Cancun? Sure...why not?!?!

A little over two weeks ago, we went to dinner with our friends Melati and Bishop. After talking for a little bit, Bishop says, "We're thinking about going to Cancun in two weeks. Do y'all want to go?" Me, being the crazy, impulsive person I am says, "Absolutely!!! That would be awesome!" I didn't even think about my vacation time or asking for the days off work...I just knew I wanted to go. So, after dinner, we went home and began looking at deals online with each other on speakerphone. We couldn't find anything, so we decided to reconvene the next morning with options after doing some more research (and me getting approval for actually being able to get off work). The next morning, Bishop and Ben did the research, we found a good deal, I got approval, and we booked our trip!
Last Wednesday night, we spent the night at their house and all left for the airport at 4:45am Thursday. After a layover in Miami, we were in Cancun by 12:45pm and off to our hotel, the Cancun Caribe Park Royal Grand (try saying that five times fast!). Upon arrival, we were upgraded from an oceanview room to a beachfront room, which we gratefully accepted. It was sweet!!!

After getting settled in our rooms, we walked around for a little bit, swam in the pool, then showered to check out "El Centro," or downtown Cancun. Our taxi driver from the airport to our hotel gave us a recommendation for a restaurant, so we hopped on the bus and began the journey. The bus is so cheap there! Thankfully, Ben is pretty good at Spanish, so we asked the guy sitting in front of us if he knew where we should get off to go to this restaurant. Initially, he said it was two stops...about 10 later, we finally got off in the middle of everything. After some more spanglish conversations, we made it to the town square to get tacos for our appetizer. They were yummy, and we got three tacos for less than $2.
Once we ate those, we walked around some more and asked more people where this restaurant was...about 10 minutes later we finally found it! The food there was tasty as well.
The next morning we decided we wanted to go to Isla Mujeres, an island off of Cancun. Originally, we were just going to get the boat to the island and play there for a few hours and come back, but we decided we wanted to make a day of it. So, we spent some more money and got the package that included a ride on a catamaran, snorkeling (Amazing!!!), unlimited drinks on the boat (Bishop enjoyed those!), lunch buffet at a beach club, time on the island, and a ride on the spinnaker. It was pretty much a booze cruise for those who drank, and very entertaining for those of us who didn't! I don't think I'll ever forget dancing to Bob Marley on the way back to Cancun with Bishop singing as loud as he can! It was hilarious and such a fun time!!!

The four of us on the other side of the island

At the beach club, they had these kayak things that Ben and Bishop took out.

And the spinnaker thing!

Our boat crew told Bishop that he couldn't do the spinnaker b/c he had a little too much to drink...HA! Good luck telling this boy he can't do anything. After everyone was done, Bishop walks over to the side of the boat and jumps in! The guy started going crazy, but they had fun with him and he loved it!

Once we got back to Cancun, we showered and walked to a restaurant area kind of close to our hotel for more tacos! We ate a lot of those on this trip. After dinner, we were walking around and saw this WACKO and his snake named Princess. He was one weird dude! And he got soooooo mad when I took this picture! He turned around and started yelling at me about how he charges $10 for photos and did I want to pay him $10 b/c that is how he makes money for his foundation and all of this stuff. I should have responded, "Nope, don't want to pay you because I already have a picture! Thanks!" But I didn't. Either way, he was crazy and showed us a bite he got from wrestling a tiger cub. No, I didn't ask why he wrestled a tiger cub.
Night swimming in the pool before the security guard came and asked them to leave!

The next day, Saturday, we rented a car!!! We were stood up by the Thrifty lady across the street from our hotel, so we walked around to find another rental car place. Luckily, we found one and were on the road and on our way south to Tulum with a pit stop in Playa Del Carmen. Here we are at some random restaurant on the side of some random street in Playa Del Carmen. If I went back, I definitely could not tell you how to get to this place. We just drove around and decided on this one. It was sooo good! And we stuffed ourselves on more yummy tacos and some other food for less than $4 a person. I love an exchange rate in my favor!!!

We made it to Tulum, and saw these guys on the first ruin. They were everywhere. The one on the left was probably the biggest one we saw all day. They were pretty cool!

Tulum was absolutely beautiful!!!! Wow, seriously gorgeous! I think I could have lived there!

It was soooooo hot this day, so we didn't stay at Tulum for long. We were all soaking wet with sweat, so we decided to go to the beach! A guide at Tulum gave us the name of a nearby beach (10 minute walk according to him), so we started on the road to the beach. 20-25 minutes later and still no signs of the beach, but definite signs of wanting to pass out from the heat. Luckily, we saw a taxi and asked him to take us to the beach! This was one of the prettiest beach I have ever seen in my life...definitely in the top three. It was seriously soooooo beautiful! White sand beaches, water so clear you could see to the bottom with no problem, a little beach bar for drinks, chairs and beds for lounging...seriously amazing! The water was sooo perfect too! I am NOT a fan of swimming in cold water at all. Ugh, I hate it! But this water was perfect. I would have stayed in the water forever if my neck and shoulders weren't burned from the day before (the reason for my swimsuit looking like it does). It was the perfect pool! I loved it!
After hanging out there for a few hours, we got back to our car and on the road. We made a stop at Aktun Chen. We decided to do the snorkeling in the cenote, or cave. The water temperature here was the complete opposite of the water at the beach! It was freezing!!!!!! I seriously had goosebumps from the time I jumped in the water until we got back in the car. It was so cold. We don't have any pictures from it b/c we left the camera in the car, but you can see pictures online. It was really beautiful! There were bats flying all around too...one almost hit a girl in the head...yikes! We even got to meet the owner of the park. He and his family were there swimming in the cenotes as well. He just opened the park 6 months...it was pretty cool!

