Sorry to repost this..just wanted it to have all the images sequentially so I could send out the link to friends and family.

Well, we skipped out of town and headed to an old favorite..down near Akumal on the Riviera Maya south of Cancun. We are in a beautiful condo right on Half Moon Bay and looking forward to some awesome snorkeling. We already saw quite a few turtles and stingrays right from our living room windows!

We flew my Mom and Aunt down from Philadelphia to give us some "assistance" with our little Kai-Bear.. He is ready to get it on and party Mexico style..



Crossing the coast..looks good down there..



The condo is nice..very cool layout and decorating..



Second bedroom has some nice wall art..



Photo taken of us from the living room...



Note the essentials already lined up on the bar..



The view from our living room floor to ceiling windows and the front patio..



A coral strewn beach (which is what Marisa and I wanted..just enter down one of the ramps and we are in among it..) and a hundred feet south the beach proper starts..





Looking forward to hitting the water tomorrow and seeing some cool marine life!

Update - Day 2 pics!

Kai is ready to hunt for turtles!



Good morning Half Moon Bay!



Marisa and I getting ready to head out snorkeling..just steps from our condo..



Guardian of the Bay!



One of the pools at the condo complex..this one is what we call the "Garden Pool" since it is tucked away in the shade of the central area of the complex.. Great pool for Kai to hang out and for us to cool off and get out of the sun!



Marisa in the "Garden Pool"...



Kai not so sure about this whole pool thing. His first time in a pool..



The family together at the pool..



Daddy and Kai's feet...



Kai Bear was floating (almost) by himself in the pool. He fell asleep for about 20 minutes..



Mommy and Little Baby Boy..



Enjoying a nice cold cerveza after our second snorkel session..



This photo is designed to torture my best friend..(I'll bet it is working!)



Yum..home made soft tacos..and fresh avocado..



My Little Mermaid Girl..



A cute little Porcupine Fish under a ledge..



Brain coral..



Fire coral (I think?)..bumped against it with my knee (poor form..I know) and felt like a couple bee-stings on my leg.. Ouch!



Fuzzy stuff..



Nature's shag carpet..



No caption needed..



Elk Horn coral..



Pucker up..



School of Blue Tangs in among the Elk Horn coral..



Beautiful Parrotfish with his buddy..



Spotted Eagle Ray...



Me pulling a Steve Irwin..chasing said Eagle Ray..





Some loner fish..



Conch fritters?



Queen Angel fish..



The Other Queen Angel fish..



Some kind of stingray or skate (?)..



Beautiful (and inquisitive) Caribbean Squid..



School of Blue Tangs..



My girl hauling herself out of the water in the late afternoon...



Great day of snorkeling. The weather is awesome and the location can't be beat.. Looking forward to getting out there again tomorrow!

On to day three! What do you mean we are out of tequila?!??



Kai is ready for the new day!



Hanging out at Akumal Bay..a bit too touristy and crowded for me. Our “private” Half Moon Bay actually has much better coral and fish…



Marisa at Akumal..



Poking my camera under some ledges..never know what you might find (or what might find you!)..



Love these birds down in Mexico. I’m guessing they are a type of petrel?



Shrimp tacos..so perfect..delicous..



Baby Boy and Marisa cooling off in the restaurant (Lo Ha) in Akumal..



Late in the day we took a dip in front of our condo..nice to walk right out and into the water…



After snorkeling we rinsed off in the Garden Pool..met a nice couple from California there..



Later that night we walked about 20 minutes down the beach to a little bar called La Buena Vida..a cool little bar with a bit of a Day of the Dead theme to it. Had some adult beverages and dinner…





After consuming a bit of alcohol it probably wasn’t a good idea to go climbing up into the “Crow’s Nest” sitting area..but hey, we only live once (and testing gravity is always a beautiful thing..)..(note the convenient bucket for hauling up additional beverages if you are so inclined..)



Lots of turtle nesting sites dot the beach on the walk back to the condo..



One of the turtles in Akumal Bay..



One of the hotties in Akumal Bay...



Anemone? I always forget..



Boobs. Simply boobs.



Some nice reef near the outside of the boat channel cut in Akumal..





Love the schools of Blue Tangs that zip around the reefs..



Chasing down some fish..



Surfacing to find a boat on top of you can be interesting..our bad for being so close to the cut in the reef..



Some Grunts below a reef outcropping…



Love this dude..the Trumpet Fish is trying to blend in with the school of Tangs…very sneaky..but he doesn’t blend very well..lol..



More fishes…and fishes and more fishes..



Unusual little starfish of some sort..



This urchin got eaten up by something..



