Cancun!!

Well, I'm really tempted to just redirect you to AnnaMarie's post on our trip, but I'll write my own here. :) Warning: This post ended up being super long. Also, the pictures are in roughly chronological order, but they are not lined up with the text because that's too much work. Also, I don't have all the pictures because AnnaMarie took most of them on her camera, and she still has to send some of them to me. :)

Look Christy! She has pants like the ones you love in Chile! That is why we took this picture, and I felt like a creep, so I hope you appreciate it! 

Well, I got up really early on Wednesday so I could catch my 7 am flight out of Salt Lake. Spencer got up to drive me up to the airport. It was very early, but he got back by 7 so he didn't have to miss class or anything, and I think he even had time for a little nap. I mostly slept on the planes, though I got a little bit of my independent study course done, too. I had a layover in Houston, which is a HUGE airport, by the way. I had packed a lunch and snacks to tide me over through the trip to avoid buying expensive airport food. So I ate my sandwich and people watched while I waited at my gate. It's interesting to see how different people handle traveling with kids... Anyway, I got into Cancun at like 3:30, and waited in the forever-long line to get though customs. Then I kept following the hallway, looking for a place to sit and wait. There were none. No chairs anywhere! I eventually wandered out the exit, hoping there would be chairs outside. There weren't. And I wasn't allowed to go back inside, either. So, I waited and people watched some more. It was beautiful out, though, so that was lucky. Dad and AnnaMarie's flight was supposed to get in around 5:30, so I figured they'd show up by about 6:00. I think it was like 7:00 by the time they finally made it through customs. I found out that I only brought $4 in cash and there was no ATM by the airport. (What the heck??) So I couldn't even buy myself a dang can of Pringles from Little Margaritaville. Or whatever the bar conveniently located just outside the airport was called. It's okay, I survived. A couple people asked me why I was traveling to Cancun alone. Oh, you know me. Just looking for a good time... ;)

Dad and AnnaMarie finally came out and we found our shuttle to the hotel (Marriott Casamagna). After a little bit of confusion, but we got there. Apparently we didn't make it onto the shuttle list for some reason. The hotel was absolutely beautiful. Definitely the fanciest place I've ever stayed. We got checked in, dropped off our bags, waited (impatiently on my part -- I was starving! Hello.. pregnant, here.) for AnnaMarie to skype with Tyler, and FINALLY got some food. We went to the Japanese restaurant associated with the hotel. It was good. Then we gave ourselves a little tour of the hotel. It's all kind of open-air, and we could hear the ocean. :) By the time we went back to our room it was almost 11, so we went to bed.

AnnaMarie wanted to sleep in on Thursday, but I wanted to spend as much time with Dad as I could. Besides, I've had lots of time to sleep in lately. So I got up and ready, and we set out on a little Mexican adventure to find some breakfast. We wandered across the street to a convenience store and got some juices and donuts/pastries. Dad paid on his credit card and as we left, he was like, "I have no idea how much money we just spent." haha. Yep. Pesos are kind of confusing. The juice was really good and the donuts, well, they were convenience store donuts.

Dad went off to his meetings for the NAYEN conference, which is the whole reason we went. And the only reason Dad actually left the country (besides Canada). AnnaMarie and I had a lovely morning in the hot tubs and pools. At one point, we were looking at the beach and saw the lifeguard change the red flag to a yellow flag, so we went down and played in the ocean. It was pretty wavy, and it was so fun. And salty.

We found dad for lunch. We were planning on taking a bus into town to find a real Mexican restaurant, but Dad got out of his meetings late, and had NO interest in taking a city bus anywhere. AnnaMarie thinks she could have convinced him, but I don't think so. AnnaMarie may be stubborn when she wants to do something, but Dad is more stubborn when he doesn't want to do something. :) I was up for anything. We ended up getting lunch at a little cafe connected to the hotel, down by the beach. I got these seafood tostadas. The first one was good, but then I was over them. I should have gotten the quesadillas instead. It's hard to know what to order when you're pregnant. Stuff is good, then all of a sudden it isn't.

