hola de nuevo

so although new yorkers are very much vacationing here, hanukah is not, which is just as well since it turns out that after digging and sitting in sand holes aya's next favorite thing is manger scenes. Hi! Hi! Hi! she's become a real person on this trip, really participating in every activity and exploring such intricacies as the ice bucket and remote control at each stop.

we really lucked out with the weather, getting perfect beach days and only getting rained on once. we've had a tough go though each time we've strayed off the path (i.e. didn't go to a beach, pool, or pirate fort), but our expectations weren't particularly high for the Science Museum and it still managed to disappoint. apparently in PR you don't touch things at science museums. the big caves were closed at the camuy cave park, and though the dry forest and beach in the south coast were great, the bioluminescent bay was teeming with neither bio nor luminescence (although for that I was expecting little green aliens swimming next to the boat, so that might have been my bad). but one big plus to traveling with kids this age is that it just doesn't matter! not to say that we haven't had a few moments of glory - tops is definitely stumbling on to the world's best ice cream shop in the middle of nowhere, with such unexpected flavors as bread fruit, rice and beans, corn, and plantains. mmmm, bread fruit.

we've had good luck with Nate too, it wasn't until beach day #4 that he was the first one ready to go and we only almost left him in the car once. at our mountain retreat stop he just couldn't get over how close our room and the restaurant where you got to pick your own bananas were, and he made a "friend" and cried for a long time when she left but never quite learned her name then or now. for the first ten days he watched the first 20 minutes of Peter Pan at least ten times a day on the iPhone and somehow managed to warp a digital movie (literally, it won't play anymore). he learned to tread water completely by himself (with a life jacket) and is so proud that he makes each random person at the pool watch him: "i'm swimmmmmmmmming!".

our last few days have been in the spanish virgin island of culebra, a bit of a hike and a messy boat ride to get to, and almost completely devoid of algo puertoricano, but incredibly beautiful and pretty deserted. we're now at our last stop, a resort-style place with minigolf and a playground; needless to say it's a big hit!

canaelo, the one-eyed dog wonder

greetings from san juan! all is well and so far, so good, except that our dueno's dog is missing an eye. ooops! where did my eye go? my eye is gone! somehow nate was not freaked out by it, surprising considering that the troll on a Disney show really got to him this morning.

also happily surprising is that nate is a fort (pirate castle) junkie, mostly for the great performing spaces, but also for the cannonballs, and he's really gotten his fix here.

so far we've lucked out on the weather and it's been as advertised: super-easy in and around, all the comforts of home (real highways and drinkable tap water! 3g wireless!), just foreign enough to make it interesting.

today aya had her first real beach day, best part for her was the under-the-palm-tree nap, best part for nate was the naked car ride home.

at night we cede the apt to the kids and we get the rental car. yes, we've considered sleeping in here, but no, we haven't yet, although next stop we're all in one room together and it's very likely to happen...

all our love,
rrna

final japan

hi again! finally found our way out of kyoto -- we got serious temple-fever (thankfully, my actual fever had subsided by then, two fevers would have been unacceptable) and probably would have stayed there forever trying not to miss anything. kyoto was just absolutely amazing. the cherries are everywhere, bursting different shades of red and white almost wherever you look. the temples are all preserved and in various states of restoration going back to their 750AD inception, and each is still an active, important shrine. each of the different buddhist sects has a major complex in kyoto, and each has something interesting to see -- dry rock or floral garden, giant buddha statue, bamboo forest, etc. we were just blown away. we ended up mostly on our own since it was fairly difficult coordinating schedules, but everyone was all together for a great group dinner (with nate and baby echo, yes, echo, sleeping next to each other) and we had a nice zen temple lunch with adam and akiko the next day. the one full day we spent with janis and maxene kind of summed up kyoto: in the morning, we visited wild monkeys that live in the outlying hills, and in the afternoon we shopped for baby clothes at fancy dept store takayama. sometimes it's more like nepal here than anything else, but then when you're done with the fun you get to drink the tap water and ride 250km/hr trains. goodbye third world, hello japan. so by the end of the week a three-story pagoda didn't even get a second glance, and luckily it was time to move on.

backtracking a bit -- the wedding event in kanazawa was quiet, nice, japanese, about 40 guests at a U shaped table eating various courses of fish, soba, and more fish and more soba. oh yeah, and fish for dessert. it was a bit overwhelming. truth is you really wouldn't have guessed it was a celebration, it was really just a nice lunch. two geisha (entertainers) sang songs and played the drums and japanese guitar-like instrument. it sounded like the orient, no surprise i guess. nate got a shot at the drums, as did adam and akiko and others. there were long introductions of everyone present including full resume and education credentials, although we were introduced only as "the cousins", still not sure how insulted we should be.

