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