Puerto Vallarta City

Saturday we layed out by the pool in the morning and decided to try and go into old Puerto Vallarta that afternoon.  It was quite the adventure.  Tyler had told us to take the bus from the hotel, connect at the second Wal Mart (yes, they have a Wal Mart) onto the bus saying Centro.  That bus would take us all the way down town.  We were skeptical the minute we got on the bus.  Many locals coming on and off because of the Easter holiday and it being so busy in the city.  The first bus wasn't bad, but the second bus was like an old tin can and was certainly a ride.  It was nice to see the sights though and we did make it.  Luckily there were a couple of other Americans on the bus trying to do the same thing and they seemed to have a bit more knowledge so we followed their lead.  We did get to see the oldest church in Puerto Vallarta.  Beautiful.  And we did some sight seeing and of course, some shopping.

 

We picked up our normal souveniers...a Christmas tree ornament, a mug, a picture frame and Gabi grabbed up some things as well. 

Day 1

We used Friday to lay around by the pool and explore the hotel.  Gabi couldn't get over the breakfast buffet and all the choices.  In fact, she did try some different foods and actually liked them!  One was plantains...a fave of mine from Cancun last year.  I like them fried, Gabi likes them in their raw form.  Gabi also fell in love with the drink Miami Vice (virgin of course) and the Strawberry Margarita.  I actually tried some new drinks and liked Dirty Monkey as much as the Miami Vice. 
Either way, getting served by the pool was wonderful.  We learned pretty quickly that the sign that says you cannot reserve chairs by the pool was null and void.  Ben woke up naturally around 6 am to run down and put our towels down to reserve seats.  We got a couple more hours sleep and we were good to go after breakfast.

The views from above were amazingly beautiful.

And the hotel and its surroundings just as pretty at night

Puerto Vallarta

We were certainly impressed walking into our Riu Palace.  We learned later in the trip that it was actually in Nueva Vallarta...the newer Puerto Vallarta, but separate from Puerto Vallarta.  The hotel was stunning.  We were greeted with lemonades and escorted to our partial ocean view room. 

We were actually facing Puerto Vallarta and enjoyed not only the ocean view, but lights from the city as well.  I am not sure if I would have wanted one on the other side of the hotel since it was so busy while we were there.  It did seem pretty quiet on our side of the hotel.  We were told ahead of time (from Tyler who made a trip there just two weeks prior with Abby) to make dinner reservations right away since the hotel was so busy.  The four restaraunts were Krystal (Fusion Restaraunt), Kyoto (Japanese), La Toscana (Steakhouse), Guacamole (Mexican) and La Penninsula (the buffet where you didn't need reservations ahead of time.  We kept in mind that the front desk told us if the restaraunts were booked to try and walk in after the reservation time to see if there were cancellations.  Since we arrived near sunset time I took the opportunity right away to capture some pictures before eating at the buffet.  It was beautiful.

The view from our balcony

 

We didn't get to see the sunset from our room, we actually had to be down on the beach to see that or on the other side of the hotel, but we did get a gorgeous sunrise.

 

 

A little bit of our hotel room:

We were on the 6th floor...looking down we got to see some pretty palm trees.

Headed Out

We headed out last Thursday morning from Chicago O'Hare to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico!!  We decided to try the other side of Mexico this time and of course, we wanted to bring Gabi.  We knew she would have a blast.  We were all smiles on the way out!!! 

More to come on this trip so stay tuned!!!

 

School Board Meeting

Gabi and Madison were recognized by the School Board last night at their meeting. 

Love this pic of Madison peeking around for the picture!!

Congrats again for winning first place at National History Day for their documentary!