Kathy's visit

Kathy’s visit

Since before we arrived in Puerto Vallarta for the winter, our sister-in-law Kathy had been planning a trip here. We had been busy thinking of things to do while she was visiting. Kathy arrived on Palm Sunday and left on Easter Sunday. We packed a lot of activity into that week. I’ll do my best to remember what we did.
We were supposed to pick Kathy up from the airport at 4:15. Earlier in the day, however, we heard from her that she had gotten bumped from her flight and would arrive at 10:15 instead. We met her at the airport. Late at night there was no crowd to deal with. She was among the first out of customs. Apparently she got an upgrade to first class as well as a $400 voucher for agreeing to be bumped. That was a good start for her trip.
From the airport we drove down to the Malecon to look at the crowd. The vacationing Mexicans had begun to arrive and even at 11 in the evening the Malecon was hopping.
Since Saturday was her birthday, we had a cake for Kathy when she arrived. She was surprised!
Shopping was one of the main things Kathy wanted to do. We all went a few times and one day Kathy took the bus into town and shopped till she dropped. Not quite, just until we met her for lunch at El Torito for the rib lunch.
One evening we went up to Las Carmelitas for sunset and dinner. Harold and Kathy agreed they have the best guacamole there. We had a nice leisurely dinner at a perfect table. The weather was beautiful and the sunset was gorgeous.
Paul and Maureen invited all of us to visit at their condo in Nuevo Vallarta. We walked along the beach to the Rio Ameca. From there we could see the cruise ships at the Marina. While relaxing on the balcony, we saw the replica of the ship the Nina which is docked in Nuevo Vallarta. Paul prepared a delicious dinner and we all enjoyed the food and company. Thanks again Paul and Maureen for the fun evening!
Since Kathy likes shrimp and adventure, we took her to the restaurant Guero Palancas in the small town of La Desembocada. We each ate a huge platter of shrimp and were totally stuffed. The restaurant is located right on the river and is a fun place to eat. After that lunch, we went to Bucerias for the afternoon. Our tenants were nice enough to let us show Kathy the house. Deb, you better watch out, she thinks that second bedroom is hers! We also showed Kathy around the town and we strolled through the little street market. Afterwards, we relaxed on the beach for a few hours.
Like most neighborhoods, there are plenty of little stands and restaurants near our house. One night we intended to go to a small seafood place. Turns out it was closed but the owners have a hamburger/hotdog cart, too. Kathy and I had shrimp burgers, Harold had a hamburger, we had a couple orders of fries and each had an agua fresca. Cost of all this – less than $10 US. We were thinking it should have been more, but that’s what the guy charged us. Maybe math isn’t his strong suit?
Our “last supper” with Kathy was at the Pacifica Grill. It is a very nice restaurant on the south side of PV. Harold and I had been there before, but not recently. We were pleased that it was every bit as good as we remembered. Each meal comes with soup (onion or a shrimp broth), garlic bread, hand-cut fries, a great tossed salad and all-you-can-eat shrimp. Kathy ordered the ribs and shrimp, I had the steak and shrimp, and Harold got the teriyaki steak and shrimp. The shrimp comes in boiled, breaded and coconut varieties. We all were stuffed when we left and it was a wonderful meal.
It was Semana Santa (Holy Week) while Kathy was here. There were crowds of people on Los Muertos Beach. Even in Bucerias the beach was busy. Everyone cautions how difficult it will be to find a parking spot in town, but Harold must have the magic touch and found them easily. On Friday evening, I talked him into taking the bus into town since the crowds would be huge. It turned out to be one of those plans that sounds good on paper but doesn’t work out quite right.
The bus ride down was interesting. A fellow got on the bus with his dog, Bingo. I questioned him that I didn’t think dogs were allowed on the bus. He shrugged his shoulders and said, “it’s a holiday.” Bingo was well behaved but wanted to visit everyone on the bus. His owner called him Bingo Coqueton, meaning Bingo the flirt.
We planned to ride the bus to the south side to go to CyC for the Friday sunset meeting of the All Vallarta board. The plan started falling apart when the bus stopped a couple blocks north of the Pemex station north of downtown. We started walking towards CyC, which was probably close to two miles. The Malecon street was completely closed to traffic and was full of people. We got to CyC, had a couple drinks with Postie, Dylan and their wives and Jeff and his girlfriend. After that, we strolled back down the Malecon enjoying watching the people and listening to the entertainers. We got back to where we thought the bus would pick us up. Well, we never saw the bus for our route so we were thinking of taking a cab. Well, they were all full. So plan 3 became catch the bus that gets close to our house. We did that and ended up having to walk about ¾ or a mile from the bus home. We sure got our exercise that night! Needless to say, the next night I agreed when Harold suggested we drive downtown.
Kathy did a lot of walking in our neighborhood as well. She even had an offer of a house for sale. We didn’t get to go see which one it was, but will try to figure it out. We took one long walk way up the mountain from our house. Seemed like every time we thought we were as high as we could get there was another trail. The views were fabulous!
We tried to allow enough time for reading and siesta as well. The Big Lots airbed we brought from Waco worked well.
Sunday morning came and we delivered Kathy back to the airport. The week just flew by and there were so many things we did not get to do. I guess she will have to come back.
Any one else who is reading this, you too can have the full PV experience by visiting us, too. But first, we need some time to rest and diet!