Six Years

Yesterday Kevin and I celebrated our 6th Wedding Anniversary! We decided to go out to a nice dinner but before that we headed to Frankenmuth to check out Bronner's Christmas Wonderland. I know what you are thinking...it is only February. At Bronner's it is Christmas every day!

You enter and they give you a map of the store which happens to be huge. They had a small section for different holiday's...the biggest right now is Easter. That is a very small portion though and everything else is Christmas. Rows, rows, rows, and more rows of ornaments. There is even an area where you can wait it line for one of at least 5 stations to get your ornament personalized. 

I looked it up and there are over 6,000 different styles of ornaments, 4,000 different nativity scenes. and miles of lights. After walking through I don't find that hard to believe. 

Polar Bear Love

It was fun exploring the place for a little bit. It wasn't very busy but I'm sure it is more than chaotic in November and December. Perhaps we'll go back and actually buy a few things later in the year.

After Bronner's we went out to eat at a place called Shari's. At first we weren't sure what to expect. We drove there and it was first of all sort of in the middle of nowhere. Second, it was inside of a house. Once we entered we realized it was very fancy. It was really expensive but also very good. We did hear one guy at a table next to us hand his key to the waiter and ask him to start his car for him. I only hope the server was tipped very well. It was a definitely an experience dining at someplace like that. Not sure how soon we'll be headed back but we still had a lot of fun. It is still crazy it has been six years since we said "I do".

Now for an update: Kevin started work at Dow a couple of weeks ago. He's mostly done lots of safety training (Dow is really really big on safety...they want everyone coming home the same way they came to work in the morning). Last week he finally got to start doing some work in the lab. Kevin is still learning about the project he'll be working on and that can change as he goes along in the company. Once he knows more I'll let him give you some more details (at least as much as he is allowed to disclose).

I just started work at Dow last week as well.  I was offered a short term position covering for someone who had to leave early on her maternity leave for medical reasons. I am a Senior Laboratory Technician and I'm doing some microbiology on a project in their Liquid Formulations and Active Delivery department. I'm technically a Kelly employee (Kelly staffs these contract positions) but I am on assignment for Dow Wolff Cellulosis at Dow Chemical. I started last week and we'll see how I like it more next week. I'm excited for the microbiology experience and this could make it easier to get another position at Dow later on down the line or a microbiology position at a hospital if one comes available.

We work in different buildings but it is nice that we can commute to work together and we even know some of the same people now (many people are involved in many different projects). We're both liking the Mon-Fri with normal hours so far but we'll see how it is in a few more weeks. I haven't taken a ton of pictures lately and we haven't done anything too exciting. Maybe it is good to have a break after our last few months. I'm sure once spring hits we'll get out a little more and I'll have more to blog about. 

Weekend in Boston

Luckily Kevin was able to push his start date at Dow back by a couple of weeks giving us a little extra time to unpack, get organized, and visit friends. This included taking a little trip to Boston to visit Sarah and Jonathan. We flew in Thursday evening and had a nice long weekend with these two. It was wonderful seeing their faces again and in the test of true friendship it felt like no time had passed at all. We went out to dinner that night giving us a great chance to catch up.

Having never been to the area before Kevin and I were excited to get to check out the city. Unfortunately it was raining quite a bit that first full day so we didn't really want to walk around a ton. We drove into the city and found parking near the subway station and made our way towards the Samuel Adams Brewery to do a tour and tasting.

Waiting for a subway car

The guys wandered ahead and we enjoyed watching Jonathan and Kevin sharing the umbrella.

The tour of the Brewery was really good. Our guide was funny and very informative. I was only a little less impressed when at the end of the tour and I heard another tour guide giving the exact same spiel. (It makes sense they'd have it scripted...I just thought that it was unique to our tour guide.)

The tasting afterwards was fun as well. We even got to keep the little tasting glasses so I didn't have to buy any souvenir's.

Afterwards we grabbed some appetizers and played a little pool before heading back to Watertown for the evening. On the way we had nice view of Park Street Church which is a stop on the Freedom Trail.

