The Story of Hurricane Katrina and the Morrison Family - Chapter 1

My sister and her family have been uprooted and are hiding out in Little Rock Arkansas. They normally live in Mandeville LA and at the moment they are awaiting news on the condition of their house. They left Sunday after boarding up and sand bagging their house. They picked up my brother-in-law, Jim's, mother and then stopped off at the nursing home where his father is living and got him too. They drove north to Little Rock which was far enough north to safely escape the weather. As most of you know the New Orleans area and towns surrounding Lake Pontchartrain, which would include Mandeville, are pretty much flooded. There is some question as to whether their area is underwater. Jim left Little Rock this morning to try to get into their area and check on things. We are not sure at this point what kind of progress, if any, he has made. The cell phone lines are all bottlenecked down there so it is difficult to get in touch with people. We are hearing that people will not be let into the area for over a month. If you are interested you can check out their progress or lack thereof on their blog www.the4jays1999.blogspot.com . The blog is written in the perspective of my niece Jacquelyn who is 14 years old. She does a great job with her blog and she has told her Dad that she needs to have access to the computer to update the blog "for the family." So far she has updated what she can and we'll just have to keep watching for more info. So that is what is going on in the life of the Morrisons.

Kiwanis Hospital Charity Classic 5k run

Julian and I ran in the Kiwanis Hospital Charity Classic 5k run. Jaime ran too but he ran with Julian so he didn't register to run. The run began at 9:00 on a Saturday morning. It started out at the Town Hall which you can see in one of these pictures. Julian beat his last 5k time by about a minute and a half. He finished this one in 37:02. We are quite proud of him. I did pretty good finishing in 28:20 which is about normal for me. After the race we went over to the Loco Running booth and bought some new running shoes. It was one of the things we had on our list to buy while we were home. Loco is a local company that was started a few years ago by a couple of local runners. They keep the same design of shoe for at least 5 years so you can keep going back to the same familiar shoe that you are used to when your shoes wear out. Avid runners go through a lot of shoes over the course of a year. You can check them out at www.locorunning.com
The guys working the booth, who are the same ones who started the business were quite impressed with Julian and they gave him a sombrero that they had decorating their booth. Later that day we went back to Salisbury Beach so Jaime could get his fill of pizza and clams then we went home and watched some movies in the theater. Later that evening we went over to Missy's house and had dinner with her little family and her sister-in-law's family. The kids had a blast together and we were entertained as well.

Sunday Jaime played golf with Jeremy and two of his friends Chris DeButts and Carl. Julian and I spent the afternoon in Portsmouth doing some more shopping. Julian had a gift certificate to spend at Toys R Us so we spent about an hour there. After that we picked up Jaime and headed out to play mini golf with our friends the Stones. They used to live down the street from us on Washington St in Exeter. They are a fun family. They have two kids. Gabrielle who is almost 7 and has just started 1st grade and Aden who is 5 and started kindergarten. Aden and Julian are a couple of wild banshees when they are together. The kids didn't really "play" mini golf. They just sort of ran around wacking balls all over the course. It was pretty funny. They were like hockey players on an ice rink. Taking 10 or more shots if that's what they needed. After about 15 minutes of that the mist started turning into rain and we decided to go over to Flatbread Pizza for dinner. They seated us in a cozy corner with couches and arm chairs around a big coffee table. It was a great spot for us. They gave the kids dough to play with and Aden was plastering it on his face and walking around blind and being silly. It was really funny. When we were done he had dough plastered all over his face. It was a great evening catching up with the Stone family. I miss our little neighborhood and our house in Exeter.

Flatbread Pizza

One of our favorite restaurants is Flatbread Pizza. We went there the other day with my sister and her two kids and my mother. The food there is all organic. Their salads are so fresh and yummy and their pizza is excellent. The crust is thin and chewy and the toppings are generous. They have specials as well as the normal menu which includes items like cheese and herb pizza, sausage with carmelized onion pizza, and regular old cheese and sauce or pepperoni. The pepperoni is organic and a bit different than regular pepperoni. We love the place. It is in a rustic old industrial building with exposed brick and stone. In back there is a wood fired brick oven where all the pizza is cooked. The menus are very simple. Just a double page protector really with a printed menu on one side and a colored picture making up the front. Kids who come to the restaurant color the pictures and put them in the menus so they are always different. It is really fun to go there. The kids love to watch them cook the pizza.

