Hiking out, the lighting was different so I took another one. Super pretty!
Friday, August 31, 2012
Batibou Beach
I'm really liking the branch so far! One of the 2nd or 3rd semester families organized a trip to Batibou Beach for us. We took a transport about halfway back toward the airport - about a 30 min drive. It dropped us of in the middle of the jungle on the north edge of the island. There is only a little sign indicating that something is there. It's not really near a town or village.... or even any houses either. Haha, it's a good thing though, I feel like this beech is a well kept secret! It's just far enough away, and it's a bit of a hike in that it keeps people from wanting to go there. I can't believe how pretty it was though! You better believe I'll take you here if you come to visit me!
Indian River
Indian River is the waterway that the Carib Indians used to get from their homes in the mountains out to the ocean. The Welcome Committee organized boat trips up the river to a bar, of all places, for anyone who wanted to go.
Part of the 2nd Pirates movie was filmed in this river - where they're traveling by boat up the foggy river to Calipso's little shack. Can ya see it? Unfortunately they made them take down the little shack the filmmakers built. That would've been cool to see. It was super pretty in there though. Our guide said it's totally different at night - very romantic. People host weddings and stuff like that at the bar all the time.
Part of the 2nd Pirates movie was filmed in this river - where they're traveling by boat up the foggy river to Calipso's little shack. Can ya see it? Unfortunately they made them take down the little shack the filmmakers built. That would've been cool to see. It was super pretty in there though. Our guide said it's totally different at night - very romantic. People host weddings and stuff like that at the bar all the time.
Once we got to the end there was a bit of chaos because so many boats were trying to go everywhere all at once. Haha - our guide rescinded his comment that there are no monkeys on the island. All the other guides were acting enough like monkeys to count.
A few students in my boat enjoyed (and by enjoyed I mean tolerated) the drinks up at the bar. Apparently they were interesting to say the least. I wouldn't know - I was busy taking pictures of the flowers.
Back at the end of the mouth of the river I found a few really cool/colorful boats that I just had to snap pictures of. I kind of wish I would've brought my watercolor set, but I probably wouldn't have time for it anyway.
Pictures from the trip over
Alright peeps, here are some pictures from the trip over. My computer crashed and burned and I lost my pictures from visiting the Staley's house. See Brittany' blog for those.
So, Puerto Rico! I've been pulling pictures from 2 phones and my camera and I feel like I'm missing a few but what I've got so far is pretty great! San Juan is a pretty great city. Everyone that I came in contact with spoke English so we had no problems in that regard. My favorite part was over in Old Town where the streets are narrow and quaint and it's all overshadowed by this super cool historic fort. I talked about it all in a previous post, so here are the pictures:
So, Puerto Rico! I've been pulling pictures from 2 phones and my camera and I feel like I'm missing a few but what I've got so far is pretty great! San Juan is a pretty great city. Everyone that I came in contact with spoke English so we had no problems in that regard. My favorite part was over in Old Town where the streets are narrow and quaint and it's all overshadowed by this super cool historic fort. I talked about it all in a previous post, so here are the pictures:
Love all the bright colors!
The following pictures were taken on the drive between the airport and campus once we got to Dominica. It's SO pretty!
First view of the beech! This is right off the end of the runway.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Made it, safe and sound
Hey there!
So I left ya when I was hanging in Puerto Rico with a group of other stranded travelers. I actually didn't find out the name of the guy I shared a bed with until the next morning. Haha, so I've now slept with a total stranger. How many of you can scratch that little gem off your bucket list?! His name is Randy BTW. Super nice guy.
