Mexico, Day Six, Heading Home

 1 plus 5!  Fifteen years and we're still smiling!

 Puerto Vallarta did us a huge favor and had the first gloomy, gray day of our trip on the day we were flying out.  Perfect timing!  And still so beautiful.

 Our flight didn't leave until the afternoon, so we had some time to track down the one souvenir we promised the kids we would bring home- Mexican jumping beans!

 But first Jason flipped his shirt inside out.  Too many comments about Iowa in the first five minutes of wearing his favorite Raygun shirt.

 We headed into town to see if we could track down the amazing and highly unusual little beans that I remembered from my childhood.  And everywhere we turned there were huge trees with amazing displays of blossoms- they were so beautiful, the pictures really don't do justice.

 And more flags and stars- such a colorful and happy place.  

 Everyone we asked knew what Mexican jumping beans were- "ah si! frijoles saltones!"- but no one could tell us where to find them.  Everyone said to go a few blocks further and further into the market.  We were basically at the edge of the tourist part of town at the last market we could possibly wander through before giving up our search and heading back to the airport when we met a lady that took Jason by the hand and stuck his head out the window and said in a wise and confident voice, "See that tree up there?  That's where you'll find the frijoles."

So, of course, Jason said "no way, let's just go", and I was like, "Best adventure yet! Let's do this!"  So we started up the cobblestone street.  Again, so much steeper than it looks in the pictures. And kind of smelly.  This was definitely not a tourist alley.

We climbed up and up until we reached the top of the stairs, passing a few pod-less trees along the way.  It was amazing to see these huge trees still living in the middle of these buildings.  

But judging by some of the foundation brickwork, it was hard to tell what had been there longer- the trees or the buildings.

At the top of the stairs we turned onto a much nicer street with a huge tree on it that had some promising looking pods hanging just out of our reach... but there was an open window or two on the second floor of these apartments!  Jason immediately poo-pooed my idea of climbing up on that car's roof either, so we stood there, as close as we were going to get to what we only hoped were actually Mexican jumping beans with no way to get them down.

But then I remembered a picture I had taken at our hotel a few days earlier of this tree- 

It was the same kind of tree!  So we abandoned our thoughts of committing a petty crime to access these pods and headed back down the steep alleyway, back into town and past a crazy pink pigeon that rubbed up against my leg and made me jump about three feet in the air, prompting a laughing Mexican man across the street to call out, "Hey lady!  You need some tequila to calm yourself down!"

It wasn't that I ever felt unsafe in Puerto Vallarta, but after six days of kind of understanding but not speaking the language (it was actually kind of nice to let Jason do all the talking, only chiming in when people asked "tu esposa habla espanol?") and not understanding the money and not knowing where we were ever going, I was a little bit on edge.  Just a bit.  

For the most part the entire trip was perfectly enchanting, especially when we passed beautiful buildings with incredible blossoming trees like this.  Such a lovely place. 

So we went back to our resort and spent a good fifteen minutes trying to inconspicuously gather up pods by running and jumping up to grab some off the trees, which, spoiler alert, did not end up being Mexican jumping beans after all.   But they sure did make a good story to tell anyway!  Our kids have just about every souvenir that we could have otherwise purchased from PV anyway, thanks to Jason's many previous trips.  

So we packed up, grabbed one last fruity drink and headed to the airport so we could get home to our babies.  There is always a turning point in every trip where you stop thinking about vacation and start thinking about reality and it's just time to get home.  

 And.... back to reality we went.  Colder than cold and snow every where.  This has been the snowiest Iowa winter we've experienced, and taking a few days off from all of the shoveling and scraping did wonders for our souls!  Long live the mid-winter vacation!

And it was all made possible thanks to Grandma!  She kept the kids happy and alive while we were gone, and I don't think we can ever thank her enough!!