A trip to Vieques

I met with John Willis of the Near Eastern Studies Department and then noticed that the amaryllis in our kitchen was doing well, so it was time to go to the airport with Suzanne, Peter and Seva and check our bags so that we could head to Krispy Kreme which made Peter and Seva and Suzanne quite happy, maybe because they knew that this would be their meal and this would be mine the remains of which were left for that strange person who would prefer a bagel at 40 degrees to a Krispy Kreme donut a few hours from fresh.
Before we knew it, the plane had landed and Suzanne and Seva were looking for our baggage while Peter was looking for his voice mail because he'd already found the taxi that would take us past Roberto Clemente stadium and through traffic until the driver could pose with Peter in Fajardo where we would eventually catch the ferry. Peter spoke with this policeman and then we got closer to their conversation and thought about some helados while Suzanne surveyed the boats and we wondered what to do with our baggage while recording the obligatory phone booth picture and heading down the street to look into the windows of Jimmy's which was unfortunately closed (for good?) so we brought our bags back to the local cantina at the Hotel Delicioso where Suzanne Peter and Seva admired the table tiles as we watched the waitress make our food. Peter prepared to take a picture of me though the food looked much better. After our meal, Suzanne relaxed by the sea as I recorded the Customs House and these street signs along with a close-up of the Pare sign for someone's collection (I forgot who).
Once on board, Suzanne followed this wisdom as we pulled away from the shore which made her quite happy as Peter was on the lookout for cloud formations I could record as Suzanne phoned home and we watched the wake of the boat analyzing how best to water ski across the waves. The ferry ride proceeded until we started to see land which got closer and closer while Suzanne and Seva wondered how Peter would get our bags off when we hit the shore so that we could have the taxi experience which was too unique to even generate a single photograph. We will have to be contented with memories of how the driver knew where we would be staying regardless of what we told him and of the other passengers laughing at the radio program.
Once at our hotel, Suzanne led the tour of the main room and the bathroom with this signage before the Kramers returned and we headed to dinner with them and us admiring the candle as we had our first rum drinks and found good uses for the flowers they came with. The meal itself was quite good with salad that was not photogenic and Suzanne's fish, mushrooms and greens and Peter's shrimp before the dessert led us to try decorating the table flowers which may or may not have been real. We decided to claim the rental car and call it a day so that we'd be ready the next day to check out beaches.
The next day Suzanne was ready bright and early as I had my toast and fruit on this lovely plate and then finished hers and waited for Peter and Seva to come through the brush with their suitcases to store in our room as we left the inn to head towards the beach where we saw these horses who greeted us as our first site before these traditional Caribbean scenes as we unloaded the car and headed to the beach stopping to admire the fallen coconut and wonder if it contained any milk. Sun Beach was elegant with light waves as we set up and admired the scene and enjoyed the water before some rain came and we decided to drive on further.
We next entered the nature preserve and drove on the bumpy roads often seeing scenery like this before we headed to the beach at the point and started to explore to see what rocks might be good for climbing by Peter or might give good views or might be good for Seva to collect shells and look for sea glass while David undoubtedly described the fish that got away. Meanwhile, our collection of artifacts was growing as Suzanne and Peter and Seva continued the search amid the rough seas which had brought the shells through which Suzanne sifted and of which Seva was choosing the very best including this sea glass as we did one last gather put our treasure in the hat and began the trek back to the car to head down this road and continue the exploration along the bumpy road until we found this hut at Blue Beach and headed to the beach after being sure that the bushes were free of bandidos and the water was clear.
But, before we could end the day, we needed to find the very elusive Orchid Beach. After a number of wrong turns, we finally found the left fork that came before the last right turn and were rewarded with this great water scene that amused Peter and Suzanne as I marched out to sea. After various hand signals failed to orchestrate what could only be called a great possibility, I was waved in and slowly made my way back into the fold where this conch shell and this guide sign suggested that we had to head to this store in town where I could be fitted for these shoes by this gentleman and then pay these women who had just gotten decoder rings that let them take this picture so that I'd always remember where my Teva's came from. Peter and Seva brought us the car keys and we stopped at this Esso station en route to see Tom Wright where surprisingly we took no pictures.
Dinner that night involved these beverages which looked better without the flash as my salad and potato and Seva's BLT and the shared salad were drowned out by the cheers from the football fans. I did manage to take the obligatory phone booth picture even as Peter took the obligatory banana picture so that we could end the day on the right tone.
Sunday began with a trip to our local beach where Suzanne searched and I found this sea glass that set her to further searching as I recorded the scene before we headed back to a breakfast at which Peter noted that Ben had lost a tooth even though our breakfast was too soft to loosen a tooth. This lizard amused the white rabbit before we headed off to see the dogs at the BioBay booking store where the dog theme seemed to interact with the Island philosophy that set the tone for our trip to Green Beach where this snake was in the water as we explored and saw the scenery before Peter snorkeled away and back and Suzanne and Seva admired one more conch before we decided to leave the refuge with Suzanne and head to the grocery store from which we filled our trunk for the journey back to Orchid Beach where Peter took a picture of this and then I went into the water for long enough to get wrinkly fingers before coming back to the salsa and Peter's Sobe properly oriented and Seva's coke and Suzanne's local beer as we admired the beach and Peter observed our neighbors as I observed my feet and Peter Seva and Suzanne did the beach thing as I recorded the panorama that was the sea and drank to Suzanne's new flip flops before recording the stick of the bandido in training and the sky (to get to 200 pictures) and Suzanne, Peter and Seva at Red Beach ahead of the setting sun as I got ready to speak to this gentleman from Philadelphia who might have been there to buy the island or might have been there for more nefarious purposes.
That evening, we picked up the Kramers at their new room which had this unreadable sign and headed to the Media Luna where Seva Peter Suzanne and I were amused by our waiter from Minnesota who said he had seen us on the beach that day and told about his forthcoming trip to Sam's Club and the debate about the $20 plane ride or the $2 ferry ride. The service was great and the food was as good as could be, so we stopped to salute the chefs who permitted us to stir the pot before we headed home for the night.
Monday morning, I walked past our local cactus and bush to record Suzanne as she approached to head for the toaster and adorn the meal with fruit that made her happy as I had my spreads and she had her omelet for breakfast. We admired the collection (including the rare blue sea glass) of our neighbors, Megan and Kim (class of 1983) who know Susan Taylor. After a stop here to get more gas we went to Media Luna where the sky and beach looked good so we walked in leaving the car and admiring the drip castle our neighbors made. In the rocks by the side of the beach were pretty coral though we all decided to stay away from the sea urchins lest we bleed black. While on this beach, I perfected the self portrait first learning to focus and then learning to discard the sun glasses so that I would appear while the others explored. I decided to extend my technology to record my feet in new sandals with no seaweed in the picture. Next we parked at this sign which explained nature and welcomed us to Navio Beach. The gang watched the ships and then we checked out the caves before another self portrait to show my skill was improving and pictures of the beach scene before

