Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Puerto Rico

This weekend I had some good friends (the Phillips) in town. We met a few summers back when we worked together in Puerto Rico. Saturday night at dinner we were describing to the others there how necessary it is to visit Puerto Rico and ended up writing up a list of absolute have to's for visiting PR. My big first is Bioluminescent Bay, which unfortunately I don't have a picture of. It is a bay on the NE corner of the island with a type of algae (?) that glows when disturbed. You kayak around the bay and the water running past your kayak makes your kayak glow. While we were there you could jump in and your body would glow, but now you are not allowed to leave your kayak. Definitely number one on my PR list and maybe number one of things I have ever done. Here are some other pictures from Puerto Rico summer 2006.
This is the view from one of the apartments I stayed in that summer. Yup - the beach was literally our backyard. I remember the first time I went to the beach that summer, it was after dark and I was kinda reluctant, because I didn't want to get cold - but as soon as the water touched my toes, I jumped right in. The water is as warm as bath water.

This is Cabo Rojo, which is the SW corner of the island. It is a very secluded area with lots of cliffs, a lighthouse and a small, but breathtakingly beautiful beach. I think that we saw only one other group the whole day we were at this beach.
And this is something alot of people may have seen - think 007 movie... It is called Arecibo Observatory. I love that it is right in the middle of all of these trees.
Another of my favorites that I don't have a digital picture of is San Juan. It is definitely a fun place to visit and in my opinion the best cruise port. It definitely is more touristy than the rest of PR, but it is a beautiful port, beautiful city and lots of very close cool things to see (like El Castillo). I would recommend a vacation to the island to ANYONE!! No matter your vacation style - PR is for you!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Grandma Garner

My Grandma Garner recently passed away. I am grateful for the special memories we have made throughout my 22 years - especially the ones that we have made in the past year. She is the kind of person that everyone should strive to be like. Her entire life was her family and I would be surprised if she had any regrets about life, even after her 90 some odd years. At her funeral she had about 90 kids, grandkids, and great grandkids there who were sad to see her go, but happy to know that we will see her again - some day. So here is to you Grandma; If I can become even half of the amazing person that you were, then I will live a happy life!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Julia Pfieffer Burns State Park


JJ and I drove down here a couple weeks ago. Absolutely beautiful. The waterfall falls right on the sand and... I SAW A WHALE. Poor JJ has to deal with me in public when I get that excited. But what can I say - I saw a freaking whale. It even blew air out of its blow hole. Totally the coolest thing I ever saw!!


Here is the JJ! I have some other pictures of him on earlier posts, but here is another due to popular demand. Yeah - I know... he's really cute.