What better way to end all of the wedding day stress than to jump right on a plane bound for relaxation, sunshine, warm weather, and unlimited FOOD and DRINKS!!
Jerad and I left Monday morning (September 12th), bright and early for the sun- shiny beaches of the Riviera Maya.....Secrets Maroma Beach.
Here you can see that we have the "holy rolling Honda" packed full of suitcases....ready for our trip to STL.
Getting ready to leave the Marriott in the morning for our EARLY flight out to MEXICO!!!
Seeing as we had Apple Preferred Perks.....this gave us a lot of "extras" that we were very grateful for.....beginning with Front- of - the -Line service at the airport.....Monday morning was extremely busy and we were elated when we found out we didn't have the wait in the wrap around line that had formed at the USA 3000 counter.
Another perk.........see below.........drink and meal tickets for the plane......... bloody mary's and a snack pack to get our vacation started! :)
As soon as we arrived, there was a wonderful lady waiting for us with a tray of champagne.....perfect for our entrance to the beautiful, Secrets Maroma Beach! Where they say, "Welcome home!"
Since we arrived so early, our room wasn't ready yet so Jerad and I perused the resort, finding that this place was, by far, the most beautiful place we had ever been to. (Heaven on Earth) See pictures below.....
These beds were all over the resort in little secret places.....sooo relaxing.
Beach Bar with swings instead of bar stools
Pool Area
First beach pic as The Busch's
Our concierge, Roberto, let us know that our room was ready and that our luggage would be waiting for us at the door.....we were anxious to see what our room looked like! When we got to our door------here is what we found........
Honeymoon Banner!
Beautiful flowers and a letter addressed to Mr & Mrs Busch which let us know that we had many amenities awaiting us with the honeymoon package......things such as dinner on the beach, couples massage, etc.
Here are a few more pictures of our honeymoon suite.....just so you can see how truly amazing it was...
Jacuzzi tub in our room
Couch on the balcony
View from our balcony
Our secret door that room service could be delivered in, so you don't even have to open the door
On our balcony :)
Our first day, we had a couple hours of wonderful sunshine- which you can see from the pictures above....Jerad and I fell asleep on the beach- worm out from our day of traveling. I woke up RIGHT BEFORE the pour down was about to occur. I looked out at the ocean and could see it coming across the water. Quickly woke Jerad up, and we made a bee-line for the room. Glad we did, because it rained the rest of that evening. BUT we were ok with that.....one, because we were exhausted from traveling, and two, because all we wanted to do for the rest of the night was eat dinner and then go to bed. The rest of the vacation was beautiful....it would rain for about 30 minutes every morning from 6:30- 7am. Then the rest of the day was paradise. We got VERY lucky....esp. having gone on our honeymoon in the middle of hurricane season.
The storm.
Walking to dinner in the rain
We had a wonderful Italian meal at Portofino
Me scraping my Parmesan cheese off the cheese block
After dinner every night, Jerad and I would go up to the lobby and sit/ lay in these chairs and listen to the live music......so relaxing.
Our our way back to the room, Jerad and I were walking along....talking about how wonderful it was to be in paradise, etc........when I feel something weird by my foot, kind of scurrying our from under me........here is what it was.........
This crab must have been right under my foot when I was walking. I was lucky he didn't pinch my foot!!
First morning sunrise.......... Jerad and I would get up early and go walk the beach....put our towels out for the day, both at the beach and the pool.....and then go to breakfast. (we'll get to breakfast in a minute; it was entertaining...)
Jerad on the mound of towels
One of my favorite pictures we took....
So getting back to breakfast. Birds.
The birds at our resort are very smart! So smart in fact that they know when people are going to get up from their tables and go back in the restaurant to get more food. As soooooooon, as your butt leaves the seat, these birds are dive- bombing your plate and eating allllll your left overs. Its pretty funny to just sit and watch....until its your plate. Jerad and I quickly learned to put our napkins over our plates so they couldnt get to it. Another trick that the "feathered friends" would do....... they would steal the sugar packets that were on the table for coffee or tea. Literally, steal like 5 at a time. Fly to the side of the building, rip them open and eat the sugar! Crazy! Evvvvvvery morning we would laugh hysterically at these birds... they've got it figured out!
__________________________
Taking pictures out on the beach before eating at Oceans (seafood restaurant- poolside)
Blurry picture at Oceans... (our waiter had no clue how to use a camera)
Please notice Jerad's honeymoon watch that he was surprised with.... He loves it! :)
The next day began the adventurous part of the honeymoon. We signed up for a snorkeling adventure from 8am until 4pm.
