Playa del Carmen Vacation 2013 {Part 2}

Vacation Recap: Part One 

Good morning! So, we made it through the mountains of laundry yesterday and I'm planning to head to the grocery today to restock our fridge. We ended up not cooking yesterday and went out for pizza instead. While we were in Mexico, we watched a rerun of SNL one night and saw this pizza skit with Melissa McCarthy. {Love her! SO hilarious!} We may or may not have reenacted a little bit of it last night when we were at Marco's.



Speaking of food, we were definitely slapped with the reality that we were no longer at an all-inclusive resort yesterday when we woke up without being able to walk a few minutes to a breakfast buffet with any breakfast food you could imagine. When we were on our honeymoon, our resort had these chocolate croissants that I just loved. I would eat *several* every morning. As soon as we booked this trip, I started talking about how I hoped so much that this resort also had them. To my great disappointment, I did not find any that first day at breakfast. I settled for a plain croissant instead. {First world problem, I know!!!} A few days into our trip, I spotted a croissant that had a little sugar sprinkled on top. I took one thinking that a lightly sweetened croissant was better than nothing.

I bit off one of the ends and thought it was good...although it did not fulfill my chocolate croissant dreams. Then Daniel stared at me and said, "Ummm... Jackpot!" I didn't know what he meant until I looked inside the croissant and saw chocolate!! I was so happy! It's the little things...

We ate at the same place for breakfast and lunch every day. There were several options, but we always went with the one closest to the pool. I loved this path that led to the restaurant. It was also neat to be able to look out at the ocean and hear the waves while we were there.

One thing I did NOT enjoy while we were on vacation were these little guys.

We saw tons of them every single day. Most of the time they would stay off of the walkways, but there was this one time...well, let's just say I made several resort guests snicker when they saw my reaction to almost stepping on one!!!

Speaking of reptiles {amphibians? I have to reteach that stuff to myself every time I teach it to my students!}, we did get to see something really amazing while we were there. Most nights, we would go down to the beach to walk.

The first night we were walking along, and I heard the sound of sand being thrown. Of course I freaked out wondering what in the world it was. Turns out it was a sea turtle! The beach was a nesting zone for them and every night we walked down there, we saw two or three HUGE sea turtles making their way up the shore to lay eggs. The resort had people down at the beach that would dig up the eggs and put them in a shelter.

Most of our time at the resort was spent right here.

{Click the picture to enlarge}

{Click the picture to enlarge}

This was seriously the biggest and best pool I have ever experienced. It was so nice that it was so big because it didn't get too crowded. There were these great little shady spots we could swim to when when we were getting too hot, and when we were ready for a break, there were plenty of lounge chairs in the shade. Our favorite spot was under a little tiki hut. SO relaxing!!

Our first morning there, we were relaxing under that tiki hut and one of the people from the resort activities staff came by and asked if we had any activities planned for that day. We had already talked about how we were NOT leaving the resort this time. On our honeymoon, we went on an excursion and after a bumpy, long, crowded van ride complete with Mexican techno music and a big snoring man, we said never again! So, it turns out that this resort offers "adventures" right there on their very own beach. I've always wanted to ride a jet ski, so we scheduled it. So, we're on this jet ski in the ocean {read: waves}, and I was just loving it. I did have moment of fear, though, and asked Daniel, "Can this thing flip over?" He assured me that no, the way that they're made makes it very difficult for them to flip over. I guess I should have been more clear because what I meant was, "Can I fall off of this thing?" Sure enough, a couple of minutes later, we're in the middle of a turn, a wave hits us perfectly, and we fall off. I immediately start yelling, "Oh my gosh, sharks!!" {Yes. Seriously.} No, I didn't see one, but the fact that I was in the middle of the ocean with all kinds of creepy, unknown swimming things that could eat hurt me seriously freaked me out. Oh, and did you know that when you're terrified, your muscles stop working? At least mine do, because I would not have made it back up on that thing if Daniel wouldn't have pulled me back on. Once we got back on, I hung on for dear life and said, "So, I changed my mind. I don't want to drive this thing." Daniel maintains that jet skis are a lot more fun in the lake and that I must try it again. We'll see.

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As I mentioned before, when we weren't at the pool or beach, we were eating. We may have even gone for a *second dinner* one night at 10:30. :) We went to a different restaurant every night for dinner and overall, the food was really good. {Although, the dessert selection was seriously lacking! :( Bummer!} This baked Alaska was not very yummy, but really cool to watch!

Here are pictures of us at some of the different restaurants.

L'Alsace ~ French

La Hacienda - Mexican

Hotel Entry ~ Caribbean Night

Mar & Tierra ~ Surf & Turf

Every night, they had great entertainment! We saw a Las Vegas show, a Michael Jackson show, a Mayan show, and a fire show. They also had a great band that played music in the plaza each night.

We had SUCH a wonderful time and are so thankful that we got to spend all this time together!

I hope y'all have a fabulous day!! :)