Spring Break in Vieques

Our Spring Break has started! It started with us meeting Rick and Cathy Dill and leaving for Vieques bright and early Thursday morning. We thought we were doing so good leaving early (6:30 am) to make it to Fajardo to get our ferry tickets. We under-estimated the number of people that would be heading to Vieques for Easter weekend. Katie and Rick stood in line to get tickets and called us and said we weren't going to make the 9:30 ferry because they were stopping selling tickets because there were so many people. This would mean we couldn't leave until 1:00! Then Brent stood in line and we kept gradually moving our stuff closer to the doorway to the ferry. Rick and Katie went to check in with Brent at about 9:35 and Brent said to be ready if he came running. Next thing you know, Brent's running towards us. We grabbed everything and ran! The lady said she had 3 tickets and Brent said he needed 6...she got on her walkie talkie and sold us the tickets. Unfortunately people take up at least 2 seats per person so we had to stand for part of the ride. Once we got there we called for our rental car which Katie and Courtney went to pick up and took 2 hours to return. While they were doing that Brent called about our apartments we had rented. Those fell through so they put us up in their hotel. Not bad actually - we got the whole top floor to ourselves which was basically an apartment with 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a living room area. Pretty nice actually! Here's some pictures of the front of our "hotel" and our car. For those of you who know me really well can probably guess I was stoked about driving a 2006 Durango...a vehicle I've wanted for a long time!

The rest of the day Thursday was spent eating at a place called "Bananas", finding a few beaches, and then hitting the hay pretty early because the men needed to get up early to go fishing. Friday at 7:00 the men headed to the dock to catch their fishing trip with Franco. Katie came back (isn't she sweet getting up early to take them?!) and waited for Cathy and I to get up. We weren't as eager to get up and face the day as Kate was! We did eventually get up, caught breakfast at Roy's, did a little shopping for some rings that started at $6.50 and ended at $20.00 (LONG story!), and headed to Green Beach. This is the beach where they say you can find tons of conch shells and that's just what Katie and I wanted to do. We started snorkeling right away and ended up bringing 6 shells to the shore to sit with Cathy. We were pretty proud of ourselves because we actually had to go a long way out and dive deep for the shells. Not as easy as it sounds people! Here's some pictures of our shells and the master snorkelers.

On our way back from Green Beach we came across a group of wild horses. Believe it or not they are everywhere on Vieques! In Kansas we have to worry about hitting a deer at night, here, wild horses. We saw the group on the way out there and on the way back. I counted on the way there and counted 17, on the way back they picked up another buddy and there were 18. Here are some pictures of some of the wild horses we saw in our 3 days there. I would guess we saw at least 40 total.

After leaving Green Beach we went to eat a place called "Belly Buttons" - such a cute place! Then we decided we didn't have enough time to go to the hotel so we went and sat at the dock waiting for our fishermen. They had a somewhat successful fishing trip. Each of them caught 1 while they fished from the boat (apparently called spin fishing). They spent the morning fly fishing which had no success for them. Once they got on the boat the hits came pretty quickly. Courtney didn't even get seasick! We bought some seasick bracelets for him (actually Sharon and Wilbur did before they came down because I can't find them here) called Sea Bands and they work! Enough of a shameless plug - Brent caught a tarpon, Rick caught a baracuda (yes, I'm serious), and Courtney caught a yellow tailed snapper. They way it was explained to us: Brent caught the biggest and toughest, Rick caught the smallest with the most teeth, and Courtney caught the prettiest and tastiest. Here's a picture of the Belly Buttons sign (too cute!) and some pictures of their fishing trip. Thankfully Rick had his camera and captured the trip for us all.

Once the men got back it was time to get ready for the bio bay tour. Courtney and I had decided we wouldn't go to save money and because we were so excited about the one in Fajardo we didn't think we needed to go. Unfortunately Brent wasn't feeling well and they would have had to have paid for him anyway so I went in his place. I am so happy I did! It was so amazing! In Fajardo it's amazing but it's different in Vieques. In Vieques the glowing is a bright blue - and I mean bright. There were fish everywhere, jumping out of the water and glowing. Everything that the micro organisms touch glows which is why you glow when you swim in it. When we got in to swim it was the most amazing thing! We lifted our arms out of the water and the glowing water trickled down our arms and then it looked like you had glitter all over because you just sparkled. It was amazing! Here's a picture of us getting ready to board the bus to take us there and a picture of Rick, Kate, and I in the water. You can't really see the glowing so I took a picture from the website for the bay. You might not believe this but that is really what it looked like! I could not believe it! If you'd like to see more pictures and read up on it go to www.biobay.com.