"Were here for the snorkeling adventure." This is what Jerad tells the concierge.... I about died of laughter b/c it sounded like a line out of a Will Ferrell movie. (guess you had to be there....but it was funny)
Anyway, we went out in the ocean and snorkeled through reefs and it was perfect for me and Jerad got his scuba diving "fix" as well. I am not in to being underwater, for fear of drowning. You would think that a person like me that has grown up on the water would LOVE to scuba dive....but I have an intense fear of being underwater, so I enjoy just being on the surface and looking down. Jerad, of course, is taking of his life jacket and diving 30 feet down and making me a nervous wreck.....but we're all alive....so its OK.
The day was pretty neat; we spent about an hour snorkeling over a deep part of the reef where we saw a nurse shark and a sea turtle. The tour guide actually went and grabbed the baby sea turtle and brought him to the surface for us to see/ touch. Of course, I left the water camera in the boat when this happened....go figure.
We then went back to the shore where we had a HUGE lunch on the beach, and Jerad and I feel asleep under an umbrella. (it was wonderful)
In the early afternoon, we went back out and snorkeled over a reef that was closer to the surface so we could see more fish and colors in the rock. Here we saw a starfish and NUMEROUS beautiful schools of fish. (took way too many pictures of fish)
{DISCLAIMER: I HAVE UNDERWATER PICTURES, BUT I NEED TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO LOAD THEM}
That night, as you can imagine, we were pretty pooped from our "snorkeling adventure," so we wanted to get dinner and then relax in the live music in "our chair."
We took our beach pictures and before dinner pictures....
The next morning, we did our usual routine......lay towels out, walk on the beach, lay out for a little while, then go to breakfast...
We happened to be laying out during one of the short shower times in the morning......didn't care much, as you can tell. Covered ourselves with a towel and fell asleep again. :)
Today was a day that we had to spend on the beach again....we were happy. Happy to just be on our own time schedule and today we visited the spa. Mmmmmmm.....the spa. As I sit here and type this, I wish I had that spa here.......it was so nice. We actually went there twice and I just giggled a little bit out loud thinking of a funny moment that happened during our couples massage.
(Story)
Jerad and I walk into this place and it is RIDICULOUS! I mean, stupid nice! They have you go through these different places in the spa that get your skin prepared for the massage and totally relax you. For example, you start off in a sauna that makes you sweat like crazy. Then a cold shower (which feels amazing). Then a steam bath that makes you sweat like crazy again. Cold shower. Then...(coolest part of the preparation) you go into what they call the Water Circuit. It is a HUGE pool that has different places that you swim to like a circuit. First being a very COLD section that opens your pores back up from the steam bath, followed by a water fall that massages your shoulders, followed by a "hot tub" part of the pool that you sit in to relax. Jerad and I completed the circuit and then got out and fell asleep on the beds that were poolside.... (whoops) The ladies had to wake us up for our massage.
So, getting back to the story. The nice lady walks us back to our massage room, which feels like you're walking through a gorgeous castle, by the way. The massage starts and Jerad and I are kind of chatting a little bit.....random words here and there. "Hi babe." "How you doin babe?" Those kind of things......... well, I didn't hear anything from Jerad for awhile. Thought, well, maybe he's just trying to be quiet so we can relax, etc. Never fear...... Jerad has fallen asleep! I hear quiet little snores to my right.......and I know that snore. Yep, Jerad's asleep. Guess he was really relaxed. :)
After the massage was over we had a good 10 minutes of laughing about it. I told him about his little snores and he (of course) didn't believe me. It was pretty funny!
The rest of the day was spent being bums on the beach.....
Hanging out at the swim up bar......
annnnnnnnd a random trip to Playa del Carmen on Mexican Independence Day! There was a coach bus that went to Playa for an evening of shopping and then brought you back to the resort. We had heard a lot of people on the resort talking about the shopping in Playa and how it was neat to see, so we said, "why not?!"
Mexican Cigars. (legal ones)
By the end of the night, we were exhausted. Day full of beach time and sunshine....then the nightlife of Playa del Carmen on Mexican Independence Day.......whew! Lot to handle on vacay :)
Next day. Zipline Day!
We boarded this "beauty" at 8am in the morning.... and headed to XPlor. (zipline park)
Clearly excited.....
Helmet time....
