Coming from a small town, not having traveled much, I had made up in my mind that there would not be much for our family of six to do out and around the town of Cancun away from the protection of the hotel. I had decided that we would stick to the planned activities at the resort we were staying at and that we would mostly swim and play in the ocean since these are our favorite family activities anyway. However, shortly after arriving at our Resort I changed my mind as I felt safe and more secure in my ability to get around on the bus system and with the help of a few taxi drivers. Our Concierge was also most helpful as we chose the right activities for our family to participate in. Soon we were out and about in the town of Cancun.
A Story of Transformation written in a Digital Scrapbooking Album!
I wanted to tell the story of how I transformed from being a less experienced and less confident traveler to one that could venture out and get out of the shadows of the resort to explore a foreign city. I wanted to scrap with photos the experience but I really wanted to write about the transition I experienced too!
I needed a different type of digital scrapbooking page – one that had a large portion that I could write my story on like below. The Journaling Pages Kit made it easy for me to write my transformation story and add some photos too! I liked this particular kit as you can align two page 12×12” scrap pages together to make an album that the pages open up to share the focus!
(This Digital Scrapbooking Page can hold my lengthy story about how I broke out of my comfort zone and explored in a foreign country. Sometimes a scrapbooking page needs more than photos … it needs the WORDS too!)
I continue with my my journaling adventure and wrote ……
At first I was very nervous about how we would get around and if it was safe, especially at night, for us to be out exploring the City. The night we arrived I conquered that fear. We rode the city bus to Wal-Mart to buy groceries. We had heard that it would be safe, but it was 11:00 pm and I was unsure. This turned out to be a most memorable experience. It was only $4 for the six of us to ride the 25 minutes to get there. On the way, a boy, about 12 years old, got on the bus with his dad and they sang along to the guitar for a good portion of the ride. They passed a hat in which they were given tips and then they left the bus. It was so much fun to see this part of their culture and it was really entertaining. The prices at Wal-Mart were even lower than they are in the states and we didn’t have any problem finding what we needed. It was interesting how they have open air bakeries with so many choices. They also had a food court there, with a McDonalds, which the kids were very happy about. When the shopping was done we took a taxi back so that we didn’t have to carry our groceries from the bus stop to the resort. It only cost us $15 for the two taxies that it took to get us all back. It’s strange how the simplest things in life can be so much fun.
(Continuing the journaling on each digital scrapbooking page, creates a whole album and a complete story of the transformation, and gives the viewer of the digital scrapbooking page an opportunity to experience the event through the story.)
I continue adding new digital scrapbooking pages and telling the story about our adventure ……
We did spend many late nights swimming in the pools and enjoying watching the moon rise over the ocean. The pools there are open 24 hours though the beach closed to swimmers at 7 pm. We enjoyed moon lit walks on the beach and felt perfectly safe. We did stay on resort beaches at night where we knew that there was always security close by. I do recommend bug spray! The last night that we were there they had security guards posted all over the beach because the Sea Turtles were coming in and laying eggs on the beaches. These eggs are protected by law. We even saw some of the turtles out in the clear water one night as we watched the waves roll in under the moon lit sky.
(I put my digital scrapbooking journaling page into Photoshop Elements and wrote my story word by word!)
I continue with my my journaling and wrote ……
One night we decided to go out as a couple with my husbands parents who were also there. We made reservations at the La Sical Hacienda which was next to our resort. We were treated to an excellent night of a Mariachi Band performance as well as a Carribean dance show. I loved their costumes. The all you can eat buffet was delightful as we were able to try out so many different foods and desserts.
Another night we ate at the Captains Cove, also only a walk away from the resort. This was a high end restaurant which the meals ranged from 225 pesos to 900 pesos. My two older children realized that this was quite a nice restaurant when we entered and saw the wine glasses and fine china and linen on the table. When they opened the menu I saw them whispering to each other and it seemed like they were upset. I was further intrigued when they said that because my 15 year old boy was not hungry that they would simply share a salad. It took a few minutes of digging deeper to find out that they had both mistaken the 225 pesos for $225 for the least expensive meal. They thought that we were probably in over our heads at $225 a plate, which by the way is only about $20 when converting pesos into dollars. The meals were really wonderful. We were however disappointed to find out the next day that had we sat out on the deck, we would have been able to see the alligators come up around the deck to be fed as they do every night. That is one thing that we will do next time.
(When you take digital scrapbooking pages that have places to journal it is fast and easy to make quick digital scrapbooking journal pages, just add your photos and story!)
I continue with my my journaling adventure and wrote more ……
We spent a lovely day at Xcaret, a wildlife reserve. We hired a private driver to take all eight of us and spend the day there with us so that we would have food and drink and would be able to come and go as we pleased. This was probably our most expensive transportation fee at $120 for the whole day. We did give him a nice tip. It was worth having our driver there because the night show ended at about 10 pm and we were so glad that we didn’t have to go find our bus and have to stop at a lot of different resorts on the way back to ours. The night show at Xcaret was one in a million. They had wonderful live music, dancers, and even a live game of some sort of soccer with a burning ball. It was fascinating hearing Mexico’s story of the Aztec and Mayan people coming together right down through the history of Cortez and on to current Mexico. The costumes were incredible as was the entire program. This was definitely a family favorite.
I know that the night life for those looking for a little more excitement than we were is also great. I heard a lot of the older kids talking about the night clubs and that type of entertainment and they were all having a great time.
For most of our kids I think that their favorite night adventure was the night that we went on the Pirate Ship Dinner Cruise. We arrived early in the evening to the docks where there were two Pirate Ships and crew waiting. The crew was around taking pictures with people and entertaining us as we waited to board. We were in for a night of all you could eat food and drink as well as all the entertainment you could take. The crew was so friendly ( in a pirate sort of way). They had group activities and games for everyone but especially the kids.
They did some adult games at which time they took all the children on a Treasure Hunt around the ship. The kids came back with a bag of candy and balloon swords. Eventually the ship we were on attacked the other ship full of people and they had a fight between the two ships. The kids loved this, of course our ship won. At the end of the night we all spent a good hour of dancing and laughing together as a group. It was great fun. This sums up our time in Cancun.
Now that my story has ended and I have grown from being afraid to venture out to a more experienced traveler. One that knows how fun it is to try new things… I will finish my journaling and digital scrapbooking then I will send my story and digital scrapbooking pages to be printed into a Digital Scrapbooking Album!
Thanks for following along as I have shared my story and shown how it all fits together in more than just a digital scrapbooking page that has photos of a trip! By sharing my story, I as well as any other reader, will see how much personal growth I was blessed with from this new experience too! Just another great way to use digital scrapbooking!
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When you digitally scrap include all those great photos but remember to tell your story too!
Denise
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If you like this kit I use to make my journal scrapbooking pages you can get it at our Scrap Shop – check it out
Please see our Scrap Shop for additional training such as the Getting Started Series for Digital Scrapbooking for Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.
Or other more Advanced Training or Photo Editing Tutorials!
