By the way, this is obviously the first time I have added pictures so I hope it works. I am including just a few pictures.
I had always said that I wouldn’t visit during hurricane season, but Sean called and asked if somebody would like to come and visit. He was going away to South Carolina for some work training and it would be nice if somebody could come and stay with Heather while he was gone. I decided to go. I got there a day after Sean had left and stayed for a few days after he got home, too.
I checked the weather before I left and the Atlantic was calm with no looming hurricanes. But low and behold, a new one popped up just south of Puerto Rico and was heading straight for the island. We spent a couple of days preparing for hurricane Omar, such as getting food, water and other supplies, putting everything away in the back yard , filling the cars with gas, clearing the garage to make room for both cars. I was nervous about even getting off the island or anybody being able to take me to the airport. But, the hurricane went just a little farther east than expected and arrived just a little later, it missed most of Puerto Rico and I didn’t have any problems leaving. All the preparations for the hurricane ended up just being a practice run for another time when it will really happen.
It was hot and muggy most of the time I was there. But I was told how much better it is now compared to July and August when there is no escape from the heat. Sean and Heather had fans in every room, and that was a necessity. The pool was great relief, and the cold showers. It also helped that it rained some every day and it was overcast quite a bit. I have decided that January sounds like a great time to visit. I don’t do so well with the humidity. I guess you get used to it.
The children are like fish in the water. Even Keanan. He swims under water and just needs to learn to put his head up now and then to breathe. Sean surfs most of the time before work in the morning, and the family spends Saturdays on the beach. The kids all get a chance to surf and Kaden, especially, is doing very well.
Kaden and Alia attend a Spanish speaking school so, by the end of the year, their Spanish should be quite good. Heather is learning fast ,too. She really makes an effort to learn and she is making an effort to really enjoy their time there. There are a few LDS families living close by and they have a lot of fun together.
Sean describes Puerto Rico well when he says that it looks like a mixture of Hawaii and Mexico. Tropical like Kauai, but buildings and houses look as if you are in Mexico. The signs are a mixture of English and Spanish, the gasoline is sold by the liter, but they use US dollars to pay, the speed limit signs are in miles, but the distance signs are in kilometers, a drive-through is called “servi-carro”. The stores are mostly American stores and the titles and descriptions of the items or the menus are in English. It seems as if most people speak both Spanish and English. And the Spanish is hard to understand. People cut off the words a lot there. As an example: Buenos Dias becomes something like Bon Dia.
I was able to visit some beaches, the fort built in the 1500’s, Old San Juan, and some other locations, but I was mostly there to spend as much time as possible just being with the family, seeing how they live and what they do, and enjoy my grand children. And that I did. I enjoyed their ward and their friends.
