Monday, Dec 7 - Day Seven

We're home, but I thought I would update you on our last days of the trip. Most of the last day was spent lounging around the pool. We considered riding bikes in the afternoon but decided we just wanted to soak up our last moments of sun while we still had them. On our way to the pool, we saw these iguanas. They are very friendly.


After lunch we went on a little nature photo shoot on our way to the other side of the resort. Cancun has some absolutely beautiful flowers and nature as you can see!
That evening we went back to our favorite Italian restaurant, La Trattoria, for dinner. We headed back to the resort and took our final walk along the beach to the other side of the resort. They had a Michael Jackson impersonator there, and he was actually really good! Here we are at the concert.
We woke up ready to go on Tuesday morning. After a long day of traveling, we headed home in the snowy weather. As much as we miss waking up to 80 degrees and sunny, we will certainly miss the Mexican people the most. Everyone was so friendly there. We will also really miss the food and relaxation, but there really is no place like home. We spent most of our day hugging our little Natalie and setting up for Christmas. Central Illinois certainly has a beautiful holiday charm to it as well.

Sunday, Dec 6 - Day Six

We mostly relaxed by the pools today. The sun came out for most of the day, but we got a quick rain shower in the early afternoon. I finished my first book of the vacation, and Adam listened to the iPod again. Just before lunch, we decided to sit on the swings at one of the poolside bars. My most favorite drink here is a non-alcoholic miami vice, which is half strawberry daiquiri and half pina colada. I can't have very many because they have lots of sugar, but here we are with our favorite drinks!

When we lost most of our sunshine, we decided to take a walk along the beach. Most of the beach is not good for swimming because of the reef seaweed that washes up, but we have lots of gorgeous sand for walking. There were lots of birds out on the beach today. Adam decided he wanted to run up and make them all fly away. We even found a shell on the beach. There aren't very many around our resort.


After we came in for the evening and got ready for dinner, Adam decided he would get room service for dinner (his new favorite thing). He doesn't like oriental food, and I really wanted to try it. So after he ate his room service dinner we headed out to our restaurant, Bambu. Adam got tempura ice cream for dessert again, and I had sweet and sour chicken. On our golf cart ride back to the main building we saw an anteater! It was a fun way to end our evening.

Saturday, Dec 5 - Day Five

We don't have too much to tell today because we didn't do much today! First, we ordered breakfast for our room. Adam and I never do room service because it's so expensive, but this all-inclusive stuff is fabulous! Then we headed out at about 9:30 to our spa appointment. Both of us have had massages before, but neither of us have ever been to an actual spa. We weren't sure what to expect. We had $190 in credits toward the spa, so we were able to each get a 25 minute back massage. Going to the spa is expensive!

When we got there, Adam had to go to the men's side, and I went to the women's side. Then we got locker keys, sandals, white fluffy robes and towels. We wore our swim suits and showered off first. Everything is really dark, quiet and tranquil. Then we moved to the spa room. I had water, and Adam had some Jamaican Flower Juice. (Keep in mind that we're doing this all separately, on our respective sides of the spa.) I did the sauna for about 5 minutes, but Adam skipped the sauna and went straight to the steam room. I did the steam room second. In each room they give you a wash cloth soaked in an herbal liquid of some sort. It smelled like lemon, mint and flowers, and you just breathe it in while you lay there. The steam room also had mint steam rolling like thick fog. After that I went straight to the jacuzzi, and Adam did the jacuzzi and foot bath. Then we had our massage, which was heavenly! They gave us herbal hot tea afterward, and that was it! Adam and I both felt totally relaxed when it was over. The rest of the day was spent reading by the poolside. I wish I had pictures from the spa, but we didn't have a chance to get them!

After the sun finally set on us, we got ready for dinner out at the Italian restaurant, La Trattoria, on the golf course. I had filet mignon, and Adam had chicken kiev. We both agreed that it was our best meal yet! Then we went across the hall to the oriental restaurant for dessert. We had tempura ice cream, which is basically a scoop of vanilla ice cream that is battered and deep fried with chocolate sauce on top. It was awesome! Here are some pictures from our evening.


After we got back to our side of the resort, we did a little shopping and caught the Broadway Review Show. Adam and I got our picture taken with the aforementioned donkey, whose name was Pancho, wearing a mustache and sombrero. They dressed us up in huipils (those multicolored, rug-like panchos), sombreros, and fake guns. Adam even got a ridiculous fake moustache. They wanted $20 for the picture, so we didn't get it - but it was fun getting all dressed up!

