Tribute to Grandma and Grandpa Ray

Grandma and Grandpa Ray

When you have a set of grandparents that go together like peanut butter and jelly it is hard to separate them, so this tribute equally reflects my love for both my grandmother and my step-grandfather. Almost all of my memories of spending time with them include the both of them together. They were always doing things as a couple and they fit well together. They kept a height chart on a wall by the kitchen and would measure Russell and I when we would come to visit. I thought that was really neat, that they would mark up their walls just to watch us grow. Grandma and Grandpa Ray loved each one of their grandchildren very much. Perhaps the best way to understand who my grandparents were are to add in some quirky bits about them as I read this, like when they would stockpile extra ketchup packets from McDonald’s in the refrigerator and tell the same jokes over and over again.

Grandpa Ray always had a way of making me feel special. He married my grandmother when I was two years old and always told me that the reason he married her was because of me. I used to sit next to him when we would watch TV in the evenings and he’d scratch my back as we watched Murder She Wrote and other crime shows of the 80s and 90s. We used to go into the backyard to feed the birds and pick tommy-toe tomatoes, grapefruit, and oranges at their house in Miami Lakes. He also grew roses and picked a fresh bunch each day for the house, but I never helped him with that – that was a special project reserved for his wife. How special Grandma must have felt each morning when her husband would come in the door with a lovely bouquet of beautifully grown roses just for her. Grandpa was also a master marksman… well, maybe not a “master” marksman. He would get frustrated with the squirrels that came to eat the birdseed and attempt to shoot them with a BB gun. I’m pretty sure he never made contact though, because the aim on that BB gun was off by about 6 inches. But that didn’t stop him from trying. When they moved to Vero Beach he was always available to help fix a bicycle tube or share his Russell Stover chocolates with me. He loved to eat at C.J. Cannon’s here in Vero Beach because you can listen to the air traffic control chatter in the restaurant. He spoke little of being a fighter pilot in Africa during World War II but those flying days lived with him until the end… in fact, once he was not able to drive his car anymore he would try and convince us that he could still fly a plane. He was truly a fantastic grandfather that loved me unconditionally throughout my life. I always felt adored by him and I have many happy memories from our times together.

Grandma was quite the character too. She kept a paperweight on the desk in Miami that said “Once I thought I made a mistake but I was wrong.” Once I was old enough to understand it I thought it was pretty funny. We used to spend hours each night I stayed with them playing games like Memory and Hi-Ho Cherry-O and Trivial Pursuit. The amount of quality time I was able to spend with my grandparents all my life has been priceless to me. Grandma was the one who started taking extra ketchup packets from McDonald’s and sending them to me in the mail when I was in college, so I reciprocated by sending her Taco Bell hot sauce packets back. I loved sneaking into her closet when I was younger and touching all her beautiful dresses and playing with all her beautiful jewelry. That closet was where she kept her wigs too… she didn’t really wear a wig but her hair was always set the same at the beauty parlor so my dad told Russell that Grandma wore wigs and that was why her hair always looked the same. She kept hat boxes on the top shelf of her closet, i.e. wig boxes. It was a joke that ran for a long time in our family and she played along with us. For a while I called her “Grandma Ray” partly as a joke but also partly because she was always with Grandpa Ray so I naturally thought if he is Grandpa Ray then she is Grandma Ray. She would get frustrated when I called her Grandma Ray and tell me that her name was not Ray. That was probably the most upset I ever saw her. She was quite the looker and a proper lady, and enjoyed going to school and USO dances with her sister when she was younger. She always needed a few minutes before leaving the dinner table so she could reapply her lipstick – it was important to her to always look her best – and a lady would never be seen without her lipstick on. Grandma always had such a loving persona about her and you couldn’t have disliked her if you tried. She was always graceful, always sweet, always gentle, always gorgeous, and always peaceful. We rejoice in her life and the principles by which she lived.

I visited them so often in Miami Lakes that I had my own group of friends in the neighborhood. One day the girl from across the street, Sarah, and I rode our bikes to 7-11. I remember that trip to 7-11 well because that was the first time I ever saw somebody named “Jesús.” Having gone to church earlier that day I thought to myself, “Surely that isn’t really Jesus.” Even at 10 years old I was pretty sure Jesus wasn’t working at a convenience store. Grandma and Grandpa Ray would be able to tell us though, since we know right now that they have both met the real Jesus, and that they have been joyfully reunited in heaven alongside Grandma’s first husband, Paul Bidlack, Grandpa Ray’s first wife, Reeny, their parents, and their siblings. I will miss them both greatly, along with my paternal grandparents and my father, who died just 3 ½ months ago. We thank God for Grandma and Grandpa Ray’s long lives and their faithful service to Him.

