Monthly Archives: March 2025

Bloggings, Family, Travel

Last Day in Mexico

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We woke up around 7 this morning and finished last minute packing. Then we went to the Italian restaurant for the breakfast buffet again. It was good and so much better than the other buffet.

After breakfast Lucas and I walked around with my parents. We walked to the marina, and we looked at the iguanas and the dolphins. It was crazy windy!

It was about 9:20 and we decided to go back to the rooms to get our bags and check out. Don, Lucas, and I loaded into the elevator with our bags. We thought we had pressed down but the elevator went up to 5. When it opened a family with a stroller was there, but they couldn’t fit on. When the doors closed the elevator dropped a bit and then it stopped and said, “out of service”. Lucas was immediately scared. I immediately panicked. The elevator was super small and hot. I pressed the alarm button over and over. I had no cell or wifi service. Don was able to call the front desk, and they said they would send someone. It seemed like forever, but it was probably under 10 minutes. Lucas and I were laying on the alarm button. We heard some workers outside and they opened the door. The elevator was stuck below the 5th floor but above the 4th floor. I lifted Lucas out and some bags. Then I got out and finally Don. We had to carry our bags down from the 5th floor. What a way to end the trip!

When we got to the lobby we checked out. Check out was way faster than checking in. Then I went straight to the bar to get a beer. I was going to take advantage of the all inclusive until the last minute, especially after the elevator situation.

Our airport transfer from USA Transfers was 10 minutes early, which was nice. They were great. Getting thru security wasn’t that bad in the Cancun airport but it was super crowded and there’s nowhere to sit really unless you get lucky.

Now we are on our flight home and the pilot said it will be a smooth flight for the first couple hours then it will be turbulent so I’m a little nervous. Lucas was asleep before the flight even took off. He slept for almost 2 hours.

The flight was fine. The turbulence wasn’t bad at all. We got back around 8 pm, had some Jimmy John’s and got ready for bed. While falling asleep Lucas asked me, “how much longer until our next vacation?”

Bloggings, Family, Snorkeling, Travel

Snorkeling

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This morning, even though Lucas wasn’t here, we still woke up around 7. I walked over and got Lucas from my parents and then we all went to breakfast at the Italian place. When we walked in my dad wasn’t there yet, he was going to meet us at the restaurant. We saw him talking to the hostess. He wasn’t far from us so we called his name, but he didn’t hear us. Lucas said “it’s like he’s blind with hearing” 😂😂

We had booked a snorkeling tour for 10 am but it was unsure if Lucas would come or stay with my parents. My dad walked over to the marina with us in case he wouldn’t go. While we were waiting Lucas had fun looking at all the iguanas.

He did end up going on the snorkeling tour with us. At first when we jumped in Lucas was very scared. Luckily one of the guides came and helped us. He brought over a floatie with a rope and he basically guided Lucas and Don. We saw a lot of fish and at least 3 rays. It was cool. By the end of it Lucas was saying “do we have another destination?” He loved his first real snorkeling experience, and we were so happy he came with us.

Then we came back to the pool and swam all afternoon. We checked out the infinity pool and the hot tub. We had to leave around 4 to get ready for our dinner at the Italian place. Dinner was good. We had a few servings of calamari. Lucas had spaghetti and he ate all of it! I had margarita pizza. Don and my mom had pasta, and my dad had swordfish. Lucas was trying everything, even the swordfish!

After dinner we walked around. I showed Lucas and my parents the jungle theme at Ventas Ha. Then we came back and packed.

Bloggings, Family, Travel

Exploring Puerto Morelos and Date Night

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This morning Lucas slept in until 8! And he might have slept in more if we didn’t have to wake up. We had to have breakfast at 9 to get our reduced ticket prices for Xcaret.

Basically, we showed up, had breakfast at the Italian Buffet, and then Don, my mom, and Lucas went to the pool. My dad and I sat thru this presentation done by a guy named Tony and then we were shown some rooms. Then we were hard sold on buying into their vacation package thing but we said no. At the end they acted like we should have had all of our family stay for the presentation, but I told them the man named Saul said 3 times only two of us had to stay. It was the only way I agreed to going to the presentation. In the end they said ok.

Then we went to the pool. Around 2 we decided to go have lunch in the town of Puerto Morelos. The front lobby called a taxi for Lucas, Don and me. The ride was only about 5-10 minutes. He dropped us off at a place where he parked with a shop. We asked for recommendations to eat and then we walked around the block. There were so many shops. We ate at a place called Puerto Knna. We ordered queso fundido. I had fish tacos. Don had octopus tacos and Lucas had a Quesadilla. Lucas ate one of my fish. The view from the restaurant was amazing.

Then we walked around. A man walked up to us and said he remembered us from our hotel because he was a waiter there. He wanted to show us his grandma’s shop. He took us into a jewelry store. It was suspicious. We think he saw our wristbands. The guy there was making me try on jewelry. It was just awkward. When we got out of there we started heading back for a taxi.

Lucas was saying he was hot. We looked at a couple more shops and then found our taxi driver Eduardo.

When we got back to the hotel we went back to the room and Lucas wanted to swim more. Don said he was going to take a little break. Lucas and I went down to the pool. My mom didn’t stay too much longer but my dad hung around. It was much colder in the water. We were tossing around the football when this very old man who came in on a scooter walked into the pool. We got out and were gathering our stuff when all the sudden the old man fell getting out of the pool. He fell right on his chest/stomach. People helped him up. He turned out to be ok, but it was very scary. Lucas told me later as we were walking, “When I saw that guy my heart shattered. My heart has a crack in it”

We saw that man later at dinner he was ok. We thought there was a taco festival tonight because the concierge had said something, but we only found a small artisan festival. So again, we went to the buffet. It was not great. Don and I were not eating a lot because we had a 9 pm reservation.

