On our last day, we got up and went to our local beach
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for one more search
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for shells and sea glass brought on by the waves
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as they came in
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and my haul
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was fine. Suzanne
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and I
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were ready to go as I took a final self portrait
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and admired the chips
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left behind while we went to the parking lot
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and Suzanne took a few pictures of me
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and me one of the scene
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and a few of her
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and the bilingual sign
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before the Kramers drove up
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and we loaded the car
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for what would be a truly unique ride to the airport, hopefully
never to be repeated.
Once at the airport, we checked in
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and while we waited
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for the planes
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we met this gentleman (PU class of 1971)
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who reminded us that we had taken his picture in the group at
dinner the night before. The baggage claim tags
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allowed us
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to head to the plane where the co-pilot
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pretended to take my picture and the captain
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insisted that he had never flown before as we checked out the plane
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and then got on
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feeling in a good mood
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because the car chase was over. The ride gave good scenery
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and since I was traveling with a physicist, I tried to catch
a stroboscopic picture
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of the rotor in place but had no success, so I recorded us as
we headed down
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and then headed to the terminal building
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where this van
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took us to the car rental place
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where these gentlemen
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gave us the van that would take us to the grocery store where
we could scour the ointments
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and decide against the nuts
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before having Kenneth Rivera
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check us out to the amusement of this gentleman
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from Orlando. We drove on
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to El Portal
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where this man
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let us in to see the jungle growth
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including these beautiful flowers
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and the croton
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that led us to the visitor's center
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across the bridge
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over the jungle growth
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that we all
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admired
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before heading in to the rain forest where we first encountered these
falls
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at which we took a group picture of our group
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and of the neighboring group
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before heading to the trail
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and winding down
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down
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down
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around
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across bridges
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until we saw water
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and took a picture of this gentleman
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who was embarrassed that he stepped into our picture that he
insisted on taking this picture
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since he didn't realize he was the subject. After getting to
the end
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we stood on the bridge
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and watched the guitar player
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and the falls
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which were the main attraction for Peter
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who took this picture
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while I took this one
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and we began the long walk back up the 434 steps.
A few sites in the rain forest characterized our personalities
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before we drove on past the Saint Just sign
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and past the monument to the first governor
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to this point
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which was best illustrated sans flash
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and then on to the rental car return
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where we removed the luggage
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and tags
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and took the courtesy van to the airport
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where we checked in
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and Suzanne led the walk
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to our gate where Suzanne's yawn and Peter's cell phone
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gave the feel of the end of the vacation. As we prepared to board
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we were happy that we hadn't lost our heads on vacation
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even though the vegetarian
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and regular
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dinners eaten to completion
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might have encouraged it.
Once back home, all we could do was reclaim our baggage
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