Puerto Vallarta...take 1

Well, the time has come. My kids are quietly tucked in bed, my dear husband is sleeping over in France and I'm alone here on a Friday night. Party on.. :) My life is so exciting..I'm blogging on a Friday night!

Perhaps you don't care about the daily happenings of our vacation? Just don't keep reading then. I'm doing this mostly to document what we did, so when I eventually get around to scrapbooking this trip, I can look back and remember.

So...here goes:

It all really started on Sunday. I led worship that morning...sick...again. Haven't been sick since the last time I led worship...hmmm...seeing a trend? Anyways, quickly came home and finished packing, getting the house ready to go. My mom arrived to take care of the kids and we all had dinner together. Clint & I left for Seattle (we flew out of Sea-Tac b/c we used miles for our tickets and couldn't get seats out of PDX). Stayed at the Marriott (thank you Terry!). side note - I had a very small amount of vocal ability at this point. I could have sung bass, but at least something came out when I spoke.

Our flight left at 8:30am in the morning. We discussed that night at the hotel what time we should get up and get to the airport. The hotel shuttle only ran on the hour, every hour...seriously- that's lame. So, our choices were to leave the hotel (which was right by the airport) at 6am or 7am. My frequently traveling husband said that 7am would be fine. Trusting wife says (or more whispers at this point as the voice was quickly digressing) "whatever you think, honey". We set the alarm for 5:45am.

Sleep

Wake up at 5:45am..get in the shower..at which point dear husband says "I'm getting nervous about leaving as late as 7am. I think we should catch the 6am shuttle".

"IF ONLY I HAD A VOICE" was all I was thinking. I had A LOT to say in that moment as I'm soaking wet and need to be all ready and packed back up in less that 10 minutes. I made it in time..glasses on, wet hair, no makeup, but I came through for the man I love. I didn't make him late.

We get to the airport, check in, and see that our flight is already 1 hour late. I, once again, had SO MANY things to share with my wonderful husband as I stood there with wet hair, no makeup and glasses on. Oh, and I was hungry. See, we stayed at a Marriott that had a breakfast at it so we didn't have to pay to eat at the airport. Kinda missed the free breakfast in our haste to get to Sea-Tac to wait, lets see, that would be 3 hours at this point.

At this point, I got the giggles and thought this whole thing was really funny. Clint was so paranoid to get there on time, as I'm the typical artist and was fine with cutting it closer on time. We enjoyed a nice, leisurely breakfast (which tasted like cardboard), got some Starbucks and waiting for our plane. Finally boarded, arrived in San Francisco safely. Finished 1st book I took along.

We get off our plane, and wait to re board the same plane as this was a flight through to Puerto Vallarta. Next we're hearing that there is a seal that needs to be replaced on the landing gear and it would be a few minutes. 300 minutes later (5 hours) we were finally on our way to Mexico. Now, if I had a voice to speak with, I would have loved this time to just chat with Clint, people watch and comment, etc. But, I entered into a new world of silence and keeping my thoughts to myself. Just so you know..that's TOTALLY overrated! :)

We finally arrive in PV at 11pm. We were exhausted and hungry. Get to the resort and there is only the Sports Bar left that has food available. It was bad.

Tuesday AM - still no voice. Loving the heat, the humidity actually feels good for my cough. We laid by the pool and walked on the beach for most of the day. I took a nap and Clint ran. Finished 2nd book.

Wednesday AM - still no voice. Getting sicker. Huge cough...colorful things leaving my sinuses and mouth..thinking I'm not getting much better. Spent most of the day by the pool/beach. Finished 3rd & 4th books.

Thursday AM - still no voice - sick - bronchitis. Head to La Plaza (basically a mall) and buy a Z-Pack. You can get antibiotics over the counter in Mexico. Took the 1st two...noticed a difference in the voice already by the evening. Walked 3 miles back from the pharmacy on the beach b/c we were too cheap to pay for a taxi back. While walking something stabs my toe. The one next to the big toe. It is impaled in my toe until Clint gets it out. Hurts so bad I can hardly walk. The next morning, my toe was swollen twice the size of normal and it was red/purple and itched like crazy. I, still, have no idea what in tarnation I stepped on but it didn't like my toe, that's for sure. Clint realized at that point we probably should have taken our own physician on this trip! :~)

Friday: A little more voice today!! Still not going to do Karaoke in the evening but it is getting there. We ventured out of our little bubble at the RIU and go to downtown Puerto. Now, for most tourists, they take a taxi. This cost $20 each way. The bus cost $1.50 each way. Guess which one we took? That's right, we took the bus. It was CRAZY. There is really no system at all to how it works and I just found it funny. Had Starbucks, got my city mug (I collect them). We did the market thing, bartered some. I got some jewelry, some shirts for the boys, gifts for our moms, etc. Ate at an AMAZING restaurant called Pi Pi's (pronounced Pee Pee's :~). they make guacamole at your table fresh and it was so good. Their slogan is "Don't drink the water, drink the margaritas". We got back to the hotel, went to the pool, we both ran some miles, beach, nice steak dinner.

Okay..I'm getting tired of writing. I'll finish later. If you stuck this out, you are either bored, kinda nosy, or just really love me! :) I'll leave you with my favorite pic of the week.