Are you there Tequila? It's me, Lindsay. (Part 4 of 4)

There were so many highlights of our trip, it's hard to break it down to just a few! Aside from the sunshine, wedding, and beach, the biggest highlights had to be....

#1: All the food
At Barcelo, you can eat all you want anytime of day (or at least between 7am and 10:00 pm). Here I am standing in front of the buffet where we ate breakfast and dinner.
This is Amy at breakfast on our first day. I had an omelette every single day, and it was fantastic!And here she is enjoying dinner:There are two buffet restaurants - one is right next to the pool and is called the "snack bar". Our first day, we were searching for a concession stand, when we realized the "snack bar" is a huge buffet!! We ate lunch here everyday since it was close to the pool/beach and you could go in wearing your swimsuit.Such a pretty view from the snack bar! Barcelo has nice sit-down restaurants, too. Our package allowed us 2 nights at the nice restaurants. One night we went to the steakhouse.... but Amy and I felt a bit cheated when our dessert sucked.... so we headed to the buffet afterwards to split a crepe.Highlight #2: The Towel Swan
On our third day, the maid left me a little surprise on my bed...I'm not sure why this swan made of towels cracked me up so much, but I couldn't stop laughing!

Highlight #3: The free stuff!!

We all had slippers waiting for us in our bedroom closets. Amy's mom was very concerned about whether she could take them. None of us were sure.... I wonder if she took those slippers home?

Of course the free drinks were a plus. I started the trip drinking the classics - Corona (the only beer they serve) and Margaritas. But by the end of the week I was really branching out with Banana Daiquiris, Miami Vices (Kathy's drink of choice), and Mango Tango's.One night we weren't sure what we wanted to drink. Our bartender said he'd make us something special. He mixed up all kinds of stuff, and when he handed it to us, I asked what was in it. He said, "Special!" I asked what the drink was called in case I wanted to order another, and he said, "The Special!" Here we are with our Specials.

Highlight #4: The activities
- Everyday at noon, they had water aerobics in the pool. We went everyday, and I really wish I had a picture of us participating!

- The theater was right across from our hotel, so we usually stopped by to see what was happening each night. One night was "Fantasia" night in which they reinacted songs from Disney movies. It was clearly low budget and pretty hilarious. This scene from Kung Fu Panda was pretty interesting...

- The gym was really nice! We went our first morning, and then never again.... we get an A for effort that first day. This picture was taken right before I made the disasterous decision to do squats holding 15 lb weights. I'm not sure what I was thinking, and my quads were sore the rest of the trip!

Highlight #5: Interesting New Characters

As always, we met some memorable people.

- On our way to the gym the first day, we ran into two Italian guys who spoke very little English. They stopped us and said, "Are you Americans?" We said, "Yes..." One of them said, "Ah... you are both, eh, very niiiiice." They wanted to meet up later, but none of us could figure out how to communicate well enough to determine a location and time. It was pretty funny because Amy was speaking English, they were speaking Italian, and I was speaking my 10th grade Spanish, hoping it might be more translatable.

- We never did introduce ourselves, but "topless lady" became a regular fixture in our mornings at the pool. I guess it's legal to walk around topless in Mexico, but this lady was clearly the only one partaking. And it was a family resort!! The rumor mill had it that she was from Spain, but I guess we'll never know.

Highlight #6: Mexican HBO

There weren't a lot of English channels on the television in our hotel room, but we did get several English HBO channels. The funny part was that they all had Spanish subtitles, so everytime we watched a movie it was like having a Spanish lesson.

My first trip out of the United States was a success! Now I need to decide where I'm off to next....

Ahhh... the Beach (Part 3 of 4)

It's no secret that Amy and I like our pool-time. So there's really no better vacation for us than one where we can sit in the sun for 4 straight days!

The pool at our resort was by far the coolest I've ever been to. It was HUGE, there was a swim-up bar, the palm trees were beautiful, the chairs were super comfortable, and did I mention the swim-up bar?! I'd never experienced such a thing before, and since it was an all inclusive resort, the drinks were all free! It was a test of self-control to not have 10 daiquiris a day, but I'm happy to report that I maintained my composure. :)Here's Amy's parents partaking in the swim-up bar:
Amy and her mom by the fountain:
I finally got to try out the underwater capabilities of my camera... and here are the results:The pool was also a great place for a nap...... and to read a book!


Amy and I usually spent our mornings at the pool and our afternoons at the beach. Our resort had lounge chairs all up and down the water. I have never been to such a gorgeous beach - it had the whitest sand and bluest water I've ever seen!

(Amy's dad got in some pretty good naps everyday.)

We had a lot of fun jumping the waves, too.

