"Yesterday's Dream": Feb18th: Continuing to catch up, Christmas 2024

Angel Wing

Fran's family celebrates Christmas on Christmas eve with a mostly traditional Polish seafood dinner. I was pleased to be included. The dinner included swordfish on the grill with my honey, garlic, ginger, butter and soy sauce marinade. Fran also served shrimp and fish along with other wonderful side dishes. I also made angel wings. Fran and Vince remembered them from their younger days and so did I. I said I would give it a try.

It was a great dinner and afterward we did a rotating gift/swap exchange. It was a lot of fun.

Fran's family is very musically talented. We were entertained by John and Brent on the guitars and Tyler on the piano.

The holidays continued on Christmas day with a dinner at the Surf and Sand restaurant with John's family

It was very nice, overlooking the water with excellent food. The dessert was amazing! Carmelized pears, toffee pastry with ginger ice cream. I enjoyed John's, Lisa's, Layla May's and Jack's company.

It's no wonder I didn't get a blog done. Next was a prime rib dinner at my house for Fran and the Reynards. We agreed to trade presents then. The prime rib was excellent and we enjoyed the evening. Fran and I struggled with what to get the Rahns and Fran came up with the idea of a very unusual and popular restaurant called the Hobbit. So what to get Fran. I immediately thought about fishing since she loves it more than I do. But that was kind of like a present for both of us because I would also use the lures and equipment. So I needed more.

Fran is very much into astronomy. Whenever we are walking at night I learn a few more constellations. The socks she wore when we visited the Griffith Observatory confirms that.

So I bought her a picture of the Syracuse N.Y. night sky on January 29th, the day she was born. (where she was born) It was a big hit.

Because we both like to fish, I bought Fran an assortment of lures and a new rod and reel. I opened my present first and found she also bought an assortment of fishing lures and equipment for me. When she opened her present she had to laugh! We bought the same lures. We should have known. We have enough lures to last us a very long time.

Randy and Cindy sent us a present to use on the boat. Very appropriate!

I was invited to the Sand and Sea restaurant by Fran's Son, John's family for another Christmas celebration dinner. It was very nice, overlooking the water with excellent food. The dessert was amazing! And I enjoyed John, Lisa, Layla May and Jack.

From the left, Layla May, Sienna, John, Lisa, Jack
Tyler, Joelle Fran and Chloe

John and Tyler's families joined us for a walk around the marina and dinner on the water. The marina is very well decorated for the holidays.

We'd done a lot of eating and little riding. Fran suggested we go for a long bike ride to Cook's Corner. Sounded good to me. I learned it was a biker bar out in the outskirt of town. An interesting place. I had a Rueben sandwich that was as good as any I ever had. Fortunately, the ride was mostly down hill on the way back.

We of course still needed to celebrate New Year's Eve. The Rahns hosted a very fun party. I didn't get a lot of pictures but here are a couple of Karen's game, pong bowling.

The holidays were over. Next it was a trip to Puerto Vallarta, MX for Fran and me to join our Canadian friends. We all stayed at the Occidental Nuevo, an all inclusive resort. The resort was lovely. We met 4 new Canadian couples through Randy and Cindy and we thoroughly enjoyed their company.

Randy, Cindy and I went out fishing one day and did very well. We caught 15 Spanish Mackerel, very good to eat. We took them to the local Puetro Vallarta yacht Club and they cooked them for all 14 of us. The entire dinner was delicious and the people couldn't have been nicer.

The Puerto Vallarta Yacht Club and our Canadian friends

3 days after we arrived Fran was notified that she could be upgraded to a better room. Turns out the room she signed up for wasn't available when we checked in. Her new room was much nicer than the one she signed up for. It had a large balcony with a hot tub!

Coffee plant

Fran and I went on a short trip to a botanical garden up the mountain. It was very scenic and our driver/guide grew up in the mountains. He provided a great deal of information.

He informed us that a helicopter landed in this bay while filming the movie Predator

Here are some of the views.

Our group took a van into Puerto Vallarta for some sight seeing and shopping. There is a very old church that was impressive. Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe

The town is very touristy as expected. Everyone was having fun!