Sushi

Julian wanted to try sushi while we were home so we got him some at our favorite chinese food restaurant Penang and Tokyo. He liked the fish part of the sushi but not the seaweed and rice part. So he picked apart and ate what he liked.

Casey and Julian at Wayne from Maine

Julian got together with his friend Casey last Wednesday night. Casey has gotten really tall and they are both missing their front teeth. We went over to the Exeter Parks and Rec Dept where they were having a little festival. Wayne from Maine was there singing for the crowd. He is a local guy who travels around singing his songs to kids. He has a bunch of cd's so if you haven't heard of him and you have kids check him out on www.waynefrommaine.com . The kids watched for a couple of songs and then decided to go and play on the playground right next to the festival. It didn't take them long to get right back to the place where they left off a year ago. They played for a couple of hours before it was time to go home. We will see Casey again a few times hopefully before we go back to Nevis. This week we are supposed to go to Water Country so we are watching the weather to see which day is the best.

Hampton Beach

That first dip of the toe in the Atlantic in NH is a shocker! The water is 60 degrees! Brrrrrrrrr! Julian and I spent the day at the beach on Thursday. We got kicked out of the house because the people who are interested in buying were coming back for another visit. Julian hunted for crabs under the rocks and found lots of friends to play with. We walked down the beach to watch the surfers and he found some older friends with boogy boards who let him join in. He was surfing at the edge for as long as his little body would allow him. I had to make him get out when he was shivering and his lips were blue. He had a blast! It is fun to see the differences between NH and Nevis beaches. For one thing there is a tide here so you have to get to the beach at the right time or there won't be much beach to sit on. As the tide comes in the people all have to squeeze up near the wall so it gets pretty crowded. Then as the tide recedes the people spread out again. There are lots of people on our beach too which is nice when I go with Julian alone because he can always find someone to play with. Another difference is that the water is about 25 degrees colder than in Nevis. It is like stepping into ice water. There is no seaweed growing on the bottom so when you go in the water you step onto nice soft sand. There is seaweed floating around in the water but it is big seaweed and you can easily avoid it. And it is fun for the kids to pick up and run with and use for decoration on sandcastles.

Jaime's first weekend home

Well, we've been busy since my last post. Jaime got in on Friday afternoon. We spent the evening at home for the most part then we made a trip out to Olympia Sports to buy some socks for the next days 5k. The Moreno family signed up and ran the race, even Julian. Julian was battling out of last place with a 78 year old man. Jaime started out on his own but started cramping up and finished up the race with Julian and I. We coached Julian on during the run and he ended up finishing at 38:22! The crowd roared as he rounded the bend by the finish line and he sprinted to the finish. You could hear the announcer saying "Julian Moreno, 6 years old and running a race!" It was really neat. We were quite proud of him and he was also proud of himself. We ran by my sister Julie's house and got cheered on by Julie and her kids so after the race we went over to see them. She asked if Julian could spend the night so we of course said yes. We got to spend the day by ourselves. It was really nice. We did some much needed shopping for some much needed stuff. One of the things we bought was a new laptop for Jaime. That experience was a nightmare at Sam's Club. Long story short we finally got out of there over two hours after we got there with a floor model laptop discounted $100.00 due to the fact that it was a floor model. Not a bad deal. But we lost a lot of our important alone time. Our movie was put on the back burner so we could have dinner. We headed over to Macaroni Grille in Methuen. We are feeling that the restaurant is starting to get a bit boring. Maybe we have eaten there too much. It all kind of tastes the same. Anyway, it was still good but we decided that we would have been more satisfied if we had gone to Wendy's and saw a movie. We still have yet to go to a movie since Jaime got home.

On Sunday Jeremy and Tammy asked us to go out on their boat. We went over to get Julian in the morning and met them at their house which is like 200 feet away from Julie's house. We put the boat in at the Lamprey River in Newmarket and trolled out to Great Bay. You have to really pay attention to when you enter and exit that way because if the tide is low you can't get through. It turns into muck in places. So we safely got out to the edge of the ocean and did some fishing. We were over by the little island that is featured on the Smuttynose Beer labels(see picture, Dusti there's a new beer for you to try if you haven't already!). Not shortly after that we lost our bait over the edge and were not able to retrieve it. We decided to go over to Prescott Park in Portsmouth and see what was happening over there and use the bathrooms! Julian took the wheel and drove the boat. He thought that was really cool of course. Then we headed over to The Weathervane restaurant to have some dinner. We docked the boat and had some steamers and lobster rolls before heading back. The sky at this point was looking a bit dark but we ended up getting out of the water just as the lightning was starting. We were lucky.

