But then, in swoops Claire (hero music playing in the background), who works her magic and finds an all-inclusive resort in Cancun that we can stay at for nearly as cheap using a time share exchange! Hooray!! So the four of us headed down to Cancun for 9 days of heaven. It was a nine days jam packed with a lot, so I'll just hit some of the major highlights:
(WARNING: This is probably the longest post known to man. Begin reading at your own risk...)
1. Traveling:
see the blog post below. And to get a much more thorough and hilarious story of our travels, go to Sid and Claire's blog (link off to the right)!
see the blog post below. And to get a much more thorough and hilarious story of our travels, go to Sid and Claire's blog (link off to the right)!
2. Our resort:
We stayed at the Park Royal Resort in Cancun. Yummy food, excellent service, very hard beds, but a VERY beautiful beach.
See? Absolutely lovely. The water was awesome: not too salty, cool but not cold, and perfectly clear. I LOVED our beach! We really had a blast at our resort. Ate some yummy steaks. Had all the mango one could desire. Downed a gallon or so of fresh limeade everyday. Muy divertido.
Us in our room:
Virgin Pina Coladas!! (All the bar tenders and waiters couldn't understand why we wouldn't want to take advantage of all the free alcohol. It seriously perplexed them!)
3. The Food:
So those who know me and know me well, could assume this would be near the top of my highlights list. And can you blame me? Look at those mangoes! Mango is the food of the gods, by the way, so life doesn't get any better than having a yummy plate of mangoes every day for breakfast. Oh, and don't get me started on the buffets!
4. Isla Mujeres:
Our third day in Cancun, we got to take a boat over to Isla Mujeres where we went snorkeling, shopping at flea markets, and rented a golf cart to cruise aroud the island in. The island was BEAUTIFUL, the snorkeling was so fun, and I splurged at the flea market and got a little Mexican dress for our baby girl!
Our boat ride over to the island:
Look at that water!! I'm sorry, but top that!
Petting/holding/swimming with a shark! It's a nurse shark, which of course is nice and the ONLY shark I would ever care to swim with!
Enjoying ice cream on our golf cart as we tour the island:
5. Chichen Itza:
After a fun day on Isla Mujeres, we took a bus the following day to the ruins of the Mayan city, Chichen Itza. I had been before when I was 10 years old, and it was still just as spectacular this time. The only bummer is that people are no longer to climb the pyramids due to vandalism (seriously makes me want to punch the vandals in the face!) and the fact that I was pregnant and over-heated was also slightly uncomfortable. Swollen ankles and heat stroke. Need I say anymore? (and once again, for my nursing friends, this was 4+ pedal edema. As bad as I've ever seen on an ICU patient!)
The ruins are so amazing simply because of the vast amount of ancient history that exists there and all the information the tour guides have to share about the ancient Mayans and their lifestyle, culture, and traditions. As a memeber of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, these ruins are all the more amazing because the history of these people is included in the Book of Mormon, so I feel very close to the historical events and people that once inhabited this area. If you are ever in the Yucatan peninsula, you'll be CRAZY not to visit at least one of the ruins sties.
Here's Garrett in front of "El Castillo":
And Sid and Claire in front of the same pyramid:
The ball court:
Garrett and I in front of the Observatory (The Mayans were great astronomers):
6. How we ended up at a five star resort for our last two days:
Our stay at Park Royal ended a few days before we headed back home, so Claire had booked a hotel room somewhere else for our last few days. We rented a car for the weekend and drove to where our new hotel would be. Only Sid and Garrett went in to check out what the rooms were like, because it looked kind of scary and was in an alley way in what seemed to be a scary part of town. Here's the view right across from that hotel:
And here's the "beach" by that hotel (complete with rotting fish heads in the sand!)
Needless to say, we weren't super excited for our new hotel rooms. Well, when we rented the car, the guy gave us some free passes to an amazing snorkeling park (worth $75 a piece) if we would go to this five star resort in Cancun called Moon Palace and listen to a presentation about buying a time share there. Sid and Claire had gone to little presentations like this before and decided that it was worth the free tickets, and Garrett and I tagged along to the presentation. Well, the resort was AMAZING! We thought we were living it up where we were at before, but this place blew Park Royal out of the water!! Let's just say to stay at this place would be the ultimate pampered vacation of your life.
The presenter offered Sid and Claire a 50% off discount to buy a time share there, free massages, facials, place tickets, and a bunch of other incentives. Garrett's parents hadn't actually planned on buying anything that day, we just wanted the free snorkeling park passes!! However, the resort was amazing, the incentives quite nice, and Sid decided that there was one incentive that would convince him to buy: give us two free nights all-inclusive to stay at the resort, and he'd buy a time share. The manager agreed and we suddenly went from staying in the slums of Cancun for our last two days to staying at the ritziest place I've ever seen!
