Trump Supporters

Last night, I had a nightmare. I was surrounded by Trump supporters.

What Will It Take?

I'm sure you have all heard of the horrific tragedy from Las Vegas by now. If you have somehow managed to not be in touch with any human or disconnected from everything today, a gunman killed 59 people and injured more than 500 during a concert in Vegas last night. This is the worst mass shooting to happen in the United States. My heart hurts for all of these people who have lost a loved one and those who are lying in hospital beds fighting for their lives. It's all so senseless!! Everyone is sending their thoughts and prayers. But I'm not. What are "thoughts and prayers" going to do? How does that help? What really needs to be done is better gun regulation. Get these automatic weapons off the streets. Limit the amount of ammo you can buy. Introduce a longer wait period... I don't know. Do something. Something is better than nothing. And I don't give a damn about "infringing on second amendment rights". Nobody needs an automatic weapon. Nobody needs that much ammo.

But I have very little faith in Congress, especially after 26 people died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a few years ago, 20 of whom were little children, and they did nothing. Absolutely nothing. They didn't even TRY to do anything. What will it take? The lives of 20 little children wasn't enough. The lives of 49 at a night club wasn't enough. Maybe this time, this shooting in Vegas, will be the turning point??? All of this inaction just proves to me that, to them, money reigns supreme, even more important than the lives of little children. Perhaps the only way for them to act on this is to experience first hand the horrors of gun violence... It all just seems so hopeless.

Tonight, as were hugging and kissing our kids good night, Keith asked Maddie if she knows what to do if someone starts shooting a gun at school. She immediately nodded her head. Her teacher would turn off the lights, lock the door, flip a table over and everyone hide. And nobody makes a sound so that the bad guy won't know that they're there. And last year, as kindergarteners, her class took a "fieldtrip" to the spot where they'd all evacuate to if the school got attacked. It was truly heartbreaking hearing her describe all of this. She's six! We live in such a mad mad world, and awful things are happening at an alarming rate, making all the madness the norm. I can't make any sense of it... Tonight, I just hugged the kids longer and tighter than I normally do. I hope they never have to experience how ugly this world can be. And I hope you and your loved ones remain happy and healthy. That's all I ever ask for...

The Power of Our Senses

It's amazing how a certain smell or sound or taste can take you someplace far, far away. For me, it's usually smells and sounds that bring me to different places. When I was in a small town in Vietnam nearly twenty years ago, I smelled something burning or cooking... It's very distinct and can't quite describe it, but an elder said it smelled like the days when people would burn dead bodies during the Vietnam War. There were just too many bodies to bury. I've come across that smell a couple of times since then, and it just feels eerie. And really hope I'm not smelling a human being roasted. Old, rotting wood and Corn nuts remind me of my old Chinese school on Stockton Street in SF... and unfortunately the stuffy Muni buses that take you from Chinatown to the Powell Street Bart Station.

This morning, my kids inadvertently turned the radio to the classical station. I do like classical, but listen to it pretty infrequently because I'm almost always sleepy and classical relaxes me a little too much. Surprisingly, I wasn't too tired to enjoy it this morning. And after I dropped them off at my mom's house, I selected 104.9 on my radio, and continued my classical morning. It just felt really nice and relaxing, making me think of vacationing in Austria and Germany in January. I don't know what it was about that vacation that made everything seem magical. Maybe it was the castles and clear lakes and snow capped mountains. Or perhaps the introduction of savory and sweet dishes or the best hot chocolate I've ever had. (Cafe Demel is the place to be.) Or enjoying the Christmas lights strung along narrow centuries old streets while your cheeks are flushed from the cold. Or the classical musical playing everywhere. It was everywhere, and it was delightful. And magical. So whenever I hear classical, I think of my brief wonderland in Eastern Europe, and I hope that I can share these wonderful moments with my husband and two children.

Hope your senses bring you to wonderful places too!

California is in a drought, people!!

