I want to go back to Playa del Carmen...

Jeff and I went on a wonderful vacation the week before Thanksgiving to Playa del Carmen. The place was just amazing! We stayed at a friend of a friends house - Casa de Thelma - which was just a block from the beach. Here is the beautiful house -

And the amazing backyard/patio area! So nice to relax here! Now if only we could create something like this in our courtyard - Jeff good project for you!

And here is Jeff as we checked out the beach for the first time just down the street. We went on the trip with my parents and my mom's friends Natalie and Paul. There was so much to see in town and at places just down the road. On our third day, we went to Xel ha (pronounced Shell ha) which is a like a nature park. They had so much to do/see and lots of beautiful places to just sit and relax. Did I mention the food and drinks were all inclusive - and they were actually good? It was wonderful!

Here are my parents - before our big snorkeling adventure!

Here we are (not sure why the photos look so dark - the day was super sunny)! Here are the boys - on the floating bridge. Our awesome view from the bluff where we sat and enjoyed delicious pina coladas!

Here are 2 pelicans - they were so cool! They were always sitting on the floating bridge and you could walk right up to them. I took all kinds of pictures, but I thought this one was neat with both of them together!They had lots of pretty Macaws and a Toucan! I got to take a picture with them, but it is one that the place takes and prints for you, so I don't have it electronically...Here is the whole gang - after our super fun day - watching the sun go down! The next day, we went deep sea fishing. I was very nervous about going because I get sick very easily - for example, as soon as the plane starts to get bumpy it is bad news for me! So, when we saw that the water was very rough with swells about 10-12 feet that day, I almost didn't join the guys on the trip. But, I took some Dramamine and didn't have one issue! I am so glad I went because it was a blast! Here is a view of the beach by our house from the boat.

Jeff and I on our way out to fish. The style of fishing we did was called "trolling" - so the "Skipper" had about 7 lines in the water as we were moving and he would watch for something to bite the line. Once something was hooked, we would hop in the chair and begin reeling them in. Here is Jeff in action - doesn't he look too relaxed to be bringing in a huge barracuda!?The boat took us down the shore about an hour and a half away to a reef. From there, we jumped off the boat and snorkeled. It was amazing! I had on a green swim suit and had these schools of fish follow and surround me - it was crazy! We saw all kinds of neat things.

On our way back, we had our most interesting catch. *Warning - the next picture should be avoided if things gross you out.* It was my dad's turn up in the chair and he was working hard to pull his fish in. All of a sudden we saw a big splash and then my dad realized the fish was a little bit easier to reel in. Once he pulled it up, we saw that there was only half of a fish (rainbow runner). So, the big splash we saw was probably a shark trying to eat the fish as we pulled it in! So crazy!Jeff and I both caught barracudas - here we are with one of our catches! You should have seen their teeth - scary! We ended the trip with our fish bagged up so we could take our catches back to the house to cook for dinner. You would be surprised how good barracuda is! Jeff has become quite the cigar addict lately, so we had to check out all of the cigar shops. Actually, it was as if all of the shop owners who knew Jeff was the cigar man and would constantly call him over to come buy a cigar! "Mister, Mister, ahh I have what you like!! Come and buy Mister Green! (when he was wearing a green shirt - it was hilarious)" Here is my dad at one of the shops - they actually made a cigar that was _______ long! The food was amazing! Here we are at a Mayan restaurant.

Here we are at Akumal - a little beach down the road. We were told this was a great place to go snorkeling and boy were they right! Sea turtles come here to eat - they were amazing to watch!

Isn't it pretty?!

Did I mention there was a bar on the beach? Jeff enjoyed his fair share of pina coladas!And my dad choose some type of "specialty" drink - We watched the guy go pick the coconut! Our last night - sigh... Natalie and Paul left earlier that day and spent the night in Cancun. We went to dinner at http://www.puertomaderocancun.com/ and it was unbelievable! I would highly recommend it if you are down there!

Our trip was a blast and I can't wait to go visit again! Why can't we always be on vacation...