You Lovely Island

Once again we take a break from the New House Blog to bring you a tale of adventure and intrigue.   Over the Christmas week we travelled to the great Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.  Our adventure began with a trip to the San Francisco International Airport on the night of Sunday, December 22, 2013.  After a lengthy stay in a boring terminal we boarded a plane and set off for Puerto Rico, by way of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  We arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the early afternoon, local time, on Monday, December 23.  Our rental car for the week was a Hyundai Accent, and it proved itself to be a tough and capable little car.  Our adventure continued through the rest of the week and we returned to our home on Saturday, December 28.  Here, in roughly chronological order, is the official journal from our trip; and since we didn't keep an actual journal of our trip most of this will be from memory.

Monday, December 23, 2013

After checking in to our hotel we decided to stock up on supplies and explore the area a bit.  Around the corner from our hotel was a Walgreens, and we stocked up on some snacks and beverages for the coming week.  Then we wandered two blocks north to the beach.  In Puerto Rico, as in Aruba, all of the beaches are public beaches.  We explored the beach and the surrounding areas and noted the important landmarks and dining facilities.

At night we dined at the fanciest restaurant at which we have ever dined - Perla at La Concha.  Perla is the name of the restaurant, and it is shaped like a big oyster; La Concha is the name of the resort/hotel to which it is attached.  The food is the type of fancy, upscale food one would expect an Iron Chef to prepare, and it was delicious.  If you ever dine at Perla, be sure to have some of the awesome Smoked Trout Chowder with your meal.  Service at Perla was excellent, and the atmosphere was calm comfortable, and relaxed.  As an added bonus, our table had a view of the beach.

Inside Perla

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

After a deep, relaxing sleep overnight, and a nourishing breakfast at the hotel's breakfast buffett,  we set out the next morning on an all-day tour of the island.  Of course, one day is not sufficient to see the entire island in depth, but we saw and heard enough to fill our brains to capacity for the day.  The company that provided the tour was not planning to be open on Christmas Eve, but fortunately for us they had failed to note this on their booking website and our money and booking were accepted.  In the spirit of good faith and good customer service they decided to go ahead with the tour.  Normally their policy is to have a minimum of four people per tour, but on this tour it was just the two of us.  Our driver and guide, Sergio Something O'Neal (he has two last names), picked us up from our hotel and we set out for the eastern side of Puerto Rico.  While he was driving Sergio provided a running verbal account of the history of Puerto Rico, starting way back with the original inhabitants of the island and ending up in the present with President Obama's visit and the question of Puerto Rico's status as a commonwealth.  It was a bit rainy as we were driving east along the coast, and Sergio pointed out various things to us and explained about people being injured (and sometimes killed) by falling coconuts (it's not a laughing matter).  Among other things, we learned that different municipalities paint their light and telephone poles with different colors, as you can see in the photo below.

After driving east through many small towns and cities we arrived at El Yunque National Forest, the only tropical rain forest in the United States.  In El Yunque we first stopped at an observation tower to take in a grand view of the surrounding area.  Said tower has exactly 100 steps to the very top.

The view from the top

After the tower visit we hiked through the forest and up to a second observation tower at a much higher elevation.  The trail through the forest is concrete with rocks embedded for added traction.  There is so much water and moisture in El Yunque's soil that anything less than a concrete path would quickly erode away and cause visitors to slip and slide and get covered in mud.  We were careful to stay on the path, and Sergio pointed out to us a lot of interesting features of the flora and fauna.  We saw some large Puerto Rican snails, much larger than we have here at home.  The shells of these snails were 2 to 3 inches across, and they were flattened quite a bit compared to the snail shells we are used to seeing at home.  See for yourself.

All around us we saw various varieties of palm trees, and most palm trees had several bromeliads growing from their trunks.  The bromeliads are not parasitic to the palm trees - they just use the trunks as something to attach their roots to.  Sergio did not know how the bromeliads initially attach themselves to the trees.  In addition to bromeliads and palm trees we saw a lot of other trees and plants.  Many of the trees had root systems partially elevated above the ground.  According to Sergio, this is because of the abundance of water in the rain forest - the elevated roots allow the rain water to flow through so as to not drown the roots with too much water.  One of the more interesting sights along the path was a mature walking stick, or stick insect.  This particular stick insect was about 5 or 6 inches long, and Sergio let it walk on his hand a bit (neither of us handled the stick insect).  Nearby we saw a smaller, immature stick insect - about 3 inches long.  As we neared the second tower we came upon a mysterious type of plant that Sergio knew nothing about, and that's saying something - he knows all about the various plants in El Yunque.  You can see said mystery plant below and try to guess what it is.