Dad went back to more meetings, and AnnaMarie and I took the bus down to a little flea market type place. I have been in a don't-buy-stuff mood lately, probably because every time I buy something I think about moving it in a couple of months. I did want a souvenir though, so I ended up getting some cute silver (100%, I'm told!) earrings that are tiny aztec calendars. I also wanted a fridge magnet, which I got. And then I kinda browsed for Spencer, but I didn't want to buy something for him just for the sake of getting him something. I didn't really see anything I thought he'd like so, I didn't get him anything. (I did end up getting him some little bottles of hot sauce in the airport on the way home.) AnnaMarie got a bunch of stuff for her kids. :) And got ripped off. I mean, she really got a deal on those hand-made, silver bracelets!! Regular price is $75, after all! I'm sure her kids will love the stuff. On the way back we got on a different color bus. I wasn't stopping at every stop, and I didn't see any buttons to press to let the driver know when to stop. We ended up not being sure quite how far the hotel was, but we didn't want to end up going way past it. We hopped off at one of the stops and then realized there was still quite a ways to go. It was a nice walk though, even in the light rain.

That night we went to a mix and mingle event for the conference. They had a mayan purification ritual or something. It probably would have been less boring if we could have understood anything they were saying. It was in English, but the speakers were too quiet and unclear. We mostly shook our big bean pods. We did get to try the different hors d'oeuvres and some virgin pina coladas though! Then we changed back into our swimsuits to use the hot tub with Dad and we took a walk down by the beach. Dad waded into the ocean a little and I found out that it was his first time! Yay, Dad! I wish we would have had time to swim in the ocean with him before we left, but he was busy with all of his meetings during the day.

On Friday we took a tour of Tulum! The bus left at like 7:15, so we got up and ready, got some lunch to take with us, and hit the road! Well, we actually sat on the bus forever as it stopped to pick up guests at each hotel. Then we hit the road! First we stopped to drop off some of the guests at a Xel-Ha tour, which looks like lots of fun, then we continued down the road to Tulum. The city was absolutely beautiful. Seeing sites like that always make me sad, in a way. I guess it's the tragic history, and I always wish that I could see the city back in its hay-day, with a busy market and ships coming in and out. Our tour was guided, but we ended up ditching the tour guide after he spent 30 minutes talking (and talking and talking) by a tree, and showed no signs of stopping. Plus, he'd do one sentence in English, then repeat it in Spanish. It was annoying to listen to, and tour guides usually annoy me anyway. We wandered around the site and took pictures. I read the signs that were up, but they weren't super informative. Anyway, the ruins were beautiful, and the city is built on a cliff overlooking the ocean. There was a small beach, but a different beach was part of our tour package, so we didn't bother going down to the one there. We spent the last 30 minutes of our time there looking at the souvenirs and haggling with the sellers. (AnnaMarie was haggling. I didn't need to buy anything.) AnnaMarie had a lot of fun using her Spanish. I could follow their conversations, which is a little surprising. I haven't ever really studied Spanish, but I guess I have acquired a lot of latin roots in my science classes. I think if I had a chance to be in an immersion situation with Spanish I'd be able to pick it up in a few months.

After that we met back up with the tour and got in the vans that took us to El Paraiso beach! It was a beautiful beach! Palm trees, white sand, and beautiful blue water. We had two hours there, so we changed, ate our lunches, and enjoyed the water! The water here was very calm, unlike the beach by our hotel. We brought our goggles with us, but there wasn't much to look at under the water. Just lots of fine, white sand. We did find a school of minnows though! We chased them around for a little while. I'm sure we looked ridiculous to anyone watching us. haha. We got out in time to dry off in the sun for a while before our van came to take us back to the hotel. I fell asleep for a little bit. :)

