Our Travels

So, we got up again to see the sunrise at 6am. But again mother nature foiled our plans. There were high winds and cloud cover….so no sunrise pics. Not a big loss as we got to sleep more 🙂

We woke up for the second time around 6:45 and met John and Libby at the buffett one last time for breakfast. Before going to the buffett we walked the beach and looked out at the Mexcian Caribbean one more time.

Breakfast was good, but felt a little empty knowing we were leaving.

After breakfast, we went back to our rooms and made sure nothing was left behind and rang for the bellboy. The bellboy arrived and we gave the room one last look and headed out for the lobby.

Our van arrived promptly at 8:30am. The driver packed our rediculous amount of luggage in the back and we were off for Cancun International Airport. The trip took about an hour and 40 minutes. Passing through security was uneventful and left us with 2 hours before our 12:30 flight. So we ate again….only this time we had to pay. And we paid through the nose! Our brunch was $248 pesos…or $23.00. For a hot dog and burger….ouch!!!

The flight from Cancun to Charlotte was uneventful despite the crew being MIA until 5 minutes prior to boarding.

We had other worries though. Assuming the flight arrived on time, it still only left us 1 hour and 15 minutes to deboard, clear customs, claim our bags, recheck them with US Air, get through security and find our gate.

As luck would have it we did arrive on time, but Charlotte Airport is constructed in a way that it takes 20 minutes for the plane to reach the gate.

Long story short, John and Libby got their baggage quite a bit before us so they went ahead to try and make the flight and put in a good word for us.

By the time we reached the line for the security checkpoint we had 15 minutes until the plane was to depart. It had begun boarding 15 minutes earlier.

We made it through security without incident with approx. 7 minutes to departure. However, we were not even to our termial yet let alone the correct gate.

We made it to terminal B. The first gate was of course B1 and we were B16. So the running began. I never wanted to be one of ‘those’ people running and pleading not to leave without them. But there we were. In the middle of Charlotte Airport running and dodging trying to make it.

As we approached our gate the ticket agent yelled out asking if we were the Cole’s. We replied more with a wave as we were winded from our run accross the airport. The agent of course pointed out that we barely made it in a scolding tone. I wanted to ask him why US Air had connecting international flights spaced so close together if this was the result but I am too out of shape and needed to catch my breath.

As we boarded at 5:31 we were in th very last row, so we had the pleasure of walking by every single passengar that was seated and staring at us as the cause of their late departure. We were seated next to john and Libby who also had to run as John had left his camera bag at security and had to go back!

Luckliy for all of us there was a last minute ticket mix-up so the blame for the late departure shifted back to US Air…..yay!

Weather delayed us further and by the time we took off we were about 40 minutes behind.

We landed in Columbus in one piece and that ended our mexican vacation.

Thank you all 7 of you who read this 🙂 It was fun to write and share our trip with you!!

Well, I don’t know if anyone will read this…but we wanted to finish what we started.

After packing most everything Jenn and I headed down for one last swim in the pool. It was about 3:30pm and we could feel the trip coming to a close.

Despite being ready to go home there is always a certain sadness when you know you will be leaving a place likely for a lifetime.

We tried to soak it all in…as well as a few Captain & Cokes 🙂

Around 4:30 we went back to the room to get ready for our last dinner.

We were ready to go around 5pm, but before dinner I took some photos of John and Libby out on the beach. After our little photo session we headed back to the room and met up with Jenn.

From there we went to the Italian restaurant. We we worried the wait would be long as there was a large group outside the door, but to our suprise we were seated immediatly.

On our way to the table however, the resort lost power. We were seated and had only the candlelight and warm glow from the orange curains to light the table. It was actually a very nice atmosphere! The waiter took our drink orders and we browsed the menu. We decided to go all out since this was our last ‘included’ dinner.

We all started with antipasti. Jenn and Libby got a cesear salad, I got pan fried shrimp and John got mussels. For our next course Jenn, Libby and John all got fetticini alfredo, while I got a spicy penne dish. For the NEXT course Jenn and Libby had a chicken dish, John had salmon and I had pork tenderloin. Needless to say, we were all about to pass out by the end.

We left the restaurant and loosened our belts. From there John and Libby had their henna tattoos refreshed while me and Jenn tried to hold in all the food.

We visisted John and Libby’s room for a bit before heading back to our room so that they could grab the laptop to email home since our cell phones weren’t working. Sometime Friday a tower went down or something as we had no service.

After John and Libby collected the laptop I went outside for a few dusk pictures of the resort. I then got the bright idea to try and get some ‘artsy’ shots of the palm trees. That turned out to be a big mistake.

I realized the lighting was too low for a handheld shot, so I decided to get creative and leave the camera on the ground facing towards the sky to get a shot of the palm trees. In doing so I was steadying myself with my elbow on the grass. After a minute or so I became aware of a stinging sensation on my arm. I at first thought it was the prickly grass irritating my skin and continued adjusting my settings. But the sensation increased in intensity so I got off the ground and looked at my arm.

My elbow was covered in tiny ants that were apparently not happy I invaded their turf and were gnawing my arm like corn on the cob. I brushed them off and went back to the room to find my elbow already swelling. Jenn applied some medicine to my arm, and I laid down sure I was just infected with some terrible venom of the killer mexican ants 🙂 Actually….I just wanted out of helping pack the remainder of the suitcases.

So that ended our Saturday. We stayed up and watched TV for a bit, but both preoccupied with the upcoming day of travel.

After our night of heavy drinking Jenn and I still managed to wake up for sunrise. We set out for the beach around 6am. We found a nice spot and I shot a couple pics to get my setting right. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Today was another example of gluttony and complete relaxation. In other words it was great! We got up for breakfast around 8:15 and hit the world café yet again. You just can’t beat the buffet! After breakfast we went straight for ... [Continue reading this entry]

Todays entry will be pretty short. We pretty much hung out most of the day between the beach and the pool. We went to breakfast at the Seaside Grill for a change. However, we all got the same thing we did ... [Continue reading this entry]

Ok...so Libby and John finally got back from their massage and we hit the pool. We quicky found that were the massage oils equaled some slippery pool conditions. We were sliding all over the place and leaving a greasy trail in ... [Continue reading this entry]

So...we all met up bright and early for some breakfast at the buffett. We met up with our guides around 7:45am CST. The group slowly rolled in and in all there would be 12 ATV's not including the guides....of which there ... [Continue reading this entry]

Today we decided to visit the Tulum ruins. This was a must-do on our list as we are only a few minutes away from the site. We had the concierge hail a cab for us and we were on our way. We ... [Continue reading this entry]

Sorry all! It's really hard to find time to write between Coronas! But alas, we found some spare time between a massage and dinner. Don't you feel for us? Ok, so Day 3. There's not a whole lot that went on. ... [Continue reading this entry]

We woke up around 8am and went out to the pool for a little morning workout. At least me(Mike) and John did. They have a huge ‘quiet’ pool that is great for laps. But like I said its huge! We ... [Continue reading this entry]