Puerto Vallarto

I've really been slacking on here & I'm sorry! I will bring you up to speed by going back to April, when we took our trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
We went with our friends that we seem to always travel with :) Angela, Kevin, Dao & Tommy. They've been our travel buddies from Las Vegas, to cruises & now to Mexico!



This was our first trip to Puerto Vallarta & first experience with the 'all-inclusive stay.' And it will probably be our last.



Unfortunately, the dining experience became extremely frustrating. I could go & on about it, but I don't want to sour your opinion of every all-inclusive (our friends Jason & Carrie had just gone to another one for their honeymoon & had a wonderful time). Luckily, Joe & I ventured into town and found some great local spots with amazing food & service!



While our other friends were more adventurous & went zip-lining in a tropical forest and sailing out to sea, Joe & I decided to stay pool-side! (Okay, you all know, we stayed in so I could get as much work done as possible on my laptop!!!)



It was only days after we got back to the states when the swine flu broke out, yikes!! There were even reports of the swine flu in PV...luckily none of us got sick!!

Scary Stuff!

The other night, Joe & I were having a nice, peaceful dinner at home. All of the sudden we hear a POP overhead & the light fixture that hangs above our dining table comes crashing down!!

It definitely freaked us out, needless to say! Luckily, we didn't cook that night & all of the to-go boxes that we were eating from were scattered about the table & cushioned the fall of the large fixture (our table is all glass - that would've been a PAIN to clean & replace!!!!). Unfortunately, my cell phone was also in the way & although I can still sort of use it, it got quite a bit smashed in :(




(the dangling wires where the light used to be & the light off to the side...sorry for the mess, we have people staying with us!)

More Napa Pics

San Fran & Napa were so beautiful that I wanted to share more of the pics that we took. So, in no particular order....

Napa Trip

To help celebrate our friends' birthdays & upcoming wedding (Jason & Carrie) we went to Napa & San Francisco last weekend for the first time. We were totally blown away by the beauty of Napa & wish we had more time to see all of what San Fran had to offer. Overall, we had a great time...and managed to bring home 16 bottles of wine!!

Joe & I on a pier in San Fran:


On the tram up to Sterling Vineyard:


At Sterling with the beautiful Napa scenery in the backdrop!



The guys outside the castle winery:


The gang at the castle winery (cannot remember its name!):



I will post the rest of the beautiful pics we took in my next blog :)

Mom's 50th B-Day in Vegas

To celebrate my mom's 50th birthday, we took her & my stepfather, Frank, to her most favorite place on earth - Las Vegas!!!

We decorated her room before she got there:

And then we all went downtown to Freemont Street:

The sharks & aquarium at Golden Nugget:

On Saturday night we took them to our favorite Italian restuarant, Rao's, since she LOVES Italian food & then we all went to see the Cirque du Soleil show "Love" (based on the music of the Beatles). The show was AMAZING, but sorry we couldn't get any pics!

For the rest of the weekend, we couldn't pull her away from the penny slots :) She was in HEAVEN!!!

"Should I hold em or fold em?" - Barb

Joe's Poor 'Baby'

Last night, on our way to a nice, relaxing dinner, we were rear-ended :(
Just moments after Joe was telling me a story about how he saw someone else get rear-ended just blocks away from where we were, we were turning from Congress onto 4th St downtown & had to stop because of pedestrians & a biker (going the WRONG way mind you!!). I guess the girl driving behind us didn't notice we were stopping until it was too late & she was either going to swerve into the other lane & really wreck into someone or nick our back bumper. We barely even felt her hit us....so no injuries. And, she was really nice (& thankfully has insurance) and everything shoud be taken care of soon.

Seven Pounds

Ah! We just saw the new Will Smith movie, Seven Pounds, and it was one of the best movies I had ever seen. I think I cried through 3/4 of it...& still cried after the movie was done & we were back home. If you haven't seen it yet, DO!