I'm Back

So I'm back from the island where a good time was had. I saw some family, saw some friends, ate very, very, very well, celebrated christmas and new years, drank some Absinthe, had some tripletas, watched some football, saw my doggie, relaxed, and took an assload of pictures with my snappy new digital camera. The pic above was taken in Culebra, where the grandparents live. As soon as I get an internet site to show those off you people will get to see them. Until then you'll just have to imagine the blue skies and clear waters and greasy pork sandwiches.

Aside from Culebra we did some sightseeing in Viejo San Juan and visited some bars that I've been frequenting since high school. We went to the Bacardi factory and did the tour there, which was somewhat interesting, I wasn't blown away. There were two good parts to that tour; the first was the free drinks they gave us and the second was during the part of the tour where the group sat in a room and watched a video about the founding of the company. That was funny because the video started and ended with a commercial showing people drinking Bacardi at bars and beaches and there were women gyrating all over the place which I had no problem with but I'm sure annoyed some of the mothers that were there with their kids.

We took a trip to El Yunque, which is always fun. I didn't quite find the "second one" but I'll leave that for next time. Had some good food at a restaurant up there, though, and watched my brother try to stand under a 50 foot waterfall. I got that on video, as soon as I post it somewhere I'll let you know.

By far the most interesting part of the trip was "Tourist Tuesday". I label it as such because we did a lot of things that day. It started in Culebra, where we went snorkeling at the beach near my grandparent's house. Then we went to Flamenco Beach, which is on the other side of the island. Then we got on a ferry and headed back to Fajardo, which is on the mainland. We had dinner there and then rushed to get to a reservation we had to pilot two-man kayaks into a bioluminescent bay. That was really cool. They let us enter the bay and everytime you made a movement there was an explosion of light in the water around you. It's hard to explain, it's something you really have to see to appreciate. That night provided some moments of comedy as well as we watched my brother Dan, who is supposed to be an experienced kayaker, and his friend Wasim fall behind the entire group because they couldn't row their kayak in a straight line. I was in a kayak with my other brother Ben, and we kept looking back to see if we could see their kayak. Instead we heard the tour guide shouting instructions at them. They finally got it toward the end, but it was still funny. It was a long day but a good one.

So that's about it for now. I'd like to take this time to congratulate my football team, the Chicago Bears, on winning the NFC Championship and getting a chance to play in the Super Bowl. Everybody has been disrespecting this team since day one and no one will give them a chance to win the big one but that's okay. Everyone has been wrong so far, and hopefully come Super Bowl Sunday the Bears will have a big plate of crow ready for the doubters to enjoy. Bear Down!