Thursday morning we decided to check out and head for the airport just in case. As far as we could tell online, and over the phone all flights to Dominica were canceled. We figured we'd head over there just in case they decided to reinstate a flight. Then we'd be at the airport and ready to go. At the American Airlines counter we met Evelyn. A lovely lady who worked for both American Airlines AND Ross University. Talk about a great person to have in your corner! They said AA might allow flights to start departing around 2:00 but they didn't know destinations yet. Haha. So we settled in to wait. I wandered the airport and found some police novel to read. It was pretty good. Better than twiddling my thumbs. Around 11 o'clock we went back over to the AA desk where Evelyn was hard at work. No outgoing flights to Dominica today, but AA was creating an extra flight for Friday morning. We also found out Ross would reimburse us for Hotels, taxis and $25/day in food. That made everyone feel all better. While at the ticket counter we met 3 more Ross students as well, so we all joined up together. Once we found out we'd get reimbursed we decided to go to a much nicer hotel. Hello Embassy Suites! It was pretty great! Huge indoor courtyard where they served free drinks from 5-7. Turns out only 1 out of the 5-6 other students I was with enjoys drinking. Haha. She had a good time, the rest of us enjoyed free appetizers. We had the afternoon off so we decided to walk down to the beach and find lunch on the way. Wendy's hit the spot - plus we figured we wouldn't see another one of those for a while. The beach was ok - it was the same one I walked to from our first hotel. They're not very strict about garbage being left on the beach so it's littered with bottle caps and whatnot. Too bad. The weather wasn't super nice because of the incoming storm - we managed to avoid getting rained on though. For the rest of the afternoon we hit up Old Town San Juan. Pictures are on my Verizon Phone which I left at my apartment today so I'll have to upload them later. Old Town was so pretty! Kind of looked like little narrow European streets. All the buildings are pastel with white trim and it's all built in and around the remnants of a HUGE military outpost. First started by the Spanish about 500 years ago. It was pretty cool. Once inside they allowed us to wander all over and climb on anything we wanted. It was fun, and boasted pretty good views of the rest of the city. We were enjoying ourselves so much we didn't notice the wall of rain that was fast approaching. We got slightly drenched before we could find shelter. Hahahaha! It was more like a mist than a rain though, so it wasn't all that bad. Plus it was nice going back to our clean and spacious hotel rooms to get cleaned up.
Friday morning we checked out of the hotel by 8AM and headed to the airport. There was already a HUGE line because so many flights had been canceled in the previous few days. But Evelyn was there to save the day. She stared a line just for Ross students and got us squared away pretty quick. The line was mostly at the check in desk so Security was a breeze. Usually it's the other way around! Once we got to gate 16 it was anybodies guess what was going on. Hahaha. I sat next to a very nice mom and daughter combo from South Africa. LOVE that accent. Her husband is currently overseeing a road construction project so they were living the Ex-Pat life. I'll just say Dominica wasn't her favorite place in the world - AND she was fed up with being stranded. Hahaha. All chaos broke loose when they announced the additional flight to Dominica. Luckily Evelyn was there to direct traffic. I'm telling ya! She was a regular old wonder woman! She made sure all the students that were at the gate got on the plane. The last 2 to board my plan were the South Africans. They were SO happy. :-)
I wondered if we'd be flying over any islands on the way there but it was just vast ocean until about 20 minutes before landing. Apparently Dominica is made up of the large island and several smaller islands surrounding it. Winds were such that we got to fly in over the island on approach. You know that scene from Jurassic Park where they take the helicopter in? My view was BETTER than that. I kid you not! I was severely tempted to break the rules and get my camera out. I cannot believe how picturesque this place is. It's so hilly too! I'm pretty sure there's not a flat spot on the entire island. Just hills folded on top of more hills that lead up to the now dormant volcanoes.
Customs was pretty much a joke. I don't think the airport officials were aware that 2 flights were coming in. They were slightly overwhelmed and it took a LONG time to get through. I was one of the lucky ones who wasn't missing any luggage. I'm SO grateful! After so many flights being created and then canceled I was expecting the worst. The school arranged for a truck to haul our luggage over and buses for all the people. They warned us that the road would be really windy but I don't think any of us were prepared. Seriously, there wasn't a straight stretch of road longer than 50 yards the whole way across the island! I tried to snap some pictures, hopefully I got some good ones. We passed a cove that was used in the filming of one of the Pirates movies. Dominica's claim to fame right there!