It was still cold the next day but the rain had ceased making us more willing to gallivant outside in Boston. We were able to go into a couple of incredible churches along the Freedom Trail including King's Chapel. The burying ground right next to it was also amazing to see. The tombstones are so old and thin and you know that place is just crawling with history.

Sarah and Kevin outside King's Chapel Cemetery

Boston's Old City Hall. One of the business running out of the building now is a Ruth's Chris Steak House. Weird.

Wandering around a gift shop in the Old State House and Boston Massacre Site.

A nice view of the Custom House Tower

On our way to the Old North Church we had to check out the Paul Revere Statue in North End.

The Old North Church was pretty amazing. It was cool being in the site of where the famous "one if by land, two if by sea" signal is said to have been sent. I love walking around all this rich history.

While there we definitely had to check out Harvard campus. I went into it thinking it wasn't going to be that pretty (based on something Jonathan said)...especially compared to Stanford's amazing campus but after seeing it I realize that the three people I was with are a little biased. I loved the campus. Definitely different than Stanford's campus which I also love but I feel they were being a little hard on it. Boston has real seasons and with all the old brick buildings and old trees you have a beautiful setting. I imagine it being gorgeous in the snow, at springtime, and in the fall.

I was told that it is tradition to touch the foot of the statue of John Harvard. I watched a whole bunch of other people do it so I thought...while I'm here I might as well. In reading about this tradition I have since learned that a "must do" for Harvard students is to take a pee on the foot of this statue. A little gross but I'm not going to worry about it too much. Urine is sterile, it had been raining, and based on how many people touched the foot right before me I think I'll be okay. Plus I was wearing gloves...but I might have to wash them now.

During our walk we stopped by the Boston Common Frog Pond and decided to watch the ice skaters for a little bit. Jonathan was betting there would be some awesome wipe-outs worth laughing at. While there we saw something much better. This older gentleman doing some incredible ice skating moves right in from of us. We were laughing so hard that we had to record him and hope he would do something even funnier. This video isn't quite as good as the first thing we saw but we still laugh anytime we watch it or think about him at all.

After an amazing dinner out at the Russel House Tavern in Cambridge we headed back to Sarah and Jonathan's and spent the rest of the evening playing cards. It was a blast joking and laughing with those two and I'm so grateful we were able to visit.

It was also a lot of fun playing with the new kittens: Indy and Ana. (Jonathan is from Indiana and the naming helped Sarah in convincing him to get two instead of one). They were adorable. Indy was still getting over a bad cold and you could often hear him wheezing and breathing heavy. Ana was extremely active and quick to respond whenever a toy came out. Both very fun and we enjoyed them.

Brother and sister: Indy, Ana

Overall just a wonderful visit and we couldn't be happier that it worked out for us to come out even for just a few days. Not only was it great to see them but the break from unpacking couldn't have come at a better time. We'd been working nonstop and decided that we needed to take it easy and not try to do too much each day. We decided that and then when we got home that night we stayed up until 3am working but I guess we couldn't help it after a few days off.

Heading to Michigan

Once we arrived home from Puerto Rico it was time for real life to start back up.  We'd started a list of each thing that needed an address update and there were so many! The obvious ones are the bank and credit card but then there are the groups we are affiliated with including airline miles memberships, school, and employer. Most of them are online but there are a few that make it a pain and I've been trying to change one for a month now...grrr!

With a few days left before our drive to Michigan (our old car was shipped to Kansas and we traded it in for an AWD vehicle) we just tried to enjoy our last few days with our families.

It is always hard to leave the kiddos since they change so much so quickly. Especially Adele right now. We heard she has started laughing and following things and we can't wait to see her.

The drive to Midland is about 14 hours and we decided to drive it straight through. The weather was okay so we drove through the night. As we were leaving I started feeling terrible (sore throat and very stuffy). Sleeping poorly in the car definitely didn't help and Kevin ended up doing most of the driving. He got a little sleepy around 5am so he pulled over at a gas station and slept for a little bit until I woke up and was able to take over. 

