Our trip to the airport was only 10 minutes away from our hotel, and we were dropped off at the only airline that had a line. Ah, but we are carrying our bags and skipped the line through security to customs, which went expediantly. All of a sudden we were in the U.S, but still on the VIrgin Islands.

The first stop was Miami. This was about a 3 hour flight, and I was stuck in the fat-man middle seat. It went pretty quick while I watched Spiderman. Unfortuneatly, I did not have headphones so I had to put on Close Capioning and read my movie. I learned the lesson, to pick an inflight movie that ends just before the speaker starts to screech "Prepare for landing". Thus, I miss no ending.

We had virtually no layover in Miami, before boarding started a few gates down for Arizona. At least it wasn't New York, but dang, we have 3 planes to negotiate. Sandra grabbed a quick Pizza slice, but I was still full from McDonalds earlier. I'll probably pay the hunger price for skipping this snack, but I would deal with that latter. This was another 3 hour or so flight, so I watched Napolean. This time I pulled the headphones out of my pack and was able to actually watch the film.

In this layover, we had a little time so there was no rush to make it to the gate. I was all movied out at this point, so just listened to music for the flight to Boise. When we landed, it was glorious. Back home. Back in the saddle. Back in Black. Back in Boise! All the "Backs" I could think of. But most importantly, back in our own bed.

We rode out a pretty blustery storm last night. The boat was "swinging, swaying .. dancing to the beat". But the morning was calm as could be. We didn't rush anything since we were back on the side of Tortola where we needed to be in order to make a short dash the next morning. There were some good winds for the day, but nothing like yesterday, so we casually ventured out around 10:30am. We decided to circumnavigate Coopers, Salt and the Peter Islands before landing at Benares Bay on Norman Island. Here we are back at Norman from the start of our trip.

Nothing eventual today, we had some initial fast times, but it all settled to lower winds when we coasted into the bay.

But now, the cleaning, packing and tidying so we can be well suited to catch our ferry at 11am. The winds have really subsided now, so there's no chance of a cool night. Oh, Air Conditioning, how I miss thee. But we shall meet again.

We did well on provisioning. We just ran out of rum and beer, and we feasted on Macaroni and Cheese. It was planned out just right. I'm afraid though, that we may be denied boarding a flight we may have reached toxic levels of dirtiness on our clothes. The first plan of business when we get home is to put everything into the wash on "Sanitize". Then run it again.

Foreshadowing such an issue, we did pack away going-home clothes so that we can change into them at the hotel in St. Johns. Tomorrow! It's a shave and a shower! The haircut will have to wait until Boise Mtn Time.

Can you really trust a weather guy these days? I'm starting to believe that this must be a career based on religion and not science. To start, we spent a night in nice White Bay on Guana island. It was nice, sure. Except for the howling winds and waves not predicted for the day. I suppose that was a saving grace, as we moored on the very edge of the "R"-word (_reef). I spent the night agonizing whether the boat with spin 360 degrees and we'd find ourselves high ground. Fortunately, this did not happen.

This plan today was to get to Cooper Island and hang out to enjoy the sun, bars and "S"-Word (_snorkeling). Weather report was supposed to be an easy day. We even thought it would be nice to jibe down to the watering hole. Turned out, the weatherman’s prediction took a turn for the worse and we had 20 "K"-word (_knots) winds. We had to motor about an hour through a channel before we were able to put up sails. And yes, today was the "R"-word (_{Reef 2}). We had to take the wind exposure down quite a bit. So, we did. And we learned a thing or two about keeping the battens out of the Lazy-Jack lines; so, we wouldn't rip the mainsail again.

Off we go! We arrived at Cooper Island in less than 2 hours. It was fast and bumpy all the way. We were glad it was short, since we had no more desire to be out in that mess for the day. We ended up racing to the mooring field to pick up an anchoring ball before others who were attempting the same. We got the last of (3) balls, so felt fortunate.

From there, we went ashore and had a beer at the only place who had an IPA (On Tap!). I did shuttle Sandra out to a point on the "I"-word (_island) to do a little "S"-word (_snorkeling). She enjoyed that before we headed back to the resort to have another beer and relax a bit before heading back to our boat to make dinner. We ran into a fella who saw my "Offshore Sailing" cap I was wearing. Turns out he used to teach at the sailing school, but now hires out as a captain for private chartering. We grabbed his contact information, as he may be a guy we go too to upgrade to Catamaran chartering.

Back at the boat we had leftovers from yesterday, which really hit the spot. Outside the wind is howling strong, and the rain is periodic. This was probably the best day to not do sailing and just recoup some energy.