Lucas was going to spend the night with my parents so we could have a date night. He was so tired and didn’t want us to leave him but eventually he was ok because my dad said he would use his flashlight to look for crocodile.

Don and I went to the other resort called Ventas Ha for dinner. It was ok. I had curry soup for an appetizer. That was my favorite part of my meal. Don had bean soup. Then I had a ceviche that I didn’t like, and Don had a bone marrow appetizer. We both got the steak for our meal. It was ok, nothing great. The craziest part was they brought it out on a heavy hot stone on top of a sliced tree trunk that was on top of another wooden serving tray. The waiter almost dropped my steak on me. It was a very complicated, heavy dish. It came with a cream corn in a little dish, but my dish was so hot I couldn’t touch it. It was boiling the entire meal! I had to take my steak off the hot stone so it would stop cooking. We had some wine and took some wine to go.

The resort was cool it had a neat jungle theme. We finished our drinks in their lobby and talked for a long time.

Bloggings, Family, Travel

Xcaret

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We woke up at 6:30 for our Xcaret excursion. We probably could have slept more because we were all tired. We met downstairs for breakfast and then got on our bus at 8:15.

The bus was nice except it the AC was on blast! They showed a video of the attractions at the Xplore park and Xcaret. It was about an hour ride. We got there around 9:20.

Once we got thru the gates we got lockers and made our way to the natural pools. On the way we saw some animals–deer and flamingos. We saw some ruins because Xcarat park is an ongoing archaeological dig site. When we got to the natural pools there was barely anyone there. It was awesome. Most were very shallow with small fish. One pool was over 9 ft. It felt good to jump in. Don snorkeled there for awhile.

Then we had lunch at the buffet. Lucas had fun watching the birds trying to steal food. The view from the buffet overlooked the ocean. It was a good lunch.

After lunch we made our way to the lockers to drop off mostly everything to do the underground river. We all got life jackets and made our way down.

At first Lucas was scared. He held onto Don the whole time until the middle he got braver. The sights in the caves were awesome. There were waterfalls and fish. All kinds of trees and rocks. It was like nothing we had ever done.

Once we got out we started walking, we had about an hour left before we had to be at the lockers. We looked for jaguars but found a lot of iguanas. We went thru the butterfly house. Lucas wasn’t as scared of them anymore. It was very pretty. Then we went thru the aviary. It was awesome! I could have spent more time there, but we rushed back to catch our bus at 4.

Lucas got some cotton candy, so he wanted to sit with Gigi to share it. He had some then he was immediately asleep.

When we got back to the resort, Don wanted to check out the pool at Ventas so we took a golf cart over there. The sun was starting to go behind the buildings, so I was cold, but Lucas and Don were in for a long time. Lucas’s new friend, Arthur, was at the pool also. My dad showed up for a bit and we had a drink. Then we all went back to get dressed for dinner. We didn’t know what to do for dinner, but I heard Dolores was open so we all walked over there. There was a long line, but Don checked the line at the other entrance, and we got in sooner. It was open for a special event, Taco Night. The buffet was poorly organized, it was hard to find anything. It was also very loud. It wasn’t a great experience but different. After dinner we all went back for bed.

Bloggings, Family, Travel

Pool Day

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Lucas woke up today at 6:30. He played with his ninja turtles in bed for a while. I made some coffee, and we watched the sun rise over the trees from our balcony. Lucas said, “look mama it’s so beautiful”.

Then we met my parents at the breakfast buffet. It was a better experience than last night.

After breakfast I wanted to figure out tours. I ended up getting a tour to Xcaret and a snorkeling tour. It took about 1.5 hours between booking and listening to how they could make it cheaper for us if we listen to their sales pitch. I’m going to listen to it on Thursday. The guy there made me a deal that we can do the Xcaret tour on Wednesday and attend the talk on Thursday. He also said only 2 of us must stay for the talk. If we don’t show up, we will be charged the full price. I probably shouldn’t have done this but whatever, live and learn.

Lucas was already enjoying the pool. It was fun to all get in. My mom bought Lucas a football, so we had fun throwing that around. He met a friend named Arthur from Canada who was also 5. Lucas liked to play on the handrail on the stairs in the water. He was flipping all around it and climbing. He said “hey mama, do you see my cool tricks on the pole?!”

There was a bubble/foam party in the pool. They threw a bunch of balloons in water and everyone was dancing around. It was a fun experience.

We checked out the beach. It was very warm. We didn’t get in much because we wanted to get dry for lunch. We went to the other buffet (Dolores) which was more like a food court. The food here was better. They had good ceviche and wings. Lucas really liked it. At one point the waiter took away our spoons that he wasn’t done with, and he said “well that’s unfortunate”.

On our walk back we looked at the pools at the other resort. There was a cool looking infinity pool. Then we came back and went to the beach more. Lucas looked at fish in the little holes where the tide had went out. Then he decided he wanted to try to snorkel, so we got all geared up but then he got nervous. Don went out by himself. Lucas threw a huge fit about how Dia needed to play football right now with him. It took me awhile to calm him down, he was exhausted.

Then we decided to go back to the room to get cleaned up. Lucas wanted to try to find crocodiles and take pictures with his camera.

We went for a walk over to the marina. He took a ton of pictures, it was funny. We saw where people swim with dolphins and we sat and watched them come out of the water every so often. It was peaceful because it was late, and the dolphins were off duty.

Then we went to the buffet for dinner again because we had no reservations again. It wasn’t as long of line. It was busy though and very loud. The breakfast buffet is a much better experience.

After dinner my parents came to look at our room. Then it was another pretty early night in bed.