Mom Has Finally Completed Her Jedi Training!

The "Force" finally runs in the whole family!  One of our goals during the school break was to go see the new Star Wars movie, "Rogue One".  We figured we would go sometime after Ashley went north to go back to work.  Why would we wait until she left?  Well, Ashley was never trained in the ways of the Force when she was young.  She had never seen a single Star Wars movie...not one...and she did not want to???!!!

When we got an unplanned call from our friends, The Cawrses, to go see it, Ashley actually wanted to go!!!!  We were sooo stoked!  The movie stands by itself pretty well but with some brief information to bring her up to speed on who the bad guys were, who the good guys were and a few other details she came out having really enjoyed the movie.  So much so that she actually sat down and watched the original Star Wars movie I grew up on the next night.  Though the 70's camera work, haircuts and action were dated a bit she, again, really enjoyed it.  Imagine that!  Ozzy was right!  It happens.  Ok, the kids were right too.

The gang waiting for the beginning of Rogue One

Next up on Ashley's movie list is The Empire Strikes Back.  The Force, thankfully, runs through the entire family now.

"Hey Trace, I Don't Think We Are In Sayulita Anymore"

The kids are on school break and we were looking for things to do so we ventured into the Puerto Vallarta area for a day.  We caught a movie (more on that later) and visited a recently completed pedestrian mall called "La Isla".  Many of the shops were still empty or being finished for new retail tenants but we decided to walk around just to see it.  The place will carry many of the brands you would see north of the border like Calvin Klein, Sunglass Hut and Tommy Hilfiger.  It has underground parking, a small amphitheater, water features, lots of places to sit and relax and the walk ways twist and turn so that even if you wanted to leave you might not find your way out.

We turned a corner and this particular view made me stop in my tracks.  Standing in a mall, with a high rise backdrop is such a huge departure from our daily lives in Sayulita.  Our busy, dusty, little surfing pueblo has very few buildings that are over 3 stories.  It gives the pedestrian/visitor a totally different experience than what I saw here.  The hope is to keep this kind of development or anything close to it out of Sayulita but we will see how that goes now that town has become a significant destination for visitors world wide.

Sayulita Scenes - Working Three Stories Up

I was walking home today from downtown and looked up to see these two guys perched 3 stories above the street level.  Yes, they appear to have harnesses on.  The are working on, from what I am told, a new boutique hotel on the south end of town.  It has been going up for a long, long time and it has been a huge project for the tight quarters of this area of town.  Not sure when they hope to be done but the street and neighbors could certainly use some relief from the months of constant construction.