The wedding was wonderful. I am very fortunate to be married to Sara and very fortunate that so many friends and family came together to help us have a wonderful day.

I love this photo because it shows so many people we care about having a great time at our reception.

I just realized that our honeymoon trip to the Yucatán never got a log entry. It is a little late now, but I will put a summary here for historical reference.

• Monday 2009-10-12 - Photos : Flew in to Cancún from Chicago by way of Mexico City. We stayed at Le Méridien. The hotel was excellent. Sara found quite a deal. As soon as we arrived the staff offered us refreshments. As soon as we drank our smoothies and unpacked enough to find our beachwear Sara whisked us out to the beach and found the very first guy offering parasailing to take us up. After our adventure we had some lunch at the hotel and relaxed a bit. That evening we had dinner at Elefanta. When we arrived back at the hotel room we were surprised to find Champagne waiting for us courtesy of the hotel.
• Tuesday 2009-10-13 - Photos : We had a day of adventures around Cancún. We took the ferry out to Isla Mujeres and chartered a guy with a boat to take us out snorkeling. He took us on a nice tour of the island. We saw some very colorful fish out by an old wrecked boat, then we got to hold a shark, and see the sea turtle preserve (complete with baby turtles). Lunch was included with the tour and we had very fresh seafood at a local place accessible only from the beach.
  
  Sara wasn't feeling well so we headed back early. We later discovered that she accidentally brushed against the wrecked ship while snorkeling and she was stung fairy badly by something (most likely some type of hydroid). We went back to the hotel and cleaned up. After a dinner out on the town we returned to the hotel room to discover that the staff had scattered rose petals all over the bed which was a very nice touch.
• Wednesday 2009-10-14 - Photos : Two days lying on the beach is about all I can stand. So on the third day we took our rental car and began our exploration of the peninsula. We took the toll road inland.
  
  Just a few kilometers from the beach we saw evidence of the poverty that the descendants of the Maya experience. They live in improvised housing in this region, and many of them still speak native "indian" dialects. There is a kind of economic hierarchy involving language in the area. Those that speak English and Spanish can work in important customer service jobs at the resorts. Those that speak Spanish can work in maintenance, food service, and house cleaning positions. And those that speak the native dialects are essentially unemployable.
  
  Our first destination for the morning was the Mayan ruin of Ek' Balam. Even though it was the first ruin we visited I think the experience was the best. This site was administered by local people and we were allowed to climb to the top of the giant Acropolis Pyramid and interact with the ruins much more than the other sites.
  
  After out archaeological adventure we set out for Valladolid, a small town that lies about half way between Cancún and Mérida. We explored the town which had a nice little church, a history museum, and the Convent of San Bernardino de Siena. We stayed in a little bed and breakfast/hotel called Casa Quetzal.
• Thursday 2009-10-15 - Photos : We awoke on the morning of the 15th to the crowing of roosters from the yard next to Casa Quetzal. It was just as well because we planned to get an early start. After a quick breakfast we were on our way to Chichen Itza. It was the largest and most visited of the archaeological sites we saw.
  
  As a world heritage site it was well ordered and the rules were fairly strict. It was forbidden to climb any of the structures. There were vendors lining all the paths, but they were kept away from the main structures. We saw an on-going archaeological dig at the base of the pyramid.
  
  It took us the better part of the day to explore Chichen Itza. It truly was a city. It sprawls between two Cenotes that the ancient people used as a source of fresh water since all rivers are below ground in the Yucatan.
  
  The site became fairly crowded as the tour buses arrived from Cancún. We finished walking the site and took the toll road toward Mérida. We drove all afternoon finally stopping for a very late lunch at Hacienda Teya just outside of Mérida.
  
  The Haciendas in the Yucatán were essentially massive plantations where the Spanish nobility grew ridiculously wealthy from the labor of the local people. It has since been converted into a restaurant and event center. The evidence of the wealth was still evident in the ball room and sprawling grounds.
  
  The restaurant serves local food so I was able to complete one of my goals for the trip, eating queso relleno. In this case it was Queso Relleno de Cazon (cheese stuffed with small shark/dogfish).
  
  With full bellies we walked around the local shops. This led to our introduction to the "maquech" (a.k.a. Zopherus chilensis) a beetle that the locals decorate with jewels for questionable reasons. After our walk we took in a show featuring local dancing and music. Finally exhausted we made our way to Hotel Luz en Yucatán where we stayed in Mérida.
• Friday 2009-10-16 - Photos : Once again we got up early. This time we drove out to the Celestún Biosphere Reserve (a.k.a. Parque Natural del Flamenco Mexicano de Celestún). The reserve consists of wetlands in the brackish water where the Río Lagartos joins the gulf. The mangroves grow thick here providing the perfect place for hundreds of species of birds to thrive.
  
  We hired a boat with a guide who drove us around the reserve to where the Flamingos Nest, then to see the pelicans, and finally into the mangroves where we saw termite mounds hanging above the water and got the opportunity to walk some trails.
  
