Vacation with the Noons

We had our weekend vacation with the Noon family and all I can say is it was amazing! On Thursday Courtney drove to San Juan to pick up Sharon, Wilbur, Nicole (exchange student from Germany) and Melanie Catron. (As pictured below)

Courtney went by himself because the van we were supposed to be using was needed to go to San Juan at 3:00 Friday morning. He took our Rodeo up to get them, parked, found them, and got them and their bags. On the way back to get the car they discovered it was gone. Apparently he was parked for too long (15 minutes is a very long time!) and they towed our car!! He called me, very calm, and explained the situation. I of course thought he was full of crap because Courtney wouldn't be THAT calm if that had happened. Unfortunately he wasn't lying to me. They found someone that knew what was going on and had to walk to get the car. Sharon took pity on us and paid to get our lovely piece of machinery out of jail. That put them home a little later than expected so we had just enough time to say hello, show the house, put the beds out and go to bed for school the next day. Sharon and Wilbur got the priviledge of sleeping on a mattress on our kitchen floor while Mel and Nicole got an air mattress on the living room floor. On Friday they "slept in" and were up in time for me to come home for lunch...at 10:40 am. They went to get something to eat and then came to the school to see where we work. They came in my room as Katie and I were doing reading buddies and Courtney took them around because he was on break. My kids were very interested in the fact that Nicole speaks a different language and were asking her to say things. Here are some pics of the road to our school, upstairs (where Courtney is), from the balcony, and the road home.

Friday night we went to one of the public beaches near our house and then to Tanquilidad for dinner. We watched the sunset, watched crabs run, and had some Puerto Rican food. Sharon, Nicole, and Courtney had mofongo which is a huge Puerto Rican food. Wilbur and Mel stayed normal and I tried conch. Yes that would be the meat that comes from the big conch shells you can see at the beach. It was pretty good. We went shopping at Wally World and Pueblo to get ready for our big day Saturday.

On Saturday morning we got up early and headed for El Yunque. We got there, rain free, and decided to check out the tower and then go for a hike. We hike .7 miles to La Mina Falls. If you remember the last time we went to "The Yunq" we hiked to the waterfalls in the pouring rain. Courtney tried to get in and fell 3 times because the rocks were so slick. When we got to the waterfall there were people standing on the bridge taking pictures and no one was in the water. Well that just wouldn't do! Nicole, Mel, and I decided to show them how to do it. We stripped off our clothes and walked right in to it. Wilbur followed us with Courtney in the back. If you've ever seen the movie Zoolander I want you now to think of the scene where they had their "walkoff". If you'll recall Hansel did a move where he pulled his underwear off while still wearing his pants. Zoolander tried it and gave himself quite the wedgie...are you hearing the noise he made while giving himself the wedgie? That would be the noise Courtney made when he crawled into the falls! It was pretty cold but you eventually went numb. We all were brave and sat on a rock UNDER the falls for a little while but it was a little painful and you couldn't really keep your eyes open. We stayed there for quite a while before heading back up because we needed to drive to Fajardo for our next adventure. Here are some pics of our hike and us swimming in the falls.

We finished at El Yunque and drove a while down the road to Fajardo where we drove to a marina and met Roymi, our boat driver. He took us out on a private boat to Palominito Island. It was the most stunning place! If you'll recall from our post about Culebra we passed a little tiny island in the ocean and took pictures of it. We thought it was so cool and wondered if you could visit there...you can! The water was crystal clear and pretty shallow. There were lots of people there but they were so spread out we felt like we were there by ourselves. We took up our section of the island and spread out like everyone else! We went snorkeling and swam and just took in the island. It was amazing! To show you how amazing it is I scanned in the cover to our Frommer's Guide to PR because the island on the cover IS Palominito! I imagine if the boats wouldn't have been there that's exactly what it would have looked like!

