Spring Break

I guess I can say a little bit about spring break now. Dad arrived the day before Joe, so we went to look for manatees in the canals near the university. I have only seen four manatees in Florida, but I thought that we could at least go and try to find one. To my surprise, we actually found three manatees, two cows and one calf. It was so easy to find these manatees that Dad thought that it was simply an every day occurrence. Also, just by turn of good luck I found a camping spot at Bahia Honda in the Florida Keys (Pictures on my webpage and on Picasa). It is really difficult to find a camping spot at any time of the year there, but it appears that someone canceled their reservation, and I happened to be online at the same time and reserved the spot. I was excited to go back because I had not gone there since September when Patricia went with me. We went to the same beach we had gone to before, but this time the water was choppy instead of the usual calm and beach was covered with seagrass, which was about 2 feet thick and probably 150 feet wide. I had never seen the beach like this before, so I guess everything is not perfect in paradise.

Of course, none of us except for Dad wore any sunscreen, so everyone was burned especially Joe. Joe was so excited to be in the sun after being in Seattle with no sun for several months that he wanted to soak as much sun as possible. He was burned from his head all the way down to his feet.

Next day we went to other side of the key, which was rocky and full of grass beds (fortunately no sea grass was washed up on the shore). Along the side of the beach runs a deep channel (visible in the Picasa photos). I never liked this beach much because of the rocks and grass beds. Patricia and I went snorkeling in deeper water in the channel. We were looking for fish and rays because we saw 2 large eagle rays (6 to 8 feet wide and about 3 to 4 feet long). (I put pictures of the rays on Picaca.) The tide was going in the direction of the channel, so it was very easy to swim further into it. The whole time that I was swimming in the channel where the water was probably about 20 to 25 feet deep, I had the feeling that something was behind me. I have already seen 2 sharks while fishing on the other side of the island, so I know that they are around. In addition, several people had alreeady said that they have seen sharks in the channel. Finally the thought of sharks started to really bug me, so I decided to get Patricia and leave the channel. Afterwords, I thought: ‘Why am I so scared of sharks when there were no sharks around us?’ Once on shore the dive master said that the channel is so full of bull sharks that he would not swim there. The day before he was swimming close to the channel, and a bull shark came close to him to check him out. Now I know why I was thinking that there is something behind me because there probably was! Patricia said later that she has no fear of sharks and was purposely going there to look for them. I don't believe that for one second because she's scared to death of little bugs, let alone sharks.

Later Joe and I went snorkeling in the shallow water on the rocky beach that is full of seagrass with no expectations of seeing any animals. However, the rocky shallows were full of fish, lobsters, sponges, sea urchins, anenomes, and many other little creatures. I couldn't believe how many animals were in the shallow water of only about 2-3 feet deep. We saw so many beautiful reef fishes and about 20 lobsters. Now I have to go back during lobster season to catch lobsters to eat. We saw a black sea urchins that were over a foot in diameter, and sponges that were about 2 feet tall and 2 feet wide.

After leaving the beach, we decided to go to Key West. Key West is the the key furthest from mainland Florida and the largest city in the Keys. We didn't stay there very long because it is very touristy, and none of us were too excited about doing the tourist thing. We stayed just long enough for Joe to get some gifts for his kids and Sam. At least now Patricia, Dad, and Joe can say that they've been to Key West because there really isn't anything special, unless you like clubs and tourist traps.

The next day was Sunday so we went to church where everybody were so amazed at how tall Dad and Joe were. After church we decided to go to Crandon Park on Key Biscayne and where there are a lot of iguanas. Unfortunately, we arrived in the evening when the iguanas were already sleeping. We found a few of the iguanas sleeping in branches overhanging the water. Dad had the bright idea of scaring the iguanas out of the trees and into the water by climbing the tree and jumping on the branches, and the rest of us were supposed to take pictures of the iguanas as they jumped from the branches into the water. But we were too busy taking pictures of Dad jumping around in the trees. It was quite the sight.

The next day we went to Fakahatchee National Park and Loop Road in big Cypress National Forest. We were looking for wild orchids, but there weren’t any good trails to walk on. We couldn’t see off the trail for more than a few feet because of the dense vegetation. In the end, we saw two species of orchids (I put pictures of the vanilla orchid and African spotted orchid on Picaca). Because it was so difficult to see anything through the thick vegetation, I decided to take a them to Loop Road. I knew Loop Road would produce a lot of animals, especially alligators. And as I expected Loop Road did not disappoint us. We saw an otter catch and eat six fish in front of us, at least 20 alligators, numerous birds, and one whitetail.

We stopped at a small ponds along the road that had alligators. There were eight alligators between 5 and 9 feet long in this small pond of about 30' x 20' long. Dad started throwing crackers to the alligators to eat, and surprisingly the alligators came really close to where we were standing to eat the crackers. (To see pictures of the alligators that we were feeding just look at Joe's pictures on Picasa.) Even though it looks like we were really close to those alligators and that we were in a very dangerous position, it is not as dangerous and scary as it looks.

