Rise & Shine

Today was our last day at the resort, so I made sure to set my alarm to catch the sunrise! I slipped on my sandals and snuck out of our room bright and early and the quiet view did not disappoint! 

I was practically giddy as I walked down to the ocean and watched the horizon turn orange.

The beach had already been freshened up for the morning and me and a handful of other nature lovers enjoyed quietly taking in the sunrise.

There was a rather large fish of sorts feeding right along the shore and it kept coming up to the surface.

Watching the sky catch fire this morning surrounded by stillness filled my soul!

After spending most of the day swimming in the pool and feeling ready to head home, we ventured out for dinner at the other end of the resort. With four restaurants at our hotel, we usually don't venture out to the others, but we had heard good things about this steak house and decided to give it a try. The simple beauty of this painting in the lobby struck me, and I had to take a photo of it!

We were seated on the balcony just as the sun started to set & I couldn't believe our luck! It was such a great way to spend our last night in paradise.

The lighting was perfect for a romantic last dinner date before heading home!

The first course was a salad bar, where Mr. Stannix also discovered the sushi at the salad bar and for the third time this holiday, indulged in one of his favorite foods.

Dessert was delicious!

We walked back to our hotel (the long hotel in the distance) along the beach in bare feet, looking at the stars and listening to the waves crash against the shore. A great end to our little getaway!

 

Tulum

This morning I woke early to try and catch the sunrise, but instead, it was raining and cloudy. We got ready and headed down to the buffet for an early breakfast and then waited for our tour guide to pick us up and drive us to Tulum to see the ruins and learn a little bit more about the Mayan History. We got there right when everything opened, determined a meeting point and went off with another guide to hear about the ruins. When we were finished, we explored the site on our own for a bit and then met our first guide back at the market.

When we had finished, we hopped back into the tour van with our group and headed to an ATV trail ride and Cenote Cave. 

These underground water systems exist all over Mexico and are the only source of fresh water. Our tour guide joked that most of them were discovered by people walking through the jungle and falling into holes in the ground. 

Because there's no light, there's not a lot living down here aside from bats and a few cat fish. I felt a whole lot better about swimming around in the dark knowing there wouldn't be anything touching my legs. 

They had a few lights set up under water which made the stalactites look extra cool as the water reflected on the top of the cave.  

We got to swim around and explore for quite a while in the "cold" water. We had a few other Albertans in our group and we were all laughing about how much warmer this water was than our lakes.

We swam over to this hole and looked up to see grass and trees growing beside it.

It was a fun day away exploring!

We got back to the resort in time to grab a bite to eat and check out the sunset before dinner!

Loving every moment with this guy!

 

Chasing Sunsets

Today we got up earlier than usual to hit up the pickle ball courts before the heat of the day set in. After getting my butt kicked once again by Mr. Stannix, we had breakfast at the buffet and then hung out poolside for majority of the day drinking Pina Coladas and Strawberry Daiquiris.

 

We ventured down the beach later in the afternoon for a walk and I found some fun little shells. After a late lunch we went back to our rooms for a bit. I got ready for dinner and then slipped out to catch the sunset while Mr. Stannix enjoyed a nice long nap!

It was so peaceful down by the ocean where I spotted a few other nature lovers taking in the scene as the sun set.

Dinner tonight was a four course meal at the Japanese restaurant! Mike had been looking forward to this night since we arrived (me, not so much). He was in sushi heaven and happily finished anything I ended up ordering with raw fish. I will say, the glazed duck was delicious, as was Mikes stuffed salmon for our main. 

We hopped a bus to the theater after dinner, took in a bit of the show and then walked back to our hotel together.