Second balcony from the right, top floor -- that was ours. Here were some of the amazing views from that balcony:

The balcony was a lovely spot for reading when one of us was waiting for the other to wake up:

The room itself was quite nice as well. It was a "junior suite", which meant that adjoining the main room with the bed (shown here by our lovely model)...

...there was also a little sitting room with a table and chairs...

...and a couch.

As you can see, it made a great spot for scattering our stuff everywhere. Note the "towel turkey" in the bottom right corner of that picture, by the way. More about that later.

This was an "all-inclusive" resort, meaning that we paid a flat price upfront for the plane, lodgings, and food and drink, so when we got there we didn't need to pay for anything. There was a stocked minibar in the room, which we customized to fit Laura's particular Diet Coke needs:

Meals were served at a big buffet...

...where the offerings were often decorated with fruit carved into unexpected shapes:

The buffet was attached to a huge dining room, at the center of which was a gorgeous fountain:

It was never terribly crowded when we were there, so we were usually able to snag a prime table:

A few nights, we went to the "a la carte" restaurants, where we were required to dress up a bit more but served excellent food in exchange. Here's Laura dressed up for our Friday night dinner, on the 10 year anniversary of our relationship:

Of course, along with the food, alcohol was in plentiful supply. In fact, at the 24-hour snack bar, wine and beer were on tap right next to the sodas:

In addition, there were numerous bars scattered throughout the place, the most amusing of which was the "swim-up bar" at the main pool. You can see it more or less in the center of this picture:

We ended up spending most of our time at the "quiet pool", which was only quiet in comparison to the main pool. Where the main pool would feature something like water aerobics, the quiet pool was more into volleyball and occasional bingo:

And of course, the quiet pool had a bar of its own:

Certainly one of the most amusing parts of our trip was all the fancy touches in our room provided by the resort. For instance, every day after housekeeping had been in, we found the ends of our toilet paper folded into festive shapes:

Even better, every time new towels were provided to us, they were origami'd into the shape of an animal, and we got a new animal every time. Let's see, there was the elephant...

...the armadillo...

...the turkey...

...and the grand finale, "Swan With Rose Petals."

There were a few real (non-towel) animals around as well, such as the iguanas we saw every day:

It's a little hard to detect, but in the shadows behind the central iguana is a much larger iguana with a crest on his back.

Another cool thing about this resort was that it employed people offering lots of cool services. For instance, Laura got some nifty braids in her hair:

Also, on our last day there, we got henna tattoos. For those of you who've never heard of this, these aren't actual tattoos -- no needles involved! Instead, the artist draws on your skin with henna, a powerful natural dye that stains the skin for a week or two before wearing off. The artist himself was a very nice guy with a peaceful vibe. Here he is working on Laura's arm:

I got the "S dragon", a symbol used by Stevie Nicks, on my right hand:

Here's a close-up of that, albeit cut off a bit:

Laura got two tattoos, one on her arm of a Japanese ideogram signifying "brave"...

...and the other on her leg, of an abstract pattern that reminded her of ocean waves:

One of the most special parts of the vacation was our trip to Puerto Aventuras to swim with the dolphins. Before we got in the water, though, we had the opportunity to help acclimate a group of parrots to human contact:

When we were with the dolphins, they jumped over us...

...towed us...

...and even kissed us.

Another very cool event during this vacation was on the evening of the 15th, when we watched a total lunar eclipse. I tried to get some pictures of it, but the digital camera isn't exactly equipped for great eclipse photography. Still, this sequence gives a faint indication (the last three shots are higher resolution, which is why the light spot looks larger in them):

Most of our time, though, was spent hanging out by the beach or spending time in the ocean. There aren't any pictures of us actually swimming, but here's Laura getting her feet wet...

...and becoming one with the waves.

It was also a lovely place to walk in the moonlight...

...or read, which is how we spent the majority of most days:

Mmmmmm... reading on the beach. Wish I was back there right now. That's all the pictures -- thanks for looking. Adios!