Home-Grown Bruschetta!

Hello again, 

It's happening... the posts are becoming more infrequent as the summer draws to a close :(- but I refuse to start moping around quite yet, I've still got a few more days before I have to go back to school. I have to go in for the afternoon on Tuesday 1st September, go in at 8:00am (TORTURE!!!) on Wednesday as I'm a prefect and have to help out with the new Year Sevens and then my proper lessons start on Thursday. Apart from having to be at school practically in the middle of the night on Wednesday, it's a fairly gentle easing back in. I have a feeling lessons will begin full pelt though! My bus pass arrived today, Mum had to order it as I no longer am entitled to a free one, instead I, or rather my Mum has to shell out over £600 a year for my bus pass- thankfully we can pay it in installments... I was just about prepared to go and get my photo taken in a booth in WHSmith the other day for my bus pass, but when I got to the bus shop, they said they no longer need one from us, they just take it there instead. I almost had a heart attack! It was bad enough having to do it in WHSmith on my own. Turns out the one they took I preferred, but still, we ended up wasting a fiver on those tiny pictures of me I never want to see again. Hmph. Anyway, enough of my ranting.

On the 27th August, Liv spent the majority of the day in town with a friend so Mum and I had a day of doing not that much. Mum did however make a delicious lunch, almost entirely out of things from our garden. Unfortunately we don't have a bread tree, so that did come from Waitrose. She made bruschetta using tomatoes, red onion, garlic and basil from the garden. We also had fresh sweetcorn from the garden. It tasted amazing, but I think what really made it was the fact it almost completely came from our own garden- that's so cool!

After lunch Mum and I took Maggie down to the ford, she loves water and we wanted to try her new floating disc. She sucked. For about a minute she retrieved it, but then she just gave up, to be fair she had a bit of trouble picking it up as it was a bit slippery, but in the end I just had to get it before it was taken down the river. We decided it's going to be a home toy. 

Mum and I decided to walk down the road to the next ford. Maggie decided she wanted to swim down to it. Pretty quickly she realised that wasn't a good idea and we had to yank her out by her harness as she was whining. She had a great time though, swimming round and round in the deeper ford at the top of the road. 





Among doing other things I made some Peppermint Creams in the evening. We, or rather Liv, had tried to make some the day before, but she messed them up. I figured I need to show her how it was really done. 

I used the BBC recipe. I also borrowed Liv's 'Snotter', which is almost as gross as it sounds. It separates the egg as I only needed the white. It works because the yolk can't fit through the nostrils, but the white can and it looks like 'snot', hence the name 'Snotter'. It's really good, especially because I'm rubbish at separating eggs. Liv got it as a present from our neighbour so I don't know where it came from, but I have no doubt they'll be easy enough to find on the web. 

Liv helped me cut the Peppermint Creams into moons and stars. After letting them sit in the fridge for 15 minutes while we cleaned up, we melted the chocolate and dipped them in. You're supposed to leave them for an hour or two first, but they were hard enough to handle and we figured letting them set with the chocolate would speed up the process, then we could eat them sooner ;).

They tasted so good! I'm thinking about going cheap at Christmas and just making a shed loads of these for people... don't tell anyone.

Yesterday we went Stand-Up Paddle Boarding. 

I admit, I was skeptical, I thought it would be absolutely freezing, even with a wet-suit, but it wasn't cold at all. We went down to Poole Harbor where the average depth is only 48cm, so at most the wettest you got was up to mid-calf, unless you're Liv of course, her bum got a bit wet as she did fall in a couple of times... It was £15 each for an hour, including wet-suit hire if you needed it. You can do other watersports and have lessons if you want them, but we just went straight for it. I'd already had a lesson in Majorca anyway. I was surprised, Mum and Liv were actually really good, they were both standing up after about 10 minutes. 

Afterwards we went to a cafe for a small lunch. We had to sit outside because we had Maggie with us. It was a tad windy, but the food was good so it made up for it. We also had an ice cream on the way home.

I was so shattered from the exercise (that's how little I've done this past five and a half weeks..) I fell asleep in the car, that never happens, I'm not a car sleeper unlike Liv who could fall asleep just driving the ten minutes into town!