Friday, Dec 4 - Day Four

Well, today was half adventurous and half relaxing. First, we decided to order room service for breakfast and lounge around for a few hours. Then we went to sit by the pool for a while before heading to our zipline tour! While we were sitting, Adam discovered a new favorite drink - non-alcoholic strawberry coladas! At 12:00, we hit the bus for the zipline tour. Here's us all suited up and ready to go. Adam was less than thrilled with his pink helmet. :)


Basically, they hook you into this harness that works on a pulley system. You just sit into it, and off you go! We did about 12 ziplines. It's really hard to explain, but here's the website for the place we were at. http://www.holkankingdom.com/ We moved right along from one zipline to the next. It was VERY difficult to get pictures, but here you can see Adam doing the Mayan sacrifice pose. He went upside down too! I did the Mayan sacrifice, but I couldn't do upside down because I had the camera. You can see the monkey walk too. I was not a big fan of this, but we did it! This picture in NO WAY indicates how high these poles were, but we were hooked to a cable so all was safe. Also, here's a picture of us after we were all done. It was so much fun, and Adam said it was his highlight of the trip so far. I totally recommend it to everyone. We had a 70 year old woman with us, and she did a great job!


After we got back, Adam and I decided we had seen enough adventure for a while. It was finally time to hit the pool at our resort. Just before we left for the pool, they delivered a cake and champagne to our room for our 5 year anniversary! We left it in the fridge to eat tonight.

We enjoyed a nice afternoon of relaxing by the poolside. They give you poolside service here for food and drink, so we didn't lift a finger all afternoon. It was fabulous! I read my book, and Adam listened to the iPod for a few hours. You can see the poolside where we lounged in this picture. It's hard to capture the beauty of the resort, so you can visit the website for the really good pictures. (Moon Palace) The sun sets around 5:30 here, so we got ready for dinner when we lost our sunshine. Dinner tonight was at the Brazilian restaurant. We had salad, bread, grilled vegetables, and LOTS of meat. They come around with skewers the size of swords and just shave off what you want. Adam and I both had some two pork ribs, roasted chicken and flank steak. (These are small portions of each.) Then Adam tried some pork roast, and I tried some pork sausage. Neither of us were crazy about those, but the chicken won the prize!

After dinner we enjoyed a little terrible karaoke as entertainment, and Adam got to hold a parrot and a toucan. Sorry, no pictures of that. They take professional pictures and try to get you to buy one at $10. No thanks! He did enjoy holding the birds though. Last night we saw a hilarious donkey with a mustache and sombrero on. Wished we had the camera for that one!

Thursday, Dec 3 - Day Three

Today was all about Isla Mujeres or "Island of Women." Palace Resorts lets you travel to other resorts and take some tours, and today we wanted to head out to Isla Mujeres to check it out! This is us waiting for our bus. It poured down rain a few minutes later, but then it was sunny most of the day.

Then we got on this boat with our crazy crew, Jaime (hi-may), Fernando and Isa (ee-sah). They were a wild bunch, but we had lots of fun on a 45 minute boat ride to the island. Here's a picture of the island as we were approaching, and then you can see the picture of the Isla Mujeres Palace Resort.

Before we even got on the island, we hopped aboard another boat for a tour cruise around the island. It was unbelievable how beautiful the houses and ruins were all around, and the water was crystal clear! Here's a picture of us from the top of the boat. Some of the Mayan ruins are behind us.
Then we made a cruise up toward the north part of the island, and we stopped at an outdoor marina for about 20 minutes. We saw dolphins, manatees, and sea lions, but Adam was more interested in these crazy pelicans that were everywhere. They would just dive bomb you and swarm all around - and they're actually pretty huge birds!
After that, we went to North Shore, which is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. They tape those Corona commercials on the beach there. The water is so crystal clear that you can see your feet when water is shoulder high. Our boat stopped way out, but the water was still only about 4 feet deep. They told us we could jump of the boat and swim!!! It was amazing and definitely the best part of our day. Even the beer man came into the water and filled up beers while our group swam. It was just so amazing to swim in that clear water with sand between our toes.
Then we headed back to the Isla Mujeres Palace for lunch and relaxing by the beach for a few hours. After that, they took us up to the shopping area of the island, and man was it crazy! You can see how narrow the market streets are and how crowded the shops are in these pictures. There is basically lots of silver, clothes and cuban cigars. Adam and I were pretty tired and overwhelmed by this point, so we just decided to people watch for a while. Then we hopped aboard our boat for a fun ride home. The guys put on a very interesting show of dancing and singing songs like "La Bamba" and "Margaritaville" - things they think we Americans like about Mexico. Basically, we have learned that most Americans' Spanish consists of hola (hello), gracias (thank you), bano (bathroom) and cerveza (beer.) We are picking up a little bit more Spanish than that, but I would say that we still sound like we're from Illinois. :)

Well, we're off to dinner in a few minutes. It was such a fun day, and we hope you're enjoying some updates from south of the border!

Wednesday Dec 2 - Day Two

The fun begins already! We enjoyed some great sunshine today in Cancun. It has been a little windy, but beautiful temperature. Today we slept in, went to the breakfast buffet at El Manglar, went on a tour and presentation for Palace Vacations Club, journeyed up into Cancun at the Beach Palace Resort, ate lunch at the 13th floor poolside bar, soaked up some sun, and returned to our resort for dinner at Caporales.