We went back to Playa del Carmen to check out some of the shopping. As always, they had some beautiful silver, but we didn't buy anything. We walked along the beach (sucky compared to the beach earlier in the day) and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Had we had more time, we would have gotten a couples massage on the beach for $25 a person for one hour! Another time...

We made it back to Cancun for a later dinner in El Centro. I couldn't eat tacos this time, so I went for fish and it was good. We also had the best guacamole of the trip at this place. I could have eaten five more plates of it...yum!!!

And last, but not least, our trusty rental car when we turned it in! It was such a good little car. On our way back from Tulum, we saw a car on the highway that blew up...like, there was nothing but the metal frame left to this car...everything was burned! It was crazy! So, we experienced a Mexican traffic jam in the rain at night! Ha, it was fun! Thankfully, we were safe the whole trip and had no problems with flights or anything! It was such a fun time!!!! Can't wait for more trips like this in the future!!!!

Randoms from our time in Charleston

This post is all about me wanting to go to Charleston...that's really all it comes down to. It's just such a cool place. Everyone should go to Charleston to visit...they will not be disappointed! So, here we are with Mike and his girlfriend, Celia. Mike is actually one of my brother's really good friends from College of Charleston. He has come to family events for the past few years every time my brother is in South Carolina from Utah. It just seems like a Christmas or Thanksgiving (depending on the year) is not complete without seeing Mike. He is also an extremely, extremely talented wood worker. Seriously, he has some amazing pieces! You should check it out! It was so fun to spend time with them! Celia is getting ready to study for a year in London. They are super cool and were so nice to house Ben for the first few nights he was in Charleston!

This is the Cistern yard at the College of Charleston, where I went my freshman year of college. It's beautiful! If you walked around the campus, you might recognize it from movies like The Patriot, The Notebook, Cold Mountain, and a few others. Random fact: the color of the building came from cows blood. They didn't have any paint, so they used the blood. Kind of gross, but also kind of cool. They were resourceful back then!

Our last morning in Charleston, we walked down to Waterfront park. They have a large pier that you can walk out on with really big swings. It's one of my favorite things to do in Charleston...just so relaxing and pretty!

There were even dolphins swimming in the harbor! It was so cool! There were a lot of them too! Fort Sumter is the little island in the back left.

USS Yorktown is in the back. I've actually never toured the ship, but I hear it is really cool.

And a picture of us before we headed to the farmers' market! Seriously, if anyone wants to go to Charleston and needs company, we will be happy to go along for the ride! It's so fun! Also, there are other Charleston pictures on my photo blog.

UNC vs Citadel game

So, my brother and his girlfriend didn't make it (punks!), but my little sister came up! She is such a cutsie, and I am so glad she came! We tailgated with some friends before the game. This is Jennie and Steve. They are hilarious, and they will be newlyweds next August! I am so excited I get to be a "bridesmatron" (what Jennie calls me) for the wedding! It's going to be so much fun! Jennie and I used to work together and Steve and Ben go to law school together. They're awesome!

And here we have me and my sweet husBen at the game. Thanks to a partner at King & Spalding for the tickets!

And me and Laurin! Yay!

And just other random pictures from the weekend!

Crazy sisters with big butts! Don't mess! "Baby Got Back" is our theme song!

If I could only shop from two places...

Ralph Lauren

Banana Republic

Just classic, elegant, beautiful clothing...sadly, out of my price range! Although, they do have great sales!

And if I ever a baby girl, she will definitely be wearing this with her initials on it! It doesn't get much cuter than that! :)

Are you ready for some Football!?!?!?!

I have a confession, I love watching football! For the first three Saturdays of football season last year, all I did was lay on my couch and watch football and do laundry. It was awesome. Sadly, that won't happen again this year because we don't have cable anymore, but I think I'll survive. I have some friends with cable and a nice tv (Sonya...yes, the tv has a name). What's better than watching football on tv is actually being at the game! Last night, we were able to go to the South Carolina/NC State football game in Raleigh. One of the partners from Nelson Mullins was so generous and gave us tickets! It was seriously soooo much fun! The game was ugly, but USC (not So Cal, people!) won!
It's funny...growing up I didn't really have a football team that I liked a lot. My sister went to Georgia Tech, so we went to a lot of their games, I went to Clemson games with friends, and sometimes my Dad's patients would give him tickets to USC games. So, it's funny now because since I have been away from SC, I have become more of a USC fan! Last night I gladly wore jeans with a black button up and a "Beat NC State sticker." I'm not a diehard Gamecock fan by anymeans, but I was jumping up and down screaming (my throat is even a little sore) trying to cheer them to victory. At times, it was very uncertain whether they would pull it out, but they did, luckily!

And to complete the football weekend, we are going to the UNC/Citadel game tomorrow! My brother and his girlfriend are coming up to go to the game with us! I'm way excited! And that will probably be all of the live football games we see this season...opening weekend is good enough for me! I'll take it! Happy Friday!!! :)