Last week, I lived the (insanely) good life in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. There is, quite simply, no other way to put it.

Earlier this year, one of my best friends, Elizabeth, asked if I had any interest in a trip to Cabo, Mexico to celebrate her 30th birthday.

Elizabeth and I are friends from college and, through the years, have kept up a long-distance friendship that includes visits to each other’s cities but also big trips to explore the world around us. We’d been brainstorming ways to ring in our 30s – maybe with a trip to Costa Rica? – but hadn’t landed on anything that felt exactly right.

When she called and explained the situation – a friend in Minneapolis, WL, was also turning 30 and lucked into a sweet deal on 2 condos at the Pueblo Bonito Resort at Sunset Beach and we’d only need to cover our airfare – Sold! I was in. A quick search secured me a $400 plane ticket and we were booked.

There were 9 of us in total throughout the week and it’s impossible to succulently recap the trip – from the first class upgrade on our MSP>SJD flight (thanks, WL!) to the incredibly beautiful resort to lazy days spent in a beach cabana drinking margaritas to playing in ocean waves, it was all so dreamy.

We ventured into town a couple of days – once for Elizabeth’s birthday dinner, once to spend the day at the sister resort, walk around the town looking for local shops and dinning on non-resort food. (Insider’s tip: Cabo’s downtown caters to the tourists on vacation so there was less local shopping than we’d hoped but it’s still worth wandering around.) We tossed out our watches and lived a relaxed life, (mostly) disconnected from the ‘real world’.

We watched sting rays jump out of the water making their way up the shore in the evening light; we walked through a beautiful cactus garden, taking millions of photos. We ate avocados for breakfast, tacos for dinners and spoke a teeny bit of Spanish we knew whenever possible. The 7 days flew by in an instant and I can’t believe I’m already back home in Pittsburgh, nursing the last bit of sunburn on my back.

Lazy beach vacations are not my typical choice for spending free time but, damn, did it feel good last week! It was a perfect celebration a new year, a new decade and a great friendship. Truthfully, I’d never considered a trip to Mexico before but Cabo is definitely on my radar for a future long weekend beach getaway.