Memorial Day Weekend, Part Two

At Hyco Lake, Freddie's first trip out. He was a real sweetie.

Memorial Day Weekend, Part One

May

Zucchini plants, seem to be doing well so far.

Raised bed with sugar snap peas. Alex and I made a "seed tape" with the sugar snap peas. We cut out strips of newspaper and glued the peas along it 2 inches apart, then later he helped me plant them. They came up nice and even. I jerryrigged this very sorry netting myself.

Other raised beds, we'll see how this turns out. There are beets, carrots, and broccoli that probably went in the ground too late. There are tomatoes of various varieties, including some heirloom brandywines that are small so far, but look ok. These have just started to blossom. There are also some peppers that are not looking tall enough yet, and some lettuce that's looking o.k., that you can't see here because they're behind the tomatoes. I have my concerns that this bed won't get enough sun, so this inaugural year will be the test.

Alex and Molly after we spent Mother's Day at a strawberry farm.

We went to a party a few weeks ago, and it really was not swimming season yet, but boy did the kiddos want to give it that old college try.

Puerto Rico

A month ago Jen and I went to Puerto Rico. NPR voice: "This trip was made possible with generous support from the nanas and the papas." We highly recommend Puerto Rico to one and all.

First stop, San Juan

where we stayed in a groovy hotel.


Next stop, Vieques, an island off the east coast of Puerto Rico. Esperanza is one of two towns on Vieques. Above is the the malecon, the beach side of Esperanza's main street, Calle Flamboyán. You can cross the street from here (watch out for cars going 5 mph and teenagers riding bareback on horses going much faster) to find little shops, restaurants, and open air bars where you order rum drinks and watch the sun set over the mountains in the background of this picture. It's literally paradise.


View from the malecon out to sea, where you'll see Jen (on a good day), sailboats, and an island called Cayo de Afuera. We snorkled around the island.


Vieques has lots of beaches. This one is called Navio. We were told they filmed a movie version of the Lord of the Flies here. We did not find a society of tyrannical children. We found paradise.


Even the local business people know they're in paradise.

Jen's final thoughts on Vieques: we need to go back, take the kids, and she wants you, all of you, to come along.


Final stop, El Yunque rainforest back on the main island


where we stayed at a place with an outdoor kitchen, which turns out to be a great idea. The highlights of the rainforest included loud frogs, terrific jungly flora, and waterfalls.




Even more pictures

Assorted pictures + video

Sorry it's been so long, everyone. Here's a few visuals from the past couple of months. Josh reports that he will do a separate blog post on the Puerto Rico trip we took a few weeks ago.


Easter egg hunt at St. Luke's, Boone. Nice service, and plentiful eggs!

Getting ready to watch the Heels play.

Alex at Douglas' Carnival. That's orange spray paint in his hair if anyone was starting to worry about the color as well as the shape...

Visiting baby Freddie. In pictures of him with our kids, for some reason he always looks ever so slightly anxious.



Side by side videos of the piano recital, and an informance depicting a tornado.

American Heart Association fundraiser

Quick solicitation --

Alex is raising money through Jump Rope for Heart at Douglas, donations go to the American Heart Association. The minimum online donation is $25, but you can also donate smaller amounts by mailing him a check made out to the American Heart Association. If you'd like to donate, his profile is here. Thanks.

If you'd like to make a different kind of donation, next month Douglas has their annual carnival fundraiser. One of their very popular events is the "Bottle Shop", where they accept donations of things that come in bottles, with commonsense exceptions like no alcohol and nothing homemade. Sodas, hot sauce, nail polish, bubble bath, stuff like that. Then they number all the bottles and sell tickets for $1 that match up with those numbers, and you get to take your random bottle home. I donate several bottles every year, but they always have more demand to buy the tickets than they have bottles. So if -- and I am thinking of my brother's beloved trips to Big Lots here -- you'll see us in the next couple of weeks and would like to donate a random bottle, we'll pass it along.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mr. Alexander M. Boyer

Freddie

Well, you can see this yourselves, but obviously our new nephew is just perfect. Welcome to the world, Freddie.