If you were to drive around anywhere in the Bay Area (I'm only mentioning the Bay Area because I live here), you would see no signs that we are in a drought. Not just any drought. But the most severe kind - an "exceptional" drought. Holy crap. That sounds scary, right?! No, many people don't care. Their lawns are still impeccable. Not a blade of yellowed grass to be seen. As long as water still comes out of their faucets and hoses and they're not being billed extra for water, they don't care. They're probably thinking "Not my problem." I've also heard the argument that urban use only takes up about 10% of water usage in California, but agriculture takes up about 40%, so agriculture should decrease usage, not us normal people. Well, kids. Crops need water to grow. People need food to survive, so... That argument makes no sense. Blaming agriculture for using all the water is so selfish. So irresponsible. So nearsighted. Passing the blame doesn't help anybody.

We all need to do our part and save as much as we can, no matter what statistics say. Is it really that important that your lawn stays green? Does your car need to be spotless? No and no.

No More Plastic Bags

San Jose businesses are no longer allowed to give out plastic bags (unless you're a restaurant, I believe). Everyone is to use paper bags now, and even those cost 10 cents each. This law is maybe a month old now, but I wish it had started sooner. True, it is a bit of a nuisance to forget your reusable bag and need to buy one (or however many you need) when you go shopping. The alternative is to not use any bags and just carry your purchases out with your hands. But come on. After you've forgotten a few times, you will eventually remember, and it'll just be routine. What's so wonderful about this law is that it forces people to reuse bags, therefore, reducing waste, saving trees, eliminating a lot of plastic, and hopefully just a little more environmentally aware. I hope this law gets adopted by other cities soon! One for Mother Nature!

My New Favorite Song

Kim Kardashian is many things. One of them being very beautiful. But she is definitely not a singer. Check out her song. Oh my gosh. It's absolutely horrible.

Dating B Wilson

The other night, I had a dream that Brian Wilson (the closer for the SF Giants) and I had gone out on a date. It went okay, nothing special. I later received an email from him telling me he had a great time and can't wait to see me again. The tone of his email sounded forced. I could tell he was trying to sound excited. He even said, "I can't wait to see you again. Heeeeeeee!!!" I remember thinking "Brian Wilson says 'heeeeeeee!!'???". That's not a very macho thing to say... Anyway, I didn't really fall for him and he didn't for me, so why are we still dating??? Can we just be friends?!

I'm Back!

I've been MIA for the past nine months because of huge changes. Last October, after coming back from our trip around the world, we found out we were expecting a baby. Since then, I had been obsessed with research and reading up on pregnancy, nutrition, motherhood, the usual stuff moms-to-be read about. Our daughter was born in June and life has been even busier than ever. It has been difficult to find time to do the things I thought were necessary, like vacuum. Don't ask when was the last time our carpets had a cleaning. Now, my days are spent taking care of our beautiful little daughter Madelyn. I love her to death. She's just started to smile (on purpose) and my heart swells a million times its size when I'm the reason for it. Returning to work in a week will be heartbreaking for sure.

Dream - Underground Molester

I had a really disturbing dream last night. It started with me visiting a very grand hotel. The owner of this hotel has several other hotels around the world, all just as grand as this. I met up with a young friend, and he started telling me the owner isn't who he seems to be. On the outside, he is a respected and well-liked philanthropist and businessman, but underneath this facade, he is a sadistic child molester. My friend is one of his victims. He led me through a series of hallways and stairways, and finally arrived at an underground chamber lined with two short rows of stone beds. Against one wall is an elegant chair and a small altar with incense. My friend showed me a menu of items the man will make them do, in addition to being sexually assaulted. I read through the list and some of the things weren't too bad compared to being raped. One was having bugs crawl all over you. Lying on the beds were little boys. My friend told me these are his victims. He has many others, here as well as at his other hotel locations. My heart went out to all of them. They all looked so young and innocent. How can a monster do this to them?!

I started asking how they are feeling, but the man was in the room all of a sudden. I sat there not knowing what to do. He lit several sticks of incense, one stick for each of his present victims, and when he started addressing the boys, I got up to leave. He asked me where I was going. "I'm leaving." "No, you're not." He got up with a handful of incense in flames. "You cannot leave until your incense has burned out." He has claimed me as one of his victims. I started towards the door, but he threatened me by shoving the burning incense within an inch from my eye. I felt like I didn't have any choice but to sit down.