In the evening our neighbour Paul cooked us steak and chips- it was DELICIOUS!! It was truly heavenly. Then for pudding he'd bought Terry's Chocolate Orange and Dairy Milk pots. Yum yum yum! 

All in all it was a pretty darn good day. 

Tonight I think we're going to have Chinese followed by toasted marhsmallows, yep, we're going to have a fire. Then we're going to watch Gavin and Stacey, I can't believe I'm watching them all again, I know I've said before that I hate rewatching TV shows or movies, but it's just so good I can't help it. It's mainly because my Mum hasn't watched it in ages and therefore we're watching it together. I've also noticed Debbie has been posting on Facebook saying she's rewatching it- I think I inspired her during my morning Gav and Stace viewings. Nessa will forever be the ultimate character, Ruth Jones, what a legend! 

I think that's about all I have to say for today, except of course for The Big Wide World has taught me: That if you're thinking of doing something because you think it'll be fun and you'll have a laugh, but you're a bit nervous and not quite sure, GO FOR IT! More often than not it turns out a lot better than you're expecting. With the paddle boarding for example, I was focusing on thinking I was going to be freezing, but in actual fact I was really warm, the water was super shallow and the wet-suit shielded me from the wind. If I'd chickened out then we wouldn't have had such a great day. As I hear quite often thrown around, 'regretting the things you didn't do is far worse than regretting those you did do'. But in this case there is no need for any regretting. Get out there and try new things, be open to new experiences. Life will be pretty boring without the occasional 'oh what the hell, let's try that'.

And finally, enjoy the bank holiday weekend if you have one.

L
xxx

Home Sweet Home

Hello there,

I survived my 8th and final flight of this summer and am back here with you.

This is a bit of a sad post... This is one of my last summer posts before *whispers* I go back to school... *shudders*. The last few days at Daddy and Debbie's were really good. I'm not going to go into massive detail on individual days like I usually do, but I'm just going to go over the highlights (and things I can remember, I have a terrible memory!).

On the evening of the 21st we went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Universal. 

It's the world's largest one and it really was huge! It just kept going and going as we were directed to our table. I had steak and chicken combo fajitas. LIv ordered a rack of ribs! She did share them with Dad, but it looked quite funny when this massive rack was placed in front of the smallest (just!) person at the table. I had a really good strawberry and basil lemonade there, it had strawberry pulp at the bottom and a really juicy strawberry on the side of the glass. Unfortunately, being so thirsty it only lasted about five minutes, it was enjoyed though :D. I managed to get a Hard Rock Orlando pin for my collection and Daddy and Debbie bought me a jumper and Liv a top from the shop (no rhyming intended, it's too early for this).

The next day, the 22nd, was leaving day :(. Our flight was at about half seven in the evening so we had the whole day to ourselves beforehand. It slipped away though, first thing we went back to Universal as we had to change the size of Liv's top she got the day before. We did get to go on The Mummy one last time though, that was a bit crazy, being at a theme park several hours before we were due to fly home. We also popped to Ulta to find a couple of nail varnish colours Nanny and Mum had asked for. Who comes up with a name like 'My dogsled is a hybrid' for a nail varnish?! 

When we got home we had a couple of hours before we had to leave for the airport, Liv and I showered and packed whilst Daddy went to Chipotle and Publix. Instead of manky plane food Daddy bought a couple of steak bowls and make Liv and I a Chipotle lunch box each. We also had some doughnut balls and rice crispy bars. We had the best food in coach! We got packed in time, as always there was the last minute swapping round of items in cases as Liv's was 3lb over weight and mine was 3lb under. We managed to fit in most of what we wanted though, the dry shampoo may have been sacrificed, I'm not sure. I left about six pairs of shorts in my drawer over there, I certainly don't need them back here... The weather is TERRIBLE. I was wearing four layers on top at one point today! It's as if Autumn has already started.