The second observation tower had orange lichen growing on its outer wall.  Its stairway was narrow, dark, and damp - perfect conditions for slippage and injury.  Did I mention that it also had no handrail?  We made it up and down safely, and the view was spectacular, despite the drifting mists in air.

After a leisurely hike back down to the car, and a light lunch of chilled meats and native crackers, we headed out of El Yunque, stopping briefly at a spectacular waterfall for pictures.

From El Yunque we made our way to the beach for a kayaking trip through the mangroves into one of Puerto Rico's famed bio bays.  These bodies of water are known for their displays of bioluminescence, in the form of microbes that light up when they are agitated by kayak oars, hands in the water, swimmers, etc.  On the way to the beach we stopped at a small fruit market and picked up a coconut, some mangos, and a soursop.  The coconut was opened at the fruit stand and straws were provided so that we could suck out the precious sweet coconut water.

At the beach we loaded ourselves onto the kayaks and set out with a different guide who's name we don't recall - I'm going to call her Imelda.  Imelda was a good kayakist and guide.  We rowed through a mangrove maze, where we spotted an iguana (apparently iguanas are considered pest animals in Puerto Rico), and into a lake-like body of water.  Then we waited, and waited.  We had arrived a little before sunset, and the little microbes only come out at night.  While we were waiting a rain shower came.  We rowed under the cover of the mangroves and waited for it to pass.  The mangroves did not provide a lot of cover, however, and we all got quite wet.  Imelda was able to check the rain's progress with a live weather radar app on her phone (said phone being in a waterproof case).  Eventually the rain stopped, the sky darkened, and nothing happened.  The little buggers apparently didn't like the rain, and the most we saw was a faint glow around the paddles when we were rowing.

On the bio bay with our guide, Imelda.

Then it rained some more and we started rowing back to the car.  As we were passing back through the mangrove maze we encountered mass tourists heading out into the bio bay, and we had to pull over to the side to let them pass.  Let me describe the scene.  It was quite dark in the mangroves by this time, and the rain had stopped, and Becky was quite cold by this time, and none of the kayakers had lights - they each had a red glowing ring on one end of the kayak and a blue one on the other, presumably so that they could follow each other.  Imelda had a real light, and occasionally she would shine it on the passing parade.  The kayakers heading out into the bio bay apparently had no leader, no sense of direction, and 90% of them apparently had no idea of how to use a kayak or oars.  It was a chaotic stream of kayakers, and a good setting for a lot of people to potentially get hurt.  Onward they came, kayak after kayak - somehow managing to move in the right direction and not crash into us.  And still more kayaks kept coming.  I wasn't counting, but it must have been doezens and dozens.  They finally passed and we were able to continue back to the car.  Once at the car Becky got in and Sergio turned on the heat full blast.  We ate a light dinner of chilled meats, native crackers, mangoes, the meat of the coconut, and soursop fruit.  The soursop had an interesting and pleasant taste, and Imelda claimed that it has anti-cancer properties.  One important detail to remember - when we embarked on the kayaks Imelda forgot to outfit us with life jackets and helmets.  This detail would come into play later in the week.

Sergio drove us back to our hotel, all the while continuing his running history of Puerto Rico.  Two of the standout events he talked about were the sinking of the Maine, and the unofficially-named Obama Freeway.  As the story goes, before the President's visit to Puerto Rico the people in charge of such things decided to smooth out the stretch of freeway that the Presidential motorcade would be using - the rest of the freeway was left in whatever state it was prior to his visit.  The result is a normal freeway ride, then a section of very smooth and quiet freeway for a while, then back to normal freeway.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