A couple of minutes later, I told him I was thirsty, so he allowed me to leave the room to get some water. I ran up and out of the hotel and bought a bottle of water. I thought, "How stupid of him. I can just run away right now. He can't find me." But I thought of the little boys waiting for their punishment. If I didn't go back, I knew he would hurt them even more, maybe even kill them.

As I made my way back to the hotel, I knew I was walking towards my death. Going down one of the escalators, I saw two friends I haven't seen in more than a year, since my wedding, and I hugged them and told them that I love them, something I've never done. They both gave me puzzled looks. A few feet away, I saw someone I really don't care for too much, but I gave that person a hug anyway to say hello. Continuing on, thoughts were racing through my head. Should I make a scene so that if people don't see me for a while, they may start to wonder where that girl who made a scene had gone? Deciding it wouldn't make a difference, I headed back to the room. I slowly crept down the stairs leading down to the stone door, taking a deep breath with every step, afraid what I would see inside. I reached to push the door open, and I woke up.

I think all of this happened because of 1) I watched "Kick-Ass" last night, and 2) I've been thinking of a couple of my friends lately. Weird how dreams will warp and bend your thoughts into something so strange.

World Champions

I've never been a sports fan, let alone a baseball fan, but during the past couple of years, my husband has been trying to introduce to me the world of organized sports. It will probably be a very rare occasion that you find me watching baseball by myself (which I've actually done!), but I have come to "like" the sport, especially when experiencing it at AT&T Park in SF. The atmosphere is always incredible. I don't go just for the game, but for the food, the fans, and when we're lucky, the fireworks! This past year, I've learned a little about our team, the Giants, through my husband and Gary Radnich in the morning. I've come to like the players, like Aubrey Huff and Buster Posey and good ol' Tim Lincecum, something I never would have been able to say last year. As a matter of fact, if you asked me to name ten baseball players that ever played in the MLB, I probably wouldn't be able to do it back then. I knew of Barry Bonds, but who didnt'? But I can now! So as a friend of mine labeled me, I would consider myself to be a "casual fan" of baseball.

Anyway, I don't know what called for the long intro that has barely anything to do with the post, but the San Francisco Giants are the champions in the 2010 World Series! I've never been excited about a sporting event before, but now that I am armed with a little bit of knowledge, I actually am very excited! I definitely do not have the history many of the real fans have, but just hearing their stories, seeing their reactions, reading about their history, and feeling their emotions, brings out the little hidden fan in me too. It's contagious!! My favorite scene was seeing all the players overwhelmed with joy, jumping on each other and embracing with so much emotion. Brings a tear to my eye... and to many others too, I'm sure. It is such a wonderful thing to see something like this bring so many people together.

Well, just wanted to say congratulations to the San Francisco Giants, the underdogs, the misfits! They've been waiting a long time for this moment, and boy, they certainly deserve it. Their performance throughout the post season games has been spectacular, and none of this would be possible without Bruce Bochy. I do feel bad for the Rangers and Pat Burrell though... :(

Go Giants!!!

Photo: AP Photo (http://www.mlive.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/11/san_francisco_giants_win_first.html)

P.S. Now, I just hope tickets to next year's games won't be too expensive...

Dream - It's the Experience

Two nights ago, I had a dream that my younger sister won first prize on a raffle. I heard the announcer rewarding the second place winner with a techy gadget and $500,000. I thought, "Wow!! $500,000?! If second place gets that much, I wonder how much first place gets!! Wow!!" Guess what first place received? The grand winner gets to dress up as Bell Biv Devoe (a 90's R&B trio) and perform on stage. Second place gets $500,000 and first place gets to dress up in funny clothes and jump around on stage. Wow. You've got to be kidding me.

My sister and her very wacky friend Lynda were ready to go (in my dream they looked ten years old... so cute), but they needed a third member. You can't just have Bell and Biv and no Devoe. So I reluctantly agreed to do it. I was in the shower getting ready, but thinking, "This isn't a PRIZE!! It's TORTURE!!!!" I don't want to dance on stage!!! Second place is so much better!

Here, my dream ended, but without understanding the moral of the story. It's not the things that you can buy that are important, it's the EXPERIENCES you gather through life.

Screw experience! I'd rather half a mil!

