Springtime in the Park in the Pacific Northwest

We walked again in Coulon Park, just five minutes from our condo here in Renton, WA.  We want to get our exercise walk, but by the time we watch the ducks, look at the mountains, examine the flowers, check on the turtles, oh, the mountains are “out”  (why people live in Seattle – to see the mountain when it “comes out” ) hmmmm, do we have time for our exercise?

     But what a gorgeous spring day!

Birds of a feather 

A little loner

I guess they like to flock together

Snow on the mountain?

No, "baby" daisies!

The Olympics are "out"

These condos have unobstructed views of the lake -- until the trees in front of them leaf out!

Even a waterfall

Boeing's tail fins shine

There she is!

Mt. Rainier overlooks Boeing;'s birds

Seven turtles peacefully watch the Boeing planes across the lake

We’re in the Community Garden – Again!

Some of you will remember we had a small plot (4’x4’) last year in the Community Garden, sponsored by Calvary Baptist Church, but just adjacent to our condo area.  This year we added two more plots making three, and Joan got busy clearing out the weeds that were there from over the winter.  It almost looks like produce, doesn’t it?  Well, it is, except it’s all weeds (except the leeks, left over from the other gardener.) 

Winter weeks

Joan cleared the area,then her friend Kim added some fertilizer.  The leeks are there!

Horrible experience through immigration in SFO

Our experience was so bad in SFO, we were actually considering not going to Mexico again.  Then, we thought that there is an SNA flight which had connected PVR to SEA  and thought we would definitely try that next time if we could not get a nonstop.

    We also see we need to get to the PVR airport maybe MORE than three hours, even on a Friday (Sat-Sun are worse.)  We had to wait in line a LONG time.

       When you do not have a nonstop flight to a US city from Mexico, you have to go through customs in the city you stop in, even though you return to the same plane = as we had to in SFO. We have done this before and it was not as bad, but it was really bad this time.

      It was more complicated since all the bags for a Portland flight, different than ours, had ben loaded onto our plane, so those poor people who were in Portland even had it worse than we, because you have to take your bags and recheck them through the US domestic TSA system.  What the Portland people did then is unknown, because they did not have their bags when they arrived in Portland!  But we had to wait until all their bags were unloaded since our bags had been loaded first, so they were last off.

     After rechecking the bags, we had to exit from the secure area and return to the ticket level to go through security again, to go to the exact same plane we were on!  Usually, it was moved to the domestic side, so we only have to go through US security, but this time, since the plane was already delayed two hours, it stayed on the international side.  So, not only did all the new passengers in the US, going from SFO to SEA have to go through international security TSA examination, so did we (again), and it was the slowest we have ever seen a security line and that was after we through the initial check and just waiting to go through the X-ray and whole body scan.  It all was terribly unorganized, unnecessary and frustrating.  And all of that after having to wait 40 minutes in the initial customs check in line.

   Next time, we will NOT go through SFO.  SNA sounds great!

Ravel’s “Bolero” – in Dance!

He begins 

     We just returned from downtown where on most Friday nights a dance school, the Xiutla Danza Folklorica, presents a fabulous program in the Lazaro Cadenas Park right downtown.  The costumes and choreography are terrific; they present folk dances from different regions of Mexico.  Everything was good, but its great finale, however, is the presentation of “Bolero!”  So fabulous! 

      We took the bus down early enough to go to our favorite seller Roberto’s booth first, whom we heard about years ago from TUGGER Pamela Thompson, who lives here.  She said that she would only buy silver from him.  So we have always gone there when we wanted something silver.  He has since added many more things to the booth, mainly clothing, but we were looking for a specific silver thing.  He will look for it and we will return next Wednesday evening.  It’s a gift, so we won’t reveal what it is until we give the gift.

We ate dinner at the Oceanic Bar, a small upstairs restaurant overlooking the Malecon and ocean, recommended by Tim and Donna.  It was nice, not too expensive and with a nice view.

Menu

View from our table

Looking into the restaurant

Another  angle from our table

The sign outside, we go up stairs to the restaurant

 Then we walked to the bus stop and waited for our bus.  We need to read the destinations carefully and sometimes it’s hard, especially at night.  There are LOTS of buses.

Visiting Friends at Velas Vallarta

What a beautiful place!  And a large beautiful unit with a large kitchen.  And the Mexican architecture we like!  Curving brick pathways through beautiful landscaping with two large pools.