Frog hunting

One of Julian's favorite things to do since we got here is hunting for frogs in my parents little pond. He goes out every day and catches the 5 or 6 frogs that live in there and then lets them go. Sometimes they flop down head first onto the rocks but usually they make it safely back into the water. I think they are on to him though because it is getting harder and harder to get them.

On Stage!

Molly and Julian On Stage at Salisbury Beach. After dinner the kids played some games in the arcade and won some really exciting prizes. Julian got a rubber snake and a parachute man. He was really bummed out because his 214 tickets weren't enough for the lava lamp that he had his eye on. I told him he would need 4286 more tickets to win that thing.

Salisbury Beach

Our favorite place to go for pizza is Salisbury Beach in Mass. It is kind of dumpy and the people are horrifically tacky but they have the best pizza and fried clams in the world. Yes, you got me right, IN THE WORLD! The pizza is made in a big huge rectangle pizza pan. The crust is chewy, the sauce is sweet and the cheese is very sparse. I grew up eating this pizza year round. My father used to pack us all in the back of the truck and haul us down there for pizza. It's open 365 days a year so it didn't matter if it was hot or cold we were going for pizza. My father's truck had a toolbox and a rack and we used to sit on top of the tool box and hang on to the rack and that is how we travelled. Seatbelts? No way! Haha. Now, as we visit, we travel in a Cadillac SUV with not only seatbelts but airbags, a/c and a dvd player! Now the times...they have done some changin'! They used to have kiddie rides but last year someone got a bright idea to put up some condos where the rides were. Now the people who frequent Salisbury Beach are scary enough but the people running the rides are a whole other breed. They are definately fresh out of jail or hiding from it. It looks like someone rounded up a group or homeless people and gave them a job. Just before we moved to Nevis we went down with Julie and Sean and Molly. The kids were in tears over this change. We used to go down there several times a year and the kids were bummed. It was sad to see it go. Julian and Molly both had birthday parties there and now the rides are gone for good. But the pizza remains!

Julian waiting his turn

Julian waited patiently for his turn on the tube. He was all suited up and ready to go. Jeremy makes sure everyone who rides has on a life vest. He is very safety conscious.

Cooper on the lake

Cooper had a great time playing in the water. He liked to eat the rocks and acorns so Tammy had to keep a close eye on him.
He's so cute!

Awaiting a tow

Julian is waiting for a tow back to shore shortly after we arrived at Merrymeeting Lake. Jeremy is getting ready to do some snorkeling.

Jeremy on water skiis

This is a shot of Jeremy battling the wake on his water skiis. He is a good skiier both on water and snow.

Tubing with Jeremy

On Saturday Jeremy invited us to go out on his boat. His friend has a camp on Merrymeeting Lake in New Durham NH so we headed up there for the day. The lake is beautiful. I had never been there before. They check all boats for milfoil and other exotic aquatic plants that are invading the lakes of NH. The lake is crystal clear. There are no weeds...AT ALL! The beaches are sandy and have rocks that you can swim out to and sit on near the shore. It is a spring fed lake that is one of the deepest at 150 feet! You feel clean after getting out of the water. We had a great day. Jeremy's friend Carl was up there along with his parents and niece and nephew. Tammy was a nanny for the kids back when they were babies and they have always kept in touch. They have a very close relationship. Julian of course made friends with the kids and they had a great time together. They are great kids. We went tubing for the first time ever and Julian had a blast. My brother did some water skiing and his friend Carl did some surfing and wakeboarding. The kids all did some tubing. The most impressive was Ashley who looked like she was out there shooting a commercial with all her moves. It was really fun. Cooper had a great time playing around in the water and bonding some more with his cousin. We didn't get home until 9:30 that night. What a great day.

