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

Notre Dame wins, and all is right with the world

Today was another laid back affair. Mom even slugged down half of a can of the bubbly orange wine-based "sangria" in the late morning to pass the time.  Erica took the morning James shift, and afterwards we went to the water park on site (mentioned previously on this very blog!).  James blew a happiness-gasket, loving every single second in the pools and on the tiny slides.

And James got to swing for the first time...

Photo evidence of mommy pounding some Medalla Light

We enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner at Julia and Mike's place, where I splashed out too much on more crappy Puerto Rican wine.  Erica and I ate our meals in front of the tv, watching the second half of the Notre Dame/LSU bowl game, where--miracle of miracles--the Fighting Irish pulled it out with a last second field goal (actually, Erica had to take James home to sleep and so missed the very end of the game, which stinks)!  ND had been among the heaviest underdogs of the entire bowl season, and LSU's loss was the only one by an SEC West team against a non-SEC West team all season.

We spent the evening hanging out on the lanai listening to the waves.  Good day!

Thorn: $43 tab for wine.  Yeesh.
Rose: watching James love on those pools
Bud: just more beach time :)

Erica's favorite kind of day

Yesterday (we're still operating a day behind on this blog) was dedicated to doing nothing, except of course being asked to once again go to the grocery store for more supplies. So that was my morning.

The afternoon, though, began with a whimper, as we larded up for a day in the sun at the Palmas Del Mar waterpark, only to discover that they were painting the waterslides (in the middle of high season, naturally).  So we spent a hour or so illicitly swimming in the Wyndham pool, whose swim up bar never opened while we were there (and during the high season, too!)

For lunch we schlepped over to the beach bar.  "Schlepped" is a good work for walking in flip flops while carrying tons of baby gear.  Anyway, lunch was passable and the views were great.  I even got to spend some time body surfing, before the beach cops told me off for swimming outside out of the flagged area.

 And James got his most scenic meal yet...

and dipped his toes in the warm Caribbean waters.

The evening was low-key.  Erica got to make her tasty shrimp dish, and there was a round of the official Smith family card game, Oh Heck (aka, Oh Hell - the name was changed by my cursing-conscious grandfather), which was won by Dad by a point over Uncle Mike (I finished dead last; Erica is "not a card game person" and abstained).  

Thorn: going back to the grocery store

Rose: lunch, watching James in the water

Bud: waterslides?  

Thorny Bud: Notre Dame's inevitable destruction in the bowl game by LSU

El Yunque Et Al

I didn't have time to squeeze out a post yesterday, but here's what happened as far as I can recollect it:

James woke up around 6am as a good baby should, and greeted me with a soft "da-da" as I picked him up.  Grandma took over shortly thereafter and Erica and I got a few minutes to walk along our secluded beach and even get in the ocean, imagine that!

No tengo a nadie

The post-morning nap phase of the day saw the whole group trekking to El Yunque National Forest, billed as the only rainforest in the United States forest system (seriously, though, there are tons of others (e.g., the Hoh rainforest in Olympic National Park) under federal protection, but apparently technically not under the "National Forest" designation.  So not really something to really hang your hat on, IMHO.  Nevertheless,) it was very awesome, despite its largely unhelpful visitors center, which did however serve as an impressive backdrop for a family picture.

James scored another stamp for his National Parks passport book which, you'll remember, he got here.  Then he tried to give it a munch.

At the visitor's center, we decided to drive to the Big Tree trailhead and hike the 0.8 mile or so to the Las Minas falls.  Since it was a Sunday and most of the Puerto Ricans themselves decided to visit the park too, we had an extremely difficult time finding parking along the slender shoulders of the crapo mountain roads.  The trail itself was "paved" with poorly poured concrete, an excellent choice for a steep trail in a rain forest.  We did finally get to the falls themselves, which were ample.  The water was freezing, and neither Erica, I, nor James did more than dip our toes in, but dad went whole hog right under the falls themselves.  

Red shirt, waving

Aunt Molly had stepped up to the plate and carried James all the way there (which seemed a lot longer than 0.8 miles all agreed), and gave way to me on the way back.

We drove back along PR-53, a highway sort of road.  Puerto Rico, the majority of whose citizens recently voted for the first time for statehood, is twice as poor as Mississippi.  In many ways it looks like the third world--everything is predictably made from concrete and corrugated sheet metal, and most homes and buildings are unfinished to one degree or another.  But you will also happen upon just about every kind of American chain store or restaurant, most people speak at least passable English, and the bars all serve Shaefer (!) beer and show NFL games (a note on the beer here: the ubiquitous Medalla Light, of which there is no "heavy" antecedent, is your classic very light international adjunct lager and comes in 10 oz. cans.  There is also the native Magna brand, which is a Touborg clone, so get that instead.  All other beer is either Heineken or some American beer.)

Due to a communication error between the members of the meal-planning contingent, we enjoyed a nice home-cooked meal of Erica's legendary pepper shrimp warmish burgers on a dying gas grill.  Afterwards, Erica and I, along with Molly, Mark, Uncle Mike, and Aunt Julia enjoyed a beer at the beach bar, and later drinks in the open-air Wyndham lobby, where the poor waiter was confused by my order of a Negroni.

