Birthday Week was a little different year. We spent the week childless, in bathing suits, relaxing in lounge chairs, surrounded by lush green palm trees, and spending time with dear friends. Yes, this is the view from our condo at Villa La Estancia in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. Breathtaking, right?
This trip is just what Matt and I needed. With Matt's new job consuming most of his time, we've barely had time to catch up. As soon as the kids were tucked in, I was pooped and had little energy to wait up for him. This trip rejuvinated us, and allowed us time to catch up and spend some quality time together.
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| This guy was crawling along behind me as I sat in my lounge chair at the pool |
Monday evening we took a cab into the small quaint town of Bucerias, right on Banderas Bay. The locals set up tables selling their wares in the courtyard just to the left of where we are taking this picture from. At the far end, booths lined the streets, with more vendors. This is where we picked up our souveniers. Luckily, many of them knew the US Dollar to Peso conversion and were able to give us accurate prices - which of course were negotiable. Thank goodness for Matt, because negotiating is not.my.thing. (Actually, Doug was the expert.)
The sunsets were the most beautiful I've ever seen. Our camera doesn't even come close to capturing the true magnificence of them.
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| Chiveros on the Beach...on.the.beach...literally. Our feet were in the sand. We enjoyed our dinner by candlelight once the sun set. |
Tuesday...my birthday! We spent the morning at the pool. Matt took this picture from our balcony. Sally, Doug, and I are the three people in the lounge chairs by the pool.
I was pleasantly surprised when our favorite pool butler, Juan Jose a.k.a. "JJ" and his buddies strolled up banging dishes and singing "Happy Birthday" to me. They had a piece of cheesecake with basil, yes basil, ice cream for me. We all wondered if basil ice cream is truly authentic Mexican or whether they just tossed some leftover basil into some vanilla ice cream and mixed it up :)
Then we headed out for a half day trip Whale Watching. On the plane, a woman sat next to us who visits Puerta Vallarta often and she recommended taking a whale watching trip. Our intial plan was not to leave the property and spend the entire week relaxing at the resort. But she really enticed us! Apparently, humpback whales make the trip from the waters of Alaska to Bandares Bay each year from December to March to mate and birth their young. I must admit, we were a little apprehensive when we saw the size of the boat we would be taking out into the Pacific...see it below! Yep, it's like a blow up raft!
This guy must've been really trying to impress a female, or us, because he continually performed for us! A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!
Then we went out to Mezzogiorno for an Italian dinner. Yes, even the Mexicans can cook Italian! Our food was delicious, but the view and company really made it extra special.
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| (And, yes, contrary to what the pictures portray we all wore sunscreen and reapplied regularly!) |
This was one of our favorite spots. This hot tub was right on the Bay and adjacent to a fire pit. We enjoyed a few fruity drinks in here, wathcing the sunset wondering how on Earth we could ever explain this to anyone.
The rest of the week we did more of the same...relaxing, reading, talking, swimming, walking, eating, repeat! WOW!
What a wonderful, wonderful trip!
This is definitely one birthday I will never forget!
July 2001 seems so long ago, yet at the same time seems only just a few short months ago. Time is a funny thing and is greatly subjective depending on so many factors. To a child a decade is an eternity, but as life progresses it somehow looses its longevity and we learn to cherish every moment. We make conscious efforts to commit moments in time to memory between life's hectic schedules and responsibilities and so we purposefully plan vacations for special occasions. Jenn is much better at this than I am and she is always stretching me to stay active and involved. I guess that makes us a good match in some ways as we balance each other out on occasion. However, this time, to celebrate 10 years of marriage, it was a mutual decision to plan a getaway. As a result, after careful consideration, much research and purposeful planning, we agreed on a few destinations. From there, it was decided that I would handle the rest. The last time I did this was ten ye
Our departure was on the 31st of July from JFK at 8am. Our arrival in Punta Cana was around 12pm and it gave us most of the afternoon to enjoy at the resort. While I sat in the airport, on the plane and in the shuttle to the report thinking of all the fun to be had soon, Jenn did not know where we were going and the secret lasted right up to the last moment. She only knew for sure when we pulled up to the entrance of Excellence Resort and received a glass of champagne and a wet, cool towel. From her reaction, I think I hit another home run with my planning.
The resort held up to its name and was "Super Excellent", as they say on property there whenever asked, "Como Estas"? While there are plenty of stories to be told and details to share, our happiest memories were of sitting on the beach or poolside doing nothing but lounging in the sun and reading. Everywhere you went you could hear the ocean waves and anywhere you sat a waiter would find you to serve you your favorite drink. It was a dream! 
When we were not swimming or reading, we were eating delicious meals or enjoying good music and evening entertainment. This night we ate at a place called The Lobster House and both ate surf and turf poolside and oceanside. What a view!
Another restaurant that had some of the best food was the French Restaurant called Chez Isabelle. 
One night we ate out and wore our annual anniversary outfits, which has been a tradition of ours each year. We each buy each other an outfit and wear it out to dinner. Here's this year's picks:
One morning, we saw a few men clearing the grounds and gathering coconuts from the trees, which they used to make drinks in at the bars. Jenn went to see them working and one man kindly began carving the top of a coconut, handed a bite-size piece to Jenn to eat and gave her the final product of his design to consume. It was fresh coconut juice. MMMMM.
We went to the SPA and enjoyed a couples massage and facial that included hydrotherapy and other things I can't explain, but that was my first experience with any SPA treatment. Very interesting indeed.
