Knowing this, my dear sweetie of a husband planned a winter getaway to Mexico for our family to celebrate the New Year. We left two days after Christmas, and surprisingly, no problems in the airports. We were the last flight out of Denver that morning with less than a half mile visiblity and buckets of snow sifting down like sugar. When we landed in Puerto Vallarta, it seemed silly to be schlepping a coat.

We started our jaunt at a small coastal town called Rincon de Guayabitos. This is the view from a horseback ride we took. 

My big hair is ridiculous. Bringing a flatener to a humid area is a waste of electricity. On the beach, many locals would ask if you wanted your hair braided like Bo Derek in the movie 10. I told my step-daughters I was going to let my hair fluff to a really puffy air-dry and then tell the lady to braid my hair. She’d probably have run screaming.

After two days, we changed hotels to Puerto Vallarta and I really enjoyed the resort feel of this Marriott. We had the top end of the eighth floor with an ocean view. I’m so glad I speak Spanish enough to be understood and I can understand enough of it to get along. All those years of growing up in la ciudad de Los Angeles paid off!

And the pool was just great. This is the view from our balcony.

A poolside sunrise.

New Year’s Eve with the sunset behind me and the beach. We went to the hotel restaurant for dinner and they supplied hats and horns. A boy about nine thought he was in charge of all the horn blowing, but he hadn’t reckoned with my step-daughters who gave him what for with horn blowing back at him across the restaurant. He finally stood up and tried to take control, but our table won the battle.  Go us! Later that night, my husband and I enjoyed some of the best fireworks we’ve ever seen, stretching all the way up and down the coast of Mexico. Thank you, Gregorio, for a wonderful trip! X O

Happy New Year to everyone! Now I’m back in snowy Boise. Ah to be on that sunny beach once more!

That’s Cocoa sitting on the rug.  And Molly is snoozing in the background on the kitchen floor tiles.  She’s passed the dining room and underneath the four plates hanging on the wall.

Our Christmas tree in the formal living room.

Miss Molly wagging her tail and the Cocoa Puff, her sidekick.

“I didn’t mean to pee on the rug, guys.”

This is where Cocoa sleeps while I’m working.  I have to remember to keep my feet still.  She’s under my desk!

I’m no camera genius, but this was a sunrise one morning with the ducks on our pond with the sun coming up through the weeping willows.  We have about fifty ducks a day who hang out at our house.  For a while, five geese showed up.  Our ducks are mostly Mallards, but now we have one American Coot (it looks like a duck, but it’s not) and eight Baldpates aka Widgeons. 

I absolutely love this duck–a baldpate.  The coloring on its head is amazing.  I like these fifty-plus ducks so much, I started feeding them cracked corn.  They go nuts for it.  Now when they see me, they come waddling out of the pond and are practically tame.  The other morning, it snowed and when I went outside, this was the sight that greeted me.  

While this is all great, and it’s fun to be able to stand there and feed them while they are mere inches away, there is the downside . . . they now think our swimming pool is better than the pond.  This doesn’t make my husband too happy.  But you have to admit, this is one cool photo!

This is the coastal town of Amalfi.  We had lunch on the wharf.  This is also where we caught the ferry to Capri.

Standing on the steps of the Catholic church in Amalfi.  The bones of Andrew are buried underneath the church in a large crypt-like room.  We were able to tour the room and listen to the history about the church.

The spectacular coastal town of Positano.  Remember the movie UNDER A TUSCAN SUN?  I believe this is the beach where Diane Lane had lemoncello.  That is one strong drink!

This is a figure cast in stone at Pompeii.  When the site was excavated, the bodies were hollowed out and a substance poured in form the body shapes.  All the artifacts behind this body were discovered as well.  Pompeii is preserved in ways that is unbelievable.

This was a cistern in Pompeii.  At one time, it was a part of someone prominent’s home.  The tile colors haven’t been restored, nor has the coloring in the wall plaster.  This was simply amazing.

Our little town of Ravello where we stood on the top of the town square.  It was on a hillside with a Catholic church.  When you walked down these steps, there was an open market.  We bought fresh olives, cheeses, crackers and a bottle of wine and sat on our private patio and ate lunch.  The view from our room patio was of the ocean, and the hotel’s lush gardens.

My husband knows I love to cook so he signed us up for a private cooking lesson with the Hotel Caruso’s 5-star chef.  The other couple that took the class with us were from Minnesota.  We learned how to make homemade pasta and a delish sauce.  I’ll post the recipe in an upcoming blog.  This chef Masimo (I’m sure I’m spelling that wrong) was on Italy’s top cooking show on TV.

A view of the Hotel Caruso’s “infinity” pool.  That means the railing where I’m standing goes straight down on the other side.  You swim in this pool and the edge is a cliff that is a drop off into nothing but a lemon and grape arbor below.  It was a bit freaky–but we loved swimming in here and enjoying the mountain and ocean view.

This was one of the many “markets” in Italy.  The selection of cheeses and meats are many and the quality is wonderful.  We never ate so many delicious cheeses and we loved all the varieties of olives.  The natural ones were actually the best.

Italy is truly a wonderful place to visit!  We’d like to go again!

Here are some photos of our trip.

This is what I call two geeks at the Trevi Fountain in Rome. The marble statue work was amazing.

This photo doesn’t do the artwork justice. This is the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel. We spent a day touring the Vatican with a fantastic American guide.

This is us in the lobby of the Hassler Hotel.  It’s where “Tom and Katie” had their wedding reception.  An interesting story . . . So Greg and I go to use the business suite.  He was going to check e-mail and I went in to see the results of the Indy 500.  There were these two guys in there.  They were gi-normous in beautiful three piece suits, good-looking men of color.  We were like–oops, sorry to intrude.  Mind you, this room was the size of a small walk in closet!  They both said no problem.  So here Greg and I sit using the computer and after the fact, we asked the bellman who those distinguished guys were.  One was a body guard.  The other . . . the President of Cameroon!

This is the view from a restaurant called La Pergola. It’s at the Cavalieri Hilton in Rome. A reservation here should be made three months in advance. Thanks to my dear friend, Millie Criswell, for letting us know about this gem! XO

This is us on the balcony of La Pergola, having a drink before we’re seated at our table.  The dessert was a work of art.  A sterling silver cabinet (about 5″ tall with drawers) was delivered to us by the chef, and each drawer was filled with a bite-sized candy, cake or chocolate.

The incredibly beautiful Isle of Capri.  The shopping was very exclusive and high end.  We had a wonderful pizza lunch on a patio terrace and watched the street vendors below.

The geeks are back!  Us on a scooter on Capri.  It was a blast to “putt-putt” around the island on that scooter.  We got to see one end of it to the other.  Gorgeous weather.  So clear and to have the warm breeze on our faces. 

To be continued . . . next up, the Amalfi Coast.  I could die and go to Heaven in Ravello.  It’s simply the most beautiful little town.  Ciao for now!

Hi, thanks for visiting. I have a new look at my website and I hope you’ll enjoy looking around. On the ABOUT page there’s a photo of me and a fabulous woman. I thought I’d introduce her to you on my Blog. That’s Valerie Gray, my awesome editor. She’s so great to work with. That photo is of Val and I at RWA’s RITA awards in Dallas this past July. LUCY GETS HER LIFE BACK was a finalist. It was a lot of fun to attend the event with my editor and my husband.