i'm no sucker

the rest of our trip went by pretty quickly.  on our last full day, we took one last trip into town for this:

yup, we did the "swimming with dolphins" encounter.  and unfortunately i have zero photos to share because they made everyone leave all of their belongings in locker during the experience.  not that there weren't photos taken, because there were - by their photographers, and with a pretty hefty $300 price tag for the pictures and video.  while i'm usually an easy target for souvenir photos, even i couldn't justify paying that much - especially on top of what we had already coughed up for the outing.  oh well.

the next day, we got all of our stuff packed back into our suitcases and took one last golf cart up the hill to check out of the resort.

and then one last meal (and caramel latte!) in the marketplace.

we took a cab to the airport, where we were relieved to find that the widely-reported travel delays weren't affecting our flight home.  we boarded our plane and were up in the air right on time.

and just a little over two hours later, we landed at LAX.

as we battled traffic on our way home from the airport, we passed a brush fire that had obviously just started and was spreading fast.  eek.

at least teddy and cocoa were pretty excited to welcome us home.

and that wrapped up our big summer trip for 2022.  

enjoying our freebies

the next morning, the hub headed off for his free round of golf while the bean and i caught a shuttle that took us down to the spa.  i had a massage booked while the bean went in for a teen facial, and it was lovely and relaxing.

after our treatments, we headed over to the marketplace for a little treat.  for once, the line for the housemade ice cream wasn't a mile long and we finally got to try it.

it was worth the wait.  and then afterwards, we went back to our room to change into swimsuits and hit the pool that was practically right outside our door.

we met up with the hub a little later and got ourselves ready to go out for dinner.  this time, we headed to the esperanza for our reservation at cocina del mar.

it was a really nice resort, and they even had a cigar roller right outside the entrance to the restaurant.

we enjoyed our dinner, and the servers were friendly and attentive.

it also happened to be the fourth of july, and our dessert was fun and festive.

there was a fireworks show at the beach later in the evening for the occasion.

we even got a nice family picture.

oh, these two.

and that's how we spent our fourth of july.

the coconut shrimp was FIRE

while having lunch in the marketplace one day, the hub ran into an acquaintance who also happened to be vacationing at our resort.  she and her daughters had just come from the spa at one of the sister properties and were heading out to town for some sort of excursion, and their activities had been comped because she had agreed to sit down and listen to one of the timeshare presentations by the very persistent sales staff at the resort.  we'd turned down quite a few of them who tried to get us to sign up for one such presentation, but the lure of a fairly pricey freebie (or two) finally got us.

somehow, we managed to get assigned to a sales person who was fully aware that we had zero interest in actually buying a timeshare and instead spent the hour just chatting with us.  he covered all of the required information and took us on a tour of a couple of options, which was actually pretty painless and almost enjoyable.  and i gotta admit, the properties he showed us were really lovely.

not lovely enough to actually buy one, but at least we were entertained and didn't have to fight off a persistent, pushy sales pitch.  and at the end of it, we managed to walk away with vouchers for the spa plus a free round of golf for the hub.  we'd actually been given quite a few options - a boat ride to the famous arch, a sunset cruise, swimming with dolphins, ATV tours.  and while they all sounded interesting, we chose the activities that we'd been talking about since we got to cabo.

there was a free shuttle that would take us to the two sister properties, but by the time we got to the station all of the spots were taken.  and so instead we hopped into a cab and went to check out the pueblo bonito los cabos and pueblo bonito rose resorts.  

they were setting up for a wedding:

using the concierge at the rose, the hub booked us on one of the sightseeing boats that would take us over to the arch - because if you don't visit the arch, did you even cabo?

we boarded the boat along with about ten other people, and we were amused to see that the "glass bottom" consisted of a small framed rectangle of glass that also housed the extra life jackets.

still, it was a fun little ride with pretty views and a lovely ocean breeze that we all enjoyed.

and then when the ride was over, we headed over to the office for some snacks - burrata salad, coconut shrimp, shrimp cocktail.

all in all, a pretty good day.