New Year's in Honduras

Josh writing today. Alex and I spent the week around New Year’s in Honduras with my parents. My parents, Jeff and Mary, met in Honduras as Peace Corps volunteers over 40 years ago. They have been back many times, my dad nearly every year of the last 20. One of their return trips was for nearly two years in the 70s when I was about a year younger than Alex is now. Papa Jeff decided it was time to introduce his grandson to our friends there. Jen and Molly did not come with us because, uh, Molly is a very fun girl, but our guess is probably not the most fun international travel companion, yet.

First we stayed in the capital city, Tegucigalpa, with our friend Melba Zuniga. Above, Alex is checking out the hilly city from Melba’s 4th floor porch.

Nana Mary and Papa Jeff on Melba’s terrace.

At the Museo de Identidad Nacional with Melba’s daughter Jimena. Jimena works for the board of elections and for TV news, and does belly dancing in her spare time. We can vouch for the latter after receiving a special show. Alex hardly knew what to think.

Then we left Tegucigalpa for a small town of about 1,000 people in southern Honduras, El Corpus. A friend of my dad’s is a congressman, and he lent us his chauffeur to get us there. The chauffeur made the 3-4 hour trip in 2 ½ hours. As he turned the highways into racetracks, I kept telling myself “He does this for a living, he knows what he’s doing.” That turned out to be true.

Bievenidos a El Corpus. The town looks like this:

The streets are cobblestone. The speed limit is between really slow and mucho damage to your truck.

We stayed in the casa de Juana and Pedro, friends from back when Juana was 12 and fascinated by my sister Chelcy, the only blonde 2-year-old in the neighborhood. Back then, we lived in what is now her house.

Juana on the far right, Pedro in the back, family and friends all ‘round. For those of you who know our friend Omar Lainez here in NC, Juana is Omar's sister.

Pedro’s and Juana’s daughters, Andrea, 13, and Samantha, 5, were the best hosts Alex could ask for.

So were Iris and Angel (far right). Angel, who lives across the street, is a good friend of Andrea’s and Samantha’s, and now of Alex’s.

If you’re ever looking for a fun place to celebrate New Year’s, allow me to recommend El Corpus.

Samantha starts with a sparkler, the moves on to a glass of wine.

Or maybe it's banana soda. Either way, it’s a party.

Mauricio, cousin of Andrea and Samantha, poses here as the head of the año viejo (the old year). The body is stuffed with newspapers, and the tie is firecrackers, which leads at the stroke of midnight to…

Imagine the sound of lots of these all over town, plus more fireworks, and you’ve got yourself un feliz año nuevo.

Then the 1 am piñata. Alex and I went to bed after that. When did the other kids go to bed? Who can say?

Alex likes to say he lost his first tooth on the first day of the new year. I don’t think “lost” is accurate. Papa Jeff felt challenged by Jen’s text message asking whether the tooth had come out yet. A dentist in another life, Papa Jeff worked on it until the job was done. I told Alex he could put the tooth under his pillow that night. He then asked me about the exchange rate between Lempiras and dollars -- 20 to 1 -- and decided to wait until we got home.

When it was time to leave El Corpus, Andrea explained that she was keeping Alex.

A note here to Andrea: Thank you so much for being a great host to Alex. I hope we can return your warmth and kindness when you visit us in North Carolina.

A brief flashback to when Andrea and Samantha visited North Carolina some years ago:

Now let us return to the present, and to Tegucigalpa.

Melba’s daughter, Melissa, and her husband Nelson, gave us a great tour of Valle de Angeles, a cute little town outside Teguc. Melissa and Nelson are from Tegucigalpa and now live near New York City. They give exceptional tours of both. Valle de Angeles is a great place to buy souvenirs, like say…

… a Honduran fútbol uniform.

Thanks to Papa Jeff and Nana Mary for taking Alex and I on a great trip. Thanks to our friends in Tegucigalpa and El Corpus, whose graciousness and good cheer warm my heart.

Time to go home.

Even more pictures