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June 1, 2007  The twins have arrived!

Jessica, gave birth to our #5 and #6 grandchildren today.  One girl, Paige, and one boy, Tyler.  Everyone is doing well and we are so excited about the good news and proud grandparents.  

We need a change of scenery, so we decide to take the short trip up to a place called Starfish beach, just 10 miles away.  Gary on Kaija's Song joins us. Kaija left to visit family in Vancouver, Canada and Finland on the 4th, so Gary is a bachelor for the next 7 weeks. 

Motoring the entire way, we charge batteries and turn on the watermaker as we head north.  Off in the distance towards the mainland, the mountains are visible and the tropical rainforest covers the landscape.  We anchor in about 15 ft of water just off the beach, nice white sand and coconut palms.  It's time for a swim and on the bottom everywhere you look are starfish.  It's not called Starfish Beach for nothing!  Aaron finds the shell called the flamingo tongue! A rare find.  Way to go, baby! Give me tongues! He collects 7 in all.  I spotted my first flying gurnard, a fish with batlike wings, which are not used for flight and he is very ugly too.

  We relax here for the next 3 days, quiet and peaceful.  The tourists do come here in the morning and take their stroll on the beach, applying sunscreen on their glowing white bodies before taking off.  It's entertainment to watch, you see.

June 15, 2007   Scuba scuba doo!

We decide it is time to get certified and get a group together for the super discount rate.  At Bocas Water Sports, the five of us, Gary, David, and Dennis (new guy we just met and quite the character) and us, sign up for the three day class with instructor, Irving, a young man of 22.  Irving has been diving for 5 yrs and spoke good English.  On our first day, we watched videos in the morning, then after lunch, we were assigned our gear  and did our first of five shallow water dives.  It felt awkward at first with all the weight, but once in the water and you found your buoyancy level it was easier.  Irving put us thru some skill tests, like clearing your mask underwater,  switching from the regulator to your snorkel, buddy breathing, and learning the hand signals required to communicate underwater.  After that, we did our first open water dive in 25-30 ft. of water.  Kinda of scary at first when I went under and sank to the bottom!  I had so much weight on my weightbelt that I was unable to kick my legs to be able to swim.  I kept trying to go up a bit so as to avoid the coral below me, but one of the instructors kept a hand on my tank and kept me weighted down.  Frustated, I just gave up trying to swim and just sat and hovered on the bottom.  Irving, got us all in a circle, on the bottom, and had us do some more skill tests.  I dislike having to clear my mask, as it seems I get water up my nose and salt in my eyes.  I did open my eyes underwater and it doesn't sting! I guess it only does when you get a little bit in your eye.  It is so cool to be able to breath underwater and it was much easier than I thought.  Even popping my ears to relieve the pressure came easily.  After 30 minutes, it was time to go back up to the surface.  We all ascended slowly and discarded our equipment and handed the tank, weightbelt, and fins to the helper onboard.  All of us were so hyped up at how well our first dive day went that we celebrated at happy hour.  We were also assigned homework, and managed with a total group effort to achieve completion of it. 

Our second day started with taking tests.  All five of us were crowded into a very small classroom and each given a test and booklet.  As soon as Irving left, we all helped one another thru each test, comparing answers and making sure everyone had answered the questions correctly.  Irving did pass by once or twice, and smiled and shook his head.  Afterwards, Irving went over the test with us, and explained the answers to those few questions we all had answered wrong!  Everyone got the same score, imagine that!

Back to shallow water diving and more skill tests.  Today I used Aarons weightbelt that he uses for snorkeling, and it is much more comfortable, but discover it is not enough weight, so I have to add more.  I am getting more comfortable with all the gear.  The afternoon session is another open water dive, but first we have to swim 200 ft. and float on our backs for 10 minutes.  With that accomplished, we take a dive on an old shipwreck, an old metal fishing boat about 75 ft long.  Gary being the comedian, found an old commode and sat down on it before we all got there.  It isn't easy to laugh with your regulator in your mouth!   We also did the circle thing at the bottom, and Irving, put us thru some more skill tests. 

Again we were assigned homework, and asked Irving, to come along and join us at happy hour, which he did a bit later.  He was surprised to find us all doing our assigned homework over rum and cokes.  He laughed and called us "Crazy Gringos".

The third day started again with the Big Test, which again we all completed together, our crazy gringo group effort!  We all passed, same score for everyone!  And then it was time for our third open water dive.  This time we went deeper 50-60ft.  It is a shame though, that in this area there is not that much to see.  Fish are scarce and the coral is not that spectacular.  A break for lunch, and then we completed our fourth and final dive.  Yippee! We are now completely certified PADI divers, with the opportunity to dive anywhere in the world.  How cool is that! 

June 20, 2007     Time to do another crawl, it's Aaron's Birthday!

Being seasoned Bocas pub crawlers,  we take a different attack.  This time waiting til late afternoon before heading into town.  It rained almost all day long, and it was almost called off, but birthdays must be celebrated!  So with our gang of Crazy Gringo's plus a couple of more brave souls, we take on the crawl.  The record was broken: 7 bars were successfully visited.  But no dinner was had,  and some had to slip away to home around midnite while the rest partied on.

