Flamenco Beach

January 31, 2012 By 2 Comments

We are finally to my absolute favorite part of our entire Puerto Rico trip!  After several not so impressive beaches, we hit the jackpot when we found Flamenco Beach on Culebra.

Now everybody has their own opinion about what makes for a best beach, but we really like to have amenities close by- food & drink, restrooms & a shower make a beach visit so much more enjoyable.   Flamenco beach had a small arcade area of stands and restaurants offering a variety of snacks and adult beverages.   Also, since there is an actual campground here, there were bathrooms and showers a few short walk from the water.

Grabbed a drink, rented some chairs + umbrella, and were watching planes land and waves roll ashore by 10AM in this gorgeous place.  The placement in a cove make the beach surrounded by landscape & the waves can be seen breaking far off the shoreline so there is a 360 degrees view of beautiful.

The colors of the water here were simply stunning- every shade of blue imaginable was surfacing as the sun and waves constantly painted a new gorgeous scene for us to soak up.  The area has some link to military history & there are several old tanks in the park & 1 on the shore line that add character and whimsy.

We were there early & the place was almost empty.  Nobody around us, giant stretches of beach without a soul.  The constant pounding and churning of the waves provided hours of relaxing entertainment.  The pristine sand and the unbelievable water colors, surrounded by green hills and prefect weather was the perfect combination.

We were in heaven- by far the favorite & most beautiful beach we have seen in all our travels.  We frolicked in the water when we got hot, drifted off to a little morning siesta and watched the beach begin to fill up with others.

The current was ridiculously strong here- I was getting pulled & pushed all around in only knee-deep water.  I was so inspired and knew Flamenco Beach would be the perfect place to check-off Cart-Wheels on my Life Menu of Awesome.  We spent the morning here & the crowds quickly increased as the ferry arrived from the mainland.  Since we were only on Culebra for the day, we left paradise & headed into town for lunch and to do some sightseeing on the rest of the island.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: My photography workshop is tonight & I have more than 10 girls signed up- so stinking excited! It’s not too late to join us if you are in Houston.

Filed Under: Life Menu of Awesome, Married Life, Travels ->

Flying to Culebra

January 30, 2012 By 2 Comments

So after check out Ponce  on the South Coast & Rincon on the west coast, we decided we needed to take drastic steps to find our dream beach.  According to our Eyewitness Top 10 Travel guide, one of the Top 10 things to see was the island of Culebra- off the east coast.  We’d had our fair share of driving & we’[d have to get up very early to catch the ferry, so we splurged on flights (~$150 per person if I remember correctly) and hoped to see some incredible beaches on our last day.

Flying over the coast, we passed by the Marriott beach, where we’d totally crashed their parking lot & borrowed some lounge chairs for a few hours on Monday after our tour of Old San Juan.

One of the things I really love about flying is the different perspective you get from an airplane.  We’d already spent 10+ hours on the streets of Puerto Rico, crossing the island, but seeing the city laid out from above is novel & interesting to me.

Luckily, the inter-island flight took off from the smaller airport & it was a breeze to drive right up & park- no security or anything!  We flew over the main international airport as we flew east towards the island of Culebra.

Although the coastal areas of Puerto Rico are fairly flat for a few miles, there are some pretty decent sized hills & mountains in the center of the island.  We drove through them on our way to Ponce & they created their own weather pattern on Friday with localized thunderstorms in the hills.

We were on a tiny plane- maybe 8 total people & this was my view- mostly a giant wing & engine, but I still tried to grab a few shots around it.

I was very excited when we finally got to the wide open beaches with rolling waves and beautiful countryside.

The town of Fajardo sits on the east coast & looked like a neat place.  There were several things to do there according to our guidebook & I’m the Bioluminescent Bay kayaking & swimming were one of the few things we didn’t get to do.

I think the total flight time was only about 25 minutes & we were quickly over the 10 miles of ocean separating Culebra from the main island.  There were tons of tiny little islands and reefs breaking up the surf and creating gorgeous patterns and stunning colors.

The island of Culebra is serpent in Spanish and it was named for its winding shape that creates miles of shorelines & tons of protected coves and beaches.

Now I’m generally not a nervous flyer & it takes a lot for me to gasp, but the landing into the airport- where we quickly dove down to just above the tree tops & banked hard towards the runway was certainly one for the brave.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: My mom is now reading the blog!   ::waves to mom & John::

Filed Under: airplane, Travels ->

SS: Action

January 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment


Sunday Scribblings #300 Action -A good wide topic for you this week! What do you make of action?

