2015 Puerto Vallarta Epilogue

First, an acknowledgement to Carla who is responsible for most of the best pictures from this trip. Then, a description of some of the aftermath.

Annabelle was in fine form on Sunday morning. Laura and Brett thought she was a little fussy in the airport. She seemed relaxed on the flight. But the next morning she was in some distress and had diarrhea. She had a high fever, would cry inconsolably for some time for no apparent reason, and had very little appetite. When she did muster the energy to walk, it was like a drunken sailor, as if she was dizzy or otherwise had trouble keeping her balance. Perhaps her state on the airplane was due to not feeling well rather than relaxation.

Laura was working Monday, but Brett was home and took her to the doctor who said to wait it out for a couple of days. There had been no improvement by Thursday morning, so Laura took some time off work and took her in again with Celeste. They saw a different doctor who sent them for blood tests and a stool sample kit. The blood tests pointed to a viral infection and the advice was again to wait it out. With the stool sample test results still pending, she developed a rash around supper time Friday. They took her to emergency and were reassured that a rash was not uncommon with a virus and that they should continue to wait it out.

Actually, Annabelle had started to show a few more signs of life by supper time Friday and she was much better Saturday morning, although still far from 100%. She must have picked up a bug on Sunday. It was very difficult to watch the poor little thing suffer throughout the week, but it gave us great joy to see her almost back to normal at suppertime Sunday. Charlotte also developed some diarrhea on Wednesday and a few days after, but did not seem to experience any other symptoms and behaved quite normally. Apparently Nathan also had some discomfort on Monday morning. It was an unfortunate way to conclude an otherwise great week.

Sunday 22 February 2015 Puerto Vallarta

Darren’s crew were picked up for departure at 10:30 AM, but that didn’t stop Sue from squeezing in a dip in the ocean, another one in the pool with the boys, and a short time sunbathing. Some of the Sprungs also squeezed in a short dip in the ocean. The rest of us just lazed around until our pick up at 12:30. Our flight left a few minutes late at 4:30, but made up the time and arrived a few minutes early at about 9 PM.

Annabelle was again quite upset at the noise and motion of initial departure, but soon settled down. She did not sleep much, but was quite quiet for the duration of the trip. Charlotte fell asleep for a while, but woke up quite upset and stayed that way for a while.

Brett’s Mom and Dad picked them up. They had a bit of a delay as Brett was selected for random extra screening. (Couldn’t they have picked someone who was not traveling with two tired babies?)  We had left our van parked at the airport. While we were gone it had snowed and melted, so it was quite iced up, but I was able break through and pick up Celeste, Carla, and Tyler for the drive home, arriving about 10:30.

Saturday 21 February 2015 Puerto Vallarta

Today we took in the Pirate Land Adventure with Darren and Sue and their boys. We had a pretty long cab ride to the port where we met “Krusty,” our personal pirate. He was to be our attendant for the day. We had a fairly lame breakfast in the hold of the ship. It was a real wooden sailing ship complete with wooden sides and ribs, although it had been fitted with a diesel engine. Later, we were told the ship’s history, although we could not understand a lot of it due to the sound system and the speaker’s accent. I believe that it was built in Spain as a replica of Columbus’ ship the Santa Maria.

Shortly after leaving port at 10:00, there was a bit of a dance party. Later the pirates put on a comical play, featuring a young recruit from Lampman SK, with good guys and bad guys and the audience encouraged to cheer or boo as appropriate. The boys were quite enthralled.

After the play, we were loaded into speedboats for our trip to the beach several minutes away. The much slower pirate ship caught up to us there later. At the beach they served us beer and soft drinks while we took part in various beach and water activities, including a kids treasure hunt.

After a couple of hours we again boarded the speedboats for our trip back to the ship. There we were served the meal we had ordered from a few choices presented when we first arrived on the dock. All of us adults ordered the filet and shrimp. I was not really expecting much, but it was probably the best meal of our trip so far. It was not quite up to the level of a good steak restaurant, but it was very good. The steak was wrapped in bacon and served on top of pasta with nice vegetables and large shrimp on the side.

After the meal we played “Name that tune” until we returned to the dock at about 3:30.

When we arrived back at the hotel we learned that the twins had already been in the pool twice. I joined the Sprungs in the surf for a while, and then we all gathered around the pool. Later we hung out at Laura’s balcony and a few people went to eat. At 8:30 Carla and Tyler, Laura and Brett, and Celeste and I went to the Italian restaurant while Darren, Sue and Sprungs were on baby watch. Cameron fell asleep on Sue’s lap, but Justin stuck it out by watching Nathan play video games.

Friday 20 February 2015 Puerto Vallarta

We spent today on the resort. In the morning we went to the beach. Sue and the boys had a lot of fun playing in the surf. The water began quite calm, but as time went by the swells grew larger and the tide came in. The boys would meet the waves at the low water mark then race to stay ahead of each one as it raced up the beach. I finally found something with more energy than the boys.

Meanwhile, the twins played on some beach towels in the sand. For some reason they are afraid of sand, so we played on the towels as they gradually got more comfortable. Eventually Charlotte got comfortable enough that she took a few steps off on her own. It was time to head back for a snack before Annabelle reached that point.

Unfortunately, Laura hurt her foot while all this was going on. This was her first chance to get into the ocean and she was enjoying the opportunity until her foot landed on something sharp. She thinks it must have been some kind of sea creature, but it might have been some kind of pointed human garbage. Anyway, she received a deep puncture wound in the front part of her foot. She finds it painful, but is still able to get around.

The afternoon was spent around the pool. I, Darren, Nathan, Matthew, Tyler, and Brett all took our turns trying to wear out the two little guys without success. The twins also went in the pool. Annabelle in particular really enjoyed it. And our iguana made another appearance.

There was a piñata this afternoon for the kids to attack and our boys were right in there.

Celeste and I joined the four Sprungs in the Mexican restaurant for the 6:30 dinner seating. During the day this facility serves as the beach and pool bar and snack bar. Dinner was alright, but not what you would expect from a good restaurant at home. After dinner Celeste and I took over the child care and our young folk attended the 8:30 dinner seating. Bedtime was when the rigours of the day really showed on Justin and Cameron. They could barely keep their eyes open during stories and were asleep as soon as the light was out.