do (I had fallen a bit behind with the honeymoon content), so I ordered my prescription (an antibiotic and an ointment) to a Walgreens in my area. When I walked in at 5:30, I went right to the pharmacy and they said that they didn’t have the prescription!

I called the CVS, and they said they were closed (which I knew they weren’t). I drove all the way back up there, and when I explained the situation to the cashier, he told me, “You need to make another appointment!”

I knew that wasn't a thing, so I started arguing with the cashier. When the cashier wouldn't budge, I caved and scheduled another appointment. After 20 more minutes of waiting, I realized I wasn't going to make it to Walgreens before they closed, so I went to the CVS pharmacy and explained the situation. 

“You didn't have to make another appointment,” the pharmacist said.

“That's what I said,” I growled, as the ibuprofen Joel had given me had completely worn off at this point. The pharmacist called the Doctor, and I waited the 20 minutes before she was done with her current patient so we could get the prescriptions sent to this Pharmacy. After we had figured it out, I got more ibuprofen and waited for the prescription to get filled.

3 hours later, I was still waiting! At that time, Paige had gotten off work and walked to Luke and Josh’s house. When Josh finally drove Paige home, she called me and asked what was going on. At her prompting, I went to the pharmacy again. The pharmacist said,  “So your antibiotic is here, but we're waiting on the ointment.”

“When is the ointment going to be ready?” I asked hesitantly.

“Monday afternoon,” she said matter-of-factly. 

“Can I have the antibiotic,” I said through gritted teeth, “And then come back for the ointment?”

“Sure!” She said, smiling.

I was very frustrated because they hadn't called me up, but at least I knew I was on the road to recovery… Or so I thought. The next day was Shane's bachelor party (which is worthy of an installment in and of itself), and while it was fun, my finger was bugging me the entire time. The day after that, it looked way too disgusting for me to describe to you. I went to Paige's parents' house to pick up some stuff, and my sister-in-law Yvanna was there. She's a PA. When she saw my finger, she told me to keep an eye on it, and if the inflammation moved any further down my finger, then I would “need to get it lanced.” 

On Monday, August 17th, 2026, I was recording Summer Long Honeymoon, Part 4: Nicole’s Wedding. After recording the paragraph about the bridal party entering the reception, I stood up to get a drink of water and hit my hand really hard on the side of my desk, and I could see that there was some internal bleeding. I FaceTimed Yvanna, and she confirmed that it needed to be lanced. I called Mom, and she said to meet at their house so she could come with me, as Paige was at work. 

I won't describe this procedure. It was incredibly gross to see and even more painful! I was given a different antibiotic and a wrap that I had to wear from this point through Mitchmas (29) Part 1: The Stuff Of Legend, Visitors At Work, and Mitchmas (29) Part 2: A Quick Trip To Orlando. And the kicker was that the only pharmacy open was that same CVS that I had been stuck at the beginning of this ordeal! 

As we drove to the CVS, I thought back to the events of Bad Days 1. As a refresher, in the fall of 2024, within a 30-hour period, a guy ran a red light and hit me; I popped my tire; independently of the car crash, I got pink eye; had to Lyft to the minute clinic, and my phone died while I was waiting for the prescription to get filled, so I couldn’t Lyft back home. At the end of that event, I couldn’t help but laugh at how stupidly horrible it had been. While this situation was a lot more straightforward, it was way more painful. And yet, I still couldn’t help but laugh. Life’s too short to not find comedy in painful moments. 

Have a Greattastic day and be safe!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri, SBT

Season 10 Greattasticly Ever After Blog 13: #FreeArden

 Season 10 Blog 13: #FreeArden

If you recall, The Kid Khronicles #4- Failures In Van Life, happened approximately a month after Paige and my wedding and Nicole's wedding was about a month after that. In that month, Arden and I, (and Paige as much as her schedule allowed), hung out a lot. We spent a lot of time at Metro Parks, and she and Marshall actually came to the Red White & Boom party. But the craziest thing that happened, happened within her first 2 weeks. On Monday, June 15th, as Paige and I drove to go out to dinner for our 1 month wedding anniversary, Kid and Arden spent one last night hanging out. The next day (Tuesday, June 16th), Kid officially left for her big road trip. While I am planning on catching you up with Kid later, she spent the majority of her first month on the road staying with August and Emerald.

