Sunday, February 16, 2014

Vamos a Puerto Rico!

Ok well we already went..and it was AMAZING.

January 31st we set off for the Carribean.  Lets face it, Long Island is way too cold this time of year not to escape temporarily so my birthday was the perfect excuse to set up this vacation of ours.  We had a group of 7 and 8 of us.  We went with Steve, Maggie, Kyle, Justin, Tommy and later Cousin Vinny (It was Steve and Justin's cousin and needless to say he became everyones "cousin Vinny"). We had a great house..No not a house, it was more villa de Rincon which included three bedrooms to full baths, large kitchen, huge roof to tan, patio with barbecue, hammock and outdoor seating with a view of our nearby beach. I have included a video for your enjoyment (or jealousy more likely).





Charlie was stoked, as we all were, to be in the blue waters and hot sun, and of course LAS OLAS (W-A-V-E-S)! But what is our luck? Not much surf.  We got into town around 4 am and by the time we had our car it was still dark so we posted up in The Surf Zone parking lot by Ramey's and awaited the sunrise to check out Surfers Beach.  We were all just so excited to be there it's difficult to put into words.  The wind was already up before sunrise so Charlie knew he wouldn't be going out so we ventured over to Jobos.  I was pretty happy with this because I knew we would be able to swim around there too because the reef is farther out.  The boys all went out surfing, did a little snorkeling and we all did lots of swimming..

Here are some pictures from our first day.



Not that you can see it here but we did get a double rainbow.  By the time I got to the car and retrieved my camera there was only one but still I took it as a little blessing on the rest of our trip. 



Love this beach.  Jobos. 


It is a little mean but I couldn't help but snap this picture of Tommy.  He looks like a kook.


I did my best to try and get SOME pictures of Charlie surfing. 



I managed to get a few good ones. 



The boys checking out the view of Crashboats. 


Steve, Charlie, Kyle, Tommy & Justin


We ended up going to this beach a few times for snorkeling and pina coladas.


Playing with the panorama feature. 





From the first day I think I obnoxiously bugged everyone about going to the place with the rum coconuts.  Villa Confresi has a great bar with pool tables and food right on the ocean..  You can order one of these big a$$ coconuts and a little Puerto Rican lady with a machete cuts it open right there for you.  I just love it.  You can eat the inside of the coconut while sucking down a mixture of cinnamon, coconut water and alcohol  ( I use to think it was rum but a lady at work told me it was whiskey so who knows)  and then swim in the turquoise waters.  It is an epic feeling. 



One of our first sunsets.  We knew there would be more and better ones to come.  THis happened to be at the beach we could walk to from our house. 



Little shack driving back from Wilderness



When it became clear there were not really going to be waves we knew we had to seek out some other activities so we decided to do a hike we knew about in San Sebastian to a couple of beautiful waterfalls. 



It was awesome to be hiking in the jungles. 





And when we finally made it there wasn't a soul in site..

For me this was another one of those surreal moments, only us around, surrounded by natural beauty swimming in fresh waters with the sun shinning through the trees.  Then flying off a rope swing and cracking open a medalla. 




And of course had to all take turns climbing the rocks and getting a shower under the waterfall.  A friend of mine has the pictures of Charlie and I under it but unfortunately I don't have them.

This is my new "happy place"



Mid-air. 



Kind of made you feel like a King/Queen being under there..






My love. 


The first few days we were on a kick with this place called Calypsos right nearby a surfing beach called Domes.  They had decent food and an even better happy hour. We enjoyed sunsets like this with coronas and rum punch. 



Charlie being the adventurist he is stumbled on someones homemade lookout point.  They nails a few pieces of wood in a tree and threw a piece of plywood up there to watch the waves and sunset so naturally he had to climb up there. 



Some waves. 


Beauty at "Middles" nearby Jobos




There are a lot of abandoned buildings in this area.  My friend found one with some cool art and we had to stop to take a few pictures. 


One day we did one of those things where you drive around for hours looking for waves and never end up going out.  We decided we needed to get out take some pictures and let Tommy do some offroading in the Jeep we rented.  This was a place called Ruins right before Wilderness. 





This beach had the best seashell hunting so I was having fun with that.
















Kyle pondering life.. 




Love this picture.


We rented longboards a few days because the waves were so small but that didn't stop the crew from catching them. 


The most beautiful sunset from our roof. 




This was on our last day at Pools beach. 


Cool silhouette of Tommy. 


The last day we were there we finally ran into our friend Alex who lives in PR for the winters. We decided to go to Pools for longboarding and we see this little guy shredding on these tiny waves and what do you know it was Alex.  It was incredible how fast he could still go on these TINY waves. 


Kyle



Alex


Charlie.






This trip was exactly what we all needed and we were all so sad when it came to an end.  It was full of some much happiness, laughter, good times, good food, good drink and good company.  We were really lucky with no misfortune or troubles (other then a few guys getting urchins in their feet the last day! Sorry dudes).  I got to know a few people, made a few friends and bonded more with old friends.

It was really therapeutic and just plain ol' fun.