Grandma

NORMA HOPE HENDERSON BIDLACK BALDWIN
Norma Hope Henderson Bidlack Baldwin joined the Lord peacefully on October 8, 2009. She was born on December 28, 1922 to Fannie Stewart and Ben Henderson in Versailles, IN and moved to Vero Beach in 1993. Norma's grace, wit and loving spirit remained with her until her final days. She was a loving wife and mother whose work career was in the accounting field. She was an active member and deaconess in the First Christian Church of North Dade, Miami, FL and a member of First Baptist Church of Vero Beach. She was predeceased by her first husband, Paul H. Bidlack in 1980 and her second husband, Raymond G. Baldwin in 2008. She is survived by daughters Pamela Kae Bjorkman of Vero Beach, FL and Paula Lynn Wilson (Mrs. L.B.) of Eureka Springs, AR; four grandchildren, Russell Bjorkman of Hong Kong, Diana Bjorkman Wade (Mrs. Jason) of Lawrence, KS; Kimberly Wilson Jenkins (Mrs. Quincy) of Harrison, AR and Brad Wilson of Fayetteville, AR; and two great- grandsons, Lawson and Connor Jenkins. There will be a viewing at Strunk Funeral Home, 916 17th Street, Vero Beach, on Monday, October 12th from 5 to 7 p.m. and a memorial service for Raymond AND Norma Baldwin at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, October 13th at First Baptist Church, 2206 16th Avenue, Vero Beach with Rev. Derrick West and Rev. James Newsome officiating. Memorial contributions can be made to: First Baptist Church, 2206 16th Avenue, Vero Beach, FL 32960 or The Florida Baptist Retirement Center, 1006 33rd Street, Vero Beach, FL 32960.

My grandmother passed away a couple of days ago. We had a chance to say goodbye to her before she passed away and her passing was very peaceful - my mom, my aunt, and I were with her. It's been a really tough season for my family so please continue to keep us in your prayers. We know that everything happens in God's timing and that there is a reason this is all happening to us at the same time. We might not know what the reason is but we trust God that there is one. She passed away almost 1 year to the date of when my grandfather died and the funeral service will be a joint one.

when chaos ensues

life is on hold



please pray for Jason

Back in Manila

Well, we are back in Manila for 1 rainy night. Luckily this is the
only real rain we've encountered this trip. We are laying low tonight
since we prefer not to be harrassed on the streets anymore and the
rain does not make the streets any cleaner. We will be leaving the
hotel at 5am and then will have about 26+ hours of travel ahead of us.
If all our flights go as planned we'll be arriving in Kansas about 7pm
Saturday.

After a couple of tough days recooping from jetlag I will be heading
down to Florida for a wedding, then to stay for a while. Jason will be
going to Florida for about a week to celerate his nephews 3rd
birthday, his 35th birthday, and his mom's birthday. After that our
schedules are kind of up in the air, but my brother leaves to go back
to Hong Kong in the beginning of October so I plan to be around as
much as needed. There is still a lot to handle regarding my dad.

Overall this trip was good for us. We've had some much needed tough
conversations and been able to let our bodies relax from some stress.
I am looking forward to getting back to Florida but I certainly like
being on vacation too.

Looking forward to meeting up with everyone when we are back. Give us
a call or an email anytime.

I've joined the ranks...Sent from my iPod touch

Sharks, turtles, giant clams, seahorses, nudibranches...

We are now... drumroll please... Advanced Open Water divers. We are qualified to go to 40 meters/130 feet, do wreck dives, drift dives, navigate underwater (that's still a challenge), and we are much more confident with buoyancy among other things. I ended up doing a 3rd dive today w/o Jason so I now have 793 bottom time minutes. That's over 13 hours I've spent underwater. I know some people don't get the whole SCUBA thing, but it's a wonderful world down there. Since we've been diving I question why I didn't learn to do this when I was growing up in Florida. It's a really cool sport with great rewards. As horrible as life can be (and this is definitely as horrible as my life has ever been), being underwater just washes those thoughts, those fears, those moments of anxiety and hopelessness and of depression and isolation far, far away. It's been a nice mental break for me to be able to dive again, especially with Jason. Normally not doing something for 5 months wouldn't seem like such a long time but so much has happened that it felt like it had been years when we first hit the water.

This is a short list of what we've seen:
-Giant clams
-Moray eels/sea snakes
-Pygmy seahorses
-Seahorses
-Lionfish
-Batfish
-Boxfish
-Clownfish
-Anemones
-All sorts of hard and soft corals
-Frogfish
-Anglerfish
-Multiple types of starfish
-Blue-spotted stingray
-Pipefish
-Fusilier
-Crab
-Puffer fish
-Snappers
-White-tip reef shark
-Sweetlips
-Mantis shrimp
-Nudibranches
-Feather stars
-Conch
-Cowfish
-Hawksbill turtle

We head out early tomorrow morning for the 1 hour boat ride to Batangas, then 2.5 hours in the car to the Manila airport, then a 1.5 hour flight to Hong Kong, then a 1 hour train ride into Kowloon. Boat, car, plane, and train. Any mode of transport we've left out for tomorrow? We're staying at Tsim Shai Tsui on Kowloon this time. We've never stayed in Kowloon but since we don't plan on doing much except going to the watch show for Jason's work it doesn't matter much.

We are looking forward to new scenery but I'm sure we'll miss the diving as soon as we're away.

Advanced Open Water

We've been at Sabang Beach for the past couple of days, a section of Puerto Galera on Mindoro Island. It's a busy place with lots of activity (not our favorite surroundings) but the place we're staying at is amazing and the diving is absolutely unparalleled. The activity is worth putting up with just to get under the surface for a few short moments. We don't have many dives in our log books but we can be certain there aren't many places in the world with such a rich biodiversity underneath the surface.