  After our tour of the park we had some lunch in Celestún proper. An opportunity for seafood and beer right on the beach is not to be missed.
  
  On our way back we got turned around and it took us a while to get our bearings again. We opted for a late dinner in Progreso rather than driving straight back to Mérida. We had some food there and strolled up and down the pier until after dark then we made our way back to our hotel.
• Saturday 2009-10-17 - Photos : We took another day trip out into the countryside. This time we circled around south of Mérida and took in quite a few Mayan ruins.
  
  The first stop was Uxmal, which was my second favorite ruin after Ek' Balam. Its remoteness kept it from becoming too crowded, and while we were forbidden to climb on the main pyramid we were able to scramble up on a number of the outlying buildings. Unfortunately while we were there it started raining intermittently so there are a number of photos of me in my rain poncho.
  
  The next stop was Kabah. Fortunately the weather held for us while we were there. It was a smaller site and several of the buildings had collapsed, but it had some nice features like the "Temple of the Masks".
  
  Our stop at Sayil did not go well. The rain returned cooling things down a bit, and the site was more densely forested than the others creating the perfect conditions for mosquitoes to ambush us. Additionally the trails were earthen and the rain had turned them into mud. After viewing the ruins we went into the brush to see a carving of a Mayan fertility god and returned muddy, wet, and itchy.
  
  On account of weather we skipped our scheduled stop at Xlapak making our next stop Labná. Sara stayed in the car for fear of more mosquito bites, but I made a quick running tour of the site. It is also a smaller site, but the buildings here appeared to be more structurally sound than those at Kabah.
  
  As we circled back toward Mérida we found that the Mayapan site was closed for the day. We also ran into some difficulty at a road block set up by the Policía Federal (Mexican Federal Police). Sara accidentally left her passport in her hotel room so she had to do some quick explaining in Spanish while guys with H&K MP5 submachine guns looked at us suspiciously. Fortunately her Spanish is good and they let us pass with the promise to return directly to our hotel to get her passport.
  
  Once safely back in Mérida we strolled the beautiful neo-classical French style road, Paseo de Montejo. As darkness descended we made our way to a delicious dinner at Casa de Frida. Sara was especially enamored of the Chiles en Nogada, a dish that she would later serve to renowned neuroscientist Olaf Blanke. After dinner we closed the evening with a stroll through a weekly festival, the Noche Mexicana.
• Sunday 2009-10-18 - Photos : Sunday was the end of our time in Mérida so we spent the morning exploring the parts of the city we hadn't explored well. We saw all the beautiful Spanish-colonial churches and the crazy market.
  
  After our walk we jumped in our rental car and got on the toll road back to Cancún. We made a brief stop in Valladolid again on the way back. There we saw Cenote Zaci which we had missed on our earlier visit. It had a touristy restaurant serving mediocre food attached, which was fine by us since we wanted a late lunch anyway. Entrance to the Cenote was free with a meal and we went down into the cave. We saw people swimming in the cool water, but we didn't feel like being soggy for the remainder of our drive. Interestingly it is forbidden to swim in the cenote while wearing sunscrean because it can harm the rare eyeless black fish that live there.
  
  The balance of the day was spent on our drive back to Cancún. Sara got us a great deal on a room at the Westin Lagunamar Ocean Resort. It is a timeshare and since they have not sold all their slots they rent out the remaining rooms as hotel rooms.
  
  That evening we ate at the Thai Lounge and plotted how to spend our last full day in Mexico.
• Monday 2009-10-19 - Photos : Spending so much time outside in Mexico had, by this point, reset my circadian rhythm and I awoke to see the sun just rising above the gulf. We quickly packed ourselves up and drove south down the coast. The Mayan seaside port of Tulum was pretty unimpressive after the amazing ruins we had seen. It was also packed with tourists from Cancún since it is within easy striking distance.
  
  We headed inland again stopping at Gran Cenote for snorkeling. The water was cold and clear. We were able to swim between the two segments of the cave. It was a lot of fun.
  
  Heading further inland we arrived at the giant Mayan complex of Cobá. This site had access to fresh water from two lagoons and didn't have to rely on a Cenote for fresh water. As a result the site is much bigger and more spread out. We thought that we might be able to walk the whole thing, but then we realized that our time was more valuable than our money and we hired a friendly guy with a cycle rickshaw to pedal us around. He took our picture at various places along the tour and showed us the Mayan Stingless Honeybee (a.k.a. Melipona beecheii).
  
  After our tour we traveled back for our last dinner in Cancún.
• Tuesday 2009-10-20 - Photos : On our last day we had just enough time to get up, pack, take a swim, and have drinks at the swim-up bar before returning our car and boarding a plane. We switched planes in Mexico City, and arrived in Chicago late at night. We managed a few hours sleep at Sara's Parents' house. The next morning we arrived back in Lafayette to find an embarrassment of riches waiting for us in the form of a mountain of wedding gifts.