raisins in the sun
We're just back from a Puerto Vallarta week long vacation. I love staying at the Melia because it's so easy and dependable. We stayed there last year too. The Melia is five minutes drive from the airport, fifteen minutes from the zona romantica and brags it has the largest pool in Vallarta. The rooms are big and bare bones but they have exactly what you need. The service is good, people are friendly and helpful for the most part. Of course it's Mexico so you can get the run around on certain things like another guest gets their room until 6pm for free while they want to charge you $60 if you stay past noon. Whatever. It's turns out if you insist and persist you will get your way eventually. We met lots of friendly families from all over the world with kids around the age of ours so we had lots of people to play with each time we went to the pool, beach or show. The food is fine. It's not great, but with so many choices in the huge buffets you can usually find something you like. Our kids were happy with the pizza, pasta and sandwich selections, they have tons of fresh fruit and vegetables and endless chocolate milk, sprint and yabba dabba doos. We ate the fresh grilled meats and fish fajitas style at almost every meal or stuck to traditional mexican choices and washed it down with beer and Margaritas. The snack bar is good too for ice cream cones, fries and hot dogs. One afternoon they cooked a GIANT payaya poolside which was delicious. They have lots of activities all day long for grown up and kids, the sun shines, it's hot and the pool is cool and there are different shows nightly. What's not to like? A few of my favorite vacation pictures are above and below. The kids really thrive when there's water involved. As they say "kids, just add water." Both Max and Vivi could spend the whole day in the pool shriveling like raisins. We had to beg them to take out of the pool breaks so we could enjoy the lounge chairs and poolside drink service. It was a good time for all. Vivienne got home and immediately started asking if we are going to Mexico tomorrow and then saying "miss mexico." darling!