Back to today. We got out late, around 10am. Probably due to the excessive partying and dancing by someone who shant be named. But the name rhymes with Bandra. There was no rush I suppose. We were figuring out what to do with the day. This was a crossroads where we tried to nail down whether we could do a trip over to the USVI. This was our original plan, but we found that it may be more cumbersome than we thought. We'd have to go through customs on both ends with a charter boat we didn't own. Then we also weren't sure where to best go through customs in the USVI. After some back-and-forth we decided to stay in the BVI's and sail around some more. The winds were perfect today; about 15 knots. We initially reefed the sails to REEF1 and tested out the sails from our previous failure. Eventually, we let the entire sail out and we were cruising just swimmingly.

The goal today was Guana Island (White Bay). We reversed the direction we had originally sailed up until today and will arrive back at Road Town in 3 days.

On the sea, we found everyone was out and about enjoying the wind. We also found every time we were making a tack, a boat would appear in our way or coming in our direction. This gave us good practice in right-of-way situations, but it was also a bit annoying. I was tempted to break the rules and see if I could be "That Guy". But better heads prevailed.

We sailed for 6 hours in the sun before reaching Guana Island, where we found a mooring ball, in a bay Sandra could do some snorkeling. I for one am not coming out from below deck until the sun goes away: battery is getting low.

So, the ultimate day goal was to be at the Soggy Dollar Bar, and dinner at Foxy's. Both locations are difficult to arrange as everyone in the BVI's are targeting this destination for the weekend. So, to make sure we would be in the proper bay (Great Harbor) for the evening we had to make plans. Plans that involved setting our alarm before 7am so we could get on the Boaty-Ball app to reserve a mooring ball in Great Harbor. This is where we would stay the night after partying it up at Foxy's for dinner and nightlife. It's also the base from where we could take the dinghy around the point to have drinks at Soggy Dollar Bar. These were the bullet items of the day. Everything else was secondary.

Alarm goes off, we prepare to grab a ball, annnnnnd, they're gone!!! Just like that! If you're not quick enough those 30 balls are taken at the stroke of 7am. So damn! We were able to reserve a ball across from the bay we stayed overnight, but this would require a taxi to get to the other two bays. Whatever, we took it for the team. And our team was batting 3 for 7.

Sandra, then wanted to take a quick hike up the hill in our morning bay. I dinghy'd her to a dock and abandoned her while I went back to the boat to finish some coffee and prepare the boat to move. I kept looking for her every 15 minutes to see if I could see her on the trail. But no luck. After the last time I came out to do a spot check, I hear "Chris! Over here!" Apparently, she took a different trail and I've been looking at the wrong hill all morning. I collected her at the dock, and then we left Little Harbor Bay.

No strong winds today. We decided to just do a relaxing circumnavigation around Jost Van Dyke. It's the island we were on, and the same island we planned to do all the events on later. Wind was barely 6 knots, so we were only going the speed of a brisk walk. It was a sunny day, and we didn't really have much else to do.

We rounded the island in 4 hours. But during that time, we checked the Boaty-Ball application, and low and behold, a mooring ball just came open in Great Harbor! This is where we wanted to be in the first place. We cancelled our other ball and picked up the last ball in this coveted spot. I celebrated with a beer and a handful of peanuts. This day was shaping up.

After getting around the island into the bay, we hooked up the ball and boat, then dingy'd to Great White Bay to have that Soggy Dollar drink and sit on the beach. It was nuts, people were everywhere, it was like spring break at Fort Lauderdale. We had a couple of Rum Killers then finally went back to the boat to get ready for dinner. At this time, I must tell you, I think I had to be smelling a bit gamey. I decided I had to dunk in the ocean to get the sticky off. OK, it's gross. But you would be too. As a sailor, I think it's a sin to be in the water. Regardless, I jumped in and it somehow, with its magic cooled me down and cleaned off the sticky sensation. I may do this again, but only for science.

After being cleaned up, we to the dinghy to Foxy's where we had a BBQ buffet. Then the dancing started, and Sandra was still in charge of the agenda. I took one for the team and went out on the dance-sand with her. It must've been a couple hours, and the sticky sensation was back. We finally went back to the boat holding a cell-phone flashlight out on the bow while we tried to find the sailboat in the dark. There it was. The only boat without the anchor-light on. Yup, that's ours. That's our way.

To get rid of the sticky, I decided to jump in and do a cool-down along with a little scrubbing. Sandra got a lot of dancing in, and appeared to have a great birthday. Tomorrow, it continues.

