Puerto Vall-larta

(PV Cathedral ↑) (Lighted Palm →)
A special note to all of you who attempt to speak Spanish. Double "l" (ll) is pronounced as a "y". Hence, the stewardess who announced everything on our flight down to PV should probably - if she's going to continue to fly the friendly skies and squawk away on the intercom - learn that all us tourists are headed to Puerto 'Vayarta'; not Puerto 'Vall-larta'.

Just had to mention that.
(Cloudy day in PV →)
Although, I did get a chuckle out of surrounding passengers the first time she said it - "this is flight 531, non-stop to Puerto Vall-larta..." - I turned in wide-eyed wonder to the row behind me and said, "holy cow, we're on the wrong plane!"

(←Malecón Mermaids)
That being said, don't you find it odd how your mind picks and chooses what to remember the longer away you are from an event? What I mean is, it's even now getting to the point where I have to look over the photos again to remember exactly what we did each day or where we ate at night. But, I DO remember the stewardess butchering the name of the city.

(Cirrus Clouds over Palapa →)
I have to admit, I thought heading down to PV at the end of March / beginning of April would be a bit "late" because winter would already be done, and it'd be nice enough here that I'd want to be outside...well, it was sort of that way, but evidently winter's hanging on by its fingernails, as yesterday St.Paul-Minneapolis woke to find snow on the ground. At the end of APRIL for crying out loud. That wouldn't be *as* bad if, just a few short days before, I hadn't been in a t-shirt, capris and flip-flops in 70+ weather. Make up your MIND already! I stand corrected - winter is a woman. Can't make up her mind for anything...

(← Yelapa Bay)
IRREGARDLESS, we're stuck here and at least it's (allegedly) supposed to reach almost 50 today. Above, so that's good.

I was thinking, since this year winter / spring are coinciding more than usual, maybe we should call it "Swing" since it can't come to grips on a course of action one way or t'other. While I eagerly - and not very patiently - await the next nice day, the bare glimmer of hope that summer WILL return starts to fade...but I keep fueling it by revisiting my sunny Puerto Vall-larta images. (Yelapa Flower ↓)


P.S. Today, "Swing" didn't cooperate - again. We didn't, to my knowledge, get even close to 50s and it SNOWED. Enough already!

Bon Jovi Concert - Part II from "The Point & Shoot Camera"

I cannot BELIEVE I forgot to report back on Jon Bon's performance on March 18th!


Not only was I obligated to report that my P&S camera performed mightily...but so did hotty-po-tattie Jon!
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.




I apologize. I'm composed now.

Amy and I found out after that concert that it was his 49th show on that tour, and the next evening (March 19th), he turned 50. FIFTY YEARS OLD. Just a rock star who's still goin' strong. I admire that. Not just that he's still making and performing music, but that he (seems to) genuinely enjoys it. Granted, I assume it helps to have thousands of fans (mostly of the female persuasion) screaming at him, but hey. Still impressive.

I think you'll agree with me that my itty-bitty Canon (as opposed to my behemoth SLR) held its own in the murky recesses of the Excel Center!

Mexico Hangover

Keep in mind when I mention "hangover", I don't that which results after a night of inebriation. Tho' if you wish to argue semantics, I could be inebriated but not drunk from alcohol. (Discuss.) Frigate Birds →

No, rather, I'm using "hangover" in this vein (from Wikipedia):

"Something remaining behind from a former period or state of affairs."

The 'State of Affairs'? Our vacation in Puerto Vallarta...the 'remaining behind' part? Yeah, there IS a part of me that was left behind. Sigh. It's pretty hard to leave 80s and sunny behind when you're venturing back to the cold, snowy North!

↑ The Malecón Arches
Unfortunately, I didn't sustain the blog-rythm I enjoyed pre-vacation...but that's because, inevitably, when you leave for a tropical vacation and put your "real" life on hold for a week (or longer), there are repercussions. In my case, catching up with work, photos (of which I took over 500), housework, etc etc etc.
We saw 3 humpback whales on the way to Yelapa ↓

That being said, I can only say it was a blast - even tho' Clint, poor guy, was suffering from a slipped disc (which he just found out "for real" today - I say "for real" because Dad diagnosed him merely off of description, but an MRI was a good thing to get to KNOW for sure). All that means is he was drugged on muscle relaxants, Alleve, and a fair amount of Negra Modelo most of the time :)

← Clint Parasailing

But, I digress.

The point? It took me awhile to get over being back in Minnesota after having such a GREAT time in sunny PV. Out of the almost-400 images I loaded to Shutterfly, I'll have to pick & choose which to send to family & showcase here. Although I had a lot of fun shooting down there - despite having been there off and on over the years since I was 11 - I was tempted to give the local kid-vendors $1 to go do it for me...after all, there were Piña coladas ( Lifeguard Stand ↑)
to be drunk. But not THAT kind of drunk.