We got back to the marina at about 5:30 or so and went to find our hotel. We had just enough time to check in, rinse off, snack a little and it was back to the marina. There is a bioluminescent bay in Fajardo much like the one in Parquera that we've been to. But for this one you must kayak through a narrow channel into the bay itself. It's completely enclosed by mangroves and it is amazing!! We took a tour and were in 2 person kayaks. Mel and Nicole were together, Courtney & I were together, and Sharon and Wilbur were together. Each kayak had a glowstick attached to the back so you wouldn't run in to the person in front of you. You kayak through the channel not able to see and every once in a while realizing you're about to crash into a mangrove. The person on the back is in charge of what direction you're going and the person in front is in charge of speed. I must say I was pretty proud of the team my hubby and I made kayaking together. I thought for sure we'd kill each other in the process. We actually did really well and communicated better than we do on land! Our next home may be on a 2 person kayak!! The bay was amazing! We got in and swam...all but Courtney who was already cold enough. Just being in the water made it glow. After swimming we went to a dark corner and watched fish jump. When the fish would jump their splash would make it glow. We saw one jump and land and then swim away leaving a glowing trail. It was one of the neatest experiences of our trip so far. When your ore was put in the water it glowed and there was a trail behind the kayak. It was beautiful! After kayaking we went to the hotel, relaxed, and went to bed. We got up Sunday morning and drove to Old San Juan. What a trip that was! We borrowed our headmaster's huge van so we'd have enough room. The streets of Old San Juan are so narrow there were several times I was afraid we'd get stuck. We decided to go to El Morro to look around and tried to park in a parking garage there. Well, the garage was full and closed so we had to go down a VERY narrow street (only one car could fit at a time) to a cemetary. The parking there was full too. So we found a steep and narrow hill to go up. By this time I was really scared of getting stuck between the bar and the wall. I pulled my hat down over my eyes and tried not to watch. My husband as it turns out is a fantastic driver. No scratches, bumps, nothing! We ended up driving to the opposite side of Old San Juan and parking by the cruise ships. We then found a bus and took it to El Morro. After the fort we walked all the way through Old San Juan stopping to shop a few times. We made it to Del Sol which is a store where everything in the store, everything, changes colors in the sunlight. Mel went crazy in there! After Del Sol we walked to Senor Frogs to eat. Here are a few pics from our day Sunday...

I am actually posting this on Thursday night...I had to upload over 500 pictures from 4 cameras! Tomorrow we don't have school and we are so happy. We've spent this week relaxing and trying to rest up. We're exhausted!! We've also got 2 weeks worth of laundry to catch up on! We had an amazing time with the Noon clan and are so glad they came! I'll try to put more pictures up tomorrow. Enjoy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY!

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Dad,
Happy Birthday to you!

Tomorrow will be my dad's 51st birthday! I had to put up this picture of him from this summer because I imagine that's the face he'll make when he sees this entry. This was taken at our annual family reunion in Oklahoma just a few weeks before we moved here. As you can see Joy was blowing bubbles in his face...I think that was the reason for "the look". Anyway - sorry we can't be there to help you celebrate. WE LOVE YOU!!

Just thought this was interesting...

Okay, last week Katie's friend, Jodi, came to the island. Her plane was like 30 minutes late or something because of a volcano that errupted near Puerto Rico. Her plane had to fly around the ashes being blown into the air. After that (last Thursday) there were at least 5 earthquakes here in Puerto Rico! A couple of them were here in Guayama but they weren't huge so there was no damage of any kind. Courtney felt something one evening and one of my perfume bottles fell from the shelf. Mendez, our friend that lives up in the mountains, felt the shaking at his house. Strange happenings these days, huh?! I'm not sure what's going on tonight. There's apparently some kind of Church service right around the corner from our house. There's some horrible singing and chanting going on and of course they have a microphone! I thought for a little while they were performing at exorcism (not sure if it's spelled right) because the man was FREAKING OUT!!!! I may have to go calm them all down if this lasts until my bedtime!! Tomorrow at this time we'll be heading to San Juan to pick up Sharon, Wilbur, Nicole, and her friend. They don't get in until 9:05 so it will be a somewhat late night. Saturday will be a full but fun day as will Sunday. I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures to post!