Anyway, the airport is only 10-15 minutes from the house so we didn't have a long car journey. It was a bit annoying when we got there, for some reason they decided Liv and I needed to be 'accompanied' so instead of doing things our way, as we had when we flew out, we had to be escorted through the airport. I thought I was done with all that, but obviously not. I'm being a bit of a brat though, it did mean Daddy and Debbie got gate passes so instead of leaving us bawling at security, they could come all the way to the gate and see us on to the plane. It meant Liv and I weren't lonely waiting for the plane and we got a couple more precious hours with Daddy and Debbie. Of course when the time came to board, it made absolutely no difference and Liv and I still bawled our eyes out. Every time I leave one of my parents for an extended amount of time, it feels like my heart is breaking and it's horrific, but that's just what happens when they live on different continents. As I've said in a previous post, all we can do is make the most of what we do have. And I know I have more than enough in both of my incredible, loving and supportive parents, what more could I really, truly want from them? (Apart from a puppy or Yoda of course! :P) They really are the best parents I could wish for and if I can one day be half the parent they are, my kids will damn lucky to have me! 

Right, I'm over the mushy bit... On to the flight. It was quite bumpy, in fact the seat belt sign was on for most of the flight. I did make the most of when it was switched off though, there was no way I was going to be bumped and jiggled around whilst desperate for a pee! As we took off from Orlando we passed a huge black and flashing cloud. I couldn't believe how frequent the lightning was. It was very cool, more cool than scary, being able to witness it from up in the sky. I filmed a section of the flashing:

During the flight I managed to watch all of series 3 of Gavin and Stacey, which makes all of it :(. I loved watching that this summer, I can't believe I hadn't seen it before. "It's lush!". Liv caught up with the Great British Bake Off and I think I managed to sleep for an hour or so. I was cold though, which didn't help. No matter what I wear, I always seem to be cold... 

We landed dead on time and went straight through border control as we were taken through the special assistance line where we were the only ones in the queue. Our bags came out within five minutes as they had been tagged as 'Premium Economy' so they would come out first. There are definitely lost of perks to being escorted around the airport. We were back with Mum within 30-45 minutes of landing. Nanny and Grandad were there to meet us too and Nanny had her sign with our names on. She made it when we were tiny and brings it to the airport every year, it's made of wood, the real deal!

In the car I got to see my results for the first time. I got 400/400 for Geography!!! It's insane. There was also a letter from my headteacher congratulating me on my results.

Once we'd arrived home and given Maggie her belated birthday present, a squeaky disc that can float. She loves water so we thought it would be perfect for her, she seemed happy enough, jumping all over the place. We also gave her her ladyburd costume we bought her in Florida! We've made it a bit of a new tradition to buy her an outrageous Halloween costume every time we go. They have loads of them at PetSmart.

Such a poser!

Last year she had a purple spider, but the dangling legs annoyed her a bit and she tended to try and chew them. She seemed contented with the ladybird though, it's probably because it's like a permanent blanket which she could definitely use with the rubbish weather here at the moment.

After unpacking everything I decided to go to bed for a nap, I was going to get up when Nanny came back to see us when Grandad went to the pub. My "nap" turned out to be 5 hours and I sort of missed Nanny... I remember her coming to talk to me while I was in bed, but I have no idea what I said..! We'll catch up tomorrow though as we're going to Prezzo to celebrate my results :D.

I want to say 'today, on the 24th', but really it's the very early hours of the 25th because I'm jet-lagged and can't sleep. To me it feels like 9:00pm, not 2:00am... Yesterday I only fell asleep at 6:00am in the morning, it was a very lonely night where I ended up watching Holby and stupid old YouTube videos I'd already seen before. I also ended up finding myself a midnight snack of leftover rice crispy bars and Fruit Snacks, which are tiny gummies supposedly shaped like animals, but really they're just slightly fruity flavoured gummy splodges. 

Yesterday we went into town. We went to Prezzo (I know, we'll be going twice in a row) for lunch, I wasn't overly hungry so I just had some garlic bread and some bruschetta. Mum bought Liv and I some new shoes in New Look, a new pencil case each and me some new folders for school. We then went to the cinema to see 'Paper Towns'. It was alright, but I wasn't that keen on it, not much really happened... 

And then when we got home we just watched some Made In Chelsea (I watch it as Mum and LIv love it...) and I sorted out my old laptop ready to give Mum. I came up to bed at about 10:00pm and have been awake since. I watched an episode of EastEnders but have no clue what's going on as I haven't seen it for months and I chatted to a friend on Snapchat. That's about it. 

