Chillaxin' in Mazatlan

What is it about a tropical vacation that gently leads a couple into the affections of falling in love all over again?  Is it the warmth in a sunset, or possibly the work free days that give way to deep conversation over dinner?  Possibly it's a little extra vino that nudges a bashful wife into saying a few words that don't always find their way out of her mouth in cold cowtown Calgary - 'Let's leave...now'.  I don't know exactly what that key ingredient is but I do know that Nate and I got a little taste of it for the week that we were vacationing away.

It seems that we can't stray too far from the ocean for too long.  We're both huge fans of warm weather, soft sand and sea salt spray - a wonderful trio; but when you add an all inclusive hotel set on the end of a beach, endless supplies of gourmet food and refreshments of any sort, it's heaven.  

One of the first highlights of the trip was at the airport.  Nate and I had checked our bags and were waiting in the line to be body scanned when this clerk came running up to us with two large white tickets.  He walks right up to us, hands us the tickets and says: 'I upgraded you both' and walks away.  Nothing else, no reasoning, no justification for doing it - just that.  We looked at each other in shock and just started laughing.  We'll take that!  

The next surprise came when arrived at the hotel.  Back in November when we booked our tickets, we were given the option to either go with a room with a 'garden' view or upgrade it to an ocean view for however much more money.   Nate and I agreed that a garden view would be just as nice and we could spend that 'ocean view' money on something else.  However, as we stepped into the room, both of our eyes were immediately struck by one of the most gorgeous views of the ocean I had ever seen.  We had been upgraded yet again with no reasoning behind it, no justification for the hotel upgrading us, but just doing it.  Saweet.

Another wonderful part of the trip was connecting with fellow Calgarians and making new friends.  There were three or four other couples about our age who we would see from time to time walking around the resort.  In the evenings, we would run into each other and we talked and laughed and began to develop new relationships.  We even discovered that I went to elementary school with one of the other wives!!!  Talk about a small world.  

On the last day, we were incredibly sad to be leaving such a gorgeous and relaxing place, but we agreed that we would return to the hot and humid Mexico mucho pronto.