Celebrating Another Wonderful Year!!

Another year has sped by, making an occasion for a fun birthday celebrated with dear friends and family in a beautiful, warm place. I'm a very lucky woman!

We were all together last year on my birthday here in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico, except for Ian. One of my best presents has been spending time with him here the last 2 months.

Ahhhh, the beach.... nothing better than reading, swimming and hanging out.

We very much enjoyed Susan and Scott's visit with us here in Mexico, and we celebrated Scott's and my birthdays, many special people are born in February...I can back this up with the Presidents Birthday holidays, no other month has that claim :-)

Susan and Scott brought vegan chocolate from their home in Maine, delicious!!!

 At night we walked to the local watering holes searching for live music so Scott could play his harmonica with the band of the evening. What a fun time that was, dancing and general good spirits, plus I had a willing subject for portraits! 

Karaoke is Monday nights, and worked out well, very entertaining, as long as I didn't sing.

Our first night out it was kinda cool, as the clubs are pretty much outside, but this place was prepared with blankets they gave to everyone for the evening.

Another view of our beach.

We eat most all our meals outside, at home and when we go out to dinner.

Hors d'oeuvres and cocktails.

Birthday lunch...

Where Joe surprised me by arranging these singers to serenade me at our table, quite the pair!!

I help Ian learn how to drive a stick shift, on my birthday... he figured it out quickly, but not much practice on hills here, it's pretty much flat country. He's making a fuss because I wanted to document it with a photo, I got my photo, and it makes me smile!

Thanks Susie, for sending me this oldie for my birthday!! Great memories of birthdays past, this one was when I turned 40, a few years ago, ha ha, great fun we had then, too!!

Ian, Alex, Luke and Maegan in Puerto Aventuras

Earlier in January we had the pleasure of hosting some of our son Ian's friends. Alex, Ian's girlfriend, visited for about 10 days, after a four day delay getting here because of a snow storm in New England. Luke, Ian's long time friend from young birding days, visited with his girlfriend Maegan.  Lovely to have such fun young people around and they were good about me having my camera pointed at them!

Ian, Alex, Maegan and Luke

Perfect photo bomb by Ian

Pointing out a bird....

I really like this one of the two of them...

Portrait for Ian to use for online profiles, Flickr??? Handsome, isn't he?? :-)

Ian is now 22 years old, and just completed his degree in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at UMass Amherst in December. He'll be working in Alaska this summer for Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences partnering with the US Fish and Wildlife Service on Shorebird Breeding Ecology at the Canning River Delta in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Try saying that really fast....

The 4 of us went to the ruins in Tulum and out to lunch. Photo taken by a nice stranger with Joe's camera.

Enjoying a moment.

Ian and Alex had a good time snorkeling and birding together.

All 4 in the ocean.

Ian and Alex on the beach at sunset.

Puerto Aventuras, The Pueblo

This morning I walked to the other side of the highway, to the pueblo. No condos or hotels here. I love the pueblo, it's a treasure trove of images of everyday life in Mexico.

The customer ahead of me at the tortilla shop is this young boy. He had his own money, and hopped on his bike heading home after he got his family's tortillas for the day.

Young boy heading home. 

A very nice Lincoln pick up truck hidden away, well, not so hidden...

All these photos were taken on my iPhone 5S and processed on my iPad using Snapseed and/or DistressedFX post processing apps. I didn't feel comfortable walking around with my larger DSLR, although it is perfectly safe.

A Wonderful 60th Happy Birthday!

Last week I entered a new decade, my 60's, and I was so happy to celebrate it in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico with my longtime friend Susan, her husband, Scott and my husband, Joe. We visited them on their vacation at our old condos, Villas Del Mar, while we are staying in Cancun for our last few weeks here in Mexico. That was a first visiting friends on vacation while we are on vacation... What a great time we had, lots of good photo ops as you can see by the too many photos. Just sayin'.... I'm a very lucky woman and count each birthday as a special gift!!

Having drinks at the jacuzzi bar with Susan and Scott at the Omni.  

All 4 of us with my iPhone by a nice estrangero.

 Just another day at the beach.

 Susan looking great! Vacation suits her :-)

 Sunset.

 Inside Susan and Scott's Condo.

 Their night time view.

Scott made some yummy fruity drinks with mango, coconut, pineapple and rum. Guacamole Joe making his signature Guac.

 Nice shot, Joe!

Happy to be 60!! 

The back of a can of Sol beer.

For breakfast the next morning we tried this pretty fruit. Don't know the name, I just like buying strange things to eat.  I don't think any of us will seek it out again :-)

 The next day we visited a nearby Cenote, a freshwater sink hole, one of many all over this part of the Yucatan. 

Joe getting his shot, a blog he will post in a few days.

 Click to view full size. This was a beautiful pool of water with lots of fish and caves, I loved it!!

 A young boy from Russia enjoying the fish, too.

 If you stay still in the water, these tiny fish will nibble at your skin, as in exfoliate it, feels odd but I liked it.

 The best swimming water ever!

This photographer was part of the Russian family swimming there, she has perfected a technique of keeping hold of her baby and getting the shot of the others in the water.

Ancient art carved into the stone.