Ringing in the New Year

THURSDAY 12/29

- Mike changed our flight so many times that he finally got one early Friday morning, but it meant we needed to stay the night at LAX to be able to make it on time. Drive there about 5-6pm, rock out to MYFM 104.3, although they don't have the most LA traffic reports, which Mike was wanting. He just wanted traffic reports, but I told him KOST does them more often... lol.
- Get to LAX and we go to the LAX restaurant, which we'd both wanted to do for a long time. I figured it was a great time to do it when it was dark and you could see all the airport's lights. It got foggy and socked in fast.
- Beautiful view at restaurant, but very overpriced, we had calamari and a glass of wine a piece for nearly $40
- That meant afterwards we run to a place clients had taken him to on a business luncheon in that area. The food was not good for dinner as there was a totally different crowd and we had our food within 5 minutes of ordering, which says something about the quality.
- We go to the mall in Colver City to the Target and see how weird it is as Mike termed it
- Go to hotel about 9:30. Check in es loco. People everywhere, elevator not working, having a hard time getting room keys to work. We get in hotel, chat it up with a couple from back east and their kid, then they end up having a room across from it. We try to open our room, and they did too, but they keys didn't work not once, but twice. Mike had to run down both times for that. Oh, and then the room smelled like smoke. We weren't happy.

FRIDAY 12/30

- Up at 4:00a.m. to go to the airport. Dress, drop car off, and shuttle to airport.
- Get in with relatively little problem, but I did get the full putdown at the airport, which as usual, Mike was long done getting through security because I had to wait to be screened
- Enjoyable flight to San Fran
- Arrive in San Fran and am checking Facebook. I see a gal, Ally, I went to middle and high school with said she was at the airport too. I told Mike of the coincidence. She was the sweetest thing. We exchanged a few Facebook comments back and forth and discovered she was in the same terminal. I tell her we'd be right to where she was having breakfast, walk up behind her, say hello, and then chat. She tells me how she was going back to where we live, how she was coming from Idaho, how she was so happy for me, could hardly get a word in, but did introduce her to Mike and told her about what I'm doing these days.
- Bad Wendy's breakfast after
- Flight to Puerto Vallarta was nice. Listened to music most of the way.
- Arrive in PVR and go through customs, which was a breeze, but again selected for additional security screening through their random press a button and if it lights up, you have to have your bag searched.
- Go to ATM to get pesos, which was daunting. We were confused like $5,000 pesos seemed like so much. We got our bearings and flirted with the waitress at the hotel bar who made us 2 margaritas deliciosas. She told us to take the bus and not the taxi to the hotel since it wasn't too far. $.65 beat $8.00
- Get to hotel and have an hour checkin - it was a time share place and they were trying to sell lots to us
- Get in room and then decide to hitch the bus to go downtown again. Rickety ride, but it was a part of the true experience in my mind
- We get off in the downtown area and walk up the hill to this quiet restaurant we see. OMG. IT WAS SOOOOO ROMANTIC!!!
- The hunky Spanish guy who owned the place kept coming to our table, talking to us, asking us how we were, brought us lots of free appetizers, the gal from our area who lived in our area 20 years who was so attentive to us, the wonderful view, and delicious filet mignon was great. It was under $50 for the 2 of us, and we left a great tip for her in American dollars since she spoke of her want to go back to the US and the conversion was in her favor.
- Back to the hotel where we criticize everything about the room like the nasty floor. It was a brick tile, but as we walked across in our socks our feet turned black. Uncomfy bed too.

SATURDAY 12/31/11

- Wake up and shower, prepare to go to on the next leg of our journey
- Try to check out the hotel wants us to check out, the line is super long, so we say screw it and leave
- Hail a taxi on our own to pier
- We have some quesadillas as I'm hungry prior to departure
- We then get the boat and head off to a more remote part of PVR
- 45 minute ride - it was on the cold side
- Jump off the boat - no pier- and off to our open air hotel
- Concierge greeted us as did the porter to get our bags off boat
- She makes us some tart margaritas and shows us the entire hotel, gives us the details about what to do, where to go, and answers all questions
- Go to cafe at pier for lunch where Mike has some delicious rice salad and I have a ceviche
- Add some tequila to make the margaritas better once she is gone, freshen up, and she lets us know about dinner plans, then makes reservations for us at the yot club
- Tequila shot time!
- Shower and dress for dinner, hop on the boat, and off to the club
- Few people there, we find a seat, and listen to the music, order some margaritas. The service was ok here, not great. We eat in candlelight. Had steak, lobster, and rice, dessert was pie
- Fireworks after dinner
- Back to hotel on boat and then prep for bed once we arrive. I'm brushing my teeth at 11:55.
- We hop into bed and fall asleep quickly, no New Years kiss for either of us, so we did it at like 12pm instead when we both brought up how we didn't remember kissing each other



SUNDAY 1/1/12

- Eggs and guac for breakfast - delish! Great bread too!
- Walk through town and around
- End up on the beach where we are hounded by a guy there wanting to get us drinks and invites us to sit at his restaurant, and we agree
- 2-3 cervezas y a passion fruit margarita later we are hungry for lunch, which was nachos for him and a chile relleno for me
- Chat on the beach with a cougar from Canada and her younger guy, who were on the boat with us the day prior. They were super friendly.
- We decide to do parasailing since it was only $30 and was about 10-15 minutes
- Parasailing was so fun and freeing, relaxing
- Back to talk with the couple who is insistent we try the margaritas she was drinking. We each order one, then they ran out when she wanted another, but were able to find her one. It was a tart fruit margarita.
- Take boat back to hotel where we relax and play on our iPads
- Prep for dinner in candlelight, a private chef came to our room, a lady who owns a restaurant in town, and made us guacamole, salsa, breaded tuna, and rice, which was good. It was a nice experience, but we probably wouldn't do it again
- More tequila shots after dinner and relax
- Bed early



