Hartmans in Mexico

Beautiful, beautiful sunset at the resort on second night.

Randy finally opened up a coconut, which was perfectly ripe.

The buildings at the Grand, where we stayed.

Beach shot.  Not the prettiest day.

          Rainbow over the ocean after the rain...God's gift.

This past week, Randy and I jetted off to Cancun, Mexico to stay at the all-inclusive resort, Moon Palace.  We had planned this trip back in the spring, and it was such a blessing, and a perfect way to celebrate being married for a year (well, it's actually this coming Sunday).  We knew we wanted to go all-inclusive because of how happy we were with the Sandals that we went to in St. Lucia for our honeymoon.  What we didn't know, however, was how much nicer this place was going to be.  If anyone is wanting to plan a trip to Mexico, I would definitely recommend a Palace resort...they have one in most of the big traveling spots in Mexico.  

When we arrived to the resort (we stayed in the Grand section...the whole resort has three sections plus golf villas, all of which are huge) the bell boys took our bags and handed us pina coladas and two flowers for me.  We got our room keys and walked into an awesome room...decorated so modern, clean, and relaxing.  We were pretty amazed at how nice of a room we got- there are pictures of it in the slideshow.  Right off the bat, we went to the little Mexican restaurant by the pool and ordered chips, guacamole, and chicken fajitas....and we just sat in paradise!

Here is what our daily schedule consisted of- breakfast (we woke up pretty early, like 8) at one of the buffet restaurants (one morning we had room service)...three of the six days we worked out (looking back I wish we had made this a daily ritual)...back to the room to put on our suits and lather on the sunscreen...go to either the pool or beach...dry off for lunch, a different restaurant each day...more pool, then the best part...siestas (that's a nap) before dinner.  We had a lot of fun choosing which restaurants we would go to for dinner.  Our favorite (and the only place we went to twice) was Los Caporales, the mexican a la carte place with live music.  I guess it makes sense that mexican food might be good in Mexico.  I looooved getting the queso fundido (cheese dip with chorizo) and loved eating Chicken Mole too (chocolate is in the recipe, need I say more?).  I also discovered that I am quite fond of Sangria...red wine, lemonade, and fruit.  I want to try making it here at home if Randy will ever let me spend the money for it :).  We also loved the oriental restaurants, mainly because I could eat all the sushi I wanted.  Randy liked the meat they served, like beef skewers with all the different sauces for dipping.  After each meal (which consisted of complimentary appetizer, picked appetizer(s), salad/soup sometimes, main course), the servers always loved to bring out their "no calorie" menu...of desserts.  That joke never got old to them!  They brought out a plate of desserts that you could eat, then let you pick which one you wanted to order...so by the end you were really eating about four desserts a night!  Those of you that know me well know that I am very passionate about food.  I really took advantage of the all-you-can-eat, but was wise with my decisions.  I made sure to pick the chef's signature dishes as much as possible to try new things, and it was delicious.  One of my favorite meals was coconut grouper with spinach mashed potatoes at El Caribeno.  Randy got the roasted lamb leg that night which was delicious too.  The room service deal was pretty awesome too, ordering mini cheeseburgers and cheese quesadillas before our siestas.  To explain to you how much I ate, I was in one of the best shapes of my life before the trip, and gained four pounds in no time! (It was worth it) 

The entertainment at night was awesome.  We went to a Las Vegas show, Caribbean show, and Michael Jackson show.  The Las Vegas show and Caribbean show were like watching 'Dancing with the Stars' in person, with elaborate costumes and dances like the Salsa, Samba,  Tango, Mambo, etc.  The MJ show was definitely the best, and Randy has requested a whole post about it so that I can post the videos he so eagerly took.

The downfall of this trip, which didn't bring our spirits down much due to everything else we were able to do, was that we didn't get to snorkle, something we both LOVE to do (and hopefully will get certified to scuba dive one day).  The beach was also very full of seaweed on our particular beach, but still pretty to look at.  The seaweed didn't stop us from taking a try at windsurfing and also going kayaking.  We also got to go to Wet-n-Wild, the waterpark in Cancun.  The slides were a lot of fun, and Randy and I definitely got our workout that day running up all the stairs.  The best slide was one that was a twisting tunnel slide that shot you out into what looked like a toilet bowl and after spinning around, finally "pooped" you out into the pool below.  We participated in a relay competition in the wavepool with a paddle and one person tube...and were on our way to winning in the finals but I was nice and didn't clobber the kids that were in the way (the other guy had no mercy and won the race).  Back at the resort, we used the mini golf course and had lots of fun together.  

Everywhere we went was just gorgeous...the colors of the beach in contrast with the white sand, the many tiki huts around the turquoise blue pools, the palm trees, the scenic views when riding on the golf carts, even the views out the windows at restaurants.  We had some really fun people-watching too, since this wasn't a "couples only" resort.  I have never seen more tattoos in my entire life...it became a game to see who could spot the best tattoos.  The workers were extremely nice and all had a great sense of humor.  We really enjoyed talking to our waiters each night, and hearing the live music...saxophone, piano, harp, banjo, guitar, violin.  It really was such an amazing trip, we were so spoiled, and the best part was that it was just us...

If you want to see more of the trip than just the pics above, you're in luck..here's the slideshow.