Opps!  Wasn’t moved to action yesterday, although I did manage to get the post set up and graphic pulled, but too busy doing other real life things, like catching some sun outside while reading with hubby, taking the dogs to the park & cooking dinner last night to actually write the post out.

I love action- being in motion, moving forward, getting things accomplished, completing my check list.  It usually drives my husband and even a few co-workers nuts how on top of things I am and how annoyed I get if things don’t happen fast enough for me.  I don’t sit still very well, unless the point & purpose is to sit still-like in yoga.  I get antsy at movies & only sit at home watching TV if I can be online doing other things too.

It took me a few years to temper my enthusiasm for action every time my husband had a great idea.  By the next day, I’d have plans made & reservations for whatever great adventure we’d be dreaming about the day before.  Yea we had tons of fun trying new things & exploring, especially with something like our 101 in 1,001 and my Life Menu of Awesome, but I’ve learned to judge when I should take action and when I should just agree to his ideas and let them go.

I don’t really care for action movies- they are fine to watch, but not my favorite unless they are some beautiful, naked men in them.

I see many of the Google search results above are for Photoshop actions. Although I can appreciate them, I hardly ever do any editing in PS CS5.  I’d guess that 99% of my photo post-processing is done in Lightroom & with presets and my own adjustments.

Last Friday, I had a mind flash.  That’s really all I can all it- I thought of an idea, a pretty brilliant idea and I can’t get it out of my head.  It’s big and ambitious, it combines two of my favorite things, I’m suddenly passionate and energized about it.  I’ve already created elaborate plans in my head & shared my epiphany with H.  I’m so stinking excited about organizing it, creating it, working with others, believing it, being passionate about it.  My action plan calls for me to develop my ideas a bit more fully the next few weeks & then start meeting with people who can guide me down the path in the right direction.  I’m so outrageously excited about this & can’t stop thinking about it, jotting down new ideas, brainstorming and starting to move on it.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY:  Awesome relaxing weekend, exciting week ahead including the photography workshop tomorrow night & vacation starts on Friday!

Filed Under: Sunday Scribblings

Mia Singing

January 28, 2012 By 6 Comments

Mia has no shortage of personality- which includes all sorts of sounds & noises to go along with her silly and goofy antics.  There’s not a day that goes by that she doesn’t crack me up and bring a smile to my face with her enthusiasm and happiness.  Her tail is always wagging like crazy, even in the vet’s office when they were cutting out her stitches yesterday.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Slept in today- like, didn’t even get out of bed until 8 AM! 

Filed Under: mia, movie

Rincon Puerto Rico

January 27, 2012 By 1 Comment

After touring the caves, we kept driving west and our destination was the beach town of Rincon.  Supposedly there is excellent diving and surfing on this part of the island, but we were there to do neither of those things.

First order of business was to get lunch+drinks, so we stopped at the first place we found that had waterside dining.  The surf must have been unusually calm that day as the waves were tiny & the dark clouds overhead threatened to chase us under cover during lunch.

After lunch, we donned our swimsuits & walked around the corner to a public beach.  The sand here was lovely & I always enjoy when there are trees adjacent to the shoreline to provide some shade.

We tossed down our towels & this was the last view I had before taking a quick nap.  I

Honestly, Rincon wasn’t exactly what I expected.  I know most of this was failure to plan & research on our part, and maybe we just missed the worthwhile things to see.  The beach was beautiful, but not really worth driving across the island in my opinion.

This was a very quiet area, lots of families, ideal (at least on this day) for snorkeling.  The water was a bit cold when you first took the plunge, but we quickly warmed up and I was having a blast chasing little fish all around.

The last two photos are just some of the randomness that we encountered on the many miles of roads we covered in Puerto Rico.  This was a full boy scout troop hiking down a main highway, loaded up with all their gear, accompanied by a chase vehicle.  Now, I think it’s great they are doing this, but middle of the road seems a bit dangerous for this activity.

There must be some type of community service day where everybody -repaints the roadways & curbs.  For at least 5 miles, we saw hundreds of people out painting curbs & concrete median barriers yellow and green.   The strange thing is that almost every single one of them was using a baby stroller to push around huge buckets of paint.  So totally random…

It’s not too late to sign up for the photography workshop next Tuesday!

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: The ability to occasionally work from home is awesome.

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