Puerta Vallarta - The First Day

Since it's snowy, cold and ugly outside right now, I thought it'd be the perfect time to share my trip to Puerta Vallarta with you guys.  I know it's been a while since we went (well over 6 months ago), but if you've been following my blog for a while you know that I am a complete and total slacker and sometimes it takes me months and months to get around to posting pictures.  So sue me.  It's my blog and I'll slack if I want to!

Anyway, this trip was such a blast - 8 girls, 8 days, 7 nights in beautiful Puerta Vallarta, Mexico.  We'd been planning on taking a girls trip for quite a while and I have to thank Kirsten (profusely) for organizing everything and making this trip a reality.  We would not have made it without you!

Our flight leaving STL was at the crack of dawn.  I mean, so early I didn't sleep the night before.  Apparently neither did Julie.  I think we had to get to the airport around 4:30 a.m. (did you know they had a 4:30 in the A.M. too? Crazy.).

 However, not all of us were dead to the world.  Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, Kirsten had breakfast while the rest of us sat and stared at her in absolute amazement that she could be so awake and adorable at this hour.

 We finally made it to DFW for our connecting flight, where we immediately found a bar and began drinking.  Shut up and don't judge, it's vacation!  Needless to say, we were a much more animated group while awaiting the next flight.

We arrived in Puerta Vallarta safe and sound and made it to our home for the week - Casa de la Playa.  Kirsten's parents generously gave us their time share for the week (thank you Evanses), so we had a fabulous 2 bedroom condo right on the Pacific Ocean. The resort was small (only seven condos) and was ideally located right on the beach and only a few blocks away from historic old town.  Great location and great place.

But who wants to sit around your hotel room when there's so much to do!  Since it was Julie's birthday, we decided to go out to a traditional Mexican lunch to celebrate.

(Like we even need a reason to celebrate.)

 There might have been a million some tequila shots involved.

The adorable staff wasted no time in serenading Julie in song.  I don't have a clue what they sang, but it was pretty damn funny watching her attempt to sing along.

 They fed her some cake/flan stuff....

...but missed her mouth.

 Then gave her the largest tequila shot I've ever seen and forcefully cleaned her face while shaking the begeezus out of her!  Again, no clue what that was all about, but we loved it!

 After lunch, we were entertained by a guitar player singing American songs (and getting all the words wrong, which was hilarious) and Kirsten dancing for us all. 

 So then it was time to head back to the house to meet the rest of the girls (who were on a later flight). 

 We found them and hit the beach with a case of beer.  (Vacation, remember?  Don't judge.)

(Can you tell, I wasn't the least bit affected by the 67 tequila shots we did at the bar.)

Everyone else was totally fine (I'm such a lightweight).

For me, the rest of the night was kinda a blur (picture-wise and memory-wise).  I have some pictures, but I'm not going there!  We spent the evening (I think) dancing the night away at a dive bar across the street, celebrating the birthday of the owner Captain Don (and Julie, of course).   Can I just say that tequila is to not to be taken lightly.  You must respect the power of tequila.  I learned my lesson early in the trip!   :)   It puts the lights out in more ways than one (yeah, so I might have single-handedly shut down the power of an entire city block for a while.  Oops.)  Oh holy hangover.  I love Mexico.

Stay tuned for pictures from the rest of the week - I promise they get better (as I remain much more sober)!