Puerto Vallarta Mexico

 

Back in November we took a 2 week trip to Puerto Vallarta. My husband had lost a tooth and we had planned on taking a medical vacation. We found out about 3 days before we left that he was not going to be able to get the tooth easily replaced. So facing 12 days in the sun we brought books to read, crafts to make and an appetite for good Mexican food. We like to stay in the older part of Puerto Vallarta called "Zona Romantica", it's easy to walk around the almost all the hotels have roof top pools. As always we brought our blender and bought some rum & juice at the corner market. Puerto Vallarta still had a lot of Day of the Dead sculptures and trinkets up around the city there were some really colorful displays. We would wake up late in the day, drink coffee, go up to the roof and swim till mid afternoon and have a blended drink. Dinner out and back to the pool. We did this for 4 days then we went to my favorite place Mismaloya about 12 miles south of Puerto Vallarta. We stay at a place called Casa Iguana. It's a really pretty hotel, about 50 rooms and a wonderful pool. The rooms have 2 bedrooms and a small kitchenette. There is a grocery store near the check in of the hotel. The breakfast in the morning is a wonderful buffet with fresh orange juice. The best part was the breakfast lasted till about 11am. So even waking up at 10am we were able to get some coffee and breakfast before it was closed. We also found a lovely place to eat called "My Tony", it was on the expensive side for Mexico but the food was fresh and the view was magnificent. We also met a cat that we had spent time with on our last visit about 6 years ago. She was a pretty calico cat that was very friendly. we we first met her she had a front tooth sticking out and drooled a lot. It looks like the tooth was pulled and she is being well cared for at the hotel. While were were in Mismaloya I painted some post cards to send back home to friends. But locating stamps turned into an epic adventure. I got on a bus to go to the only post office in Puerto Vallarta but ended up passing the place. I got off and asked several people how to get the to Post Office but was met with blank looks. I guess no one uses the mail in Mexico, we were told that it takes about 3 weeks to get across town. On our last day in town we finally saw a mail box, but we didn't have any stamps. This vacation we relaxed and read next to a pool..it was a great way spend a couple of weeks in November. 

Hawaii Vacation

Kimura H Fabric Store

Kimura H Fabric Store

City of Refuge

Salt water flowing into a hot springs

Discount Fabrics in Hilo

Discount Fabric in Hilo

In the middle of January we went to Hawaii. My husband wanted to see about buying property on the big island. I guess you can get some decent land for cheap. Turns out the reason the land is cheap is because no bank will lend on the property because of the lava flow. We also learned that if you leave a house vacant the locals will take everything. We heard story after story of stolen solar systems and houses that were broken into and everything taken...doors, windows, cabinets and rugs. So even though we found cheap land, it's not worth it because if we leave nothing will be there when we come back.
The best thing about going to Hawaii was it was WARM. This winter in Portland was terrible. Lots of ice and snow this winter making us hibernate. I had already looked up the two things I wanted to see in Hawaii...crushed penny machines and fabric stores. 
We happened on the first fabric store by accident. It's called Kimura H Fabric, I had written the name and address down but did not know exactly where it was on the island. We stopped to at a thrift store and it was across the street. I loved the place. It's a little dusty looking from the outside but the fabric inside was beautiful. I bought a beautiful red and white hawaiian print that I want to use to make a sun dress. I bought a brown and black hawaiian print to make a shirt for my husband and some sushi fabric to make pants for the husband too. I like the selection of the fabric at Kimura, it was not too expensive and I found some bark cloth that was quite cheap too. But I had to stop myself from buying too much fabric...I already have a large stash of fabric. I just can't resist hawaiian prints. 
We spent most of our time in Kona and Captain Cook. It was warm and the water was wonderful. We had some magnificent sunsets, only thing was as soon as the sun went down it was DARK. There is not any light pollution, which was really nice. We ate a lot of fish and sat at the beach and read. 
We went to Hilo on the 'wet" side of the island. Everyone said it was the wet side but I had no idea how wet. It rained the 3 days we were in Hilo. In fact Hilo flooded, a couple of the streets were closed. I did find the fabric store in Hilo called Discount Fabrics...it blew my mind. I had to buy more fabric. The hawaiian print selection was incredible. I bought some lovely turquoise & gold with a nice tropical theme, it was about $7 a yard. A steal if you ask me. I also bought a beautiful dragon print that was on sale. I got out of Discount Fabric for less than $50. 
My husband does not like to do tourist things, so we didn't go to see a lot of attractions. We did go see a black sand beach, the volcano and the City of Refuge. We drove all over the island to get a feel for the place. We also saw a lot of beautiful birds. Sitting on a deck in the morning drinking coffee and listening to the birds blew my mind. It was very soothing. 
So the food was good, the water warm, the scenery was beautiful. Next time I would stay on the warm side the entire time, skip Hilo except for maybe a day trip. 

Key West

Last April we took a vacation to Key West. I tried to explain to my husband that through Key West was in Florida it was not Florida. We flew into Fort Lauderdale…DON'T DO THAT. A friend said "it will save you $100 per ticket"….well yes it will but then you are in Fort Lauderdale and if you were like us you were farther away from your destination. We rented a car to drive to Key West because I though my husband would like beautiful drive from Miami to Key West. He did not. 

We arrived on Easter (4/20) in Miami and drank at a lovely little place called Clandestino Pub. The owners wife made the empanadas. The Trail Blazers were in the finals and beat Huston in overtime (the game was on at the bar). We had a wonderful time till we got back to our Air B&B place and realized we did not have keys to get into our room. We could not get a hold of the guy we rented the room from from and ended up having to get another room at a motel at 3am…where it took 45 minuted to check us in only for us to go to the room and find other people in the room. That was how the vacation started. It sucked!

We left the next day for Key Largo and spent 2 night in Key Largo. I would suggest getting lunch in Key Largo but otherwise keep going. There are some interesting places but they were all hiking things and that is not a vacation for my husband. He does not like to hike. We had a couple of nice dinners but other then that Key Largo if full of tourist traps and is kind of depressing. 

When we arrived in Key West we found the place we were staying to be on a road that was under construction for the last 2 years. The place was called Banana Bay, it was really nice. Our room over looked the pool and you could walk from the pool to the gulf ocean. Only problem is the Tiki Bar at the pool was never open. My husband had packed our blender and at that point I realized how smart he was. A bottle of rum, some cans of Kern's juice and ice. We were set. We rented a scooter and rode the mile into town on several times a day. We would get breakfast, some groceries and go back to swim or nap, head back into town for dinner and a few drinks…then back to the hotel for a dip in the pool. Wake up the next day get some cuban coffee and start all over again. 

We went to the Hemingway house and met several of the polydactyl cats. The place was beautiful, I can see why he like staying in Key West. Hemingway had HUGE balconies on the 2nd floor of his house with fans. A breeze ran through the house which was just perfect in Key West. 

We watched the sunset like everyone else does, we ate lobster roll's and lots of seafood, we watched the Conch Republic Parade that that went from coast to coast. The CIA (cuties in action) were in the parade drinking Cupcake Wine. It was a nice vacation but next time we fly into Key West and start our vacation right away.