December 25 - Christmas Day.  What did you do on Christmas?  We took a cruise on a catamaran and did some snorkeling.  I drank my first (and last) rum.  On hearing this, I'm guessing that half of you who know me are thinking along the lines of, "Woohoo!  It's about time, man!", and the other half are thinking along the lines of, "Why in the world would you ever want to do something so stupid?"  To which half do you belong?  :)  Back to the narrative.  We got a bit of a late start that morning, but it wasn't our fault.  Apparently the previous renters of our car, or the rental place itself, had left the car's interior dome light in the "always on" position, and since we picked up the car in the daytime and didn't drive it for almost two days we didn't notice this and turn off the light.  The result?  Dead battery, and the rental place wanting to charge us $50 for a jump start (the hotel personnel could not find their jump starting device).  Fortunately for us AAA operates in Puerto Rico, and after a short wait (much shorter than we typically wait here at home) a technician showed up, gave us a jump, and we set off east toward Fajardo.  It was a bright sunshiny day, and after an uneventful and picturesque drive - at least for me as a passenger; for driver Becky it was 40 minutes of harrowing speeding and hoping she wouldn't be pulled over by the local highway patrol because we were running late due to the battery issue -  we arrived at the marina in Fajardo mere minutes before the catamaran's departure.

After a brief bit of instruction from the bartender/guide/emcee, Chris, we set sail (and motor) for Icocos Island.  The weather was beautiful - the sun was shining in a clear sky, there was a slight wind blowing, and the water was a beautiful blue-green color.  At various points on our outbound journey we encountered other boats crossing our path at various angles.

Various small islands also crossed our path at various angles.  We reached Icocos Island, anchored a few yards off the beach, and Chris gave us some basic snorkeling and lunch advice.  Then the stairs were lowered and people were allowed to disembark and embark at-will.  We had a good group of people on the boat with us.  There were several families, and everyone was friendly and not obnoxious or rowdy (and no one got drunk).  We really were fortunate in that regard - it made the entire day much more enjoyable. 

I grabbed my underwater camera, some snorkeling gear, and my towel; Becky grabbed her hat and towel, and we disembarked.  One thing that Chris hammered into our heads was, "Don't touch the coral."  We should swim near it and enjoy the view, but touching was strictly forbidden.  With this in mind I donned my flippers, mask and snorkel and went into the water and swam out to the reef area while Becky enjoyed the water closer to the shore.  I was trying to follow Chris' instructions to not touch the reef, but the wind, waves, and water level were consipiring against me.  Plus my mask kept fogging up.  And my snorkel took on a lot more water than I'm used to taking on (I'm thinking it was a poorly-designed snorkel).  Anyway, I did my best to view the reef and take some pictures.  The waves kept washing me toward and over the reef, and the continuous up-and-down motion of the shallow water put within inches the reef on several occasions (or so it appeared through my mask).  The picture below includes what I believe is a young barracuda.

After I had used up the entire roll of film we returned to the boat and partook of lunch.  All day we only encountered one other catamaran that was cruising and snorkeling.  I don't know if this is normal, but I imagine that on non-Christmas days there are a few more of them out and about.  From Icocos Island we cruised around looking for a good place to anchor for another snorkeling/swimming session - this time in more open water and not right next to a beach.  We ended up anchoring off of Palominito Island, which Chris claimed is the most photographed island in the world.  He also claimed that it is the island where the end of the 4th Pirates of the Caribbean movie was filmed; and the very boat we were on was used to ferry cast and crew of the movie to the island.  Palominito Island is right next to Palomino Island, a private island leased by a big hotel/resort on the big island for exclusive use by said hotel's guests.

Palomino Island

Palominto Island is basically just a sandbar with a tree growing on it.

Palominito Island

The water was much deeper at Palominito, and I didn't come anywhere near to touching the reef.  My mask fogged up a lot, however, and my snorkel took on a lot of water, and the visibility was only mediocre underwater.  Despite these conditions, I enjoyed myself, and when the second camera's film was used up I swam about a bit with no snorkeling gear at all.  Becky stayed on the boat and enjoyed a fruity rum drink.

After our stay at Palominito Island we started our return cruise to the big island.  It was during this return cruise that I ordered my first, and last, rum drink.  I had a rum and Coke, consisting of equal parts rum and Coke.  The rum had a very distinctive taste that was not completely pleasant.  It also had a burning feel as it went down.  I occasionally sipped at it for a while and I eventually finished it.  As we got nearer to the marina the crew pointed out a wooden ship that they claimed played the part of Queen Anne's Revenge in the previously-mentioned Pirates of the Caribbean movie.  At the time of our cruise it was not in full movie costume.  This ship, so claimed the crew, will also be in an upcoming 5th movie in the series.

