Monday, March 03, 2008

Sun, hedonism and celebrating a February birthday far from Portland, Oregon

Do you ever have those moments laying in the sun when a wave of warmth makes you catch your breath? I love that. I don't experience it much here in Portland. It's the intense change or warming, fueled by the suns rays, and it connects with your body (and your internal organs, I swear) and lifts it to a higher temperature. It causes me to double breathe. It comes even moreso when laying on a hot rock. Especially a hot rock on the Feather River in Northern California in July. That's really hot. But I digress...

I've found I do better with my birthday by being on vacation. Preferably somewhere warm with lots of sun where I can reintroduce my toes to that glowing orb in the sky. And this was a major birthday. Major. I'll leave it at that.

Having a birthday in late February in Portland, Oregon is most often a grey, wet, cold, rainy affair. Usually combined with a pity party and generally emotional moments of whining and crying. But not in Mexico. No sirree. And this birthday was spent on the coast of the Caribbean, an ocean I've never visited. Shades of turquoise, layers of blue, see?
Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo, Mexico
All day long on my birthday was spent at the most amazing natural water park, snorkeling, swimming, sunning. This comes with all-you-can drink and eat. Pure hedonism. Yes, on my birthday I snorkeled through an ancient Mayan cave, followed by several pina coladas and some salsa verde pork. Now THAT'S the way to do it. Seriously, this place was amazing.

Last night I downloaded some of the photos, and found a little movie AdRi made on a walk she took on the beach in Tulum. I love it so much, and think you will too. Enjoy a little time at the Caribbean with AdRi here:

I'm back, and have some great clarity to focus on life, goals, hopes and dreams. Vacations do that to me. And here's a little something my mom wrote to me in my birthday card:
Let's see, 40 years ago today I put a roast in the oven, planted a loquat tree, called Dr. Loft after dinner, met him at the hospital and you were born at 9:30 pm.
Love this. I bet she had a task list for herself on that day. That reminds me, I have a list to get to today...

14 comments:

Monogram Queen said...

Your Mom sounds like quite a woman! So glad you had a sun kissed Birthday Lelo!

Neva said...

What a wonderful post! I'm so glad you have a wonderful birthday vacation!

A Lewis said...

Did we share the same birthday? 19th here. You? I'm so glad you were in a perfect place to celebrate. We went NORTH to Seattle and Vancouver! Fantastic weather.

Oregonian37 said...

Come back soon. The fight is up again.

http://www.basicrights.org/?p=196

witchtrivets said...

Sounds wonderful. Glad you are back and got the restoration you needed. any more pics?

Elizabeth said...

Happy Birthday:)

Anonymous said...

On one hand I'm totally jealous and on the other totally impressed by your handling of the big 4-0. When I hit that milestone - I'm totally going to do it somewhere fabulous.

Love the video too!

Anonymous said...

oh wow! Lucky you! Happy birthday!!!!

Unknown said...

I love the shades of turquoise and layers of blue. I'm going to do that for my birthday next year.

Your mom's note is fantastic. I love cards like that.

Welcome back!

Anonymous said...

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Nice.

Well, you'll be... younger than me for the rest of our lives. That's something, no?

SassyFemme said...

What a wonderful way to spend a birthday vacation.

Rozanne said...

Happy birthday! Sounds like you celebrated it in the most perfect way possible! That water park looks amazing! And of course I love all the shades of blue.

4 Corners said...

Welcome home little sister. I am so happy that you had a great birthday it sounds awesome...swimming through a cave? Now how do you do that? You are brave girl! Love you always, Sheri PS I figured out how to comment here yeah!

Karolcooks said...

Esta son Las MaƱaitas...pretend like I can sing! Feliz CumpeaƱos new friend...