Tomorrow, which is really just today, but feels like it shouldn't be, we're going to sort out my room, chuck things away and tidy it up. I've made plans to see Meg on Wednesday to watch the first Sex And The City Movie and I might be meeting someone else sometime, but I'm not sure yet.

Before I go, I just want to say thank you to those that have read my blog over the summer. Anyone close to me will be glad when I stop writing so often and telling them daily what my new blog view number is up to! But seriously, it means a lot that people read and take an interest in to what I say, as I've said, first and foremost this is a diary of my summer, but one I wanted to be able to share, so thank you if you have been an avid reader and checked up on me every now and again.

The subscribe by email button should still be showing at the top right hand side of the page if viewed on a laptop or desktop. I'm yet to find out if it actually works, but sign up nonetheless, you never know, I may surprise you some day and write something deep and meaningful rather than this 2:00am nonsense!

Today, yesterday, I don't know when, the Big Wide World has taught me: That my body clock is so messed up!!

Goodnight/Good morning (I don't know anymore), 

L
xxx 

GCSE RESULTS!!! (20th August)

After having been extremely nervous and very emotional for the past couple of weeks, and specifically the last couple of days, I finally got my GCSE results today. I can't begin to explain how nervous I was! On several occasions I worked myself into such a tizzy that I'd convinced myself I'd failed multiple subjects and I wouldn't have good enough grades to get into the sixth form at my school...

Since I'm over here in the U.S there was no chance of me going to collect my results, so my Nanny went to collect them for me. She moved her hair appointment and postponed their weekly Thursday Waitrose shop until Friday :). She went to collect them at 10:30am at school and as soon as she got home she phoned me. It was about 6:00am here, but I'd been wide awake for hours, my stomach was going round and round. 

The first thing I wanted to know was what my worst grade was going to be, I wanted to be prepared before I heard them all. I couldn't believe it when she said my worst grade was an 'A'. I was completely gobsmacked. I had convinced myself that I had failed my maths and physics exams so I had a big cry when I realised I definitely hadn't. The one subject I really worked hard on was maths as it's one of my worst, so when I thought I'd flunked it I was really upset, but angry too, l felt like all of the time I spent doing extra maths revision was a waste of time. I think my big crying when I heard I got an A was just absolute relief that it was all worth it. 

In total I got 7A*s and 4A's! 

My Nanny said she cried when she first opened them. I still can't quite believe it. The relief is unbelievable, the massive weight off my shoulders is crazy!

All my friends did amazingly too, I'm super proud of us all, we worked hard and got what we deserved. 

Today, in celebration, my Dad took Liv and I to Toojay's for lunch and to get a slice of cake. 

Lunch: Stuffed tomato with egg salad

The cake at Toojay's is legendary! We usually get a whole Banana Dream cake for Dad's birthday, but since we were in Puerto Rico we didn't get one this year. To make up for the lack of Banana Dream birthday cake, Dad bought a couple of slices to have after dinner. And for dinner we're having steak, sweet potato fries, onions and mushrooms. It's like my dream dinner! 

It's nearly ready so I better go.

Thank you for reading, this was quite a personal post, but I couldn't not post about it, after all this is like my summer diary and my GCSE results are a massive part of that.

Today, the Big Wide World has taught me: I'm better at maths and science than I gave myself credit for and my exams didn't go as badly as I thought! And the ridiculous worrying and stupid tizzies I got myself worked up into were pointless (but of course, knowing that won't change the fact I'll still stupidly worry about things in the future. I'm a hardcore worrier!). 

Until next time, 

L
xxx

Adiós Puerto Rico! (18th and 19th August)

Hello there, 

I'm back in Orlando, only for a couple more days though... We fly back to the UK on Saturday. As always it will be horrifically emotional and a bit confusing. It's horrible to say goodbye to Daddy and Debbie, but at the same time I'm always sooo looking forward to seeing everyone back home, five weeks without my Mummy and Nanny is a really long time when I'm used to spending so much time with them. At least it's only a couple of months until we'll be back here celebrating Christmas! It makes it a teeny bit easier to say goodbye when there's something to look forward to.

