We headed over to the beach area. It was very crowded and a pretty small are beach wise. Byron and I got in and head fun swimming out to the farthest place that we could swim within the resort. Byron went all the way and I almost did. We had fun playing in the water for about 1 hour and decided to get out. We couldn't see enough fish while in the water to justify getting the snorkel equipment. Instead we were going to walk around the beach area. After getting our clothes on, we saw this huge school of fish right by where we had been previously while in the water. They were actually pretty large fish - a pretty blue color. There were quite a few people snorkeling enjoying themselves. We then walked over to a different area out by where the ball were where we could go no further. We saw about 4 very long and thin fish almost translucent in color (about 18-24 inches long). We later found out that these are called pencil fish. They were so darn cool! I wish we had seen them while in the water. We saw on coming upon a lady that was snorkeling. She all of a sudden saw it while about 5 feet away, lifted her head out of the water, yelled and started going the other way. Byron and I just laughed - we could see it coming and mile away.
We enjoyed walking around a little while longer then headed back to our room to shower. While I was waiting for Byron to get ready, I went out onto our balcony with my camera to see what I might find. I found so many birds of beautiful colors flying past. I also saw a woodpecker land next to our neighbor's balcony and start knocking on the wood with it's beak. I only got one picture of a bird that kept on perching close in a tree unfortunately. The others were too hard to get or I didn't have a good enough view.
We ate lunch and took a taxi to Playa Del Carmen for some shopping. The people are ruthless when they bargain. If you show any interest in any item at all they keep asking, "How much do you want it for" going lower and lower. Byron was all over this getting them lower by the minute. I think he likes the game of seeing how low he can get more than actually purchasing an item. We ended up getting a hammock that started at $85 USD for $25 USD. I am excited to have it. We also got the boys all necklaces and shirts and Camille a skirt and ring. We had fun shopping for a couple of hours.
After we were done, we headed back to our hotel. It took about 8 minutes to get to our hotel from Playa. We got dinner, watched some TV, ventured back out again and now are back in our room.
Camille called on Byron's phone and before I could answer she hung up and started calling on mine. Out of stress I answered the phone since I knew it would be costing a lot of money. She had some questions for a report she has due tomorrow. We talked for about 2 1/2 minutes. I am glad she called to get help. She was writing a page on Harold Beck's WWII experience for the play she is in, POW.
I got a nice text from Genevieve saying, "Things are still great. Had a fun day yesterday that tired us all out and just working on getting ready for church now. So impressed with how fast Bradley got ready without help or reminding! Such good kids. Hope you're having a great time!" Always such a great feeling to get a text like this while on a trip. My kids definitely have their moments, but nice to know they are behaving relatively well while we are away.
February 11, 2013 - We woke up, packed our things up and went over to breakfast. We came back to grab our luggage before checking out of our room. We went to the main lobby to wait for our shuttle to come to take us to the airport. We waited and waited and still no shuttle. We had paid online for this service and were frustrated that we were about to miss our flight due to them being so late. After calling them, we finally got picked up with about 1 1/2 hours till we flew out. The airport is 1 hour away so we were pretty stressed. I guess they had bad traffic which made them late.
The hammock we purchased yesterday was too large to fit in our luggage so I got to carry it on. It was a little pain to deal with (something we didn't think about when we were buying it).
The trip was pretty fast, but so nice to get away. I love traveling to warm climates during the winter - the winters in Utah seem to last way too long :). I also love having Byron all to myself. The kids had a great time with Michael and Genevieve. They made a cute video "In the Suun They Melted "which is a really fun medley of songs.