The rest of week one

So we decided to get a cousin picture done before the Morrison's went back to Louisiana. We all met at The Picture Place with the crazy bunch of cousins and attempted to get a nice photo. The older kids were so nicely behaved (probably had something to do with the promises of treats when they were through) and the little ones were...well...acting like little kids do. McCarthy is almost three, Brennan is 18 months and Cooper is only 8 months old. So McCarthy and Brennan never sit still and it was really hard to get them to sit still long enough for a picture. It was mayhem for most of the 45 minutes that we were there. Kids running all over. Having crying fits. The photographer had a weird noise that she made to get the kids attention and all of them would look when she did it and it made them laugh except Cooper who was totally freaked out by it. We went over our allotted 30 mintes and the photographer was pretty happy when we all walked out the door. I think she was crossing her fingers that there was at least one good photo of all the ones she took. We had to wait one hour for the proofs. We went back and there were two good pictures to choose from. My personal favorite was a shot during the mayhem. My brother Jeremy was trying to tickle Cooper to make him laugh so he was crouched down on the floor with his butt in the air tickling, Lucas was trying to hold onto McCarthy who was trying to get away, Jacquelyn looked like she was about to faint, Jacin looked like he was about to go to sleep, Brennan was on the go, Molly was looking irritated and Julian was just sort of looking confused. It is really funny. It looked like the family photo that they got done on Everybody Loves Raymond. That is what it reminded me of.

The next day the Morrisons left so that was a bummer. Jacin was ready to go home but Jacquelyn is not looking forward to going back to school (even though she is really smart and works hard in school). Jacin said he was looking forward to school "but not...like...the educational stuff." Later that afternoon Julian and I took a ride over to Planet Playground and then that night we went over to see my friend Missy and her family. Paige is almost 4 and she is so cute! It took her like 5 minutes to warm back up to us and then she and Julian were outside on her playground and jumping on the trampoline. On Thursday I got my hair colored and cut and then Heather and I and Julian brought our pictures back because they weren't centered right. Then we met Rob and the kids at The Longhorn for some dinner and Rob agreed to watch Julian while we went to the movies. We had some time to kill before and needed a sweater so we went into Kohls and got a cheapo sweatshirt and we both bought identical new purses. They are very chic. We ended up seeing Wedding Crashers which is hillarious. Friday Julian and I spent shopping. Isn't he lucky. I started him out at Toys R Us where he got a new Bionicle toy that he has had his eye on for weeks. I needed some stuff so we went around to the mall and we were there for a long time. We needed a new plant for his pet water frog so we got a new one of those. We ate at Ixtappa which is the mexican restaurant in the mall. I love mexican restaurants mostly because of the free chips and salsa. They have really good salsa! The next day we were getting up early so we got home at a reasonable hour.

A bat in the belfry

We were all getting ready on Monday morning to go over to my grandmothers house to read the history on the bottom of the table (more on this to come), when we heard a weird noise. I thought it was Julian batting his legs on the bed in my parents bedroom. We discovered that it was something stuck in the chimney. My mother called my father who called in the local "animal control" aka: my brother Jeremy. He came over and took a look up the chimney and discovered there were two flickers (which is a bird by the way). We fashioned a tarp around the chimney and he put on his gas mask and goggles and fished them out of there. One of them he got right away but the other one flew around for a bit all covered with soot and made it's mark all over the nice white ceiling. Good thing they weren't showing the house today. The only thing we could figure out how two birds got stuck in the chimney is that they were having a little rendevous. There was one male and one female and they must have been "playing" and got stuck. We are happy to report that they are both free and unharmed. So...the history on the bottom of the table...my grandmother has a beautiful old wooden table and we write family history on the bottom of it. It is really neat. We have all the births and deaths. Who visited on certain holidays. Who was graduating and who was suspended from school. Other milestones like marriages and sometimes divorces, military history, how much things cost at certain times like the table cost $5.00 to build sometime in the late fifties or early sixties. The wood was cut from a tree on my grandparents property and the local woodshop kids from the high school built the table. The table has a hand rubbed turpentine and linseed oil finish. Each time someone went over to visit they would sit around and rub the table (probably while drinking beer and whiskey and playing cards and maybe some smoking cigarettes) and eventually it was nice and smooth. So that is the history lesson on the Barlow clan.