Anyway, what this post is supposed to be about is the last couple of days. On Tuesday 18th we flew back from Puerto Rico. The airport was quite nice. It had a cool decorated wall of things all related to and found in Puerto Rico. I took this close-up, mainly because I thought it would be a cool Pinterest Pin! I post each entry to Pinterest and the first photo of each post becomes the pin, so I try to make them decent.

Before we could drop our bags we had to have them checked to make sure we weren't bringing anything unwanted back into the U.S, I've never done that before. Our suitcases went through a scanner and were given a sticker to say they were allowed. I had to put my handbag through twice as I didn't get a sticker the first time and there was no way I was risking that having to stay behind!

We didn't leave much later than the scheduled time and the flight was easy, pretty much no turbulence. There was a tiny shake as we came into Orlando, but we escaped very lightly considering the dark, brooding clouds outside the window. Naturally, I took a photo (or two):

From the airport we went straight to Merritt Island to pick up the dogs. We met Marie at 'Pacific Rim'. 

I don't particularly like Thai and I definitely don't like sushi, but somehow I really like Pacific Rim. They have really good pink lemonade and I can always find something that to me doesn't feel and more importantly taste at all like sushi or Thai. Daddy ordered some 'Monkey Thumbs', the thought of which made me want to throw-up, but don't worry, they're only deep fried jalapeno peppers and cheese. Why they call them that baffles me, along with 'Monkey Brains' which are not at all the brains of some poor deceased monkey. I can't imagine thinking that ever sounds appetising, why name them that?!

We picked up the doggies and came home. On the way I finished 'Children of Men'. I'm not sure what I think of it now, the concept was good but I don't know what I'm meant to take away from it (I'm assuming there's something profound since school set it for me...). I liked it though, I finished it within a couple of days.

Feeling tired, strangely from doing pretty much nothing all day, I went to bed when we got home.

I loved going to Puerto Rico. I especially love going to new places and seeing new things and going to the Caribbean was a first for me. I definitely wouldn't turn down another trip somewhere like that in the future! I think my favourite thing we did was going to El Yunque as I'd never been to a rainforest before, but also because of the sense of adventure and exploration. There was a set trail and enough people around, but it gave me a sense of being in the wild, something I definitely don't get at home. It was impressive.

So all that's left for me to say on this section of the day is a massive 'thank you' to my incredible Dad for organising everything and making it possible for me to experience all these new things. Thank you so much, Daddy and Debbie. As I've said to you before, you deserve much more than I could ever give you, unfortunately my unconditional love and awe will have to do. 

Wednesday 19th: 

Yesterday we went to Marshalls, Sam's Club and Target to buy food and look for a laptop cover to fit my NEW LAPTOP! My parents clubbed together to buy me a new laptop for sixth form. It's a 13.3 inch screen, a better size for essay writing (I have four essay writing subjects next year...) compared to my 11 inch one I had previously. I LOVE this new one so much, it looks really stylish (not the most important thing of course... ;)) and has a really nice keyboard that feels so nice to type with, it looks a bit like a Mac keyboard which is very nice to the touch. The laptop itself is thin and the screen is amazing. The cool thing about this laptop is that it can also be a tablet, the screen folds all the way back to meet the underside of the keyboard. I really wanted a touch screen, so this laptop is ace. 

Thank you, wonderful parents. I promise I'll put it to good use!

There is not much else to mention about yesterday other than in the evening we watched another Star Wars movie :P. I think my dad may have converted me to the 'Dark Side' with these, I think they're great. Admittedly, unlike a true fan (as I didn't grow up with them as they came out) the newer ones which are the first few films (yep, that's correct, I didn't make a mistake there) are my favourites. We have one more to watch, I think that's the plan for this evening.

Right, that's about it. Unusually I'm stopping at 'yesterday' and not doing today on here. I feel it deserves it's own post.

I shall get straight on to writing it...

L
xxx

A Pina Colada in Puerto Rico (15th, 16th and 17th August)

Hello, 

I haven't updated for a couple of days because I didn't have any photos from Arecibo and then we've just been lounging around the pool and beach so I needed a few days worth of photos and info to add here. 