After disembarking at the marina we drove back home to our hotel, changed clothes, and walked to Cafe Angeles restaurant around the corner from the hotel.  We both ordered pork for dinner, but two different cuts.  Portions were large and satisfying, and the house-made hot sauce added an additional layer of goodness to the meat.  We were seated near the entrance, in the open-air section, and we saw several interesting characters walk by on the sidewalk - including someone wearing a live snake around her neck.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

On Thursday we decided to be self-guided tourists and visit some interesting sites to the west of San Juan. First stop was the Camuy River Cave Park.  We were advised by Sergio that this should be our first stop for the day because the tours fill up fast, and he was right.  We arrived sometime mid-morning, signed up for the main cavern tour, and waited.  We didn't have to wait too long, however, and the tour began with a brief film that told of the history of the area and of the cavern.  After the film we boarded a diesel-powered tram and set off toward the actual cavern.  On the way to the cavern we enjoyed the trees and bushes, as well as the smell of the diesel exhaust.  The tramway wound down into a gigantic sinkhole and we disembarked the tram to walk down a concrete path into the cavern.

The orange thing is the tram.

Our guide in the cavern - I'll call him Rojelio - was well informed, and he explained everything in both Spanish and English.  The concrete path in the cavern was wet and at various places in the cavern there was dripping water to watch out for.  Some of the features that Rojelio pointed out included: a great big face-shaped outcropping that the Taino's thought was a god, a formation called Brocoll and Bacon, cave spiders that were actually crickets, a very deep chasm where a river flows, and the nesting holes where the bats live.  The bats were asleep while we were in the cavern, and no one in our tour group got bitten.

After the cavern tour had concluded it was time for lunch, and what could be better and more convenient than a lunch from the cafe at Camuy River Cave Park - a cafe that our travel guide rated as most excellent?  The short answer is that almost anywhere would have been better.  We got into the line and looked over the menu.  We noticed that the line wasn't moving.  And then it wasn't moving some more.  Eventually it moved, and we advanced about a foot. Then more waiting, then another foot closer to the ordering station, etc.  We ended up waiting in line for an hour (due to apparent short-staffing of the cafe, slow order taking, slow customers), only to be told that they were basically out of everything except hot dogs and "pizza empanadas."  A pizza empanada, for those who have never been to Camuy River Cave Park, is an empanada shell filled with pizza sauce.  Not meat, not cheese, not vegetables - just pizza sauce and crust.  We would have been better off going elsewhere to eat, but after that much time waiting in line we wanted something for all of our time and frustration, so I got two hot dogs, and Becky got one - plus fries.  And it wasn't some kind of fancy only-in-Puerto-Rico hot dog.  No, it was your basic store-bought plain generic hot dog on a white bun.  And the fries were obviously cheap generic frozen fries.  To sum up - go see the cavern, but eat off-site.  Lunch wasn't all bad - I had a Malta India soda, and I spotted a friendly lizard thing watching us.  And we got to watch the feral cats frolic nearby the cafe.

After lunch we headed to see something I've been interested in for quite a while - the Arecibo Observatory, the largest radio telescope in the world.  You may remember Arecibo from such movies as Goldeneye and Contact.  Our trip from Camuy to Arecibo was a bit of an adventure.  Let me preface it by offering some advice - when a tour guide (in this case, Sergio) takes time to write down explicit driving directions to a place in the hills of Puerto Rico, and Google Maps tells you to take a different route, TAKE THE ROUTE YOUR TOUR GUIDE PROVIDES.  Google Maps is wonderful most of the time, but sometimes the locals know the roads and the area a lot better.  We learned this from bitter experience, and I take the blame since I was doing the navigating and course-plotting.  Google Maps told us to turn off the main highway on a little road that wound into the hills.  I chose to follow this route instead of Sergio's route, and we had a most terrifying time navigating tiny little twisty mountainous roads leading through some beautiful country.  We encountered steep, pothole filled roads that pushed that little Hyundai's traction-control and anti-slip capabilities to their limits.  And that is no exaggeration - we were afeared that we would not be able to make it up some of the steep grades and that we would get stuck way out in the Puerto Rican countryside with no cell signal or AAA access. That brave little car got us up and down roads we had no business being on, and we can confidently recommend the Hyundai Accent to anyone looking for a new small car.  Eventually our route met up with the normal prescribed route, the road widened a bit, and we arrived at the visitor parking area at Arecibo Observatory.