Really, we can't even describe what we've seen. I try and remember some things to write down later but there's just too much to keep track of. Bright colors, friendly fish, tons of starfish, lion fish, amazing anemones, nematodes, frog fish, angler fish (the kind that have a little thing dangling in front of their mouths to attract other fish like in Finding Nemo), beautiful and vast coral structures, and the list goes on. I wish I could be filming everything so we can go back later and identify all the species. Truly amazing what God has created.

Today we did our 3rd and 4th dives towards our Advanced Open Water certification - a deep dive and underwater navigation. Yesterday we did a drift dive and peak performance buoyancy. Tomorrow we're going to do a night dive for fun, then on Sunday we'll do our last of the required dives, a wreck dive with penetration into the structure, and a fun dive to shark cave. Finally, sharks! There's tons of life out there but we haven't been lucky enough to see turtles or rays yet. I'll feel fine once I at least see a handful of sharks, and shark cave should do the trick.

Jason is not the best dive buddy at times (especially with navigating) and I'm totally smoking him on all the tasks, but that's ok. He loves me anyway :)

There's no wireless here so I might not post again until we get to Hong Kong. I don't like using Jason's midget computer. Please continue to keep us in your prayers though. We are safe - I promise, Freda - but there is still a lot that can go wrong and we want to be smart travelers.

On another note, I learned that a moment of silence was held for my dad at a recent conference in Texas that deals with public employee retirement systems. I found that really touching. He didn't really let any of us know much about his work world, what a mentor he was to his colleagues, or the impact his work had so it's nice to learn that other people respected him and are taking time to remember him. We recently put up a website in his honor so people can write memories they have of him and learn a little about him. Feel free to visit it: www.russbjorkman.com

They think they speak English

Disclaimer to our huge base of loyal blog readers: The blog entries
will probably be short and with many misspellings this trip since I am
traveling with my iPod touch only and no computer.

We arrived in Manila about 21 hours ago and when the tour books
recommend you don't spend any time here, they mean it. It's probably
one of the grosest cities we've been in. We ventured out for a bit
today after a restless night of sleep and being woken up by Muslim
prayers at 4:30am. It's a Catholic nation, but there are still many
religions here and we could hear prayers coming from a loudspeaker.

We spent the majority of our time out either at a mall or in a taxi
cab going to or from the malls. This probably doesn't make sense
unless you have been to Manila, but the malls are the nicest and
cleanest parts of the city. It's full of smog and crime and gypsies
and it's just not fun to be on foot here. They either want to sell you
something or want something from you, and as soon as they spot whitey
the game is on.

We are being picked up tomorrow morning at about 9am for transport to
Puerto Galera, which is where we will do our advanced open water diver
certification and spend lots of time doing nothing. We often promise
that we will relax and have a real vacation but rarely follow through.
This time we plan to make good on that promise. So much has happened
in our lives that have shaken us to the core and we really need some
time to reflect and relax and just let our bodies be.

So the people here think they speak English... and they do, but it's
really a weird mix of Spanish and some Asian dialect plus probably the
dialect of each island group here, and English that make up what you
hear on the streets. You remember that scene from European Vacation
where they are checking into the hotel in London and Clark gets out
his pocket translator to try and figure out what the British guy is
saying? It's pretty much like that here. They speak too fast and mix
some Spanish in and generally it's just confusing to me.

We have about 4-5 hours of travel tomorrow to get to the dive resort
but at this point we would do anything to get out of Manila. Oh, and
Meaghan, Manila gets only a 30 - 60 minute slot in our travel series.
Really. It's that bad.

The country code is +63 and our mobile numbers are: 09393725564
(Diana) and 09393738728 (Jason) in case you need to reach us.

The Philippines and Hong Kong

Yesterday was the 2-month anniversary of my father passing away. To those who blogstalk me and others as well, thank you for your support of my family and I during this time. We really appreciate it and even though we don't always ask for anything, it's comforting to know that people are out there who care. It's hard to function in so many ways. It's hard to explain when things hit me - all of a sudden a memory floods my thoughts or I just get caught thinking of how different my life will be from this point forward and the sadness will just overwhelm me. On a general note, I just try to function day by day. I don't typically subscribe to that philosophy - I am a planner with a capital P - but I just can't do that now. I just get through each day and each day gets a little easier to get through.

Tomorrow (Sunday) Jason and I are off on another adventure, this time to The Philippines and Hong Kong. The Philippines is for some underwater time and so we can secure our advanced open water diver certification. Hong Kong is for Jason's business. It'll take just about 24 hours to get there. We'll be gone for 2 weeks and we get back on September 5.

We'll keep you updated on our travels and safety. We'll be getting SIM cards when we arrive so I'll try and remember to post those phone #s in case we need to be reached. The Philippines is 13 hours ahead of Kansas time.

Leave some comments!

Psalm 143

A psalm of David.
1 O LORD, hear my prayer,
listen to my cry for mercy;
in your faithfulness and righteousness
come to my relief.

2 Do not bring your servant into judgment,
for no one living is righteous before you.

3 The enemy pursues me,
he crushes me to the ground;
he makes me dwell in darkness
like those long dead.

4 So my spirit grows faint within me;
my heart within me is dismayed.

5 I remember the days of long ago;
I meditate on all your works
and consider what your hands have done.

6 I spread out my hands to you;
my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.
Selah

7 Answer me quickly, O LORD;
my spirit fails.
Do not hide your face from me
or I will be like those who go down to the pit.

