Friday in Cancun

Well it was our last full day in Cancun. I can't believe the time has flown by so fast. We will all be sad to head back to Ohio tomorrow. It was pretty bad waking the kids up this morning. Since we were up late last night, they were still sleeping at 8:45 when we woke them up. Normally I would not wake the kids up unless it was a school day, but they were going to sleep the morning away! They were visiblly tired- having crying melt downs over everything. Sydney didn't want to put on a damp swimsuit (it takes days to dry stuff out here since it's so humid) and Zack didn't want to put on sunscreen because it was "cold"! Then at breakfast Sydney found out the ice cream was not available, and Alan had promised ice cream for breakfast one day.



We spent the moring swimming in the pool and had our last lunch by the pool.









For our last day we decided to go on a submarine - well actually a special boat with large windows for viewing sea life in the bottom. Our sub trip started at AquaWorld. We took a boat out to the reef where they "subs" were at. It was a beautiful boat ride out to the reef - much faster than the one that took us to Isla Mujeres. It was even better because we got to ride on the top of the boat!













When we arrived at the reef we rode in the sub for about a half hour. We saw a lot of fish, a stingray and 2 sea turtles! Big bummer - on the boat ride back I lost my lens cap for my camera.















It was a hot trip back to our hotel in the mid-day heat. Zack found a way to keep cool though...



Our day wound down with a dinner at the hotel following another dip in the pool. Oh, and did I mention I had an issue to deal with where Zack "waited too long" to go to the bathroom? ugghh We took yet another shopping trip to the the mall at finally found some souviners - t-shirts, bracelets and maracas. Time to pack up the suitcases and say goodbye to Mexico. See you again soon we hope!!

Thursday in Cancun

After talking it up to the kids all week, we finally took the kids to the "straw market" in downtown Cancun. Much to our surprise, the place was more than half empty!! Unfortunately that put a damper on the big morning of shopping. We did wander around the stall that were there and bought a cool t-shirt for Zack. We did venture into the supermarket downtown, which was quite an adventure, especially since it was one of those places where you weren't supposed to flush the toilet paper - ewwww, that was a nasty smelling restroom!! I think that was the fastest we've ever made it in and out of the bathroom. The also had a "people mover" kinda escalator that was flat to take shopping carts up to the 2nd floor.

After shopping we headed back to our hotel for some more swimming and sliding. For dinner we decided to do something new and ordered room service. The food was good, even thought I had to steal a fork from the room across the hall!

Next we dragged the kids out shopping again since we were still in search of some items. We found quite a few treasures and headed back to the hotel for some night swimming. We had promised the kids we would swim at night, so we slipped into the kids pool area. Surprisingly we were the only ones in the pool. We soon found out why, when we were asked to get out!! oops

Wednesday in Cancun

Alan continued his marathon training with great dedication today. He woke up early (6:45 am) and ran intervals (5 miles). He saw lots of workers going to hotels and stores. After running we all went out for breakfast and then played again for a long time in the pirate boat and slides.





After lunch by the pool we went down to the beach. The water was beautiful but still a little rough so the kids couldn't wade out very far. After the beach we headed upstairs to our room. On the way to our room Sydney slipped at spilled her kiddie drink all over herself (right in her face!) and the hall. Since it was strawberry the scene looked quite horrific since it was bright red and looked like blood - it frightened a person who was following us in the hall! I snapped a picture and had a good laugh about it - after we cleaned it up.




We went over to La Isla mall for a little escape from the sun, then out for dinner at the hotel again. I'm ready for another night out - the food choices are getting pretty repetitive. In the evening there was a pirate show put on by the kids club at the hotel. The kids had fun running around and the end of the show they got to break open a pinata.

Tuesday in Mexico

Today was a really great day in Mexico. We went to the island of Isla Mujeres ("the island of women"). We arranged a tour with AquaTours. A pretty good deal - $69 for adults and free for the kids, since of course in Mexico Sydney is still only 5 years old. wink wink! We started at the AquaTours marina and took a boat ride through the lagoon and over to the Dolphin Discovery area on the island. The boat ride through the lagoon was rather hot because it was a slow moving boat. We even had to fold down the top hand rails of the boat and no one could ride on the top when we went under a bridge! Once on the island we took another boat over to the central part of town on the island and rented a golf cart.



We went "downtown" and had lunch at an authentic mexican restaurant.

Alan and I were really in the mood for some "real Mexican" food -we haven't really had any yet! We ordered burritos and were surprised to get a tortilla with ham and cheese in it! No complaints though, the food was really good. The kids even liked it (well not as much as pizza, but they said it was good.)


Sydney really can't wait to have some good old PB&J's though.


After lunch it was time to go see the dolphins! Since Zack is only 4 he can't participate in the other programs, so we with a "Dolphin Encounter" program. The taught us 2 sign languages that instructed the dolphins to give us a kiss, and shake "hands".

The dolphins we met were 6 and 12 years old. We all got to do our new "tricks" for the photo shoot.

Although we did turn down the video of the experience, we did spent $60 on those pictures. But hey, those are priceless memories, right?

We got to pet the dolphins as they swam past us several times. It was really cool, they are such gentle animals.

Then we headed out on our golf cart again for a tour of the island. The first stop was a beach where there was a shark we could hold!


