We have another Olsen family trip to Cancun under our belt and, as always, it provided some much needed R&R, fun times with family and a good dose of Vitamin D. This year everyone was able to make it except Jack’s girlfriend Anna, who was in the midst of rotations while seeking her PA degree, but we added a few to our count — Mr. Charlie Beach Olsen, a source of non-stop entertainment and fun, and Poco and Baby Duter, both traveling in utero. As you can imagine, this changed the dynamic of things quite a bit, at least for Jen and I, given preggos are not supposed to a) drink b) be in the sun or c) do anything too adventurous (like sailing in high wind or body surfing in 10′ waves). We failed a bit at keeping out of the sun but were able to forgo the margaritas (and Coronas and rum & cokes, etc…) and kept sailing and ocean-swimming to calm, quiet days. Turns out a Banana Monkey drink without the alcohol is really a chocolate banana shake and always half-price, so that definitely helped me cope with the newfound sobriety and obesity challenges.
We mixed the annual trip up a bit this year by spending time at the Royal Haciendas, a sister resort located just a couple miles north of Playa del Carmen and about 40 miles south of Cancun. It seemed much less crowded than the Royal Caribbean, which was nice — we had the baby pool all to ourselves — but it was a little pricer and the food suffered by comparison. Jeff, Charlie and my parents spent a full week there with the rest of us joining mid-week, and then we all headed up to Cancun to the Royal Caribbean for the following week. Aside from figuring out the bill, in pesos, divvied up by ten people at two resorts after two weeks (huge thanks to JeffO), the extra time was great, and provided Matt and I a chance to stay with each of the siblings for a few days, which was nice.
The only big news to report this year is that all the “ugly” from last year’s post is gone! The beach has been restored (at a cost of a mere $76 million) and I didn’t notice any bugs at all. Then again, I didn’t even make it on to a public bus, much less downtown, so my perspective was rather narrow this year.
Photos of ‘Cun ‘10 are available on both my Flickr account and Jack’s.