The Flower Show

One day, Sister Edwards, who works in the Employment Center, took me to an annual flower show. Here we are enjoying our Pinapple colatas. A sweet highlight. We were on the street enjoying the flowers and atmosphere. But in so doing, we didn't even realize we missed the real flower show that was held indoors a huge hall. We had a great day none the less. Orchids everywhere.
We tasted this little weird fruit from Asia. It was great. It was soft and sweet.
Orchids are plentiful here. They even graft them on trees and they bloom for months. I have never seen so many kinds and colors. It was a wonderful day.

Tarpon Fishing Day

On their last day, Cameron our fisherman of the family REALLY wanted to go fishing. So we found a local fishing boat and went tarpon fishing for half a day. We were in a salt water lagoon near the airport. There is a beautiful bridge that is lined with flags that where the family fished. Again, it was a beautiful place to fish and it looks like everyone got a bite. Of course all the fish lived because it is a catch and release thing. That's how we do it in this family.Cameron is our ultimate fisherman. But if it is big action, Nathan is in. Thanks Cam for the idea.
Even our beginner, Megan caught a tarpon and really seemed to enjoy the day.

Swinging through the Rain forest

We found an outfit that met us at a central location and drove us 1/2 to a rain forest in Caguas. There, we geared up and started a little hike up through some water falls. It was beautiful, cool and so refreshing. After hiking up some lovely little falls, we repelled down this 82 foot waterfall drop. It was about a 30 second repel, but was easy and refreshing. Once at the bottom, we hiked 5 more minutes to a few zip lines. Wow, what fun. At the conclusion of our jungle adventure, we were treated to a typical Puerto Rican lunch of chicken, rice, beans and flan. Ziping, and a waterfall repel were among the highlights of the day. Pretty adventurous, eh?

What a great way to see the rain forest and be together in this beautiful place. Here is Nathan doing a little rope climbing. Above is what we saw when we hiked for 10 minutes. Our kind of hiking.

Vieques , Puerto Rico

We visited the island of Vieques. It is a small island East of Puerto Rico, yet is part of Puerto Rico. We took a 50 minute ferry ride in the evening. Once we arrived, we checked into the Casa La Lachita, a lovely little hotel on the beach a 5 minute drive from the ferry. The hotel owner picks you up at the ferry and takes you to his place, where he rents you a car, provides snorkeling, launday facilities, maps, sets up tours, and recommends places to eat. They are lovely suites with kitchenettes, and a great pool. After dinner, we took the famous Misquito Bay Bioluminescent tour. This Bay has the perfect balance of temperature, salt and protection for these micro organisms to thrive in. We gathered at the bay and Kayaked to the center of the lagoon. We jumped into the warm water and moved our arms to find the water glow. When we lifted our arms, sparkles trickled down our arms. It was the coolest thing. Best done on a moonless night. It was just our luck to have one. But the sky was full of stars. It was definitely a highlight.
The next day, we played around at the most gorgeous beach. Unfortunately, this does not do the color justice. The water was as aqua as that pool in the picture above. Here we are at Red Beach

Enjoying the ferry ride from Fajardo and arriving at our charming hotel on the beach.

We declare, Megan, the Kite Queen for the Day!

Afterwards we went to Recies to eat. Not such great food, but terrific and authentic Puerto Rican atmosphere.

Everyone had a fun time with the kites. Cameron's had a mind of its own and Megan seemed to have the longest success. We'll have to do this again sometime. If you ever go to El Morro on a Saturday or Sunday, you will see 50 plus kites flying in front of the El Morro. Always a wind.

Before leaving El Morro, we decided to do a little kite flying on the beautiful lawn fields out front.

El Morro

I love the old arch ways that lead into what we thought might be the Sleeping QuartersCameron taking moment to enjoy the view from the fort. You could see forever

Would you look at the size of these cannon balls? And check out the size of this cannon.


The first day that the parents and kids were here was great. We toured the National Park, El Morro. It is a historic fort here in Puerto Rico. It was better than I thought it would be. It had 3 levels and great views, a movie and even cold water. I couldn't get enough of it.

Family Vacation in June

Here they are on Father's Day with this serious Chocolate Cake. Check out how tall it is!


June was a terrific month. One of the reasons for this is that our parents and 3 wonderful kids came for a visit. The parents were here for 3 days before the kids came. We visited Old San Juan, explored the Camuy, the world's largest radar radio telescope, and enjoyed hanging out. Then after a few days, Nathan, Megan and Cameron joined us for more fun. We enjoyed church together on Fathers day and really enjoyed Toms favorite Chocolate cake from Costco and Scots favorite, Tacos.