We got home around 9:00 and it was off to bed. Courtney and Brent were already asleep but I woke Courtney up because I was so excited! I bought one of their shirts that glows and was just reeling from the experience! I know Courtney was really thrilled I did that. We got up Saturday morning and went back to Green Beach to try to find some conch shells for Rick. The sea was a little rough that morning so we didn't do a lot of snorkeling. When you go to Vieques or Culebra and buy your ferry tickets you have to purchase your trip back at the same time as your trip there. We had marked ours to return at 4:30 on Saturday because we didn't think we'd get back in time. We had to return the Durango (tears!) at 1:00 and their was a ferry trip back at 1:00. Courtney and I returned it and got back to the dock at 1:05. The ferry was still there so Courtney and Brent went to check to see if it would be possible to hop on. We thought for sure it wouldn't happy but once again - Brent came running! We packed up and ran again! This time Courtney and I had to stand for the entire hour boat ride. It was a bit of a pain in the butt but at least we got home early. We came home last night, took showers, went shopping for our Easter lunch today, got some pinchos for dinner, and went to bed. Today was spent cooking up an Easter feast and then taking the dogs to the beach to get some exercise. Courtney and I found 2 jellyfish on the shore at the beach today which we've never seen before. Katie took pictures with her underwater camera so we'll have to get that developed. Hope everyone had a Happy Easter and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our nephew, Nicolas. He's the big 8 today! We miss you, Peanut, and can't wait to see you in June! We love you and Anna VERY, VERY, VERY, MUCH! Here's one last picture of our Vieques trip...we called it our Sports Illustrated picture...or you could say a ruined picnic!

For Joy...

I am writing this entry at the urging of my sister, Joy. I talked to her on the phone tonight and she said I need to update. We really haven't done too much in the last couple of weeks which is why I've fallen down on the job. Please, please, oh joyous one, forgive me!! Here's what's been happening since the Noon clan left. The entire next week was spent relaxing and doing laundry. We had a 3 day weekend so we spent the entire day Friday doing laundry. On Saturday we wanted to do something a little different so we went to a pool owned by the hotel and bar we like alot, Brandemar. For $5.00 you can spend the day swimming without being a guest at the hotel. You would think with as much money as they make off of the 4 of us they cold cut us a deal and let us in for, oh, I don't know, FREE! Anyway...there is a lovely picture of me being a swimming pool mertard on Katie and Brent's blog but I didn't think I needed to share it here. Kate and I want to become better snorkelers so we took our gear and practiced in the pool. Courtney threw money in the pool so we'd have some "treasure" to find. We are fabulous snorkelers now!! We also found out that we will have mucho visitors in July and we are very excited! Our friend Marilyn from Sabetha is coming in July and the day that she leaves Courtney's cousins come. We can't wait! We are coming home in June for about 2 weeks so those of you who won't come visit (I'm frowning at you now) will still have a chance to see us. Moving on....last week was a full week of school, kind of. We had GPS' Annual Game Day on Friday. It was insane! The 1-3 graders arrived at 8:00 and played games like: water balloon pass, shoe race, relay race, jump rope race, etc. until 9:30. Then the 4-6 graders arrived and played from 9:30-11:30 then we go tot go home. That was the best part! There's nothing better than coming home in the middle of the afternoon, unless of course you're talking about...SPRING BREAK!!! Yippy Skippy People! We had school today, we have it tomorrow, and we have it Wednesday and then we're off until, are you ready for this?! APRIL 17!!!! Twelve days of spring break bliss are headed our way! We are so ready! Brent's parents arrive tomorrow and Thursday morning, bright and early, we're off to Vieques. Vieques is a little island off of PR once used by the US military for bomb testings and what not. Brent's dad, Ricky, was stationed there when he was enlisted. Cool, huh? I think it will be very interesting for him to go back and see it now...sure it's changed a little. The boys have an all day fly fishing trip on Friday so Kathy, Brent's mom, Katie and I will fend for ourselves on the beach for the day...tough life, I know! Trust me, there will be pictures on the next post. The rest of our days have been filled with school, cleaning, laundry, and combo dinner nights with the Dills. We've been talking alot lately about how our time here is already half over. It doesn't seem possible that we've been here for that long! If we come home after our 2 years (which is more likely than not) we'll need to have that decision made, hopefully some connections for jobs made, and be thinking about a house at this time next year! It's going so much faster than I thought it would. I can say that even with the bad times we've had here(believe it or not there have been a few...you know that if you've read carefully!) we are still loving (and learning from) every minute here. We wouldn't change this experience or the friends we've made in the Dills for anything! HELLO...JOY....ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?!?! When are you coming to visit?

Pictures from the Noon vacation

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!