'Sunday April 24th

Sunday April 24^th –

Waaaaaaah! Last day in sunny Mexico! Started a bit late as it was a late night. We got to the pools around 11 after checking out and storing all our luggage for the whole day as our flight wasn’t til 840pm.  Checkout went smoothly and we got 10% off all our food and beverages for going to the timeshare meeting (didn’t upgrade and spend any more money this year – phew!)  We soaked up the sun all day until 6pm and then headed to the airport. It is always amazing leaving the comfort and beauty of the resort, and immediately being thrust into poverty, garbage and animals on the brink of starvation. It is very alarming on the last few minutes of the trip to see that there is still a lot to be done in improving the quality of life for so many folks down here.

The cab ride was uneventful and we had an hour to kill in the airport. We got to see a bit of hockey in the pub making sure everyone was fed and watered before getting on our flight home where everything costs money and all you get is pretzels and pop.  We finally got a satellite signal about half way home and were able to watch some hockey and TV shows before arriving back in Calgary at 1240 ( 140 Mexico time)

As fate would have it, the gate wouldn’t work and we had to wait on the plane for an extra 45 minutes while it was being fixed, only to finally get off the plane with 2 other jam packed planes from the Mayan Riviera and Cabo so there was 600 people all trying to get through customs at 145/245. Randy and I went and picked up the vans and got the families packed up and home by 230/330 and in bed by 3/4. It was going to be a long day of recuperation at home tomorrow – but well worth it for an amazing trip with good friends in a very beautiful place. Cant wait for our next trips in June and July!

Saturday April 23rd

Saturday April 23^rd

Another beautiful day in paradise. Got up early and headed over to the Bliss to do some last minute studying for exam next week and check email.  Came back after 9 and got the family up and moving. We headed down to the pool and swam most of the morning. After lunch, we headed down to the beach and went for a seadoo ride on the ocean. It was very rough but lots of fun ramping the waves with the kids holding on for dear life.

The kids spent a while in the wave pools before we headed back to our rooms to get showered up and feed the kids supper. We hired a couple babysitters to watch the kids so we could have an adult night out.

We left them from 730-1030 and went over to the Rouge wine bar at the Palace for a cheese platter and 2 for 1 Caesars. We headed back to Tramonto for pasta and a nice quiet meal. Finished off the evening with a Flaming Coffee which was extremely cool! Headed back to the room for 1030 and got kids to bed. Another great day in the sun!!

Friday April 22nd

Friday April 22^nd

Another day starts at 530 am for no apparent reason. Packed up the laptop and books and headed over to the Grand Bliss to check emails and study for a couple hours. Reserved our chairs by the pool. Back to the hotel around 9 to find the family up and moving. Boys had a quick breakfast and off to the pool with mum by 930 while Darren studied til noon. The Minnings headed out at 10 to go swimming with the Dolphins and had a great morning. Not cheap, but one of those things you just pay the bill and do at least once in your life when your kids are just old enough so they remember it but the $100 CD of pictures is always a shock as you aren’t allowed to take your own when you are there.

We all met up by the pools after lunch and spent another glorious day in the sun and pools playing football and diving off waterfalls. We went for a walk down the beach and played in the ocean for an hour. Not a cloud in the sky all day and +35 everyday this week. Mid April is the totally best time to come to Mexico-especially if you are a sun worshipper.

We showered up at 530 and had the Minnings over for drinks and visiting. We headed down to the beach to eat at the Havana Moon – one of our favourite restaurants here. The kids ordered a kids pizza and it arrived shortly thereafter to shocked faces as it was a 14” pizza and huge! They put a bit of a dent in it and then headed out to the beach to play Frisbee and football while the parents enjoyed their surf and turf meals while watching the sun set into the ocean. We headed back to our rooms around 930 for a quick visit and called it a night. Last full day tomorrow. Hope to get over to the Luxxe and some other properties on the grounds to see what is here before we leave on Sunday night. 

