Last night, Carmen did my hair! She has a little salon in her house, which is cool. She did a very good job, and my hair was so soft!

Today we went back to Castillo Serralles..it was built during the 1930s for Juan Eugenio Serrallés, whose family owned a distillery (still do, actually). It's a museum now. In the gift shop, they just gave you samples of their alcohol to try..that would never happen in the US!! Their rum was SUPER strong, and kinda made my lips numb! Unfortunately, you weren't allowed to take pictures inside (we had to take a guided tour, and that would probably slow the tour down), which was unfortunate, because it was GORGEOUS, and the antique furniture and items were so cool! There was even a four-poster bed!! I actually gasped when I saw it LOL, and mom was like "uh oh, Heather's melting!" I had a feeling there would be one in there. ;) Thankfully, there's a picture of it online that I saved. After that we went to the lookout point nearby (Camilla joined us after she got out of school), which gave nice views of Ponce, the mountains and Caja de Muertos. Then we went to the Japanese gardens, which was pretty. It's really sad, but there are a lot of stray animals running around..mostly cats and dogs, but I've seen horses and chickens too. I wish they had homes. :( Then we went back to the house to pack...

...because today is our last day in Puerto Rico (where does the time go??). It's a pretty place with nice people, but too hot for me! I'm definitely going to miss all the fresh drinks I've gotten (orange juice, lemonade, etc), they are SO good! It's normal here to wish someone "buen provecho" (enjoy your food) when eating, even complete strangers. We were eating ice cream at a park and two people who walked by said it! It was cool to meet the rest of Jo's family, and see a new place. It's weird though, because I've slept better here than I ever do at home! Usually it takes me a long time to go to sleep, but not here. Maybe because the room is air conditioned, and I feel cozy under the blankets? I'll be interested to see how I sleep when I get back home lol. We're actually staying the night in Seattle tomorrow, since we have an eight hour layover, so we'll get to Fairbanks on Saturday. It might be hard to go back to winter, but it'll be nice to see Abby again. <3 It was a great trip!

( pics from today! )

2 – Stress Awareness Day: How stressful is your everyday life? How well do you deal with stress? Do you have any tried-and-true strategies for handling stress? It can depend, but usually it's manageable. I might have to just wait it out, or take Clonazepam if it's really bad

On Saturday we went to the Monet exhibit at the Denver Art Museum..mom still wasn't feeling the greatest, but she went anyway. Denver (downtown at least) was not what I was expecting..there were so many homeless people! It was really sad to see that. Monet's paintings are nice, but there were so many of them..they gave you a device you could listen to as you went along, but I thought it was boring, and I really didn't want to spend five minutes looking at one painting. But we got through it, though sadly Gina had to drive back to Kansas after that for work. The rest of us went to this bookstore that also had records, an arcade, a cafe, etc. It was interesting, but hard to look at books because the lighting was terrible in certain places, random equipment was set in front of some shelves, and books were just piled on the floor..I still found some cool books though. Joelle, who is 16, insisted we go to a sex shop, which was interesting LOL. We also went to Voodoo Donuts..I'd heard about them, but I didn't think they were THAT good lol. Jessalyn was craving Korean food, and insisted we go to one when we got back to Loveland (an hour away). I didn't really NEED to eat more food, but went anyway LOL. Jessalyn was very pleased about cooking her meal and satisfying her craving haha. Then we went back to the house..the wind was HOWLING, it was crazy! Cindy called Gina to check on her, and Gina said she saw a meteor fall from the sky and land on the ground, and when she passed the spot where it landed she saw embers on the ground! How awesome is that?? I bet not a lot of people can say that! Then we packed and went to bed (and listened to the crazy howling wind)

Yesterday we all had to leave. *sniff* Mom and I had to get up SUPER early, around 6:15, to drive back to Denver..ugh. Mom thought she had a fever, and I was feeling "throaty" too..probably from flying with a bunch of sick people. Plus I just feel awful getting up that early anyway..bleh. Only Julie and Kerry were awake to say bye too, but we didn't want to wake the others up or get them sick..I think they understood, but I felt guilty anyway. :P The sunrise looked so weird over the flat landscape (the mountains were on the opposite side, and were really pretty!). We grabbed two geocaches on the way to the airport (easy when they're RIGHT THERE at the gas station :P). We only had two flights this time, and no long layovers, which was good, because we just wanted to get home lol. I watched the rest of Into the Storm (and had tornado nightmares last night :P), the new Lion King (stick with the original) and most of Ad Astra. I was on the wrong side for the best glacier view, but I did see one, its moraines covered with snow, so yay. :P The top of Mt. Deborah looked really pretty poking out of the clouds in the sunset. It was -35 in Fairbanks, oh YAY LOL. Mom and I were so happy to get home though, and the cats were happy to see us too. <3 I almost made it to 9, but just had to go to bed..I think I slept for 11 hours! It was definitely needed though. I hope the others can visit us, but I don't think I quite convinced them yet :P

( a few pics! )

4. What one thing are you looking forward to in 2020? I don't really have anything else planned right now, but hopefully traveling somewhere cool?

