How I Spent My Spring Vacation in Mexico

So I went on a little trip, as you may know. Our flight, when it left (over an hour late) was blissfully smooth and uneventful, and as we landed at Cancun International 6 hours later it hit me that I was, for the 2nd time in my life, in a Tropical Country. By the time our shuttle got us to the resort, it was dark, which is a way that I love to arrive at a new place because you get to know it softly, gently; not all at once but piece by piece. First piece being the ocean, which I heard before I saw, as it should be. Warm like a bath, roaring like a lion.
When I woke the next morning I started to get to know the resort as a whole:

Sort of like a really nice mental institution where the medication is alcohol. There are sweet people who attend to all your pressing needs (like should you get a Pina Colada or a Margarita?) and all sorts of activities planned to keep the inmates happy. Not at all like the real world, but nice, in a surreal kind of way. Sometimes we left the asylum and went to see things like this:

and we also saw a lot of these:



and I really wish I had seen this, because it looked very bizarre:


But mostly this trip wasn't about sightseeing, although the Mayan ruins of Tulum were amazing, the ocean was the kind of blue you see in brochures and the beaches were so white they hurt the eyes. This trip was about spending time with my sweetie...

...watching my dad shed his cares and worries about my very ill stepmother and share a laugh with her brother, who came from Ontario with his ex-boyfriend and kept us well-supplied with Margaritas ("Good Ones") at El Paraiso beach...


...in fact, this whole group of 20 or so people were an odd bunch: some friends of my brother's who had been a couple for years but had recently broken up, my stepmom's brother and his ex, my sister in-law's half sister and brother, my mom and dad, who have been cordial but distant since their long-ago divorce, my mom's wacky friend Sheil, who is a millionaire cougar-type who lives in Cancun. Friends and family, different ages and types and yet- somehow it all just worked. We hung out together, we laughed, we drank (free booze! all day long!) Alcohol and heat and sunlight and love, smoothing the cracks and the awkwardness into something beautiful. Because in the end, it came back to family, which is something I usually take for granted, but these days more and more I realize that we don't have an eternity to hang out together before age takes its toll. Family, my family; people I actually like spending time with. People I love, very much.
and of course, the week was also about this:
as my brother took a big step in his life and married a lovely lady who I'm genuinely happy to be related to.
Next time I'll go for longer. Next time will be about Jon & I exploring and adventuring and not staying in a posh resort where the only Mexicans around are servants (Yeah, that was weird). But this time was truly beautiful, and I loved every minute of it.