Lupin was not handling the car ride very well. He was meowing like crazy so I let him out of his carrier and he was doing pretty well just sitting on a blanket on my lap. Suddenly he got carsick and puked all over. Thank goodness I had the blanket...it would have been a huge mess otherwise. Lupin went back in the carrier and continued to meow the rest of the time.

We  made it to our house around noon the following day and met up with the realtor to get the key to the house. Our stuff wasn't arriving until the next day giving us time to do the walk-through and take pictures of everything. As we began that we got very frustrated. The place was supposed to be professionally cleaned and it didn't look like it. The place was just dusty and there was soap scum in the showers. Not exactly what you want to walk into after a long drive and feeling sick. Kevin called the management company and they ended up sending someone over to take care of it.

After sleeping on the floor that night we woke up so that the moving guys could deliver all of our stuff. It took awhile and we had to check off the boxes and tell them where to put things. It was nice having them there to put things like our table and bed back together. I was still feeling awful but seeing all the boxes it is hard to not work on unpacking. We worked hard for a few days but it just took forever to get everything out of the boxes. After a week of that and trying to decide where things needed to go we were pretty exhausted and happy to be heading to Boston to visit Sarah and Jonathan. I'll get a post up on that and then give you an update of what is going on here. It will be nice to finally be caught up on these posts!

Final Days in Puerto Rico

This picture is from one evening earlier in the trip when we went out for dinner and drinks. We were going to go to this fancy club inside Hotel San Juan but instead we just went to another bar and had a mojito. It was one of the best mojito's I have ever had and the hotel lobby was exquisite. I felt funny taking pictures in such a fancy hotel but Kevin took one as I was coming out of the restroom.

Hotel San Juan

On our last day left of having the rental car we knew what we had to do. We were in search for this area in the mountains to check out La Lechonera's. We'd read in our guide book that this is a 'must-do' while in Puerto Rico. 

They slow roast a pig for up to 8 hours and cut the meat for you from the pig when you order. It was so tender and juicy...delicious! I guess if you go on the weekends there are a ton of them lining the streets and there are live bands and it is a big street party. We went on a Tuesday so it was pretty quiet but wonderful nonetheless. 

On the way back to our hotel we decided to go ahead and stop by the Bacardi Factory for a tour. The tour was free and they gave you tickets for a couple of free drinks afterward.

It was fun learning the history of Bacardi and getting to smell all the different kind of rums that they make. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more history associated with Puerto Rico. The company originated in Cuba and the headquarters is now in the Bahama's. All that is in Puerto Rico is the distillery. I honestly had never really noticed that the Bacardi's symbol is a bat before but I learned why they chose it. I guess the first distillery they bought had fruit bats inside of it inspiring it's use as their symbol.

One of my favorite parts of the tour was when they had this guy show us how to make a few classic rum drinks and gave us some history behind them. He had the best 'announcer' voice and he was very entertaining. We learned how to make a cuba libre (rum and coke w/lime), a classic mojito, and a real daiquiri (not the frozen stuff you normal think of). 

After the tour we were taken back to the outdoor seating area where we were able to get our free drinks. It was a gorgeous day and it was fun to just relax with our full bellies from lunch and enjoy their beautiful grounds.

They had a view of Castillo San Felipe del Morro but they didn't really allow people up to the gate for pictures. Kevin ran up and took one anyway. I had to crop out the ugly fence but I liked this perspective of the fort after having been in it.

On our last day we stuck pretty close to the hotel. We didn't have the car anymore and we were sort of tired of driving all over the place anyway. We rented a couple boards from the hotel and spent some time trying to body surf.

Not wanting to leave our camera on the beach unattended, we took a couple pictures and then I ran the camera back up to the room so we wouldn't have to worry about it.

Once we'd had our fill of the ocean we headed back to the hotel pool and just hung out there for awhile. We grabbed lunch at the swim up bar and got to see a couple of iguana's that hang out by the hotel. Our waitress even gave us some lettuce and I was able to feed one of them. It's crazy watching them walk and it was fun seeing them up close.