Rebecca

My older sister highly recommended Rebecca to me a long time ago, but I finally got around to it a couple of weeks ago. When I received my copy from the mail, I was a little disappointed and a bit hesitant to read this because of the book cover. It looked really cheesy like a Danielle Steele book... I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but people do! That's why there are book cover artists! Since this was agreed upon as our next book in our book club (comprised of two, sometimes three, people), I started Rebecca without expecting too much.

This book is told through the voice of a nameless young woman who falls in love with a very wealthy, older man. The majority of the book is spent on his estate, Manderley, made popular by his late wife Rebecca. Even though Rebecca has been dead for nearly a year, it seems as though she is still alive, her presence felt throughout the mansion, even at the edge of their property by the gray, hungry sea. Reminders of her exist almost everywhere. The heroine seems to be drowning in Rebecca's past.

I finished this book several days ago, and I find myself still thinking about that time, that world. Like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Daphne du Maurier is a very talented writer. Her words transport you to that time period, that estate, that room, experiencing the very feelings the narrator is feeling. It started off a little slow, but things pick up. There are twists and turns that blew my socks off! Thinking about it gives me butterflies. :) It starts off being a little naive and youthful, but quickly becomes haunting, beautiful, and sometimes sinister. I really enjoyed this book, and I'm recommending it to everyone.

The Great Gatsby

I remember reading this book sometime in high school and recall thinking it was "not bad". And this being my husband's favorite book of all time, I decided to reread this great American classic a few days ago. I don't recall the story being so tragic, leaving an uneasy feeling in my stomach. Being the sucker for romance, I would prefer it to have a happy ending, but I'm sure it wouldn't be as popular if it had. Fitzgerald's way with words is truly amazing. The way he chooses to describe something may be nothing like what I would have thought. Through his eloquence, I saw ordinary things at a different perspective. There were countless times while reading where I stopped to imagine his words. I found myself thinking "wow... that's nicely written." I have to admit that in some cases, he's so eloquent, that I found some parts difficult to understand. Other than that, I thought it was a great book. I can't say that it's my favorite, but it's definitely good.

I Know this Much is True

I bought this book at an airport several years ago. This was chosen because it had Oprah's seal of approval and was a #1 New York Times Bestseller. I've never read any books from Oprah's Book Club, but just assumed it was supposed to be good... Forward to three years later, and I'm finally done with the book.

If it took me three years to finish it, it's obvious I wasn't too fond of it. I actually had to start all over again which was a pain because the whole book was rather depressing. It's about a pair of twin brothers Dominick and Thomas. The first is "normal" while the other suffers from schizophrenia. One day, Thomas hacks off his arm in a library because of the voices in his head and is immediately placed into an institution. A portion of the book takes you through the obstacles Dominick, the "healthy" twin, goes through to try to help his brother, while a large hunk of the book talks about their past growing up with an abusive step father and a mother who's afraid of her own shadow. The story of his grandfather is also told through an autobiography his grandfather left behind before he passed away. That was the most interesting part...

I find this book to be quite depressing, dark and moody. There is not one happy person in it. Happy moments can be counted one hand, and those are always crushed by something horrible that happens afterwards. Almost everyone has major mental or emotional issues. This was just not my kind of book. I like to escape to different times and places to experience adventure, romance, good humor... This book didn't deliver any of these. If you like books that are dark and depressing, this one's for you!

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff

This is the story of Jesus' childhood told through the voice of his childhood best friend Biff. I am fairly ignorant of the stories told within the bible, but apparently, all of the stories that have been written only includes Jesus' birth, skips his childhood and early adulthood, and continues when he is in his 30's. I think. This book fills in this huge gap. Since no one knows what really happened in these three decades, the author Christopher Moore, fills us in and writes of Jesus and Biff's adventures during this time with a really big dose of humor. I laughed out loud several times, so it was definitely an enjoyable read. I think it was a little risky to write a book like this because chances of offending people may be pretty high, so having a good sense of humor is a must. But Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and Son of a Witch did say "Lamb is hysterical, sexy, and really deeply moving: Moore performs a sleight-of-hand, a balancing act, of fiendish exactitude - not an ounce of bathos too much, not a shred of potential heresey for anyone who takes the story too seriously, not a joke-op missed." And not only was this book funny, it also brought you through adventures of ancient lands. A bit of history, a bit of humor... Sounds good to me!

