Puerto Rico, In Short

After an all night flight, I landed in Puerto Rico midday Saturday. I hopped in my rental car and headed south to the colonial city of Ponce.

The next few days, I hung out around the southern coast diving, hiking, and visiting ruins.
The night before my family arrived, I managed to swing a private tour of the bioluminescent bay near Vieques island.

After meeting up with my family, we checked into the posh Wyndham Resort. The next day, after checking out the resort's beach and pool,

we headed to Old San Juan. Such a charming colonial town (probably the only part of the territory that left me wanting more . . . well except the scuba diving, which was exceptional). Our sightseeing was cut short, though, by a torrential downpour that knocked out the power in the city.

The next day, Jordan, Grandpa Reeder, and I headed West to check out the Rio Camuy Caverns, more ruins, and the world's largest radio telescope.

We got home LATE, but not too late for me and Jayde to check out Old San Juan's night life with my friend from high school, who was stationed in PR temporarily. Jason showed us all of the hot spots.

Friday we made a trip to El Yunque, the jungle just across the street from our hotel. It was really the only thing close to our hotel.

Afterwards, Bug and I headed out to the beach to take advantage of the perfect waves and the setting sun. I cannot believe how grown up he is getting!

After a late night arrival Friday, Aunt Kelly and Aunt Diane joined us for my last full day in PR. We decided to head back to Old San Juan to check out the half of the city we missed due to rain and to do some shopping.

We left early so that we could catch some more rays and relax before heading back to SLC.

The best part of the whole vacation was the time I got to spend with my family. I love them so much!

[For the full story, check my travel blog--www.whereisqt.blogspot.com--in about a month when I finally get around to posting. :)].

Is May Seriously Over Part III

The last few weeks of May are a bit of a blur. I was so busy trying to get out of the office (for a trip to Puerto Rico), that I did not do much else. Somewhere in there I:

1. Celebrated Mindy's 29th birthday. I brought blueberry cheesecake from Gourmandies: The Bakery. YUMMY!

2. Won an award at Inns of Court. Inns of Court is a professional organization that combines socializing with continuing legal education. I'm in the fun Inn (i.e. we drink). Each year it picks a book and all of our presentations revolve around that book. This year we read Missing Witness, a legal thriller. I got the award for the best Doug MacKenzie. I know I should be flattered to win an award for acting in front of so many attorneys, but . . . the part I was playing was the inexperienced/incompetent associate. :)

3. Got in a few more bike rides, mostly on Dry Creek.

4. Went to an unsuccessful (only 1 person--not me--read the book) book club.

5. Went to see Miss Saigon at the PTC. I was SO excited to see how this play compared to Madam Butterfly, on which it is (loosely) based. I was surprised at how much more emotional I was in this version because the soldier actually cared about the Asian girl. It made the devastating ending all that more tragic. The set was AMAZING! It even included a helicopter exit. I am always amazed to see what a fantastic job PTC, a regional theater, does with these large productions. The actors are SO talented, the sets and costumes are so intricate, and the seats are so inexpensive. Next year's line-up is out already; get your tickets now!

6. And spent a weekend at Jess and Sarah's cabin (to celebrate Carrie's birthday).

The day I flew out to Puerto Rico, I had a deposition that I thought would end before noon. It ended at 2. I still had a filing that afternoon. I finally got out of the office at 5. I hurried home to pack and attend a BBQ at Jeremy and Leslie's. Rod dropped me off at the airport at 11. It was a LONG day (and night).

Is May Seriously Over Part II

The third week in May was a bit more hectic than the last. But it was one of the most memorable. It started with a book club (my work book club) at my house. The book was "The Fool", a raunchy but hilarious re-telling of King Lear. We served bangers and mash with G&Ts and trifle for dessert.

Thursday, on her due date, CarleyAnne had her beautiful baby girl, Baby J. CarleyAnne is a rock star. She did it with no epidural, no birth plan, and no lamazze. 12 hours in labor au naturale. You go girl!

