Rincon Adventure

June 1 - July 6th, 2008

We celebrated our 35th birthdays on June 8th and June 14th. We enjoy having our birthdays so close together because it turns into a 10 day celebration. For Marcus's birthday we had our good friends and their two kids over for dinner. We made lots of pizza which is hard work, but fun. They are our best critics so we tweak the pizza each time to try and get it just right. Marcus is the pizza perfectionist. I simply like it all, but always add my 2 cents! I made chocolate cup cakes for his birthday which is a first. This way we got to eat them all week. Dessert is big in our household.As far as birthday presents our Italy trip was so special we will experience the lasting effects all year.

We spent that Saturday at the beach, all day which was nice and relaxing. We usually go to Steps beach because of the water color and beautiful surroundings, but who are we kidding all the beaches in Rincon have beautiful water and great beaches. Although each are slightly different. Steps beach doesn't have any facilities and when crowded requires parking on the street and a walk to get to the beach so it attracts the kind of crowd that doesn't mind putting in a little effort to get to the beach.  We like that:)

Leading into my birthday week was fairly uneventful. This birthday was a bit anticlimactic, but kind of in a good way. I feel like 35 is a big deal but also a little scary. It makes me feel like 40 is right around the corner, which isn't bad but makes me feel old. So, we kind of just skated into my birthday and skated out. We made a great Cioppino for my birthday dinner which included shrimp, crab meat and white fish. We also made homemade Italian bread. I made white cupcakes with pink vanilla icing for my dessert. For some reason I had a hankering for white cake and super sweet icing and these hit the spot perfectly. 

Right after my birthday week Marcus went out of town to Colorado the whole week. At first I was bit down about it because I wanted to go (tickets were way too expensive - can't believe how much the airfare prices have increased over the past month) and because I wasn't sure how I would feel about being alone for 5 days. However, I decided to make the best of it and keep myself busy. I had my week planned with ARF puppies, shopping in San Juan and beach time.

We started fostering two puppies from the El Faro the week of Marcus's birthday so they were a happy temporary addition to the family. So the week he was gone I took them to the vet to get checked out to make sure they were healthy. I also started my placement efforts to try to find them a good home. I sent my heartfelt pleading email to my close friends and family to try to place them. More on that later.I also went to the beach for the first time by myself. I know this seems strange and admittedly it is a little weird. I am not working so why in the world wouldn't I go the beach. I think it is because I feel guilty. Marcus works really hard everyday and I couldn't bring myself to go spend the day at the beach thinking about him sitting at home in his office. So, since he was out of town this was my opportunity to go on my own. It felt great. No guilt whatsoever.

I also headed to San Juan to Plaza Las Americas for a little shopping. I really wanted to get some throw pillows from Pottery Barn (just opened in April) and buy some new shoes. I was successful in my search and had a lot of fun. I was a bit nervous about driving 2.5 hours because as a woman driving alone with Marcus out of town it always crosses my mind that if something happens (Flat tire, etc.) I will be stuck. But, everything went smoothly and I felt empowered by my independence and adventurous nature by throwing caution to the wind and just going for it. Something about living here for me has had an impact on my adventurous nature. It probably has more to do with the language barrier than anything else, but it was nice to break out my safe home turf and go to the big city!

Once Marcus got back we decided that we needed to start doing more adventurous, exploration and exciting things twice a week. We too get stuck in the daily grind (just like everyone else) and get so accustomed to living here that we forget to take advantage of where we live. I think this is partly due to the fact we have lived here previously so we feel like we have seen it all, when this really isn't true. Yes, we may have to put a little more effort into finding new things to do but by no means have we seen it all. So, we are starting to plan more fun and new things to do here. 

So, our first adventure was for Marcus to take a day off (since he worked non-stop while he was gone) in the middle of the week and head to Bahia Sucia in Cabo Rojo south of Mayaguez on the Southwest tip. There is a famous lighthouse located there.  We debated it the morning of as we always tend to wimp out on these things, but we persevered and made a break for it.  We have been here before, but only a couple of times. The water is beautiful because it has a white sandy bottom and is very shallow quite a ways out (similar to Jobos beach in Isabella). It turns out this was a popular day to go because there were quite  a few people there and the wind was wipping around so the water was a bit churned up. But we had a great time. It was nice to get out town.