Feeling sad that Kid was now heading to Colorado (oh, how the tables have turned), Arden texted me and asked if I wanted to meet her at the Park of Roses. I said yes and I drove to meet her. Arden and I spent a lot of time there hanging out, and we got dinner with Paige one of the nights that week. 

During this time, Arden told me about some of the weird occurrences that were happening with the person who owned the Airbnb she was staying at. 

Now I am not here to expose this woman as what was going on, in and of itself, was not important to the story. Within the first few days, Arden got a weird sense of foreboding whenever she was there. Despite having this Columbus job, on the weekends Arden would return home to Cincinnati. On Thursday, June 25th, (which for continuity was the day before the last day of summer school), Arden and I were hanging out once again. In the three nights since she had been back in town, that feeling of foreboding had intensified. While still protecting this woman's and Arden’s privacy, basically she was invading some of Arden's boundaries. 

“I don't want to make her feel bad by just leaving,” Arden said trying to be kind, “But I just…” 

“Don't feel comfortable,” I interrupted. “And I don't feel comfortable for you.”

“What should I do?” She asked.

“You should move out right now!” I said.

“What if there's a confrontation!” she exclaimed.

“Well, then, I'll go with you!” I said.

Unfortunately for Arden, as we headed to our cars to go get her stuff I started chanting “#freearden,” which only exacerbated her anxiety. We drove to this Airbnb, and when we arrived, Arden told me to wait outside and she walked in. I don't know what we were expecting. We definitely weren't planning on getting into a fist fight with this woman, but we assumed that she would at least yell at Arden. Almost as soon as Arden walked into the house, Arden walked back outside and began laughing.

“Mitchell,” she said, “She's asleep!” 

I covered my mouth because I knew if I started laughing, I would have woken this lady up. I couldn't help but think the climax of this made it somehow better. Like the way we amped it up so much in our heads that the idea that she could be asleep didn't even cross our minds. And I thought that was hilarious! 

Have a Greattastic day and be safe!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri, SBT

Season 10 Greattasticly Ever After Blog 12: Congratulations Elena

 Congratulations Elena

“And I’d say that's about it,” I said to Elena when I finished the story 2 hours after we met up. “The next morning I woke up early, and you had texted me.” 

“That's awesome,” Elana said, “ sounds like you had an amazing summer!”

“So,” I asked, changing the subject, “I feel like I've been talking about me this whole time! Seriously, how have you been?” 

“Well,” she said, “I told you this summer has been interesting.”

“Yeah?” I replied. 

“I’m pregnant,” she said. And I immediately remembered the decaf coffee, and I clocked how she had reacted when I told her about Marshall messing with me about Arden being pregnant and when I told her about Sabrina‘s actual pregnancy. When I had mentioned each, she had tensed up a bit (apparently because she was thinking about her own). 

“Oh my gosh!” I said, “Congratulations!” 

“Thank you,” she replied. 

“I do have to ask…” I said, “I thought you and Anthony broke up?”

When I reconnected with Elena at Thread of Hope in October of 2025, she told me that she had been dating a guy named Anthony for the last few years. When we met up for coffee a couple days after Paige and I got back from our New York trip, I expressed wanting to meet him and maybe go on a double date. When I invited Elena and Anthony to go out when I got my SBT, two months later, however, Elena informed me that they had broken up. 

“No, you're right,” She confirmed.

For Paige and my wedding, we hired a local catering company. A former classmate of Elena and mine, named Leo, apparently works for them and worked the wedding. This was something I was completely oblivious to, but there was a lot going on on my wedding day. Elena and Jenna left St. Tim’s as soon as Paige and I were married, and so they were some of the first people to arrive at Koblot. Everything was already ready, so Leo was waiting around when Elena walked in. They caught up and exchanged numbers before the majority of guests arrived. I continued to express my congratulations to Elena and once again asked to set up a double date. As we left Crimson Cup and headed to our cars, Elena asked one last question.

“So,” she said, “Arden is still in town?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“So what have you guys got up to this summer? I'm sure there's been a lot,” she said. I laughed and caught her up: 

To Be Continued…

Season 10 Greattasticly Ever After Blog 11: Summer Long Honeymoon, Part 4: Nicole's Wedding

 Summer Long Honeymoon, Part 4: Nicole's Wedding

As I mentioned in the Season 9 installment, Michelle, Paige’s best friend and Maid of Honor, Nicole, got engaged to her boyfriend, Carson, about a month after Paige and I did. While Paige was initially in the bridal party, she made the executive decision to drop out for her own mental health because of the stress of our wedding. However, Paige was still treated as a bridesmaid at every point except for the actual ceremony. 

