Mexico Memories

Ok, I just needed to post a few more random pictures from our trip.

I can't believe it is now a week since we have been there. It already feels like a dream.

Especially since I have been home with sick kids since we got back.

Honey, I loved our time together!

Love you!

An Amazing Whale Watching Tour!

Saturday, 3.17.12

 We couldn't have been closer to the whales unless we were in the water with them!

Friday we decided to sign up for one excursion - whale watching. I was really there just to lay on the beach and read a book. Darin knows that I was totally overwhelmed when we went in Hawaii and so we decided that since we were in the middle/end of whale season, we should have a good shot at seeing whales. I have heard of people having an experience of the whales coming right up to the boat and I prayed that would happen, but never really thought it would happen.

We tried to go Sunday morning, but they were booked. Darin then wanted to go Monday, but I didn't want to go anywhere on my last full day to lay out in the sun. :-) So we tried for Saturday morning thinking that it was probably be booked up too. Nope, there were two spots left!

I really feel that God worked this whole thing out for us. There were two spots on Saturday. When we got there, we were broke up into two groups. We just "happened" to get on the boat with the amazing experience. AND Sunday and Monday ended up being the hottest, clearest, sunniest days that we were there, so I was glad that we were not out on a boat.

So here is my attempt to capture the experience.

There was also a professional photographer on board and we bought her photos. It ended up that she really didn't capture much more then what I did. I'll use some of both of ours.

Here we are not knowing what kind of adventure we were going to have.

We were only into the trip about 15 minutes before we spotted our first whale. We were on a zodiak, so it went hauling toward the whale. Unfortunately it was very choppy water, so we were all getting soaked and we were a little (alot) afraid of falling off the boat.

Here is my pic of the whale breaching.

Here's the professional pic. She definitely got a better shot!

We hung out here and watched the whale swim around and were getting completely soaked. The captain wanted to go look for some other whales and calmer weather. We sped away.

Darin was the first to spot the whales that ended up giving us the amazing experience. We zoomed toward them. They were breaching and blowing water and we were excited! But then we got there and the whales were under water. When we were starting to wonder if they were going to surface again, they were spotted close to the boat.

We are excited because it is close. Then the photographer who is sitting up higher then us starts saying that they are coming up right next to us.

This is her pic of the whale showing us it's underside.

This is my view.

Then the real magic happened! TWO whales came up right next to us. The crew on the boat had never had this happen in the 4 yrs they had been doing tours 3x a day during whale season. Crazy! They were just as amazed as we were. The captain actually called in to headquarters and were telling them what was happening.

You can see how close they were from the photographer's pic.

Here is Darin's view with the little camera.

And here is my view of the whale closest to us. It's head sticking out.

The second whale gave us a good view of his blow hole.

Another face pic.

I love this fin picture showing how barnacles grow on their bodies.

I love tail shots. This is one that the professional got. She got really close so you can see all the scrapes.

Then after the whales hung out with us for a good 30 minutes, the captain said it was time to go. No one wanted to leave. It seems like the whales didn't want us to leave either. They started giving us a great show! They were breaching.

Here is the professional's pic.

Showing off their tails.

Some more breaching.

It was an awesome experience!

Our Dream Resort!

Thursday - Tuesday, March 15-20, 2012

We took a lovely trip to Mexico. Just the two of us.

Part of my 40th birthday celebration! :-)

I did a lot of research and second guessed myself many times, but we ended up being totally thrilled with the resort I chose to go to - the all inclusive Barcelo Los Cabos Palace Deluxe. A couple of years ago my hair dresser told me about her client that went to Mexico and stayed in a swim-up room. Since then I really wanted to stay in a swim-up for my 40th. It sounded so luxurious! Well Barcelo ended up being the only resort in Cabo that had a swim-up room. It was so awesome! No having to go out first thing before breakfast to "save" the best lounge chair. No having to use the "public" restroom. No having to pack up your beach bag for the day. Nope! Just walked through our sliding glass doors to our lounge chairs sitting in a terrace pool. Then when we wanted to cool down or get a drink, we took the steps into the pool and swam over to the bar. Heavenly! :-)

The main area of the resort. Immediately is little lounge areas. Then straight ahead is the main pool area. Our room is at on the adult pool to the right.

The main pool.

 Beautiful birds of paradise all around.

 The beach area and cabanas.

 Looking at the resort from the beach.

Here is the pool side of our room.

Our room is right behind Darin.

This is what our room looked like looking out to the terrace. A sofa on the right and a small table and chairs on the left. And immediate in front is the bed on the right and the TV and dresser on the left.

Our beautiful view with a little table and sitting chairs as well as lounge chairs on our terrace.

Our bathroom. There are sliding frosted glass doors that open to the double sink. Then on the right is the toilet area and on the left is the soaker tub and open shower.

This is the shower area looking in from the bed through open shutters.

Looking into our room from the terrace.

Swimming up to our room. :-)

It lived up to everything I hoped it would be!