Once at the school they took us all into a big hall where they had some really yummy food catered. Not sure what nationality it was, but it tasted good! They gave all of us an insulated reusable grocery bag to use at the open air markets, but it was filled with all sorts of toys; water bottle, umbrella, flash light, Tupperware complete with Ross's logo (that one was kinda random to me), a USB drive and a binder to use for orientation. We were told to wait there for our landlords to come pick us up, but I was sick of sitting around. Banks are closed Sat and Sunday and were closing in 30 min so I made a run for it. Luckily there was no line so I was able to open my bank account AND get my local cell phone all set up. The phone I bought online works great! I was worried it would give me grief, but no problems at all. I'm so glad I avoided the long lines! One of the branch members waited at the bank for 3 HOURS today. YUCK!
Anyway, I got to my apartment building late Friday night where they put me in the unit right next to the one I rented. They were giving my apt a new coat of paint. I didn't mind one bit. I was pretty beat by then so I just went to bed.
Saturday morning I got up and wandered around campus. It's..... interesting.... Let me just say that my tuition isn't going toward making the exterior of the campus buildings any prettier. Hahaha. I hear the insides of the buildings are state of the art though. Haven't been inside any yet. Also, I feel like there are 2 types of students here. Those like me, normal people who probably didn't do so well in some of their pre-recs or maybe they struggled on the MCAT. And then there are the weirdies. For all I know they are super geniuses but MAN! They extremely socially awkward. Hahaha. Should be fun! I managed to meat up with the guys and girl I met in Puerto Rico while I was on campus. We wandered around campus and explored the grocery store and the housewares stores. STUFF HERE IS EXPENSIVE! Talk about sticker shock! Everything is at least TWICE as expensive as it is in the states. I'm definitely going to have to redo my budget. :-/ It's a tough pill to swallow, but I realize I have to eat so there's not much I can do about it. Saturday afternoon I meet up with the Noorlanders, Stephen and Jenn. They are the the only members of the church I had met (on Facebook) prior to heading over. We went to the beach right off the south corner of campus. Black sand beaches are super pretty because its actually a swirly mix of black and regular sand. The water is the perfect temperature and crystal clear. I don't know why but there weren't any waves breaking when we were there. It was really calm which was nice.... maybe it has something to do with the tide - which was coming in when we were there? Saturday night I sucked it up and went to the grocery store. A painful hundred dollars later I left with hardly anything. 4 sandwich buns, PB and Jam, tortillas, milk, eggs, butter and some cold cereal. OUCH! Anyone who is inclined to send me non-perishable foods is encouraged to do so. Hahaha! I think I'll stop over in Miami for a few days on the way back from Christmas to do some grocery shopping. After all, it's only 72$ to ship a barrel from Miami to Dominica. And even if they tax super high, I'm pretty sure it'll still be cheaper than buying stuff here.
Sunday morning the branch chartered a shuttle to bring all of us newbies to church. There are 6 or 7 guys all starting this semester with me. I knew one of them from when I was a TA in the anatomy lab, so that was fun to reconnect. Yes, I am the only single LDS guy out here. I'm sure its extremely difficult to bring a family out here, but I think they're all lucky they don't have to go home to an empty apartment at night. Maybe I'll adopt one of the cuter stray dogs roaming around. There are TONS of them and they're all so friendly! Haha. We'll see. Anyway, church was great. There are a few local branch members but mostly everyone is a student. There were about 35-40 people there but easily half of them we children. It's nice to be at church with little kids again. Student wards are just a little to quiet for me. :-) So the branch is pretty small! We'll all have callings for sure, and probably we'll all speak in Sacrament about once a month. Should be fun! I think we were missing some of the upper classmen and their families because school doesn't start for another week or so. But those who were there were super friendly. 2 of them will be re-taking 1st semester with us because they failed one or more of their classes. YIKES! I pray that won't be me come January. They say the first block of material (maybe the first 3-4 weeks?) is the hardest because it's sort of disorganized. If you make it through first block OK, you should do well for the rest of the semester. So it looks like I have my work cut out for me.