Was busy shooting photos of something else when this Spotted Eagle Ray came bounding out of the gloom in the late day and he was startled when he saw Marisa and I and zipped between us. Caught this rapid panning shot of him as he went by…



Trunkfish..



Big school of something. Again, it was getting late in the day with the sun low on the horizon..so the light was kinda funky in a spooky “sharky” kind of way..



Little turtle swimming by..



A Stingray churning up sand as he hunts for stuff on the bottom. This guy was pretty good sized..about 3 feet across maybe..



Posterior view as Marisa cut me off in the chase to film a Trunkfish..



Great time was had by all! Looking forward to more snorkeling today.. In the coming days we plan to visit Yal Ku lagoon and perhaps drive down to Talum or something..

Day 4 was another good one… Mama’s Little Puffer…



This iguana has his own garage…



Little crabs with their shells in the tidal pools..



An alternate use for flippers…



This beautiful image of the sun striking the tops of a thunderstorm as the last rays of light left the sky…



Trumpet Fish…



Some bait fish type minnows under a dock…



Hendrix coral…



Little crab under his protective urchin…



The fans in Half Moon Bay are just awesome…



Juvenile Parrot Fish…



School of fish at the reef at Half Moon Bay…





Love the orange Stag Horn coral formations on the outer reef. These take the most beating from the waves and they look like the prows of ships facing the prevailing wave direction..



More stuff..



More of the Stag Horn formations…a huge patch of them..



It was pretty rough on the outside of the reef. It was a rockin’ and rollin’ ride that made us feel like fish. Here you can see a pretty good breaker rolling up on the reef. You can see a bit of the reef poking through the flat water in front of it. You definitely had to be careful where you were swimming..



Late in the day snorkeling in the pass at the reef…



Little Baby Turtle…



A Mermaid..



Cont...

A Yellow Striped Thingy Fish..



Enjoying dinner at La Vida Buena later.. I think Kai was digging the candle..



Good stuff!

From our condo, we walked over to Yal Ku lagoon yesterday. A freshwater lagoon that empties into the ocean. The cool and clear waters and rock formations are very cool..





Baby Boy thought the heat was insufferable…



Darth Snorkeler in the lagoon..



Jurassic Park..



Some places of the lagoon where the freshwater spring is mixing with the salt water creates this blurry water effect..



Some mussels under a ledge..



Spotted Eagle Ray at the junction of the lagoon and the sea..



The mangroves with their long roots extending into the water..a haven for all kinds of fish..





A squadron of Needle Fish..



Coral polyps just at the entrance to the ocean..



Another view of the Spotted Eagle Ray..



Coral on the bottom outside of the inlet..



The waves were kicking up pretty good yesterday.. We got pounded as we circled out of the bay and ran around a point and into the bay where we were staying. It was a good hour long swim or so. Waves breaking on the reef..





Happy First Anniversary to my wife today!



More of the coral garden outside of our back door..



A conch working his way along the top of the reef..



Feed Me Seymour..



Looks like something you’d see under an electron microscope..



Again..Wilford Brimley’s cocoon..



Getting out of the water after a dusk patrol snorkel..



My adorable little family…



Sunset yesterday…



A few more days left..! Gonna get out there and enjoy them..

Our trip is winding down..just a few more days left.. Dawn broke with a beautiful morning. The winds had calmed down and the snorkeling conditions were perfect..



Trumpet Fish..



Mmm..dinner..



Can’t help stealing a look at her once in awhile too..



Trunkfish..



Little turtle..







Fishes..



Never seen this before. A school of Rainbow Parrotfish came along, maybe 8 or 9 of them all chomping up the coral and turning it into sand.. They are huge..about 3 or 4 feet long each!



After they chew up the coral, they poop it out as sand!





Marisa in among the coral..



Just steps from our condo the coral starts..



Did you say something about my monkey feet??



Meow..



So hey..Lindsay..you wanna come over and chill in my tub next to the Caribbean??



I mean…who could pass up this scenery?



More to come!

Crawling out of the water..



We went up on the roof of the condo and had a great view over the bay at sunset..



Today we did something a little different and went on a tour of a cenote. They are freshwater cavern systems that are so awesome. The water is cool (77 degrees or so) and only a few types of fish in them but the visibility is basically unlimited..

Due to the cool temps a wetsuit is advised if you chill easily..



The beginning of Dos Ojos (Two Eyes) Cenote. We were only snorkeling the snorkel accessible passages, but you can go down for hours with SCUBA tanks and do some hardcore cavern diving (scary stuff that!)..



The cenote is a few miles back into the jungle..



