PV Day 5: The Countdown

On Thursday, reality set in that it was our last day. We planted ourselves on the beach and resisted all urges to get sucked into activities. One activity that we couldn't resist was pottery painting. Leena and I flexed our creative muscles...she painted a fish, and I painted a turtle. It was super fun and our final products turned out really great! Meanwhile Ricky and Amit took the bartending class and the guys spent some time hanging out in the pool.

That night we had dinner in the Mediterranean restaurant. We went to bed pretty early - it was a fun-filled, relaxing week, but boy were we tired!

The next day we'd be heading home. It was a memorable week...good times. Soon we'll be saying hello to 2008, hopefully a year filled with new and exciting things!

PV Day 4: A Visit to Centro and a Massage

On Wednesday, Dumma, Leena & I went to downtown (aka Centro) for some shopping. Leena and I bought some cool jewellery which we've decided will be community property between us since we both liked the same things...nice :) Dumma was really nice and unbelievably patient with us while we stopped at every jewellery place we saw. At the end of the shopping excursion, we enjoyed the best margarita of the week at one of the downtown restaurants. Yummm....

Meanwhile, back at the resort....

Amit and Ricky finally decided they were ready for some activities. They spent the day swimming and enjoying some of the activities.

We all met back up around 3pm. Just in time for our massages. Dumma/Leena and Amit/I had scheduled a pair of couples massages at 4pm. It was great...so relaxing. Afterwards, we took a dip in the pool before getting cleaned up for dinner. That night we had some martinis at the M&M bar, then enjoyed some flaming shots at the Italian restaurant, and finally ended up at the Living Room bar. The guys were tired and went to bed around midnight, so Leena & I ended up having an impromptu Girls Night Out and continued our night for a couple more hours.

It was a fantastic day.

PV Days 2 & 3

Finally, there we were, in Puerto Vallarta. It took 2 days to get there, and we were eager to get to the beach. Amit, Leena and Ricky spent the first day lounging around and napping at the beach, the pool, and in the hotel room. Perhaps Dumma and I should have done the same...instead, we went to the gym, played tennis and ran around doing every activity in sight! Dumma even made friends with the old ladies in the Water Aerobics class. We were wiped out!








The second day we all joined Dumma and his new friends for Water Aerobics. It was much harder than it looked. We had a fabulous day - swimming, lounging at the beach, sampling the Mai Tais & Pina Coladas... Now this was a vacation!

PV Day 1 delayed

Our flight out of Phoenix was supposed to be at 10am. When we arrived at the ticket counter for US Air, they had no record of United Airlines having booked us on their PHX -> PV flight. So the uncertainty continued. For a couple of hours that morning, they shuffled us back and forth between terminals 2 and 4, both airlines denying responsibility for the mixup. Amit and Dumma took turns arguing our case with each airline representative we were passed on to. The whole situation was frustrating beyond words. One airline agent told us we'd have to go back to SFO to get a flight to PV. Another agent wanted us to stay in Phoenix till Wednesday, then go to Gaudalajara and then on to PV on Thurs...just in time to spend 1 night there before flying back on Friday! We finally ended up on a standby list for the 10am flight, then the 11am flight. Miraculously, we made it onto the 11am flight - all 5 of us. Although Amit's visible frustration (maybe it was the pen he snapped in half while talking to the ticket agent) landed him in Leena's boat - with the cursed 4 S's that sent them to the extra security line.

Finally, after 36 hours of travelling, we arrived in Puerto Vallarta. We were frustrated, pissed off at the airlines, grateful to the few helpful people we encountered at both airlines, tired, and more than ready to be on vacation.

I'm happy to say that none of us lost our cool with each other. We all went with the flow, despite our frustration with the situation. I think the way we handled it definitely made the situation more bearable. We were all in this together and we stuck together through all the frustrations.

The first night in PV we settled in at the hotel, had dinner, and calmed our nerves with some drinks at the bar. We'd all be ready for some R&R after a good night's sleep and a shower.

PV Day 1: Mr. Phillips and Curse of the 4 S's

It all started off great. we arrived at the airport earlier than schedule and we were all set to jet off to puerto vallarta. we should have known there'd be trouble when things started going less than perfectly from there. nothing disastrous, of course, but little things, when given the opportunity to go wrong, they did.

first, when we tried to check in at the kiosk, everyone's passports went through the reader without any problems...everyone, that is, except for Leena. for some reason the card reader didn't recognize her passport. so we shook it off and stood in the regular check-in line. dozens of minutes later we finally got to the front of the line. we got our boarding passes and were on our way to the security line when we noticed that we were missing a boarding pass for Leena. So...back to the check-in agent. Now we're ready to go! So we're standing in the security line, when the agent comes over and asks of any of our boarding passes are marked "SSSS". Sure enough, one of ours was. Guess who....Leena. And so Leena was exiled to the "extra" security line along with some 90 year old woman and her 100 year old husband. It would be a long time before we'd see Leena again, but at least *then* we'd be on our way.

Aaah, but this trip would not be so easy. United Airlines decided to downgrade the plane so 27 passengers (including us) were out of luck. Uh-oh. So, here it was, 9:30 am, an hour and a half before our scheduled flight, and we had no seats. The next thing we knew, the hours were passing by, and we were at the mercy of Mr. Phillips at the United counter. He scheduled us on a 7pm flight to Phoenix, where we'd have to stay overnight, and then fly out the next morning to PV. So this is how our day went, 9am to 7pm we sat and sat and sat...

Finally around 10:30pm we landed in Phoenix with no luggage, no toothbrushes, and no idea that our bad luck would follow us to the next day.

rude people wearing santa hats

i got cut off today, not once, but twice, by people wearing santa hats. seriously...what's the deal? by putting on a santa hat, it's commonly understood that you're willing to be nice. and then to go and drive like a maniac? it's wrong. just plain wrong.

well, we're almost there...tomorrow's a half day at work, and then saturday we'll be off to sunny PV. and not a moment too soon. i have a busy vacation planned: lots of reading, a massage, and one too many gin & 7ups. all this on the beach, of course.

number of days till vacation: 9

we're heading to Puerto Vallarta with Ricky, Dumma & Leena...heading out on Dec 22 ... peak travel wknd :-/ but once we get there, it'll be good times had by all for 6 days. aaaah, i can hear the waves now. here's where we're staying (an all inclusive, of course): http://www.gomarival.com/home.aspx
can't wait!!

in other news, i've been playing around on Orkut. not too thrilled with the UI. it's not the most intuitive site. took me two days of clicking around before i finally got my page semi-finished... phew. i have a grand total of 3 friends so far. i'm so freakin' popular, i can't even believe it!

welcome to me and everyone else

let me start by welcoming myself to my first blog :)

ok, done.

now...welcome to anyone who's reading this, too! i hope you can use this to keep in touch. we all get so busy and life zips by at warp speed. it's nice to have a place to keep track of what's new and different....and hopefully interesting.

see you on the inside...