8 Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul.

9 Rescue me from my enemies, O LORD,
for I hide myself in you.

10 Teach me to do your will,
for you are my God;
may your good Spirit
lead me on level ground.

11 For your name's sake, O LORD, preserve my life;
in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble.

12 In your unfailing love, silence my enemies;
destroy all my foes,
for I am your servant.

it's been a month

 

Eulogy for Russell L. Bjorkman

Eulogy for Russell L. Bjorkman

Given by his son, Russell Bjorkman II, on Saturday June 27, 2009

One week ago, my father took his own life.

My father was a great Man.

My father was the best baseball player in all of Miami in his early teen years.

Later in his life, he played golf with his friends, including Richard and Vince, and was very good at golf.

My father tried to join the army at 17 but his father wouldn’t sign the consent form.

My father worked with my grandfather for his whole life. Other than for 4 years, my grandparents were never more than a 10 minute drive away.

My father’s best friend was his father. My grandfather was the best man at my father’s wedding.

My father worked for the City of Miami Fire Department for 25 years. My father worked in the worst area of Miami, and was shot at while trying to put out fires during the Miami riots.

My father earned an MBA without ever having gone to college – they let him skip the university requirement.

My father served as an appointee of the Governor of Florida.

My father went to work for an investment firm and became one of the greatest product specialists and salesmen in the entire world. He brought in billions of dollars in assets.

My father cared about injustice. He was upset when he felt ordinary people were being taken advantage of.

My father used his skills to help others. He was not paid for his work on the City of Miami Pension Fund, the Miami Credit Union, or the Florida State Pension Board.

My father cared deeply about education. There is a room in the Indian River State College Richardson Center named after him and my mom.

My dad was a great dad.

My dad loved me dearly. When I was young, we spent at least 15 hours a week practicing baseball together. 15 hours. Some kids don’t even get 15 minutes with their dad.

My dad loved my sister Diana dearly. One of the only times I saw him truly weep was when my sister and he were arguing a great deal. It tore him up. When my sister and he went through a healing process to work on that, I saw him weep because he loved Diana so much.

My father ensured that Diana and I could complete university and graduate school degrees with no debt.

My mom loved my dad with all of her heart.

And my dad loved my Mom, truly and deeply. He did the best job he could to provide for her. He tried to love her by protecting her from worrying about anything – financial stress, or his health.

One of his great regrets in life was not having spent enough time loving her well.

One of the last things he told me was, “Tell your mom how much I love her”.

My dad had a hard time accepting love. He told me, “I am sorry for not being a better father and husband.”

Dad, I want you to know, that I will always love you.

Diana will always love you.

And Mom will always love you.

You were a great father and husband.

You were the father and husband God provided to us, and we thank God for you.

We always have, and we always will love you.

I would like to take a minute to speak now to the Men in this room.

It is all too easy today for Men to think they do not need anyone. That close friends and conversations are for women. That Men only need sports and beer.

That is not true. The Bible says “As Iron sharpens iron, so one Man sharpens another”.

My dad was an island. My dad was an island for not just years, but decades.

My dad was really hurting, so so much, but he didn’t let himself truly connect – really, truly connect ‐ with his own Band of Brothers.

And although my dad believed that Jesus died for his sins, my dad did not understand the true power of God. My dad had hurts and pains, as every man does.

But we are told that “Come all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”. And the Bible says that “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, because God has overcome the world”.

Men – we are all broken.

We may have unhappy childhoods‐ why didn’t my dad tell me he loved me?

We may have a bad work environment‐ why are we not being promoted as fast as the next guy?

Maybe our wife has left us for another man.

Maybe we think no one accepts us because we’re weird‐ we don’t like football as much as the next guy.

Maybe we think no one wants to hang out with us because we’re not strong‐ we prefer going to a play instead of going to the gym.

And we may cover it up with drink, or women, or drugs.

But you know what – we may also cover it up with things society doesn’t think is wrong –
working too hard;
numbing yourself with ESPN until 1 am rather than dealing with your hurt;
buying a fancy car;
pornography;
eating bad foods.

The only real way to heal our brokenness is to develop a relationship with Jesus.

Jesus has overcome the world. Jesus can heal all these wounds.

There is nothing you have done that Jesus will not forgive and heal, if you just ask Him.

I had wounds too. I had wounds from my childhood. But Jesus has healed me – Jesus is healing me.

And part of how God works is through community. When we sit with another man, a true Brother, and not just watch ESPN but turn the TV off and say –

Hey Man, I noticed you’re working til 10 pm every night, do you think you should go home earlier and spend time with your wife?

Or – Hey Man, I just read this book on relationships, can I share it with you?

** Or – Hey Man, I’m feeling really down and I need someone to talk to. Can I come by?

God works in those situations, through community with other Men.

So, Men, I beg you, if you are looking for that joy inside, turn to Jesus.

If you are not in a close relationship with several other Men who you can truly call your Band of Brothers, start to look for it.

And please, Men, look for that isolated Man and reach out to him.

