Medium Dawn Felagund of the Fountain

The whole trip went smoothly, so the day home would have to be a mess.

We started the day with our final delicious Copamarina breakfast: my last omelette made by the fine omelette-chef Luis, my last pineapple juice and Puerto Rican coffee with hot milk. We finished packing and managed to grab an hour on the beach. Then it was time to say goodbye to Copamarina, hop into the rental car, and head back to San Juan.

( Day Nine--Homeward Bound )

When we came back from the "secret beach," we went back to our beach. This is a rough life!

( Scary! )

We were up and done with breakfast early. To start the day, we lounged on the beach at Copamarina. I caught up the trip diary and wrote postcards; Bobby listened to his iPod.

Today was the day that we went snorkeling at the Wall: the coral reef at the Continental Shelf. It was a quick boat ride out, still in sight of the resort. We'd been seeing waves breaking out to sea without realizing that meant a coral reef. This dive was very different from Culebra. To step back and look at the whole picture, it was less spectacular. The reefs were smaller and more insular rather than one gigantically overwhelming piece. However it was also shallower and so better suited to snorkeling. We got more spectacular underwater pictures.

( Day Six )

Well, we had our first rainy day. The blister on my finger caused by my wedding rings while kayaking finally ripped open last night. Around 4:30 a.m., while turning over to avoid my sunburn (so many insignificant pains!), I pulled it again and woke up, and it was POURING! My first, barely-awake thought: Who's running water at this hour?

( Day Four )

Well, we tried two new activities today: snorkeling and sea-kayaking. we'd bought snorkel equipment prior to leaving as several of our excursions are to world-renown dive sites. Anyone who knows Bobby and me--with our dual loves of nature and outdoor activities--knows that we could not pass that up.

( Day Two )

ann_arien's birthday is not until Sunday, but since I will be stretched on a white sandy beach on Sunday, thinking about Elves and listening to the roar of a turquoise sea, then here goes now....

Happy Birthday, Alina!!!

Enjoy your day, enjoy your champagne, and make the Elves (*ahem* Feanor!) treat you nicely! Many hugs and best wishes to you!

Now, I am leaving work in forty-four minutes, not like I am counting or anything. Forty-four minutes. Then it's off to the apartment to finish packing and taking care of some last-minutes odds and ends, then off to my in-laws' house, who are driving us to the airport at the ungodly hour of 3 a.m. Then...Puerto Rico!

I have been trying not to think of it, not wanting to get burned out too badly with work in the interim, but now it's here and I can think about it all I want! Nine days in the Caribbean! Woohoo!

Of course, last night, I could not sleep because I was too busy thinking of all that I have yet to do, worrying over remembering things like sharpening the pencils that I wear to hold up my hair since one split and was pulling my hair. Or remembering to put a fresh coat of blue polish on my toenails. In other words, really stupid stuff. Also, because these things always work this way, I have a little cold. Getting four hours of sleep did not help, but I'm hoping that it will take the course of most of my minor maladies and be gone by tomorrow.

Today, I came into work and plunged headlong into what I had to finish. I think that it finally hit Johnny the Boss that I will be gone for six days, leaving him alone in the office, because he was moping around and asking if I needed anything and asking lots of questions about what I do. I told him that I've prepared instructions on how to do every aspect of my job that he does not know. As many things as I can do in advance, I did. The most time I've missed in a single chunk is three days, but he did my job and his for a year before I was hired, so hopefully he can handle six days, even though lots has changed since that time.

Well, I have a couple more things to polish off, but I wanted to send my best regards to my flist. I will return in ten days with a complete account of my holiday, more pictures than you can shake a stick at, and hopefully, a skin tone slightly darker than my current White White-girl. And by darker, I mean brown, not red.

Farewell! :)