Fun in the Mexican Sun

After spending Christmas in snowy Boston with Kristin's family, we were fortunate to spend a post-Christmas vacation with Matt's family in Mexico.  Everyone met up in Houston, flew to Cancun, and then took a taxi about 45 minutes south to the sleepy fishing village of Puerto Morelos.  Puerto Morelos is located on the Yucatán Peninsula on the Caribbean Sea between Cancun and Cozuml.  There we had a house on the beach with a nice pool, easy access to the ocean, and only a few blocks walk to downtown restaurants, bars, and shopping.

Perfect January weather...much different than Germany, Boston, Missouri, or Denver!

Most of these blog posts are about all of the amazing culture we find and history of the places we visit.  This trip was all about food, relaxation, and sun, so I'll just get right into the pictures.

One benefit to being a little jet lagged...I was up early to enjoy the sunrise.  Of course Kristin had no problem sleeping.

Most days we were up about the same time to have breakfast and discuss the day's activities...or lack thereof.

Then it was time to relax with a book or some music.

Plenty of shade available for the non-Hendrens with pale skin.

For lunch one day we walked a few hundred feet down the beach to La Playita for some fresh fish.  Yes...we'll take that one.

They fry them right up and serve it with tortillas, salsa, and other fixings.  This was probably my favorite meal while there.

On particularly ambitious days we walked to town for ice cream.

Each night we strolled back into town for dinner.  This taco shop ended up being a great find - it's just a tiny takeout place off of the beaten path.

Only a couple of bucks for an amazing dinner

Kristin tried a torta and it was also delicious.  We filled half of the restaurant--meaning we took up all of the tables on the sidewalk.

We had heard great things about a churros guy on the main square but all we could find was this place selling marquesitas - like a rolled crepe and native to the Yucatan.  Kristin enjoyed them with Nutella.

Kristin was pregnant, but I think the bump is mostly because she had a lot of delicious Mexican food to eat this night.

Another night we had a fancy dinner at John Gray's Kitchen.  It felt like a trendy place in Manhattan after the street food we had most nights.

Instead of going out one night, we had Chef Juan come to us and prepare a meal, or what turned out to about 5 meals after he made so much food!

This was just one round...dishes just kept coming and coming.

Didn't get the picture in time before people dug into this one!

Everything was prepared fresh in our kitchen by Juan and his brother.

These were tamales baked in banana leaves.

Finally we got a little ambitious and the boys went on a fishing trip.  The seas were a little rough but we still managed to find some good fish.

Mo took on the first one and did a good job of wearing it out.

Dad joined the fight and reeled one in.

As it got close, we could see it was a beautiful green dorado (Mahi-mahi).

Finally we got it into the boat!

I pulled in a Spanish mackerel to round out the catch.  Unfortunately the photographer is never in the pictures.

We took the Mahi-mahi to La Playita that night and they did a wonderful job cooking it up for us!  Again, we dug in before I could even get the camera out.

Meanwhile, the ladies had a fun time at Mexican cooking school

Cupcake was doing flips after some especially spicy salsa.

Mom's a pro and was done first!

After a quick rest Kristin was back in the game but I think Em worked the hardest.

While it's hard to not have a wonderful time in such a place, I think everyone enjoyed it even more than we had expected.  I'm sure we'll be going back in the future.