In Conclusion,

 

Well, it's time to sign off of this chapter in the travel blog. We've really enjoyed our time in Costa Rica these two weeks - except for being left for dead in the Caribbean Sea of course. Tomorrow morning we're leaving the Caribbean coast to drive back to San Jose, where we'll spend one night and then leave Saturday at noon to go back to the states.

I hope Flat Joshua and Flat Everett have enjoyed their adventures as much as we've enjoyed taking them with us. Lots of people got a kick out of seeing us pose them and taking their pictures with other people. See everybody when we get back! We're not looking forward to those 8-14 inches of snow coming tomorrow though. Yuck!

Take Me to the River

So much of our time the last three days has been consumed by the diving fiasco and we have decided to lay it to rest for the time being so we don't lose the rest of our vacation time. But rest assured, it will still be pursued when we get home.

Yesterday we were gone from 6am-5:30pm on a rafting trip. In total it was about 50 rapids and 4 hours of rafting. It was a total blast. Jason has never done rafting and I think he might be hooked now. We traveled on the beautiful Pacuare River. We don't have pictures but believe me, it was a beautiful site. Tons of primary forest. There was a lodge there that you can only get to by traveling down the river - that seems like a really cool adventure to keep in mind for the future. I fell out once and got popped in the eye by the helmet in front of me so I might have a black eye by the time we get home.

We were thinking about going to Panama for a little bit today, but there's not much right over the border. So I think we're going to go visit a chocolate house, ride bikes, boogie board and relax on the beach, and enjoy our last day on the Caribbean side. Tomorrow we'll be driving back to San Jose. Wish us luck! (With one tire slashed and another flat, what else can happen? Stay tuned...)

Take Two

After our horrendous day of driving yesterday we were looking forward to a couple of good dives. And good diving we did not find. The people came to pick us up a bit late, but no big deal. After all, we're on Spanish time here. The owner, Rock, picked us up and transported us to the boat. We noticed that the tanks were Nitrox tanks which you have to have special certification and training to use. He told us that there was just regular air in it (21% oxygen) but I thought that was sketchy. Those tanks have to be handled and filled differently and you can't mix and match, or you're not supposed to. So strike one for Crocodive Caribe.

I'll try and keep this as PC as possible... the captain in training brought along a how shall we say - lady friend - to accompany him. Ask us in person if you want to know more about this. Let's just say that was strike two.

We got to the first dive site and off we went on our first official dive without a guide, just us. The visibility was totally horrible and once we got to about 60 feet and found the wall we were supposed to find, we started following it. But we were both perplexed. We kept asking each other "What are we supposed to be seeing?" becuase there just wasn't anything to see. We saw a few coral and literally like 3 fish. Not an exciting dive for sure especially compared to the Pacific side and Cano Island. But we got to practice all our skills by ourself and even did some underwater aerobatics. When we came up to the surface we were a little far away from the boat but no big deal. The second dive was a different story...

We took a short rest, ate a snack, and geared up for dive #2. Since we were pretty frustrated by this point we decided to go ahead and go down early as we had not gone as deep at the other divers on dive 1, thus didn't have to have as long of a surface interval. This dive was much shallower so our air could last longer, almost an hour. We were warned of the current being very strong and one of the currents that will push you forward fast, then pull you back a few feet, again and again. So we were told just to explore and not push against the current, but signal for the captain (in training) when we surfaced and he'll come pick us up. Got the picture? OK, here comes the real story: We dove for roughly 50 minutes, ascended safely, and looked for the boat. We saw it about 2 football fields away, a pretty far distance. We signaled to the captain and could not see his response, which means he didn't see us. He should have been able to if he had not been distracted by strike two (see above). There should only ever be one person on the bridge and there probably wasn't. We don't get into that here though. So we blew our whistles, no response. We waited a few because it looked like he was picking up the other divers, whistled, gestured, and all that again. We finally pulled out our sausages (long bright yellow inflatable sticks) so he could see us. Still no response. We were on the surface approximately an HOUR which is a long long time when the boat is supposed to pick you up within ten minutes, watching our boat stop and talk to another boat, drive in the totally wrong direction, then back west which was still the wrong direction. Meanwhile we are drifting south with the current, a totally unavoidable thing, and they are searching the same area with no regard for the current (north and west of us). They signaled another dive boat and the other dive boat searched for us down current and eventually picked us up. It seems like not a difficult thing, following the current. The other dive boat seemed to figure this out but ours didn't. When the rescue boat brought us to the boat the owner, Rock, was just about to get back in to search for us underwater. Just FYI, that's not a good sign. There's no way you can stay underwater for over 2 hours with 3000psi.

Several problems: the captain was not certified and distracted, and the owners have been diving and living here less than a year and just don't know the reefs/currents well enough. There's more, but in short I say this captain in training failed his test. We're still processing all of this and I'm shaking a little as I'm typing this. We are very thankful for Philip, our divemaster in the Keys who was really great about going over emergency and panic situations with us. He gets an extra gold star. And a hug when we see him next.

After a late lunch we walked around the exciting village of Puerto Viejo and discovered a local sloth that came down from the tree above to say hi. Tomorrow the plan is to do nothing in hopes of surviving.