Signing the paperwork!
Garrett showing off the heavenly in-room jacuzzi.
Amazing pool area:
Check this out Nicole, Adee, and Talia: a fun kiddie pool area! Oh yeah, the kids will LOVE this!
Hammocks on every balcony:
Pretty views:
Nice beach area:
Free, yummy, endless sushi at a nice on-site restaurant:
Complimentary chocolate-covered strawberries? Yes, please.
7. Xel-Ha:
So our last full day in Mexico, we went on our trip to a park called Xel-Ha (about an hour and half south). It's a protected ecological area where there are a lot of fresh springs, and sink holes near the ocean to explore and where a river flows into the Carribean Ocean. There's a lot of beautiful views, paths to walk on, biking trails, and the most amazing snorkeling ever!! I've never seen so many big and colorful fish, not to mention the many sting rays in the area (which actually was a little scary to me, but I'm also a wuss.) According to Garrett, it was THE highlight of our vacation. It really was amazingly beautiful and we spent the whole day there from opening to closing time (I think we were the last ones to leave the park!). If you're ever in the area, this is another MUST DO to put on your list.
We made friends with many iguanas:
Garrett and Sid tried out swinging from a rope into a sink hole:
Of course, Garrett got a little crazy:
Prefect relaxing atmosphere by the beach where Garrett found a bunch of hermit crabs, cool shells, and coral:
Hiking through the jungle:
Behind us is the reef we snorkeled in where the river met the ocean. It was AMAZING!
We were INCREDIBLY spoiled on our vacation, especially the last few days that we were there. I can't imagine a vacation getting any better than that and we have Sid and Claire to thank a MILLION times for making it all possible and for taking the vacation with us before our lives get crazy and our wallets get even thinner (is that even possible!?). I definitely LOVED every minute of it and I think Garrett needed it for his sanity (seeing as his school is year-round and butt-kicking). Now I can't wait to have some family reunions back at the resort in Cancun someday! Until then, Adios Mexico!
(Hopefully some people actually made it through this ridiculously LONG update of how our vacation went, but this seriously was a condensed version!)
We stayed at the Park Royal Resort in Cancun. Yummy food, excellent service, very hard beds, but a VERY beautiful beach.
See? Absolutely lovely. The water was awesome: not too salty, cool but not cold, and perfectly clear. I LOVED our beach! We really had a blast at our resort. Ate some yummy steaks. Had all the mango one could desire. Downed a gallon or so of fresh limeade everyday. Muy divertido.Us in our room:
Virgin Pina Coladas!! (All the bar tenders and waiters couldn't understand why we wouldn't want to take advantage of all the free alcohol. It seriously perplexed them!)
3. The Food:
So those who know me and know me well, could assume this would be near the top of my highlights list. And can you blame me? Look at those mangoes! Mango is the food of the gods, by the way, so life doesn't get any better than having a yummy plate of mangoes every day for breakfast. Oh, and don't get me started on the buffets!4. Isla Mujeres:
Our third day in Cancun, we got to take a boat over to Isla Mujeres where we went snorkeling, shopping at flea markets, and rented a golf cart to cruise aroud the island in. The island was BEAUTIFUL, the snorkeling was so fun, and I splurged at the flea market and got a little Mexican dress for our baby girl!
Our boat ride over to the island:
Look at that water!! I'm sorry, but top that!
Petting/holding/swimming with a shark! It's a nurse shark, which of course is nice and the ONLY shark I would ever care to swim with!
Enjoying ice cream on our golf cart as we tour the island:
5. Chichen Itza:
After a fun day on Isla Mujeres, we took a bus the following day to the ruins of the Mayan city, Chichen Itza. I had been before when I was 10 years old, and it was still just as spectacular this time. The only bummer is that people are no longer to climb the pyramids due to vandalism (seriously makes me want to punch the vandals in the face!) and the fact that I was pregnant and over-heated was also slightly uncomfortable. Swollen ankles and heat stroke. Need I say anymore? (and once again, for my nursing friends, this was 4+ pedal edema. As bad as I've ever seen on an ICU patient!)
The ruins are so amazing simply because of the vast amount of ancient history that exists there and all the information the tour guides have to share about the ancient Mayans and their lifestyle, culture, and traditions. As a memeber of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, these ruins are all the more amazing because the history of these people is included in the Book of Mormon, so I feel very close to the historical events and people that once inhabited this area. If you are ever in the Yucatan peninsula, you'll be CRAZY not to visit at least one of the ruins sties.
