When it comes to vacation, I'm pretty agreeable. As long as I have the promise of sand, ocean and sun, I'm there. I'm not particular about the color of sand, or location of ocean. Either Pacific or Atlantic will do. The Mediterranean would work too.
Ok, I'm kidding. I'm not that much of a vacation brat and I think like most people I jump at the chance just to take one. I kid because in reality most of the vacations that I've ever taken have met the three previous mentioned criteria; and truth be told I do love the beach the best.
Patrick and I were so fortunate to go to
Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico for a week at the beginning of the month. Yes, a week without the boys. Our precious boys! I worried for weeks before we left about being away from them and them from us. I poured some of my nervous energy into the creation of a "folder" of information for the doting grandmas and grandpas to read when watching the boys. Worrying more about what I was leaving, I failed to spend much time thinking about where I was going. For weeks before we left I told everyone that we were going to "
Puerto Nuevo". I was appalled that our cell phone company didn't get service there and that I could never find the weather forecast on
weather.com. Just before we left I realized such a place does not exist. I knew the above mentioned criteria were met: sun, warm, beach, Mexico and that was enough for me. We couldn't go to
Puerto Nuevo, but we did go to
Nuevo Vallarta (which is a short drive from
Puerto Vallarta) and we had a great time there.
Sun? Check. Lots of sun and rarely a cloud. The temperatures were in the mid-80s every day. Never a drop of rain.
Sand? Check. Brownish
packy sand; perfect for building a sand castle. It had gold flecks in it that sparkled like glitter when the sun shone on it.
Ocean? The Pacific. The very warm Pacific.
Nuevo Vallarta is located on the west side of Mexico, and this was my first glimpse of the Pacific. Our resort was situated on the stretch of beach in the Bay of
Banderas. Mountains surrounded the bay on both sides. It was really beautiful. I had no idea that Mexico was so mountainous.
Our resort: The Grand
VelasTruly such a beautiful place. There was so much attention to detail. Everything was open-air. Large fish swam in ponds located in different places throughout the resort. Hibiscus blossoms sat in ashtrays. Small pink flower blossoms blew with the warm breezes through the hallways.
The open air lobby. Our bus dropped us off beneath the large grass thatch roof.
The view from the lobby looking out. Pond, pool, ocean.
I loved these purple flowers floating in the pond. They closed in the evening and opened in the afternoon.
Our view from the balcony of our suite.
The colors were so breathtaking. Especially in February and coming from cold, dreary, bleak central Illinois.
Our balcony. So comfy.
One of Patrick's favorite things to do was to walk out onto the balcony first thing in the morning and tell me that it was filling up by the pool. He quickly realized that the prospect of not having a poolside chair in direct sunlight was the biggest
stressor to me on vacation. Of course he was always kidding and we always had chairs, but it never failed to stress me out in the morning!
A view of part of the resort from our balcony (at sunset).
There was a boardwalk across the pool. The little grass hut in the background is a swim up bar (there are stools in the pool underwater). A snack bar with all-American favorites is right behind it. Some of our favorite poolside snacks - giant onion rings, the best chips, salsa and guacamole,
quesadillas and cheeseburgers. I couldn't stop myself.
What we did:
The short answer: Not much.
There was lots of relaxing. Lots of it.
The chairs at the pool, waiting for us in the morning. There were tiny pink blossoms tucked into the folded towels on each chair.
We found ourselves sitting in the same area of the pool every day. Total creatures of habit. This was the view from our chairs.
Patrick, not much of a sunbather, requested an umbrella the first day we were there. We got to know our waiters (the same people serviced the same areas every day), and they got to know Patrick. Every day he would sit down and one of them would come over with an umbrella for "Patricio" right away!
My beach chair.
Complete with book, sunscreen, drink and the infamous chips/salsa and
guac.
The chairs had little tables that slid out making it
extra easy to reach our food and drinks.
Patrick needed lots of breaks from what he considered the monotony of poolside laying, so we took lots of walks on the beach.
On Thursday we went on a bike tour around
Nuevo Vallarta.
I wish I had a scanner for the full effect, but if anyone remembers our honeymoon pictures there is one of me in full snorkel gear looking absolutely ridiculous (mostly because the mask covers and
smashes my face) while Patrick is posing without his and looking much better. Anyway, this helmet picture reminds me of that moment.
Patrick and Chris (our tour guide)
The tour group.
Melissa, Patrick, Me and Wayne
We went to a "zoo" and I got to hold a baby tiger!
The softest and most fluffy thing imaginable.
Poor Wayne on our tour did not have such an experience. The tigers mom, with growing anxiety about humans holding her baby, sprayed bystanders and got Wayne who was standing nearest the fence. (Henry loves this story
much more than he loves the one of me holding the baby tiger.)
There were live dancing shows at an ampitheatre at the resort. We went to this Latin dancing show after dinner one night.
We discovered this cute little gazebo on one of our walks down the beach. We were told the long structure going into the water is called a "jetty". The little gazebo at the end is the "On the Rocks Wedding Chapel".
Patrick and Me
Before walking down the jetty.
The view of the beach and ocean from the chapel.
We saw several pelicans and crabs on the rocks of the jetty.
There was gross brown "discharge" shooting from a pipe that went across the jetty and into the water.
Me at the chapel.
This really would be such a beautiful place to have an intimate wedding ceremony.
The food:
It was so delicious. There were three restaurants at the resort (French, Mexican and Italian) and 24-hour room service. Oh and a minibar and snack bar in our room that was restocked daily. Patrick and I raced for the peanut butter m&m's every day after the restock. My fave.
The pillow menu.
Yes a pillow menu. And look at all of the choices!
And yes, we did call and order a variety of pillows. Why not?! HA!
Every night, chocolates on the pillow and a room service door hanger for breakfast service. We ate breakfast in our room every morning. I loved that.
A "Buenas Noches" little rug with our slippers waiting for us.
Breakfast!
They wheeled in an entire table with our ordered food on it. Even when we ordered just ice-cream--an entire, white tablecloth topped table.
This french toast was seriously melt-in-your-mouth good.
Room service: Dessert!
The presentation of the food was so beautiful. And the food was equally tasty.
Patrick and Marcos
Marcos was the waiter who serviced the area of the pool where we sat. We enjoyed getting to know him. On our last day he surprised Patricio with this drink, in the pineapple! It was hilarious. He later told us that those are usually reserved for honeymooners. It was a tasty treat!
Patrick and Me
Before dinner.
My view of the Bay as our plane took off from Puerto Vallarta.
I feel so blessed that Patrick and I had the opportunity to take this vacation together. We had so much fun and loved spending seven relaxing days together. Henry and William loved being with their Papa and Grandma Bug (my Dad and Sandi) and Grandma and Grandpa Tractor. We're so thankful for them and felt blessed that our boys were in such loving hands.