We woke up at 6am. It may not really be waking up, when your eyeballs were already bug-eyed open from the experiences leading up to daylight. But awake we were, cooking up the coffee, wondering if we were going to get a repaired sail today. The charter company doesn't open until 8:30am, so we were caffeinated by the time we got the call. And the call was "It's a go!" Our sail was repaired, and they would be driving over to the bay at noon. Works for me! So, Sandra and I had a few hours to spare, so we geared up and went out on a morning hike up what was reminiscent of Mt. Hyndman back in Idaho. You couldn't stride it, so it looked as if we were doing a moon walk up a very steep road. Which, by the way, "Why are these like this?" Have they not discovered switchbacks in the BVI's? Up we went and observed cars coming at us from the wrong side of the road. We finally got up to the lookout restaurant, where I had banana bread while we watched a bunch of chickens and roosters run about the place.

Down the hill, which was also no small task with the "Negatives" on the knees. But back at the boat we eventually arrived. The sail should be showing up anytime now. Looking about the bay, I noticed it was virtually empty of boats, and the fuel dock was empty. So, the decision was made to try a little docking experience, and let the repairs happen there. Off we go to the dock! So, might be wondering if we crashed into the dock, exploded the fuel lines and ultimately rendered Cane Garden Bay uninhabitable for years. But as I type this, I can assure you it was perfect docking. For just the two of us, we were able to properly coordinate the jump-off and cleat the ties without drifting off into the rocks.

So now, the sail guys showed up, and they began the re-rigging. This was exciting for me, as I was over their shoulders peering, smiling, peering some more as I watched them rig up the main. It took a little over an hour and they were done a little past two o'clock. We could still make a little day of it. I tipped the fellas, and would've done more, but we got to get out of this bay and STAT!

We were able to leave the bay and do a few tacks of the channel to test the sails. We got about 2.5 hours in and that was probably enough since neither one-off got any sleep last night, and we wanted to get our mooring ball across the channel at Jost Van Dyke.

In all, we lost probably less than a day, but it was filled with other activities. There's still 6 more days left; so we're grateful that we didn't ruin a main-sail on a Sunday!

At least that's what we discovered when we motored out of Anegada and started our way to the next destination. The morning started at the normal wake up around 7:30am, then going topsides found that there was no wind. None whatsoever. So, that's when we decided to go to Jost Van Dyke since we wouldn't have much time to spare given the time it would take to sail at speed. Out of the channel, and we put up all sails (no reefing). That's when we saw it. The main sail had a batten that had come out of its pocket, and there were two tears at the top of the sail around the leach seam. "Hum, that's not good". We attempted to put a call into the charter company to get some direction on how to proceed. But we were miles away from any cell service. We decided to keep the sails up and make a reach down wind. That way, there was little pressure on the sails from further damage, and we could still get a relaxing day in what was turning out to be a nice easy relaxing day.

How the sails tore is up for speculation. But I believe during the day we were sailing from Virgin Gorda to Anegada, I caught a batten end in the lazy jack lines, and cranked to hard. It is the only thing I can think would have ripped the sail and dislodged the batten. Probably my bad.

We sailed for 3 hours at about 4 knots, and I must say was quite peaceful sitting back letting the auto-pilot hold course to Cane Garden Bay. We figured as we got closer, the cell service would kick in, and we would be able to talk to Conch Charters. After three and a half hours we started getting pings from cell service. Then we were on the phone to arrange a meet-up point where they could take the mail-sail and repair it. Fortunately, this meeting place coincided with our destination, so we were already on a direct, albeit slow, course. It was about 1:30pm at the time, and it would take us another 4 hours to arrive at our current speed. That was just a bit outside of their working hours, so we took down the sails and motored for 2 hours to the bay.

When we arrived, the service crew of 2 arrived just as we were ready to dingy to the dock to pick them up. We got them back to the boat, and they were able to take the main sail off in about 45 minutes. They indicated we may hear from them in the morning as to the state of our repair. We may be here in Cay Garden Bay for 2 days, hopefully one.

Afterward, Sandra and I dinghy'd to the beach while she jumped in the water, and I grabbed a Coconut shrimp snack and waited until Sandra got done splashing.

There's no strong wind projected for the next several days, so we may be bandying about the bay, or motoring to short locations until we hear news about our sail. We still have 6 days to go!

When we were moving out of the bay, there was a flotilla of boats surrounding us in the channel. They had the same goal for the day. We checked the mooring-ball reservations and they had already been filled. Filled by these a-holes leaving the gates of Virgin Gorda with us. We decided that even if we couldn't reserve a mooring-ball, we would attempt an anchorage somewhere. But the task for the day was to sail over to the island and snack on some lobster.