5. What’s your favorite way to spend a Sunday morning? Reading, going online and eating breakfast (mom and I usually have pancakes lol)

6. Tell about an “Aha!” moment you’ve had. Paulette teaching me how to count back change, when it didn't make sense to me before

Yesterday we found 8 geocaches! There was one at the library, which was cool (Fairbanks has one in their library too). We checked out their wi-fi too, which is SUPER fast! Definitely better than Safeway haha (we bring our laptop/iPad with us so we can use fast wi-fi before going back to the house). Mom has been wanting to go to a health food store, and near one of the caches was a place that said "Health Center" and "Medical Marijuana Dispensary." Mom thought it was both, but when we tried to go inside the doors were locked and a guy came out saying it was just a Medical Marijuana Dispensary. LOL. Whoops. :P After we got home we introduced ourselves to our neighbor, Karen (she knows dad too, so he said we should introduce ourselves too). She was very happy to finally meet us and her dog Mandy ADORED me. I picked her up (she's a kind of poodle) and she kept licking my hands. Karen said she does that when she's really happy. Karen said she likes cats, so I meowed at her, and she perked up and got even happier haha! She put her paws on my chest (I was sitting on the couch) and tried to touch my face with her paw! (Like Snowy!) Awww..so cute!! We'll have to go over there again sometime..

Today we went on a tour of Zane Grey's house (which is a replica, since the original one burned in a forest fire in 1990) and a museum of Payson. It was actually pretty interesting! We get Zane's books at the bookstore sometimes, but I never knew his history or that he lived around here. He was a dentist, baseball player and traveled around the world. He also built a house on Catalina Island!!! How did I not know that?? It was cool seeing first editions of his books in his house too. I had to buy some of his books to read haha. The Payson museum had artifacts from Native Americans, more Zane Grey stuff, info on the fire from 1990 (6 firefighters died :(), etc. After the museum we hung out at the library for a bit till it closed and went to check out the airport (I made sure to glare at the beacon LOL). There's a good view of the Mogollon Rim from up there. Thenn we went back to the house (we just found one cache today :P)

Tomorrow we're driving to Santa Fe to visit Aunt Cindy and Uncle Dean! We're gonna stay a couple nights at least there. Cool, I haven't seen them in awhile!

Mom called me yesterday and said Terry (the guy who owns that horseback riding business in Chisana) called her at work and said that if we could get a flight with 40-Mile Air on their mail run (it's super cheap that way) and fly into Chisana, he would take us horseback riding and flying and stuff for FREE!!! How awesome is that?! Mom said we'll try to do it in July. Sweet!!

Yesterday at work a mom and her daughter came in..they said they didn't come in often and I asked where they were from and they said Salcha (around 30-45 minutes south of here I think). Then the daughter was like "you bought bread from me last week!" (We were on our way to Northway and she was selling bread on the side of the road) DUDE haha..I didn't even recognize her! Usually I'm good at that. So funny..Alaska is small!!

Right now at the museum at the university they have an exhibit commemorating 100 years of the first ascent of Denali. There are artifacts like diaries (!!) and a camp stove and stuff. OMG..I must go!! That would be so awesome to see!

( Day 13: Favorite animal/creature )

Would you rather drink liquid found leaking from a garbage bag or chew on a hairy substance found between the cushions of your couch? *shudder*

Today's trivia: Early railroads had only a single track between destinations. Problems arose when a train was met by another going in the opposite direction or was about to be overtaken by a faster one. This dilemma was solved with the creation of sidings, short lengths of track built parallel to the main line where one train could pull over while the other went by. The train had been “sidetracked,” meaning that, for a time at least, it wasn’t going anywhere, which is where the term originated from

Today after we got up we went to breakfast..there was a girl in the booth next to us wearing a UAF shirt and her family. When they were leaving I asked where they were from and they said Fairbanks. The mom was like "you work at the library right?" and I said no..I work at Forget Me Not Books. She was like "oh yeah, I knew you looked familiar!" Her daughter looked familiar too..now that I think about it, I remember seeing her in the store. As she left she said "Spring Break Anchorage!" haha. That's just crazy..Alaska is so small! We stopped in to Barnes and Noble and I got Game of Thrones on audiobook..maybe the drive won't be so long now haha I also got seasons 1 and 2 on DVD (Ryan having them on his hard drive just isn't the same). My bank account says oww. D: Then we did a little shopping at the 5th Avenue Mall. I got some slip on shoes..I get tired of wearing boots and I won't have to pilfer mom's shoes now haha. I hate that clothes stores nowadays are just blah (and wtf Abercrombie..I can smell you on the other side of the hall!). After shopping we went to the Alaska Museum of Science and Nature. It was small, but they had really interesting info about the glaciation of the Anchorage area. Mom and I kept taking funny pics hehe. We had dinner at Olive Garden..yessss haha. Their five cheese ziti is soooo good..yummm. Now we're relaxing :)