After church we all walked from the branch building back to our homes. Its about a 20 min walk, not bad at all. Sunday afternoon I just lounged on my couch and finished reading the book I bought in Puerto Rico. Probably won't be reading any more books for pleasure until Christmas break!
Well, today is Monday. I was able to move into my actual apartment this morning. Haven't unpacked yet but I'm in. It's nicer than he temporary one I was staying at - ceilings are higher too so it feels bigger. It's got more windows which means more light AND breezes. Bless that breeze! Without it I'd roast for sure. This morning I officially "checked in". It was easy for me because my financial aid was all squared away and all my info was up to date in the system. There were those who were there for a LONG time. In about 15 min I'm headed out on a tour of campus. That should be helpful, and then this afternoon I think I'm going to head to the beach with some of our branch members. This whole next week is orientation. I sort of feel like it's going to be a whole bunch of hurry-up-and-wait. Oh well. I guess I should enjoy the down time before life gets CRAZY! If you don't hear from me for a few weeks don't be alarmed. It probably just means I'm studying REALLY REALLY HARD!
So I left ya when I was hanging in Puerto Rico with a group of other stranded travelers. I actually didn't find out the name of the guy I shared a bed with until the next morning. Haha, so I've now slept with a total stranger. How many of you can scratch that little gem off your bucket list?! His name is Randy BTW. Super nice guy.
Thursday morning we decided to check out and head for the airport just in case. As far as we could tell online, and over the phone all flights to Dominica were canceled. We figured we'd head over there just in case they decided to reinstate a flight. Then we'd be at the airport and ready to go. At the American Airlines counter we met Evelyn. A lovely lady who worked for both American Airlines AND Ross University. Talk about a great person to have in your corner! They said AA might allow flights to start departing around 2:00 but they didn't know destinations yet. Haha. So we settled in to wait. I wandered the airport and found some police novel to read. It was pretty good. Better than twiddling my thumbs. Around 11 o'clock we went back over to the AA desk where Evelyn was hard at work. No outgoing flights to Dominica today, but AA was creating an extra flight for Friday morning. We also found out Ross would reimburse us for Hotels, taxis and $25/day in food. That made everyone feel all better. While at the ticket counter we met 3 more Ross students as well, so we all joined up together. Once we found out we'd get reimbursed we decided to go to a much nicer hotel. Hello Embassy Suites! It was pretty great! Huge indoor courtyard where they served free drinks from 5-7. Turns out only 1 out of the 5-6 other students I was with enjoys drinking. Haha. She had a good time, the rest of us enjoyed free appetizers. We had the afternoon off so we decided to walk down to the beach and find lunch on the way. Wendy's hit the spot - plus we figured we wouldn't see another one of those for a while. The beach was ok - it was the same one I walked to from our first hotel. They're not very strict about garbage being left on the beach so it's littered with bottle caps and whatnot. Too bad. The weather wasn't super nice because of the incoming storm - we managed to avoid getting rained on though. For the rest of the afternoon we hit up Old Town San Juan. Pictures are on my Verizon Phone which I left at my apartment today so I'll have to upload them later. Old Town was so pretty! Kind of looked like little narrow European streets. All the buildings are pastel with white trim and it's all built in and around the remnants of a HUGE military outpost. First started by the Spanish about 500 years ago. It was pretty cool. Once inside they allowed us to wander all over and climb on anything we wanted. It was fun, and boasted pretty good views of the rest of the city. We were enjoying ourselves so much we didn't notice the wall of rain that was fast approaching. We got slightly drenched before we could find shelter. Hahahaha! It was more like a mist than a rain though, so it wasn't all that bad. Plus it was nice going back to our clean and spacious hotel rooms to get cleaned up.
