Author Archives: JJD
Puerto Rico – Beach day!
We only have two full days in Puerto Rico. Since we spent the whole first day eating food and touring the old city, we devoted all of today to the beach. Well, to the beach and eating food. Puerto Rico is home to many famous beaches, including the celebrated Playa Flamenco — reputed to be […]
Puerto Rico — Oops
We got back to the condo at 9:30pm or so, which of course is WAY too early to go to bed. So Justin broke out the game of Set and we played just long enough to confirm that I’m terrible at card games before devolving into deep “truth or dare” sleep-over style conversations (only without […]
Puerto Rico – Exploring Old San Juan
Our morning food tour was only the beginning of our day-long ramble through Old San Juan. When Kathy released us back into the wild, we paused for a moment with our map to note the places we had passed that were worth revisiting, and to identify the landmarks we hadn’t yet crossed off our list. […]
Puerto Rico – Eating our way through Old San Juan
What to do on our first morning in San Juan? Why, join a food tour, of course! We’ve discovered over the years that food tours are one of the best ways to introduce oneself to a new town. You learn right away what to eat, where to eat it, and if the tour guide is […]
Welcome to Puerto Rico!
Welcome to Puerto Rico! It’s a land that looks and feels and speaks like it’s a different country, but which doesn’t require a passport or bottled water. We landed around 1:30pm, after a red-eye from Seattle . . . The sleep mask I gave myself (I mean, that Santa gave me) came in super handy!I […]
Another round of Christmas, plus travel!
By shifting all of our Christmas activities to Christmas Eve, we freed up the actual Christmas Day for more Christmas activities! First a tasty breakfast of waffles, eggs, bacon and avocados . . . . . . followed by a blustery ferry ride to Bainbridge Island . . . . . . where […]
Christmas morning and Star Wars and Christmas Eve dinner (in that order)
Christmas Eve dawned grey and chilly, and we went downstairs to get a head start on celebrating Christmas itself with a leisurely, hours-long gift exchange (how can you tell none of us has kids?). We started with the stockings, which I (on behalf of Santa) had filled with travel-related goodies. A sleeping mask and earplugs […]
‘Twas the night before Christmas Eve
Christmas is here! And this year I’m taking an approach to celebrating that’s, well, let’s just say, not super conventional. Instead of flying out to spend Christmas with family, I stayed in Seattle to celebrate with Amanda (who came up from Denver) and Justin. The plan was to do Christmas at my house, then go […]
Party season! (Or, I might be crazy)
Here’s how things work at my house during the holidays: [Thanksgiving weekend — decorate house for holidays] First Sunday: It feels so festive! Let’s have a little Christmas gathering! [counts chairs; invites 15 people over for the following Sunday] Monday: [after a stressful day at work] I don’t have time for this! What a terrible idea! […]
Oh, nature
Here’s what today’s post should have said: Lady’s here! We have tickets to the PNB’s new production of The Nutcracker on Sunday, so she took the train up a few days early to play in Seattle. I picked her up a little after 8pm, we had a tasty dinner of Beecher’s mac&cheese, and then headed off to […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 