A trip up north

At the wedding, we met Mary, one of Jeanie’s friends from Denver, and her friend Jan. We all decided to go to visit Jeanie and Dennis at the hotel where they were honeymooning. (Yes, we were invited!)
We met for breakfast at Andales. After a leisurely breakfast we headed towards the north. First stop was Bucerias so we could show Jan and Mary our house. We also looked at the beach and visited Casa Tranquila. Jan really enjoyed seeing Bucerias and will consider it for a future trip.
I thought the hotel was in La Penita. Mary thought it was in Rincon de Guayabitos. Well, Mary was correct but we got a mini-tour of La Penita when we were looking for the Villas Buena Vida. It only took asking two people to find the hotel. Jeanie and Dennis were not in their room, by the pool, or on the beach. We walked down the beach for a little bit then ate lunch at a restaurant next to the hotel. It turned out to be a nice meal. Jan and Mary didn’t like the margaritas and Mary sent hers back. The waiter brought her a replacement which she also didn’t like. The waiter told her that the restaurant had used the same recipe for 17 years and everyone else liked them! He did end up not charging her for the drink.
Our waiter as not very friendly at first since the place was very busy. After most of the crowd cleared out, he loosened up and was joking with us. He had very red hair and explained that yes, he is Mexican, but his grandmother was from England.
After lunch, we checked back at the hotel. Still no Jeanie and Dennis. We drove around Rincon and looked at some very nice houses in an area where we saw very few people. Actually, we didn’t see many people in town at all. We stopped for an ice cream cone before heading back to Puerto Vallarta.
Jan and Mary wanted to see more of the area, so we drove through El Pitallal. We also drove by Monika and Luis’s house to show them the development. Rudy was outside so we had to stop and visit, We kidded Monika about her house being on the home tour. We also showed them our house.
It was a very fun day, really relaxing and cool to see a different beach town. Rincon de Guayabitos seems like it would be a cool place to spend a few days. Plenty of hotels, some shops and restaurants. The beach was very flat and the ocean calm.