Caja de Muertos

Another week at GPS, another weekend of fun in Puerto Rico! We had an interesting week at school (always do!) and Katie's friend Jodi arrived on Thursday. We went out for drinks on Thursday when they got back from the airport. On Friday Courtney & I went shopping for our trip on Saturday. The place we went to has no restaurants, stores, etc. so we had to take everything we could think of. You leave Ponce on a boat at 8:30 am and stay on the island of Caja de Muertos until 3:30 when the boat takes you home. It's about a 45 minute trip by boat and is worth the $17 a person it costs to get there! Caja de Muertos or "Coffin Island" has 2 different stories about why it is named that. The first being that it looks like a coffin when you see it from the main island or by boat...I couldn't see enough of it from the boat to tell you if that's true. The second being that Jose Almeida fell in love with a married woman and was reunited with her after he was done being a pirate and her husband died. She died some time later and he buried her in a cave at Caja de Muertos in a cedar coffin with a glass top so he could see her when he visited. He was later captured and killed and her body was taken to St. Thomas for a proper burial. Either way it's a nice place to visit and spend the day! There's a nice beach on one side, a protected beach on the other, and you can hike to the lighthouse at the top. We got there and spent the first half of the day swimming and hanging out. We then decided to take the hike. Here are some pictures..

Here's the beach we were at and a view of the boat we took to the island through the rocks. We put our things in a spot back in the rocks so it would be like having our own private beach.

Here's a picture of the lighthouse we were getting ready to hike to. You can barely see it on top of the mountain. The other picture is the trail we took. Once we started going up it was all rocks.

Here's the lighthouse at the top and the view of where we were before our hike. The beach we were at is all the way at the end where it looks like another mountain is. It was a long hike! The water and beach on the right of the picture are open, the area on the left is protected because it's too dangerous and that is where the sea turtles are when they come to shore. There is supposedly a wonderful coral reef you can snorkel at but the trail to that beach was closed yesterday. The water must have been pretty choppy there yesterday.

We went to this beach on the hike down from the lighthouse. They were calling it the Coast Guard beach. The water was so much more clear. We spent about an hour or more snorkeling. There were so many neat fish, shells, rocks, etc. to look at in the water. It was clear enough water that Courtney even went swimming & snorkeling! After this beach we had to finish our hike back to our things and got there just in time to haul our things back to the boat. The ride home was interesting. On the way there we sat on the lower level and it was a bumpy ride. On the way back we rode on the upper level. Everything was going great, lots of sun, talking, blah, blah, blah. Then Courtney says, "When we get up, don't look in the front row." There was a man in the front row throwing up on the floor! He never once got up and went to the trash, or hung his head over the side, or even got up to go to the bathroom on the lower level. He just sat there in his seat throwing up! How disgusting!! When we were getting close to Ponce we decided to get up and go down to the lower level so we could get off quickly. Who knows what might have happened if he were walking down the stairs behind us! His wife was rubbing his back and everything. I told Courtney if that had been him I would not have been so nice! Be looking for some good posts next weekend. Sharon, Wilbur, Nicole, and one of her friends get here on Thursday. I am so excited about our day we have planned for Saturday...you'll just have to wait to see what we do!

Dr. Seuss' birthday...and not much else

Not much to tell about this weekend either. I had already finished this post when I read Katie's blog and remembered Thursday! I had to come back and share. On Thursday we got to school and there were no lights. This isn't usually a big deal, happens occassionally. Well, the only problem is we have no windows in the entire school...no joke people. This made for some very dark classrooms. Most of the rooms had no air conditioning either with the power out. I luckily had air but no lights, Courtney on the other hand had both. Lucky! We spent the first 3 HOURS of school with no lights! It was insane! It was hot, the kids thought it was recess all day, it was a mess! My class and Katie's class are reading buddies on Friday afternoons. This last Friday was Dr. Seuss' birthday so we decided to celebrate together. On Thursday night we made Cat in the Hat cupcakes. They turned out so cute. They're a plain cupcake frosted, then you cut a wafer cookie into 2 pieces, frost them, put them on the cupcake in the shape of a hat, add red stripes, and there you have it. On Friday our classes made their own hats and we ate the cupcakes. Courtney had his students write their own Dr. Seuss stories after reading a bunch of them in class. We all had a pretty good week. Friday night was very interesting, to say the least. For more on that I'll let you ask Courtney. All I can say about it is: it was a LONG night and Saturday was spent making sure my hubby was okay. I did alot of running around for him on Saturday while, of course, doing laundry. Don't worry, he's fine now. Today's been much of the same. We did our weekly shopping, finished grades for report cards to go out this week, and watched a movie. I promise you all that next weeks post will be MUCH more exciting with pictures. Katie's friend Jodi is coming on Thursday and on Saturday we're going to a little island off of PR called Caja de Muertos. You take a boat to get there and you spend the entire day. There will be lots of hiking, snorkeling, sun bathing, swimming, etc. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures to show you our fun. Then the next week, on the 15th, Sharon & Wilbur, Nicole and one of her friends will be here. We're looking forward to it and already have plans made for what to do. I won't know what to do with myself when I have 2 weeks in a row of fun posts! This picture will have to tide you over until next week. Courtney took it on Thursday after Katie and I made our Dr. Seuss cupcakes. Yep, they were yummy!

