Big Scary Dolphins!

V: Vacations
I've been given the opportunity to travel a lot in my short lifetime.  I've visited several different countries.  One of the most memorable was when I toured Europe as a twelve-year-old without any parents along.  Fun, fun.  My favorite traveling experience ever was when I went to Kenya, Africa, but I wouldn't call that a vacation.  My best relaxation vacation was probably this summer when I went on the cruise, but I already journaled that on this blog.  I considered sharing some pictures and memories from when I went to London, England with my family, but decided against it because I wasn't really the photographer of that trip like I am now.

I thought I'd share a few pictures from when I went to Playa del Carmen, Mexico with my family the summer before I started high school.

This was the first time in my life I was starting to gain confidence in my appearance.  I had just grown out my bangs and was wearing makeup (a tiny bit of mascara) for the first time in my life.  So in the June, 2007 album on my computer, there are a lot of strange pictures of myself with statues and paintings in Mexico.

Some were kind of neat.

Others were... odd.  Let's just leave it at that.

I also took some strange pictures with my siblings.  We enjoyed the many weird statues placed all over our resort.

When we were exploring the little village near our resort, a lady braided my hair, as you can see in the picture above.  At first, I was so excited.  Once she started braiding, my excitement faded.  It HURT.  She pulled my hair back so tightly that I was squeezing the life out of the armrests of the chair to keep from smacking her hands away.  And my head was sore for days.  I actually had to take Advil that night because it hurt to lay my head on my pillow!  Ugh, I will never do that again.
But if I could get the chance to have another of those woven things around a lock of my hair, I would do that again.  I kept that thing in for weeks.  The picture below is strange (I used to think it was so cool), but you can get a better glimpse of what was in my hair.

I did some pretty neat things during the trip, one of which I'll share on the sixteenth (X-Treme Day).  I went swimming with dolphins, which was actually quite a brave thing for me to do, considering the fact that I'm terrified of being in the water with any sort of fish.  Yes, dolphins scare me.  Badly.  Sad, I know, but it's true.

The dolphins were very cute and sweet, but they scared me, especially when one pushed me up by my feet and lunged me into the air.  Swimming with dolphins was one experience I got to check off my "dunnit" list, but that I won't be doing again anytime soon.

I went scuba diving... in a pool, but hey, I still did it.  A funny Australian guy taught me and my grandpa how to scuba.  It was fun to swim all around the lazy river in my big goggles and heavy air tank.  I loved sharing that moment with my grandpa.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was the beauty of everything around me.  The resort was stunningly beautiful.  I loved the flowers and palm trees and even the architecture.  The staff was very friendly.  In the main pool, there was an underwater bar.  You had to swim through the pool in order to get there and even the bar stools were underwater.  For the non-drinkers and youngsters, there were plenty of virgin drinks to choose from.

It was a great vacation.  I would most definitely do something like that again.


It's hard to believe that this was more than four years ago.  Wow.  Time goes by so fast.

We made some great memories on our Mexico vacation.  I loved Xel Ha and the pool and the Cliff of Courage.  I loved taking family pictures on the beach.  I loved eating nice dinners and spending time with my family.  Sometimes it's so nice to be pampered.


What's one of your favorite vacations?