As I mentioned, the winds were blowing from the east, and the island was near 11 miles away due north. All we had to do was set a direct course and hopefully hit the island in a few hours. For the last couple days, we were at Reef-2 on our sails (for strong winds 18-24 knots). Today it was not as stormy, so we reefed the sails to Reef-1. This would give us more power, and not leave us so far behind the other boats already rushing to get the good anchorage.

It was a solid trip with 17 knot winds, so it was very manageable. The next task, when we arrived, was to navigate the shallow channels to the mooring field. The depth gauge was reading very shallow. Sometimes it would say 0-depth; but that can't be right. We'd be sending an SOS from crashing the reefs if that were so. It was determined our depth-gauge was not at all accurate, so we just had to trust the channel markers.

When we hit the mooring field, as expected, all the reserved balls were taken. But low and behold, there were a lot of "First come, first served" balls ready for the taking. We grabbed on, and then the day started on the island.

We walked around the beach and all the facilities. We made reservations for "The Lobster Trap" for dinner in advance since we did not want to miss out on that. After that, Sandra had the Snorkel bug. There weren't any of these spots around our boat, so we rented a scooter to navigate the island and find the spot where Sandra could snorkel, and I could park my Transylvanian skin in a dark shady spot. The scooter was fun; never road one before. Another first is I've never driven on the left side of the road; except for that time in college, but that was illegal in 4 different ways. But here in the BVI's, everybody's doing it.

We rode down what felt like a very dilapidated concrete driveway for 5 miles or such. And Sandra was able to partake in the dark art of fish snooping. There was a cantina at the beach where I sat and listened to some tunes while watching the ocean and sipping my beer.

When that was over, we rode to the other end of the island to another beach and snorkel spot and repeated the exact same routine. Soon, it was time to turn our scooter back in and ready ourselves for dinner.

We quickly got back to the boat, changed, and motored the dingy to the restaurant. Here! We feasted on lobster and shrimp until we eventually had to get back to the boat (in the dark). Sandra was at the bow, with the phone-flashlight on, while she found our boat in the dark mooring field.

What a day! Tomorrow, we are leaving up in the air as to whether we spend another day here or sail off to another island.

After raising the main, we were off to the races. Since we didn't get to stay in Spanish Town last night, our sail to the Virgin Gorda/North Sound would take us a bit more of the day. At first, we planned to stop at the Dog Islands to do some snorkeling, but it soon became apparent that the winds were exceptionally strong today, and so would the beach heads. So, we set course for North Sound (Bitter End) and tacked our way out of Trellis.

When we sailed the San Juans some years back, we had experienced some 21 knot winds on a 36ft boat. That was quite a lot to handle. On this day, we already were dealing with mostly 18 - 22 knots. There were some gusts up to 24, and that sent us on quite the run. For the most part the boat was heeling well on our tacks, and we were getting 8 knot boat-speed. A couple times Sandra would yell over to me from cockpit #2 asking "Are we in danger". "Of course not, why would you say that?". Inside, I was introspecting whether we were in danger". The swells got up to 6 or 7 feet and we knew it was true sailing as we rolled into the swell and out the top of it. Seeing the wash come over the bow reminded me of those swash buckler movies where sailors would round the horn.

We eventually made it to the mouth of the cove where we were to moor and planned our jumping off point to Anegoda Island. The swells were brutal coming into the cove, so we decided to take in our sails and motor the rest of the way in. That probably was our best call of the day.

Last year, we veered left and moored in Bitter End, this time we went right and decided to try Leverick Bay. It's on the opposite end of the bay and would be a new experience. We moored up, paid the ferry man, and rode the dingy into the small little resort. It was a happening spot, with music, restaurants, a provisioning store, and more importantly a shower. Sandra and I had our first shower in 3 days--what a treat. I figured I was down 7 beers, so best top provision another six-pack.

We had a beer at the beach with the live music, then headed back to our boat to make dinner and relax for the evening. The wind seems to be subsiding a bit, so we hope it doesn't die down tomorrow.

Tomorrow? This is the destination spot for the trip. We're told there would be lobsters a plenty.