On Saturday 15th August we went to the Arecibo Observatory. The radio telescope is the world's largest and most sensitive. It was featured in the 1995 Bond movie 'GoldenEye'. Click the link to see the telescope feature in the film. GoldenEye - Radiotelescope Scene. Another fact for you is that Hulse and Taylor won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974 when they discovered the first binary pulsar. I'm afraid I can't tell you much about what that is, but I'm sure if you Google it there will be plenty to feed your physics appetites. 

We were told as we arrived that we had to switch off all cell phones because they didn't want any interference with the telescope- that meant no phone photos and unfortunately I can't get photos off of my camera right now. Perhaps when we're back in Orlando I'll upload some. The first thing you do when you get there is walk up a very steep hill up to the visitor centre where there are interactive science museum exhibits. They had a big chunk of meteorite which was cool. After about half an hour wandering around the different exhibits we watched a short film about the telescope, about it's design, the maintenance and the sort of work that goes on based on the signals it receives. There were some very cool pictures of distant stars and galaxies. Once this had finished we were taken outside to see the radiotelescope- it's huge! Part of me would like to roll down it like in the Bond film, but most of me would be too terrified I'd end up falling through the hole in the middle!

We drove back to the hotel and went out for dinner. I had a really good beefsteak with onions, fries, white rice and beans. I also had a virgin pina colada. I'm not overly keen on coconut and pineapple, but together they're pretty good.

Virgin Pina Colada

We ate quite early so when we got back to the hotel we went out to the pool and beach. Liv, Dad and I went for an evening swim in the sea. 

Afterwards we came back, showered and settled down to watch 'Contact'. It's a 1997 film starring Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey and the Arecibo Observatory, so we felt we ought to watch it since we'd been there. I like a good sci-fi movie so I enjoyed it and I love the whole prospect of 'aliens' and other things living out in the universe, as the film says, 'if we're alone it would be an awful waste of space'.

Sunday 16th August:

Yesterday morning we went to the beach, I managed to finish 'Never Let Me Go' and am now on to 'Children of Men' by PD James. It's set in 2021 or something and humans have become infertile, the last babies were born in 1995 so humans are becoming extinct. I haven't read much yet, but it certainly seems like an interesting concept. 

In the afternoon we took a trip down to Old San Juan to check out the old fort; Castillo San Cristobal. There are two but we only went to San Cristobal. It was built over 150 years ago to protect El Morro (I'm taking this from the guide map). It rained the whole time we were there, so I particularly enjoyed the bits with ceilings! Liv and I found the lookout area a great place for selfie taking... But I won't be putting any of those on here!

View of Old San Juan from the fort

View from the fort

We wanted to go back to St Germain's for dinner, but when we got there it was closed... We found another place though and I had a veggie burger and fries. We had frozen yoghurt from a place just along from the hotel. We shared an Apple Pie one and an Acai Berry one. Liv topped the Acai Berry one with gummy bears and these orange balls that pop when you bite into them. I topped the Apple Pie one with white chocolate curls.

Frozen yoghurt

We watched another Star Wars film last night: Return of the Jedi. 

17th August:

Today was spent at the pool and a little in the sea. It was very rough though, the waves were the biggest we've seen since we've been here. Each time we went out we didn't stay long because we got tired quite quickly, the undercurrent was very strong. 

We washed off on the slide each time we came back from the beach. We did a lot of sunbathing and Liv and I came in to FaceTime Nanny and Mum for a while. 

We went to a place called 'Punk' for dinner and I had a Caprese Sandwich. 

We stopped at the frozen yoghurt place again this evening. Debbie chose Cheesecake, it was topped with strawberries and for a laugh, as Debbie didn't think they went well with cheesecake and since she had gone to the loo, we added a couple of gummy bears to the top. I think they were the making of the whole thing.

Some of the toppings

I took these pictures from the balcony when we got back to the hotel room: 

The pool at night

Now we're just watching Epsiode One of the Star Wars films. I've noticed Huge Quarshie who plays Ric Griffin in Holby City is in it. I can't see him as anything but 'Ric Griffin'...

The Big Wide World has taught me: This was written on the wall of the frozen yoghurt place and I really like it, so I'm using it as what I've learnt...