Nicole had watched our cat, Charlie, for a little bit of the time that Paige and I were in Florida with my family last year. When we returned, we saw that Nicole had left our invite for her wedding. While it was addressed to “The soon-to-be Mitchell & Paige Ulibarri,” Nicole told us Paige’s entire family was invited. While none of them were able to make it, my brother Ryan was invited the day after Paige and my wedding. 

On Sunday, July 19th, 2026, Ryan, Paige, and I, checked into our hotel at 2:30, which was about 20 minutes before the last shuttle was scheduled to leave for the venue. At 3:10, the shuttle dropped us off at the venue, Glass On Enchanted Acres. When we walked into the building, we were immediately greeted by Paige's high school friend Sophia's boyfriend, Riley. Since the rest of the friend group were bridesmaids, Riley stuck with Paige, Ryan, and I when we filed out for the outdoor ceremony. As we moved to our seats, I looked around at the beautiful sculptures and landscape surrounding us. I wish I could describe to you in detail what it looked like, but honestly I was way too overstimulated to actually process it. Once we found our seats, and as we were waiting for the ceremony to start, Riley told us that he was planning on proposing to Sophia the next week, and Paige and I lost our minds. 

At 3:30, the bridal party processed down the aisle, and when everyone else was ready, we all turned around, preparing to see Nicole. To everyone's surprise (especially Carson's), Nicole had pre-recorded a message to him. Once “Recording Nicole” had finished professing her love (and emotionally wrecking all of us), actual Nicole made her appearance. After they were officially married 10 minutes later, we returned inside to start the cocktail hour. At about 5:30, the bridal party entered the reception, and after dinner, the speeches, and the cake cutting, Nicole and Carson had their first dance. They danced to Tale As Old As Time, and one of the event staff members poured dry ice on the ground so that they danced in the fog, which was chef's kiss.

The dance floor opened immediately after, and let me tell ya, I put my heart and soul into that dance floor. Over dinner, Paige had told me that she had heard from her cousins and social media, “The first wedding after your own is always top tier.” When she told me that, having only experienced the ceremony, I didn't disagree with her. I've always loved weddings, and while our wedding was the best day ever, we were still hosting the party. It was still a job. Not having that pressure, at the reception I completely let loose. I don't remember everything I did. I know I tied my tie around my forehead cuz I've seen that on TV and I've always wanted to try it. And the whole night, Nicole and I were just screaming at each other, “WE DID IT!” Referring to the fact that we were both now married to our respective best friends. 

At the end of the night, Paige and Ryan were both crashing, and so we got on a shuttle about 30 minutes before the reception ended. On the ride back, Paige laid her head on my shoulder, and I looked out the window into the night with a smile. Nicole and Carson had figured out the plans for their wedding over the course of last summer. Paige and my wedding did not start to take shape until after Dad had the 30th anniversary of Kobolt party. That was in December. Paige and I planned our wedding in 6 months (a little less than that if you consider Christmas). As Paige’s Maid of Honor (and a fellow 2026 bride), Nicole had a huge supporting role in pulling off that feat.  

Obviously, I was always aware that Nicole and Carson were getting married next, but it was something that was hard to conceptualize since our wedding had been all-consuming for us (as it should have been). Being able to celebrate someone who was there for us throughout the entire planning process and has been a part of our relationship since the beginning, as she started her “Greattasticly Ever After,” was something that Paige and I were so proud to be a part of, and we can’t wait to see what's next for them!

To Be Continued…

Season 10 Greattasticly Ever After Blog 10.5: The Shadowbox

 The Shadowbox

In all my writings, the most confusing person for me to write is my coworker Elizabeth. There are coworkers that I have been friends with that I haven’t written about explicitly in my writings because I couldn’t find a place to fit them (though most of them appeared in the wedding reception installments). But Elizabeth is my workplace bestie, like Lily, Clo, and Savanna before her. I met her in early Season 7, but we didn’t really become friends until the installment October-December. While she has appeared in a handful of installments, she wasn’t written in the way I would write, say, Clo, until a few installments ago.Her first appearance was in The Scroll Of Proposal. As you might recall, I took Paige on a scavenger hunt using scrolls (harkening back to when I asked Paige to be my girlfriend), leading back to our apartment where my engagement speech was written on a giant scroll. Elizabeth had written the clues on the mini scrolls and my speech on the big one because my handwriting is not good enough for such an important event. 