Either You're In or You're in the Way

Either You're In or You're in the Way is about a pair of twin brothers', Logan and Noah Miller, adventure making a feature length film, Touching Home, with Academy Award winners like Ed Harris with absolutely no experience or knowledge of filmmaking, all because of a promise made to their dead father.

I found this book to be very enjoyable. It was a very easy read, written as if they're just talking to you. It sounded very honest and it was like you were sort of on the ride with them. Different emotions were stirred through their story - humor, anxiety, love, frustration, disbelief, and so much more. I'd recommend this anyone who wants something fun and easy.

Puerto Rico - Day 6

Even though we were on a tropical island in the Caribbean, the days leading up to day six has been somewhat stressful. Why? Well, Mae and I had booked a day of adventures for this day. In every respect, Mae was extremely excited. But me? I agreed to do this reluctantly.

I admit it. I'm a big scaredy cat. But I like to push myself to do things out of my comfort zone thinking I may get over my fears. Scary things I've done include skydiving, snorkling in underground tunnels, skiing on the intermediate slope, jumping into a pool, walking across a wooden log over water, eating some of my mom's cooking (yes! these are in fact very frightening to me!)... that's all I can think of right now. No matter what I do though, my fears are never overcome. I am still afraid of water, heights, tight spaces, some of my mom's cooking, but what I do gain in these experiences is confidence and the knowledge that the chances of something bad happening to me is pretty slim. And after doing these "dangerous" things, I always am glad I did it. No regrets. (Except for my mom's cooking.)

So when I agreed to do this adventure, I knew that I would not regret it, but the fear of jumping into water was truly petrifying. I HATE water. I HATE heights. What I would be doing is the combination of my two biggest fears. The thing about this day was that our adventure was never confirmed. They needed a certain number of people to join in order to make the trip profitable. During this time of uncertainty, I was praying we would receive a call saying the trip has been canceled. My prayers weren't answered. The evening before the big day, we got a confirmation that the adventure was on.

On day six, we woke up waaaay before sunrise, packed some food from our inn's kitchen (the employees here are the most helpful ever!), and waited for our cab. After waiting a pretty long time, we were finally on our way to our meeting spot. We got dropped off at our location. Odd. No one was there. We peeked around the area, but didn't see a group of people with activewear, a bus, nothing. Mae called our point of contact and realized we were at the wrong place! Luckily, we were close. We ran, fearing the bus would leave us. After signing our lives away, we hopped onto the bus with the Aventuras Tierra Adentro team and were headed to El Yunque National Forest for a canyoning adventure.

While most people in San Juan were probably still warm in their beds, we were in a bus with the most entertaining crew. Ever. The group leader fed us information using lots of jokes, and the bus driver (and also the second in command) contributed by adding his own sound effects. This delivery not only woke up everyone, but also made us feel comfortable and safe having them as our guides.

The active part of our adventure, the activities that I stressed over, was finally about to start. I was just praying that I would come out of this unscathed. After gearing up and passing a few safety lessons, we made a short hike down a steep hill to get started on some via ferrata, a route equipped with fixed cables and metal rungs as footholds and monkey bridges, a very simple bridge made entirely of ropes. We then rappelled down to a platform and from there, ziplined into a cold pool of water. Once everyone had been dunked, we jumped into the water once again and swam towards a roaring waterfall, checked out some little white crabs clinging to the damp walls of the waterfalls mouth, took some photos and swam towards land and clambered back up onto the rocks. While they gave us a little time to rest, we were served a bit of hot chocolate. After a few minutes, we grouped up and continued our adventure. The via ferrata continued. We carefully crossed gulches via two cables, one to hold on to and one to step on, while the terrifying white water made its way down many many feet below us.

