Recently my mom decided that she was burned out at work and needed a long vacation; when we mentioned how jealous we were of her plans things quickly evolved into a family vacation (the first in almost 10 years) with her, my stepdad, my stepsister & her husband, and John & I & our boys. In other circumstances (having learned lessons from our trip to Asia last Spring) John and I would have been hesitant to fly with our 2 little boys, but we jumped on the opportunity to spend a week on a beach with plenty of hands around to help with the 2 tornados of activity we refer to as our children. Our destination? Playa del Carmen, Mexico, which is about 45 minutes south of Cancun. The verdict? It was glorious. The beach was golden, powdery sand and the beach was a fantastically brilliant blue. Flying with 2 small children isn't really at the top of my to-do list, but we made it, and the very first thing Jack did was strip off his clothing and sit and play in the sand in his underwear. In fact, this was how he spent the bulk of our vacation:
Playing in the sand with the trucks that we brought. We brought Jack plenty of clothes, including 2 bathing suits, and he wore almost none of it because he spent most of his time in either his underwear or a swim diaper. Nathan had a great time too - the beach connected to the building had plenty of lounge chairs and palapas, and the staff would set up umbrellas wherever needed. So Nate would spend his time hanging out in the shade and enjoying the breeze (and of course nursing whenever he needed) and even got to the point where he would just close his eyes and snooze right there.
Though there's a ton of activities to do in PdC, we really were happiest relaxing on the beach with the kiddos. We did get a visit in to the ruins at Coba and Tulum, and John even got in a morning of fishing while I went snorkelling. Other than that, we enjoyed the glorious scenery and just kicked back and relaxed. And of course no trip with John Dwyer is complete without delicious food. One of the biggest benefits to staying in a condo was the ability to cook some of our own food (especially breakfast) but we made sure to do some great meals out. The 'must try' food in the region is tacos al pastor - a corn tortilla filled with marinated pork, cilantro, onions, and pineapple; they were just delicious. We found a couple of restaurants that we went back to more than once because we enjoyed the food so much, and I think the dish John enjoyed the most was called the carboncito (at the a restaurant named Carboncitos) that was a diced marinated pork chop cooked with bacon, topped with cheese, and served with corn tortillas and your preference of salsa. We ate memorably well!
All in all, PdC was an incredible destination. It was by far one of the most family friendly places we've been, and not only did it have a ton of things to do the beaches there were really the most spectacular we've seen. We had such a great time, all 4 Dwyers were sad to leave!