The Little Tugboat That Could and Other Stories by Kelly Marsh

Well Joy, Scott, and Jason left this morning after five glorious days here in good 'ole Puerto Rico. I have some fabulous stories to tell from their trip here so grab your place around the story teller...shall we begin?

DAY 1: You're in Puerto Rico! Life is good, not baaaad!

I left work at lunchtime to pick up Joy and the boys. The timing was perfect as they had just walked outside when I was pulling up. We loaded their things and hit the road. Traffic was smooth and we were just truckin' right along. We stopped to eat their first meal in PR at the very authentic Burger King (or El Rey de Hamburguesas if you prefer!). We finished lunch and continued "truckin" when we came up to a truck loaded down with....you guessed it! Goats! There were 4 or 5 goats tied down (literally) in the back of a little truck. I pulled up beside the truck so Scott and Joy could take pictures. We then drove home, unloaded, drank a little, and headed to a beach to explore. After exploring we went home to turn in early so I could get up early to run...ha! If by early you mean Joy and Courtney talking until well past 1:00 am. Five in the morning comes awfully quick when you don't get to sleep until after 2:00. Here are some pictures I took from Scott. Wasn't Joy lovely on the plane? Check out the green drinks from Tranquilidad. And ah, the lovely goats...Can you see the smile?

DAY 2: Sniff, Sniff...My Lime.

On Friday Courtney and I went to work while Joy and the boys went to the beach. Friday was our first ever GPS pep rally...sort of. It was more like a "let the high school kids dance around" hour but it was alright. There was even 1 point where they called out teachers to the center of the gym to jump and "shake our booties" which Katie and I of course did. Courtney and Brent - not so much. When we got home from school we had a few teachers over for drinks and then we drove to this out of the way restaurant to eat called El Puerto. The food was so good and so was the sangria. We did of course partake of a few...pitchers that is. We also found out that our waitress is the cousin of one of our teachers and we have sung karaoke with her at his bar before...interesting! The title of this story was inspired by something funny that I said at dinner. I could have also titled this one "amethyst" but that's a whole other story! Here are some pics from day 2: fun at the pep rally, ride that wave, beautiful beach, Scott's very own Corona commercial, and drink 'er down.

DAY 3: That June sure is Flaming.



We got up Saturday morning to head to Ponce to go to the museum. Yes we've been there several times but needed to go again. Why you ask? Well, Jason and Scott love the painting called "Flaming June", in fact they have a print of it hanging in their house. We happen to have the original June in the museum. Jason told Courtney about their print and they decided we would go and surprise Scott with her. We went there first so we wouldn't have to hide it any longer. Courtney and Joy think I tend to have issues keeping a surprise...whatever! She was of course as lovely as ever and Scott was pleasantly surprised. From there we went to the mall to look for "Puerto Rican kitchen stuff" or so we thought. Scott and Jason wanted to buy us a shaker set to make cocktails with. We were pleasantly surprised when they gave them to us...thanks boys! We met up with the Dills at the mall and then headed to the Castillo Serralles which is the original home of the makers of the Puerto Rican rum called Don Q. It is a fabulous run that really can put Bacardi to shame. Want to try it? You have to come to PR! They only sell it here...who's on their way?! The "castle" was beautiful! It was built for around $90,000.00 and is now worth somewhere around $30,000,000.00!!! It was amazing! Courtney and I had never been there before so we were really excited to go. We love to do new things with visitors! After the castle it was off to the baths in Coamo to get radioactive. Scott wanted to get "blessed" so we jumped in. That is where we saw the man with the "black hole belly button"! I was a little frightened that if he took a deep breath in we might get sucked in but it didn't happen. We drove home from the baths we came home and did the boring order of pizza. We knew we'd have a busy day Sunday so we wanted to get some shut eye. Picture time! 1) Flaming June...beautiful! 2) Cruceta del Vigia at the Castillo Serralles 3) Castillo Serralles 4) We're on top of the world! 5) I may look like a turista but I assure you I am not! 6) Aren't we a beautiful group?! 7) The "pool" area 8) The back of Castillo Serralles 9) Ponce from the top of the world

DAY 4: The Little Tugboat That Could

Sunday morning it was off to El Yunque to see the rainforest and then try to find something to do on that side of the island. We got to "the Yunq" and got to the observation tower. We walked to the top, 98 steps I believe...Joy counted. We looked around and decided that we didn't feel like hiking so it was back down the mountain. We drove to Fajardo and found a boat taxi to take us to a small island called Icacos. We had never been there before so we decided the price was good and we went. The boat was funny - the seat that Scott, Jason, and I sat on was falling apart. The "captain" on the boat wasn't the nicest fella but oh well! We were on an island with beer and food and ready to swim. We got all set up and thought we were going to get rained out. We sat there watching the storm clouds over El Yunque and the main island and then they broke up and went away. Not even a drop on us! Joy, Scott, Jason, and I swam for quite a while and tried to snorkel but there wasn't anything interesting to look at. Courtney did what Courtney does and explored. There were several boats around that provided screaming and music for us. Then there was a blue boat. The people loaded up their boat and tried for a long time to get it to start. It wouldn't. They kept trying and we kept watching. Finally our "lovely" captain arrived and tried to jump their boat with ours but that wouldn't work either. That's when it happened. He tied their boat to ours and we became a tugboat! I sang a lovely song about "We are the tugboat, you are the barge..." but I won't go in to that right now. It was touch and go on the boat ride home. It took at least double the time to get back and we were swirving all around. We made it back and were trying to get their boat to slingshot around ours to shore...but they were Puerto Rican and didn't listen to instructions. Instead they came up beside us, caught a buoy's rope in our engine and it snapped. Of course our boat died, the "captain" yelled, the people didn't even say thank you...it was great! 1) The sign when you enter "the Yunq" 2) Cocoa Falls 3) The sign at the lookout tower 4) View from the tower 5) Anyone for pizza? 6) Jason and I on the ride home 7) We are the tugboat, you are the barge!



























DAY 5: Drinkin' Rum and Coca-Cola



I'm going to let you in on a little secret...I skipped work on Monday to spend the day with my company! Ssshhhh! Don't tell! We went to Old San Juan and took the tour at the Bacardi place...never gets boring! We even stopped and made videomails for mom, dad, Courtney, and Joy's work buddies. That was fun! After that we went to eat at a little hole in the wall place, went to Casa Don Q and had more free drinks and then went to San Cristobal before heading home. It was fun to get away on a Monday! 1) Scott's pretty drink 2) The set up for free drinks 3) A pretty building in OSJ 4) A beautiful picture taken by Scott at San Cristobal 5) OSJ from the fort
















We came home Monday night and Scott made a FABULOUS meal for us! It was so good! He made beer battered pork chops...Yum-O! We really had a great time with our company and were sad to see them leave. I'm happy that I (should) will get to see my sister again in 2 months. So - those are my stories. Thanks for listening!

PS: I know this isn't being posted until Thursday even though it says Tuesday. Our Internet(s) have been really terrible this week! Please forgive me!