Mark & Brenda living the "Sayulita Life": March 2013

Ok....so it is mostly my fault....airline tickets were booked months in advance...everyone had their passports ready to go and we were all just counting down the days...so the story goes...When my sister, Susan, niece, Danielle and mom decide to visit us in Sayulita for a week over Danielle's Spring Break from GVSU...

I talked with my sister many times prior to their date of travel, even reminding her to make sure their passports were valid and not expired...(she even got off the phone one night, went to her safe, checked her passport and saw that it was good until 2016 and thought, "we are good to go")...I may have forgot to mention to her that maybe Danielle's passport may have already expired, since passports that are issued to children that are 14 and under are only valid for 5 years, unlike adult passports which are valid for 10 years...oops....my sister only had checked her's and not Danielle's, since she knew they were both issued on the same date, she thought they both expired on the same date...I had even advised Susan to make extra copies of their passport front page, so that they would have a copy in case their passports were lost or stolen...and she never noticed the expiration date at that time either...
Fast forward to the Sun Country Airlines ticket counter at 6:00am on Friday March 1st...The poor ticket agent who has to inform passengers when their documentation does not meet requirements...as in, "Danielle's passport has expired, I can not let you on this flight...ugh!
First it is shock, then anger, then tears and then????? Take a big breath and lets see what options we can come up with...She tried calling me...my cell phone was on silence, since it was 5:00am our time...

Anyways, to make a very long story, much shorter...this is what happened...my mom decided not to get on the plane, even though she could have, her passport was valid...but she did not want to travel alone...
The Apple Vacations representative was wonderful, she gave Susan the phone number for the Detroit passport agency and told her to call them and she could get an appointment to drive to Detroit that day and get a new passport for Danielle...then the rep secured 3 seats on the Chicago O'hare non-stop flight to Puerto Vallarta for the next day at 7:00am (Saturday), and told them they could still fly back to Lansing on the following Friday no problem...
Since my dad had dropped them off at the Lansing airport and had already gone back to Grand Ledge, they decided to take a taxi back to my parents house, picked up Susan's car, drove back to her house in Detroit (2 hours) to get Danielle's birth certificate and dropped off my mom, so she could take a nap, drove to downtown Detroit to the passport agency, waited 4 hours, got the new passport, drove back to her house, picked up my mom and a rental car from Hertz, drove 5 hours from Detroit to Chicago, dropped off the rental car, stayed in a hotel near the airport, took the shuttle to the airport, got on the 7am flight and landed in Puerto Vallarta 24 hours later than they should have..SAFE, HAPPY and READY FOR A VACATION!

Happy vacation!

Ready for some fun!

Mark and I had rented a car for the week...since they had not arrived on Friday, we used that time to go to Costco and Mega and got stocked up on groceries...It was great to have the car so that we could drive back and forth between Puerto Vallarta (Susan had reserved a 1 bedroom timeshare in Nuevo Vallarta for the week) and Sayulita...we thought that splitting our time between the two places would make the most sense...We picked them up at the airport and drove straight to the Mayan Sea Garden timeshare...and they were ready to have a cold drink and sit out by the pool...The room was very nice and in a great location...only about 25 minutes South of where we live...
It was nice that I could stay a couple of nights with them at the timeshare and then they came to our Casa in Sayulita for 2 nights to see where we live...we spent a lot of time relaxing, eating and drinking...Danielle was able to go parasailing and swimming with the dolphins...and my mom read a couple of books and relaxed...Susan and I sat in the sun and talked for hours...it was a great week...We were sad to see them go home...

First lunch of Fish Tacos and beer....

Sister love....

Ready to get some sun at the pool

Danielle loved parasailing!

The girls night out!

Chilling at our pool at our Casa!

The mountains of Puerto Vallarta

Mom and her girls...

However, the day they departed to go home, was the same day that Logan and his friend Josh arrived (their flights were within 1 hour of each other)...Logan had visited at Christmas time for two weeks and had the opportunity to come back down for a week for Spring Break and decided that sunshine and 80 degrees was much better than staying up at Michigan Tech with 3 feet of snow on the ground and single digit temps...
Since I had dropped the rental car off at the airport (when I dropped Susan, Danielle and my mom off)...it meant that Logan, Josh and I would have to take the bus back to Sayulita...no problem...30 pesos each and 50 minutes later we were at the bus stop in Sayulita....it is always an adventure taking the bus and this time was no exception...we ended up on one of the oldest school type buses without any shocks...which made the 18 Topes (speed bumps) going through the town of St. Ignacio a little more interesting...

Hungry boys after a long flight from Chicago.

Logan and Josh had a great week...lots of beach time, some hiking, exercising (I made them go for a run with me and they had to participate in my rocks class on the beach), they went on the Ally Cat Catamaran cruise (Whale watching) and were in town for the SUP Classic (Sayulita's Stand up Paddle board contest)...and even enjoyed the free beach concert from Mishka (Reggae band)...
Unfortunately, I ended up sick for most of the week with a stomach bug, so I did not get to spend as much time with them as I had hoped to...all and all I think they had a fun week and it went by quickly...before we knew it we were walking them back down the hill to the bus stop and sending them on their way to the airport...They departed Puerto Vallarta at 80 degrees and landed in Chicago at 12 degrees...(welcome back to to Winter)...

Glad to have Logan back in Mexico for a visit...

Dinner at El Itacate, our favorite restaurant in town.

Hibiscus Strawberry tea drink...so good for you!

Strawberry Margarita for two!

Concert on the beach!

"Mishka" Reggae concert

Logan sporting a tan...

Pizza for their last dinner of the week...

Sayulita bus stop...on their way back to the Airport...

Logan telling me not to cry, he will see me in 5 weeks... :(

It always takes us a few days to get back into our normal routine of life, once our visitors leave...
Going for my run or playing tennis in the mornings, afternoon shopping for fruit, veggies and shrimp, visiting the bread truck at night in the plaza, taking afternoon strolls on the beach and a dip in the ocean, whale watching from our terrace at sunset, reading before bed...etc...Sayulita has become home to us now...and we can't imagine life any other way...
We have one more visitor for the season, Mark's oldest brother Tom will be visiting us from Seattle, next week...We are excited to show him around town and hopefully a few adventures out of town as well...

Loving Sayulita more and more everyday!

We have seen more than 100 amazing sunsets since we arrived in Sayulita...every night offers a different display of beauty, that words can not describe...sometimes, we sit on our terrace in complete silence, just watching the sun go down and listening to the sound of the pounding waves and we look at each other and smile and say "we can't believe that we get to live here"....we are truly blessed...