we also took a day trip to osaka, japan's 3rd biggest city, where there's an impt castle we all know from Shogun (or at least marc and i do, reading that while here is lots of fun) and a nice acquarium.

we've pretty much got the food thing down now, there are a bunch of vegetarian options once you know what to look for and some vegetarian restaurants we've enjoyed. milk, yogurt, and bread are in steady supply, but cheese is virtually non-existant. and there's always KFC where you need it...

rachel is feeling great, quite a bit better than before we left actually and there was really only one day with any nausea. my cold has subsided and is now alive and well with akiko, damn those western germs.

anyhow, now we're up the foothills of the japanese alps where tomorrow we'll do a big hike on the old postal route between two small, very picturesque towns. then it's on to nagano further up in the mountains for some more mountain scenery and an old volcano, finally back to tokyo on tuesday for a couple of days of bright lights big city.

if we don't get to write again, see you next week!

apostrophe is back!

getting my apostrophe back feels REAL good, thank you maxene's good, old-fashioned western-style hotel. by western-style, everyone still bows five times to you as you go up the escalator, but you get a real bed. mmmmm, real bed (rachel and i have crazy hip soreness from sleeping on the floor, i mean, "futon" mats). japan is just really japanese; if it's only an act it's an incredibly good one. we're in kyoto now, the old feudal capital, temples and samurai palaces by the dozen. if nate talks to you about trying to convert, tell him no, we can light incense, rinse our hands in fancy cups, and look at buddha any time he wants to. this time of year kyoto is full of japanese pilgrims here to visit the temples during the cherry blossom season, but everyone is still amazingly accomodating with him. apparently there is some serious anglo-baby-mania: rob told us a funny story about a friend who went to china to adopt a chinese baby and everyone who stopped to peak in the carriage was disgustedly disappointed.

i'm a bit delirious from japanese Contact (didn't know we even still made it), so this one will be this short. hopefully this cold will end with me... hope all is well with you, glad to hear sami is an official crawler, send us a picture! love, r&r&n

all systems go

except for the lack of apostrophe on this keyboard, everything has gone swimingly these first few days. flight over was long but really ok, nate did great. at about hour 8 rachel and i looked at each other and said theres no way we are going to make it to 13.5, but we brought out the wiggles and the time just melted away. spent the first night in a hotel near the airport to catch up on sleep, but nate had other plans (up at 1am). saw the old palace and ginza area (shopping, sony building) in tokyo, then spent the night in the mountains where it was quite a bit colder than we would have wanted (the innkeepers daughter lent nate her mittens) to break up our journey to kanazawa where the wedding reception will be. weve been staying in "japanese" inns, which means there are tatami mats and futons on the floor and tea kettles and sliding paper-covered doors for nate to break. actually, rachel broke the door, but you didnt hear it from me. food situation is as expected, a sometimes not-so-fun challenge unless youre looking for udon noodles or chicken curry. they just really love to put pork EVERYWHERE. in sat question form, that would be japan -> pork as pizza hut -> cheese. today we spent the day in the old samurai and shinto temple district, really amazing old houses and gardens and windy, twisty streets. nate is a ridiculously big hit here. he had them at "blond haired two year old", but when he gives them the "bowwwww" with the namaste hands, its really all over.

hope all is well with you, should have somewhat frequent email access so we will write again soon--

back to work

hi! made it back to civilization yesterday, had a great trip down the coast. we saw lots of great beaches, watched some wild kangaroos, met some nice auzzies. everything here is pretty familiar but definitely subtly different. for example they also eat pies here but instead put meat in them. we're in a suburb of sydney now, i'm getting down to business setting things up for jack and rachel and nate are figuring out how to navigate the ferry system…

made it!

plane ride was actually not as bad as we feared, nate pretty much slept when we wanted him to (unfortunately rachel did not) and we had a seat for him on the long flight from LA to AU (thankyou qantas!). he's still talking more about una than kangaroos, but he did have a courtesy vegemite cracker on the boat ride over (we're here: http://www.tangalooma.com). rachel had to eat a cheese sandwich with butter and mayo. yum! today we'll relax at the beach and then tonight we'll go do the dolphin feeding if we're still awake... hope all is well, will write again when we can! much love, r, r, & n