This is it...

"Today was a good day", that's what Lorrie just said to me as she was cooking some marinara and I was sipping on a drink thinking how I was going to lead into today's post.

She was right, today was a good day. Actually, today was a great day. One of those days that just fly by. Your getting things ready in the morning and BAM, it's evening.

Today was a good day. The sun was there all day long. Perfect Vieques weather. Almost like winter arrived today.

We were in need on a noodle, the house we're at only has one worth using. When we stopped by the Green store to get some ice they had one noodle left. Yes...a good day.

When we got to Caracas it was nearly empty? Ah yes a good day. Did yoga in the morning and took a nice long swim.  Yes a good day.

Having the new noodle, both of us were able to go, way, way out into the ocean. At one point Lorrie said "heck might as well just go over to the little island."  It was so nice out there, way out from everything. The wind was just right, the wave were just perfect. We stayed out there a long, long time.  Yes...a good day.

When we got back to shore we were met by Joy Keely, a friend of ours whom we met last year. We talked with Joy for a long time. Swapping Vieques stories, complaints and dreams. She and her husband Bill are so much like us, it's spooky. It was great hooking up with someone we knew. Yes...a good day.

Lorrie and I decided to take a walk along Caracas. Didn't matter that the beach was really filling up. Wasn't but a few hundred yards and we saw Officer Sanchez enjoying his day off with wife and son. He has been a great guy from the very first time I met him.  I shook his hand and we all talked for a bit. I was glad to see him and he reciprocated the same  feeling. Talked about the refuge and about his surfing. Yes a good day.

I went back to our cabana and grabbed a couple beers and the noodles. Lorrie and I walked down to the east end of Caracas and floated real slow down towards the other end. As we were floating along, we would stop and talk to different people. Everyone  just seemed to be in a great mood. Eventually we made it back to our cabana. I grabbed a couple more beers and we moseyed our way down to where Bill and Joy were. I had some news about the refuge to talk to them about. We ended up talking, laughing and just passing time for what was probably a couple hours. Just the four of us, enjoying the moment, enjoying the absolute perfect weather and watching a day long azure sky turn into that salmon evening that is the Caribbean. It was somewhere around this time that is hit me.  When this happens it's like  catching some ephemeral ghost out of the corner of your eye and it's a delicate balance, akin to walking a razors edge. You can't create it or even search for it. It just happens. I kind of stepped out of the box we four were sitting in, there in the sand, and tried to take it all in. Just the four of us, enjoying the moment. It was almost like I was participating but at the same time being an observer and I said to myself, "this is it." And it is, but I can't really quantify it.  Maybe it's the fact that people are more relaxed or that most of the identifiers that exist in our society get stripped away when you're on the beach with people. There's no pretense at all. At any rate, I saw it. I  said to Lorrie, Joy and Bill, somewhat interrupting their conversation, "You know, it just doesn't get any better than this."

Ok...that's the philosophical portion of this post. Now to the business side of things.  I can report that Playa Grande, Pata  Prieta, Media Luna, Navio and Garcia are all covered in some real stinky seaweed, and lots of it. We drove down to Pata Prieta before we ended up at Caracas today. They have done some work on the road going into Pata Prieta. It's much wider and they've hauled in some larger gravel, filling in the big holes. Much, much better. The beach, although was not really worth staying at.  I Have a picture of it I took this morning below:

Next picture is from Playa Grande, shot yesterday when this new wave began to come it. I could see big masses of it, out as far as you could see.

In other news, I've learned that Chiva has changed. So much so that I believe there's some sort of suit in the works against the contractor who was involved with the clean up. From what I was told an enormous amount of crab habitat was destroyed. This coincides with what I was heard early, namely that Chiva is unrecognizable due to all the dredging and cleanup. I was "unofficially" told that Nov 15 was the day for the reopening. But that's up to the Navy. I'm getting the feeling that the turn outs are not going to look the same.

Lorrie and I ended up closing down Caracas today. It "almost" felt like La Plata, but not quite.

Weather is supposed to be improving for the next four days. 

:-)