Here's Garrett in front of "El Castillo":
And Sid and Claire in front of the same pyramid:
The ball court:
Garrett and I in front of the Observatory (The Mayans were great astronomers):
6. How we ended up at a five star resort for our last two days:
Our stay at Park Royal ended a few days before we headed back home, so Claire had booked a hotel room somewhere else for our last few days. We rented a car for the weekend and drove to where our new hotel would be. Only Sid and Garrett went in to check out what the rooms were like, because it looked kind of scary and was in an alley way in what seemed to be a scary part of town. Here's the view right across from that hotel:
And here's the "beach" by that hotel (complete with rotting fish heads in the sand!)
Needless to say, we weren't super excited for our new hotel rooms. Well, when we rented the car, the guy gave us some free passes to an amazing snorkeling park (worth $75 a piece) if we would go to this five star resort in Cancun called Moon Palace and listen to a presentation about buying a time share there. Sid and Claire had gone to little presentations like this before and decided that it was worth the free tickets, and Garrett and I tagged along to the presentation. Well, the resort was AMAZING! We thought we were living it up where we were at before, but this place blew Park Royal out of the water!! Let's just say to stay at this place would be the ultimate pampered vacation of your life.The presenter offered Sid and Claire a 50% off discount to buy a time share there, free massages, facials, place tickets, and a bunch of other incentives. Garrett's parents hadn't actually planned on buying anything that day, we just wanted the free snorkeling park passes!! However, the resort was amazing, the incentives quite nice, and Sid decided that there was one incentive that would convince him to buy: give us two free nights all-inclusive to stay at the resort, and he'd buy a time share. The manager agreed and we suddenly went from staying in the slums of Cancun for our last two days to staying at the ritziest place I've ever seen!
Signing the paperwork!
Garrett showing off the heavenly in-room jacuzzi.
Amazing pool area:
Check this out Nicole, Adee, and Talia: a fun kiddie pool area! Oh yeah, the kids will LOVE this!
Hammocks on every balcony:
Pretty views:
Nice beach area:
Free, yummy, endless sushi at a nice on-site restaurant:
Complimentary chocolate-covered strawberries? Yes, please.
7. Xel-Ha:
So our last full day in Mexico, we went on our trip to a park called Xel-Ha (about an hour and half south). It's a protected ecological area where there are a lot of fresh springs, and sink holes near the ocean to explore and where a river flows into the Carribean Ocean. There's a lot of beautiful views, paths to walk on, biking trails, and the most amazing snorkeling ever!! I've never seen so many big and colorful fish, not to mention the many sting rays in the area (which actually was a little scary to me, but I'm also a wuss.) According to Garrett, it was THE highlight of our vacation. It really was amazingly beautiful and we spent the whole day there from opening to closing time (I think we were the last ones to leave the park!). If you're ever in the area, this is another MUST DO to put on your list.
We made friends with many iguanas:
Garrett and Sid tried out swinging from a rope into a sink hole:
Of course, Garrett got a little crazy:
Prefect relaxing atmosphere by the beach where Garrett found a bunch of hermit crabs, cool shells, and coral:
Hiking through the jungle:
Behind us is the reef we snorkeled in where the river met the ocean. It was AMAZING!
We were INCREDIBLY spoiled on our vacation, especially the last few days that we were there. I can't imagine a vacation getting any better than that and we have Sid and Claire to thank a MILLION times for making it all possible and for taking the vacation with us before our lives get crazy and our wallets get even thinner (is that even possible!?). I definitely LOVED every minute of it and I think Garrett needed it for his sanity (seeing as his school is year-round and butt-kicking). Now I can't wait to have some family reunions back at the resort in Cancun someday! Until then, Adios Mexico!(Hopefully some people actually made it through this ridiculously LONG update of how our vacation went, but this seriously was a condensed version!)
6 comments:
That was perfect! Thanks for doing that now I don't have to. I know Nicole and Kinau are excited to go but I haven't heard anything from anybody else. But after they see and read this, I know they all will want to experience the best vacation Ever!
What fun! You've always said that a trip to Mexico would be great, but I think you may have convinced me now. Except for the part about the rotting fish head hotel. I'm glad you managed an upgrade. You deserved the break! I'm glad it was fun (even if the travel to and from was...um...adventurous. :)
I made it all the way through your post, and could have read even more!! Your trip sounded SO amazing!! We've never done an all-inclusive resort vacation before, but after reading about your trip I definitely think we need to...and soon!! Thanks for all the pictures and stories...it was awesome to live vicariously through you for a bit!!
KILLING ME, that looks so amazing
Holly that was great how you laid it all out for me. I was confused before about where you stayed when. Now I get it! I loved the kiddie park pool pics. Kanani was getting so excited looking at it. Of course she wants to go there right now!! :) I told her we would save our money and she said, "you got money for me, right mom?" So cute! "Of course I do!" I said.
That looks like heaven! I am jealous you were there for 9 days...we are only going for 5 days. And thanks for your advice...we are definitely going despite the swine flu and drug cartels. And especially since I've seen your pictures and how blue the water is. Glad you had fun.
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