We had a lot of fun seeing animals, swimming, and spending time on the beach. Both Patricia and I enjoyed having Dad and Joe here. So the invitation is open for anyone else who wants to come and visit us. Just remember that there is no place like Florida in the United States. If you want to get a personal tour of South Florida and all the interesting things that are here, you have to come in the next few years.

Are you all ready for the Derby??

I hope you are all planning to watch the Kentucky Derby this year because Aunt Sandra has a horse in the Derby this year!! (if you want more information check out my webpage.) His name is Gayego and he has never placed worse than the second and his five career starts and has earned more than $725,000. He is one to stakes races including the $1 million Arkansas Derby G2, which has produced four champions in the last four winners. Recent winners include Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex, Lawyer Ron, and the last year's Horse of the Year, Curlin, so for good reason and we should be excited about the prospects of having a Kentucky Derby winner this year. Gayego is the son of a sprinter, so he has never been considered a serious prospect for a classic race. However, he keeps winning races, even though each race is longer than the previous, and the Arkansas Derby, which was his last race, was nine furlongs. I think he has shown that he is capable of outrunning his pedigree. This is Aunt Sandra's sixth Derby starter, but she is never had a horse place in the Derby. Everyone keep your fingers crossed!

Bill Baggs Park

Bill Baggs State Park is a small park located on the south end of Key Biscayne, and is well-known for its beach. We went there last Saturday afternoon because Patricia had never been there and it is only a few miles from my house. One of the really cool parts of the park is that it has a very tall lighthouse that is well preserved. From the top of the lighthouse you can see Key Biscayne, Miami, and the surrounding Biscayne Bay. By the time we got there it was already late afternoon so we just went up to the top of the lighthouse to take pictures of the surrounding area and then will hike on the future else they have through the hammock (native tropical hardwood forests). I put pictures of both Fairchild Gardens and Bill Baggs State Park on both my webpage and on Picasa, so you can go there to check them out.

Fairchild Gardens

Like other big cities Miami is a concrete jungle, so thank goodness that there are botanical gardens to go to get away from the city. The largest botanical Garden in Miami is called the Fairchild Gardens and is full of tropical vegetation, ponds, greenhouses, and places to sit and relax. The garden is one of the best Gardens that I have seen. My favorite part is the green houses that are full of orchids, bromeliads, and ferns. The greenhouse is arranged like a large terrarium that you can enter instead of just looking from the outside.(I put pictures of the garden on my websites under Fairchild Gardens and a few pictures on Picasa.) I bought an ice cream made of black sapote fruit that tasted just like chocolate! I was so disappointed that something that looks so good could taste so bad. I ate more of it trying to convince myself that it was not chocolate, while Patricia who loves chocolate was trying to convince yourself that it really tasted like chocolate. If you get a chance to eat black sapote ice cream, you'll be so surprised that it is not chocolate. We have a membership and the garden is close to my house so we can easily go there for a few hours just to relax and get away from the city. At the garden they always have different activities going on such as the bromeliad show on the weekend that we went. Several famous artists, especially outdoor or sculpture artists, place exhibits in the Gardens. Right now Chulully has an exhibit of glassworks which is basically big piles of glass polluting the garden. I do not understand why people like Chulully because it just makes the guard and uglier because it just clashes with the vegetation and the natural beauty. However, the exhibit has been so popular that it has been extended three times.

Spring break 2008 pics are upload!

Pictures from this years spring break 2008 are up on picasa. It was so much fun. I would make more comments on the trip and what is happening, but I won't.

I have carpal tunnel syndrome so bad in both of my hands and wrists that I can barely tolerate it. I will see the doctor tomorrow and see what can be done. My braces so longer control the problem. I'm concerned because it is starting to affect my motor skills, which is potentially irreversible. I now will not use my computer for anything outside of work, and I am trying to reduce computer use as much as possible at work. We'll see what happens.

Spring Break!!

For the next week Joe, Dad, Patricia, and I will be seeing the sights of Miami from beaches to swamps to city life. I am going to give them a whirlwind trip of South Florida. I had to promise Sam that I would keep Joe away from the spring break scene on Miami Beach. Otherwise he was not allowed to go by himself. I decided instead to take to the 'Glades and Keys where he will likely be eaten by a shark or gator. I guess that is better than taking him to South Beach and have Sam kill him later.

Stay tuned for photos. Jason, this is a preview of what you and co. can be doing!

Engagement Story

Pictures: Patricia, Elder Brenchley, and I at the church. Elder is one of the Elders that taught Patricia (other was Elder May).

Sunrise photos from Miami Beach

The news is finally completely out and entirely official: Patricia and I are engaged. I know that this does not come as a shock to most of you or all of you for quite some time, but nonetheless it is official. Actually it was official with a ring on the 22^nd of February, but I just took some time to post an update on my blog.