Yesterday we went to an Italian restaurant for lunch (the waiters were overly Italian haha) and then went to the mall and got Dippin Dots. :D Mmmmm. After we ate them we went to the science museum at Balboa Park. It was really busy..I guess it was the place to be haha. We saw Tornado Alley at the IMAX theater..it was rather scary cause it reminded me of the storms in Texas but there was AWESOME footage of tornadoes. This guy built a tank car thing to go inside a tornado (I've seen him on TV too) and it was so awesome looking when he succeeded. Then we went back home and watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Yaaay

Mom texted me and said it snowed on Saturday! Aaaah..that's just cruel haha

( Day 55 - A picture of you with a date )

Today was the celebration of the June birthdays (mine, mom's, grandpa's). First we went to the Milwaukee Public Museum. They had science exhibits, exhibits from different countries, etc. It was honestly rather boring. We also saw a short film about ocean life at the IMAX theater. It was pretty cool. They closed before we saw everything though. And it kept reminding me of Night at the Museum. :P We had time to kill before going to a restaurant (we had a reservation) so we walked by the Milwaukee River. They wouldn't tell us about the restaurant so it was a surprise haha. We walked into this alley and saw a sign that said something and Ron was like "what's this? Let's go in?" We did and this guy greeted us and was like "hi! To make sure you're not enemy spies you'll need to tell us the password! Do you know the password?" and we were like "uh..no" so he told us to stand against the back wall and do a chicken dance. We did (except me..I just stood there horrified haha) and then he let us in. Turns out that was the restaurant and Ron was just feigning ignorance about wondering what is was and the password haha (I think they wanted us to experience everything :P). There's a camera so while you're eating you can watch the people coming in doing ridiculous things. :P The restaurant was obsessed with James Bond and spy stuff in general (they referred to the customers as agents haha). It was pretty cool and interesting. You even left by a secret door..you had to find it and put a quarter in a pay phone thing and it told you a code to put in which opened the door. Then you walked through a tunnel thing. Coool haha. Then we went home

( pics from yesterday and today )

Yesterday most of the museums in town were free cause of National Museum Day..first we went to the Museum of the North (the university's museum..it wasn't free though) cause there was a new exhibit on changes in the arctic. There were some pics that showed changes in glaciers in the Brooks Range. They're retreating a lot. We also saw a movie on the Northern Lights and went to the place where you go to listen cause the aurora was supposed to be really active and the room simulates it with bell like sounds..that's definitely what I heard haha. It's always different when you go in there. Here's a pic I took of it before: http://s14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/RhapsodysSteel/?action=view¤t=DSCN1837.jpg. This time it was darker and more blue. Before I've heard lots of drums (meaning seismic activity) but there weren't really any this time

Then we went to Pioneer Park and went to the aviation museum..it was alright. I might have thought it was more boring if I hadn't grown up with planes my whole life. :P We also looked at displays of villages along the Yukon River which were inside the steamboat Nenana. Then we went to the pioneer museum. I was tired and my feet hurt so I looked at books instead haha. I have pics from the day but the cord to plug the camera into the computer is at my apartment so I'll post them when I get back

Dad leaves today..he definitely doesn't wanna go haha. He's driving us crazy though (always complaining, stressing out constantly..eugh)

Today's trivia: Spiral staircases in medieval castles turn right as they ascend. This was so that (right-handed) knights defending the castle could more easily combat invading foes who were climbing the stairs

Last night dad left cause the flights today didn't look very good. Yesterday we went to the museum at the college..I spent like $99 at the gift shop haha. I have a few pics too

Yesterday's House was awesome. :D Yeah House and Wilson!

( pics )

Today's stupidest quote:
Talk show host Steve Allen (doing a man-on-the-street interview): If a person went on television and--um--running for the presidency and admitted to being a heterosexual, could you vote for him?
Woman on the street: Yes
Allen: Good
Woman: Yes
Allen: On what grounds?
Woman: I don't know, but I still would
Allen: You don't know, but you still would?
Woman: Yes
Allen: Have you ever voted for a heterosexual, do you think?
Woman: Oh no, no! You're talking about sexual. No, no, no! I'd never vote for that!