Mexico - Part 2

Downtown Puerto Vallarta
Downtown was by far my favorite part of Puerto Vallarta, most specifically, the Malecon. The Malecon is a boardwalk like walkway that borders the bay. Everytime we walked the Malecon it was a completely different experience. Some days it was filled with families, other days art lined the street, and of course there was always plenty to see. In addition, there are sculptures that line the Malecon and visitors are free to climb on them, sit on them, whatever.


Of course there is also plenty of shopping downtown. We hit up both the touristy shops as well as the mercados - merchants in stalls. We picked up a molcajete for me to make my guac in as well as some cigars for Jon. (He only smokes on special occasions) He picked up a Mexican cigar Alex had recommended the night before, as well as a cuban.


As we were walking around, it began to rain. We saw a bar called Los Palomas and decided it was a good omen. We headed in to seek refuge. The rain here doesn't last very long, but it was long enough for us to have a couple of tequilas. I had read that THE way to do tequila is paired with a shot of sangrita, so Jon and I ordered tequila con sangrita. Sangrita is a spicy juice (orange, tomatoes, and chilies) which cleanses the palette between sips of tequila. We really enjoyed the experience, and picked up some sangrita to take home. Jon enjoyed his Mexican cigar and we were out on the street again. After exhausting ourselves, we headed back to the hotel for dinner at The Paradise. Dinner wasn't as good as Salvadors, but it was still pretty good. AND we ordered sexy coffee with dessert. This was sooo much fun. The coffee is made table side and its quite the fire show as alcohol and cinnamon are lit on fire and spun, poured, and finally combined and topped with whipped cream and a cherry. It was warm, spicy, and alcoholic - delicious.









Snorkeling
We signed up for a snorkeling tour through Vallarta Adventures. We began with a 30 min. boat ride out to the Marietas Islands. This group of 3 islands is really the tops of 3 underwater mountains. Pretty cool huh? The snorkeling was great! I don't have pictures yet, because we haven't developed our underwater cameras, but we saw an octopus, eels, and tons of fish. It was very cool. The water was soooo clear! Jon even got to jump off the boat - which always makes him happy. After we were snorkeled out, we had lunch on the boat. Nothing fancy, but still it was so filling! And then we were off again, this time to a private beach by Punta Mita. The beach was really gorgeous, it backed against a wall of green hills, and the water was turquoise blue. The sand was white. We lounged in the water, before Jon started playing football with the other guys and I headed to the shore for some sun. It was soo perfect! When we got back we had dinner over at the sister property again at the French restaurant. It was also pretty good, and they have a "no kids under 8" rule, so that was nice too.


More adventures to come in Part 3!

A new addition

It is my sincere pleasure to introduce to you the newest member of our happy home. Meet Ringo. Ringo is a lab/shepherd mix we brought home from the shelter today. We're not sure his age, but peg him around 10 months. Here's what we ARE sure about.









1) This is a mellow boy. He hasn't barked once since we met him. We first saw him in his cage sitting quietly while the dog beside him was barking like crazy. He began poking his nose through the bars as soon as he saw us and began licking our fingers as soon as they were presented to him.









2) This is a sweet boy. Aside from the kisses at the shelter he is very people oriented. He already recognizes me and Jon and likes to be in the same room as us. He continues to "check in" with me after playing for a few minutes. He is full of love and kisses and puppy eyes.









3) This is a smart boy. He's already learned where the water is, and Bebe taught him how to get in and out of the car. He's also figured out that if he wants something, he has to keep it in his mouth or it becomes Bebe's.










4) This is a friendly boy. He gets along GREAT with Bebe. He adores her. And he plays so well with her. Its really cute to watch the two of them together. He chases her, she chases him, he follows her all over the house. She kisses him, he kisses her. I call it puppy love, then again, he's got us all smitten.

Mexico - Part I

Jon and I arrived in Puerto Vallarta without much trouble, grabbed our bags and headed for the taxi. Even that was easy. We arrived at the Golden Crown Paradise, an Adults Only, All Inclusive resort. While we waited to be checked in, we were given a cool towel and juice to drink. And a good thing too, because Puerto Vallarta is HOT! Hot and muggy and sticky. Although, it wasn't long before I really began to enjoy the heat. There's something very sexy about humidity.

We checked into our gorgeous room that overlooked both the pool and the ocean - from BOTH our balconies. Then we decided to go for a walk. We walked up and down the beach, exploring our property and the sister resort next door for families. Because we were at the Adults Only, we had access to both resorts, even though the families did not have access to ours. So there suckers! Although Jon was very jealous of the waterslides they had for the kids.....We dined at the buffet at the family resort and were less than impressed. "Ah well" we thought. "Who cares if the food isn't good, its free and there's plenty of it!" And to ensure we kept this attitude we headed to the bar. Here we met Victor, our bartender for the trip. He poured us some heavy shots of El Jimador tequila and kept them flowing. We also met Alex and Luis, who are from Guadalajara and were in Puerto Vallarta for a boys golf trip. They invited us to join them the next night back at the bar for some Mexican moonshine, Jon quickly agreed. We drank some more tequila and beer before heading back to our rooms for the night.

