I'll tell you what -- all-inclusive is the way to go. You show up at the airport, you show up at the hotel, you leave the hotel, and you go home. You don't really have to bring any money or monetary instruments. You go, you enjoy, then you go home.

My (new) wife and I were noticing on our honeymoon last week that for a whole week, we were treated like royalty, even at the wedding. This is an extremely important observation for both of us because we're both so very service-oriented, and it was nice to be served for a time. More on this later.

What was it like? For any of you faithful readers who have seen the brochure for the resort hotel where we stayed, that brochure did absolutely no justice to the actual place. A few sheets of full-color cardstock could neither accurately capture nor effectively convey the beauty and restfulness of the resort.

How was the weather? It was absolutely beautiful. Mid- to upper-80s all week long (low-30s, if you're counting in metric), bright sunny skies, partly to mostly cloudy late in the day. We had a couple of brief thunderstorms roll through late in the evening, but if you ask me, that's the perfect time to go play in the rain.

What did you do there? We ate a lot, and we slept a lot, and that was pretty much it. Our principal goal was to rest, and rest we did. There' s something to be said for having a time where you can take the watch off (not that we wear watches), turn off the cell phone (can't get service there anyway), and lob the alarm clock out the window (figuratively). The Mexican culture (and indeed, probably all of Latin America is similar) is one of rest and play, in stark contrast to rushing everywhere according to very strict and clearly defined schedules as we do here in the States.

Did you have good Mexican food? Yes and no. Yes, we did, but no, Mexican food was not the focus. The hotel is kind of out in the middle of nowhere, and it's designed to be kind of isolated. As such, there are several restaurants on the property, and each one of them serves haute cuisine of various styles, including Mexican, pan-Asian, International, and Italian gourmet cuisines. For the foodie who needs/wants a relaxing vacation, this is the place to go.

I want to see pictures! We took two rolls of pictures (54 exposures total). That's it?? Yes. And most of them were of us relaxing or being relaxed. I mean really, how do you capture true beauty? It's very difficult. As Marvin Gaye says, "Ain't nothin' like the real thing, baby!" In a very real sense, we were too distracted by the beauty of the place to be bothered to try to capture it.

We're back home now, and I'm back to work. My lass is getting settled into our house, and I'll be helping her with that all this week. Yay! :-)

¶ 10:27 AM