Next up was a zipline that would stop mid-way, and we would unclip ourselves from the cable and free fall into the water waiting below. Oh boy. This was was when I started to panic. Remember I told you that I'm afraid of heights and water? Well, this was pure anguish. While others went ahead, a mental war was going on full force in my head. "Should I push myself to do this? But I really don't want to! I am truly truly horrified of this. But you should do it! Everyone else is! But I have to drop into water! That's crazy!! What's the alternative? Go to the end of the cable and jump into the water from some rocks that are waaaay up high! Oh my gosh!! I can't do that either! What if I jump too close and hit my head on the rocks and die?! Might as well just fall from the cable!! But I can't!!" And so this continued up until the guide asked me if I was going to go for it. I honestly don't remember my answer, but I was stopped halfway through the zipline and was told to unclip myself by swinging my body up. I tried, but didn't have the strength or just couldn't figure it out (probably because I was petrified), so I asked them to just let me off at the very end. There, they told me I had to jump into the water from the rocks. I looked down to the water to see how long the jump would be. Holy mother of god. I can't do that. That's insane. I will die. They kept trying to coax me, but I just couldn't get myself to do it. I finally got my way and chickened out of this portion and made my to the group by hopping down some rocks.

The entire group climbed back up onto the rocks where I had just been. We had three options here. One, jump from ten feet (where I just was which was already the scariest thing I could imagine). Two, jump from twenty feet. Three, jump from thirty feet! These were all approximations, but this certainly looked a lot higher!! None of these options sounded good, so I just stayed at the lowest elevation. There were several girls in my group, including Mae. Others climbed up to the other levels. One girl had the guts to go to the highest one! One by one, they jumped off. It was finally our turn. Some of the girls weren't scared. Mae was excited, but she stayed with me until the end. Luckily, I wasn't the only one who was scared. Another girl needed some support as well.

When it was finally my turn to go, I was frozen. I couldn't. I was already unwilling to go once, how can they expect me to do it this time? After a lot of encouragement and a lot of deep breathing, I was ready to go. I stepped to the ledge and looked down. Oh god. I can't do this. I stepped back. Crazy. More encouragement and deep breathing. I fearfully approached the edge again, looked down, and felt a small nudge on my back. With that, I tried to launch myself as far from the rocks as possible so I wouldn't smash my head and kill myself, held my breath, and waited for impact. Splash! As quickly as possible, I kicked to the surface, and once my head was no longer submerged, I screamed. That was exhilarating stuff! It wasn't bad at all!

You see that cable in the back? That's where everyone jumped from.

We were all supposed to swim to another waterfall to take a group photo. It was not that easy. The rocks at the foot of the fall was heavily coated with slippery moss. People were sliding around everywhere.


Once our photo opp was done, we all swam back to dry land where we had lunch. I think we were supposed to continue down the hill, but they were afraid of flash floods, so our next little task was to climb up a rock wall to get back up to higher land. Again, we had three options, extremely easy, very easy, and easy. Cool. I've rock climbed before and didn't think it was too bad, so I chose the very easy option, the middle one. Man. This was not "very easy". More like very difficult! Some holds were far from each other and some were pretty small or at weird angles. By the time I climbed up to the top of this vertical face, my muscles had become soupy mush.


The rest of the trip was easy. We were all urged to dunk ourselves in a very cold pool of water before starting our way back up the trail. This helped with the heat. We hiked back to the trailhead, rested, changed, and were on our way back to civilization. But not without a quick stop at a roadside food stall! Mae and I shared lots of deep fried stuff and a virgin pina colada. Soooo good. It was such an excellent way to wrap up a day of adrenaline packed activities. This day had been wonderful. I pushed myself to do things I have only dreamed of doing but was afraid to actually do it. Everything about this trip was incredible, and I really thank Mae for her encouragement and sisterly ways. She watched after me like an older sister would take care of her younger sis. I love that Mae.

After we got dropped off near our guest house, we showered and decided to have dinner there. How can you go wrong with a table on the sand with a view blue skies that eventually turn to hues of pinks and purples while the glow of the sun slowly dip behind the sea? It was a good meal with good conversation and more people watching opportunities.We walked along the beach that night, at times, taking photos of San Juan's night lights. This was our last night in Puerto Rico. :(

The light building in the back is Numero Uno Guest House. It's really sitting on the beach.