   Georgeann invited us to come and meet her husband and we swam and then had lunch in their unit, which overlooks the pools and ocean.  It’s so beautiful, we asked why she would ever go to the Mayan Palace and stay in a “studio” – which is really a hotel room without even a coffeepot – where they had stayed last week, and she said she could not get in the weeks before.  Usually Velas is an AI resort- All Inclusive – but owners, as they are- have an option.  Thus, it is often easily available on RCI but with that AI requirement.  We’d love to stay here, but do not like the extra AI cost.

  












We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, had easily walked over in 20 minutes on the street but walked back even on a shorter route down the beach and carrying the Styrofoam ice chest she gave us that they had used at the Mayan, since we have such a small refrigerator here and need more room for Ron’s foods. 

In the windy afternoon, the beach was almost deserted. (Indeed, a storm was blowing in that night!) 

A deserted beach

It's quite wide too

March 4-18 Two Weeks at the Mayan Palace PV Marina

     We booked here two weeks mainly to be near Raintree Club Regina where friends Donna and Tim are staying.   It’s just two resorts away and we can walk right down the beach to it.     

     We were last here in 2008 and there have been several changes since then.  This was an exchange with SFX (San Francisco Exchange) into a 2 bedroom unit, which is really a 1 bedroom with the pass through lockout hotel room which they call a “studio” – but there is not even a coffeepot in the “studio” much less a kitchenette.  We already knew that but still can’t believe it. 

    Our first shock was that checking in, the young man told us we were going to be charged a $75 fee/week  for being an “exchanger,”  even though they did not recognize the letters SFX on our confirmation nor was there any notice anywhere that we would have such a charge.  (SFX is a special “partner” in their selling pitches – why didn’t the staff here recognize it then?) 

    TUGGERS clarified that  it was a “new” charge and that out at Nuevo it covers Internet Access, Fitness Center Access, Daily Maid Service, Turn Down Service, Local Telephone Calls, Internal Resort Transportation, Welcome Cocktail, Daily newspaper (upon request), No cover charge at Santuario, and Incoming Faxes.   But for us here, it covers NOTHING  – just another fee.  Apparently the RCI confirmations have the $75 fee on them, but there is nothing on the SFX confirmations

Large bath area

    We had requested an ocean view room but they said that was not possible as they were all full.  However, we got the mountain/marina view side, which made it probably better – lots to see, boats, people, mountains, and gorgeous sunrises – some rivaling even the sunsets!   

Kitchenette

       

Joan was a little upset at first that the refrigerator was only the small hotel style, since we usually eat in, especially since Ron has such a special diet that we need more room but no other refrigerators were available to add  – in the past, friends in the “studios” were able to rent one; instead, the front desk clerk suggested I could buy an ice-chest at Walmart.  (We wondered how we would get it back on the bus.)   We were, however, able to get in all the food that needed to be refrigerated and the small freezer at the top actually froze things!

We always love the animals made out of the towels

Our confirmation says the 2 bedroom unit sleeps 6.  The master has a king bed, the second bedroom has double beds. The living room has the typical Mayan couches with pull-outs.  Thus, it might sleep more, but, it still says 6.  There are ten bath towels, four washcloths, three hand towels.  There are ten plates, bowls, nine mugs but just five drinking glasses.  Odd.

After adding our own placemats, chair runner, salt/pepper and plants

Note there was not a table of any kind for the balcony, only two chairs on quite a large balcony; however, we made one out of the luggage rack and the top of the plastic bins the bellhops use.  There is a smaller balcony on the “studio” unit side, also with two chairs and no table.

   

Enjoyable walk to the pools and beach by the pond

Beach sunsets

One of the best

The sunrises were fabulous

Joan usually swam at this pool with no one else in the pool!

      Update Note:  Except for these odd new things above, however, our time here was been great – all things listed before apply: the pools are great, the service staff is great, the Bakal restaurant buffets are great (and we went to the two-for-one offerings at 6 p.m. – 7 p.m.)  

Follow-up note:  We contacted SFX and there were no $75 charges on our bill!

“I’ll Never Make Spaghetti Again!” - Joan

Today was moving day so tonight we ate at the Italian buffet here at the Bakal Cafe at the Mayan Palace,  the two for one special from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.  and we met our friends Tim and Donna here, too.  What a great great dinner!  The chefs will fix a custom pasta dish for you, getting to choose what you want in it, which kind of pasta and which kind of sauce.  It was absolutely PERFECT!!  Better than PERFECT!  The best spaghetti I have ever had!  The tomato sauce was thinner than we usually see and it made it taste especially great.  Now I can never make spaghetti again!  Or could I duplicate that?



We love eating outside!



City view from our table



Ocean view from our table outside

Dusk is coming and then the sunset: a great time to be at the restaurant






 



Sunset from the beach there



Italian night buffet