We spent the entire next day lying by the pool and reading. The hotel would definitely be great for spring breakers because every hour there is some crazy activity like tequila volleyball, or the sun dance. Jon and I didn't participate, but it was fun to watch. We headed back to the bar where Victor introduced us to "Palomas" which are grapefruit juice, tequila, and lime juice. Way better than Margaritas. We met Jason and Jessica who were married the night before and on their honeymoon.

We also met up with Alex and Luis for some racilla (that moonshine I told you about). We were having such a good time we almost missed our dinner reservations. But its a good thing we didn't because the food at Salvadors was incredible. The minute we bit into the rolls, Jon and I changed our mind about the food! We savored every course and vowed to stop being so judgmental. We were still talking about what a great day we had all the way back to the room.

More to come, I promise.

Our Katie

I know you're all dying to hear about Mexico, and promise to devote a whole heck of a lot of space to the amazing trip we had, but first I MUST fill you in on THE WEDDING OF THE YEAR.

Although she is now Kam's wife, she will forever be our Katie. Our Katie was married yesterday, and I do mean yesterday - her tea ceremony started at 10 in the morning and when Jon and I snuck out last night around 10:30 (or 12:30 Puerto Vallarta time) the party was still going strong.

The Dress-es
Our Katie is drop dead gorgeous. I told Jon to remind me not to make any more beautiful friends, from now on, all new acquaintances must be twisted mutants. Although we missed the first two dresses she wore, we got to see two dresses last night. The first, the princess gown every little girl dreams of. The second was a more figure hugging gown. Both were glamorous and fabulous and of course, made our Katie look like the princess she was.

The Ceremony
The ceremony was outside in a courtyard. Orchids hung from an arch at the front and were strewn across the aisle. Parasols lined the aisles and were set up on a table at the back of the ceremony. My partner in crime Kim and I quickly ditched our husbands, grabbed some parasols and went to sit down. We watched in horror as guests trampled the aisle and took parasols from the aisle instead of from the table in back. We're a little protective of Our Katie. True to form, Our Katie was quite the little talker during the ceremony. It was a good thing she wasn't miked as her and Kam were in their own little world, having a conversation throughout the ceremony - talking, laughing, and the highlight was the 5 minutes she spent fixing his hair. After they were pronounced man and wife, Our Katie turned and with a "Let's Party" headed down the aisle. Kim's husband and Jon tried to convince us we had to return our parasols. I had to explain to Jon that NO ONE knows weddings better than Kim and I and the parasols were ours to keep. Jon wasn't convinced, he made me ask Our Katie who insisted we should take as many parasols as we wanted.



Cocktail Hour
Some people claim to have a "lounge" for guests. In fact, this is quite the topic brought up by my group of friends when we want a good laugh. Our Katie knew how to host a lounge. First there were mahjong tables set up for guests to entertain themselves with. Second there was great food - egg rolls, won tons, and various other dim sum type snackers. Third, there was an open bar. What's not to love.




The Food
Believe it or not, I forgot to take food pictures. I blame it on the fact that it was dark. But really, the food was incredible. We had shark fin soup, duck, honey walnut shrimp, lobster, fried rice....excellent. We all ate till we were too full for words. And just when you thought it couldn't get any better, they brought out the white chocolate fondue fountain.


The Reception
White paper laterns hung from the ceiling. A gobo with their monogram spread across the floor. White orchids were on every table, along with a questionnaire for guests to fill out their favorite memories of Our Katie and Kam, guess their children's names, etc. etc. etc. The guests flowed in. It seemed as though most of the guests loved Our Katie as much as we did. Her cousins each sang a song with the band, their Buddhist friends put on quite the dance routine which involved lifts, spins, acrobatics, and ribbons, her maid of honor played a tape of 6 year old Katie singing. Our Katie, ever the gracious host, and loving to be the center of attention, spent a lot of time on the mike thanking everyone and entertaining.







I had heard rumors of "table thefts" before, but this was the first time I experienced it. The table behind us was trying to take as many centerpieces as humanly possible. For the 3 couples, they took 6 centerpieces and they were eying ours. We had to leave a chaperone at the table at all times to ensure they didn't take it. Not that we wanted the centerpiece, we just didn't want them to take any more. What kills me is, I don't even think they're from this area and you KNOW they can't bring plants on a plane between states.





Happy Happy Marriage Katie and Kam!