We woke up early at 7am. So different than the barely-make-it-to-breakfast time we normalized in Puerto Rico. But something about the sea and rocking boats. Not to mention the get up at 3am to shut the hatches for the brief rainstorm. But we were up, made coffee on the stove, and dallied about while we figured out "what's first". Sandra had the itinerary set (Hiking and Snorkeling). We stayed at our mooring ball from yesterday and cranked up the dingy. We headed around the point to Pirates Bite, where there was a trailhead to hike up to the top of the island. We met a couple from New Jersey who were tying up their dingy to the same dock. They had the same idea. So, we all 4, headed up the trail to what was a 300-foot-high island. Not horribly difficult, but I could've picked better shoes than water slippers. We made it to the top, headed down, and next came the "Snorkeling" part of the itinerary. We zipped the dingy around the next point, and there was a huge collection of snorkelers already playing in the water. Sandra was already face down in the water while I tested the gear I was to wear. Flippers felt good, then I attempted the mask. NOPE. Same suffocating feeling I get when I must mouth breath. So, Sandra snorkeled around some caves, saw some blue and yellow fish, while I made sure no one stole the gas tank. We didn't spend a whole lot of time, as this was a trip for sailing. So back to the sailboat we went.

We got everything stored and motored out away from the channel to start grabbing wind. It looked to be a pretty good day; about 16 knots. We started out and already had some odd things happen where the autopilot engaged, and we had no control of the boat. That was quite an eye-opener. We pushed about every button on the console to no avail. Sandra got on the phone to the charter company to see if there was a remedy. We did not hear back from them, so we started brainstorming while on a direct tack back into Road Town. We decided to turn off all instrumentation power, and found "Hey, we have control of the boat again". That was good, but we were going to need instrumentation to see depth when we get close to reefs. We turned it all back on, and found we had control with instrumentation again after the 2nd try. But now we were sailing.

We thought we would make an all-day tack up to Spanish Town were we would stay before heading up to Bitter End as our on-ramp to Anegada. We were having a great time, but the wind was steadily picking up. Once we hit 18 knots, we decided to reef the sails so we would not be overpowered. This is where the work began, I found the sails were not reefing properly when attempting to get them configured. Sandra and I must have spent a good hour wrestling with it, but eventually, we hit Reef2, and there we stayed for the day.

The weather was not sunny for most of the day, and as we got to the later afternoon, the squalls came. We were sailing in downpours after downpours-Drenched. But at least it was a warm rain. We were about an hour from Spanish Town, but the wind was now hitting 22 knots, and the swells were about 5 feet. We fought quite a bit to make it but had to abandon the plan and seek shelter in Trellis Bay. We motored for an hour or so to the bay and immediately tried to get a mooring ball in the middle of the strong wind. The first attempt approaching our hook got jammed in the mooring ball lines, and we had to drop back and fetch it. We made a pass and Sandra jumped in the water to un-hook it and get back to the boat so we could make another attempt. It took us two more attempts, and we were finally secured to the ball. Engine off, and now it was grabbing a beer and reflecting on the 6-hour trip of the day. We warmed the leftovers from yesterday and had to eat below deck while the rain and wind have their way.

Tomorrow, we think of the Bitter End.

The trip from San Juan to Tortola was only 30 minutes. There was almost no time to store my gear under the seat before we heard "Prepare for landing". That was the shortest hope I've ever been on. There was no gate when we got off. It's essentially a 5-step ladder down to the tarmac, where we walked past other planes unloading their sweating, tired passengers. Surprisingly, we exited customs quickly and were on our shuttle across the island to Conch Charters. It was just as we remembered, and the same folks manning the operation were there as last year. We looked over our boat and stored all the provisioning we had delivered that day. Everything was in order except for maybe a couple small things. The boat was a 42-foot Benateau, about 3 feet larger than last year, and it had a nicer layout. With just the two of us, we had a vast amount room to bandy about. We checked out with Hannah (same person as last year). We went over the details of handling the boat, and then we were off on our own at about 4pm. Not much time to sail, but we just needed to make it to Norman Island before sundown. The following days will be the time spent doing the work of sailing.

We dead reckoned to Norman Island and found a mooring ball around the area Sandra wanted to Hike and Snorkel. Once we secured the boat, it was cocktails and dinner while we watch the sunset. The wind was blustery when we went to bed, and with the hatches open, it was quite comfortable. Ahh, natures air conditioning.

But the realization was truly forming that this would be the last day in Puerto Rico. Come tomorrow we would get up and part ways. Alexa, back to NYC to continue conquering the world in accounting. Sandra and I will begin the "Sailing" part of our sailing trip. For those of us going to BVI’s, our vacation was at the halfway point.

Tomorrow the scenery changes.

It was a pretty leisurely day with not much going on. Come evening it was planned to head off the hotel to a neighborhood called "La Placita". Our tour guide recommended this as a happening place in the evening. Our plan was drinks, dinner and salsa dancing in the streets for the girls. My plan deviated to finding a spot and watching this from afar. We grabbed the bus to this neighborhood (it was still free). When we arrived, the "Policia" were already cordoning off the block for what was looking to be a big block party. We walked around a bit. It was colorful, and the locals were already loading up on the Rum Killers. Not wanting to be rude, we found a sidewalk patio table and partook in tradition. The girls had a pineapple-like drink, and I of course tried for an IPA, but had to settle for a Modello. What is with this island and their disdain for good beer!

