Mexico Pictures--Our Digs

The resort-type place we stayed at (thank you, Tom and Anna Maria) was super beautiful and really close to the beach, and with a gargantuan pool that spanned two or three city blocks and sat on three different levels. Some of the days, we just kicked around the resort either hanging at the pool or snorkeling. Or sleeping. We napped and ate a lot! This is the last batch of photos for your perusal, so I hope you enjoy them!

Two words: Pool Bar!

The whole place looked like a highly cultivated jungle, it was really pretty to walk around.

Our little segment of beach was great to walk on, but not so hot for swimming. As you can see, there is a pumice-like quality to the area.

By the pool, well manicured.

The wake generated by our snorkeling boat on our way to the reefs. Yes, I was singing "Rio" (there are pictures of that as well).

Sunrise on our little section of beach.

ahhh, so wonderful. 

These are baby versions of fish we saw a lot of when we went snorkeling. These were in a tide-pool-like situation the morning we were watching the sunrise.

A nice jogger took this for us. We had a great time!

Mexico Pictures--Chichen Itza and nearby areas

We signed up for a day trip to Chichen Itza, a pre-Hispanic city in the middle of the Yucatan peninsula. It is one of the new seven wonders of the world (as established in 2007) and is super neat. On our way to Chichen Itza, we traveled through a colonial town (Valladolid) that I totally want to check out more, and stopped at a Mayan "village" for food, shopping, and cenote time!

The cenote! This is one of the big attractions in that village. There is a cenote in Chichen Itza too, but I don't believe you're permitted to swim there. That one is just for sacrificing. 

Well, jumping in was the natural thing to do. :)

See where that one dude is standing on the second highest level? That is where I jumped in from. (Blue Streak trained me well for this.)

Cenotes are limestone sinkholes--this one was 50 meters deep, so it was more or less like swimming in a quarry. Whoa!

The ballfield area in Chichen Itza.

The Observatory, where all kinds of astronomical shenanigans took place.

Chris and an unidentified structure (our tour guide was letting us wander solo at that point). Doesn't it look like there is a face in the building? Eek!

In front of el Castillo.

This shot is required.

El Castillo! We were pretty tuckered out at this time, and Chris was just barely putting up with me. What a champ...

Then we got back on the bus with all the liquored up people. (liquor was served on the bus, not in Chichen Itza) We weren't allowed to climb on any of the pyramids or touch anything, as the Federal government no longer permits it here, possibly at any of the ruins. What a drag!

Updates! Mexico pictures--Playa del Carmen

Sweet business, I didn't realize it had been over a month since I last posted something. 50% of my February was spent ailing with some miserable sickness and the other half was spent trying desperately to catch up on everything I was losing control over. I'm healthy now, and was healthy for the whole trip to Mexico, so I guess I can't complain about anything. 

Here are some pictures from our week-long trip to Playa del Carmen in Mexico! We had a  great time, though I am now seriously behind in my sewing--in the month of February, I only managed to make a bed-pocket for Chris and finish Jennifer's skirt (which has its own set of complications). I'm still in the process of bargaining with myself about my 2011 Sewing Resolution (nope, didn't forget) to sew one garment per month, as well as really wanting to keep up with the Sew Weekly challenges. Later, later....

Chris in his super awesome beach clothes.

A wonderful helado de coco. mmmm!

Cycle tracks in Playa del Carmen.

The most delicious chicken tamales we purchased from a street vendor. There was a whole chicken wing in that thing, bone and all!

One of our many iguana friends.

Clear Lake...

was awesome, just in case you were wondering.

the view from my tent

magazines!

weird creek in downtown Kelseyville, all 'osed down

the most perfect dog's first camping trip

and Olive tried very hard to behave

I ate a shocking number of s'mores, Chris made lots of fires, Melissa's cast was pretty clean, Scott didn't drink nearly his share of Coors Light, Jenn had a hotel in her pop-up tent, Michelle made salami/cheese crackers, Olive kept vigilant guard against the raccoons (her brethren), and Timber got tangled. Repeatedly. 

Everyone took a bath once we stopped camping. Victory!

It is storming like nobody's business!

I tremble with the anticipation of the power going out at any moment! Lightning is dominating the sky like a fifth grader in four-square! I avoid leaning on metal while outside!

St Louis! the City Museum

So I'm in St. Louis visiting Clara and Brendan and we are having solid good times! We monkeyed around at the City Museum for several hours today and exercised long-latent muscles while climbing around. I didn't get any pictures of our outdoor feats of strength because the camera was in the checked bag for most of our time there, but here are some us-centric pictures from the dark hallows of the whale room.

There are ten or so floors to the City Museum and we only devoted time to about three of them; it will have to wait until next year when we're out for the wedding, which will be in the same building. whee! Most of today's time was split between the architecture section, the secret tunnels and slides (I was not sliding well today, too sticky), and the outdoor MonstoCity. MonstroCity is a crazy metal wonderland that stretches about five or more stories high and involves (sturdy) mesh tunnels, not unlike monolithic slinkys but without the movement, from each section to the next. Clara, Brendan, and I each scrambled through a wire tube, approximately four feet in diameter (sometimes a bit smaller) and 60 feet off the ground, to reach the inexplicably secure hollowed out airplane (looked just like the crashed on in "Romancing the Stone"!) 30 feet away. These numbers are all estimates since I couldn't find any hard numbers, but if anything, I'm under-exaggerating. Wonderful!

If we're back in that area on Thursday morning when we go to the arch, I'll try to get some external shots of the place, but you should definitely go there when you're in St. Louis.