Mexico

I am at an almost complete loss for what to say about our trip to Riviera Maya, Mexico, because it was so spectacular words can't do it justice. It was so good, I only read one-and-a-half books. There were just other things to do, like sleep by the pool, eat and drink whenever we wanted, and explore the huge resort.

Here are some highlights:

The first night we had a festive dinner with the 800 people in the group we were with. There was a Mexican band singing the oddest arrangement of songs I have ever heard. There were also two dancing girls in very skimpy black dresses, doing what looked like a low impact aerobic routine. Huh? We all ate and drank and then played carnival games. Despite being tired and having enjoyed several beverages I broke two balloons with darts.


The second day I began with a pedicure at the spa while Matt was in a short meeting, the only real business obligation of the trip. Then we spent all day at the pool, where the deck chairs sat directly in the water, and only got a little sunburned. (Seriously, the sun is powerful there, we used nearly an entire bottle of sun block in less than five days.)



The third day we went on an excursion to see the Mayan ruins at Tulum and visit an eco park called Xel-Ha. The ruins were beautiful, even if our tour guide went on and on and on telling us about how ancient Mayans distributed the buildings in a way that let them tell time and set a calendar, leaving us only about twenty-five minutes to actually explore them. There were iguanas everywhere! Sort of like the squirrels in our yard, but slower.


The third night there was a big awards dinner for our group which was fancier than our wedding. It was a lot of fun and probably the best food we had the entire trip. I did not get any pictures inside the ballroom, so you'll just have to believe me when I say it was fabulous.

The fourth day we swam with a dolphin!!! That is practically the equivalent of every childhood dream I ever had coming true. We got to hold and kiss the dolphin, take a "belly ride" holding onto her fins, ride on a boogie board while she pushed the bottom of our feet, and swim around with her a bit. I know that lots of people do this on vacation now, but I still get a little thrill thinking about how I played in the water with a 400 pound dolphin. She wasn't scary at all; I was, in fact, way more freaked out by all the littler fish in the water.


The last night we joined the other people from Matt's region for our own little dinner. We ate at the Mexican restaurant where nothing on the menu was mild enough for my palate. But guess what. . . All-inclusive means you can just go back and order room service if you aren't crazy about your dinner. And we did. To celebrate our last night in Mexico, I took a bubble bath in our tub which was almost big enough to swim in. Now that's a vacation.


Getting home was something of an ordeal. There were late flights and missed connections. Instead of flying into Dayton at 9 on Sunday night, we flew into Indianapolis at midnight, rented a car, and drove back. We crawled into bed around three in the morning on Monday.

My mom managed to keep Harper unaware that we were home until about nine that morning. Eventually my mom told her to be quiet because we were sleeping. Harper pointed to our closed bedroom door and said, "In dere?" Then she said, "I go say hi." I woke up to see her smiling face next to the bed. She climbed up, crawled all over hugging and kissing both of us, looking as happy as if it were Christmas morning. Then she said, "I yike you, Mommy." Sure beats the reception we got after our trip last year!

(For those who are really interested, you can view many vacation photos here.)