Puerta Vallarta

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.

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.

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.

(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!