Having a great time - wish you were here!
What a beautiful place this is and I'll admit not a place on my 'vacation radar' but I'm so glad that we have made the trip! This place was called a 'paradise' by my sister-in-law Brittany as she just finished making this same trek about 3 weeks ago and I would agree with her whole heartedly.I would recommend this to anyone looking for an out-of-the-way vacation spot that allows you experience the 'real' culture you go and visit. I think a lot of that also has to do with our 'tour guide' in Jonathan so it may be a bit biased.
Anyway, I didn't realize it at the time because the message hadn't been relayed on to me yet, but the last entry that included Ellie meeting the pilot may have had more significance than I had realized. It turns out that Ellie and I had a discussion last week about HOW Leslie died because she finally asked me that question. You know me, I'm not going to pull and punches with Ellie and tell her the truth. It turns out that she understood about 75% of what I said. Meeting the pilot may have proven a good thing (and shows once again that the hand of God is always working) because she mentioned to my mom just before we were to leave on Friday evening that she had a dream about Mommy's plane being driven by a pilot that flew it into another plane and that she died because of that. Oh man, that hit home. So today (after I read the email containing that info) I had a quick sit down with Ellie to try to add a bit of clarity for her. Her Mommy didn't hit another plane, rather the weather was really bad, the pilot was really tired and made a few bad mistakes and the plane fell out of the sky and that is why Mommy died, not because of hitting another plane. We rolled through a few soft tears and whimpers of missing mommy, but after admitting that everyone misses Mommy and that she can always talk to anyone and that it's okay to cry and miss Mommy, we were once again on our way out the door to enjoy our vacation. Record set straight until the next dream or question arises, we enjoyed the beach and played at the playground and listened to a really bad local band pay tribute to the virgin Mary for the Nicaraguan holiday that begins tomorrow of Samana Santa.
But I get ahead of myself a bit on our location and happenings. It began yesterday with us hopping into the church minivan and heading 2 1/2 hours South to San Juan del Mar to enjoy the beach, a hotel with WIFI and a bit of walking around to see more real Nicaragua. Driving - or riding shotgun- in any foreign country is always an experience and really this added to the many I've had. Not that there was any trouble, just interesting how others drive, how liberal they take the laws and speed limits and how amazing it still is to me to see any cars of the early 70s to be in working order.
We get to San Juan and immediately head to the hotel up the street that's twice the cost and has four times the pool as the one at our hotel (honestly I still haven't even seen ours) and jumped in for a cool refreshing dip. We had a great time and enjoyed the beautiful view of the bay from our perch halfway up the hillside. We watched the sun begin to touch the horizon of the Pacific Ocean and headed off to have dinner - pizza. Yeah a bit American in choice, but the eating palette of a 4 year old is something we have to work with. For lunch we tried eating along the beach in the bay and went to a seafood joint and explaining to them a child-friendly item like a grilled cheese sandwich and fries seemed to really push the envelope of capability. So not wanting to push the edge again we walked to a great local pizza place and ordered and even had them deliver the pizza to our hotel! With bellies full of pizza and water we rifted off quickly, spent by the sun's rays and the city's many winding streets.
Wasting some time watching movies/Our casita (small house)
Jon and Ellie play in the pool/Ellie wants to throw Jon's shoes
Waking today at 6:00 sharp, Ellie quickly let it be known that she was hungry. Seriously, can't we start the day with a shower and maybe a check of the email? Nope, it's time to eat and be on our way! Actually it turned out that after breakfast, our morning was a pretty mild one as Ellie somewhat lost her drive once her tummy was full of pancakes and OJ. So we took our time getting out into the city and started off for the park around 11. Pushing her on the swings and then 30 minutes of looking for the world's long lost fantastic rocks in the playground filled out our morning. Finding fried chicken for lunch at a mobile semi-trailer made for good food and a needed recharge. We don't move fast but frequent 'recharges' are needed in this min-90's heat and humidity. Thankfully there's a constant subtle breeze that makes it all bearable. Think Iowa in July - late July and you're about where we are now. This is great! Refueled and ready to roll we head over to the beach again and proceed to play tag with Uncle Jonny and then play in the ocean with me. It was a great day and really another fun-filled Tuesday. I am such a blessed person that I sometimes find myself following my little sunshine, smiling ear to ear and completely beside myself with wonderment of how could I be fortunate to have such a wonderful family, little girl and loving God. It really sneaks up on me sometimes.
'Slow' morning of jumping/dancing on the bed!
Nice juxtaposition/our little Condor
I love pushing the swing/Then show off the new headband
Playing tag w/ Uncle Jonny/Check out the water
Just horsing around
I take Ellie in to the water/Then teach her to never turn her back on it
Then we play some/ Make our way back
A tuckered lil' Ellie/Until the camera comes out
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. There are times that I know many of them have been heard and the Lord cntinues to bless Ellie and I and I thank you for helping me in such a powerful way of prayer. It's really an amazing thing that is extremely hard to define but very easy to see the results. Have a great week and I will try to write again as soon as internet is available.
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