What I don’t think I said in The Scroll Of Proposal installment was the coolest part of the actual Scroll Of Proposal itself. See, my plan was, after I financially recovered from buying these scrolls, I was planning on buying a shadow box so we could display the Scroll of Proposal (and store the smaller ones). With wedding planning stress hitting so hard last fall, however, buying a shadow box was not high on my priority list. 

“Hey,” Elizabeth asked me one day in November of 2025, “Did you get a shadow box yet?” 

“No,” I replied, “I've been a little too stressed.”

“Good,” she said, “my sister makes custom ones, and I’m going to see her next summer. If you talk to Paige about what you want and give me the scrolls back, I can bring them with me on my trip, and we can get one made for you. It can be a wedding gift!” 

On Friday, July 17th, 2026, Elizabeth and I met up at a coffee shop and bar called Barrel and Bloom. While as of my meeting with Elena, she was on the trip to see her sister; I was intensely looking forward to receiving the shadow box!

To Be Continued…

Season 10 Greattasticly Ever After Blog 10: Summer Long Honeymoon, Part 3: Paige I Like The View

Summer Long Honeymoon, Part 3:

Paige I Like The View

Day 4: 

On July 11th, Paige and I got up around 9:00 and hung out in the room until about noon. Having exhausted everything to do at the resort during the first three days of our honeymoon, we decided to explore historic Park City and the surrounding areas for the second half. At about 12:10, we walked down to the nearest bus stop and headed down to what the locals call “Old Town.” From the “Old Town” bus stop, we rode the Main Street trolley up to, as the name would suggest, Main Street (though we would learn later it’s actually easier to walk there from the station). Upon our arrival, we immediately realized why it was called “Old Town.” While there were modern businesses (7-11, Lululemon, a Marriott, etc.), the street is set up kinda like the street in a spaghetti western (an old cowboy movie).

First we stopped at a small shop called Park City Desserts & Coffee. After that, we explored a few other shops until we found the Park City Museum. The museum documented everything from the city’s founding, the great fire of 1898, the Winter Olympics of ‘02, all the way up to the present day. The most interesting part of this museum was that the bottom floor was the actual jail that was used around the time the city was founded. 

After the museum, we went to the 7-11 as they had free slushies. Then we went to an art gallery and decided to head back to the condo. We planned on watching the sunset, but I wanted to go for a quick swim and maybe go to the steam room. Paige walked me down so I didn’t have to take a key card. Right when you leave the building to get to the pool, there is a vestibule made of glass. I was behind Paige, and I looked down at my phone to check the time because she had asked me for it cuz we were trying to plan around the sunset. Just as I looked down, Paige opened and held the glass door. She kept talking to me, and I saw her through the window… and I walked face first into it (only hurting my pride a little bit). 

Day 5: 

When we were still in “Old Town” on the 11th, we saw signs advertising a pop-up market called “Park Silly Sunday Market.” On July 12th after Mass, Paige and I ate breakfast, packed up our stuff, and by 2:00 pm we were back on the bus heading down to Old Town. On the bus we met three men, Billy, Jeff, and Connor, who were in their mid 50s or thereabouts. They were childhood friends who had grown up in Utah, but ended up married in different parts of Colorado. This was a “boy’s weekend.” We explained that we were on our honeymoon, and they said they would buy us coffee (how could we refuse)? They took us to a place called Atticus Coffee and Tea right inside of the bounds of “Park Silly.” As the name suggests, it is a To Kill a Mockingbird-themed coffee shop. For those who do not remember your middle school English classes, Atticus is the father of the main character in To Kill A Mockingbird. While I haven’t been to too many pop culture-themed restaurants (only one other comes to mind), as we got our frozen coffees, I couldn’t help but think there need to be more shops like this. 

We thanked our new friends and walked out to the market. Atticus marks the lower end of Main Street, and the market went down the street from there. We walked around the market for about 10 minutes before we both had to go to the bathroom. The closest one we could think of was at the museum, so we walked back up there. When I had finished, I went up to the front desk and asked them for more suggestions on things to do. 