Here is a picture of our room. They redesigned things after the hurricane a few years ago, so everything is new in the rooms.

Palace Vacations is kind of like a timeshare, but WAY better. They gave us a $40 credit at the spa if we sat through the tour, so we figured it was worth it. We were really close to signing a small contract but decided to wait until our family is more complete and some expenses in our life have worked out. Maybe next time we come... sigh... Anyway, today was our day to head up to the Beach Palace and see some beautiful ocean. Our resort has a lovely view, but we're so close to a reef that the waves wash up lots of seaweed and make it unswimable. We were shocked to find out that the hurricane swallowed the beach at the Beach Palace! The waves literally crash up against the resort now - no sand whatsoever. It was an absolutely GORGEOUS view though and so relaxing. Here's a few pictures from the downstairs pool area.


Then we headed up to the 13th floor, where it's surrounded by glass for an unbelievable view. The glass made it hard to take pictures, but you can get the idea. They have two pools on the top floor and a bar where we ate lunch. All of the food is very fresh and made to order. My favorite thing to eat here so far is the salsa! Every meal you get some chips and salsa. It's basically tomatoes, onion, cilantro and LOTS of lime. Adam's favorite thing so far has been the sweetened iced tea that you see in the picture. He's had like 10 glasses today! They had lounge furniture that you can see and waitresses came around and served you food and drink. When you say thank you, everyone always says "It's my pleasure." I love it!

We enjoyed a late dinner at a Mexican restaurant here on the resort. It's all-inclusive, which means that we can eat at any of the 14 restaurants on the resort and have drinks, snacks, room service, etc. anytime of the day. It's so awesome. You just sit down, order anything you want from the menu and then walk away when you are done. Tonight they brought us an appetizer of two small pork tacos and a tamale. Then Adam got steak tacos, and I got enchiladas with red sauce. They also brought us fresh guacamole and salsa with chips. After that, they gave us a little dessert trio with tres leche cake (3 milk cake), flan, and chocolate cake. Just a little bit of each of them. THEN, a special guy brought a little display by our table and made me a Mayan coffee. He dipped the glass in a grapefruit and then rimmed it in sugar (which I of course wiped off before I drank it, but it looked pretty!) Then he took these two metal gravy boat looking containers and put just a little brandy in one. And then he lit it on fire and poured it from one container to the other - you could see the flame travel when he poured it! Then he poured it in my glass, lit it on fire some more, added some coffee, a drop of mayan liqueur stuff (you can tell I don't really know my booze) and topped it with fresh whipped cream. WHOA! I could only drink a little because it had lots of sugar in it, but oh my goodness it was amazing.

Adam had a first tonight and drank his very first tequila shot! They were having a tequila tasting party in the lobby, complete with mariachi band and dancing sombrero man. They practically tossed the tequila at us because it's like water here. I told Adam that he should do it since we're in Mexico. I was expecting him to sip a bit, but he slammed it! It was HILARIOUS! His face was so priceless. He kept telling me how much it burned going down and that he thought slamming the whole shot would cut back on the burn. Whoops! Anyway, it was a very festive Mexican day and full of fun and relaxation.

Tuesday Dec. 1 - Day One

Well, we're here! Adam and I are celebrating our 5 year anniversary in Cancun, and I must tell you that it is heavenly here! We're staying at the Moon Palace in what we think is the very same room we stayed in 5 years ago. The ocean is unbelievable every time I see it, and this place really reminds me how BIG and GREAT our God really is. I'm hoping to update our blog at the end of every day to show some of our pictures and share some of our memories. Here are a few pictures from outside our room and on our balcony



The first thing we did today was eat a late lunch at Gondola. Moon Palace has 12 restaurants, and everything is included. We can eat a light bite or a full meal at any time of the day! Adam and I were reminded of how wonderful the Mexican people are when we sat down to lunch. Every time we say thank you (after they bring us drinks, when they seat us at a table, when they hold a door for us, etc.) they always say "It's my pleasure." I love it!!! We American should take notes from this culture on being hospitable and kind. They unfold our napkins for us, they pull our chairs out for us, they smile every time we see them, and almost everyone we see gives us a warm "buenos dias!" This is a picture of the restaurant where we ate lunch. You can see the glass ceiling and how beautifully ornate everything is!

















Then we decided to walk around the resort and take a look at all the pools. This place has pools all over the place, but you can see a few. If you look closely, you can see the swim up bars and the chairs that sit in a 1 foot shallow water. Most of the pools have bridges that you cross to get to your buildings.


Finally, we took a walk along the beach back to one of the main sections of the resort, and sat down for the big Christmas tree lighting. I must say that it's strange to light a Christmas tree when it's 80 degrees and sunny outside, but I like it! Well, we're off to dinner at the steakhouse, and on to more relaxing! Mexico is all we remembered it to be and so much more!