2024 Life Logs, Day 330: Double Beach Day and Wonderful Puerto Rican Dinner
Date: Tuesday, November 26, 2024
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Rain Late Afternoon; 88 High Temp, Low 76 degrees F
Location: At Home with Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco in Aguada, Puerto Rico
Today was another beautiful day here in Puerto Rico. The weather has been just gorgeous, with no afternoon rain yesterday, but this afternoon the rain started around 4:30 pm. That gave us plenty of time for our double beach day. Coco and her good friend since pre-school, Aurora, wanted to go surfing. Jo went to pick up Aurora and bring her here to meet me before we headed to the beach. When I got here Sunday night, I learned that Aurora has been saying that I am her long lost grandmother, so naturally we needed to meet each other! After seeing Coco and Aurora together, I now call them the dynamic duo. Coco has whitish blonde hair and Aurora has jet black hair, both exuberant and fun loving twelve years girls.
But I learned very quickly that having two ‘granddaughters’ is very different from having grandsons. There is a lot more giggling.
There are many surfing beaches in Rincon, but Justin thought Rio Grande might be the calmest. Jo dropped us off at Rio Grande and then went back to get Ziggy and take him to the gym. There truck cab seats five, but not six people, so she had to make the two trips. As the girls headed down to the beach ahead of us with their surfboards, we heard exclaims of the waves looking too rough for them
.
But with Justin as their personal lifeguard, they gave it a try.
The waves were not big, they were just crashing too close to shore with little time between each wave. Plus, there was a strong current pulling them down the beach. They finally gave up and Justin gave it a try, but even he declared it a no go. He thought the beach in Aguada where they used to live might be okay, so as soon as Jo got back from delivering Ziggy to the gym, we headed there. It was fun to visit the Aguada beach where we have had so much fun in the past, but the waves were no better. Justin was able to ride a couple of small waves.
But like Rio Grande, they were cresting too close to the shore to get a good ride. It was starting to cloud over a bit, so we took that as the sign to head home. I didn’t even get in the water today as it was rougher than I wanted to brave, but I still loved just being on the beach watching my two ‘granddaughters’ play in the surf. We documented the event with a photo of me with the two of them.
Not long after we got home, Justin decided to drive to Mayaguez to look for an electrical connection for the truck’s air conditioning. It shorted out and damaged the current connector and it just keeps going off and on. I went with him just to keep him company and just after I got in the truck, it started pouring rain. As we traveled south to Mayaguez, the rain lessened making it a much nicer drive. We were not successful in finding the part, but Justin was told about a place that might have what he is looking for. Unfortunately, it was already closed, so he’ll have to check on it later.
Jo had been preparing dinner while we were gone. We had a traditional Puerto Rican dish called mofongo. This is made with green plantains that are boiled until they are soft and then mixed with some garlic and cilantro and mashed. She served it with vegetables stir fried using the same combination of garlic and cilantro and slices from a filet mignon roast.
It was really delicious. And after dinner we watched the third Maze Runner movie.
Today Heather sent a selfie of her with Jed and boys from the tallest church tower in Groningen. She said the weather is mild with today’s temp in the 60’s. Before they left, the weather forecast was for highs in the 40’s, so the unexpected mild weather is a bonus. Sam loved his visit at the University of Groningen and tomorrow they move on to Rotterdam. So things are going great here in Puerto Rico and in the Netherlands. The only little problem is that back in Falmouth, Shadow is refusing to eat. This often happens when I leave him with others. He did eat some dinner last night, but not much again today. Hopefully by tomorrow he will start eating again. Now to bed as it is really late and we have another big day planned for tomorrow.
