Adventures in Cozumel: Day Two Exploring Playa Del Carmen

Holy cow, I can't believe another couple months have gotten away from me!  Dallas and I joked about being the "Hotel California" when we lived in the Bay Area, because of all the friends who'd come out to visit.  I was so nervous that it would change once we moved to Fort Lauderdale, but that has so not been the case!  We've been so blessed to have several friends and family stay with us over the past year and we've LOVED the chance to show them the beauty of where we've moved.  Out of the 28 days in February we had people staying with us for 20 of those days, which is a huge reason why this blog continues to get put on the back burner.  Although I may be quite behind in my posts from our adventures, I'd rather be late than not write about them at all.  We've been blessed with some incredible experiences and I want to make sure there's a record for us to look back on.  So I will continue where I left off...in Cozumel with our good friends, the Marshal family, back in November...

Our second day with the Marshal Family in Mexico was pretty packed.  They were SO kind to plan a day that checked two major items off my bucket list; seeing Mayan ruins and snorkeling with sea turtles!  We left the house early that morning to catch the ferry from Cozumel to the mainland, Playa Del Carmen.  While Dallas and Sean parked the car, the rest of us explored the waterfront.  The kids got a kick out of looking for fish and watching the boats zip by.  Once again I loved watching these bouncing blonde curls laugh and play together!

Keeping themselves busy by running in circles...

The color of the water was stunning and so clear!

Below left was our ferry, which took about 40 minutes to get from Cozumel to Playa.

The kids played so well together and were so good at keeping each other entertained.  I got pretty seasick at the beginning of the ride, so I stood behind everyone where the wind could hit my face.  I felt great after that.  I was even able to see lots of flying fish jumping from the water!

On the ferry waiting for us to debark...

So many hugs!

As we were pulling into Playa Del Carmen, some of the locals were working on extending the dock, or at least that's what it looked like they were working on.  There were a couple scuba divers at the end of the make shift planks, but it was so interesting to watch how effortlessly (and fearless) they all maneuvered climbing on and around the stick structures.

Playa was a pretty cool town.  It had the feel of a safe beach town exploding with colors and people.  There were lots of tourists due to the cruise ship crowds and being less than an hour from Cancun, but it didn't feel too crowded.  

While Sean and Dallas went in search for a rental car, Heidi and I took the kids through several of the outdoor shops.  There were so many fun things to look at!  We were able to see a couple monkeys, lizards, and even a few trees filled with bats.  

During a potty break the kids had fun wearing my glasses...

Daxton quickly became Adri's little shadow.  He followed her everywhere, laughed when she laughed, and even tried braiding the fake hair at several of the outdoor shops with her.  Adri was so patient and kind with him, which only facilitated more shadowing:)

It ended up taking Sean and Dallas a bit longer than expected to get us a rental car, so we bought a bunch of water and gatorades for our day's journey and relaxed at a funky old fountain until they found us.  The kids were all in such funny moods and would giggle at anything the other would say.

There were also LOTS of hugs exchanged!

I seriously adore these cute kiddos!
After about an hour our hubbies showed up with our ride and we began our drive down the coastline to the stunning Mayan ruins of Tulum.