Well, she might not be quitting her day job too soon, but she sure does have fun!

S.F. Open Studio
Sculpture/Photography/Jewelry
October 18 + 19, 2008
11am – 6pm
www.javierperezstudio.com

“Cloud Dreaming” 19″ x 16″ x 8″ Clay/Underglazed

Saturday October 4th we got up and walked to Victor’s in the Marina for breakfast. It was nice to eat and look out over all the sailboats and yachts. From breakfast we caught a bus to Wal-mart where we stocked up on food for the week. We were getting really tired of eating heavy, expensive breakfasts.

After our shopping trip we relaxed by the pool for most of the day. Saturday evening we went downtown for dinner. We had heard that Puerto Vallarta is really hopping on Saturday nights, but we didn’t find too much excitement. I was amazed at the police presence everywhere. Check out the gun. These guys don’t mess around!

Along the Malecon (boardwalk) are many statues, restaurants and people. Most of the artwork is designed to be sat or climbed on.

We ate dinner at The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.

Friday, October 3rd Erin and I walked to Wal-mart (they have Home Depot too now) and picked up a disposable underwater camera and then took a taxi downtown, where we learned that we had missed the last water taxi to Yelapa. Erin was really excited about going out on the water that day, so we decided to spend the extra money and hire a private boat.

Here’s a short video of our adventure:

Normally, Los Arcos and Yelapa would be two independent destinations. Since we had our own boat, we were able to go both places on the same trip. At Los Arcos, which is a Mexican National Park, we were able to snorkel around the boat and through the caves. The water was a little too murky to see very far.



We arrived at Yelapa around 3pm where we layed on the beach for awhile to catch some rays and have a snack.

Yelapa is a small fishing village that is accessible only by boat. Everyone we talked to told us how there was no electricity and it was a very laid back place. It was nice, but we saw electricity everywhere. People were watching TV in most of the huts we walked by. We also were greeted immediately after stepping off the boat by the same pan-handlers we found in Puerto Vallarta. I bought Erin a shell necklace and earings, and also paid a guy $5US to get the picture with an Iguana.

We tried hiking up to a waterfall we’d heard about, but we had to be back at the boat by 5:00 and we ran out of time. I’m sure we were very close when we turned around.

After a tiring day at sea, we spent the night in our room watching TV and eating room-service pizza. Yummy!

Thursday, October 2nd was our 2nd day in Puerto Vallarta. We got up and took a taxi to town (Marriott is located in Marina Vallarta, about 10 minutes from downtown). After breakfast we explored downtown on foot and tried our best to avoid the timeshare and jewelry sales that are found on every corner.

We got to see the famous Our Lady of Guadalupe Church.

Our afternoon was spent relaxing in the hotel pool.

And for dinner we walked over to the Marina and had some great food at an Argentinean restaurant.

Wednesday, October 1st Erin and I flew from San Francisco (SFO) to Puerto Vallarta, MX for the start of our honeymoon. It was a nice short flight (3hrs 20mins). A quick taxi ride to the Marriott CasaMagna Hotel and we were settled into our great room on the 7th floor overlooking the pool area and the ocean. We arrived late in the afternoon and we were pretty exhausted from the wedding and all the travel, so dinner was in the hotel sports bar.

We had the most fabulous wedding weekend! Thanks to everyone who traveled with us to the Bethel Inn for a weekend full of fun. We have many great memories that will be with us forever. Many people are continuing to share their weekend photographs with us at our photobucket website. Use “darling” (without quotes) as the password to view photos or to upload your own. I will try to have all uploads approved quickly. We’ll also be posting the professional photos once we receive them. I’ll add an updated link when available.

Thanks to Jason, Raphael, Paul, Chris, and Arnie for a great unexpected bachelor party! Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d be taking the Blue Bird of Happiness to Portland for that celebration. But it was fun and it was a surprise. Raphael somehow got a license plate for the bus and sent it to Paul. He flew to Maine on an early flight before the wedding and helped get things set up. I though Jason and I were just going out for a beer in Lewiston. After about an hour of drinking beers at the Blue Goose Bar, up drives the Blue Bird full of partiers. That’s the first time I’ve been out until 4am in a long, long time 🙂

Erin and I have been hard at work these last few months, trying to do as much ourselves at possible. It’s been a fun challenge learning how to use all the software on my computer to come up with creative products. My mom helped out immensely be sketching and painting a variety of maple and oak leaves in fall colors, which I’ve been adding to almost all our projects. So far we’ve made our own candles, CDs, ceremony programs and table cards. Here’s Erin hard at work adding the binding to our ceremony programs: