Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico

We are now all settled back in our routine and safe in Olympia after vacation in Sayulita, Mexico. It is a little sad to be back in dreary WA. I might love my hometown, but the weather is a bit depressing. Our family had an absolutely marvelous time in Sayulita. It is a village of about 3,000 Mexicans and probably close to 1200 Ex-Pat Americans and Canadians. I can't exactly pretend that it is undiscovered, but I thought it was a happy medium....it still felt like you were in Mexico (unlike PV, which has a WalMart and a Hooters)...but with restraunts, coffee shops and Mexican Handicraft boutiques. Since there were 9 of us on our trip, we rented a house. The house, Casa del Cielo was incredible - by far the nicest house I have ever stayed in, and the kids loved the pool. If you ever have to make kids happy, give them a pool and you will not be dissapointed. The only draw back to the house was the very, very long trek up a major hill it took to get back from the beach town in 90 degree weather.

Basically, our ten day trip pretty much followed the same routine;
6:30 Get woken up by roosters
6:45 Kids put on bathing suits and end up in the pool, or play Pig Pig with Grandpa Mike
8:00 We make it to the beach (a ten minute walk from the house), rent a surfboard and settle in in front of Don Pedro's. Everyone gets slathered in sunblock and we get some baked goods to eat for breakfast
8:00-5:00 We take turns surfing (while I lounge on the beach waiting for my turn, I read my way through six books of the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mysteries and three books of James Patterson's Women's Murder Club) while the kids either play in the sand or boogie board in the waves. The first few days I kept a very close eye on them, and then eventually let them roam a bit.
12:30 Get Fish Tacos from a stand and cold diet coke from a tienda (Yakult yogurt drinks for the kids) or tamales from the tamale beach lady for lunch
5:00 Trek up the big hill and get really hot and dirty, then jump in the pool to cool off once we get there
6:30 Either head back into town for dinner and hanging out around the plaza gorging ourselves on various desserts, or eat dinner prepared by our very own marvelous housekeeper, Alma.
8:30 Head to bed if the power goes out or play Carcassonne a few times