June 23, 2007   Marina bound

Here it is Saturday, and we leave on our trip on Monday to visit the states.  Lists are made: what needs to be done before leaving, and what items need to be purchased while in the states.  But, we do enjoy sleeping in air conditioning.  We have a Cruisair unit that is placed in our aft hatch, and the cooling air is a pleasant feeling, but we can only run this unit when we are hooked up to shore power.  The no see ums are horrible here.  These are the littlest pests known to man, and this place has them bad.  When they bite, and you do feel it, the itch can be brutal.  You cannot sit in your cockpit anytime of the day for fear of getting bit.  We spray on the Deet and use the soap that can be bought here that repels the little buggers, and with our fans going in the cockpit, we can at least drink our morning cups of coffee.

Sad news to report that our friends, Mike and Karyn  on s/v Suenos, have to fly back to the states asap.  Mike has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and so, with a sorrowful heart we hugged them goodbye.  It just comes as a shock to realize that life is so precious and can be taken from you in a moment.  We met these two back in the Rio Dulce last summer as we were all waiting at Marios Marina for the hurricane season to end.  We shall treasure our memories of the good times we had together.

June 25, 2007  We are on our way back to the Land of Oz!

We awake early so as to catch the 7am water taxi to Changinola, but the water taxi I had set up yesterday to pick us up at the marina at 630am and take us to the taxi dock, did not show up as planned.  So, we scramble around trying to find someone to take us or a phone so we could give them a call.  Luckily, a lady on one of the boats had the phone number and gave them a call, and a taxi arrived at 650am.  It is not far to the taxi dock and we arrive just in time to purchase tickets and hop in the boat.  At Changinola, we caught the bus at 10am to San Jose, Costa Rica, a 6 hr ride for $10.00.  It was a big Greyhound type bus, but badly wornout.  We were the only gringos, but no troubles or hassles were given to us. Everyone is indeed very friendly and helpful.  We make many stops on the way to pick up passengers and of course, we have to clear out of Panama and clear into Costa Rica at the border.  It all went smoothly and once we arrived in San Jose,  it was a short taxi ride to our hotel.

We spend a couple of days enjoying the sights but not so much the sounds of the big city of San Jose. We were here 17 years ago on our honeymoon, so we had a bit of romance going on!

June 27, 2007  Flight to Miami

San Jose has a very nice new airport and everyone who flies out has to pay $26 each for using their fine facility.  Our flight arrived on time into Miami, and our good friend, Marc, picked us up and headed back to his home in Coral Springs.  It was great to see him, and his daughter Jamie,  and visit over a great plate of BBQ ribs.

 June 28, 2007   Land of Oz here we come

Marc bade us farewell for now at the Ft. Lauderdale airport as we catch our next flight to Kansas City, MO.  We will be back in a month and having dropped off my computer at Best Buy last night,  hope that the Geek Squad can repair it by the time we return.  Flying on Midwest Air was a nice change, large leather seats and hot chocolate chip cookies were served to everyone.  Salena, Jason's wife, picked us up at the airport and we enjoyed spending the afternoon with her as we caught up with all the latest news.  Later in the evening, Jason arrived back from Emporia, where he is involved in the new grand opening of his bar.  We ordered pizza.  I've been craving pizza and my craving lasted longer that I wanted since  it took over 2 hrs for it to be delivered.  But it was definitely worth the wait. 

June 29, 2007

Today we met our new grandbabies, the twins and they are both so adorable. We're not biased!  We are staying with Jeff and Jessica for most of the time here and love all the hugs from the other grandkids; Hunter is 8, Chase is 6 1/2, and the two girls; Drew is 4 1/2, and Ellie is 3.  Wow, it's been 9 mos. since we saw them last, and how they have grown!  Now, we hear Papa Aaron and Grandma come play with me.  And how we love it.  We play ball in the backyard, jump on the trampoline, catch flies for Lizzy, the resident lizard pet,  swim at the pool, ride bikes and scooters, read books, help with homework, draw pictures and play teaset and dollhouse with the girls. And Miss Ellie loves being fed by Papa Aaron.  It's nonstop everyday beginning early as we are awakened by one of the girls, saying it's time to get up!

Each Monday morning, for the next 3 weeks,  we take the boys to their golfing league, where they play a nine hole par 3 course.  Class begins at 8:20 and they practice their putting before hitting the course.  The instructors have a talk with them beforehand, 10 boys in all.  Then they are divided up into groups of 4, and tee off.  We walk along with Hunter and Chase, and the other 2 boys, Roman and Eric.  These little golfers are quite impressive.  Chase hits the ball right down the middle of the fairway each time, and he actually parred #5, sinking a long putt.  His secret to sinking those long putts, is his ability to "suck it in" (see picture on right). Hunter when he gets lined up right can really smack the ball and had the longest drive.  I keep score and the highest number for any given hole is an 8, which we call a snowman.  Eric earned the first snowman, and not being familiar with the term, exclaimed "Where is the snowman?" as he looked around to see where it was.  I pointed to the scorecard and everyone laughed.  It takes about 2 1/2 hrs to complete the course and we celebrate afterwards with a Wendy's happy meal.

The girls are in an acrobats and ballet class on Thursday mornings, so we try to attend but this week to our dismay, the class was cancelled due to camp.  But, there was an empty room available with mats, so the girls showed us their ballet moves, bunny hops and tumbling somersaults and still learning how to do a cartwheel.  I helped Drew with her backbends.  Amazing how limber these little ones are!