The Entertainment

Jeremy did some entertaining at the big party at Julie's house. He played some Johnny Cash for us to enjoy and then we found out that Polly, Sean's mother, was in a band a long time ago so she sang us a tune. She and her first husband used to sing in ski lodges around New England to pay for their ski passes and food and stuff. Interesting stuff that you learn about people at an 8 year olds party. You can see all of Julie anad Sean's neat stuff in this picture. This is the house that I lived in right after I had Julian. They put me in the attic. The unmarried pregnant sister gets to live in the attic. Haha, just kidding, they were really good to me. It's not like I was stuck in the attic, that's just where my bedroom was. I spent most of my time in the t.v. room watching the Bill Clinton fiasco about the blue dress and the true meaning of the word "sikshul" intercourse. Yeah, those were memorable times. Jeremy and I had moved home when my older brother Chris was sick and my parents house, that had been for sale off and on for 10 years sold. Talk about bad timing. I was pregnant at the time. I was shipped off to the McCown's attic and Jeremy was a "cellar dwellar" in my sister-in-law's new house. My parents had to rent a condo at the beach while they finished building their second dream retirement house. They are now living in their third which is on the market and is almost sold and they will then build the fourth and final??? dream retirment home. They think they have all the design kinks worked out now. Anyway, before I got sidetracked I was talking about Julie's house. It was a convent a long time ago. It is a neat house with little cupboards and sinks in every room. Kind of weird but convenient too! We think her house is haunted becauase one day when I was living there, I came home from eating at my parents pretend house. I walked in the door and into the foyer and then into the formal living room (pictured here) to check messages on the phone. As soon as I got in there one of Molly's toys started to play music in the play room. To get to the play room you have to go from the foyer, through the dining room and through a door off one of the side walls of the dining room. The toy was like a little play table for toddlers with all kinds of buttons and dials and it played this crazy circus type music. You know the kind that kids toys have. It was really freaky. They don't have pets so nothing could have bumped it and even if some wind had gotten in it wouldn't have taken that path to get into that room. My sister came in a minute behind me and heard it and we looked at each other and just sort of let out a nervous laugh. It was weird. There are other stories too but one is enough for now.

Julian and Cooper snuggling at Molly's party

Julian and Cooper have now bonded. It didn't take long for that to happen. My mother said that Cooper is a lot like Jeremy was when he was his age.

Cooper

Cooper is cruising around on all fours all over the place. It is so interesting to watch how babies know how to help themselves develop. He is crawling and standing up while holding onto things and all the while he is doing squats to strengthen his legs. He is a very cute, happy baby with a winning smile. You can't help but love him. He is going to be another ladies man just like his other little boy cousins.

Molly's Birthday Party

On Sunday night we all were invited to Molly's 8th birthday party. This was the family party. The kids were all having a blast inside and out playing in Molly's playhouse and in her play room. When we arrived it started to drizzle a little bit so we brought the party inside. Julie made some really good dips. The one I loved the most was a carmelized onion dip. It was so good. She also made some hummus that was yummy too. Sean was manning the grill and the smoker making sure his meats were properly cooked. He had 3 pounds of meat per person! So we ate well. Another big bonus was the red beans and rice. Sean has the recipe from Walt Disney and it is the best I have ever had. I was really looking forward to that and I was NOT disappointed. The food was yummy. Cooper decided that Julian was an ok kid and he crawled around on the floor snuggling with Julian. It was really cute. Brennan was walking from room to room terrorizing whatever came in his path. Not really, he is an energetic kid but he seems to listen pretty well for an 18 month old. He is very happy and always on the go. He was down for a nap when we got there and through dinner so Julie and Sean could get things served and eaten. When he got up he came out and warmed up to everyone and started going around and greeting people as only he can do. "I hi, gammy" and he would hug grammy. "I hi Jacquelyn" and he would hug Jacquelyn. He is so cute and happy and lovable. Molly had a great time at her party as she sat in her queen chair and opened her presents. Julian felt leftout because he wasn't opening any presents so he was sulking around for a while but it didn't take him long to get back into a happy mood once the cupcakes were served. Molly got a lot of really cool things for her birthday and so that wrapped up our day three in NH.

Time Capsule

On day two we went up to my parents camp in Albany NH. It is a little house on Lake Iona in northern NH. It's a lot of fun up there. Jen and her two kids, Julian and I, my mother, my nephew Lucas and my niece Molly all came up. Every summer my mother usually takes the kids over 4 up for a little camp time on her own but this year we made it a family affair. Lucky for her because the kids are at interesting stages in their lives. They try to form these little cliques that make one from the other side mad because they decide they want to play with the others and then they won't let them. You know how it goes. All in all we had a great time. We packed a lot of stuff into our 24 hours up north. We got there in the mid morning and the kids played outside. Some in the water and some on the hammock or running around in the woods. It was a little bit cool and shady on shore so the big people tried to huddle in the little rays of sun peeking through the trees. Jen went over to Subway and got us some subs for lunch and after that we took off for mini golf. We discussed which place we were going to go to before we left and of course the kids were not really paying attention so as we passed the one they really wanted to go to they all piped up and started criticizing OUR decision. We sort of...you know...ignored them and continued on to our destination. The kids had a good time playing their 18 rounds of golf and then we had a couple of hours before we were to go to dinner. We went over to the playground in North Conway and the kids all got out and started acting like it was the first big playground they had ever been on. Yelling and running over the the things they wanted to play on. They all began on ONE seesaw. There was enough equipment for them all to play on something but they all crowded on the seesaw. It was fun until one of them hurt themselves. By the time we left all of them had banged or scraped or skinned some part of their body. We figured at that point it was time to go before we got a real injury. We headed over to Flatbread Pizza for dinner. It is a yummy brick oven pizza restaurant which serves only organic foods. It was pretty hot in there with the oven going but the place was very quiet at the time of our arrival. We ate a special buffalo chicken pizza and a plain pizza called Jay's Heart and an herb and cheese with sliced tomatoes. Then we went over to Ben and Jerry's for ice cream.

