Cancun

Cancun-Great time!! And definitely DO NOT pay any attention to grammar (or lack there of) in this one!

So, directly after the UM Conference, I flew to Cancun. Well, I skipped Tuesday and went to the airport instead! So, IT WAS A BLAST! Except that I lost my wallet... It is okay, everything is getting replaced, the most annoying thing is my driver's license but that is getting figured out too! Pictures are up on Facebook, but I will try to get them added here...

So I was waiting for the shuttle downstairs as we had already checked out of the hotel that morning... and there was NO COFFEE!! Now, I forgot to mention in my previous post that I was living off coffee at the UM Conference... FOOD? That was just to keep my stomach from going haywire from all the coffee! Especially Saturday. I gave Dad a run for his title of major coffee drinker that day!! And they had the gall to close down the coffee stand at like 7pm!! I know!!! CRAZY!!!! I made it through however... anyhoo back to the Cancun story... So it took them 45 minutes to get coffee and by that time, I took the shuttle to the airport...

I sat at the Des Moines airport for a while, (these were times I wish I had a laptop... then you wouldn't have been waiting for the blog... maybe the posting of, but it would have been easy as they would have already been written, LOL) I kept myself busy with books and people watching... I do love people watching... you have to be careful though... You don't want to be caught staring incredulously at people... Trust me on this ;)... Again, I digress... the flight was on time, and I had about a three hour layover is Dallas/Fort Worth... I wish I had stayed in the terminal I arrived in a bit longer, as there were a bunch of cute Army guys heading to OCS... Nothing like "people watching" to pass the time... Just kidding... Anyhoo, in Terminal D, where my departing flight was, there was this really neat sculpture thing... I really cannot describe it, well I could but there are pics instead! LOL, anyhoo, when you walk through this structure, it makes music... It was pretty neat! I then board to Cancun... I was very excited, and I got lucky sitting next to this nice couple who were doing trivia games and stuff like that. They were from Iowa too... Just goes to show that Iowa people really ARE nice!

Well, we landed and I took a cab to the hotel... Well, it was really a resort... I basically had an efficiency apartment all to myself... I let Chuckles come in to play a bit too! The room had laundry and a kitchenette as well as an amazing tub, an ocean view and a little living room area that led to the balcony... They had a series of pools which were infinity pools. If you are unfamiliar with infinity pool, if you are in the pool and look out to the ocean.. it looks like it never ends... that the pool goes straight into the ocean... Pretty amazing.

If you don't know me very well, you may not know that I absolutely LOVE the beach!! The smell of the saltwater and seaweed (I know it sounds kinda gross, but it is my happy place) the sound of the waves, the sand beneath my feet, the beating sun, the smell of sunscreen, the lightening of my hair... yes, I totally heart the beach! Anyhoo, I seem to be using that word a lot this post, It was amazing, that first day was kind of my free day... I spent time in the pool with S and R and Chuckles, and at the beach, swimming in the ocean... getting salt in my suit and my eyes... yes, it gets everywhere... Still love it though... The next day we spent more time in the water and even went to the aquarium... a waste of money, by the way... go to Xcaret... but I am now getting ahead of myself...

The day I spent alone with Chuckles, we almost lost his sand bucket... well we did lose it, just not permanently... Chuckles accidentally lost it when the tide came in, and I almost had it but a big wave came, and as I was holding Chuckles, did not quite catch it... I did not see it again for about ten minutes, when Chuckles and I were walking along the beach (yes it was a ways down the beach) this really nice guy found it and returned it to us... :) I was glad... The reason I was holding Chuckles is because he was going in after the bucket... I was sad when I had to tell him it was gone!! :) God looks out for us! :)

On Saturday, our last day, we went to Xcaret. It is pronounced like Eesh-kah-ret... Check it out at www.xcaret.com. If you ever get that way, you should totally go to Xcaret!! It is an eco-park. While that meant nothing prior to me going there, it is AMAZING!!! It is kind of like an aquarium and zoo and beach and pools and scuba diving and all kinds of stuff wrapped into one! Everything is natural so there is no real maintenance of things like pools. They have pools but they are fed by the ocean. There are underground rivers which you can snorkel through. Which I did and it was really neat... Also a great way to cool down around mid-day. The water is very cool... Almost too cool to begin with but you get used to it pretty quick. It is hard to describe. It is amazing! And totally worth probably two days of your time... We didn't get to everything in one day.

Well, Cancun is very American. 99% of the people speak English and most are quite friendly. Probably because Cancun was created to be an American tourist spot. But still. We got some gas outside of Cancun on our way back from Xcaret and had to speak Spanish, we got a bit more IN Cancun, and English worked just fine! LOL. Sunday we headed back. My flight was before theirs so I took a cab to the airport and barely made my flight! And I was there early!! Still, it was a great trip. minus the loss of my wallet... I bought a new one the other day... The only real money lost was my Metro Card... I did not have it registered... But there wasn't a lot of money on it anyway so that wasn't that big a deal. The real bother was my driver's license. But that is getting worked out.

WOW, looks like I had plenty to write about. And I fell sure I left stuff out... Well, until next time!! Hasta!

Jules