KC's Family: Crashboat Beach Edition

Friday, February 20th

After stopping to rent snorkel equipment we spent the day at Crashboat Beach.  Once we found a spot and set up camp, it was a beautiful, sunny, relaxing day!

The snorkelling equipment was used over by the pier, and there were lots of different fish to see.  The water was warm and calm for swimming, and we had some good conversations with other English speaking tourists.

Later in the afternoon, we saw the Pelican Man.  This guy trains pelicans (and uses food to bribe them) and walks along the beach letting the pelicans perch on people's arms.  He charges a small fee to take the pictures, he has a pretty good job!  It was amazing to see the pelicans follow him, listen to him, and flock to him.

After going home to clean up, we tried to go to Ola Lola's.  It was packed, and we had to come up with plan B.  We went to the Oceanfront restaurant.  They have a great view of the ocean, and we tried to sit outside.  But, then it started to rain and we had to go inside.   Good thing we did, because it turned into a downpour.  The waiters and staff kept running around trying to make sure the water didn't get into the building.  They had been planning a romantic dinner for two which had to be moved inside, so they were trying to recover from that too. (It rained almost everyday KC's family was here.  This is the wettest dry season ever!)

After serenading the people enjoying the romantic dinner this fellow serenaded KC's parents.  His singing was okay, but Jake says the entire evening could have come straight out of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.   

KC's favorite part was when our waiter asked if we wanted to have a coffee or hot chocolate to warm up on this cold night.  We laughed, and KC told him where her parents were visiting from.  He didn't seem to get it.  Then he came back and said his manager told him Minnesota can be around 5 degrees- and he understood why they didn't want hot chocolate.  It was about 75 degrees on this "cold" night!

KC's Family Comes to Town and Arecibo

Wednesday, February 18th

Part of KC's family came to visit the week of February 16th.   They got in from San Juan around 5:00 on Wednesday, after spending some time in Old San Juan.  They settled into their rental place and we headed to Desecheo for dinner.  Her dad's favorite part of the entire meal was the french fries- ugh...

We made KC's family take lots of photos of us- since we usually only have selfies! ;)

Wednesday night was KC's dad's highlight of the trip.  We parked across the street from the airport because we saw a plane coming in.  Then, we waited for a few more planes to fly over us.  Once Jake and KC had a 747 fly over us, which was amazing.  Even though these were smaller planes, we think everyone enjoyed being so close to the landing strip.

As we were leaving, Jake told KC's dad to be careful for the big huge drop-offs.  Well, Jake refused to turn his lights on while leaving, and he landed the car into one of them!  We were afraid the car wouldn't be coming out of that hole...  Luckily, Jake was able to get it out, and it appears there is no major damage other than a few scratches to the frame which we are assuming are there because of the loud noise the car made when bottoming out with the entire wheel in the hole.  These drop offs were probably 18 inches deep.  Puerto Rico roads are REALLY hard on vehicles!

Thursday, February 19th
 On Thursday, we drove to Arecibo to see the Cueva Ventana (Window Cave).   The owner of this cave, and the government have come to an agreement to try to preserve the wildlife living in the cave,  and protect the cave from vandalism.  So, you have to wait, and a biologist leads the tour and answers any questions you may have.  This was a lot different than a few years ago when we went, but a good change.

They warned us that we might see snakes, bats, roaches, and other creatures.  Luckily, we only saw bats!

Hardhats and flashlights were another addition!

This picture gives you the best idea of what it was like inside.

Taino petroglyphs

Petroglyphs

This is why it's called Window Cave

The view to exit the cave

The view from the road below the cave

After the cave we headed to the Arecibo Observatory.  The Arecibo Observatory is home to one of the world's largest radio telescopes, which is used to study the ionosphere and nearby planets.  (Parts of two movies have been filmed at the Observatory: Contact and 007- Golden Eye.)

The trek to the Observatory took us on many windy roads, and gave KC's family a chance to experience the windy Puerto Rico roads...

It was raining on our walk up the steep hill to the Observatory, but when we got into the museum Matthew spotted this rainbow.  We spent about a half hour looking at the exhibits in the museum.

Then, we watched a video on the history of the Observatory, and what it is being used for currently.  

Next, we were taken out to the telescope.  The size of it was pretty amazing!  

We ended our day with dinner at Le Spezie.  It had been raining on and off during the day, but it down poured at night!  We had to run to our cars, and were soaked!  It was the first time the heat has been turned on in our car since moving to Puerto Rico! :)

Our Weekend

Friday night we headed down to Rincon for dinner and a sunset.  We stopped at one of our favorite places La Cambija for dinner.  We thought we would have fish, but they had a special on ribs.  We hadn't had ribs since moving to Puerto Rico, so KC convinced Jake to switch.  As an appetizer we enjoyed a mahi mahi skewer, so we did get some fish.  The ribs, potatoes, and coleslaw hit the spot!

Then, we went to the beach to take in the sunset.  It was a little cloudy, but still fun.  

We had laughs watching the pelicans dive bomb into the water to get their food.  They just kept going one after another.  Of course, it was hard to video it, but here's one.

On the way home we decided to stop at Sam's Club since we were already close.   Friday night is a wonderful time to go to Sam's Club.  There weren't many people there, and it went fast.  This might become part of our routine twice a month.  It's nice to have Saturday and Sunday open!

Saturday we had lunch down at the beach.  It was really quiet, and peaceful.  Then, we spent the rest of the day at the pool.

Sunday we decided to have a beach day!  We set up the tent and chairs and settled in for a relaxing day.  There were a ton of people there!  Sunday is usually a busy beach day, but we've never seen our beach this busy before.

We spent some time in the water, and some time relaxing in the sun and our shade tent.  To end our day we chilled on the balcony, and got ready for Jake to start the work week.  It was a relaxing weekend!

Rooftop Repairs: A Month Long Process

February 1st

When we went up to the rooftop the weekend after we got back from Florida the tiles looked like this.  We're guessing water made the tiles start buckling.

February 3rd

By 10:00 Tuesday morning this was the view.

This is what the rooftop looked like Tuesday evening.

Then, they had to order tile and get everything ready.


February 11th

Two guys came a little before 8:00 a.m. to work on the roof, so KC knew they were going to get a lot done.  We spent the morning playing a game of open the door, and shut the door.  The workers would open our front door and the rooftop door, and not shut them.  So, KC would get up and shut the doors.  This game went on for most of the day.

Around 9:30 KC kept hearing crashing noises, and couldn't figure out why.  So, she looked out the window and saw this...

They were throwing the tiles off the rooftop onto the "jungle area" next to our complex!!!  KC couldn't really believe this was happening, but it lasted for a long time...  She captured this video.

KC will never feel bad for not recycling in Puerto Rico like we did in the states- after seeing this!!  She couldn't really believe this was happening, and it was hard to process that this is acceptable here.  KC thought someone was going to get in trouble, and didn't want it to be her!  Jake was in Florida, so he was sent many videos and pictures while this was going on.

At the end of the afternoon all the tiles, and dust and debris

Tiles at the end of the day

 This is the dust from ONE room.  During the beginning of the day, the windows were open and from playing the door game-EVERYTHING was covered in dust.  KC spent much of the evening and the following day dusting and sweeping.

Dust from the living room

We had guests come for two weeks in February, so we asked to wait until after they were gone to complete the project.

March 2nd
The main tile guy came back, and worked all day to finish the job.  This is what it looked like at the end of the day.  We're happy to be able to use our rooftop again!