Well, friends, I’m back. I survived our Excellent Adventure. First, let me tell you what it was: KC and I went on an all-inclusive vacation to Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Let me tell you, it was one heck of a vacation as scheduled by Apple Vacations. I’d recommend it to anyone who asks. We were at the Gala Playacar resort, which is a beach-front five star resort. Our room overlooked the pool and we could easily see the Caribbean Sea from our balcony. We only got back to the homestead last night, so I don’t have pictures yet. I’ll put them in the photo gallery later this week. Here is a rundown of what we did:

Friday, Feb 20
Friday, we set off for Chicago. We stayed overnight in the DoubleTree Club hotel so we could park our car their over the next week. We left the homestead shortly after lunch and arrived at the hotel around 4pm. It was early to bed Friday night. (By the way it was snowing)

Saturday, Feb 21
We had a (gasp) 2:15am wakeup call, so we could get to O’Hare Airport by 3:15am. From there, we went through the checkin for Ryan International Airlines in order to make a 5am flight. We arrived in Cancun between 8:15 and 8:30am (It was a wonderful 87° there). After going through customs, picking up our luggage and locating the Apple Vacations representative, we were on a van to the Gala Playacar resort (which is about 40 miles south of Cancun). We arrived at the resort at about 11:15, but our room wasn’t ready. We had been warned of this and had packed our swimsuits in our carry-on luggage, so we changed in the bathrooms and hit the beach! Around 4:10, after we had located Lin and Greg (who we had planned on meeting there) we checked in to our room.

Sunday, Feb 22
KC was keen to get her scuba certification; well actually a more advanced certification called open-water certification. She began in the pool with the club instructor and really had the time of her life. She has been talking about getting scuba certified for about 10 years and this was something she really looked forward to, getting PADI open-water certified. Me, I went on a half-day trip to Loma Bonita for their ATV Adventure - and it was a real adrenalin rush! The afternoon, KC went on an open-water dive (and loved every second of it!) and I just hung out at the beach.

Monday, Feb 23
KC continued in the pool with some of the open-water certification steps she had to go through. I just hung out at the beach in the morning. In the afternoon, the harbor was closed so KC could not go out on an open-water dive, so we went to a mini-mall called Plaza Playacar and began the quest for souvenirs.

Tuesday, Feb 24
The water got choppy, and the harbor was closed. That meant that KC had to wait to continue on the certification path. So, we used the time to go to Playa del Carmen’s 5th Avenue and do some mingling and shopping. They have a boatload of shops there and we continued on the quest for souvenirs. We were back before 1pm and found that the harbor would be closed all day; KC didn’t like that, but we ended up at the beach reading our books and getting some sun. I went into the water and found that fighting a 3-4 foot surf was quite a workout! It was really fun to get tossed about but very tiring!

Wednesday, Feb 25
Again, the water was choppy and KC was getting frustrated. This was the one thing she wanted to get from the vacation and things were looking dim. We went into Playa del Carmen and then took the ferry over to Cozumel, which is an island about 15 km east of Playa del Carmen in the Caribbean. We didn’t do too much in the afternoon, at least until late. It tried to rain about 2:30pm, but it only lasted about 5 minutes and just did enough to settle some of the sand. Then, about 4:30, I got up the nerve and went parasailing! The hardest part of the entire thing was getting out to the boat - they took us out on a jet ski and I just couldn’t seem to get the hang of going from the jet ski to the boat and fell off both! “Soy gringo estupido!” is what I said about myself getting a laugh out of the guys on the boat and on the jet ski. Anyway, parasailing is quite the rush! I’d advise it to anyone who isn’t deathly afraid of heights.

Thursday, Feb 26
We went to Xel-Ha on an all-day adventure. Xel-Ha is a snorkeling park. We checked in and were issued a snorkeling mask and tube (we got to keep the tube), a life jacket and fins. Then we were issued a locker and a towel. After filing everything into the locker and lathering up with biodegradable sunscreen (they take any sunscreen away from you that is NOT biodegradable) we hit the water. I took an entire camera full of pictures of all kinds of fish, including a barracuda and a couple of stingrays. While I didn’t much care for the tubing down the lazy river (I should have brought the snorkeling gear and done that) it was an excellent day. Both KC and I were tired. I think this is the day I got the top of my head sunburned a bit - the only day I didn’t wear a hat in the sun.

Friday, Feb 27
KC got a dive in in the morning and another in the afternoon and attained her PADI scuba certification. She was quite happy with herself. I pretty much hung out on the beach all day, going into the water a few times. Really there were no waves, so it wasn’t nearly as tiring. I finished my second book; I had brought down Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and finished them both while reading on the beach.

Saturday, Feb 28
5:45am wakeup call and a 6:30am bus to the Cancun airport. Got on the plane with no problems (after having my luggage searched once and my carry-on searched three times) for a 10:05am flight. Touched down in Chicago at about 1:15pm or so. Went through customs, got to the car about 3:00 and after a quick stop for lunch (the plane did serve something resembling food, but it was hardly lunch) hit the interstate and ended up back at the homestead about 7:15pm. Long day and all, I didn’t even bother powering up the computer, which is why I am now getting this stuff posted.

Some General Observations
Each day, on the beach there was volleyball and soccer as well as general swimming and boogie boarding. We could have taken catamaran lessons and gone sailing, but I chose not to do that. The “beach bar” was open each morning around 10am and closed around 5pm - because it was an all-inclusive vacation, we could order anything we wanted. Also, walking about a half-mile south on the beach there was the sign “Beach Nudista” - I didn’t go there (no one needs to laugh that hard!) but it was interesting that it was so close the the resort.

Also, there was a water sports pool where they had daily games of water basketball, water soccer and water polo. There was a general pool where kids of all ages could play. And, there was an adults-only pool where no kids were allowed - kind of nice to get away from the racket!

Each day, they served breakfast from 7am to 10am; lunch was served from noon to 3pm; supper was served from 7pm to 9pm. Each time there was an amazing buffet of just about any kind of food you would want. (Each meal I had a plate of slices of watermelon, cantelope, pineapple and mango.) Also, each buffet had a salad line, an entree line and a dessert bar. They had two buffet restaurants on the resort and we could eat at either one any time we wished. MAN! What a lot of food!

The club bar opened each day at 5pm and was open well into the night. It got pretty easy to say “Cerveza, por favor!” and have them bring me a beer! (Leon of course!) They had people working as bartenders that were straight out of the movie Cocktail as far as putting on a show!

One thing I’d do different is that I’d bring either a travel clock or a watch. We had neither and had to tune in to CNN as they were the only channel that displayed the time on screen. (We had HBO and Cinemax, but who had time to watch movies?!) Also, I would have packed differently - you know, not brought some things and brought others. Oh, well!

If you EVER want a great week in the fun and sun, I’d definitely recommend the Gala resort in the Playacar resort park. It was probably the best week-long vacation of my life! And now, “Una cerveza, por favor!”