Rose: the hike with the family; watching James enjoy the forest

Thorn: the traffic in Loquillo and Fajardo

Bud: just a day on the beach

Puerto Rico!

We left Naperville at 4:45 yesterday morning in hopes of making it all the way to Puerto Rico without any meltdowns.  James was, per usual, as good as gold, and never once ever cried one single drop.  He played happily during the morning flight to Atlanta and made several friends with the people in surrounding seats.  He didn't nap, though, and was getting quite edgy as we waited for our (delayed) flight to leave for Puerto Rico.  But once we lifted off he fell asleep with prejudice and slept for two+ hours before waking up and cooing cooly all the way to the island.  El Gordito fue muy bueno!  After a long wait for the rental car, during which a vaguely bilingual Thrifty employee spent 20 minutes affixing James' car seat, we hightailed it south an hour on into the dusk and on crumbling roads to the swanky megacondotron Palmas Del Mar.

We arrived at our place just as the sun was setting, and Silva and Claire were ecstatic to see their baby cousin.  Mostly Silva, actually, as Claire is shaking off a cold and was distracted by the television.  Within the hour, Dad had taken James and the girls down to the pool and, despite explicit instructions, took him in swimming with him.  James was in heaven.  The rest of the evening featured the "haggling over what we're going to do" routine, and despite our best intentions to formulate a schedule then a there, the details of the itinerary are filtering in slowly.

In the morning, we were able to shuttle around the Palmas Del Mar compound, and our little corner of it (Crescent Beach).  It's essentially a walled-off section of the coast about 7 miles long and extends about 3 miles inland.  Within it are several commercial districts, two golf courses, a K-12 school, a casino, tons of opulent condo developments that all basically look alike, and lots and lots of old people.  Our place is RIGHT ON THE BEACH WOOHOO (except for the pools in between, which I'm willing to forgive.) To the view!

James was quickly snatched off to a morning session in the pool by his adoring cousins and grandpa, who went whole hog into it...

...while Erica, Mark, and I a made quick grocery run to pick up food for James and some booze and mixers to make Painkillers, which turned into the proverbial 3 Hour Tour.  The byzantine morass of crappy roads and their medieval signage had us lost just shortly after we took this glam snapper from the mountains above Palmas... 

That's Vieques in the distance

Shortly thereafter a dinobaby-sized iguana ran across the road in front of our car, and we were also treated to the sight of a local boy bareback on a horse riding at full sprint against the grain of traffic.

Completely lots within 15 minutes, we were forced to unmanfully stop and ask directions at a home improvement store (we never found the Ralph's we were looking for).  Mark was overheard by a patron who was headed directly to a Ralph's in Humacao, so we followed him there, and he stopped twice (even getting out of his car once) to make sure we wanted to go to Ralph's and not Walmart. This had us put off for Ralph's, but it ended up being basically a Jewel, so I'm not sure what the hold up was.  Among the items purchased was Puerto Rican wine, which wasn't awesome.

We met Julia and Molly at the Bohio Beach Bar just down the beach for a late lunch.  Much to our wondering eyes, it was not even outrageously captive-audience-at-a-resort pricey.  James stayed back to play with grandma and then refused vehemently to nap at all,which rendered him fairly crabby the rest of the day. 

Romance!

Romance!

Molly and Mark made tasty fish tacos for dinner, and we all enjoyed some good family time on the lanai, backed up by the sound of waves crashing on the beach.  Tomorrow, a visit to El Yunque, the only rainforest in the US!

Thorn: no nap.  erg.

Rose: the beach! the sun! the fun! the rum!

Bud: La Mina waterfall in E Yunque

I'm interrupting this blog's long winter's nap with some news

Erica and I braved 19 degree Black Friday early morning temps to stand in line for a bit at Best Buy for a new camera. Crass, I know, but James was already well up, Cheryl was willing to watch him crawl around for awhile (we're in Naperville), and we figured there was no point in waiting for them to sell out of the door buster camera deal we've had our eye for quite awhile.

After much research, we settled on the pricey-but-worth-it Sony a6000 as our Christmas present to one another.  We weren't really satisfied with the quality of pictures we were getting from our point-and-shoot (which also lately has developed a spot on the sensor which appears as a dark blob in every shot), so we pulled the trigger on something that we hope will take excellent pictures and do so for many years. 

I'm a complete photography novice past "point the camera at desired object and press button," so I've been reading up on how to use all of the bewildering options this camera has, as well as some of the basic manual settings know-how that will allow me to make the most of what it offers.  So far, so...decent?  Yesterday's shots were a mixed bag, save when the auto function was on; I went outside this morning to take picture of the snow, and ended up with a lot of white-outs (again, unless the auto settings were engaged.)  Still, I'm very happy with the quality of the good ones.

Here's a sampling from this morning:

This one got a bit overexposed

There's a little bird in there, making this Nature Photography

The James shots turned out pretty well.  We did a photo shoot for our upcoming Christmas card, and I also got some good ones of him ranging over the house:

We're excited to set the camera loose on our sure-to-be-scenic trip to Puerto Rico over Christmas vacation with mom and dad, Aunt Molly and Uncle Mark, and Silva and Claire.  We'll have full daily reports.

Grant