Warren Dunes

Summer Trip 1

Dunes

A dune is a hill of loose sand built by wind or flow of water. Beach dunes are different than desert. Desert dunes can be 300 m while beach are 5-6 m wide. We got an opportunity to visit one of the dunes called as Warren Dunes, Michigan.

Group Picture

Summer initiates a series of trips, it mostly not about where you are going but about an outing. It’s about getting up from your bed and going out somewhere. I believe, we should travel and meet new people as much as possible. It is required for our holistic growth or at least I think so.

Initial plan was to go there, doesn’t matter how many people comes up. As the plan was coming to end, more and more people wanted to join. Finally we had 3 cars, that’s the maximum no. of people I had collaborated since ILP training. ILP was a totally different ball game. When there are people of same age, culture, language, schedule, age and even home, it’s easy to agree on things. But when you have people of all ages, cultures, nationalities, status, race it becomes difficult to make them agree on a single point.   

3 Musketeers

We had 3 cars and the plan was to meet at office and start from there, but due to different timings we were able to run 2 cars together and 3^rd one was going separate. So we thought of meeting at Subway or some restaurant. We were able to get 2 cars at subway. I moved to 2^nd car and sent one guy from that car to ours. Finally we made calls and aligned 2^nd and 3^rd car. Although, now 1^st car was separated, anyways I moved from 2^nd car to 3^rd. We had a mix of Americans and Indians. I moved over to an American car and sent an American to Indian car. This mix gives us a possibility to learn new things. Eventually, I was able to ride in all 3 cars. The Americans were a family, a father, her daughter and her friend.

Gabby

Soon, we reached Warren Dunes. It was bit cold over there enough to make us feel cold as well as bit hot. Beach was colder, so we moved over to dunes quickly after taking some photographs. As we were climbing up, we took more pictures and further more on top. I also tried somersault from top which came out to be pretty amazing for my neck pain. Then we rested on top and played with sand. Some friends started pouring sand on top of my head and then one another girl. Then we rested for a while and came down. We had an interesting member in our trip called as Gabby-friend of daughter, she made everyone angry and at the same time kept the trip interesting. One of our friends eventually became babysitter for her.

We also made a quick stop at another place called as St. Joseph Harbour few miles away from Warren Dunes; it was closed as we were before actual summer season which starts from Memorial Day. We spent some time over there and finally wanted to come back. When we were coming back, the father and daughter had left for a restaurant and we were left with Gabby. We were bit worried to have her with us and the father wasn’t even answering his phone. All of us decided to visit a gas station to attend nature calls. At this point we were able to make contact with father, handed over Gabby to him and took sigh of relief. Then we came back to home sweet home.

Mehico

Mehico written as Mexico

Atlanta Morning-Sunrise

Note: Don’t read this article, unless you want to live rather than existing.

So here we go to Mexico. Unusual, I know. Actually, I had a Amex miles card which was about to charge me 100 bucks from next month, just to use the credit card. Instead I wanted to get something out of it. Everyone wants the same. I wanted to avoid that charge and hence had to cancel it but it had 76680 miles on it. I wanted to utilize that as well and hence I was planning for a trip. India trip requires at least 80000, so that was not an option. Next was to visit somewhere within United States, again a bummer plan as I have already seen most of the hot spots. I was looking for a place to spend those miles and have a nice trip on long weekend. A colleague referred me Cancun, a Mexican city on the Yucatan Peninsula bordering the Caribbean Sea. I checked out the city and everything was looking perfect-miles, long weekend, location, even visa and budget. I researched for few days and finally made up my mind. This is the place, I am going and that’s it. Will figure out whatever happens next.

My Flight-Ready to Fly

I have heard some scary stuff about Mexico such as its famous for drugs, you might get kidnapped over there or your identity-passport/visa might be stolen. But who cares, I am ready to face anything and almost everything now a days. I am fearless bird who can migrate from one place to another in fraction of a second. I booked my flight with 75,000miles + 80$ and then 1,680miles + 270$ hotel. The best thing about hotel is that it was an all-inclusive hotel which means the room rent includes food and drinks as well. When we say food and drinks, it’s not 1 drink with lunch. It means unlimited food in all the restaurants on hotel property and unlimited drinks as well. I would say its heaven for drinkers and eaters. I bought some beach stuff for the trip like flip flops, lower and shoes. Then I packed everything a week in advance along with passport and visa. Finally the departure day came; I took off early from office in order to have some sleep. I planned in such a way that I had to stay at Atlanta Airport overnight and hence lil bit sleep was important. I didn’t get any sleep on airport as I was talking overseas half of the time, rest it was chill and I didn’t had a blanket. I got goose bumps as soon as I crossed customs and immigration as I was in a totally different part of the world all by myself. I have forgotten to mention that, it was a solo trip, yes I was alone. Quite adventurous!!!

Selfie @ Pool

I didn’t book my airport transfers with the hope that I’ll get something cheap locally. I tried searching for some time and got one for 33 $ round trip. Since, I was single, so it’s ok. It was Supershuttle- a well-known service, so I was in safe hands. I reached hotel earlier than the check in time around 11 AM and check out time was 12 PM. None of the rooms were available. As I was waiting for the room, I thought it would be best to snap some pictures in the meantime. I used the same time to schedule my visit next day to Chichen Itza. Got a offer at Viator for booking via mobile. I booked a tour called as “Early Access Tour” it allows us to complete the tour in morning. You can avoid the extreme hot temperature by visiting in morning and you have the rest of the day to enjoy and relax. Keep reading for rest of the tour…