CANCUN BABY!!!

Finally, Cancun pictures!! I don't even have any idea how many weeks it's been since we got back. I think just a little over 2. Are you kidding me?? Oh my that is just insane. How quickly life gets crazy again!! Anyway we will put all that aside for a few moments and go back to a place where the air is warm, ocean is gorgeous blue, sand is white, and stress is completely non-existent. Heaven? I think yes.

Starting at the beginning ... we left the house at 3:3o on Tuesday morning in order to park, take the shuttle, and make our 6:00 flight. Since we went to bed at like 1 it was a little rough but of course we got to sleep on the plane. And when I looked out my window and saw this view I certainly wasn't tired anymore ... just SOOOOO excited!!!
Side note: the plane was pretty empty as was the airport ... evidently everyone was scared away by the swine flu. Some airport heath people checked our temperature, let us into the country, and we were at our hotel in no time at all!

Speaking of our hotel, here it is! Although the swine flu has been bad, bad news for Mexicans in the tourism industry, it was pretty great news for us. We got to stay in a sweet hotel with an amazing beach - and NO CROWDS. Awesome.
We got to our room and were excited to see we had a tiny balcony with a gorgeous ocean view, shown here:

And as quickly as we could throw on our swim suits and sunscreen we were at the beach! For the next 5 days, we spent most of our time on our lounge chairs staring at this:

And after going for a few walks along the beach and taking a dip in the bathwater-temperature water, we would walk about 10 yards and refresh ourselves in some fresh water:
Not bad. Not bad at all. As we were relaxing the first day I found myself wondering if this was going to get old. How do you just spend all day so relaxed? What does your mind do when it has nothing to do? The concept was completely foreign. But ... I quickly learned not only is it completely easy, it is 100 perfect divine. It is no secret that it has been a hectic and challenging 4 years for Joe and me and I don't think my mind has ever been so completely relaxed. I slept like a baby which basically hasn't happened since, well, probably when I was a baby. ;)

Taking a swim:

One of our many, many walks along the beach. :) Ahhh .. so gorgeous.

Okay, funny story. So our second day (first full day) there we were taking a walk along the beach and I decided to stand on a rock where the waves were shallow for a picture. As Joe was getting out the camera an ENORMOUS wave came out of nowhere and knocked my feet out from under me ... landing me in some twisted position where I managed to seriously bruise my tailbone, outer thigh, elbow, and knee (w/ some minor scrapes as well). When Joe turned around I was on my hands and knees trying to scramble to shore before another wave came and finished me off and saying "Joe I'm dying, I'm dying Joe." Needless to say I learned my lesson: don't mess with the ocean because if you do it's going to take you, beat you up, and then spit you back out if you're lucky. Of course I have pictures of my bruises but I they are a little bit disgusting for the blog. No lasting damage though.

One of my favorite things to do on our walks was to look for shells. Basically I'm obsessed with seashells! I love them. I brought a plastic bag along each day so I could hold them all. I found lots of pretty ones. :)

Here's me and my beach chair. I am proud to say I was pretty smart this time around and spent a good amount of time in the shade, and the rest of the time slathering on sunscreen. The result? I came home with a mild, healthy glow instead of the painful, ugly, peeling, tomato red sunburn I usually manage to give myself. Hey maybe my J.D. really did make me smarter.

Enjoying a virgin pina colada on the beach was one of my priorities. That and reading my book.

Joe at the pool:

Joe making friends with a lizard one day at lunch:

Um I don't think all these pictures need explanations. We're just happy. We look like newlyweds (and were asked about it a couple of times) only we've been married 4 years.

Food tended to be a little expensive (with limited options) at the resort so most nights we would take a cheap bus ride a couple of stops down the road where there were lots and lots of great restaurants to choose from. One night we decided to order in (Papa Johns pizza) and have a private dinner on the beach at sunset. Pretty awesome.

Another night we had a shrimp feast. All the restaurants were right on the water - beautiful!

We decided to do one "adventure day" and leave our beach chairs to do some snorkeling and other activites. All I really wanted to do was snorkel, but after considering our options the package we ended up with included a boat ride to Isla de la Mujeres, some snorkeling, a lunch buffet, hanging out on the beach at the island, kayaking in the ocean, another boat ride to the downtown area of the island, and then of course the trip home. What we didn't realize was that there was going to be a little less snorkeling than promised and a LOT more "entertainment." Our captain and other guides on the boat basically thought they were a riot and blared music the whole time while dancing for us and trying to pour tequila down our throats. BUT ... it turned out to be a really fun day. I successfully warded off all tequila shots and we got to see some cool fish, kayak, shop, relax, and have all the water and soda we wanted all day long (since it costs like $4 a bottle at the hotel). We enjoyed our adventure and then enjoyed getting back to our routine of ... doing nothing.

I could have stayed at least another week. It was just too much fun. There was even a sweet gym for Joe to use in the early morning before we headed to the beach (while I slept) and a ping pong table we liked to use for a few minutes after dinner. We settled on our favorite meals on the poolside restaurant lunch menu (beef fajitas and chicken panini) and were just so content. The hotel traffic picked up a little the last couple of days with some destination weddings, but it definitely wasn't busy. However, we were lucky enough to come across some scary lady who started talking to us a couple of times for no apparent reason and in the elevator told us in a masculine, heavily-hickish voice: "it's my 4oth birthday and I DO want to go get DRUNK as a SKUNK." I doubt she had any trouble there.

Of course the week came to an end waaay too fast. On the last night we went in search of a special dinner and ended up taking a beautiful walk in this sunset:

We finally found the perfect place to eat and I had delicious sea bass and Joe had the thickest steak I've ever seen. Also we watched for dolphins which are frequently spotted near the place we were eating and I caught a glimpse of one.

On Sunday morning we got up extra early so we could enjoy the beach one last time before we had to check out and catch our flight home. Although we're sad it's over, we are soooo happy we had such a fantastic vacation to celebrate our dual-graduations. I suppose it's always good to be home safe and sound - and no swine flu. ;)