Jamaica

In honor of our friend Jeff's 25th birthday (honestly!), we joined him and eight other friends for a week in Negril, Jamaica. What better way to celebrate your birthday than with some of your closest friends in the Caribbean islands? We had a wonderful time, despite what must have been 10" or more of rainfall that week! We stayed a block away from the 7-mile beach, one of the biggest tourist attractions on the island. There are a few big all-inclusive resorts, but most of the beach is lined with restaurants and bars, like the ones advertizing in the photo above. We had about two sunny days, which we spent on the beach. The water is perfect -- you can walk out about as far as the ropes and the water is crystal clear.

When it was raining or cloudy, we spent time at the Freedom Villa, our accommodations, playing cards, reading, and chatting with everyone. Jeff has stayed at the villa before and has befriended the managers, John and Anita. They also give tours of tourist attractions around the island, and we made several day trip tours with them. Our first was to the Manfield Falls, where we did a riverwalk through a series of small waterfalls. The second was to the Black River and Appleton Rum Distillery. It poured rain partway through the Black River tour, but the tour guide still managed to entice a few crocodiles to approach the boat (a snack helped). Here's a view of the river, with red mangrove trees that grow "roots" from their branches to drink from the river:

But we didn't mind the rain much, right Jeff?

The rest of the week was full of relaxation, for both Russell...

...and Rachel.


We'd love to return to Jamaica again and enjoy the beautiful beaches, eat the amazing food, and see the sites again soon. I'm sure we only scratched the surface of what Jamaica has to offer. Maybe for Russ's 25th birthday...

Hiking in the Poconos

The beautiful Pocono Mountains, just a few hour's drive north of Philadelphia, was the setting for a weekend of camping and hiking with our friends Pieter and Carol in late September. The leaves were just beginning to change color. Above and below are scenes from the more gentle of the two hikes we did, at the Hickory Run State Park in the Lehigh Valley. There were a few small waterfalls on this hike.









The second hike, the Glen Onoko Falls Trail, definitely raised our heart rates more, but luckily it was not as treacherous as the sign warned:











It definitely was a challenge! We resorted to scrambling up sides of the mountain, almost rock climbing in places, when we lost the trail. Luckily, we only met one very timid and small snake and no one had to be air-lifted from the gorge.
















And we were rewarded with views like in the picture below, taken from atop the waterfall in the above picture.









We're hoping to make the hike again in October, once the leaves have turned colors more. It's worth the view!

Nebraska!!!

Well, my parents succumbed to the internal pull back to Nebraska and have moved into a new house outside of Lincoln. We made it back there recently to check out the new house, celebrate my Grandmother's 90th birthday!, and catch the Nebraska vs. USC game. Well, the first two were great.

Rachel and I got a chance to hang out with my friend Jeff and her Cousin Melissa in Lincoln (just another perk of having the family back in Lincoln). Jeff is managing a thriving import business (I'm pushing for a little exporting but I don't think he's in to it). He recently got back from a trip from Nepal where he has set up a factory.

Melissa and Rachel chatted up a storm as well, but I didn't hear any of it. I'll leave her to tell that story another time.

Rachel and I had excellent seats at the game, 50 yard line and only about 10 rows from the USC bench.

There was a brief moment when we all thought NE would win the game. Then the second quarter hit. Then the third. Then the fourth. The game was great though.

The next day we had the celebration for my Grandmother. 90 candles is a lot, but she got them all out!

Grounded in Philly

As new transplants in the Philadelphia region, we've been looking forward to any chance to visit family and friends in the good ole' Midwest. And the final wedding in a three-year wedding spree of friends and colleagues in Madison, Wisconsin (where we just moved from), was the perfect opportunity to see as many friends as possible. The wedding of our friends Carol and Mark was drawing friends from as far as California and several friends were moving away from Madison shortly after the wedding. Attending the wedding was the best chance to see as many of these friends as possible in one place, at one time. We weren't going to miss it for the world. We made sure our wedding attire was properly dry cleaned, purchased a wide array of personal hygiene products in small, airline-approved 3.4-oz, bottles, and packed our bag for the weekend.