By the time we got back to the hotel it was almost 5, I think, and we had a bus leaving at 6:30 to go to the city plaza in Cancun with Dad and the Rotary folks. We showered off and met up with Dad. I think we all got a little snooze in before we had to leave. The bus we took ended up getting wedged into a turn with parked cars on either side. It was right next to the plaza though, so they just let us all off. The bus was within 2 inches of one of the cars, and it took a while for the police to guide them back out. Rotary had arranged some food and dancing at the plaza. I wasn't very impressed with the food, but that was okay because there were churro stands!! So we bought some churros and some fried banana chips-- possibly plantain chips, as they weren't sweet at all. The churros were super good! And then I got some fries and what I thought were hot dog pieces. The hot dog looking things tasted like hot dogs, but they had a weird spongy texture? I'm not sure what they were. I didn't eat all of them, though. :/ The dancing was good. I think it was put on by some community dance studio. There were little kid numbers, and then some teen-age numbers. It ended up going a bit long and we all had to leave when our buses came back, even though it was in the middle of a number. I felt bad, but there wasn't much I could do about it! By the time we got back we were ready to crawl into bed.

Saturday was our last day there. I got up early to have breakfast with Dad again, and I went to part of the first session with him. It ended up being really boring before it got to the part I was interested in (long term effects of youth exchange), and I left to find AnnaMarie. We spent some time in the pools and then I went back to the room to take a nap for a little while before lunch. For lunch AnnaMarie and I tried out the sports bar restaurant. Dad had lunch provided by the conference. I ended up getting the only thing that sounded appetizing -- a giant plate of nachos. haha. I just wasn't in the mood for anything else. They were good. We took the bus again in the afternoon to find a pharmacy and a few other things AnnaMarie still wanted to get.

That night was the closing banquet. We got all dressed up, and I did my hair the best I could manage with my limited supply of bobby pins. :) The food was so good. They had yummy little rolls, a soup, salad, a stake and twice-baked potato for the main course, and some pineapple upside-down cake for dessert. It was all very fancy, and it was presented beautifully. They put a saucer of fruity sauce down with the main dish, but none of us had any idea what it was for. It was for the stake. We're not as fancy as we seem. After the food they had an awards ceremony. Dad's district (he's the district chairman) earned a gold award! Yay, Dad!

We didn't have to leave for the airport until like 10 on Sunday morning, so we slept in a little bit. Everyone was a bit indecisive about what we were going to do, so I decided to take a shower. Then AnnaMarie decided to go down to the beach one last time. I guess it would have been nice to go to the beach again, but it was also nice to have a slow morning and get breakfast with Dad! I just wanted to spend my time with Dad, doing whatever he decided to do. I also think we were a little confused about how much time we had left because the clock in Dad's room was like 40 minutes fast. Anyway, I got all ready for the day, and Dad and I went to find breakfast together. We had quite a bit left on our room credit, so we went to the hotel's breakfast buffet! It costs $35 a person, but it was very good! Anything you could possibly want for breakfast was there. There was even a Japanese breakfast section, so I had waffles and bacon and fruit first, then went back for some rice, gyoza, and miso soup. Mmmm. It was nice to be with Dad and chat. I don't get to see him enough, and he was in meetings all day during our trip. Someday we'll take a real vacation together, Dad! :) I am so excited for him to come to Provo for graduation next month, though!

We got to the airport with plenty of time to get through security and get some food before we left. I was going to get a shake until I saw that it would be $10. No thanks. haha. Dad ended up buying a pizza and we all shared it. I ended up eating one more piece than was comfortable, but it was good because I didn't have time to buy anything during my layover, so I didn't have anything else to eat until I got home at 9 or 10 that night. My flights went well, and customs were faster in Houston than they were on the way in. That was good because I only had a 90 minute layover, and I was getting a little bit nervous. I got through customs only to realize that I had to go back through security again to make my connection! It's been a long time since I've traveled abroad. Then I had to take the tram to my terminal and walk through the forever long terminal to get to my gate which was, naturally, at the very far end of it. I got there a few minutes before they started boarding though, so it ended up working out just right. I slept on both of my flights back and was feeling anxious to get home to Spencer. Cancun was absolutely beautiful and it was so much fun to catch up with Dad and AnnaMarie, but I don't like being away from Spencer for that long. :)