We sauntered across the street to a restaurant and picked one of their sidewalk tables. There were a couple of cats hanging out around our table, and we decerned they too were working cats. The Placita was filling up with people, and it was becoming more vibrant. When we had finished with our people and cat watching, we started off to walk around. Alexa cut off a part of her steak and made some cat-food for the little beasts. One came over and dispatched it right away.

We didn't last that long on the walk-about after dinner. We saw the alure to this locale. It was clean, friendly and fun. But we were an hour past our 8:30pm bedtime. This time we Ubered back to the hotel, and slipped into the evening ritual of reading and gauging the sun damage we added to our skin.

One more day left before Alexa joins the NY professional ranks again, and we (Sandra and I) begin the sailing part of the trip. Tomorrow will likely be about as eventful as a tranquilized turtle race.

Then, a bus came! Hmmm, he's coming a bit fast, aaaaaand, now he's passed us. We gave it another 10 minutes before we were to call Uber. We had a hard stop at 11am to meet with a tour guide, and we were cutting it close, and then we saw it. The bus. We got on and was prepared to pay the .75 cents we heard was the going rate, but the driver extended the hand and let us on without paying. He must've felt guilty we initially thought. But then other passengers jumped on along the way and we figured out everybody rides for free! Way cheaper than a taxi.

We arrived in Old Town with about 15 minutes to spare. I realized today was probably not a good idea to skip breakfast and was starting to feel the sugar low coming on. We ended up walking up hills a bit, and I'm doing the math on my blood-sugar crash. We found the location where we to meet the guide, the Old Bastille on the top of a fortified hill. We waited at a bench with a bunch of feral cats who reside on the premises to keep rodents at bay. Some were people friendly, but most of them wanted nothing to do with a little petting. The guide (William) showed up and we were on a private walking tour throughout the town. He was nice and gave us a lot of background on the political aspects of Puerto Rico. I liked the political talks, but I suspected Sandra was more interested in more of architectural history.

We walked through some of the colorful streets of metal cobblestones for a couple of hours. Each restaurant and pub we passed had a waking repercussion reminder for skipping breakfast. After our 2-hour limitation we were able to call it good and step out for lunch. Sandra says, "Did you remember to bring the $100 to pay the guide?" Huh? vaguely remember saying something about money as I was lying in bed half asleep when the girls headed to breakfast. But that was quickly a faded memory once I had hit the shower. We were out the door without cash.

Thankfully, he said he does Venmo, so here was technology to save the day. We did the transaction and tipped him well for the 2-hour sunburn around the town.

We went back to a lunch spot we had passed during the tour and climbed up 3 stories to the rooftop tables. We relaxed, ate and had a couple drinks. I finally caught up on my calories and was good for the day. We walked to some of the locations the guide pointed out, until we felt the food coma set in. Alexa was ready to hit the lawn chair on the beach and fortify that burn into a tan.

We caught the bus back, and again, it was a free ride back to the hotel. After getting off the bus, we hit the local CVS (which and since changed into a Farmacia). I picked up a razor and bag of jerky. Sure, the jerky was $20, but it was worth it. Alexa picked up some new sunglasses and she had lost her other pair the day before.

Back at the resort, I grabbed a beer at the beachhead restaurant while Sandra and Alexa sacrificed more in the sun. But the Sun god took and ugly punch with the arrival of the Rain god. The clouds opened and threw down a saturating dump of water. We consolidated under an umbrella until it had passed. Once it had, it was again happy hour/dinner time. We ate at the hotel today since we had a big day in the town and didn't want to go out. We played one hand of cards afterward and called it an early night again. It appears impossible to stay up past 8:30pm in this climate.

The one characteristic of this day was the prediction of rain all day. It was to clear up by afternoon, but we received the bikes around noon, and had 4 hours of play time. Just starting out the downpour happened. We waited out the burst under the carport of the hotel. Once it passed (or so we thought), we jumped on and headed out. We navigated the sidewalks for a bit as sharing the roads with the vehicles was a “hard NO”.