Friday morning we checked out of the hotel by 8AM and headed to the airport. There was already a HUGE line because so many flights had been canceled in the previous few days. But Evelyn was there to save the day. She stared a line just for Ross students and got us squared away pretty quick. The line was mostly at the check in desk so Security was a breeze. Usually it's the other way around! Once we got to gate 16 it was anybodies guess what was going on. Hahaha. I sat next to a very nice mom and daughter combo from South Africa. LOVE that accent. Her husband is currently overseeing a road construction project so they were living the Ex-Pat life. I'll just say Dominica wasn't her favorite place in the world - AND she was fed up with being stranded. Hahaha. All chaos broke loose when they announced the additional flight to Dominica. Luckily Evelyn was there to direct traffic. I'm telling ya! She was a regular old wonder woman! She made sure all the students that were at the gate got on the plane. The last 2 to board my plan were the South Africans. They were SO happy. :-)
I wondered if we'd be flying over any islands on the way there but it was just vast ocean until about 20 minutes before landing. Apparently Dominica is made up of the large island and several smaller islands surrounding it. Winds were such that we got to fly in over the island on approach. You know that scene from Jurassic Park where they take the helicopter in? My view was BETTER than that. I kid you not! I was severely tempted to break the rules and get my camera out. I cannot believe how picturesque this place is. It's so hilly too! I'm pretty sure there's not a flat spot on the entire island. Just hills folded on top of more hills that lead up to the now dormant volcanoes.
Customs was pretty much a joke. I don't think the airport officials were aware that 2 flights were coming in. They were slightly overwhelmed and it took a LONG time to get through. I was one of the lucky ones who wasn't missing any luggage. I'm SO grateful! After so many flights being created and then canceled I was expecting the worst. The school arranged for a truck to haul our luggage over and buses for all the people. They warned us that the road would be really windy but I don't think any of us were prepared. Seriously, there wasn't a straight stretch of road longer than 50 yards the whole way across the island! I tried to snap some pictures, hopefully I got some good ones. We passed a cove that was used in the filming of one of the Pirates movies. Dominica's claim to fame right there!
Once at the school they took us all into a big hall where they had some really yummy food catered. Not sure what nationality it was, but it tasted good! They gave all of us an insulated reusable grocery bag to use at the open air markets, but it was filled with all sorts of toys; water bottle, umbrella, flash light, Tupperware complete with Ross's logo (that one was kinda random to me), a USB drive and a binder to use for orientation. We were told to wait there for our landlords to come pick us up, but I was sick of sitting around. Banks are closed Sat and Sunday and were closing in 30 min so I made a run for it. Luckily there was no line so I was able to open my bank account AND get my local cell phone all set up. The phone I bought online works great! I was worried it would give me grief, but no problems at all. I'm so glad I avoided the long lines! One of the branch members waited at the bank for 3 HOURS today. YUCK!
Anyway, I got to my apartment building late Friday night where they put me in the unit right next to the one I rented. They were giving my apt a new coat of paint. I didn't mind one bit. I was pretty beat by then so I just went to bed.