 

We are extremely thankful for proper training, for each other keeping us calm, and for God for sending that dive boat along. Without them we would have been out there for several more hours. No doubt the dummies from Crocodive Caribe would have still been searching in the wrong area, instead of doing the proper rescue pattern.

A Date with Disaster

 

Let me try and explain this day. All day we've been joking about how exactly to blog what happened and I'm not sure I'll do it justice, but I'll try and recap the day. The day started off well enough, with Jason waking up at 4am and me at 5am. We left Drake Bay at 8am to get a ride to the airport. On the way there we caught up with Canadians that we dove with the other day and decided to split a cab when we arrived in San Jose in order to get from the little airport to the big airport. The flight was fine and the transfer successful. We got to the big airport, got set up with the rental car company, transferred to the rental car location, and all was well. Until we actually got in the rental car. I'd like to blame Jason for the disastrous day because, always trying to save a little cash, he reserved a manual. I'm the one with the inter-american driver's license (fat lot of good it actually did me), the one who is the best in the world at stalling manual cars, the one who won't throw up on mountain roads if I'm driving, and the one who will totally freak out in the middle of a busy intersection if I have to downshift in a manual, so I drove. It's been at least 5 years since I've driven a manual and even then I was horrible at it (you should ask my friends from high school about me driving manuals... sorry again for that, Marci). So I'm ridiculously nervous pulling out of the rental car place because we're sure to be found out and afraid they'll revoke our rental if they see I can't drive it. We pull out at about 11am and take off down the road. We have to stop at one light, then one short stop sign, and then onto the highway. We got 4 kilometers down the road (somewhere around 2 miles) before the car started sounding funny. We thought the road was bumpy but it looked OK and something just didn't seem right. We pulled over as soon as we could and Jason got out to check the right rear tire - and it was shredded.

We thought how in the world could this have happened in just a few minutes of driving? We didn't pass any construction zones and the tires looked fully inflated and fine at the rental car place. Apparently it's a common scam in San Jose for somebody to slash the tires of tourists then follow them to where they eventually pull over, then ask if they need help changing their tire. Everybody is really nice here and generally trustworthy so that wouldn't be a weird thing if somebody offered to help you. If you let them help you, one of them will be changing the tire and keeping you occupied while the other will steal your luggage and things out of the car. We had heard about the scam before (it's even in the literature they hand you at the airport when you arrive) and just 2 minutes after we pulled over two guys stopped and asked if we needed help. We shooed them away and probably 5 minutes after that other people did the same. But we never suspected we were prey because when we stopped twice briefly we didn't notice any people around the car. However, it was the right rear tire and we were turning left and I was looking at the road and Jason was looking at the map, so it's extremely likely.

We called the rental car place and said since we were so close we wanted somebody to come and change the tire instead of using the spare in case it happened again. While we were waiting for the worker to come the policia stopped to see if we were ok and then more came - at one point there were 4 policia, the worker, and us on the side of the road. The policia was sure it was caused by someone slashing us and they thought we had had things stolen from us. Luckily we knew not to let anybody help us. Here's a picture of the policia checking out the shredded tire.

 

After that delay we were on our way again, getting detoured around construction, totally turned around about 4 times in San Jose looking for the highway to Limon, and we finally had to ask for directions. Now I remember that if you ask somebody a question in Spanish they'll answer you in Spanish. Problem is I have a hard time catching what natives are saying but I finally understood where to go with the help of universal hand gestures. I should just note that getting stuck in traffic while driving a stick in a city like San Jose goes in my book as one of the worst possible things that could happen to me. A genuine nightmare.

The drive over to the Caribbean side was absolutely beautiful. We passed over mountains and through a rainforest, past miles and miles of pineapple and banana plantations, and along beachside roads. We did see a major accident in the rainforest and a man was being put into the ambulance when we passed. We stopped at a restaurant just on the other side of the rainforest, El Yugo, for a late lunch and local sites. After a couple more short detours we finally arrived, 9 hours after we started, at La Costa de Papito. We have a private bungalow with a mosquito net over the bed. I have a feeling we better use the net. We can't see everything where we are yet but I bet it's beautiful. I can hear bullfrogs right now. We are off for one day of diving at the barrier reef tomorrow and when we get back we'll take some pictures of where we are now. We'll be here until Friday, then we'll brave the drive back to San Jose.

Oh, a funny side note which put the icing on the cake for this day.... we stopped at a town about an hour away from where we are staying to top off the gas. They pump for you in CR and we only needed about a quarter tank. The guy started pumping and Jason went to throw something away. When he came back I looked at the pump and it was on about 25 liters. I thought surely that seems like a lot for only 1/4 tank. Jason thought nothing of it and the guy kept pumping and pumping and pumping and soon enough the total reached EIGHTY-EIGHT liters of gas. He finally noticed when he stopped his conversation with a friend and was thoroughly confused. We ended up driving away (with his permission) and not paying for the gas we received. The tank was filled but he thought nothing had pumped. So we may have also broken the law in CR as well today.

And finally, Flat Joshua and Flat Everett are well known by the Costa Rican policia now! The police were very nice and agreed to pose for a picture with the ninos. I'm sure the crazy Americans are the talk around the police station in San Juan tonight.

 

That was a risky picture to get for the Flats. The policia was really not sure what to think of the girl who can barely put together a sentence in Spanish anymore.

