Tomorrow the hubs and I will be celebrating our 2nd wedding anniversary. It’s so crazy how time flies.  To celebrate we decided to plan a trip.  Since we had been wanting to go to Guadalajara to visit my grandparents anyway (N still hadn’t met my grandpa) we settled on a mini getaway to Puerto Vallarta with a quick stay in Guadalajara. It worked out perfectly because it had also just been my grandpa’s birthday so we surprised him with a visit.

So on Wednesday we drove down to San Diego, transferred to my mothers car and headed to TJ (Tijuana – for those of you that are confused…).  The flights are way cheaper if you fly within the country so we try to fly out of TJ whenever possible.  That day was also my brother’s 26th birthday so we went to eat and he joined us as soon as he landed from his business trip.  Not only did we have a delicious meal before our 3 hour flight, but we got to spend some time with him as well.  That night my uncle picked us up from the airport and we dropped my dad off at my grandparents house.  He ended up taking the same flight as us so he could visit with them the same day as us to keep N company (since my grandparents don’t speak english and he doesn’t speak spanish hehe).  We stayed at my aunt Miriam’s house (she’s my mom’s youngest sister).

Thursday we ventured out by ourselves with my uncle’s borrowed truck and GPS and we managed to make it all the way across town to my grandparents house.

{this thing is amazing. i want that!}

{my driver}

{fun buildings on our drive}

My grandma and my aunt Mirella made super delicious pozole for lunch and we spent the entire afternoon with them there. It was nice to hang out with all of them, I hadn’t seen them in a very long time.

{aren’t they cute?!}

{abuelita María….or as N calls her little baby grandma}

{tía Yeya, me, abuelito Moises, tío Tavi, abuelita María, N & pa (my cousin Tavito is taking the picture)}

{me and grandma & grandpa being silly}

After we left the grandparents we went back to my aunt and uncle’s and they took us to a delicious potato and taco place. Of course we had their specialty: stuffed potatoes- carne asada, bacon, mushrooms, cheese and gooey yummy sauces.

{cool bridge on the way to dinner}

{um…yum!}

{with my little cousin Natalia}

Our original plan was to rent a car in Guadalajara, drive to Vallarta and drop the car off at the airport.  Unfortunately it’s kind of pricey to drop cars off at different airports sooooo we ended up taking a bus.  It was actually quite nice…beautiful scenery and a nice long nap.  After a 4 1/2 hour ride we got to the coast completely refreshed and ready to get to our hotel to spend time alone without the chatter of my family.  We’re very very chatty and loud!

We stayed at the Marriot Casa Magna.  All in all it is a very nice hotel, however….what kind of hotel doesn’t offer free WIFI nowadays??? (especially such a big chain)….even the Comfort Inn a block away has free WIFI. Our stay was very pleasant though and we had perfect weather.

{hotel grounds}

{in our pool garb}

{this awesomeness greeted us in our room one of the days after our afternoon laziness}

One of the things I miss most about mexican beaches is the fruit! Especially the coconuts with lime/chili and the glass of REAL coconut water on the side!!!! so I had one every day we were there. what? I was on vacation! and now I’m craving them again.

{my weakness}

Our mornings started with a walk to the starbucks on the marina (free WIFI)…our afternoons were filled with sun, fruit, beers and lazy reading. It was awesome! I got to catch up on all my magazines. I felt rested and refreshed!

{on our morning walk}

{being silly in the pool}

{more underwater fun}

{i decided to go a little crazy with my drink}

{can you tell which is the real one and which 2 are spider man?}

Our nights consisted of nice walks in the downtown area and dinner.  The first night we ended up getting sucked into a kind of touristy place for dinner, but we had delicious queso fundido with squash blossoms AND there was a singer there who made up his own words to american songs so it was very entertaining for us.  The second night we ended up at this little taco place that was also pretty touristy…it seems you can’t get away from it….so we just went with it and stayed there.  We were not disappointed.  We had one of their specialties….volcanes: little tostadas with cheese and carne al pastor with pineapple and cilantro! oh they were so so good…I had 4!!! Don’t judge! Vallarta is known for their tacos al pastor so we were pretty happy we had some while we were there.

{puerto vallarta sunset}

{volcán! sooo soo good!}

{getting a to-go cup}

{one of our cooks}

{exploring the area}

{one of the 2 super cute churches we saw}

Our last night we went to this little restaurant called El Arrayán which serves traditional mexican cuisine, with a more upscale gourmet twist! It was delicious! N got the duck carnitas (it wasn’t served like carnitas though) and I got the delicious barbacoa. Yum!!! Our drinks were also spectacular: a coconut margarita and a grapefruit vodka mojito. It was the perfect ending to our mini trip.

{salsas}

{duck carnitas}

{barbacoa}

{maracas}

{sombreros}

{juguetes (toys)}

{this is the second church (sorry i don’t remember their names!)}

{our last night}

We were sad to leave the nice weather and cozy/lazy days by the pool…but we were slightly glad to leave the amount of loud tourists behind.

Besos,

~Mrs. B