The beating heart (it literally "beats" so you can always find your way back to the center of the park by the sound....pretty cool idea!)
So, there were a lot of water activities that my camera didn't get to come along with....but I have pasted some "generic pics" from the website that will give you an idea of the activities we LOVED!
Swimming through the caves...
Ziplining into the water caverns.... SOOOO fun. Probably my favorite zip line.
4 Wheeling through the jungle and caverns...
Last one, I promise.... but this gives you an idea of how high the ziplines were.... it was SUCH A COOL experience!
Jerad and I knew that we were going to be exhausted from our adventures, so we planned our Hibachi dinner for this night. Here are a few pictures, and honestly I'm not really sure Jerad and I remember a whole lot from this meal b/c I think we were so exhausted that we just went through the motions of eating so that we could go to SLEEP. We were EXHAUSTED!
Balcony Pic..
Waiting for our rez time at the lobby bar...
Our dinner was amazing.... but like I said, we were in an exhaustion coma. Ha!
The next morning (very well planned by us) was our breakfast in bed morning..... It was soooo nice. See sleepy pictures below..... :) Pretty much tells the story...
I literally just woke up...... 5 seconds prior to this picture.... disregard the poofy eyes.
We had an amazing day.... laying by the ocean the entire day. Starting with a lesson in seaweed hiding.....
The last 2 days of our vacation seaweed started coming into shore and each morning the staff of Secrets would dig these holes in the sand, rake up the seaweed and bury it. Pretty interesting. Jerad and I would just lay in our chairs and watch them... it was pretty entertaining. Smart, really!
If my memory serves me right, this was the day that Jerad and I walked down the beach singing Black Eyed Peas, Boom Boom Pow. Jerad would do the instrumentals via crazy sounds coming out of his mouth sounding like bass....and I would sing, "People in the plaaaaaace. If you wanna get dowwwwwwwn. Put your hands in the airrrrrrrrr. Will I Am drop the beat now!"
This was a sight to be seen, my friends. Because this was not just a little song and dance..... it was all out dance/ singing/ instrumental routine that we made up.........as we were walking down the beach. Yeah. To this day, we will bust it out in the middle of making dinner or doing some dishes..... drop everything we're doing and belt it out. :) Ohhhhh the joys of a goofy marriage! :)
Anyway, here are a few pictures of our beach day....
So..... another magnificent detail about the honeymoon package that my parents added for us was a beautiful dinner on the beach. Jerad and I were SO anxious for this all week b/c it was a time where we could be secluded and just take it all in.
Our dinner table for two! (note sand in the shape of a heart)
Funny story.... when we were finished with our dinner, Jerad had to pee REALLY bad.
(You can take the boy out of Southern IL, but you cant take the Southern IL out of the boy) See picture below.....
Yes this is Jerad peeing in the palm trees, right off the walking path. Granted, it was dark so no one could see him......However here comes a couple walking down the boardwalk....and I am just standing there. All by myself, and I'm sure these people were thinking....what is this lady doing....just waiting in the middle of the boardwalk? No one is around.... So my immediate instinct in panic was to bend down and act like I was tying my shoe. (Yeah, this works well when you're actually wearing SHOES THAT TIE!) I was wearing sandals! Idiot!
Long story short, we got out of that situation scotch free and Jerad did not get caught, but it made for a funny story! :)
When we got back to the room we were surprised by pretty rose petals sprinkled about the room..... such a nice touch.
Last morning sunrise.....
Our last day was spent enjoying every last sun ray possible. We spent equal time at the pool and the beach. Soaking up each and every glorious moment in paradise.
Dinner at Bordeaux.
We sat out on the balcony of Bordeaux for a long time (until we got eaten by mosquitoes) reminiscing about our wonderful week. It was such a great vacation that was full of amazing memories and laughs.
Sad to leave our "home" away from home. :(
Bye Mexico!
This was my very first time being to an all- inclusive resort and I was absolutely amazed. The service that was provided and the attention to detail had Jerad and I blown away! We will recommend Secrets Maroma Beach to anyone and everyone!
What a perfect way to begin our new lives together than in paradise! Being treated like we are royalty at every waking moment. It was sooooo nice.
( I know I always say sorry... but I do feel that I need to say sorry for the timing of this post b/c our honeymoon was almost 4 months ago and I am just now posting.....but, as you can see from the length...there were a lot of details to be discussed!) :) Hope you enjoyed our Honeymoon (sunnymoon) Story!! It was a trip of a lifetime with my soul mate and one and only! <3