and after

my long stint in the water talking to the fish. This led to more self portraits

after which it was time to pack up the car check out the sign and drive down this road to town where we saw the sales and rental ads before checking out the menu at the Tiki Hut and ordering fine food. Their totem stood near the only address we saw in the town as we admired the coconuts and I prepared to drive us back to Orchid Beach for lunch. My lunch was the Bikini Blue (no onions) and this diet Snapple which didn't taste as good as it looked. My sandwich did. Suzanne and Seva collected lots of shells with this finger to give size perspective and Peter thought the seaweed ball was reason to come out of the water to have a detailed discussion

with our ADD OCD inflicted neighbor who had questionable housing status and really liked listening to Larry King as he interviewed Bill Cosby.
That night we took this school bus to the BioBay where the people in the water did not look as good as Peter, Seva and Suzanne swimming among the glowing plankton.
Dinner that night was at the Italian restaurant in town and the Kramers and we were ready for the wine as we explored the menu and had salads and pasta not to mention Suzanne's Seva's and Peter's main courses as we met the owner and I showed my ``about to be'' clean plate to our waiter who then brought dessert and coffee as we speculated about the group at the other table seen from the other end as well who turned out to be a group of students from RISD.
On our last day, we got up and went to our local beach for one more search for shells and sea glass brought on by the waves as they came in and my haul was fine. Suzanne and I were ready to go as I took a final self portrait and admired the chips left behind while we went to the parking lot and Suzanne took a few pictures of me and me one of the scene and a few of her and the bilingual sign before the Kramers drove up and we loaded the car for what would be a truly unique ride to the airport, hopefully never to be repeated.
Once at the airport, we checked in and while we waited for the planes we met this gentleman (PU class of 1971) who reminded us that we had taken his picture in the group at dinner the night before. The baggage claim tags allowed us to head to the plane where the co-pilot pretended to take my picture and the captain insisted that he had never flown before as we checked out the plane and then got on feeling in a good mood because the car chase was over. The ride gave good scenery and since I was traveling with a physicist, I tried to catch a stroboscopic picture of the rotor in place but had no success, so I recorded us as we headed down and then headed to the terminal building where this van took us to the car rental place where these gentlemen gave us the van that would take us to the grocery store where we could scour the ointments and decide against the nuts before having Kenneth Rivera check us out to the amusement of this gentleman from Orlando. We drove on to El Portal where this man let us in to see the jungle growth including these beautiful flowers and the croton that led us to the visitor's center across the bridge over the jungle growth that we all admired before heading in to the rain forest where we first encountered these falls at which we took a group picture of our group and of the neighboring group before heading to the trail and winding down down down around across bridges until we saw water and took a picture of this gentleman who was embarrassed that he stepped into our picture that he insisted on taking this picture since he didn't realize he was the subject. After getting to the end we stood on the bridge and watched the guitar player and the falls which were the main attraction for Peter who took this picture while I took this one and we began the long walk back up the 434 steps. A few sites in the rain forest characterized our personalities before we drove on past the Saint Just sign and past the monument to the first governor to this point which was best illustrated sans flash and then on to the rental car return where we removed the luggage and tags and took the courtesy van to the airport where we checked in and Suzanne led the walk to our gate where Suzanne's yawn and Peter's cell phone gave the feel of the end of the vacation. As we prepared to board we were happy that we hadn't lost our heads on vacation even though the vegetarian and regular dinners eaten to completion might have encouraged it.
Once back home, all we could do was reclaim our baggage so that I could see Susan Taylor the next day and somehow bring closure to the trip
On Friday, I ventured out into the snow and cold to meet Betsy Haas for this breakfast at PJs so that we could compare our daughters' shared experiences at Princeton.