On the way out of town, the rain came again. We kept going and just figured "oh, well", think of it as a shower. We finally found the trailhead by a small enclave of village restaurants and was at least away from the cars. It was still coming down. Now and then we would seek cover under trees, but it was no use. We encountered a boardwalk on part of the trail, and you could see that it was probably the original wood from the 1960's. We had to navigate around missing planks, nails and slippery surfaces. We continued for a few miles along the beach. The waves were big, and the ocean was full of white caps. I was thinking ahead to our upcoming BVI part of the trip where we would be out on that ocean and fighting some good wind. But that was days ahead, and we still had to fight the boardwalks and rain.

Turning around, we remembered the restaurants we had passed, and so we stopped at an interesting little beach place. We had some empanadas fried in the traditional way. I think I will be full until October. Sandra had an even bigger type of empanada. She should be good until the new year.

After lunch, I went back to the sanctuary. The rain had pretty much dissipated by this time. The good thing about the rain is it takes the heat out of the air quickly. I was comfortable on this stay because of it. Alexa was D-U-N with the biking and was ready to get back to her tan. Sandra and I had about an hour left on the rental, so we headed the opposite direction of our ride to see where the other bike-trails would be. We had to navigate primarily on the sidewalks and avoid collisions with pedestrians and cars turning into driveways or streets. We never made it to the trailhead as we ran out of time. We turned around and saw a nice beach around a neighborhood and headed back to turn our bikes in.

Not much time left of the day, but Sandra wasn't going to be deprived of the dip in the ocean. I sat back and had a beer and waited for dinner. We ate at the happy hour the restaurant provides, and called it complete again in the early evening. Tomorrow...it's the old town.

The order of things in the morning didn't change. Sandra up first down to breakfast, Alexa a close second. But I needed a shower and a toothbrush. I did the 3-minute shower and choked down a breath mint. Ready for breakfast! When I got down there, I had was going to make up for lost time. An omelet, Croissant and half a pound of bacon ought to do it. We resided by the pool and downed a couple trips to the buffet along with 2 pots of coffee. The humidity sure can stir up an appetite.

Again, we split off to our own corners of the resort. Today I was going to do some coding, I swear. A workout is also due, and I feel the rope around my shorts starting to cinch. So, off to the gym to see what they have to offer. Well, they offer a lot. The room was a good 20x15 I'd say. A little bit more than your La Quinta closet gym, but significantly less than Golds Gym. What they did have was more machines than I thought could be invented for each aspect of the human body. All I really wanted was some floor space to do some push-ups and maybe stretch out a hip that is on yellow alert. What floor space was there, was occupied by a woman doing some free weights. I found a 2x8 foot of space between a treadmill and another device that I thought was banned since the Spanish Inquisition. But my push-ups could be performed.

Once the woman moved away from the free weights to another area of the room, I shifted to the area she used to be. This is the weight-room dance that everybody is acquainted with. I finished doing some weights and called it a day.

Following the recipe of yesterday, I parked at the beach pub and had a beer while letting the serenity of my crunchy tunes bore through my ears. Not feeling too bad. About 50 feet away, I could see that Sandra and Alexa were in their same beach chairs sucking up the UV's. I periodically monitored them from a distance. Afterwards around 5pm, they started making their way to the happy-hour bar. So, I checked out to meet them at the next spot.

After happy hour, we walked to another local restaurant and dined on more pork and fish (Platos). We had the normal "what would you recommend" dialog with the waiter. He said "Pork" and "Fish". At least it wasn't questions regarding what would tourist not eat? If he said "Pork" and "Fish", we'd be in a quandary.

At the end, we sauntered our way back to instantly turn off the lights and await tomorrow’s day. Somebody mentioned a bike ride.

We then had to catch up on the things that were missing from our first day here. In the haste of escaping from NY, Alexa did not pack sandles, hat or anything necessary for a sunny climate. So after breakfast we headd across the street to a CVS and started a little provisioning. Alexa found her gear, and while I was there, I said "Don't mind if I do". I grabbed a hat, some water-sandles and board-shorts. I don't know if I needed all these things, but they were right next to the bag of Wasbi Almonds, so they ended up at the checkout all the same.

At the hotel, we did our usual "See you at dinner", and we did the split. I found a nice spot 3 feet from the beach where I was able to grab lunch and some beers. Sandra and Alexa were about 25 yards into the sand, but they both ended up joining me at the table for lunch at the wood, not the sand.

Afterward, I scoped out a place in the lobby with air conditioning and settled in for the NCAA women's Basketball finals. In between times, I was catching up on these very Chronicles. Then the monsoon happened. The TV lost signal, and I could see out the windows the downpouring of rain. If I wasn't mistaken, the girls were somewhere out in the middle of that mess. I was about to go resue them, when I realized I still half of a Mojito to finish. I'm sure they're fine.

