Well, we are back, and this weekend I will upload all the photos and share with everyone. We had a really lovely, relaxing time, which is exactly what we both needed. Lots of lolling in the sun with drinks, dips in the ocean, and warm evening baths in our enormous tub – punctuated by some snorkeling, ocean kayaking, exploration of the town, and a visit to the ruins in Tulum. I read TWO BOOKS! Everything is Illuminated, finally, which made me laugh and cry; and The Fencing Master, which was just easy-breezy beach fare. Oh and some of Markings. David and I really reveled in each others' company and it was just really practically perfect.

I don't consider myself an "all-inclusive travel" kind of person – after years in the travel industry I'm pretty independent and generally like to be on the move – but I have to say it was better than I ever used to think those places are. When we booked it right after Christmas I was just so burnt out from work and the holidays and I could only concentrate on finding a sunny spot out of the US – past that I didn't really have the energy to do more. And honestly, the price could not be beat. So it really fit the bill for that moment. We didn't have to do anything but enjoy the sun and each other. I doubt we'll be taking a whole lot of these kind of vacations in our lives, but it was a fun stab at something new!

And now that we're back, I can start focusing on Egypt. Woo fucking hoo! Lots of Cairo, some Nile cruising, some pyramids… PETRA, I hope. We'll see what we can afford.

I can also start on my 101 things to do in 1001 days. There are some ongoing ones that I will talk about in other entries, but there are four that are specific to March. Those are as follows:

Bake our own bread for the month of March.

Pick up and shell whatever pecans are still left in the yard by March 15.

Track gym attendance and time for March to look for improvement areas.

Do not drink for the rest of the month.

Clearly I've gotten a late start on them, what will just getting back Monday and having a couple days of mad catch-up for work, but it's only the third so I think I can manage these. The baking bread one I'm very excited about because we've been talking about making that switch for a while. There might not be much left in the way of pecans at this stage so that will probably just take an hour or so. And the gym tracking and non-drinking need no explanation.

So wish me luck people. Trip planning, book reading, list check-off-ing…. when will I have time to work?

P.S. Thanks for the reading suggestions! David & I talked about implementing some of that now that we are back. I also really liked this article: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/morebooks