As you can tell, the photo shoot was not the quality of the Dolphin Encounter, but it was pretty cool to hold a shark too! I was easily convinced to spend another $12 on this shot since the whole family was in it. Too bad I picked out the picture with my eyes closed in it!

It was a very beautiful beach. Postcard perfect!

Next we went to visit a lighthouse, then around the other side of the island where it is rocky. Sydney loves the camera, and the camera loves her! Zack, well he is quite sick of getting his picture taken.

After investigating the rocks we went back around to the side of the island with the beautiful beaches and played around in the water. It was funny, we just wore bathing suits all day. Who needs clothes when you're on vacation!

Ahh, paradise!!!

Finally it was time to say goodbye to the dolphins....

Time to board the boat and head back to Cancun. What an exciting day!!! We had a lazy dinner at our hotel and shortly afterwards the kids were in bed by 8:45 - they didn't make a peep after the lights went out.

Monday in Cancun

Since I had packed my workout clothes, I decided to get up and exercise - mostly because I was awake and knew I wasn't going to fall back to sleep. So I went over the exercise room. It was nice, and I used the elipical training. Dang, I was exhausted after my puny little half hour workout. Not sure how Alan is doing his running outside in the middle of the day!! (hey, maybe he's just down at the pool bar, and gets wet from swimming and not running. hmmmm)

After another yummy breakfast...

... we took an excursion over to the ruins at El Ray. These ruins are right on the same street as the hotels, so it's only a bus ride away. Unfortunately our bus driver did not understand where we were trying to go and dumped us off in the wrong spot! But it was as easy as flagging down another bus to go farther down the road and we were there. As expected the kids didn't understand the concept of "ruins" but they had a great time chasing the iguanas around the park. The lizards were really big - but very fast, so no one got close to one (except the one that was hiding under the rocks and we got to pet his tail!)

Sydney even got to try out taking pictures on my camera. She did pretty good!


After the ruins we went across the street to a beautiful public beach. I took some pictures that turned out pretty good! :)

Back to the splash park for the rest of the afternoon. We are having so much fun going down the big slides. I even overcame my claustrophobic fear and went down the tube slide. I still didn't enjoy it much, so I haven't been missing anything!

We needed to get out of the hotel for dinner (well, at least I wanted to!) so we went to Carlos 'n Charlies for a change of pace. Wow, I must be getting old because that place was SOOO loud. I know it's a fun party place which I can appreciate, but we tried to get there before all of the partying really began. When we got there they were having a Michael Jackson contest and blaring music. It would have been a little better if my dining partner had not been Zack, the boy of a thousand questions a minute. I had a such a hard time hearing him and he wasn't too pleased about that. The dinner was really good though, and I'm glad we went.

The kids were thrilled because there was a clown and they got cool balloon hats :)

A brand new day in Cancun

Breakfast at the hotel was really good - and a welcome sight. Alan and I were exhausted. Last night was a party night for the other hotel guests and they woke us up all night long. Midnight, 1am, 2am, and on and on until at least 4am. Also, our hotel room looks out over the "party pool" and people were out there until all hours of the night. We did realize this morning that if we had turned on our A/C, it would have drowned out the noises. The halls just echoed every footstep and conversation everyone was having. So hopefully tonight will be better.

We did get a good laugh at breakfast when Sydney opened up the box of Coco Krispies on her own and they went flying all over the table. There was quite a variety of breakfast foods and we all enjoyed that. After breakfast we took a walk on the beach. The sand is super soft but the waves were very big. I believe some hurricanes have eroded much of the beaches in Cancun, and there was construction still underway to retain the beaches they still have.

Finally we made our way over the Oki Splash kids area. We were really impressed - it far exceeded our ideas on what it was going to look like. Very big, and brand new! It was a pirate ship with 4 slides on it, surrounded by water guns. The second pool for the hotel is right next to this kids are and it was not crowded at all. No DJ blaring music and playing drinking games. We were able to relax a bit here. It's nice because the kids are able to run around and swim and we can sit back a enjoy a cool drink without worrying about them. The kids did love an audience in the splash area so we didn't get to relax a whole lot though :)

The splash area also had these awesome slides. Zack was scared to go on them (he tried them once, but was not interested in going again). Sydney did need supervision on the slides, and they were just so darn fun to go down, we got a lot of exercise going up and down those slides!

We had lunch a restaurant that was right next to the pool and was also pretty "Zack and Sydney friendly". All inclusive is a nice concept, but the choices are quite limited when you have a couple of picky eaters dining with you. At least they don't seem to be complaining about burgers, chicken nuggets and pizza all of the time so far.

I convinced the kids that I was in need of a nap since I didn't get much sleep. Zack also has a cough so I didn't want him to over do it. We all took a nap, while Alan went out running for his marathon training. Zack slept almost 3 hours! Alan was supposed to run for 17 miles but he only made it for 10 miles since the weather was so hot. Along his run he got to help out a taxi driver who needed his car pushed to the side of the road! I can't believe he ran 10 miles, I would have been dead after 1 mile in this heat. The report said is was 93 degrees today. Yikes!

We had dinner at the hotel again and tonight was oriental theme. Good food! Then a short trip to the mall again for some shopping. The kids will hopefully see something they want to buy soon - Sydney is starting to drive us crazy with her shopping interest.

It was a good first day here in Mexico :)