Thursday April 21st

The day started off at the crack of 530 again as the stress of preparing for my final exam has kicked in and the brain wants to get up early and get after it. After heading down to the pools to put our towels out and reserve chairs, I popped over to the Grand Bliss to check email for an hour and get caught up on the NHL playoffs. I read for a couple hours and narrowed down the main topics and ideas for my exam and started prepping. Time will start to fly now that the weekend is upon us.

          After returning to the pool around noon, the family had had a good morning of swimming and breakfast. We all had lunch in the room and headed back to the pool for the afternoon. We headed over to the wave pools and had a blast for an hour while the waves whipped the kids around on the tubes and sent them flying off doing cartwheels along the walls edge. More relaxing and throwing the ball around til around 6pm when we showered up, changed and walked to the beach for the Fiesta. We were seated near the stage and the giant climbing pole. The 5 men climbed it, attached ropes to their bodies, and spun around 100 times before reaching the ground – quite the sight to see.

We headed to the buffet and loaded up several times on the many different foods to be had as well as a couple desserts. The girls bought necklaces with sharks teeth for the boys and they ate quickly heading out to the beach to play Frisbee and tag for an hour. The show began and had the usual suspects, hordes of dancers and singers as well as a guy with a rope and a horse/rider that paraded around the area while the matador sang a song. The boys found an 8 foot plastic pipe in the sand and used it as a pole vault as well as limbo stick and had more fun with that than watching the entertainment. We had 1 minute of fireworks and wrapped up around 1030 pm. We walked back to the hotel and showered the boys and off to bed for 11. Another busy day in paradise. Another one again tomorrow to be sure.  

Wednesday April 20th

The day started late for a change with Nicholas having a sleepover at the Minnings and Jacob sleeping in until almost 830. Wow. Nicholas arrived before 9 informing us that he watched a movie last night and went to bed at 1130. It was going to be a long day. We got down to the pool at 10 and the boys swam like demons all day. We took a break from our regular pool area to go over to the wave pools with the tubes and had a fantastic time. The boys finished painting up their clay figures and they looked fantastic. We bummed around the pools all afternoon – Nicholas Austin and Jake all did the ‘jump in the tube’ competition and we all had a good laugh. Krista had the most fun of all after partaking a little too bravely in the pool side beverages. She was certainly the life of the party for a couple hours!

We packed up around 330 and headed to the rooms for a shower and change and actually convinced the Minnings to head into the city to see the sights. We caught a 10 seater van cab right downtown to Pipi’s Mexican restaurant. Upon arrival, we were bombarded with taco chips, salsa, and pails of freshly made guacamole. They brought out free quesadillas and then the biggest margaritas you have ever seen. When our food arrived, we were astonished at the portion size! Everything was gargantuan and we barely put a dent in the food having to bring much of it home.

We walked down to the beach and the long sidewalk ( Malecon ) and walked a good chunk of the beach admiring the amazing sand sculptures of religious figures and Greek gods etc. We walked back on the beach for an hour and then caught a cab back to the hotel. It was a short adventure but very fun nonetheless. The life of the party known as Krista had faded somewhat profusely and went directly to bed at the crack of 7pm and was not heard from again. The boys all went down to the swimming pool and swam til it was dark. We had a good bit of exercise before heading to the room and off to bed for 930. Another fantastic day in paradise.

Monday April 18th

               We awoke at 8am to the telephone; presumably the timeshare people wanting us to come to a meeting only to discover that Randy and family were up and at em and wanting to go seek breakfast. We said we would see them by the pool after 9 when we got moving. The mornings start out a little hazy over the ocean but burned off quickly with the blazing sun peeking over the buildings at 10am and not a cloud appeared all day.

