Day 1:
After a short nap, we left for the airport around 3am. I had been up late to finish packing, brief the aunties (again), shave my legs, paint my toes, double check that my bathing suit was packed, and you know, make up things to stress about in general. We boarded the flight without a problem and had landed in Phoenix in no time.
I had a blind date with an internet friend for coffee at the Phoenix airport during our layover, so we headed out of security for that, and I proceeded to do jumping jacks in the middle of the concourse until Cynthia found me. (How else would a stranger recognise you?!) She was awesome, the bagels were fine and the coffee was terrible. Soon, it was time to head back through security for our flight to Mexico. We waited in a long security line and finally found our gate. There was no one there. There was no airplane there. Alan went to check the monitor, and found that they had moved our flight, it was now 2 concourses over, and they were boarding. We RAN the entire way, arrived breathless, and boarded as soon as we got to the gate. There was sweat but luckily no tears (ok, well maybe just a couple of little ones). When we were finally in the air, I started to relax.
We arrived in Puerto Vallarta around 3pm on Saturday along with about 6 other airplanes (by the looks of the cramped and stuffy passenger holding area) and had to wait over an hour to get through immigration. We got the crankiest, slowest, worker that has ever walked the planet, and she was hesitant to let anyone into her country. Listen, I get it, Mexico is great, but um, we have been flying since way before dawn, and I am ready for about 13 beers, so, GEEZ! It was torturous. Finally we got through everything and wound our way out of the airport, to find Robert (queue angels singing) waiting for us with a cooler full of cold beer and a nice cool ride for us back to Old town. It was like I was home.
We got to our room,(not the penthouse-sigh) dropped our backpacks, and headed down for a sunset dinner on the beach. We got to catch up with our friends with our toes in the sand, eat amazing food, and watch the sun set over the ocean. Hours later as we sat on our balcony watching the waves, we decided to take our beers down to the beach again, (it never gets old) so we could be just a few feet closer to the water. We sat there in the dark and chatted and laughed just like on our honeymoon (oh, I am a LIAR! we never had a honeymoon, I was 12 and Alan had finals the next day or something, but in a perfect world, if we had one, it would have been like this) We were both exhausted, so finally we drug ourselves out of the trance we were in, and decided to head back to our room.
It was then that we (quite literally) stumbled onto another couple sitting on the beach not far behind us. They informed us that a friend of theirs owned the villa just down the beach, and was currently hosting a wedding. (phew! I thought it was funny that an 80's soundtrack was playing in my mind, but was having a hard time explaining the disco lights. PLUS probably a little more air supply if my subconscious was actually in charge) There was going to be fireworks soon right from our beach! They were scheduled for 10:30, but this was Mexico, so it would probably happen tonight. Since we had nothing planned for the evening, we sat back down in the sand. At 11:15(ish) we saw someone scurrying around down the beach, and moments later, our private show started. They were huge and beautiful, and almost close enough to touch. For about 10 minutes we watched the most amazing show of our lives with our new friends. Time after time, the sparks shot up into the air, exploded, and then rained glitter down into the water, leaving behind puffs of smoke and magic. (I would like to amend earlier honeymoon fantasy to also include this)
After the show was over we went back to the room, and slept. Hard.
How can real life possibly compete with this?!
Portland Airport at 3am
at the PHX airport, with our backpacks!
My (real life) friend Cynthia!