Hasta la proxima vez Puerto Rico!










Christmas Pictures In February

BOO!

Yes I am back bloggers..

This is going to be short and sweet.  These are extremely belated pictures from my excellent and warm trip home for the holidays.

It was just getting cold in NY so I decided it was time to jet off to San Diego for a real winter Christmas.

I can tell you it was the best present I could have gotten!

I lied a little bit..This picture is from Thanksgiving.  I had two dinners and this was from our first dinner at a Czech friends house. Such a beautiful view.


My handsome not so little brother and me!


Ok here are the Christmas photos..

The weather was so beautiful so on Christmas Eve Pavel and I took a walk at Torrey Pines Beach.  I had a new camera so I used Pavel as my muse and had fun experimenting with it.



I really love this shot.  It was so endearing to me.  Father and son fishing on the beach, I don't know why it touched me so much but I really loved this photo!


Pavel climbing the rocks



He made it to the other side without getting soaked! And check out that wave..


Czech tradition calls for the big dinner to be on Christmas Eve and not on Christmas Day.  This was right before dinner testing the camera angle.


Small traditional Czech dinner with Pilsner, Champagne and Fernet.


My favorite part...the FOOD! Super traditional, potato and bread dumplings, sauerkraut, cabbage, spinach and duck.  It was so good my mouth waters thinking about it.  Děkuji za večeři Jana a Tata!


Kitty went to Indiana to be with her Mom so it was just the 4 of us.



The next morning I went to my Mom's to celebrate the holiday.  Beautiful tree. 


Dalilah enjoying her raw hide candy cane i bought them for Christmas.


Coco's favorite part was all the bags and wrapping paper.  He was just laying and rolling around in it for hours. 


My Hercules..



I got to see Kitty only for about a day but we managed to get one family pictures!!


Ok two..


:)

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Another Drive Across Country & Pit Stop: TX

Well we did it again..My 4th time driving across country and Charlie's 5th.  It's so funny because every time we do it we say "we are never doing this again!" and yet...  This time we added a different dynamic by bringing along our dog.  It really wasn't much of a hassle other then worrying about if he was comfortable and cool (at least as much as he could be).

We decided we would try to do the drive in two 24 hours days and doing a few day stop in TX at Charlie's sister's house.  Well we must not be as young as we were when we did this before because it was a LOT harder then we remember it being!  We did do the straight drive though, stopping to eat and let Johnson run around some rest stops and what not.  At about 4:30 or 5 we were starting to loose it and decided to pull over at a rest stop and try to sleep...or so we thought.  I almost fell asleep immediately (neither of us were comfortable going to sleep while the other was driving) but as soon as that AC turned of Johnson began with the incessant panting.  Really making it difficult to sleep, so Charlie walked him around a bit and I slept for maybe twenty minutes.  Then he had a second wind and decided to drive.  He made it three hours before needing to switch.  Long story short we made it to Spring, TX (Once you cross into TX on the West by Juarez it is easily a 12 hour drive to the opposite side which is where is Jess lives).  By the time we got there it was probably 2 or 3pm and we had been up about 30 hours and believe it or not we actually stayed up! The kids were so excited so we didn't have the heart to just crash even though we could have slept right next to Pebbles (her dog) and been out like babies.  We made it to dinner at Papasito's (yum, worth staying up for) and after a 36 hour day went to bed around 8pm and slept for about 14 hours.  It was soooo good! The next few days were filled with pool sessions, good food and playtime.






Colt was loving this! 


And of course since Colt had a turn Olivia had to get her's in too. 


But she had a little more trouble balancing..


I love that she used his head..



Oh boy do these kids love their Uncle Chuck!


A little bit of Ipad play and TV time. 



These two had an opportunity to become friends.  Johnson took some time to warm up i think still coming down from nerves on the drive but Pebbles was so excited to have him around.  Towards the end of the trip they would play and it was pretty cute. 




We attempted a FaceTime with Grandma and Hannah one night and oh man was that a challenge.  Everyone is everywhere except in front of the IPad and then the are holding it and doing 360's with the screen.  Finally the smart Mom Jess just said I will hold it while you sit and talk..



Trying to get all three posing and looking at the camera for a picture.


This one was pretty good!


Sleepy dog pals. 


Ellie Bellie


These two were really good together and played a lot with each other! Didn't see this so much in NY so it was cute to catch them running off and playing something together. 




On our last night Jess brought out a bunch of Johnson baby pictures and we all just about died..Charlie and I decided that we were going to need a new puppy soon..hahaha..




It was sad to leave but we needed to finish the trip.  On our way to TX we were both worried a little bit about Johnson overheating so from TX to NY we kept 2 full ziploc bags of ice for him to lay down and within minutes he was passed out..Pretty cute. 


We ended up stopping at a motel in Tennessee and it was a good call. We got into NY late in the evening but Johnson was so stinking excited to see Kathy it was adorable.  He was jumping all around in circles and wouldn't stop licking her. 

That's it for now.  We've made it to NY and will see what happens next..