Finishing Up and Coming Home

When we got back to Chicago on Sunday morning around 1:30 am (having been delayed interminably in Philadelphia for no discernible reason), the weather was unkind, but not cruel.  The next day the temperature dropped 25 degrees, and now, already several days later, it remains squatting at the 0 mark.  Why do we live here?

New Year's Day was a laid-back kind of time, spent primarily at the pools and at the beach.  Poor Uncle Mike watched his FSU Seminoles be dismantled by Oregon in the National Semifinal game.  It's hard at this point to remember much else, which indicates that we did New Year's Day the way it should be done, i.e., by doing little.

The next day, everyone but mom and James hopped a catamaran to Vieques, one of the two "Spanish Virgin Islands" that just sit off Puerto Rico's eastern coast all day (incidentally, only recently have Vieques and Culebra begun going by the name "Spanish Virgin Islands", which as I understand it was chosen for marketing reasons.)  The first half of the hour outbound ride was rough; several among the party of middle-aged lesbians with whom we shared the charter barfed their guts out.  Silva and Claire chirped happily through for the first 10 minutes or so (Claire: "This is better than a roller coaster!"), but afterwards fell suspiciously silent as bigger and bigger waves pounded our boat.  When we did anchor on a deserted beach, the water was quite murky.  Nevertheless, we had fun; Erica and I did see some interesting fish and eels, and even got to swim with a big sea turtle for awhile (not pictured), while Dad spotted a sting ray (not pictured).

Dad (pictured)

Uncle Mike's mask hickey

El Capitan con sus hijas en las Islas Virgenes de los Espanoles

Mate con wenches

Rezagados

The next day was a depressing return to reality.  James was crabby on the long flight to Philadelphia.  It is cold here, which isn't cool.  But it was an amazing trip, one we have plans to do over again next Christmas; if not in Puerto Rico, then some other warm place.

Saying goodbye to 2014

It has been an amazing year for this little clan.  Mostly, of course, that's down to James, who came into our lives at the least probable moment, and has been just such a good-natured, sweet baby (not that we would love him any less if he wasn't, mind you.)  It's been the best year of my life, anyway.

The last day of the year was a pretty good capper.  After the usual morning routine, I left with Mike, Julia, Dad, Molly, Mark, Silva, and Claire for the ancient Taino capital of Caguas.  Modern Caguas is fairly impoverished, but the old, decaying historic district still serves up some charm.  The main plaza is flanked on opposite ends by the cathedral and the municipal building.  The cathedral (Dolce Nombre de Jesus) boasts little in the way of ornamentation, but does feature the tomb of Blessed Carlos ("Charli") Manuel Rodriguez Santiago, who remains the only lay American beatified to this date.  I bought the girls a crucifix apiece at the little shop next to the shrine, and a sticker commemorating his beatification in 2001 by JPII, who never met a case of beatification he didn't like (not to take anything away from Charli, of course).

Cathedral facade

View of the Plaza

Big "Flower Clock", whatever that means

Tomb of Blessed Charli

Ol' Caguas must not get a ton of tourist traffic, because the old men lounging in the plaza, drinking coffee in the shade, watched us with interest, and we didn't see any other Anglos all day.  We soon turned our attention to the weed-lined promenade leading off of the plaza, where endless bodegas aggressively marketed cheaply made clothing to locals.  Here, Mike and I scored some pretty sweet pork pie hats.

Mike (and his hat) not pictured

We ate lunch at the restaurant recommended by Molly's Rough Guide to Puerto Rico book, and it did not disappoint.  Most of the food in PR is deep fried or starchy or both (usually both).  But we put down some mean smoked chicken and pork on this afternoon, and followed it with a local brew by the F.O.K. brewery, which actually had both color and flavor!

Erica had a much more relaxing beach-type day.  She and James went on a little mommy/baby jaunt to the beach bar, where she quaffed a few tasty mojitos by the sea while James snoozed in his stroller...Not much to report on their front, other than Erica loved her day.

The most eventful part of the day

Julia had earlier in the week managed to finagle an invite to the annual, mostly-locals New Year's Eve party at the beach bar put on by the bar's owner.  The BYOB affair (since the bar's license does not extend past 10pm) was mobbed by...townies, I suppose...who brought with them an impressive array of booze, fireworks, and hooched-out pantalones.  A flashy guitar duo played Soca music, and even did a rendition of Auld Lange Syne (but they didn't know the words, so they just sang "La la la la" to the melody).  Out on the sand, drunks lit off giant fireworks dangerously close to the crowd.  It was pretty chaotic, but that's the party.

Just before midnight

The New Yearsers

On the way back to our condo, we stopped through the party being thrown in at our own development, which despite being sparsely attended, was pumping out dance music at extreme volumes.  There was, however, a raging private party in the unit below ours, and they were shooting off their own little arsenal of fireworks straight up into the airspace immediate perpendicular to James' window. Nevertheless, James snored straight through all of the noise like he was trying to win a bet.  Way to go, buddy!

Here's to a great 2015!  

Thorn: James' first mosquito bite

Rose: best New Year's Eve Party eva

Bud: just a sleepy beach day