Archive Vacation Slide show

This is a slide show of our vacation pictures to the Nora Jones song Come Away with Me. I might make it my new theme song! Brian is really getting quite creative when it comes to photography. Hope you enjoy.
Click here to view the slide show.

Some stories from our trip:
Besides walking on the beach and enjoying drinks and food, we took a day trip into the town of Puerto Vallarta. The night prior to our trip we asked the lobby bartender where we should eat lunch in the downtown area. The bartender whom we had seen a few nights already and Brian had fast befriended gets really excited, pulls out a city guide, and flips to his recommendation. According to Luis, the best place to eat in Puerto Vallarta Mexico was Outback Steakhouse. Not exactly the authentic Mexican we had in mind, but we got another recommendation from him and enjoyed our day trip. It was certainly ironic as we were on vacation to do things we couldn't do at home. I'm sure though Hunter might agree with the bartender's recommendation.

The downtown itself was very nice and we walked along the beach and boardwalk where there were older resorts, restaurants, a market, and touristy shops. The center of the town is a square with a large church in the center. It was interesting as there were tattoo parlors and advertisements for happy hour surrounding the church on all sides. There was an elderly women begging in front of the church as tourists passed by on a guided tour. It was kind of eerie actually. We bought a rosary from the church as a souvenir that I zipped in my bag, but by the time we returned to the hotel we had lost it or something happened to it. I honestly, don't know.

The rosary might have done the trick however, on the way back to the hotel . The cab driver on the return trip was the Mexican Mario Andretti. He was driving through the narrow crowded streets of downtown at like 60 mph. Let's just say it was our excursion for the trip. Who needs to rent a wave runner or do a zip-line tour through the jungle, when you get to race through the city like we did. He was using medians, curbs, honking, and all the while the song I Will Survive was playing on his radio. Luckily we did.

Another of our (or at least my) favorite activities was afternoon Volleyball. As you know Brian and I are competitive, but it is also nice to get up and move a bit on your vacation, meet other people, and enjoy the beach. Brian is actually a very good Volleyball player. His passing skills could use some work, but he has exceptional "net presence", instincts as to what moves to make on tough plays close to the net. Whenever he was in the front row our team did well. We hooked up with some other people from Michigan and one afternoon won 10 straight games. These are quick games so it didn't take long and to be honest the winning streak was fun.

Vacationing with Brian is so much fun. He is truly as his Dad dubbed him long ago "the friend of all man kind." These RIU resorts are neat for meeting a collection of people. We met a group of snowmobiling construction workers from Michigan who are going to be working on a project just down the street from our house and enjoyed breakfast and a political discussion with a judge and his wife from Canada. By the end of the trip Brian also knew most of the hotel staff. I would hear, "Hola, Senor Brian," just about everywhere we went. He spent lots of time talking in Spanish to the hotel employees. He is getting pretty fluent because I only understood half of his conversations. Marna would be proud. By the time we got back on the plane to return to Michigan Brian knew about half the people aboard our flight.

Such Fun!