Friday night I got to spend some time shopping with my BFF, Mindy, at the cute shops on 300 South. Most of the shops stock cool retro thrift finds. My favorite shop, though, is Model Citizen, a clothing store that stocks clothing from only local artists.

Afterwards, Rod and I went to the Salt Lake County Bar spring dinner and silent auction. I am always surprised about how much fun we have at these events. We spent a lot more time than we had planned drinking, dancing, and socializing. The proceeds of the silent auction benefited the Children's Justice Center so we bid away. While we didn't get everything we wanted, we managed to walk away with a couple of goodies.

I worked most of Saturday during the day, but I did get to spend a few hours with Miss Carley, Baby J, Alicia, and Mindy when Carley came home from the hospital. Saturday night, we attended one of our favorite annual events: the ACLU of Utah Annual Bill of Rights Celebration. The keynote speaker, Rachel Maddow (of MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show"), was so poignant and funny. She reminded us how quirky Utah is (like we need to be reminded), but pointed out how important it is to take actions to protect our subcultures. I was also incredibly impressed by Salt Lake Police Chief Chris Burbank, who has made an open and adamant stance against cross-deputizing his officers to act in an immigration-related capacity. As someone who has worked with victims of domestic violence who are afraid to report their abuse for fear of immigration repurcussions, it is so important that all people can report crimes without fear. I'm proud to live in a community with a police chief like Chris Burbank.

Sunday, Mindy and I had an early morning yoga session followed by a good talk in the park and a lunch at Sages (my favorite vegetarian restaurant). I worked in the afternoon, but let off steam with a bike ride at Glen Wild. This is not my favorite trail--it is generally very hot and the front side only has a view of the freeway. It wasn't too bad this early in the season though AND I managed to ride up the steep rocky climb and make a couple of switchbacks that I have never been able to ride before.

What a great (exhausting) week!

Is May seriously over already?

Rod and I have been ridiculously busy at work this month (May), but our social schedule has finally relaxed somewhat. After our crazy birthday weekend and a non-stop April, we had a weekend with absolutely NO PLANS. Rod made me promise to keep it that way. :) We snuggled up for movies, made a Friday night run to Ikea, played at the school behind our house,

took our bikes out for the first ride of the season (Dry Creek), and walked Rumba up Rattlesnake Gulch for a great sunset view of the city.

On a side note, I have mentioned a couple of times that I have taken up a new hobby. Although I have always been a bit of a shutter bug (I can't leave home without my camera). After Rod and I got our new camera for Christmas, I have been trying to learn more about photography, photography techniques, and photoshop. As part of this endeavor, I have joined a photography challenge blog: www.missiontwentyfour.blogspot.com. It posts two challenges a week. I usually only have time to do one though. At the end of the challenge, the participants vote for the best pictures. The sunset picture above was my first win! You can check out the rest of my pictures here. Because I am not able to get to all of the challenges within the twenty-four hour period, I'm going to start posting some of my shots here.

Our first 5K

I forgot to mention that on the morning of Rod's birthday celebration we ran our first 5k: The Law Day Run. After being inspired by watching my rockstar friends Mitter and Val run the 12 and full marathon, respectively, I agreed to do the 5k with Alisha and Cristina (even though I only had 2 weeks to train). Rod, who did not train even once, decided to be supportive and run it with me. I would have been mad that he could run it without training (especially because he is so much faster than me) except that his running a couple hundred yards ahead of me gave me a great view for the whole race. :)

We were both questioning our decision to run when we were up by 7 a.m. on a cold RAINY Saturday morning. Rod doesn't generally get up that early even on a weekday and especially not on his Birthday. Going into our expectations were set low: run the whole thing without stopping. Goal accomplished. Even though our time (Rod waited for me to do the last mile) was somewhat slow (35 minutes), we were both just glad to be done (and to get out of the rain).

We celebrated with a yummy brunch at Judge McHugh's house. It was a good way to start what would be a really perfect day.