From the parking lot it's a bit of an uphill walk to the visitor center.

But it's worth the walk.  The museum at the visitor center isn't so great - a lot of the displays seemed dated and lackluster - but seeing the radio telescope with your own eyes makes up for the lackluster museum.  I was quite thrilled to see that the people at Arecibo still recognize Pluto as a planet.  We need more people to stand up for Pluto and get its planetary status reinstated.

Our first view of the radio telescope

The Arecibo radio telescope is a radio/radar dish 1000 feet across, and it is spectacular to behold.  It is too big to be mounted on any kind of moving mechanism, so it is always facing the same direction relative to Earth, and the antennae and receiving apparatus are suspended above the dish on large cables that are supported by three massive concrete towers.  Since the dish cannot move, the antennae move.  It is all quite amazing to see.

The massive dish

 Technicians wear special shoes when they need to walk on the dish.  We were not allowed to walk on the dish.

The massive receivers

 At Arecibo Observatory there is a scale model of the solar system.  The sun is in the visitor parking lot, and the planets are placed where they would be relative to the parking lot sun.  One of the planets is mounted on the support tower in the picture below, but I don't remember which planet (it's not Pluto - Pluto would be a lot farther away at this scale).

One of three massive support towers

We visited the small gift shop, and a heavy rain shower came in.  We debated waiting it out or making a dash for the car.  We waited it out, mostly - we returned to the car when it was merely sprinkling.  It was a boring wait, because the gift shop was small and boring.  From the visitor parking lot at Arecibo we headed toward Lares and its world-famous ice cream shop, Heledaria Lares.

Heledaria Lares is world-famous for its wild, wacky, and outrageous flavors - such as codfish, rice, rice and beans, corn, sweet potato, strawberry shortcake, rum, chicken, rice pudding, guava, and such-like (to us, who live just north of the garlic capitol of the world, the garlic ice cream wasn't very exotic or strange).  We arrived at Heledaria Lares after navigating the tricky, tight streets of Lares, found a parking spot, parked, got out of the car, then entered the ice creamery and got into line.  The flavors are labelled in Spanish, but the staff is happy to translate them into English.  When it was our turn to order Becky chose a single scoop of strawberry cheesecake, and I chose a single scoop each of corn and cazuela (a mixture of pumpkin and sweet potato).

After enjoying our exotic ice cream we got back on the road and drove home to our hotel.  At dinner time we walked to the Argentinian restaurant on the street corner.  We shared appetizers, I had some kind of beef with mofongo (fried mashed plantain) and Becky had skirt steak; and for dessert we shared chocolaty crepes.  Sadly, the restaurant people could not make the special hot chocolate that I wanted - they claimed that they had run out of a key ingredient.  It was a very good meal to top off a very good day.

Friday, December 27, 2014

On Friday we decided to explore Old San Juan in the morning and then enjoy a sailing cruise of the Old San Juan bay.  We had actually decided on the sailing cruise prior to Friday.  You remember Imelda from earlier in the week?  She felt so badly about our kayaking experience - forgetting to issue us life jackets and helmets, the rain, Becky freezing, and the bio bugs not glowing - that she offered us a free sailing cruise/tour of the Old San Juan bay.  She had been in touch with Becky throughout the week, via texting, and we accepted the Friday afternoon time slot.  And since we would be cruising in the Old San Juan bay we thought it made sense to explore Old San Juan.  On our drive to the old town, while waiting for a traffic light, we watched a street performer of some sort.  He was wearing a straw hat and scraping a cheese grater with a large fork.  Right before he posed for this photo he claimed that this performance was "genuine Puerto Rican culture."  We remain skeptical of this clam.

Genuine Perto Rican culture?

Google Maps directed us through the narrow streets to the public parking lot near the old town, and we found a convenient parking space.  Old San Juan is mostly inside the thick walls of the old fort, and the streets tend to slope upward from where the parking lot is.  On the outside of the walls there are several cylindrical lookout posts.  There is an official term for them, but I don't recall it at this time.  You can see one such lookout post below.