Puerto Rico - Day 5

We were leaving Vieques today. Mae and I would continue our vacation in San Juan while my two sisters would return home to the Bay Area. Not surprisingly, we rushed to check out and return our vehicle to get to the ferry terminal in time. After waiting a while, we finally boarded. Guess who was sitting just a few feet from us? Yes, the mean man from our first night and his family. Yuck. When we reached Fajardo, we caught a cab to take us to their international airport.

For much of the ride, I was blinking back tears, tears of sadness that my sisters were leaving me! Seriously! I really didn't want to see them go. Being in a foreign place made me embrace familiarity more so. True, I had Mae with me, but it's still not the same. They are my sisters, two people I've shared so much with, and now, they were leaving me. I wanted to go home with them. Screw San Juan. I would rather be with my sisters. I know. I'm such a little cry baby. But I wasn't really going to go home with them... We said good-bye to them at the airport, and now we were on our way to Numero Uno Guest House in San Juan.

We went around in circles. Our driver stopped numerous people, asking them if they knew where _blank street is (I forgot the street name). We were pointed the wrong way at times, but most people couldn't offer any direction. Finally, after much circling around, we had arrived to our guest house at last. This place was a-w-e-s-o-m-e. It sat right on the beach, with a full view of the sun when it touches down onto the Caribbean Sea. Amazing.

Mae and I didn't waste any time hanging around our inn. We wanted to see San Juan! Within an hour, we were in Old San Juan, the heart of it all, surrounded by colorful, ornate buildings and cobblestone streets. It was so beautiful, a very different vibe from Vieques. Vieques was lovely! Don't get me wrong. It's just that after several days of leisurely island life, it's nice to pick things up a bit and be closer to civilization.

The first item on our agenda was to eat. We found a nice restaurant with street-side tables alongside a little plaza. Once again, I ordered mofongo, with crab. While eating this meal, I realized I really don't like mofongo. It's too starchy and sweet. By this time, I was really craving plain old steamed rice.


After lunch, we wanted to immerse ourselves in Puerto Rican culture and history. We decided on visiting El Morro, one of the two fortresses sitting on the edges of Old San Juan. As we made our way to this historical landmark, I snapped quite a few photos of the surrounding architecture, trying to capture the charm of this part of town. I really didn't do it justice, but here are a couple:


El Morro seemed to be steeped in history, but we couldn't truly get an appreciation for it as we arrived half an hour before it closed, and the grounds were pretty spread out. We would speed walk through passageways, run up and down narrow spiral staircases, race from one turret to another... all the while, snapping away like a madwoman. Needless to say, I didn't really get anything nice, but here's a little taste of El Morro...

The lawn leading up to El Morro's entrance.


The narrow spiral staircase in one of the turrets.

An old pile of cannonballs.


Half an hour, after numerous announcements that the fortress' visiting hours were coming to an end, we finally made our way back to the entrance. We took our time strolling across the vast lawn, taking in the cool air as evening approached.

Before heading back to Numero Uno, we had to grab some dinner. We settled on a restaurant close to our taxi drop-off area and with outdoor seating once again, Toro Salao. Mae and I shared a fantastic meal: pineapple and peach sangria, a delicious deep fried appetizer of some sort, and a mushroom, spinach, and bacon pizza. The pizza was sooooo good.


Our table offered a lot of people watching opportunities. We observed really bad karaoke coming from a nearby bar, a man creating works of art with leaves, people dancing to a live band... There was no time to linger and soak in this carefree San Juan lifestyle though. We needed to head back and get plenty of rest to prepare for tomorrow's adventures.

Gidget 1959

I watched "Gidget" when I was a kid and just re-watched it. I love it just as much the second time. It makes life seem so simple, care-free, and sweet. Aaaahhh... And Moondoggy is somewhat of a hunk, aye?

Iraq? A rack?

I had such a "duh" moment last night. My husband and I were sitting on the couch watching "Friday Night Lights", and there was this character Matt who was really depressed about something. Not having followed the series, I asked my husband, "Why is Matt so sad?"

He responded, "His dad died in Iraq."

"His dad died in a rack?!"

"Yeah, his dad died in Iraq."

Utterly confused, I asked again, "He died in a rack?!"

"Yes, in Iraq."

"A RACK?!"

Finally realizing what I was thinking, he sighed heavily and slowly said, "IRAQ."