I had to steal the next picture from Katie's site...as you can see, the teachers made their own Dr. Seuss hats also! Please excuse the blurry picture, a 3rd grader took it...pretty good job I think!

Another week gone by...

I don't really have much to share this week. In fact I think this is the first time I haven't even had pictures to put up! It was just another week at Guamani Private School. We did not have school on Monday for President's Day and I must say I enjoyed spending my day at the beach rather than at school! Courtney took Curtis to the airport on Tuesday and the dogs took out their frustrations of his leaving on our house. They tore open our wooden shishkabob (don't know if that's even spelled right!) package and shredded them and they somehow opened our salt shaker and poured the salt all over our couch. They're very frisky little dogs lately! They spent all day Wednesday in their kennels under lock down. For those of you who know my behavior system at school, the dogs had a red week. I had a field trip on Friday with 13 of my 19 students as well as the other first grades. Very interesting... We went to Guaynabo which is in the northern part of the island near San Juan. We went to a petting zoo/amusement park called Villa Campestre. Everyone was supposed to meet in the classrooms at 7:30 so we could leave early. No one showed up in my room because they all decided to meet outside. Did you READ the note I sent home?!?! We finally left around 8:00, only 1/2 an hour late. The strangest part of the bus ride was the fact that a man stood on the steps of the bus with the door wide open for half of the trip. When we got to Caguas he finally shut the door. I felt very comfortable driving up the mountains on a bus full of kids with the door open, wouldn't you? We got to the park and we were the first school there but for some reason we were the last school to get inside and start our tour. We rode on some rides, went on a little train, fed goats, milked a cow, rode ponies, etc. When the kids finally got to eat lunch at 12:30 they were starving...could this be because we are used to eating at 10:40? We ate and then finished up. We needed to leave Guaynabo at 1:30 to make it back to Guayama by 3:00 when school is out. Well, we ended up leaving at about 2:45. Needless to say Courtney was calling me by 4:00 asking where I was. I finally got home around 4:45 because I had to wait for parents to pick up their children. Friday night we didn't do much. It didn't help the I fell Friday morning while we were walking the dogs and twisted my ankle then had to walk on it all day. When I got home Friday night it was bruised and swollen and just felt great! Saturday morning we got up, did laundry, cleaned the house, and went to the beach. It was a beautiful day for the beach in Puerto Rico. The water was warm and calm and shallow. We had to walk so far out just to get our bodies in the water. It was shallow and calm enough that my husband even got in...for a little bit. Today's been spent doing our weekly grocery shopping and basically being bums. I know, I know, we have rough lives! Brent and Katie have a friend coming for a visit in 2 weeks which means we have visitors coming in 3 weeks. We're excited to have more company! Hope you all have a great week and are able to stay warm! I know, I'm a smartass!

Welcome to Puerto Rico, Curtis!

Where to begin?! We had such a full weekend. Thank goodness it was a 3 day weekend or we could have never fit it all in! After our rough start on Thursday things got better. Curt stayed at our house and hung out on Friday while we worked then we drove to Guavate for lechon, roasted pig, with our friends from Chicago. Remember my shoes and fishing post? It was nice to meet up with them again before they left today. Curtis and Al kept teasing each other about how young Curt is and how old Al is. Curtis even called the man he had just met "grandpa" so Al started calling Courtney Curt's uncle and on and on. It was fun! Here's a picture of the girls and the guys.