Saturday morning I got up and wandered around campus. It's..... interesting.... Let me just say that my tuition isn't going toward making the exterior of the campus buildings any prettier. Hahaha. I hear the insides of the buildings are state of the art though. Haven't been inside any yet. Also, I feel like there are 2 types of students here. Those like me, normal people who probably didn't do so well in some of their pre-recs or maybe they struggled on the MCAT. And then there are the weirdies. For all I know they are super geniuses but MAN! They extremely socially awkward. Hahaha. Should be fun! I managed to meat up with the guys and girl I met in Puerto Rico while I was on campus. We wandered around campus and explored the grocery store and the housewares stores. STUFF HERE IS EXPENSIVE! Talk about sticker shock! Everything is at least TWICE as expensive as it is in the states. I'm definitely going to have to redo my budget. :-/ It's a tough pill to swallow, but I realize I have to eat so there's not much I can do about it. Saturday afternoon I meet up with the Noorlanders, Stephen and Jenn. They are the the only members of the church I had met (on Facebook) prior to heading over. We went to the beach right off the south corner of campus. Black sand beaches are super pretty because its actually a swirly mix of black and regular sand. The water is the perfect temperature and crystal clear. I don't know why but there weren't any waves breaking when we were there. It was really calm which was nice.... maybe it has something to do with the tide - which was coming in when we were there? Saturday night I sucked it up and went to the grocery store. A painful hundred dollars later I left with hardly anything. 4 sandwich buns, PB and Jam, tortillas, milk, eggs, butter and some cold cereal. OUCH! Anyone who is inclined to send me non-perishable foods is encouraged to do so. Hahaha! I think I'll stop over in Miami for a few days on the way back from Christmas to do some grocery shopping. After all, it's only 72$ to ship a barrel from Miami to Dominica. And even if they tax super high, I'm pretty sure it'll still be cheaper than buying stuff here.
Sunday morning the branch chartered a shuttle to bring all of us newbies to church. There are 6 or 7 guys all starting this semester with me. I knew one of them from when I was a TA in the anatomy lab, so that was fun to reconnect. Yes, I am the only single LDS guy out here. I'm sure its extremely difficult to bring a family out here, but I think they're all lucky they don't have to go home to an empty apartment at night. Maybe I'll adopt one of the cuter stray dogs roaming around. There are TONS of them and they're all so friendly! Haha. We'll see. Anyway, church was great. There are a few local branch members but mostly everyone is a student. There were about 35-40 people there but easily half of them we children. It's nice to be at church with little kids again. Student wards are just a little to quiet for me. :-) So the branch is pretty small! We'll all have callings for sure, and probably we'll all speak in Sacrament about once a month. Should be fun! I think we were missing some of the upper classmen and their families because school doesn't start for another week or so. But those who were there were super friendly. 2 of them will be re-taking 1st semester with us because they failed one or more of their classes. YIKES! I pray that won't be me come January. They say the first block of material (maybe the first 3-4 weeks?) is the hardest because it's sort of disorganized. If you make it through first block OK, you should do well for the rest of the semester. So it looks like I have my work cut out for me.
After church we all walked from the branch building back to our homes. Its about a 20 min walk, not bad at all. Sunday afternoon I just lounged on my couch and finished reading the book I bought in Puerto Rico. Probably won't be reading any more books for pleasure until Christmas break!
Well, today is Monday. I was able to move into my actual apartment this morning. Haven't unpacked yet but I'm in. It's nicer than he temporary one I was staying at - ceilings are higher too so it feels bigger. It's got more windows which means more light AND breezes. Bless that breeze! Without it I'd roast for sure. This morning I officially "checked in". It was easy for me because my financial aid was all squared away and all my info was up to date in the system. There were those who were there for a LONG time. In about 15 min I'm headed out on a tour of campus. That should be helpful, and then this afternoon I think I'm going to head to the beach with some of our branch members. This whole next week is orientation. I sort of feel like it's going to be a whole bunch of hurry-up-and-wait. Oh well. I guess I should enjoy the down time before life gets CRAZY! If you don't hear from me for a few weeks don't be alarmed. It probably just means I'm studying REALLY REALLY HARD!
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Oh hey there.... yes, this blog is still alive.
I have to warn you, this post is going to be super scatter-brained and kinda long so please bear with me - I feel like I have 10 trillion different thoughts I want to get out! Also, I don't feel like I'm very good at this whole bloggin thing yet. I want this to be like a journal, but I also want it to be fun/interesting to read for ya'll. It'll take me a while to get comfortable and find my voice. Constructive criticism is welcome.... but be nice please?
