Oh what a night...

I know in my last post I said to keep an eye out because we were going to have a great Columbus Day weekend and I would have some wonderful pictures to share. Well, I only have a few pictures right now but I do have some fun stories. We got done with school on Friday and headed out for the Bahía Fosforescente (phosphorescent bay) in La Parguera. Courtney & I were in our Rodeo with the boys (we didn't want to leave them for the weekend after Miller's surgery last week), the Dills were in their car with their 2 puppies, and Clate was in his car. Here's the story on the bay. This part of the ocean has an "all-natural water light show" caused by bioluminescent dinoflagellates that light up. They soak in all the sunlight during the day and then glow when they are stirred at night. We found La Parguera and it was still light out, the water doesn't glow until it's dark, so we decided to eat first. We went to one hotel/restaurant but didn't eat there because it was too expensive. We did, however, stop so Katie and I could have our picture taken with their shark out front.















We went to another sea food place and had a lovely meal. Then we walked around looking at the vendors for a bit in search of the best deal on a boat to take us to the bay. We found a ride that was just $5 a person so we took it. The best time to see the glowing waters is on a dark night with no moon...our first problem...there was a full moon out. We figured we'd try it anyway. So we head out on the boat and it was a beautiful ride. We get out into the ocean and these 2 divers climb to the top of the boat and jump in. They swim around for a while because it's supposed to glow because of the movement in the water. Well, because of all the light from the moon it basically looked like two weirdos in the water with some tiny glowsticks. They did though bring up a bucket filled with water and we were able to stick our hands in it and make it glow. This isn't the only bay like this on PR. There's another one that you can actually swim in yourself so we might try that one out sometime. After our less than spectacular bay experience we decided to head to Mayagüez, the 3rd largest city on the island, to find our hotel. We were going to stay there so we could get up Saturday morning and go to the only zoo on the island. We got out our trusty maps, followed the roads, went in a big circle, and got lost. Okay, no problem, we'll stop and ask for directions. We found these 2 guys who said they were going to the same town so we could just follow them. Great! Yeah, great until they start driving like just about everyone else down here...way too fast and swirving in between cars all while trying to drive on VERY narrow roads through mountains. Well, we were able to keep up with them until the main highway when we saw a sign for the city and their car disappeared. We found our hotel and Brent & Courtney checked in. We unloaded the car and walked in and were then told the receptionist didn't know there were 4 people staying and he only charged us for 2 so we owed more money. Fine, whatever, we paid the extra and headed to our rooms. Mind you, our dogs are still in the cars & we're still trying to come up with a plan to sneak them in. When we got to our rooms we saw they were the smalled hotel rooms we'd ever seen. There was a tiny walkway to the bed that was squished against the wall and the bathroom was so small you'd have to take your clothes off while sitting on the bed before you got into the shower. We couldn't figure out how we were going to sleep...with 2 dogs...in such a place so we decided to try to get a refund. Luckily the man was nice about it and at 11:40 Friday night we started the drive home. It's a much quicker drive on the highway and we were home by 1:00. Yesterday we got up and decided to go to the beach. The only problem with that was it was so windy and the waves were so choppy we couldn't really swim. Basically we laid out, found seashells, and found Brents new talent...finding sand dollars. Today has been spent cleaning and getting ready to watch T.O. and the Cowboys spank the Eagles...I hope! Here's the only other picture I got on our trip Friday of Winston. He figured out the best way to handle the situation - sleep it off.