Beach Vacationing in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Last week, I lived the (insanely) good life in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. There is, quite simply, no other way to put it.

Vacation in Cabo, Mexico // lynnepetre.com

Earlier this year, one of my best friends, Elizabeth, asked if I had any interest in a trip to Cabo, Mexico to celebrate her 30th birthday.

Elizabeth and I are friends from college and, through the years, have kept up a long-distance friendship that includes visits to each other’s cities but also big trips to explore the world around us. We’d been brainstorming ways to ring in our 30s – maybe with a trip to Costa Rica? – but hadn’t landed on anything that felt exactly right.

When she called and explained the situation – a friend in Minneapolis, WL, was also turning 30 and lucked into a sweet deal on 2 condos at the Pueblo Bonito Resort at Sunset Beach and we’d only need to cover our airfare – Sold! I was in. A quick search secured me a $400 plane ticket and we were booked.

Vacation in Cabo, Mexico // lynnepetre.com

There were 9 of us in total throughout the week and it’s impossible to succulently recap the trip – from the first class upgrade on our MSP>SJD flight (thanks, WL!) to the incredibly beautiful resort to lazy days spent in a beach cabana drinking margaritas to playing in ocean waves, it was all so dreamy.

We ventured into town a couple of days – once for Elizabeth’s birthday dinner, once to spend the day at the sister resort, walk around the town looking for local shops and dinning on non-resort food. (Insider’s tip: Cabo’s downtown caters to the tourists on vacation so there was less local shopping than we’d hoped but it’s still worth wandering around.) We tossed out our watches and lived a relaxed life, (mostly) disconnected from the ‘real world’.

Vacation in Cabo, Mexico // lynnepetre.com

We watched sting rays jump out of the water making their way up the shore in the evening light; we walked through a beautiful cactus garden, taking millions of photos. We ate avocados for breakfast, tacos for dinners and spoke a teeny bit of Spanish we knew whenever possible. The 7 days flew by in an instant and I can’t believe I’m already back home in Pittsburgh, nursing the last bit of sunburn on my back.

Vacation in Cabo, Mexico // lynnepetre.com

Lazy beach vacations are not my typical choice for spending free time but, damn, did it feel good last week! It was a perfect celebration a new year, a new decade and a great friendship. Truthfully, I’d never considered a trip to Mexico before but Cabo is definitely on my radar for a future long weekend beach getaway.

Cheers to 30

Last Monday, I celebrated 30 successful years on this Earth. Which, as I’m sure everyone feels when they turn 30, feels completely nuts. How the heck am I already 30?! And then I stop to think about all that I’ve done in the past 30 years – even just the last 10! – and I feel like 30 is an appropriate age.

On recent birthdays, I’d lamented that I didn’t even FEEL like I should be turning 26, 27, 28, that I still felt like I was years younger. And that was probably true.

But these days, I feel much more ‘adult’ about life thanks to things like: buying a car with my husband, working for a high growth tech company and growing/evolving as a manager of an expanding team, working remotely for said company, moving across the country to support Alex’s dream of earning his MBA, celebrating the marriages of so many friends and family and most recently, excitedly welcoming babies! The past couple of years in particular have had a lot of growing and stretching which has made me realize that I am very much an adult. (Maybe being the single source of income for our family has something to do with feeling like a responsible adult, too. #sugarmama)

Birthdays, like the new year, lend itself to reflection on the past and what the future will bring. I can’t help but think about what the next decade holds: Alex’s MBA graduation, settling down in a hopefully more-permanent location, probably buying a house, likely expanding our family (Alex already agreed to a new fur child when we find our next home!), maybe dancing at weddings for a sibling or two or all, definitely buying my youngest sister a beer on her 21st birthday.

THIRTY feels like such a big number but really, I feel content. (6 months ago? Not content. Today? Content.) We’re almost halfway through this MBA journey and are looking ahead to ‘the rest of our lives.’ It’s stressful but also exciting. I’m ready to not be in limbo, to not move nearly every year from apartment to apartment, to have a place to grow a garden, to have money for a big vacation. I’m excited about the next decade and undoubtedly looking back, thinking, Holy cow! Look at everything we did in the last 10 years!

Oregon March 2016 // lynnepetre.com

This year, I woke up on my birthday in Oregon with Alex visiting a couple of our favorite people. How unlikely and completely amazing is it to have Couple Besties where both genders are best friends, too? We couldn’t have been luckier that the universe crossed our paths in Wilderness Trekking School in Denver.

We spent our time in Bend, OR hiking to giant waterfalls, trail running in national forests, dropping our jaws at Smith Rock, skiing on a VOLCANO! and – most importantly – laughing/lounging/hugging/savoring every moment with our friends. (We also cheers-ed Alex locking down a killer internship during our trip! More to come but we’re both pretty psyched about our summer plans.)

Oregon March 2016 // lynnepetre.com

I couldn’t have imagined a better way to ring in 30 than with a few of my favorite people, playing outside in a beautiful place. Looking forward to the new adventures ahead in the upcoming year and beyond.