After I got loose plans for the next day and a map, Paige and I walked back down to the market. Calling it a market does not do it justice. It was more like a mini art festival. There were shops that made caricatures, metal and wood work, specialty clothing, upcycled jewelry; one shop made gourmet licorice (which I didn’t even know was a thing)… there was a lot of stuff. There was a DJ by the food and drink area. He had been setting up right after we got our coffee, and when we got back from the museum, he was in the middle of his set. Just by sheer coincidence, the playlist was basically our wedding playlist!

Day 6: 

We did not do as much as I initially thought we would on Monday, July 13. At the suggestion of the museum employees, we headed to Olympic Park. This was obviously where the 2002 Olympics were and where I assumed the 2034 games will be. The museum employees did not give me a huge rundown of what it is. It is firstly a ski museum, secondly a future Olympian training course, and finally an amusement park. We went to the museum, watched a couple of kids use the ski jump, but we mostly just scoped out the park so we knew what to do for the next day… 

Day 7:  

On Tuesday, July 14, around noon, we returned to Olympic Park. After having done some research, we decided to do a couple of things, starting with the Alpine slide. We rode a ski lift up a mountain (which, by the way, did in fact have the year 2034 painted on some grass for the ski jump). The Alpine slide is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a metal slide that runs down the mountain. It has these little one-person trolley cars that you ride down the side in. If you pushed the lever on the trolley car down, you went fast, and if you pulled back, you slowed down. 

As we waited in line for the slide, we heard one of the employees say, “man… it’s going to be like this all week!”  I didn’t have time to process what he was talking about before it was my turn. It took me a second to get used to the controls, especially when the slide had a turn, but once I did, it was really fun to fly down this mountain as fast as possible! Paige finished maybe 30 seconds after I did, and we spent the next 10 minutes trying to figure out what to do next. Unfortunately for us, there was a thunderstorm. On our way back to the condo, Paige pointed out what the employee had said, and I realized he was talking about the weather. 

When we got home, we decided to go to Old Town to get some food. It was still raining a little bit, and Paige and I came to the conclusion that we definitely chose the right time to come to Park City! 

Day 8:  

As you may recall, when Cousin Simple played our wedding and brought Paige and I up on stage for the last song (Primadonna), they changed the lyrics from  “said your name was, “Maddie,” Maddie, I like the view,” to “said your name was, “Paige,” Paige, I like the view.” On Wednesday, July 15, our two-month wedding anniversary and our last day on the honeymoon, Paige and I woke up at 5:40 (much to Paige’s chagrin). We got dressed, got on the elevator, and went to the first-floor balcony to watch the 6:05 sunrise. 

We sat and watched the sun slowly crest a mountain. As it rose, I got a big grin on my face, looked at Paige, and said, “Paige.”

“Yes?” She asked.

“I like the view,” I said with a chuckle. 

She immediately rolled her eyes, but she still smiled. Because she was so sleepy and we were out of coffee pods, I went down to Atticus, then got back to the condo; we cleaned and got ready for check-out at 11. 

After we checked out, we went back to Old Town because our flight was at 5:30, so we had a little bit of time to kill. We got lunch at Davanza's Pizza.  As we sat and ate, we talked about how the two weeks before the wedding (basically from my haircut to Paige walking down the aisle) went by really slowly and the two months since we got married went by incredibly fast. 

“I’m kind of glad our honeymoon‘s over,” I said. 

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“Like,” I explained, “I’ve had a lot of fun, but since everything‘s been so fast since the wedding… When we wake up tomorrow, we will be back to our normal life, except the fact that you’re my wife won’t change. Like, I know time goes by fast, but I think… I hope that time will go back to its normal tempo tomorrow because I can’t wait to enjoy every second of regular life with you!” 

To Be Continued…

Season 10 Greattasticly Ever After Blog 9: Summer Long Honeymoon, Part 2: Park City

 Summer Long Honeymoon, Part 2: Park City

My parents' college best friends, Ron and Anita Wallace, own a condo (or maybe it’s a timeshare) in Park City Utah. The condo is part of a larger resort called Canyon Village. While Paige and I were dealing with wedding planning stress, we were also stressing about planning the honeymoon, as that would be the next big thing. Mom told Anita about this back in January, and she offered up their condo as our place to stay. Note- Anita put me as her nephew on the reservation, which isn’t untrue we definitely do have that kind of relationship. But I also wanted to thank Ron and Anita for letting us stay here! We are very appreciative!