Here you can see some divers getting ready to head out on their dive.. We were fortunate to get there early since later on it got pretty busy..





Marisa took this photo of me hovering at the surface over some divers…



In some sections there is a bit of ambient light..and in others it is pitch black. Very cool..



The stalactites pour from the ceiling and into the water..



Some areas the head clearance is a few inches (for snorkelers)..and some areas there is no clearance at all..



The route necked down to some pretty tight spots. I had to wiggle to get through there..



Felipe was our guide..



The exit from the first “eye” of the Ojos.. In fact, you can transit to the next cenote since they are connected, but the guide said it was an underwater swim of 45 meters.



Divers negotiating the passages..



Low bridges..



The shafts of light entering from holes in the roof gave an ethereal feel to the place..



Uh..ok..that thing isn’t holding the roof up I hope??



More divers..



This guide was pissed at his clients for kicking up so much silt off the bottom. He reamed them out with hand signals..hehe..



The second cenote was already filling up with SCUBA divers. Thankfully we were leaving as most of them were arriving…



Bats cling to the ceiling of the cavern…



The view a Great White has of breakfast…



The centote tour was awesome. The pictures don’t do it justice and I highly recommend it if you get down to Mexico..

Our anniversary night..



An appropriately half moon over Half Moon Bay…



This afternoon I did some snorkeling out in front of the condo..



Trunkfish..



Big conch with his eye stalks checking me out..



As I was futzing with my camera the resident big Barracuda came through to eyeball me.. No doubt..it is HIS bay..



Puffer…



Another Trunkfish..



Had another great day.. Hope the weather stays calm for tomorrow!

Our final full day in Mexico (boo!)..

Water and sky..



The Guardian of the Reef cruised by us this morning, then parked himself about 10 feet away and gave us a few minutes of toothy smile..





Little turtle..



Can you spot the guy that doesn’t fit in with the Blue Tang school?



Can you see the Peacock Flounder?



A nice size Grouper was hanging out under this formation, but was too elusive to get a good photo…



Parrotfish..



The fans and coral have made a great recovery in Half Moon Bay compared to after the hurricane a few years back..





It was near dead calm this morning with excellent conditions for snorkeling..



A large Needle Fish not on the surface for once..



The ever elusive Squirrel Fish..



Coral polyps..



Caught this fella walking across the bottom..





Father’s Day photo..



Daddy diving to get a photo of the flounder..



Mommy..



Post snorkeling fare…



Went night snorkeling last night..spooky as ever..Caribbean lobster..



Cont..

We saw a record five octopus (octopi??) last night. They are just so awesome..the colors and mannerisms are just too cool..





It is so pitch black under there..and you only have this small dinner plate beam of light you are sweeping around and you never know what it is going to reveal.. Very scary stuff..



Octopus on the move..



Back up at the condo this 3 inch long moth. Looks like the next version of the stealth bomber..



And an unwanted critter on my neoprene booty..that would suck putting that on without shaking it out!



Well, the last day and night came and went. We had such an awesome time..I can't believe it passed by so quickly!! The last few photos..

I'd like to title this photo "Paradise Lost". Now..I'm not usually one to pick on people too much..but this idiot was out walking all over the reef. I mean..the whole area out there is covered with budding coral, delicate sponges, and every time you put your foot down you smoosh something or break it and it can take years for this stuff to grow back. Clyde here was tramping all over the place and when he'd see something he'd lumber down in the water, put his mask on and look at it. He was too lazy to swim. I was hoping and praying he'd step on a sea urchin or a stingray or something..



We dipped Kai in the ocean for the first time. He seemed to like his inflatable pool a bit better. This was on the designated ramp to walk down to the reef in front of the condo..



My beautiful wife on our anniversary night. The thing that strikes me about this photo is that I have pictures of her when she was 20 years old..and I swear she looks exactly the same. Must be nice..



A massive thunderstorm stealing the last of the day's rays.. Beautiful to behold from the ground!



Little Kai slumbering in the Baby Bjorn.. LOL..that just does not look that comfortable..but apparently he digs it..



Finally we had to leave and headed for the airport. Kai dug the LEDs on the bottom of one of the novelty glasses at the airport restaurant..



Future airline pilot (for Northwest Airlines)..



One of the perks of traveling with a small child..getting loaded onto the airplane first!



See you next time Mexico!!



Kai is in a good mood upon arriving in Charlotte..



What a great trip. Thanks to Nana and my Aunt for coming along with us and watching our little boy for us. What great memories and we can't wait for the next trip!

BeachAV8R

Heartwarming!

Thanks for sharing with us, and pass along our thanks to your wife for letting us share in your adventure.