Ok, moving on....
Let me just say that preparing to move out of the country is INSANE! I still feel like I've forgotten something. It took a lot of time but I packed up all my belongings and stashed them in odd corners of my parent's house - and at the Shaw's house too! (thank you thank you!), went to several doctors appointments, got all my shots PLUS a chest X-ray, finished my Student Visa application, quit my job, shipped myself a barrel of stuff (as in a 55 gallon barrel - who knew that was the cheapest way to ship!?), said my goodbyes and headed out. I'm telling you, you better REALLY want to move out of the country because it requires a lot of prep work. It's exciting though! Aside from getting ready to flee the country I feel like I couldn't have asked for a better last summer in Provo. It was pretty great! I lucked out with my housing and lived rent free because I helped house sit for my aunt and uncle. That also means I got to live with Dacia Clifton again. We called it our trial run on marriage. Haha, but seriously though... We both worked long hours so we NEVER saw each other. And when we did see each other it was only for a few minutes at a time - and what did we talk about? Chores and bills. Just like marriage, right? Wasn't quite as fun as when I house sat AND worked (aka played) with Dacia and Capri a few summers ago, but we had a good time. And the house was still standing when Aunt Joyce moved back home.
What else did I do this summer? Went biking a lot - there are some great trails and roads for biking in the Mapleton/Springville canyons. I also went camping a few times and spent a lot of quality time with my siblings. I'm so glad my siblings like doing that. :-) We had a great weekend in Moab at the beginning of the summer. There is so much to do there! Our campsite was in a pretty little canyon. We spent some time in Arches National Park and John and I got in a good mountain bike ride. The trip was quick but it was a nice way to start the summer off.
The Ray Reunion was super fun! It's so great to be part of such an amazing family. It's nice to be able to see everyone too. We're spread out all across America now so it had been a while since I last saw a lot of my cousins. I managed to get home for a weekend in July - I had to bring my stuff up home so I timed my trip to be home when my cousin Nicole was visiting. It was so good to catch up with her! We hadn't talked in way too long. I can't believe she has 2 kids! I also spent time with Kimberlee and her husband Josh. Kimber is such a cute little pregnant lady. I'm so excited for her to be a mom - she's going to be great! It was fun spending time with my younger siblings too! I can't believe how much they've all grown! I still think of them as the ages they were when I left on my mission: 4, 6 and 8. They are now 14, 16 and 18 (ish) - hard to believe. We all went out to lunch together and had a great time chatting and catching up.
Summer ended with another camping trip to Redfish Lake - right outside of Stanley, ID - and to Island Park. That was a lot of driving but we had a good time. I think the ENTIRE state of Idaho is currently on fire because it was super smokey everywhere we went. The views weren't as great but we still had fun. Redfish is SOOO relaxing! I read 3 books! We also went on a few mountain bike rides. Poor Jessica took a few spills but managed to power through them and keep going. She claims amnesia makes her forget how challenging the rides are so she keeps agreeing to go every year. I think she secretly likes them. One of my favorite parts of camping at Redfish is spending time at the beach. The water at the lake wasn't as painfully cold as usual so we spent more time swimming than in previous years. Dad brought up one of his sailboats this year and we had the perfect amount of wind for it too - I think the fires were helping with that. All that rising smoke creates wind patterns. We drove by Craters of the Moon as we headed east across the state. Craters is cool but definitely not worth that awful drive! TALK ABOUT BORING! It was miles and miles and miles of flat, straight road - not even passing through small towns or cities! It was just..... nothing. I may or may not have been driving WAY faster than the speed limit in order to get through it faster.