It says:
'Your greatness is measured by your kindness; your modesty and intellect by your education; your ignorance is betrayed by your suspicions and prejudices and your real caliber is measured by your consideration and tolerance you have for others.'

We're going back to Orlando tomorrow, so my next post will be from there, not necessarily tomorrow, but sometime soon.

Thank you for reading about the amazing time I've had here in Puerto Rico, remember to subscribe by email at the top of the page (I've realised you can't get to the subscription box via a mobile, so view the blog on a laptop or in desktop view and you should see it at the top on the right hand side).

Until next time, 

L
xxx

El Yunque Rainforest (Puerto Rico, 14th August)

Hello, 

Today we went to El Yunque rainforest. I had never been to a rainforest before so it was a new experience. I was quite excited at the prospect of hiking through the unknown, it felt like a bit of an adventure- something I feel all life needs now and again. 

Unfortunately I was a muppet and didn't bring an adaptor to plug the SD card from my camera into my laptop, so I can't use those photos... Luckily I have managed to get some stunning photos from my Dad and Debbie so this post won't have to go photoless. 

On the way up to our chosen trail we stopped at 'Coca Falls Viewing Area' and had a look at them. We also stopped at a viewing tower you could climb. 

Taken at the base of the viewing tower

We climbed the 98 steps (we didn't count them, we just took their word that there were 98!) for the stunning view.

Dad took some panoramic shots:

We drove on up to Big Tree Trailhead and La Mina Falls. 

The hike to the waterfall took about 40 minutes and was largely downhill, meaning the way back was largely uphill... It did seem much quicker on the way back though. The trail was very windy, often with a steep drop immediately next to the path. 

The path

We made it to the falls, along with plenty of other people who were brave enough to go for a dip... 

There was quite a deep pool at the base of the fall where people were doing bombs and jumping in. 

Once we'd make it back to the start of the trail Liv and I had a freshly made lemonade. It had sliced lemon floating in it. I took a cool photo of it, but it's on my camera...

We then took a drive to Fajardo, but the GPS had a moment of weakness and took us to completely the wrong place. After driving around a while trying to find where we originally wanted to go, we called it a day and stopped at a Wendy's for dinner :). I had a guacamole spicy chicken sandwich, it was really tasty. I'd definitely order it again if we go to Wendy's again before we go back to the UK.

We drove back to the hotel where I promptly snuggled into bed- this exercise thing is tiring! 

Dad, Liv and I walked down to the CVS on the corner to pick up some snacks and now we're just watching the second instalment of the Star Wars franchise. Yoda's just appeared on the scene, I think I'd quite like a pet Yoda! He's rather cute in a green and hairy way...

Anyway, it's time for me to go, it's getting dramatic and I don't want to miss something important.

Today, the Big Wide World has taught me: Slightly cheating, I already knew this, so it's really what 'the Big Wide World has reminded me'- and it's this- there are so many incredible places around the world, so many I'd love to see, there's so much out there and I should take every opportunity that allows me to see new parts of it. I think one of my greatest regrets would be not seeing enough of this planet.

Be back soon I will,

L
xxx

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Sunbathing and Star Wars (Puerto Rico, 13th August)

Hello, 

Today was our first full day in Puerto Rico. As soon as we woke up Liv and I went into the bathroom to blow up some balloons as today is Dad's birthday. Luckily he was outside on the balacony enjoying the morning sun so he couldn't hear us. We put a few on his bed and dug the presents and cards out of our case. Liv had also bought a pack of pink foil 'Happy Birthday' headbands so we got one out for Dad to wear- unfortunately he wouldn't let us take a picture... I'm sure you can imagine how great he looked anyway :). 

We gave him two pairs of Minion socks, a pack of Minion Haribo sweets and a top saying 'SuperDad', it's made to look like a Superdry top. 

Once the present giving was done we put our swim stuff on and went to the beach, making a Starbucks detour on the way. 

The sea, as I said yesterday, was warm and lovely to get in. It was quite rough so the waves were fun, I managed to catch some big waves in to the shore. I took my underwater camera so have some good photos and videos from the sea.

We did some more sunbathing and general relaxing on the beach before we went to check out the pool. There's a slide that goes into it. There are all the rules of 'one at a time' and 'face forward', 'sit up'- but they don't care at all! Liv and I were going down together, she was going backwards and on her stomach, we even went down in a train with Dad. We filmed going down the slide using the Kitvision camera, that's funny. 