Fast forward to midnight Friday. After 8 hours of waiting in the decrepid Philadelphia airport, a short period during which the airport was closed to all air traffic, and numerous announcements of half-hour, hour, and four-hour delays in our departure time, the good people at United Airlines decided to cancel our flight. We were left stranded in our new hometown.

During the 45-minute taxi ride through south Philly (my first experience of a taxi driver immediately locking the doors after exiting the highway), we debated how we would get through the weekend, knowing that our friends were all together enjoying our favorite dive bars and badly dancing to wedding music without us. We decided to do the only thing we could under such circumstances: celebrate.

The following night we prepared a lovely three-course meal, donned our wedding garb, popped open the champagne, and celebrated our friends' wedding in our own small way. The steak was perfectly done, the mood intimate, and the centerpieces breathtaking. My favorite aspect of the event was the venue, which sported a lovely view of downtown Philadelphia. So romantic.

Classic wedding music was played, some people in the room did "get down," and the bride and groom were toasted. May they always be surrounded by friends and family who love them, even from across the country.

Phillies V. Mets

At the outset of this entry I have to admit that I'm more of a wanna-be baseball enthusiast than a certified baseball enthusiast. Many a wife has faced the sometimes uncomfortable truth that their husband is a sport(s) enthusiast, and I am no different. In the hopes of maintaining my relationship and spending time with my husband during the aforementioned sport(s) season(s), I've embraced baseball as my new sport: Favorite team? Check. (Phillies, soon the only sports team in history to lose 10,000 games) Favorite player? Check. (Ryan Howard, slugger sometimes-extraordinaire) Favorite mascot? Check. (The Fanatic, whose rotund belly never ceases to entertain me, even if the game isn't.)

I still make many rookie errors, such as (but certainly not limited to) asking what the score is when it is posted in various places (in various ways) throughout the stadium, needing clarification on the type of pitch just thrown -- Is the slider diferent than a curve ball or is it simply a curve ball that slides? Where is Scooter when I need him? -- and in general just being there for the beer and pretzels. I never fail in the area of trash-talking, which was recently demonstrated at the Cubs V. Phillies game, where "Chase Butt Utley" was called out more than once, to the detriment of our safety in a stadium of 40,000 Phillies fans. (I also moonlight as a Cubs fan.) Needless to say, this will not be a blog in the vein of sports writing.

With this caveat, let me tell you about the Phillies V. Mets game Russ and I attended last week. These two teams are National League East rivals, due to their geographic proximity. Unfortunately, the Philly fans at this game must have been too tired or depressed at the score (or the looming 10,000 mark) to demonstrate the roughhousing we've heard sometimes happens at these games. The Phillies lost 5-2 (or something like that; I stopped bugging Russ for the score around 3-1), and the only fireworks were off the field, set off after the game to celebrate the 4th. The Phillies fans did boo whenever any decent Mets players came up to bat: Beltron, Reyes, and Wright's only sins were being good players and not being on the right team. Phillies fans also booed one of their own, Burrell, who is currently in the middle of a slump. All in all, it was not the most exciting baseball game -- after the Phillies failed to rally and tie the game, the only animated characters were wearing Mets shirts. The Fanatic seemed to rouse some by smashing a Mets batting helmet to the tune of Sinatra's New York, New York, a testament to the rivalry. But, as I'm learning, a real baseball fan isn't there just for the wins. They're there to watch a baseball game. After all, there are 80-plus more games in the season and plenty of time for this year to become The Year. Plenty of time for me to distinguish the curve from the slider.

Down the Shore

We went to the beautiful Jersy shore last weekend, to Cape May, which was gorgeous. I was expecting New Jersey to be an apocalytic wasteland, filled with industrial complexes leaking dangerous chemials, nuclear power plants, and landfills. Although we did pass by a nuclear power plant on the way I found the entirity of our New Jersey trip to be 100% agreeable. I'm not sure where all this bad reputation has come from.

We went with some friends from Philly, one of which had just gotten a new Helga Lomography camera, and took some cool pictures. I want one now but I may first try to break my camera so it takes crummy pictures, which may be a more organic route to a lomo.