Thanksgiving and Bowling!

Well, you all know that we had a great start to our Thanksgiving break in Culebra, well, the end wasn’t that bad either. Once we go back to the main land, we had to begin the preparations for our first ever hosting Thanksgiving event. Jon and I were in charge of the turkey, crab dip, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. Regardless of the many horror stories and repeated warnings, we still cooked the “giblets” in the bag, inside the turkey. I guess it was just harder to find than we thought. We figured maybe our turkey just didn’t have “giblets”. Guess not, we found them when it was too late. Ahhh, first-timers! J We had Mandi and Andrea (our neighbors), Andrea’s mom and sister from Chicago and Max (our Russian-American Postman) over for the holiday celebration. We had a nice table set up on our back porch where we could enjoy the cool breeze. And you know it, it wouldn’t be a Mudd event if there wasn’t a little Catch Phrase to wrap up the evening. We didn’t disappoint. Anyway, good times with good friends.

That next weekend, we were invited to go bowling in “Coto de Laurel” (a little piece of home every time I see that interstate sign). Anyway, we went with our Puerto Rican friends, Julio, Yesenia and of course their baby, Karla. It was a good time. Jon dominated, I think that even he was surprised at how well he did… I think that in the second game he got a 177 or something crazy like that. Ahh yes, and OF COURSE there was dancing during turns. Puerto Ricans, they will make a dance party out of anything! So, we watched Julio and Yesenia dance to the meringue and salsa while they waited for their turn. Fun stuff!!

Here is a shout out to Braden and Uncle Jim! Happy BIRTHDAY to you both! We love you and miss you! Have a great, special day! J

Culebra Island

Culebra used to be a military bomb site, and therefore there are still some remnants of the military there. Here is one, a tank, on the beach. It has grown to be beautiful, covered with algae and color. There were also military personel on the beach every morning doing "bomb sweeps". They actually did end up finding a "detonating devise" and had to evacuate people out a little distance so that they could light it off. Interesting...

Happy Thanksgiving! Jon and I realized these last couple of days that we have A LOT to be thankful for. We have always thought that, but sitting on a white sand beach, exploring through an underwater world that you never imagined existed, and camping under the stars... we'll, that just kind of makes you even more thankful I suppose.

We had a WONDERFUL time in Culebra. We took the ferry over on Sunday morning from Fajardo (Mom/Dad/Troy - the picture of the tall building with the rainbow - I am pretty sure that is where your condo is going to be when you come in January. Right on the coast) and headed off the east coast of Puerto Rico - about 12 miles. Culebra is part of the "Spanish Virgin Islands" and has remained very underdeveloped with no high-rise hotels or big resorts to speak of. We didn't mind as we had brought our tent (and air mattress - of course) for the 3 nights that we planned to be there.

Our first day there we did a lot of loungin' around. We hung up the hammock, laid on the beach, hiked to a couple different beaches and went into "town" that night for dinner at the "Dingy Dock" on that water. Day two and day three, Jon and I arrived at our scuba boat at 9:30 each morning and would do one dive before lunch and one dive at a different site in the afternoon, after lunch. Taz (not his "real" name - just a nickname he got from winning a bar fight) was our divemaster. He was a character! A nice, friendly man, unless one happened to be "farting around" on the service too scared to go down 40ft and have to remove my mask without drowning. (Yeah, that was me) He doesn't have a whole lot of sympatheticness in him. I guess that is what makes him a good divemaster. It was a great time on the boat.

We made some good Puerto Rican diving friends - Luis and Lisa - they live in San Juan and had us over for dinner that night after the dive. They are both doctors and were staying in the "villas" on our same beach - we were in our tent taking showers out of gallon jugs, they flew to Culebra in a small plane - we took the ferry in which they hand out souvenir barf bags, they rent a car to explore the island - we walk, until they happen to drive by and then we hop in with them! Anyway, you get the point. But they were very nice and hopefully we will be able to keep in touch with them despite our different lives.

Underwater was amazing! Now that we have all of our testing done, I know that I am going to enjoy it even more. We saw amazing things. Just that water itself was beautiful. Imagine swimming in a fish tank of blue/green gelatin. We saw a lot of sting rays sleeping on the ocean floor. We saw a turtle weaving in and out of the coral. We saw amazing plants and colorful coral life. The fish were a rainbow of neon colors. We saw a HUGE lobster hidden back in a little coral cave, explored a sunken sailboat and saw the eyes of an octopus - he was too lazy to come out. The underwater camera that we bought was not made to go as deep as we went - so I don't have any pictures for you. Sorry. But in reality, they probably wouldn't do justice. We will go again though with a better camera, so look forward to that.

Anyway, if you are thinking about visiting. You definitely need to think about making a day-trip (at least) to Culebra. The ferry is only $2.50 to the island, and by far the best time we have had here so far.

So, Happy Thanksgiving to all! We are thankful and I hope that you are too!

My Painting

Here is a picture of my painting that we hung in the living room. I did it last sunday off of a picture that I found on-line. We may have to get a frame for it down the road... but for now we are enjoying it without one. Hope you like it! :)

Guavate and Luquillo

What do sunglasses, pork on a stick, wana-be cowboys, picturesque hotel settings and a man in a palm tree have in common? Well....

Stay tuned for the answer!

Here was our weekend. Lunch in Guavate - a small, touristy town in the mountains known for its great lechon (pork). Beach lounging in Luquillo - on the east side of the island. We did some snorkeling and some sleeping and watched a very interesting man hunting for coconuts. Good weekend.

Hiking with Barbara

The Guamani river. Bush-whacking. Rock-whacking. Muddy shoes. Waterfall slides. Good company. Hiking with Barbara is always an adventure. She doesn't believe in "trails" so we just make our own. She would have gone all the way to the top of the mountain... but we convinced her to save that adventure for another day - we were beat!

Lighthouse beach

It has been awhile since I have shared our adventures... probably because we haven't been too adventurous lately. Here are some pictures from "lighthouse beach". It isn't that far away from our house. The lighthouse is "Punta Tuna" and the beach is awesome. Nice sand, good waves and big lizzards. Jon's new favorite beach game is botchyball with coconuts. So that was his mission in the pictures - getting coconuts from the palms and challenging me on the sand. Not as easy as it may seem.

English Buddies

Here are some great pictures of some of my kids and thier reading buddies from the elementary side. They love to get together and share books.... anything to get out of a grammar lesson!