We ran into a very nice couple going out of the hotel the other day and the husband had on a Kure Beach, NC Tee shirt. I asked if they lived there and they said they had family there. She was originally from Boston and He was from St. Thomas. They live in St. Thomas, but choose to come over to the island to shop since the shopping in St. Thomas is mainly dedicated to tourist.
On our little outing for the day, Kris drove us down the coast line. We stopped on the side of the road and took this amazing shot. This is absolutely a breath taking scene!
Kris took me up to see the Arecibo Observatory. It is the home of the world's largest and most powerful radio telescope for radar and astronomy. It has not only captured interest of visitors of all ages but also Hollywood producers in the James Bond movie Contact. Scientists can examine phenomena that occur as close as 2 miles above the Earth's atmosphere,or probe the hearts of quasars, objects 10 billion light-years away, at the very edge of the discernible universe. To learn more about this amazing instrument visit http://www.naic.edu or better yet come and see it for yourself!
While we were driving back down the mountain from viewing the radar, we decide to take the back roads to the interstate. Even though you are on the back roads, going up the mountain there are still more back roads to drive. Kris programmed the GPS for another route. Well, trust me when say we love our GPS, but it is not always correct. Sometimes it views a path as a road and we found out the hard way when the path was taking us dead end into someone's driveway. We love adventures, however, not when dark is setting in and the road is a one lane road: not a one way road, and the mountain roads are very curvy. We have noticed the locals are constantly blowing their car horns to alert the other drivers coming from the other direction, someone else is coming around the mountain.
Even though the island is only 105 miles long and 35 miles wide, it is amazing how secluded it is in the mountains. You can easily get lost providing you don't have a GPS or know your way around the area. There is another town 40 miles down the road I would like to visit to see how different the area is from here. There are 3 Sam's clubs here on the island that we know of and a huge mall that I would like to see. I am curious what kind of clothes they sell here, if it is like at the BX on the military base. On base they sell winter clothes! We are not that far from the equator and they sell long sleeves and coats! Kris was sharing with me, when he was in Okinawan the day temperatures were 95 and the night temperatures dropped to 65. With such of a difference in temperatures it is a big change.
The BX's (retail) and Commissary (grocery) prices are sooooo much better than the civilian prices. We bought some prepared meals ( I know they are not the healthiest meals) to warm up in the microwave. We can eat for about $4.00 a person instead of $12 or $25 per person. We also picked up some salad fixings and a few goodies. The Hotel breakfast is included in your room fee, we pick up some yogurt and apple for a later snack. The hotel also servers as a treat to the hotel guest popcorn and drinks at the end of the day. I have to be careful because I do not want to get in the habit of drinking soft drinks again. All of this saves some dollars too! We want to save our dollars to eat out on the weekend and for other fun stuff. Money will go in a hurry if you don't stay on top of your spending. I am very thankful I have been keeping track on my spending for several years now so it is not a burden to keep track on it here.
People have laughed at me for keeping my receipts and tracking my everyday spending. I really don't care what they think since they are not paying my bills. It is important to know where every nickel goes. Yes I said nickel not dollar. It will add up and I know by doing this we can enjoy our travels more. We know there is more travels to come and I want to enjoy them, but not to over shadow today's fun with tomorrows travel, so keeping track allows me to enjoy each day and be concerned but not worried about tomorrow! Duane has learned that very well and he now is helping others so they too can enjoy life more.
One more tip: always know the time zone you are traveling to. As much as we travel we try to be aware of the time zones, but we were caught with out pants down here. Each day we seem to get to places as they were closing or closed. We were late for breakfast at the hotel once. Then it hit us, we are in Atlantic Standard time zone. When Kris was here by himself a few months ago I went to the Puerto Rico website and saw they did not honor daylight savings time. Kris and I were on the same time scheduled. Me in NC and he, here in Puerto Rico. However when we both came over here together we completely forgot about the time difference. We were both pleased we figured it out before he had to show up for work! We are ahead an hour from eastern time zone.
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