Once the drive was behind us we had a great time in Island Park. We figured out that Grandma and Grandpa have been going to the same spot in the same campground for 38 years now. Pretty amazing. Weston and Danielle drove straight from doing summer sales in Chicago to meet up with us at Island Park. I'm so glad I got to see them before I left! Danielle and I really clicked while she was studying at BYU. I was sad when she left :-( Danielle and Weston spent a lot of their time moving a bunch of rocks and making a nice little swimming / bathing pool complete with an alter for a fire. After being all smokey and gross at Redfish it was nice to get clean every night in the refreshing (read: almost-shockingly-cold) river. Grandma was nice to us and let us borrow all the dishes we needed. We were totally unprepared but we managed. Yellowstone was fun, John and Weston had never been there so it was fun to watch them experience it for the first time. We decided to squish into Danielle and Weston's car when we went to Yellowstone - which means I got to ride in the trunk. I sort of felt like a dog back here... especially when they forgot to let me out when we stopped. Bless them - hahaha! All in all we were gone for a week. We had fun but it felt great to sleep in our own beds when we got home. PLUS we had TONS of recorded Olympics to watch. :-)
Anyway, once that camping trip was over I only had a few days to finish up packing and get ready to go. All my stuff was scattered all over Kristin and John's house so it felt overwhelming, but once I started I got it all packed up pretty quick. Saying goodbye to my sisters in Provo was hard. I may or may not have cried a lil' bit as I drove away from Provo for the last time. It's always hard to see a chapter of your life close - especially if it was a great one. As I was flying away from Salt Lake I found it hard to believe that I was actually moving away. It's been my home for 6 years!
On my way out to the island I had a great stop-over in Tyler, TX to visit Brittany and Brent and the world's cutest nephews. Bryan is so happy and will follow you all around the house, and Jason is SUPER imaginative- and really goofy about it. One night at dinner he kept going on about how they had raccoon for dinner and that it tasted like chicken. Silly boy. We went to the Zoo, and went on a bike ride down to the lake. We had some great BBQ, saw The Dark Knight Rises in a theater with no A/C, went on a lovely tour of Tyler given by Brittany and even chased a UPS truck so I could get my cell phone to use out in Dominica before I flew out. I really liked Tyler a lot. It's a beautiful area. Lots of open space, farms and pastures. Brittany says it reminders her of the Boise/Eagle area and I have to agree. I could totally see myself living there except for one thing. No ski season = deal breaker.
Whew. I feel super long winded. I left Tyler on Tuesday afternoon - courtesy of the Brent Staley Taxi Service - and flew from Dallas to Miami where I spent the night in a hotel right by the airport. I was only there for 5 hours or so but it was worth it. My flight to Puerto Rico left at 8 AM. I timed it PERFECTLY. Left the hotel at about 6:40, waited FOREVER in the security line, but walked up to my gate at 7:40 right as they called my boarding group number. I didn't even stop walking - just headed right to the plane. The flight was great but it was chaos when we got to San Juan. Tropical storm Isaac has cancelled flights all over the Caribbean - including my connection to Dominica. I found 2 guys and a dad and daughter who were in the same boat as me. My travel agency got me a great rate at a mediocre hotel right outside the airport. So I told them to book rooms at the same hotel and we all split a cab there. Lovely. It's really not bad - I've stayed at MUCH worse places - but the dad and daughter feel like they're in a pig stye. Haahaha! They're from New York. Hopefully she'll transition ok to life on the island. :-) I spent the afternoon napping and walking up and down the beach and roads around my hotel. Puerto Rico is nice and almost everyone speaks English. I was a bit worried I'd have trouble communicating but so far we've been fine. We've watched the rains and winds come in as Isaac gets closer to us. It's supposed to be pretty bad right when our flight is supposed to leave tomorrow. It all depends on which path the storm takes - which is pretty much impossible to determine. I can't decide if I want to go or stay another day. It's not like I need to get there. My roomie and I have decided to see the sights tomorrow if we don't fly out. Sounds fun to me.
Well, it's late and I'm tired. Soooo.... good night? Haha - I have no idea how to close a blog post gracefully. :-)
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