We all woke up with a bit of an emotional hangover :o , but at least the sun was shining, and the coffee tasted sooooo good. About half the group had scheduled a fishing trip for that morning, and Tyra & I hoped the group woke up in time to catch their transportation. After a quick breakfast snack of chocolate sugar wafers, she loaded up her backpack to go check on them, and then was off to run a few errands – look up a friend or two, check her email to make sure her puppies were OK. I lathered myself with sunscreen and wiggled into my bathing suit to go to the beach with Manda & Aaron (my daughter & son in law), & Tina (my adopted daughter for the trip – remember, this was family). We ended up at the Tukan beach club and settled in on some chairs. A gorgeous day, we were in awe of everything around us. You don’t see this kind of scenery on the Texas Gulf Coast !! The mojitos were going down easily, and it was wonderful to have to do nothing but
lounge on the beach. Life is good! Mid-afternoon, here comes Tyra with the crew in tow. Once again we’re all together - talkin’, laughin’, & drinkin’. There’s nothing quite like a group of Texans, all with roots from a small town in West Texas, if you know what I mean! The fishing group relays their tale of woe. Not a fish one was caught, and seems like our straggler from the airport spent his hours hanging over the side of the boat. “Looking to see the fish down below,” he said. But I think we all know the true
reason!
Still a few hours away, we made plans to meet up for happy hour at Espadas later in the evening, and decide
…what to do for dinner
. That left plenty of time to clean up, take a stroll down 5th for a little bit of shopping, and generally just soak up the atmosphere known as Playa del Carmen. It seemed to be well known to the shopkeepers that we were from Texas before we even walked in. I kept looking to see if anyone was wearing a t-shirt that proclaimed such, but after I stayed outside one of the shops to enjoy the breeze for just a little while longer and hearing the voices of the group inside, I realized that while you may take the girls out of Texas, you just can’t take the Texas out of the girls! Guess it was that West Texas twang coming out!
Happy hour at Espadas and the entire group showed up. We all decided that was a good place to eat – the Brazilian steaks sounded wonderful and the prices were extremely reasonable. I think that the waiters must have been friends of the people from La Siesta, because not only did they split us up into 2 tables, but even offered to give us separate checks before we asked! Wow! Worked great. Dinner was an exceptional experience! All the different meats sliced right to your plate off of long swords. The service was great, and we all left with full tummies! After a few more adult beverages at the swing bar across the street, a little more wandering and shopping, the night was declared a success.