MONDAY 1/2/12

- Walk around town and up to the water fall after breakfast of omelets
- Take photos, visit the beach, relax on the beach
- Chat with another Canadian couple for about 3-4 hours about her being an ESL teacher, her travels every year to this place, the fact she speaks Spanish
- Back to hotel about 5 to relax
- Wind down and I attempt at making the perfect margarita for dinner, which I did a pretty good job at we discovered
- Bed about 10 and we were up most of the night thanks to the waves crashing on the rocks below us



TUESDAY 1/3/12

- Up and around, shower, off to the bay cafe for breakfast with delicious pancakes. I had a burrito, though
- Back to hotel where we wait for the boat to get us to go back to PVR
- Nice and warm boat ride back- warmer than the last time
- Off to boat we get a taxi to the hotel
- Go to hotel bar near pool for lunch. It was close to $30 for these icee style margaritas that were hardly drinkable
- Decide we need to try a gem for dinner
- Walk around the hotel area
- For dinner Mike suggests we take a taxi to a restaurant that didn't seem to far away, but was way up on a hill, so we were glad we did. Food was good, very Americanized, though. Had a sexy cawfee, which was sooooo fun. They flambé the alcohol.
- We walk down the street from the hotel and grab a cab to go home
- Fool around that night

WEDNESDAY 1/4/12
- Up and adam, shower, then off to explore the town after spending the morning reading
- Go to downtown via bus where he buys house numbers, tequila, end up in a tequileria where we sample numerous tequilas and spend mucho en it. Puedes decir margaritas?
- Stopped for chips and guac at a 2nd story restaurant with 2 for 1 drinks and other specials
- Bus back to hotel where we relax for a few hours
- Off to dinner and take a cab to a delicious fish place in the gay area of Vallarta. I had mahimahi and he had red snapper. We had the freshest mussels too with delicious sourdough.
- Back to hotel to play some more

THURSDAY 1/5
Some day our friend's ship will come in...
waited around in the morning for J and B to arrive in on their cruise ship. It was a coincidence that we were in a foreign country together on the same day. We decided the hotel played too much on the all-inclusive thing, which was not our thing. We surprised them, they had their new shoes on, but thankfully had sandals, that we were taking them back to the paradise we had just spent 3 days in. They were shocked and B was worried. J was intrigued. We took the boat ride, I sat next to J and chatted with him.
- Arrive, hop off boat, find bathroom for B
- Meet our ESL teacher Canadian friend
- Dine on Pacificos, ceviche, and salsa
- Feeling a little tipsy, so it was time to walk through town
- Do a short walk through- Mike wasn't hungry, so no restaurant, no water fall
- Meet our concierge as we try to get the boat, she was going to PVR
- Chat with J about his dad's health, my dad's health, etc., share pics of our trip, talk about his trip
- Take them to the romantic restaurant we went to. OUr waitress saw us and hurried back up to help us. Hunky guy was there too.
- We spend the better part of 3 hours dining and catching up.
- We grab a taxi and go back to the cruise terminal, then off to our hotel
- The 2 of us hardly sleep as the beds are so uncomfy



FRIDAY 1/6/12

- Up early since we couldn't sleep
- Check out of hotel, get everything together
- Get taxi, Mike forgets passport, driver turns around, go to bank, taxi driver waits for us, but it was confusing to get help, so Mike returned and we were off to the airport
- Ate some nasty place in the airport on the 2nd floor with horrible Mexican food
- Flight home
- Customs was tough in our connection city
- Made it back home, stopped at a fish grill for dinner
- Watch TV at his house until 11:30. We made it home about 9:30. Got off flight at 6:30. Baggage claim didn't start until 7:15, which made for 2 very unhappy passengers whose bags should have been taken off the plane immediately.

SATURDAY 1/7/12
- Up at 7:30
- SHower
- Eat omelets, take off for home about 10
- Spend the day with the family, celebrate my birthday, they got me an electric razor, which was perfect since mine broke the night before at Mike's on the tile floor in the kitchen as I got it out of my bag
- Went to CCG for dinner - it was so-so

SUNDAY
- Up at 8:30... I hardly slept... it was too hot or too cold
- Mommy made me breakfast... my favorite
- Off to Mike's about 12:30 when the power company stopped blocking our driveway
- Arrive at his place and open the huge bag of gifts- there were like 6 expertly wrapped gifts including margarita mix, 2 pairs of shoes, a brand name watch I'd been eyeing, a dog card (inside joke between the 2 of us), and toothbrush heads for my toothbrush
- He didn't have to do all of that, especially after our big trip we just had, but he's too sweet, and I love him
- He takes me to lunch for animal styol fries at In-N-Out. he'D never had them and thought they were pretty good. He can stop giving me grief over them.
- Went shoe shopping where I got my green shoes
- Go home and nap because now I'm old
- Wake up to texts from coworkers, deal with that, swap lesson plans
- Off to dinner at our favorite steakhouse where we ordered practically everything off the happy hour menu and finished with dessert... so good... 2 nice glasses of wine
- Home, lesson prep for a sec cuz my plans had changed thanks to my coworker
- And then he fucks me in bed, which was not what I was feeling last night, but it was fun
- he had to pack for work



MONDAY
- He was up at 4am to make it to the airport on time
- I'm at his place tonight getting my z's on and to ensure I get to work early mañana