Also, just kinda a random thought that I feel like should be mentioned. Before I was dating Paige (and “my wife” was just an imaginary concept) I imagined my honeymoon as being in an all inclusive resort in Hawaii. I think that’s because a Hawaiian honeymoon is like the basic package, if that makes sense. It didn’t require any extra work to conjure up the setting. I knew that an all inclusive resort was unrealistic so the fact that we actually got a mostly inclusive resort is crazy.

Day 1: 

At 3:30 am, on Wednesday July 8th, Paige and I woke up, after going to bed at 12:00, and we finished packing. Mom dropped us off at the airport at 5:30 for our 7:30 flight and we landed in Salt Lake City at 9:00 am local time (11:00 Columbus time). We ate lunch at the airport and ordered our Lyft to the condo. 

We arrived at Canyon Haus (pronounced house), at 11:45 and we were able to check in at noon. Unfortunately there was an issue with the WiFi and making the key cards so we kind of got trapped in the room, but with the lack of sleep the night before (and the “ghost hours” on the plane) the rest was nice. And I was able to leverage the situation to get Nespresso pods for us to get through the whole trip. 

Because of the WiFi we struggled to order the groceries for the week and by the time we got it ordered it wouldn’t arrive until the 9th at 3:00 pm. We went out to a Mexican restaurant called Dos Olas Cantina, which was really good; no Habanero’s, but still good. After we ate we walked back through the resort narrowly missing a mountain storm. 

Day 2: 

We got up the next day at 8:30 am, made our coffees, showered and then by 10:00 we were heading out to a restaurant called The Umbrella Bar, which we had discovered on our way to Dos Olas. Unfortunately it didn’t open till 12:00  so we went to a local shop to get a few things that we couldn’t order. Our GPSs were not being very helpful so we ended up sneaking through another hotel to get there before returning to The Umbrella Bar at 12:25. 

After we ordered our food I asked the bartender, Kendra, “so we’re on our honeymoon,” 

“Congratulations,” she said. 

“Thank you,” I continued, “do you have any suggestions for what we should do?” 

We returned to the room after we ate and waited for our groceries. Once they arrived around 3:45, we put them away and I started to make a PB&J. I toasted the bread (a habit I picked up from Paige), but I wasn’t used to the toaster… so I set off the smoke alarm. 

Once we rectified that problem and I ate (Paige was still full from lunch), we went down to the pool and then as Paige showered, I went to the steam room. I’ve never been in a steam room before… that was very cool. As soon as the steam turned on the room was completely filled within 30 seconds; it was almost like a sensory deprivation tank. 

Day 3: 

On July 10th, I got up early, went downstairs and wrote a little bit on my phone, until Paige called me when she woke. I went upstairs, we got ready then packed everything up for the day. At 11:15 we made it to the red pine gondola check-in. Five minutes later after we had gotten our tickets and signed the waivers, we headed up the mountain. The map they had given us at check-in was a bit confusing, and once we arrived it became even more so. All of the trails were very poorly labeled, since it was a ski resort and hiking is not the main purpose of this mountain.  We went on a few botched hikes before we went down to a ski lodge at 12:30 to eat the sandwiches we had made. 

Kendra had told us that Alpine Lake was a good hike. After we ate we made our way to try to find the Alpine Lake Trail. On one of our failed hikes we had believed that we were on the mid mountain trail. We finally found a sign that led us to the Alpine Lake Trail, and after a while it split in two. One path led to Alpine Lake and the other was the Mid Mountain Trail. We used Siri to flip a coin and ended up at Alpine Lake. 

Anita had told us that there was free, live music before we left and Kendra had directed us to something called concerts on the slopes. On our way down, Paige and I saw a band setting up on a stage. I looked it up but tickets were way too expensive. That night after we had dinner, we went back out to explore the resort at night. The area was kind of dead because of the concert, and so I asked Paige, “do you wanna get ice cream?” She said yes and we looked around for a shop, but there were none in the area. Luckily we got a couple of ice cream sandwiches at the local grocery store. As we walked out of the store. We heard a different band playing around Dos Olas. Excited, we ran in that direction and watched them play into the night. 

To Be Continued…