We're on Island Time!

Today (Friday) has been a long day—we woke up at the ungodly time of 4:45 and headed to RDU for a 7:10 flight. We had a connection in Charlotte, which kind of sucked for Sydne because she drove from Charlotte to fly out of Raleigh and then fly back to Charlotte. It ended up being ~$100 cheaper than just flying out of Charlotte.  I’m not quite sure how that works…

Tyler took a few pictures of us at the airport. After all, we were a sight to be seen. We were decked out in large floppy monogrammed beach hats that we ordered online for the trip.


Not to mention that our airport attire accidentally matched—yoga pants, Patagonia fleeces, and tennis shoes. We got a lot of stares and laughs about our hats (and probably our matching outfits, too), and had quite a few moms tell us to “be good.” Yep, we sure will! ;)

We got through security in a flash. The TSA was doing a new thing where you didn’t have to take off shoes, belts, or jackets. You also didn’t have to remove laptops or liquids from your bag. It was great! That was until my bag had to get searched. Amidst the packing fiasco, I had mistakenly put the 1 lb tub of lotion in my carry-on instead of my checked bag.

Getting searched at the airport

Thankfully, I told them I had eczema and they let me keep it. A little advice for travelers, come up with a medical reason if something similar happens to you!

Our flight from Charlotte to Cancun was delayed 30 minutes due to maintenance issues. So common with US Airways…Initially we were furious. They were stealing 30 minutes of beach time, 30 minutes of unlimited drinks, 30 minutes of pure bliss! But we realized it could be WAY worse. That’s when another theme of our trip began: No worries, we’re on “Island time!” Cancun isn’t an island, but oh well.



We finally arrived in Cancun, breezed through customs, and caught a shuttle to our resort. We made friends with Fernando, our Apple Vacations representative, who gave us some advice for the week and laughed as we tried to communicate in broken Spanish. He made us promise to forget about work, our boss, and anything that might stress us out. I plan on doing just that!

The resort is absolutely beautiful. We were greeted with “Run Runners” (probably should’ve been Rum not Run), which were basically Piña Coladas with a splash of strawberry. Sydne and I struggled to wipe the permanent smiles off our faces.

Our room was ready early, so we quickly dropped our things and changed into bathing suits. The plan was to hit the buffet and then the beach (yes, in that order).  We found two beachfront chairs and fell asleep to the sound of the ocean. I could get used to Island time.

After the nap, we headed to one of the pools, which had a swim-up bar, fun music, and ridiculous pool games. We fought off numerous requests from staff members trying to get us to participate. Basically they were asking people to stand up on a slippery paddleboard, and then they would push you towards a foot-high rope. The point of the game was to jump over the rope and land with two feet on the paddleboard. Let’s just say it wasn’t a flattering game to watch, so the fact that we had just come from an all-you-can-eat buffet solidified our decision to opt out of the games.

Waiting on Japanese!

Later we had our first specialty dinner reservation at a Japanese restaurant called El Hashiru. The food was delicious! I started with vegetable tempura and Sydne had a Soya appetizer with cheese and tofu (pictured). 

Sydne's Soya appetizer

The food was hibachi style, and both of us had shrimp and beef (others chose the pictured octopus—not for me).

After dinner, we indulged in the dessert buffet (twice actually! Ha). The pictured chocolate mousse was to die for.
We closed down the restaurant and had big plans to go out, so we stopped by the room to drop off my camera. We both wanted to rest for “just 5 minutes.” Those 5 minutes turned into a 10-hour long slumber.

Until next time,