The game eventually came back, and I watched until the end. It was time to head up to the room where Alexa was trying to flesh out some sand in her eyes. It was dinner time, and I was now realizing I was not up to going out (maybe too many Mojitos? :) They went out and I crashed for the evening; but not without seeing the push notifications telling me that the girls were out on the town burning down our credit limit. Oh well...Tomorrow's another day.

We then grabbed our Costo shuttle (yes, we booked it through Costco, and it was glorious) to our hotel. That too wasn't far, and when we arrived, I was accordingly happy as I immediately saw 3 bars, a swimming oasis and half of it air-conditioned. This is 4 steps up from Sandra's normal "I want to try a jungle living experience in a malaria tent". This was a great compromise.

We arrived a few hours before our check in time, so we ventured out to grab some lunch along the boardwalk restaurant by the beach. It was pretty chill, and you could start to feel the tensions of travel dissipating. We didn't have to lounge too long before the room was ready, and soon everyone was changed into their vacation attire. Sandra and Alexa were instantly in their super-hero unforms of swimsuits and flipflops. I changed into my alter super-hero personality as Dad-Bod! My superpower was cargo pants, straw hat and an attitude capable of hiding out the sun. We left the room ready to protect pasty white skin from sunburns.

Of course, Sandra and Alexa headed for umbrellas posted on the sandy beach. Once I hit the border of concrete and sand, I had to stop. I met my kryptonite. I bid them farewell until dinner, and I meandered to a lawn chair by the pool where 4 palm trees protected me. Put in some crunchy tunes, watched a gecko play about by my feet and before long it had turned 6pm. Whaaaa? Does time stand still in the islands? How long was I asleep? In any case I made it back to the room and not long after the girls came in. They did their shower thing, and we headed out to dinner.

We ate at a place called the Metropolis (?) I think. In any case, it was nice and local, and when the menu arrived, I felt like I had finally found my people. It was beef centric and for the most part all "fried"! Thank you, lord, I did not see any quinoa or herb bowls. We each had a delicious beef dinner, and I felt my soul was fed.

Not much of a walk back to the room, and once in PJ's the lights were out and so were we.

We arrived at the airport, only to find security had not yet opened. Odd, you'd think in a great metropolis like Boise Idaho, the hustling energy of the big city would be juiced 24/7. Instead, it was as if the airport forgot to send out the memo, they had all gone home. But the trickle of people eventually ramped up. Mostly, workers arriving for their graveyard shift. My 4am lizard brain realized that if they were waiting here in line with us for security to let us in, who was on the other side brewing up the coffee? If you answered (a - no one), then you were correct. We waited, and eventually, the gates opened so Sandra and I headed down to our gate, sans caffeine.

When we boarded the plane, I looked down at my ticket and saw 15F. Yay! a window seat. It's like winning a $3 scratch off game; it's a fun moment, but not life changing. Got to the row and looked down at it. Hey! Where's the window to my window-seat. Are you kidding me? No window? Didn't know they were cutting back costs on Boeings where they couldn't add a window to every row. Oh well, I'll be out cold in no time.

We arrived in Minneapolis that same morning. I leaned over to Sandra, and said "You, know this counts as visiting a state". Afterall, Sandra has a goal to visit all 50 states in the U.S. So far there are only a few remaining, and I'm going to take the win when I can. She then pulled out the "The Complete Rule of Travel", and recited section-1, paragraph-4 that under no circumstance does walking through an airport count as "visiting" a state. I leaned back, a bit depleted. Inside, internally-- Oh, I'm counting it anyways.

We had a nice (4) hour layover, grabbed some Panda Express and got on to the next leg to New York. This time, Sandra took the window seat where they acdtually had a window. I got to play fat guy in the middle seat.

We arrived at JFK sometime in the afternoon, and thankfully, didn't have much of a layover, but still, we had been traveling for 10 hours so far. We were able to pull into a cantina and finish some last minute items we forgot at home.

Then we were on our way to the gate.

On this leg to Puerto Rico, it was my turn for the window-seat. Sandra tried to pull the ole "a gentleman would...". I put my hand up before she could finish. "I know honey, and as a gentleman, I will take the window seat and assume the risk of being sucked out the window, so you will live to tell the tale". I thought I brilliantly covered the bases. Looking out the corner of my eye, I was not sure she was buying it.

We arrived in Puerto Rico after our day and a half long travel. We were spent, and ready for sleep. We didn't have to shuttle, cab or Uber anywhere as our hotel was at the airport. Awesome. We walked out the door and walked into another one. Our room was small, but clean and it had a TV with ESPN. We watched the second half of the Woman's NCAA game and upon the end of that event, we fouled out, asleep.