Barcelo (our resort) is composed of several different resorts. You're supposed to stay in your own resort, but they're all connected, so all you have to do is walk down the beach to get to a different one. The very nicest of the Barcelo resorts (Maya Palace) was right next to ours (Maya Tropical)... so we decided to crash their pool one day. Their pool had chairs right in the water!! It was amazing.This is Erin (one of the other bridesmaids) enjoying her submerged lawn chair.There were also a lot of shady places to sit, which was nice.Unfortunately for us, we got busted. While staying at Barcelo, you have to wear a bracelet everywhere you go so they know you're staying there. We had blue bracelets at Maya Tropical, but the people at Maya Palace had white bracelets. Amy's mom (Kathy), Amy, and myself were at the swim-up bar when one of the bartenders caught a glimpse of Kathy's blue bracelet. "What color is your bracelet?" he asked. We all just kind of sat there pretending we didn't speak English..... but we were caught!! He told us we weren't supposed to be there and to go back to our own section. And so ended our snazzy pool experience.

Here's Amy looking a bit defeated on our way out of the Maya Palace.

Mindi and Kenny's Wedding (Part 2 of 4)

On Saturday, July 11th, we all gathered on the beach for the real reason we were in Mexico... Mindi and Kenny's wedding!

I had unwittingly bought a dress that was strikingly similar the bridesmaid dresses. I felt a little silly, but at least I fit in with the pink theme. I took this picture of us in the bathroom mirror because I figured this was the nicest we were going to look - as soon as you stepped outside in the humidity, any attempt at nice hair and makeup were lost.

Such a beautiful setting!The Justice of the Peace got held up in a traffic jam, so we got started a half hour late. The beauty of being married at an all-inclusive resort is that you can drink a Corona and put your toes in the sand while waiting for the wedding to start!Here's Amy walking down the aisle of rose petals.And Mindi with her dad:

The funny thing about being married on the beach is that a bunch of strangers stop to watch. And when some of those strangers are wearing Speedos.... well, that's even funnier.

[Sidebar: I saw a LOT of Speedos in Mexico. It's pretty easy to tell who's American and who's European based on swimwear.]

This stranger was even taking pictures!A nice shot of Amy and Mindi:And me in my Junior Bridesmaid dress:The Ernst Family:Kathy and Me:We took a golf cart from the beach to the Barcelo Convention Center for the reception.

There wasn't any dancing at the reception, but Amy's dad (Jim) didn't let that stop him.

Since every meal at Barcelo included a multitude of utensils and a bread plate, Amy taught us some cool tricks to remember what was what. My favorite was the "b" you make with your left hand so you know your bread plate is on the left. After a yummy dinner, we all headed to the bar. Jim loved the popcorn and ate it everyday!Amy and Mindi decided to regale the entire bar with their rendition of "Heart and Soul". Since neither had played the piano in at least 10 years, it wasn't exactly a success. During their performance, Mindi's mom leaned over to me and said, "I've wasted more money on my kids...."After everyone dispersed, Amy and I were walking back to our room when we passed by the theater. Barcelo has different types of performances every night, and the night of Mindi's wedding was "Mexicana" night. We could hear the catchy music as we walked by, so we decided to stop in. We ended up watching the rest of the performance, and it was great!

Cancun, Here We Come! (Part 1 of 4)

As I rewind in my mind to one week ago, I think of this.....

...as well as this...... but let's back up a bit further.

On July 8th, Amy and I made our way south of the border! She was going to be a bridesmaid in her friend Mindi's wedding there, and invited me along for the trip. It sounded amazing, but I was a bit hesitant to go -- Let me explain myself. Since graduating from high school, my mom has had only two rules for me:

(1) Never vote Democrat.

(2) Never go to Mexico.

I had obediantly followed these rules for 9 years.... but after Amy showed me the website to our resort (www.barcelomayabeach.com), I thought it was time to rebel a bit!

The morning of our trip began early... 5:10am to be exact.

Luckily, we were on Continental where they still serve food. And since the beach is much better suited for magazines and light beach reads, we wanted to finish our "thinker" book club books on the plane.

Please disregard my double chin. Amy's parents met us in Cancun, so we waited for them before we went through customs.After we all made it through customs (and I got my very first stamp in my very first passport!), we found the van that was going to take us to our resort. We stayed on the Riviera Maya, which is a strip of beach just south of Cancun. Here's Amy figuring out the van situation.We made it!Amy, her parents (Jim and Kathy), and I shared the van with a few other people headed our direction. The guy sitting next to Jim was particularly tired.... and kept leaning in closer and closer.... it was pretty funny.When we got to our resort, Barcelo, I couldn't believe how gorgeous it was! The lobby was gigantic and all outdoors.

And here's our room...For months, we had justified our sundress-impulse-buying by saying, "But it would be SO CUTE for Mexico!" Hence the sheer volume of dresses hanging in our closet....

We had made it to Mexico, and the fun was just beginning!