On Saturday we hung out at the Tamboo all afternoon drinking, talking, enjoying the view from the deck. We really enjoyed reconnecting after Marcus's back to back traveling and couldn't think of a better place to do this than the Tamboo - our favorite local watering hole. On Sunday we planned on doing pizza at our friends house who have a fabulous pool and patio with an outdoor kitchen. So, Marcus and I made about 14 pizza's for everyone. They all really enjoyed it, especially the new dessert pizza we learned in Italy - banana, nutella and powdered sugar oh my! Again, it is a lot of work but so worth it when everyone is smiling and happy with full tummies. We were there from about 2:00 until 8:00 pm - they really know how to make the Sunday's last here! Two great things we did that we don't normally do. We are sticking to our plan!

I have started to look for some contract work and may have something lined up. I wasn't sure how I would feel about starting work again, but I think I am ready because I got very excited about the prospect of working again. I have taken the past 4 months off which has been so nice, but it has had an effect on my psyche. It is weird to not be working and figuring out what to do with my time and focus on what I enjoy doing and not doing. It has also given me a lot of time to reflect and evaluate where we are, where we are going and how to get there. Without getting into too much personal detail we have struggled with where we want to live on a more permanent basis although in the past 14 years we have moved 5 times - twice to Colorado and twice to Puerto Rico. So for us permanent is relative. We really only contemplate living somewhere for 3-5 years at the most. We have never lived anywhere more than 4 years. We are ready for a new experience, but want to enjoy where we are now. It is hard to always live in the present. I am a planner and organizer so my brain is always thinking two steps ahead. 

So, that leads us back to enjoying where we are and seeking out new adventures here locally. We shipped our adorable puppies off to the ARF of the Hamptons this week! We were so excited to have them start their new lives in a new place! We recently created a partnership with this organization to help support our efforts here in Rincon. This was a great first step in this new relationship.

Marcus had 4th of July off so we headed to Steps beach with our friends for the day. We arrived around 10:00 and left around 4:00. When we say we are spending the day at the beach, we mean it! It was a great day even with a little cloud coverage and rain sprinkles. The beach was packed due to the holiday in fact July is the biggest holiday month in Puerto Rico with a holiday every week.We had our friends over for pizza (of course) to have the usual white pizza (pesto and fresh mozza), margherita, pepperoni, and our famous deep dish! This was a special treat for our friends. Saturday we played poker (Marcus plays every couple of weeks with our landscaper friend and a couple of other friends). So, I decided I would play this once.  I am just not that into poker and neither of us won. 

The crescendo of the holiday weekend was our fishing trip. We went with our friend Pepi with Makaira Charters http://www.makairafishingcharters.com/  on a fabulous fishing excursion. He has a beautiful 34 foot Contender fishing boat. It is in mint condition with plenty of seating, great music, and amazing weather and a cool water bean bag for sunning! We went close to Desecheo Island (never been to Desecheo before) and caught about 5 Blackfin Tuna and a Rainbow Runner. We caught about 5 small Bonita fish that are mostly baitfish. There were 6 of us on the boat each of us taking a turn with the rod and reeling the fish in. We saw a large sea turtle and also had dolphins swim along with us - that was amazing. There were about 4 different pods of dolphins with ones off in the distance jumping out of the water about 3 feet in the air. We headed to calmer waters because I was feeling a little sea sick (one of our friends did hurl over the side) near Mayaguez closer to the shore. Seeing the island from a far was really amazing. It really made me feel like I lived on an island. I know that sounds kind of silly, but for some reason it just felt different seeing it from the water at a distance. We trolled, hung out had a few drinks and chatted away for a while. This was a lot of fun. We then headed over to Villa Cofresi to order some food to bring on the boat and hang out in the swimming area. This was also fun because I have always admired boats that pull up, anchor/moor and then zoom off. I always wanted to be one of those people and today I was!! We hung out here for a while watching all the activity of the banana boats, jet skis, swimmers, people just enjoying themselves. We had a good lunch and decided to head to Crashboat beach in Aguada. The clouds started to roll in and look very ominous. We were on our way and ran into the beginnings of a big rainstorm some rough water and rain. The rain was whipping at us and we were jumping of our seats due to the waves - it felt like a roller coaster. We laughed so hard, but quickly turned around because we were headed into the weather instead of away from it.  We went back to Corcega beach and anchored near shore. We hung out, listened to music, swam and then the sky opened up. We thought it would pass, but after about 25 minutes we decided to head back reluctantly. We were having such a great time with our friends and Pepi. One of the best days not only in Puerto Rico, but anytime. An amazing time. We cleaned the fish and divided the fish for everyone. Nothing like having fresh fish in the freezer for the next month. Another great week with great adventures!