Diver Down

We've had a great three days of diving at Caño Island. There's not much to report because we've had the same day for three days in a row - up by 6, breakfast at 7, leave for the boat at 7:30. We do one dive, have an early lunch and chill on the beach at Caño for a bit, then go back out and do the second dive. These have been much deeper dives than we did in the Keys when we got certified so you're supposed to wait about 2 hours between dives. We've been going to roughly 60 feet for 40 minutes 2x day and you have to give your body time for the nitrogen to work its way out of your bloodstream. On the way to Caño we've seen dolphins and the tips of spotted eagle rays. They aren't bottlenose dolphins like in Florida and I'll have to look up all the things we've seen at some point. We were hoping to see some whales but no luck there. The day before we went diving for the first time they spotted a humpback on the way out to Caño.

We've dived 4 different sites: Shipwreck Reef, The Anchor, El Diablo (Devil's Reef), and Shark Cave. The diving is mostly fish, all species and colors and sizes. We have been in the middle of several schools and it's really neat to be totally surrounded by God's amazing creatures. The best part is that there's no trail of us ever being there - we touch nothing, we take nothing, we leave it for others to enjoy. We get to catch a small glimpse of how all things work together in a world different than ours. Some of the more notable things we've seen have been turtles, white-tip reef sharks (at all dive sites, but the largest were at Shark Cave), starfish, octopus, spiny lobster, frog fish, mackerel, stingrays, parrot fish, and moray eels (the kind that could swallow you whole). I tried to take some pictures on a couple of underwater cameras but we went deeper than it says you're supposed to go with the cameras and the clarity is very poor so I'm not sure much will come out.

Tomorrow we have a day off before flying back to San Jose and then driving to the Carribean side on Sunday. We are debating on whether or not to do a ziplining activity or horseback riding on the beach tomorrow, or just relaxing the whole day. What would Flat Joshua and Flat Everett like to do?

Corcovado National Park

 

Today was a great day on our eco adventure. It started with a wake-up knock on our door at 5am. We had breakfast at 5:30 and left on a boat to visit Corcovado National Park at 6:00. It took over an hour to get there and when we entered swapped our flip-flops for tennis shoes and started on our 5 hour hike. Before even paying the park fees and officially entering the park trailhead we saw some pretty birds, lizards, a sloth, and huge ficus trees. There are a ton of pictures to upload and I may not be able to get them all up today because it takes quite a while with the internet here. When you look at the pictures you’ll see some really fantastic extremely close shots. Those were taken by our little digital camera looking through our guide’s telescope. Most of the other pictures were taken on the new Nikon with the 200 zoom, but it still doesn’t look like we got that close. I just have to say, National Geographic photographers make it look easy. Whatever they’re getting paid they should probably be getting more. It’s tough work being in the heat, listening and looking for animal sounds and movements and maybe catching a glimpse after several hours, maybe not.

A few facts about where we were today: 1. It is one of the most biologically dense places on earth, but the animals are still no dummies. It was tough to spot them. 2. It makes up for 3.5% of the world’s diversity of species. 3. It is estimated that only 10% of Costa Rica’s visitors see a tapir (it’s Costa Rica’s most endangered species). We did see one resting today and even though they’re nocturnal it’s still a treat to see one. The females get up to 800 pounds and the guide said if she had stood up her back would probably come to our waists. For some more information about Corcovado, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corcovado_National_Park

We also caught glimpses of all 4 types of monkeys found in Costa Rica, some better than others. Wilds pigs too. I wish we had seen a croc and an anteater, but maybe next time. Tomorrow we start our three days of diving. It should be a lot of fun. We heard that whales and stingrays are migrating right now so we might see some of those. And for those of you worried about our first time diving out on our own (oh wait, that was us)… we’ll actually be with a guide the whole time. Nice to know!

As for my flip-flops that I left with everybody else’s on the beach when we first arrived, they vanished by the time we returned. Nobody goes in and out of there except the guys that transport the supplies and a few other tourists so the guide said he’d check with the ranger tomorrow, but I’m sure they won’t show up. I guess some Costa Rican wanted some stinky wet flip-flops. My only options were to keep wearing my tennis shoes the entire trip, or sacrifice good judgment. We walked down the beach to the local market when we got back and below you’ll see a picture of my purchase. Oh well, what can you do?

 

Arrival in Drake Bay

We arrived in San Jose yesterday after just 1 hour delay in Houston - not bad. We stayed in a hotel overlooking the San Jose Valley and then took an early flight out of the little airport to Drake Bay. You used to be able to drive here (only by 4x4 and taking about 10 hours) but now you can take a 40 minute flight in a prop plane. Our luggage got to ride with us (thankfully) but we did have to be weighed to make sure the balance weight would not be off. No, I don't mean our luggage. Of course that had to be weighed. I mean US, flip-flops and all. I thought that was pretty funny, seeing everybody climb on to the luggage scales. But better safe than sorry in a plane like that.

 

As I pulled out Flat Everett to get a picture of him with the pilots, the couple behind us said "Hey, that's a Jayhawk." They both went to KU for undergrad and the wife knew GC (one of the heavy hitters in my department). What a small world. Thanks Everett for putting that Jayhawk shirt on!

