Honeymoon!

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves for the most part, but some interesting tidbits about the honeymoon:

We missed our flight on Sunday AM and spent Sunday at the Courtyard Marriott LAX. It was actually great! Gave us a day to unwind, had a nice hot tub and functional air conditioning.

• The pool at the hotel was the best part -- wet bar, infinity edge, and great view of the ocean from our balcony.



• About 2PM every day, a muddy current would come by the hotel and make the ocean water very murky. Luckily, we spent our time in the pool and didn't have to concern ourselves with the contents of said murky water. I'm guessing it wasn't chocolate churned by waterfall, Mr. Wonka...



• I have apparently joined a nice fraternity of "middle-aged men who tore their Achilles tendons and were in Mexico a couple weeks ago." I had more discussions than I would like about the circumstances of those surgeries and injuries, and hopefully I wind up in better shape than the other guys. Whew...



• Jessica and I had a couples massage one day in which Jessica swears the woman kissed her ankles and wrists one by one (let's just be glad she stopped there or there could have been trouble). I cannot substantiate this, as I was enjoying my massage (Bon Jovi music playing in the background) and hoping my masseuse wouldn't either re-tear my Achilles or pop my shoulder out of socket. Success!



• I got burned after caking myself with SPF 15. Jessica looked fine as usual. I will now only use SPF 50 in the sun and go to a tanning salon if I really need to look tan.

This was the hotel room we had the first night in the London West Hollywood, a new hotel right off Sunset Boulevard with a great view of Hollywood from our balcony. We ordered some great room service from the Gordon Ramsay restaurant, but we didn't see much of the hotel 'cause we left early the next morning. Gorgeous place though, and huge rooms!

Us at the airport waiting for our flight. My cripple-ness allowed us to get on the plane earlier than everyone else, and we think our seatmate in our aisle was an air marshall since he had to be on the aisle (my moans and groans about my window seat and my leg condition notwithstanding), and immediately before takeoff he whisked off to a first-class seat with the full knowledge and approval of the flight attendants.

For those who did not have the honor of meeting my knee scooter (actual name: "Roll-A-Bout") that I rented for the wedding and honeymoon, here it is. In many ways, this thing was a godsend -- I was so sick of crutches by this point, and all I had to do with this was kneel and scoot. Unfortunately, it was still a workout in the hot Puerto Vallarta sun and humidity, so my little knee pads were soaked with sweat and my back started to hurt from the position and the constant lifting of the scooter to change direction (note to manufacturers -- how's about a steering wheel?). I was, however, the source of amusement of many individuals who had never before seen such a contraption or who perhaps thought I had a bionic leg (doesn't it kind of look like a fake leg from the back?)

Our view from the balcony at the Marriott Casamagna resort. It was a nice room overlooking the ocean with a clear view of the aforementioned Wonka-like current coming in during the afternoon. We also had a perfect view of the sun setting from our angle which was tremendous. The bad of our room? A weak air-conditioning, and an overly-agressive "mini-bar checker" guy who seemed to have a knack of arriving at the most inopportune times and taking his job a bit toooooo seriously. We consider him the Dwight Schrute of the resort. I mean, the mini-bar's not going anywhere people...

Our room and bed! I am already sunburned (sigh)...

Here's the great pool we were at a lot of the time -- good food and bevvy service poolside, a nice infinity edge, and the perfect depth. We loved it!

I'm sure our nickname around the resort was "the bionic leg guy on the tacky scooter and his hot wife" -- in the one above, we're heading to downtown PV for a day of hilarity and introspection.

After much wandering around Puerto Vallarta for a nice souvenir with little luck but lots of sweat, we toiled up the hill on a cobblestoned street to Si Senor, a great restaurant with lovely tacos but even lovelier air conditioning. I drank 37 Coke Lights here.

I know what you're asking... and no, I don't know what she's doing with me either. We're here in the humongous hotel hot tub, where we successfully cleared out the water-squirting teenagers with our sheer mind power and a couple mean half-turns from Jess.

Our beachside dinner! The atmosphere was great, including a close-up of cruise ships leaving port and blowing their horns, and a great sunset of Peruvian ceviche and boulliabaise. Jess had some un-good shrimp, though, thus spoiling her meal a bit. But look at the view!

Happy on our honeymoon -- we LOVED IT!