The pool had a swim-up bar with bar stools in the water. Liv and I had a 'chocolcate swirl smoothie', which was not a smoothie at all, but an iced milkshake. It had squirty cream and a cherry on top. It was very good, made even better by the fact we were sitting at a bar stool in a swimming pool! 

After a few hours we were ready to come back inside, we were getting a bit pink so thought it best to get out of the sun. We showered and got ready to go out to Old San Juan for dinner.

It was pretty, there were some buildings painted in blue, some pink and some yellow. It was strange to find sloped streets after being in flat Florida.

Old San Juan

We found a place called St. Germain's for dinner. It's one of the top recommended restaurants on TripAdvisor. We had the whole bottom floor to ourselves for a while. The food was lovely. We had a 'Leaning Tower' to start. It was nine layers of mozzarella, tomato and avocado. I had a mint lemonade and an 'Inara Pita Pizza' for main with a green and chickpea salad. I love chickpeas, I don't usually like green salad but this one had a really nice dressing. For pudding Liv had a chocolate and banana crepe, Debbie had a carrot cake and I had a brownie with ice cream. It was, in the words of Stacey, 'lush'. 

Chocolate Brownie and Ice-Cream

We made our way back to the hotel via taxi. We played 'Head's Up' for a while before starting the first Star Wars film. (Liv's mime of a watermelon deserves a special shout-out, I wish I'd filmed  it...) Liv and I have never seen the Star Wars films and Dad has told us we need to watch all six before the next one comes out at Christmas, we're all going to see it when we're over in December. 

Today, the Big Wide World has taught me: In 1977 they had way better special effects and film-making abilities than I thought! (And Puerto Rican beaches are stunning!)

I've just discovered how to add 'Subscribe By Email' to my blog, so if I don't bore you to tears, please subscribe and get an email alert when I post something new :). I'd love to know there were people out there who check in occasionally! It's at the top of the page on the right hand side. Thank you if you're a regular reader, welcome and I hope you come back if you're not. 

May the force be with you, 

L
xxx

Puerto Rico! (12th August)

Hola!

We're in Puerto Rico. We left the house at 10:15 this morning for our 1:04pm flight to San Juan. The plane didn't leave on time but the delay was very small so not an issue.

We flew with JetBlue. Liv and I shared a case, as you can just about see we had a bright green one with blue, white and green spots. We like the bright, unique cases as it's always much easier to spot them at baggage reclaim. 

Last night after I went to bed I managed to finish '1984'. It wasn't the ending I was expecting, but still very good and meaningful. This meant I could start another book so whilst waiting to board I started 'Never Let Me Go' by Kazuo Ishiguro. I'm already about half way through just from reading in the departure lounge and on the plane. It's very good, I'm still at the 'what's actually going on here because it doesn't feel entirely normal' stage. 

We landed at about 4:15pm. As always I had to take some 'first view' photos that include the plane wing. 

All our cases made it to the other side so we found them and got into a taxi. The first experience of driving over here was... interesting. The driver didn't wear a seatbelt and didn't seem to know what indicators are, but I noticed this with a lot of other cars too. We made it to the hotel safely, though, so all is good. 

The hotel is lovely. Since Dad has a certain status with this chain of hotels our room was upgraded to an ocean view. It's a gorgeous view. I've been spoilt with hotel views, last year we had a stunning one of Niagara Falls. This year we have this:

View from the balcony

We changed into shorts and went down to the beach. The water was lovely and warm. I can't wait to go swimming in there.

We went for a walk after going down to the beach. We found a place for dinner. I tried something called vegetable mofongo, a local dish recommended by Marie. It was delish, I tried to take a photo but it didn't do it justice. 

Just outside the hotel we stopped at a gelato place. I had banana and Liv had watermelon.

Now we're back at the hotel and watching 'What We Did On Our Holiday'. It's very funny so far. It has Billy Connelly, David Tennant and Rosamund Pike in it, to name just three famous names. 

I'm going to focus on the film now. I'll be back with more photos soon.

So goodnight, 

L
xxx