Well that was a nice little diversion;  We spent a “long weekend” down in Playa del Carmen celebrating Donique’s 40th birthday.  We flew out early Wednesday morning on Frontier, which was our first time on that airline.  They got high marks in my airline rating system, which has admittedly low expectations.  Pretty much “Get me there on time and don’t lose my luggage.”  Sounds easy enough, but I don’t have a very good success rate with it.  Anyway…  We took off from KC around 7:30, and were checked into the hotel and sitting in sand by 12:30.  That includes the roughly 45 minute drive from Cancun to Playa.  Sweet!

I guess I’m obligated to give some type of summary of the trip, although I don’t suppose it has to be overly detailed, or for that matter even factual.  We flew down with the Martins, and caught a shuttle service to our hotel, the Gran Porto Real.  We’ve stayed there once before, and it’s high on our short list of “Places We Would Go Back To.”  We settled into “beach mode” right off the bat, and then were joined later by our friends David & Jill, who flew in from Texas, and Ed & Kim came in from Denver.  All your worldly needs are for the most part included in the price of the hotel, so we spent the vast majority of our time sitting in chairs on the beach.  The one exception was Donette’s birthday, when we actually ventured off the resort and went to some club in downtown Playa.  Good times, although I found it rather hard to adhere to my cardinal vacation rule of “don’t attract attention” when walking around with four girls in pink boas.  (Yeah, thanks for that Kelly.)  Other than that, regarding the rest of the trip, there were no events that I wish to retell, or that you want to hear.  I can vaguely say that the birthday girl kept me busy with her rather over-the-top hi-jinx, and the Mexican jails aren’t really as bad as I’ve heard.

We flew back home Sunday afternoon;  Wow, was THAT a rough transition.  We spent the morning sitting on the beach in 85 degree weather, then 3 hours later we’re scraping ice off the car at KCI.  Bummer.  It was late enough in the evening that we just went home and went to bed.  This morning we woke up to the same stupid Van Morrison song that we’ve been too lazy to change for the last 5 years, made a pot of coffee and ate my usual bowl of Special K, and shuffled off to work.  Ahhhh, just like we never left.  Yay.