Happy Thanksgiving from Tulum!

Today was our first full day at Casa Canciones, the awesome house we rented in Tulum.

Here it is!  We rented the top floor, and no one was downstairs so we had the whole place to ourselves!  It was awesome.

Details of the house, including a tree full of coconuts!

Eric decided to take a kayak (came with the house too!) out for a ride while I hammock napped.  He's so sporty!

There was a reef right out in front of the house!

A little preview of what's to come...

Here's Eric paddling back.  It was really shallow and warm all the way out to the surf in the distance.  So fun!

Enjoying hammocks on he beach.  Eric said he wants to replace our bed with hammocks.  I don't know about that plan, but this sure was nice.

Soliman Bay, complete with tours in English!

The beach.  Ahhhh.

These are some migratory birds we saw in the mangroves by the side of the road.  Neat.

In the late afternoon we headed into town to see the Mayan ruins at Tulum and to find a turkey dinner.  The ruins were beatiful set against the Sea.

Ruined building.  The time of day had excellent light for pictures.  That plus Eric's excellent eye made for some really nice photos.

One of the main temples.

Here's a watch tower.  Apparently the Mayans used this site to keep watch for approaching boats and such.  They'd have an excellent view from here.

Here we are, with a tiny ruin over Eric's shoulder!

This palace had a creepy bird on top.  Stop watching us bird!

This one had two devil birds!  Stop plotting!!

Montage of Tulum sites.

The buildings here were all painted red and white in their prime.  This one still had some carvings with some red pigment.  Pretty cool.

After our trip to the ruins, it promptly got dark at 5:30, as it does out on the Yucatan (they really should be in the Eastern time zone), and we headed down the Tulum beach road to find Hartwood, a restaurant owned by an American expat couple that I read about in Bon Appetit.  I was 100% sure they would be serving turkey, and turns out...I was right!  It was an amazing meal, and we even ate the sweet potatoes, which is shocking I know, but they were so good...

After we got settled in and ordered, Busy Philipps and her family came in...and we had dinner in the same restaurant as her again!  She has excellent taste, clearly.  This time Eric even talked to her.  Here's what happened:

Eric was standing outside the bathroom waiting for someone to bring him some water to wash his hands, as they had just run out of water in the bathroom...as they do sometimes.  Busy walks in, then out confused...

Eric: They're out of water.

Busy: Ohhh, I thought I was crazy! 

Eric: Nope, just out of water...by the way, sorry to bother you, but I love your show.

Busy: Don't be sorry!  I NEED IT!

The end.  Then all went their separate way to enjoy some insanely good Thanksgiving dinner.  Thank you to Hartwood for making turkey, and helping the rest of us feel a little bit like we were back home.