We entered the old town and followed the brick road upward toward the Cristo Chapel.  According to legend, this small chapel was built to honor a miraculous event - as the story goes a young man on horseback couldn't convince his speeding mount to stop before they both went over the edge of the wall.  Miraculously, instead of them both being dead, the young man and his horse were completely unharmed.  The official story is that the chapel was built to prevent men and horses from going over the edge of the wall.

The Cristo Chapel

The chapel was closed while we were there, but the Parque de las Palomas (Pigeon Park) was open and we perused the parque and the palomas.  A vendor was on hand selling pigeon food, and several families were also present in the park.  There is a reason that the pigeons have their own park, but we don't recall said reason.

Parque de las Palomas

We walked down a blue-bricked street and found a small restaurant with bright yellow interior walls.  The beef plate I ordered was outstanding - the best beef we tasted in Puerto Rico - and Becky enjoyed her chicken tacos.  The service was a bit slow, and we had to rush out of there before the server delivered our bill.  Don't worry, we paid for our meal - we left a wad of cash that we believe covered the meal and allowed for a tip.  No one chased after us demanding more money.  On the way back to the car we walked by what claims to be the world's narrowest building - really just a walled-in alley between two buildings.  Back in the car we drove to the marina for our boat ride, and after making two or three passes we eventually found the right entrance to the marina parking lot.

Imelda was waiting for us at the sailboat, and she had orange juice, Coke, and fresh strawberries on board for our enjoyment.  After giving us basic safety information and queuing up some jazz on Pandora we set out on our way to the Old San Juan Bay.  We saw a lot of sights, and Imelda shared a lot of current and historical information, including a tip on some real estate to not invest in.

The ships pictured below are used to ferry supplies to Puerto Rico's outlying islands.  Different color schemes indicate the different fleets.  Up close we could tell that at least one of the ships had had a change of name sometime in the past.

Do not invest in these buildings.

One of the more intriguing sights Imelda pointed out to us were these radar domes.  Apparently Richard Snowden claims that these very radar domes are among those used/in-use by the NSA to intercept private citizens' cell phone and other data.

NSA radar domes

Another view of the NSA radar domes

The large blue building is the Puerto Rico Governor's Mansion.  If I recall correctly, it is still in use by the current Governor.

The yellowish building between the blue and red buildings is the one that is called the world's narrowest building.

As we cruised the bay Becky mainly consumed the Coke, and I mainly consumed the orange juice, but at one point I mixed the two, as I am wont to do on occasion, and the idea of combining Coke and orange juice seemed to blow Imelda's mind.  Below are two views of the point of the old fort - one with us, and one without us.

We got a good view of the Bacardi rum factory.  According to Imelda, although Bacardi is the biggest rum maker in the world, and despite its importance to Puerto Rico's economy, the locals prefer Don Q rum over Bacardi rum.  Apparently Don Q is a stronger rum.  And I believe that the rum I consumed on the catamaran was Don Q.

The Bacardi rum factory

Random sighting while on our cruise

The cruise was wonderful and relaxing, and Imelda was a gracious host and wonderful tour guide.  After the sailing cruise it was only a short drive back to our hotel.  We decided to walk around and see some local area sights before our final dinner in Puerto Rico.  As we were walking around and enjoying the ambiance we encountered this rather abstract sculpture.

What is it?

We also encountered several very nice views of the ocean.

We ate dinner at a restaurant with an outside seating area.  I ordered a seafood medley/stew with mofongo, and Becky had the grouper filet tempura.  The only issues with the dinner were the slower-than-expected service and the fragment of shell I bit down on.  Maybe it's just a Puerto Rico thing, or a Caribbean thing, but we noticed that service at several restaurants was a bit slower than what we are used to at restaurants here at home.  The food was excellent, and the views also.  Our table's positioning and the dwindling outside light allowed me plenty of opportunity to play with the various shutter speeds and exposure timings on my camera, and I was able to capture this striking image of the top of a building.

I also captured some nice night pictures of the beach and coastline from our dinner table.  Here is one such photo.

After our wonderful meal we stopped in at a local Ben & Jerry's ice cream shop for some after-dinner ice cream.  Becky had the Mango Mango Sorbet, and I had Americone Dream and something with peanut butter in it (possibly Chubby Hubby).  

Saturday, December 28, 2013

On Saturday we packed up, drove to the airport, and flew home.  To see more photos that were not included in this blog post please click on this link.

Everyone there will have moved

     bIsh