Sometimes you come upon something so cool you just have to have it yourself - something as simple as a roof made out of thatch, yet on a scale so grand it would be impossible to reproduce.  Yet you need to somehow bring this style home with you.

One of the Palace Resorts in Cancun, Mexico.

Then you see it in a much smaller scale, but it still has the same effect.  Now you can look at the style more closely and see how they do it.  How can I reproduce this effect at my pool?

Same resort

Hmmm, islands in the pool with palm trees?  That looks really cool.....  yeah right.  Impossible for Pennsylvania, right?

Another cool idea - the bar right up to the pool with barstools actually in the pool!  That would be tough with a vinyl liner!

A different resort in Cancun, Mexico.

Look carefully at how the pros do it.  There are your main structural vertical beams from the ground up, then there are the main weight bearing horizontals which have to be huge to handle the load.  Then you have the diagonal (or in this case almost vertical) beams which create the structure shell up to more main horizontals up top which help hold the shell together up top.  Then you have the really small horizontal sticks that actually hold the thatch.  It's a pretty simple concept, but not necessarily easy.  This one is MASSIVE!

Moon Palace Resort in Cancun, Mexico.

This one was very large, but getting closer to the size I would be interested in.  I also wanted this more rounder, cone shape, but decided against it because it was more difficult to build.  Also, it wouldn't have mated up against my flat shed as well.