Sunday, April 26th

Sunday was our do-nothing day. I relaxed and read in our room while Josh got his real massage at our hotel (the other one, we just joked about) and came back to the room like a wet noodle. All of his knots had been worked out and he was so relaxed, and soft!, when he came back. He said he had this little Mexican woman, that probably weighed all of 110 pounds, working his back with the strength of a man twice her size!

After he came back, we went down to the beach to soak in some sun. We weren't able to swim in the ocean at all and actually, we were only allowed to wade in up to our waists. The water was really rough while we were there and it really wasn't much fun to be out in it. Which was unfortunate... It was fine though because we were both content to lay on a lounge chair, under an umbrella, looking out at the waves crashing into the ocean.





Josh was feeling a little creative and decided to make a mini ChiChinitza in the sand.


We decided to call it a day out on the beach and headed back up to our room to clean up for dinner. We were met with this little guy:

A peacock? We're not sure.


We headed to Orient for dinner; it's a Thai/Asian food place that was on the roof of the first floor of the resort. It had its own private not-so-little hottub and overlooked the ocean on one side.

We got miso soup as an appetizer, along with a sushi platter and a plate of spare-ribs.







I should instead say that I got the sushi platter and Josh got the spare-ribs because he didn't eat any of the sushi. Even the cooked rolls.

Dinner was a noodle dish with mongolian beef. And yes, I can use chopsticks. But not well...





Notice the pink-ness to my face...

Overall, we weren't that impressed with the food at this restaurant. It was really tasty though but we didn't go back. After dinner, we sat in a lounge chair by one of the pools and just talked and listened to the ocean. It was so nice to be just the two of us and away from everything! We were missing the dogs pretty bad at this point but I still wasn't allowed to call to check on them. After a while, we rolled up to our room and it was about this point that I realized that I didn't pack any tennis shoes for myself...

Saturday, April 25th

We started the day off right with a good, hearty breakfast because we knew we were going to be out for the majority of the day. Yeah, right! We just wanted to take advantage of the free room service!!





After breakfast, we got ready to head out to hop on the bus and go to the flea market: Mercado 28. You can buy any sort of "authentic" and "traditional" trinket you can think of. Even Cuban cigars. What??? Here are a few of the sights along the way from the hotel to the market:

Cheeseface on the bus!


I found the McDonald's!


And the Burger King!


These farmacias were on every corner. From what we heard, you can easily buy all sorts of drugs that would be highly controlled in the US.


While walking thru the market, we were approached by two different vendors trying to sell their children to us. The first girl for sale was about a year old and the first offer was 50 pesos, which is about $4 American dollars... The next was about three years old and asking 300 pesos, which is about $24 American dollars. It was so sad...

In the middle of the market, there was a cluster of restaurants with waiters waving their menus in your face to entice you in for some food. We picked one and started out with some of the best chips, salsa, and pico de gallo that we've ever had. Don't tell Grampa Aldama about the salsa!! We orderded carnitas tacos for lunch, Josh got his with cheese. And since we were in Mexico, we had to have some Pacifico to go along with it. While we were eating, Josh thought it would be funny to get the mariachi singers to come play a song for us. Yeah, it might have been nice, had they not been SCREAMING right behind me. There was also a guy walking around, offering to shine your shoes. I told Josh that I wanted him to come and shine mine. I was wearing flip-flops...







Before mariachis...


During mariachis...


This banner was hanging in our restaurant. Notice what's wrong with it?

I sure hope we didn't get the chiken....

Josh braved the above-ground potties.


This was a chess set that Josh was coveting for the entire trip. We just couldn't justify the cost though, knowing that it would just sit and never get used. :(


We got most of our souvenir shopping done on this day. Even stopping by the Hard Rock to get a glass for my collection. Because we were laden down with the spoils of the day, we decided to take a taxi back to the hotel. We didn't know it would be so entertaining, and life-threatening! I'd take crazy American drivers over NORMAL Cancun drivers ANY day! The driver had advertisements on the back of his seats and when he heard us talking about Josh wanting a massage, he HIGHLY recommended the place of his advertisements. Needless to say, Josh finally got his massage on our trip.

"You can pick whatever girl you want! They have brown ones, American ones, Asian ones, ones that will work doubles, they all bery good at what they do."


After returning to the hotel, we found this little guy waiting for us. We never did determine what it was...




We rested a bit after being gone all day and then went down to The Steak again for dinner. Ahhh...relaxation!

Friday, April 24th

After dropping the kids off with my parents the night before, they picked us up at our house around 4:30 in the morning, UGH, for our 6am flight. We boarded without issue and went on our way to beautiful Houston, TX for our connection.





We saw the craziest vending machines in the Houston airport!! I've only seen ones where you can buy food and beverages from them but electronic devices?? Really?!?!







Shots on the plane from Houston to Cancun.





After what seemed like a long flight, but really wasn't so bad (about 6 hours total, including layover time), we reached Cancun!! We navigated through the airport, customs, and all of the vacation planner people that were as bad as used car salesmen, to our awaiting shuttle bus. That was driven by a man that should have had a lollipop in his hand and singing "We represent the Lollipop Guild, the Lollipop Guild, the Lollipop Guild"....





We got to our hotel, Sun Palace, and were given an upgrade once we told the front desk that we were on our honeymoon. We had no idea what kind of upgrade we were getting, but figured it was better than nothing! This was our upgrade...:



Um, okay, open the doors to a little foyer....



Then this is what we see...





Huh, more doors...



Hello, rest of the room!











Our room had a dining room, living room, king-sized bed, and three, yes, three balconies. These are the views from each of them:



The "Lagoon," which is just a bay but "Lagoon" sounds much more exotic.




Of course, once we were settled, we had to do some exploring. The hotel was really nice!! And the best thing about it: NO KIDS ALLOWED!!! Sun Palace Resort is the only Palace Resort in Cancun that doesn't allow people under 21 to stay at the hotel, use their private beach, or dine in their restaurants. Right up our alley, right??









There were three restaurants at the resort and the first night, we ate at the outdoor buffet called The Steak. The buffet items varied each night but every night, you could get raw items like different cuts of beef, chicken, a few different types of fish, and seafood all cooked to order. There was a dessert buffet there too but we were always disappointed by it...

Me, Josh. Me, hungry!


Exhausted from the day.


Here's to finally a honeymoon!


Would you like some beef with your fat??


Dessert plate with the not-so-good desserts...


By the end of the day, we were exhausted but so excited to finally be getting away to take our honeymoon! One day in though and we were already missing Abbi & Hayden and wondering what sort of grief they were giving gramma & grampa. We feel very fortunate though to have been able to take this trip and very appreciative of the opportunity. And a big THANK YOU to gramma & grampa for all that they did!!

Frustration!!

I am having one heck of a time getting the Cancun, and now camping pics from Memorial Day weekend, uploaded and organized!! I used to thing that I was pretty intelligent when it came to that kind of stuff but alas, Photobucket has beaten me!! I'm trying to find a photosharing site that is user-friendly so I'll get them all uploaded soon.

One little tidbit from this last weekend: Abbi SWAM!! She didn't sink like a rock, she was actually creating wake behind her in the water. We were some proud parents!! Super Chicken, er...Hayden, was happily watching from the shore.

UPDATE: I've given up. I'm just going to post individual posts for each day in Cancun...

Cancun!!

I'm working on getting all of the pictures together and in order. Once I do, I'll post a blog entry, or four!, about our wonderful trip to Cancun. For now though, here's a little teaser.