Our hotel

The whole trip was incredible. After the hectic month of December and the Holiday's it was nice to have some time to get away and relax. We're really glad that we decided to take the time to travel before heading up to Michigan and starting a new job.

Rincon and La Parguera

As busy as we'd kept in Puerto Rico there was one thing we hadn't done a lot of up to this point. We'd barely spent any time on the beach. In order to rectify this situation we planned a trip to the west side of the island for a whale watching/sunset boat ride. It was a couple hour drive to Rincon but we got there early enough to grab lunch at this cool outdoor restaurant.

There was still a little time to kill before we needed to get on the boat so we wandered down to the beach for a little bit. It was a beautiful day and we loved just taking it all in.

Before our trip Patti was telling me about Pinterest and pointed out this one neat idea. I thought it would be cool to do while on our trip. We made our hand prints and placed our rings in the sand for the picture. I'd taken this one and then I wanted to try to get one more. 

I found a spot I thought was good and we made the hand prints again. Our rings were in place once more and I was about to take the picture when the unthinkable happened. Water came up over our rings. We gasped and made a grab for it. I managed to grab Kevin's but my ring was gone. I stared at the spot in disbelief. We were both in shock and I sort of began freaking out. Both of us started looking around and digging in the sand but it seemed pretty hopeless. Two guys that were walking by joined in on the search. I startled rambling things like "It's gone" and "The ocean took it". It was almost time for us to meet up for the boat ride and for some reason I thought we needed to be there. Kevin's thinking slightly more rationally and thinking to himself "there is no way we are going on that boat ride...we're looking for the ring until it gets dark". Since I wasn't of much help he sent me away to tell the boat guys we'd be late. As I was running on the beach I heard Kevin yell "I found it!" My ring was in the sand in the exact spot we put it.  All of this happened in the span of about 3 minutes but it was the longest 3 minutes.

Happy to have my ring back

Now that the ring is safe and sound we can laugh about how stupid the whole thing was. We won't be putting our wedding rings in the sand next to the ocean anytime soon. Thank goodness for heavy metals!

With the crisis over we happily boarded the boat and we were off to find the whales.

Our view heading out to sea

Unfortunately we did not get to see any whales. Apparently they didn't get the memo that we would be there that day waiting for them. Because there are no guarantees on seeing the whales they pair the boat ride up with a sunset cruise so you at the very least get to see that. It was a beautiful day to see the sunset.

I had many good pictures so it was hard to pick. I liked this one though because of the sailboat.

It was a very relaxing ride. There was only one other couple on the boat and the captain and first mate were a really funny duo. 

After the boat ride we headed over to this restaurant right on the beach. It had a great view of the ocean and we really enjoyed taking in the waves.

We'd heard about these coconut drinks on the boat ride and wanted to try them. They cut open the coconuts right there and use the milk to make a drink that they then serve you in the coconut itself. It was a little too sweet for my taste but still fun. We jumped in the water after this and swam for a little bit before rinsing off and heading back to our hotel.

The following day we had to do a little more driving but it was well worth it. We headed to the southwest part of the island to an area called La Parguera. From there we rented a double kayak for the day and headed out to check out a bunch of mangrove islands off the main island. We stopped at a dock off one of the islands to readjust our boat and saw several of these iguana's. 

We were expecting some good snorkeling but we were disappointed. Perhaps there were too many people? It was still beautiful and we had fun cooling off in the water before jumping back in the kayak to explore more of the mangrove islands.

There was one particular island that was bigger and was set up with picnic tables. We ate our lunch here and spent some time exploring the area.

The mangrove trees are really interesting. You don't expect to see plants living next to the saltwater like this but they've managed to figure it out.

Heading back out we went to a bunch of other little mangrove islands and took in the view of the ocean. At one point we stopped in a shallow reef area and checked out the numerous starfish.

From this view you can see a bunch of the little islands out in the distance. It was fantastic.

We wanted to stay until sunset but since we had to get the kayak back this was the most we got to see.

We had a bit of a drive back and we were tired from being out all day but it was well worth it.