Cancun Trip

Despite the ongoing Mexican drug wars and the fact that Mexico has been a hotbed for the H1N1 "swine" flu, Mel and I, along with her brother (Kenneth) and his wife (Meg) took a chance and spent Labor Day weekend in Cancun, Mexico...without children!!! It seems a bit counter-intuitive that we would plan a Mexican vacation during these tough economic times, especially considering the fact that we now have four (well, six if you count the dogs) mouths to feed, but this coming November marks our 5th wedding anniversary and we got a really, really good deal at the Westin Cancun Resort & Spa due to the fact that Mel works for a Westin property. So, we decided it was well worth a small chunk of change...and we were right. We had a really good time, save for one incident with a certain front desk manager of the hotel upon checkout that I won't go further into, but we're definitely happy to be back with Bailey and Palmer. Below are a few pics from our trip. I included some of the resort first and some of us at the end.

This was the main swimming pool that overlooked the Caribbean Sea and, yes, it had a swim-up bar and, yes, the bartender knew our room numbers by heart by the second day. Notice that there are not many people in this shot. Luckily for us, this was pretty much how it was the entire weekend...no crowds!!! We visited Cancun during the start of the hurricane season so tourist travel was fairly low. We didn't have to wake up early to reserve pool chairs or make reservations at restaurants, etc. It was great!!!

This is one of a series of four small, triangular pools with the Sea & Stones restaurant (under the grass hut) in the background. The four of us spent one entire afternoon in one of these small pools just relaxing and making fun of the Mexican girl in the thong bikini who was using the timer on her camera to take pics of herself posing in different locations on the beach. We didn't eat at the Sea and Stones restaurant b/c 1) it wasn't open every night and 2) we didn't get our 50% food discount at this restaurant. The description of the restaurant indicates that guests get to cook their food on hot stones and we noticed that at least part of the kitchen was located in a hut built directly into the sand on the beach. Pretty cool, I thought.

This is and the next pic provide a view of the other set of swimming pools from our 6th floor balcony. These pools were on the non-beach side of the hotel and received the afternoon sun.

As you can see, the two pools are offset a bit. The larger pool actually had a waterfall that emptied into the smaller pool a few feet below. Kenneth and I enjoyed going over the edge and then climbing back up into the larger pool a time or two. Then we decided that was enough physical activity for one day and proceeded to have another margarita in preparation for dinner and the Alabama / Virginia Tech game.

We caught a public bus from the front of the hotel to a club where we thought we would be able to catch the game. It turns out they only carry the NFL network so we decided to walk the strip to another sports bar our concierge had told us about. After all, the waitress at the first club said it was only a 10 minute walk. At least, 25 minutes later we arrived at Champions Sports Bar in the Marriott hotel. What we experienced next may have unknowingly changed our lives forever. Yes, we watched the Bama game but the highlight of the night was the fact that we also got to watch the Mexican national soccer team defeat Costa Rica in a Mexican sports bar packed to the brim with crazy Mexican soccer fans. Everytime Mexico scored, the bar, filled with only a couple hundred people, made enough noise to rival Bryant-Denny or Jordan-Hare stadiums on a Fall Saturday afternoon. By the second goal we too we screaming and cheering much to the delight of one old Mexican dude who thought we were pretty funny. Oh yeah, did I mention the disco ball and lights and the Mexican guy on the microphone who yelled "GOOOOOAAAALLLL" everytime Mexico scored? It was awesome and is a worthy addition to anyone's bucket list (i.e. list of things to do before you die).

Iguanas were all over the place. Mel and I came upon this one eating some kind of fruit out by the laguna.

Here we are on a morning walk after a very large breakfast. How 'bout I've got pretty good skills at self portraits and I don't even have a digital camera screen that flips around to the front.

Swimming in the turquoise blue waters of the Mexican Caribbean Sea. We also got to do some pretty decent snorkeling only about a quarter-mile walk down the beach from the hotel. How's that for convenience!

Mel and I swimming again with our hotel in the background.

Here are all four of us after eating at an authentic Mexican restaurant Kenneth and Meg discovered after talking with the concierge. If we look happy its probably b/c of the fact that the waiter brought us margaritas big enough to swim in!!! Luckily, we also had PLENTY of food to offset all that tequila.

Finally, here we all are after dinner on our first night in Mexico. We ate outside at one of the hotel's restaurants. As I mentioned, the crowds were sparse so there were literally only about three other tables of people besides us. We really enjoyed the fact that we had the property nearly to ourselves.