               We found some deck chairs beside the shallow pool for Jake and Jacob and a waterfall for the kids to jump off of. There were Tiled Lounge chairs permanently fixed in the pool for the adults to relax and we settled in for the day. The kids jumped in and out of the pools a thousand times while the parents got a bit of time to visit. We took a little tour and went over to the wave pools for an hour and grabbed lunch at the restaurant. We were fortunate enough to catch two for one happy hour on Pina Colada’s so the girls were happy about that!

We went down to the ocean for a while letting the kids run in and out of the ocean a few times, but retreated to the clean pools of the resort shortly thereafter. We spent the whole afternoon taking turns on the lazy river that circled the resort. We headed up to our rooms and showered up after 5 pm and headed out to the other resorts on the property to look for a new restaurant to try.

We grabbed a shuttle cart over to the Mayan Palace, the Luxxe I and II and found many restaurants closed by 6 pm or extremely expensive and not really family oriented. We toured the new properties briefly and they were absolutely beautiful with amazing foliage of every imaginable type surrounding the pools and sitting areas. We grabbed a shuttle back to the Grand Mayan and headed into Tramonto Italian restaurant. Food was fantastic and they had a pretty good kids menu as well. It was getting on to 9pm so we sent the girls to get some breakfast groceries for the morning and got kids to bed around 10. The boys had a pretty good sunburn in different areas from not putting on enough sunscreen during the day or wearing their sun shirts. Tomorrow would be a bit tough on them I bet – hopefully a good night’s rest would help a bit.  A bit of reading for the folks and they were out cold as well. Great first full day in Mexico! ekihe kids

Sunday April 17th

Sunday April 17^th –

               Well, our travel day to Mexico has finally arrived and starts off like every other trip where I wake up at 6 am for no apparent reason – must be the excitement of the event! Nicholas walks in the room at 630 too excited to sleep as well so I shipped him downstairs to watch a bit of TV. Upon opening the curtains, we were surprised to see another 5cm of fresh snow – and still coming down. I decided to do my good deed for the day and shovel off 4 driveways before we headed to church. We packed all the suitcases up and took off for church at 830, earlier than usual! The roads were a complete disaster and icier than ever. Church was packed for Palm Sunday and I really enjoyed singing the mass with my choir.

We left at 1030 and headed to the airport. The Minnings family that was going with us passed us on Deerfoot trail just before the airport and we unloaded the vehicles together at the drop off. Randy and I parked the vehicles at the Park to Go lot where they park your vehicle for you and you just jump on the shuttle and get dropped at your gate – sweet deal. We arrived and checked in with the girls and the 4 boys and headed to Kelsey's for Lunch. 2 Corona and a burger later and the boys were getting restless, so we ran around for a while and went to the Spaceport to play some videogames before heading to the gate. We went through security in record time and after a bit of shopping we boarded our flight at 145 and departed at 205 sharp. Great start to the trip!

               The weather was crappy for an hour and then cleared off and we had nothing but sunshine all the way to Mexico. The boys took turns in different seats playing their Nintendo and games on the Itouch and Ipad as time flew fairly quickly. We arrived in Puerto Vallarta around 630 which was 730 Vallarta time. We breezed through security and customs but of course the Minnings family got flagged randomly and had their luggage gone through for 5 minutes and then we were on our way. We bolted past the time share sharks and found our transportation. We got a cargo van and drove 20 minutes to arrive at the Mayan Group property at sunset. We got our luggage off the van and walked through the ominous entrance with giant statues as we entered the Grand Mayan hotel. We got checked in, finding out the hotel was oversold for the week. We ended up in two different buildings, but had ocean views so that was ok. It was only a 5 minute walk regardless.

               We ordered room service and ate every sort of Mexican food available. The bill came to $1450!! Except in Pesos, you divide by 10 so the bill was around $130 CDN for the 8 of us. Most places here the food is averagely priced but we were absolutely ravaged not having eaten on the plane on the way here. We got the kids off to bed around 1030. Krista and I stayed up and watched a movie on the Ipad and drifted off around 2. It would be a long day tomorrow in the sun.