Engagement Story

As a continuation from the previous entry about how we met, I’ll talk about how we got engaged. When we started dating, we both had no intentions of talking about marriage or getting married so early in our relationship. We discussed marriage from an intellectual point of view (i.e. what we thought about marriage). However, as we spent all day together, we had a long time to talk. Over a long period of dating, our conversations about marriage very slowly evolved from an intellectual discussion on the relative merits of the institution of marriage to about the possibility of us getting married. This was a long drawn out process of many long discussions over an enormous time period of serious dating … well actually one month.

I know that that it sounds really quick. I was always rather disgusted by those you start talking about marriage so quickly and loved to make fun of them. Well I guess things change when you find the right one.

We discussed how we were going to go about getting married over the next two months when we realized that we better start planning something if we wanted anything to happen. We decided to get married at the end of the year before the sealing, but we did not feel this was right or possible because of school. Miguel, Patricia’s father, did not wanted Patricia to get married so soon. He was not so sure about the idea of his little girl marrying someone that he did not know, from another country, and so soon. Well we still felt that we should get married in the summer, even though that looked impossible. I asked him for permission to marry his daughter, and we had a long talk about marriage and life. I really like her father. He is definitely a good man. After our talk he was a lot more comfortable about the idea of the marriage and said that we could get married in the summer if we were so inclined. That was exactly what we wanted to hear, so planning went from a December wedding to a July wedding.

Now that wedding planning was in full swing, here came the 1001 wedding plans. The wedding was going to be in Brazil, but we did not know if that was possible, so it was moved to the US. The wedding location changed from Yuma to San Diego to Salt Lake where it stayed temporarily. Then finally back to Brazil after we figured out how to bypass the whole legal mess called Brazilian bureaucracy. With that solved thanks to both Joe and Miguel, we finally settled on a Brazilian wedding in Patricia’s hometown Botucatu. This meant that we needed to find a place and talk to the branch president down there and everything.

Of course, you are all probably wondering why I am already talking about all the wedding plans, though I have yet to talk about how we got engaged officially. Well, there is a good reason for that - it had not happened yet! Patricia does not like to sit still taking it easy, so she was in full swing in the wedding planning though we were not officially engaged. I was willing to take things easy for a little while longer. Of course after I talked to her dad, Patricia got really antsy about getting her ring. She told me one day, “You need to get me my ring because I am getting rather compulsive. The first thing that I think about when I wake up is my ring, I think about my ring all day long, and it is the last thing that I think about when I sleep. I cannot stop thinking about my ring!” At that point I figured I better go get one. Patricia wanted me to go pick the ring, and she said that she would like anything that I bought for her. In other words, she would like whatever I got for her because I, of course, would pick exactly what she wanted, even though what she likes leaves an extremely narrow list of possibilities. Yeah right. I was not about to fall in that trap. I dragged her along with me to look at rings. Of course, she loved every second of it and tried on every ring in the store. By the end of the night, I had a good idea of what she wanted. So the next day, I went out and found a ring.

She always said that she wanted a surprise (hence the reason why she wanted me to pick the ring.) I was buying her ring at the same time that she was buying her dress. She called me up to tell me the wonderful news, and she had the sneaky hunch from the noise in the background that I was in a store buying her ring. Of course, when I saw her later that day she pestered me for several hours to know if I bought her ring. I would not tell because I wanted to make it a surprise. Finally she said over and over that she does not want a surprise, but all she wanted was to know if I got her ring. Finally I gave in and told her that I indeed bought her ring but could not pick it up till the next week. Now she began counting down the days until the day when I would give her the ring. Now she knew that the ring would soon be on her finger, but she then told me that of course I had to make it a surprise because she still wanted a surprise. How on earth was I now supposed to make it a surprise when she knew that I would pick it up Friday night and she would get it that weekend? I told her that the possibility of a surprise was over. She was so sad because she really wanted a surprise. You can’t have your cake and eat it too as the old saying goes. I told her that I was going fishing Saturday instead of helping plan part of the wedding. She was rather upset at my apparent lack of interest in our wedding. I then told that she could fishing with me in the morning. Instead of fishing we went to the beach and watched the sunrise at the same spot where we went on our first real date. As the sun was coming over the horizon, I proposed to her. She loved it. She told all the men in her family that night that they needed to take lessons on how to be romantic from me. Oh boy, I would hate to see these pathetic fools if they can learn how to be romantic from me.

Now everyone at school and church know about our engagement, and some people have given quite impressive responses. Patricia’s good friend nearly hyperventilated from shock as they walked down the street. She screamed when she later saw the ring right as a professor was introducing a visiting professor before his talk. I must say this is quite unexpected for most people at work. Of course, the news did not spread as juicy news normally would at work because this news is too correct and above board. Had I cheated on Patricia or if we had a huge break-up than the news would be out as soon as it happened. Good news is just not as interesting as scandalous news.