Courtney, Curtis, and I got up early Saturday morningto head to Parguera to try to see some manatees. No such luck! We didn't see any but we did take a Johnny's Boats tour back to the mangroves, iguanna island, and Mata la Gata. I didn't take pictures of the iguannas this time but I did videotape them. We got even closer on this trip and they iguannas were snapping at our tour guide Miguel (same one from last time). After "kill the cat" island (remember?!?!) we went back to land and ate at the sangria place that Courtney loves so much. Then we drove to Rincon. We stopped at the Mayaguez Zoo (the only zoo on the island!) with a hour left before they closed. Don't worry folks, we made it through the zoo! It wasn't a bad zoo, we've seen worse in Clay Center, but there were some definite changes that should have been made. The animals that needed companions didn't have them but the ones that didn't need them had them. Go figure! I was busy with the video camera so Courtney was in charge of the digital. He did a pretty good job! We did have some interesting experiences at the zoo like...watching an ostrich go to the bathroom, missing the chimpanzee exhibit because they close early, oh, and setting an emu free. Here are some of our favorite pictures my hubby took.

There are so many more pictures of the zoo but not enough time or space here! After the zoo we went to our hotel to relax, had dinner, and went to bed pretty early. We got up early Sunday morning to go to the lighthouse to try to see some whales. We had barely been there, maybe 10 minutes, when we saw them! We saw probably 5 total but we think they were all in the same pod. It was so beautiful and amazing! We had been standing for just a while thinking it probably wouldn't happen when I saw some white stuff in the water. I said it looked a little weird, not quite like breaking waves. Curt got out his binoculars and saw the body! Good eye, Kelly, if I do say so myself! Especially coming from the girl with horrible (used to be horrible!) eyesight. I didn't get them on still camera because they were so far away and you wouldn't have been able to see them but I again had my trusty video camera on hand and was able to see a few glances. Amazing!! We were so excited! After the excitement died down we headed for San Juan but decided to stop at the blowhole again. We yelled for the cow again but the waves weren't too great this time. We didn't even get wet! We kept heading to San Juan to go to the Bacardi distillery. If you're ever here I highly recomend going there. The tour is free and you get 2 free drinks. We sat enjoying our drinks when we met a group of people from Kansas. One was originally from KC and his friend from Wichita who just moved to Kingman. Then we went on the tour to learn the history of the rum, how it's made, etc. Here we are in front of the Bacardi bat (during our tour we learned the secret on the bat) and here's Curt in front of a large amount of rum.

Here's the actual distillery.

Last night when we got home we went to look for manatees again at dusk. We were trying to find a place where people said you can see them. We couldn't find it so we decided to stop and ask directions. We ended up asking this stoned homeless man and he was very confused and all he could tell us was to go straight. Needless to say we never found any manatees. Oh well! This morning we got up and did laundry. Then it was off to the beach. We spent a few hours there with the Dills and all dogs. Benny and Winston went swimming and then Lola decided to try it. Curtis carried Miller to the water and put him in. He would not move! He wouldn't swim, he wouldn't walk, nothing! Curt had to pick him up again and carry him out. But, oh well, at least he tried! I was out in the water with the Dills looking for sand dollars (they are pros and I suck at finding them!) when I heard Courtney yelling at the boys. I turned around and saw a huge iguanna sitting on a stump that had smacked Miller across the face with his tail. Curt got one of our towells and picked him up. Here he is with his catch. Notice in the background of the one with Curt poking him with a stick...there's a boy from the apartment complex our beach is at hiding and watching! Courtney is still the Lizard King but Curt is now the Iguanna King.

We've had a great visit with Curtis. It's been nice having family around and I think he's enjoyed it too. Our next visitors come in a month and they just happen to be Curtis' parents! We're excited for more visitors...hint, hint!!

In Loving Memory of Chilee

It is with a sad heart that I write this blog entry. Our beloved Chilee passed away last night. For those of you who don't know the story, Courtney bought her for me when I turned 21 to replace our hamster, Spike. That means we've had her for 7 years now. When we moved to Puerto Rico Courtney's cousin, Curtis, took her to take care of her. He did a fabulous job...better than we could have imagined. Curtis actually flew here to PR yesterday and was with us when his brother, Travis, called to give him the news. It was so strange because Courtney's cousin, Trish, had just e-mailed me that her iguanna of 14 years had passed away. We were talking about how strange that was and about how hard it would be if Curt had to call us with that kind of news. We saw Chilee at Christmas and boy was she mad at us for leaving! She bit me, wouldn't let me pet her, etc. By the time we left she had come around and was snuggly to us. She even barked for us a few times which made our trip for us! Whoever said dog was man's best friend never had a Prairie Dog - they are man's best friend! We'll miss you Chilee Dog and we love you!