Vacation!!!!

I was hoping Tim would be blogging about our trip to Marival as these longer posts are daunting…. I will try to order photos soon

On August 1, 2008 our family met at LAX at 6AM to catch our flight to Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. With cautious expectations what lay ahead we boarded our flight for a 10 day experiment of relaxation. My parents, my older brother’s family and my Aunt Debby landed safely some 3 hours later in Puerta Vallarta into a beautifully remodeled airport and were whisked away into the tourist enclave of Nuevo Vallarta. This new stretch of land seemed to be set aside for the tourist north of the main city.

The Marival Resort is an all inclusive resort that catered to travelers from America, Canada, Great Britton and Mexico. We were surprised at how diverse the make up of the population in the resort was with about ¼ of the guests speaking Spanish. The week leading up to our trip we received word that we may be moving outside of our 1 bedroom standard rooms to a beach front 3 bedroom suite… The 10 of us shared this incredibly renovated 3 bedroom 4 bathroom suite. The rooms were comfortable with incredible views of the beach and pool below.

The vast majority of our days were spent at the beach and pool. With Debby being our early riser she would reserve 4 chairs at the pool and another stash at the beach each morning. We ended up spending each morning (up until 1PM lunch) at the beach… whether we were building sand castle forts or riding boogie boards we were having fun together as a family. The resort offered several activities along the ocean at no charge including boogie boards, skim boards, wind surfing, sea kayaks and even sail boats. While we utilized many of these offerings by far the boogie boards received most of our attention. At one time I think we had all 10 of us out there using 8 boards…. Not many children get to say they went boogie boarding with their grandparents this summer.

The weather was tolerable… not as bad as Florida but definitely hot and humid. Being able to play in the water for nearly every waking hour was helpful if not necessary. The ocean was warm and the current was gentle (except for the last day). The waves broke 30 yards from the shore which was still at standing depth which allowed us to play in the surf for many hours each day. While there were several sightings of rays (manta?) and two sightings of jelly’s most of us were not deterred from enjoying the beach.

The pool was where we spent our afternoons each day…. I think the two main resons were the proximity to the bar (in the pool) and you can only handle so much sand in your shorts (ask Madison). We had a blast watching Trent swim without a plan… playing monkey in the middle and seeing how many Reimers you could stack! We just hung out and enjoyed the company. We only ventured to the kids pool once but the noise from too many children was too much to bear (even with Tim’s Corona Girl)

There were several activities each day at the Resort. While we did not partake in the vast majority we did participate in some… My father took part in a stretching class each morning to help his aching body. Several of us took a course in Archery. We participated in a cooking class (pool side) and even a bartending clinic. While there were options to be more active we mainly chose to relax.

The day seemed to actually revolve around eating… Breakfast was served in 1 of 2 restaurants; buffet or sit-down. With my family usually sleeping in to 10 each morning I can’t really say much about the breakfast but it clearly had many options. Make your own omelets were a choice of Zach’s while many of us survived on French toast and pancakes. One interesting drink offered at the juice bar was a mixture of Parsley, Grapefruit, Celery juices… I still can’t get that taste out of my mouth. The majority of our lunches were at the buffet as you had to be completely dry to eat at the restaurant. The food was good but grew old after the first couple of days. I guess being a picky eater makes it difficult to take the courage to try new foods. Dinners were the highlight of our eating escapades. Marival offers 4 dinner choices nightly with three needing reservations and the fourth being a buffet (different theme every night). I could post a full blog just on the food but maybe Tim can do that…. All I will say is that that food was EXCELLENT. Better than what you would find at most eateries in town. Each meal was at least 5 courses leaving us rolling to bed each night.

When asked the vast majority would point to Swimming with the Dolphins as the highlight of our trip. In the middle of our trip we all participated with swimming with the dolphins. My family was in a group of eight people ‘sharing’ 2 bottle nose dolphins. We fed them… kissed them… petted them… and even rode on their fins around the tank. Simply an amazing experience.

I left Marival saying that this was my favorite vacation yet.