 

A taxi was waiting at the end of the gravel runway to take us to our hotel, Jinetes de Osa. We got to ride about 90% of the way and then had to walk the last 10% because the road ended. Luckily, a guy was there to carry our bags. See the picture of Jason giving the thumbs up:

 

Tomorrow we'll be hiking Corvocado National Park, one of the most biologically dense places on earth. After that, a few days of diving. We're definitely looking forward to it! When we went out in the afternoon to walk through the village we spotted this guy walking his horses along the beach.

 

Stay tuned for some more Adventures of Flat E and Flat J (there's a link to their pictures on the right or click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/dianakwade/) Oh, there are pictures of E and J with a stuffed toy bunny. At the restaurant we ate at last night there were a couple of local kids rigging and basically tipping over a claw machine to steal a bunch of stuffed animals. They stole at least 15 animals from the machine but at least they spread the wealth. They gave one to each table. The older boy practically dropped the entire machine on him in the process. I thought for sure the fire department would come and have to butter his arm out.

The internet connection is slow here so I probably won't be able to post as much as I'd like, but I'll try.

Meet Flat Everett and Flat Joshua

Jason and I have the opportunity this trip to bring along two stowaways, some very flattened 8 year olds. The son of one of my boss's is doing a project on the children's book Flat Stanley where all 2nd graders have created flat versions of themselves. Then the flat versions get sent off to family members who live in other places and on trips with friends. This first picture is of Flat Everett. He has already been to several places around the U.S. and just this weekend came back from a week long trip to the British Virgin Islands where he stayed on a Catamaran and went snorkeling.



I have a friend from Vero whose son is also in 2nd grade so I thought how fun it would be if Flat Joshua could come along for the adventure as well. I created Flat Joshua myself because there just wasn't enough time to do it the real way. So this is Flat Joshua:


I hope they're excited to go to Costa Rica! Hopefully both flat boys will have the chance to ride on an airplane, go SCUBA diving, ride on boats, visit rain forests, see baby sloths, learn how chocolate is made, zipline through the forest, go white water rafting and swim at the beach among other things.

I'll be posting more once we arrive in Costa Rica. We are looking forward to two long weeks away.

Off to Costa Rica in 25 days

 
We have booked a trip to Costa Rica for spring break this year. It's been a good 15 years since I went there in 10th grade (oh my gosh, that was FIFTEEN years ago?!) for a study abroad trip. This trip will indeed find us in a few interesting places doing lots of adventuresome stuff we are not known for. But we're both really excited to go SCUBA diving, hunt for giant leatherback turtles on the beaches at night, visit a sloth sanctuary, zipline through the canopy layer of the rainforest, raft through rapids, etc.

The first week we will be at Drake Bay on the Pacific side. Jason found an amazing place right next to a national park, said to be one of the most biologically intense locations on the planet. (http://www.costarica-nationalparks.com/corcovadonationalpark.html). The second week (I am taking an extra week for spring break this year because I am worth it) we will drive over to the Caribbean side to stay in an open-air bungalow and reef dive.

Pacific side: http://www.jinetesdeosa.com/
Caribbean side: http://lacostadepapito.com/

There are now a few uninteresting pictures of the cats up on the Picasa site. It's been too cold to go outside and test the new Nikon D60 so I've just taken a few of the girls.

Diving Certification Pictures

Our underwater pictures are up! They're not reflective of the vibrancy of what we saw, but they came out pretty well I think. I only snagged one pic of the instructor doing a task with Jason. Try and find the shark in one of the pictures... it's there! And there are a couple shots of a big barracuda too :)

 

The Florida Keys

 

Anybody who hasn't spent time in the Keys needs to. It's been almost 2 decades since either one of us have been here and it's been nice to be here again. The first evening we were here we found amazing deals on full wetsuits so we purchased our own. It's no big deal to borrow them from the dive shops but at least if you buy your own you know nobody else has peed in them. Then for our first two full days here we completed our diver certification with a company called It's a Dive. Our instructor, Philip, was totally great and very patient with us. On the first day we were in the pool for the morning, then completed 2 dives in the afternoon. On our second day we had to be up and ready to go at 7:30am (that's 6:30am Kansas time!) for our last 2 dives in the morning. We both passed with flying colors and are now officially certified divers. The diving pics are being processed and will be uploaded soon, hopefully tomorrow, if they came out OK.

Our first open water dive was at a shipwreck called Benwood, which was pretty neat to see. The second dive had huge coralheads that we passed through (like going through tunnels) and we saw lobsters, scorpion fish, etc. The third and fourth dives were pretty neat too. We saw TONS of colorful fish of course and several moray eels, 5-6" barracudas, and reef sharks. We were hoping for some eagle rays and turtles but no luck this time. (Google images "eagle ray" to see what they look like...amazing.)

Today we drove down to Key West to check out the sites and visited the southernmost point of the continental US, Hemingway's house, the Little White House (Truman's vacation spot), Mallory Square, etc. The pictures of street performers and sunset are from Mallory Square.

Tomorrow we are headed back up north to Orlando for one last night in Florida. We'll be meeting up with friends for dinner and then heading to bed early for our flight back to the cold. Ugg. We could stay on vacation forever! But back to reality we must go.

A big congrats to my classmate Ryan and his wife, Kristen. Their first baby boy, Liam Clarke, was delivered Saturday morning!