Cali Xs 3/Thanksgiving

I went to LA for Thanksgiving. This was round three in just four months.  I must love the ACDC crew!  And, it's true. We started by cleaning the house, which involved some Rockband, knee guards (I was on my hands and knees cleaning the floor), and a dress.  Not my best fashion moment, but fun nonetheless. We had a great time checking out some of the LA restaurants/markets, and had a very late Thanksgiving dinner. I don't think we ate until after 5. In fact, we had to eat while enjoying the annual Christmas "Let the Magic Begin" (start to the Christmas season) party over skype.

Nope. I won't make this picture any bigger.

Turkey for three!

 Aaaaaand, we went to Disney Land. I'm seriously in love with Disney Land at Christmas time. It snowed. Fake snow, mind you, but it was amazing. David, Abby, and I had just finished the Indiana Jones ride and had to run through the hallways just to catch the fireworks. We arrived just in time for the fireworks finale, and then the snow to being falling gently on our heads to the tune of Christmas music.

I stole this picture from someone else because we lost our snow pictures. :( Thank you, stranger!

October General Conference

October brought General Conference, and the opportunity to go back to California just five or six weeks after my first visit to the ACDC crew there.  We joined with the Chipman family for the regular conference gathering. Kara kicked Abby and my tails finishing our run. As usual, we had great food, great conversation, and plenty of laughs. I am sure my uncle, who has four sons, appreciated me teaching aunts and cousins Irish dancing. (People who are blind and deaf would probably think we're pretty good.) We did miss David, who was out of country for the evening.)

Puerto Rico Heaven

Jonathan and I took a quick jaunt down to Puerto Rico. It may be one of the best trips we had, and  as usual it was chalk full of adventure.  Jonathan and I arrived in the evening, and by the time we were at the hotel it was late afternoon. After a little beach time we checked out a restaurant downtown. (Side note: This restaurant by far had the best Pina Colada of the trip, although we had to leave given some...dancing...that began occuring.)
Day two included a trip to the rainforest, and a long wait in traffic while on the way to the Bio Bay. The bio bay glows when disturbed because of micro-organisms.  The entire trip was fantastic. We kayaked out in the dark, in a tralong string of kayaks distinguishable only by the green glow bracelets attached to their fronts, and red ones attached at the back. People are no longer allowed to swim in the bio bay in the name of preserving the micro-organisms. 



I just happen to love this shot of Jonathan.



I don't love this picture of me, but...it does prove I was there.

As if that would stop me. There may have been three requests on my part to know of our tour guides what would happen if my kayak accidentally flipped. I may have then accidentally flipped the kayak after giving the keys and cameras over to the tour guides. EVERYONE needs to swim in a bio bay at some point in their life.  They should try not to loose their keys in the bay, though. We did. A stranger walking along the shoreline kicking his feet through the water kicked them up an hour later.

No Chipman vacation is without a little mishap involving mother nature, and we're just grateful our experience with water was losing keys rather than being in a hurricane. (Especially since we went in the height of hurricane season.)

Our next day was nothing short of amazing. We checked out some gorgeous caverns at the Cuerva Caves, including a tour with about 30 teenagers.  Awesome. (Really.  It was!)  We got some water from the Fountain of Life, and then headed off to the Arecibo Observatory, which has been in a number of movies.

We got drenched walking up to the observatory, and just figured that if the rain was coming, we might as well enjoy it. I should note that I still haven't grown up: the only appropriate souvenier seemed to be space ice cream. The afternoon was spent at the beach and then walking around Old Town San Juan. Dinner was amazing--we ate at Carli's Bistro, the owner of which used to play for the beach boys. The food was amazing, and we got to eat it while listening to live jazz. Loved it. It was worth every penny. Dinner cost a lot of pennies.



I really wanted to go to Ireland. We did Puerto Rico instead. Jonathan decided
our drive to the observatory would have to suffice.

The days kept getting better. The Hilton has a private island where guests can spend a day at a private beach complete with restaurants, water toy rentals, rusty tanks to explore on the shelly shoreline, etc.  It just so happens that there is a small island just a short snorkel trip away.  Sooooo...private island to ourselves? Why, thank you. We'll take it.  (Pirates of the Carribean was filmed at that island.)

That's my private island!



View from in the Ocean

Our last day was spent looking at the sights and then catching one last trip to the beach. 

Farewell, Puerto Rico!  Thanks for the memories!