Sorry I'm so slow at updating the blog but better late than never, right? Two days after our wedding, Bobby and I were lucky enough to be able to go straight to our honeymoon in Nuevo Vallarta. We love our family and friends very much but I can safely say that we were EXTREMELY excited for some quiet time and absolutely no responsibilities. So....Monday morning we headed to the Admirals Lounge at the airport and who do we run into? Bob and Deborah Deppisch! Ha! It was great to be able to say one last goodbye...and enjoy one more glass of champagne together. Try to look past the bags under my eyes. Sleep wasn't on the schedule for another day.
B and I were able to use frequent flier miles to fly first class for free! That meant that we had to fly through Dallas and live through some longer layovers but it actually worked out really well as it gave us time to write our many thank you notes. Bobby and I were on a mission to get them ALL done before we got to Mexico...mission accomplished!
We finally got to the hotel at about 11pm on Monday night and were eligible for a room upgrade but that room wouldn't be available until the next day. However, the room we had for that night was still beautiful and they had a special surprise waiting for us....
This seems to be a theme...
Before we left the States, we got many words of advice from people telling us not to drink the water. Being that it was a 5 star hotel we weren't very worried but thought it was funny when we saw this in the room service menu.
We slept in but then woke up to this view. Not bad! The pool was made up of 3 separate infinity pools linked together...each at a different temperature.
After breakfast and some time at the pool, we were off to find our new room. It had two floors - the first had our bed/bathroom and small porch, the second was on the top of the hotel and had another bathroom and a private patio and hot tub! We clearly know how to rough it.
It was around noon on Tuesday, which meant that we'd really only been on our honeymoon for 12 hours, when things went down hill fast...and by "went down" I mean I went down fast. We had decided that we were hungry so I got out of the pool to go and grab the room service menu. The first stair of the pool was made out of the sandy cement. (read - not slippery) The final stair, however, was made out of tile and wet from B & I getting in and out of the pool. (read - ICE) I'm about as clumsy as they come these days so I had no chance. Within a half of a second I was flat on my back after twisting my right foot very badly. The "good" news in all of this is that I somehow managed to miss cracking my head on the side of the pool. Bobby got me some ice but unfortunately this meant that our plans of golfing and zip-lining in the jungle were out of the question. Bobby said he didn't mind just sitting by the pool all day but I still feel bad that we didn't get to do that. Luckily the swim up bar was still do-able...and we took full advantage of that.
The week we were at the Grand Velas I think they were at about a 10% occupancy rate. This meant that pool chairs, beach cabanas, and restaurants were all EMPTY.
Having the cabanas and pool chairs open was amazing but, surprisingly, Bobby and I both found eating in empty restaurants to be a bit awkward. The chefs were so bored that they made us extra dishes and came out to see how we were enjoying everything, we had at least 6 servers per meal, and the pianist/guitarist kept asking us for our requests because there was nobody else to play to. We also felt obliged to clap after each song so there wasn't complete silence. ha! The best though was when Bobby got turned away from one of the restaurants because he was wearing flip flops. (Luckily it was OK for me to wear them because my mammoth sized foot didn't fit into anything else at the time.) B quickly went back to the room and changed but we made it through the entire meal and were on our way out before anybody else came in for dinner.
After dinner each night we'd make our way to the outside lobby area and listen to an amazing Cuban band. To complete the picture, they also sold Cuban cigars that Bobby enjoyed a lot.
This doesn't really do it justice but it gives you an idea...
One of the next days we went to the spa and had a really nice massage however, note to self, a language barrier could be a big source of pain when the masseuse doesn't understand "DO NOT TOUCH THIS FOOT." Slowly my foot was beginning to feel better...or at least good enough to hobble up and down the beach a bit. It was a gray and rainy day but still beautiful.
As if I wasn't being a big enough pain in the rear, by the 3rd or 4th day my stomach started to hurt and just kept getting worse. I initially thought that it was just a urinary tract infection (sorry - TMI) however each night I was getting stabbing pain in my sides unlike anything I'd ever experienced before. The next morning I'd be a bit better though and throughout the day the pain would progressively weaken. I kept on trucking though it (although I'm sure I whined a lot. Bobby can tell you how good I am at that.) and we decided that we should actually leave the hotel property and check out downtown Puerto Vallarta. It was such a cute little city and we found a great bar right on the water where we could sit in the sand, sip a cocktail, and watch the boogie boarders. The surf was HUGE that day but, what was crazy, was how close to short the waves were crashing. We'd never seen anything like that before.
On our way back to the cab area, we caught a school dance performance happening right on the boardwalk. I'm sure the dancers were good but I couldn't stop watching this little guy play with this hideous hairless dog.
This one is for you, Jojo!
We got back to the hotel just in time for another amazing sunset...they never got old.
My very "GQ" husband pose...
We had had such a great day and my foot was feeling so good that we decided to sign up for the zip-lining tour for the next day. I was DETERMINED to go and figured Bobby could carry me through the jungle if I needed it. :) Unfortunately, that night the stomach/back pains were back with a vengeance and we were worried that it may be something bad. The last thing we wanted to do was have me end up in a Mexican hospital so, very very very sadly, we packed up our bags and headed to the airport a day early to see what flights we could get home to Seattle. We needed the airline to see how desperate we were to get home but were afraid that, if we told them I was sick, they wouldn't let me fly. Therefore, we told a little white lie and said that we needed to get home because of my foot. I limped as though my leg were going to fall off and they put us on the next flight to Seattle through Dallas....we even got to keep our first class seats! Being such a nice airline, they also had wheelchairs set up for me the entire way back. I didn't want to ruin the charade so I had to use it. You can see how upset I was by that.
About 24 hours and one of the most painful nights of my life later, we were in the urgent care clinic on base where I was treated for a UTI that was making its way into my kidneys. It took one day of antibiotics and I was completely fine. I've never been SO sad to feel well that quickly. I should have just asked for a doctor in Mexico and avoided the whole fiasco. Oh well...it's a vacation that I know Bobby and I will never forget and it just gives us an excuse to "try again" next year. Cheers to more adventures in the future!!
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