Dear Readers,

Happy New Year!! It's hard to believe that it is now 2004 (wasn't it just a few weeks ago we were all waiting for the lights to go out at the Millennium?) Here's to a year of romance and travel, wherever the road may take you!

With the new year, we're happy to introduce new changes to Lovetripper! Over the holidays, we moved the website to a new, faster server and did some reorganization of the site as well. It was a big job, now that we're up to over 2200 pages, but it's going to be well worth it. We've got all-new state-by-state index pages which, in the coming weeks, will be providing you with information on marriage regulations, each destination's most romantic locations, and fast facts like the best time of year to visit.

But all work and no play is no fun so we definitely made time for some romantic travel during the month of December.

We started out the month with a quick day trip to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Early, early one Saturday morning, we boarded a bus in Austin with about 100 fellow shoppers and rode down to the border, crossing over to spend a day Christmas shopping.

Little did we know that, two weeks later, we'd be making another trip to Mexico! Just a few days after returning from Nuevo Laredo, we were invited on the first Continental flight from Houston to Manzanillo. Just over two hours from Houston, we landed in Manzanillo to a welcome like we've never seen! Two firetrucks on each side of the runway sprayed water in an arch to greet our plane. As our group disembarked, we were met by mariachi bands, beauty queens, and even the governor of the state of Colima.

We spent three nights in Manzanillo checking out the area's most romantic getaways as well as sites for destination weddings.

We stayed at the beautiful, all-inclusive Karmina Palace but visited many other properties, including Las Hadas (remember the movie "10"...it was filmed there.)

In the neighboring state of Jalisco, we visited one of the most relaxing, exclusive resorts we've seen: El Tamarindo. (Both Dennis Quaid and Michelle Pfeiffer have vacationed there.)

You'll soon see a story on this fantastic property on Lovetripper. The property feels like a small, private world, completely removed from the hustle and bustle. We saw an entire family of lemurs on the grounds, which are thick with tropical growth.

We also visited nearby colonial cities, checked out the local volcanoes (one active, one dormant), and more...all which you'll be reading about in the coming weeks. We returned home just days before Christmas to enjoy the holidays at home.

Happy travels, Paris and John

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