Before we took off into town we had opened up a time capsule that four of the kids had buried 5 years earlier. There was a map to find the spot where it was buried so the kids had to follow the map and dig it up. They found the container and as we were walking back we noticed that it was dripping water. Water had gotten in and sogged everything up. We were able to unroll the little write-ups about the kids and dry them out and read them. It was fun to see the differences in the kids between then and now.

After dinner we went home and the kids watched Liar Liar on t.v. Then we all finally went to bed. Lucas woke up in the morning not feeling good so my mother left early to take him home. The rest of us got showered and packed up and left the camp in the mid morning. We returned Heathers car that we had borrowed and found that Luke was feeling much better which was a relief to Jacquelyn who was going to walk home if he had thrown up in the car. My mother had left her car at Heathers for us to use to get home. Then we went home to get ready for Molly's birthday party in the afternoon. We were all excited and hungry because we had stopped by to drop off Molly and Sean was at the smoker tending to his ribs and they were looking REAL GOOD. There were a lot of them too and we were instructed to not eat anything before we come over.

Climbing Wall at Stratham Fair

Julian got daring at the Stratham Fair and tried the climbing wall. He had a good time and is quite the little climber. He made it about half way up before he decided it was too high so he did the bungee trampline thing instead. He got up pretty high on that and wanted to try the climbing wall again but his money was almost gone by then and he still needed to win something so we left to go find the rest of our party. The fair was a big success for all of the kids. On the way out we stopped by the Kettle corn area and stocked up on a huge bag of that. It is so good.

Day One - Lena's and Stratham Fair

Friday morning we got up early as the sun came up and hung around talking for a while. My sister Jen and her two kids Jacquelyn and Jacin are staying here too until they leave on Wednesday to go back to Louisiana. We all went to lunch at Lena's the ladies favorite lunch spot in Salisbury. They have really good seafood there. The ladies, my mother, Aunt Linda, my grandmother and Aunt Muny (Grammy's sister) and my Uncle go there a lot. Twice a week to be exact. So we hung out there for a while and got caught up and ate some fried clams and lobster rolls.

Friday night we all piled into the car and headed over to the Stratham Fair. We met my other sister Julie and her husband Sean and their two kids Molly and Brennan. Brennan has grown a ton since I saw him last and he is a bundle of energy. My brother Jeremy and his girlfriend Tammy also met us there with their little son Cooper. He is so cute! He was only 6 weeks old the last time I was home so it was so fun to see him all alert and smiling and having fun. The kids went on tons of rides and we ate lots of fair food. Even Jeremy joined in on the ride fun. Julian and Jeremy did some gambling and they both won a prize. Of course you know how it goes with fair gambling. They have all the good prizes hanging down to entice you in to play the games and then you win and you get some cheesy prize. So Julian got some little purple stuffed animal. He was not happy about it but I told him we would come back and try again and then we could trade up for a better prize. When we came back he won again and got a big long stuffed snake. He was happy about that. The game he was playing was the one where you have a little catapult that you put a frog on and you whack the thing with a rubber mallet and the frog goes flying into the air. Then if it falls onto one of the rotating lily pads you win a prize. He did good!

Back in NH

Hi Everyone, Julian and I made it back to NH in good time. We left on Caribbean time and arrived in Boston about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Julian made a new friend on the way. A man who sails all over the place. He expelled Julian's belief about the Bermuda Triangle since he has sailed through it several times and has lived to tell about it. We got all of our luggage successfully with nothing missing as far as we could tell. We had an airport shuttle service pick us up and we rode home in style in a nice big sedan. Our driver, Dave, became good friends with Julian along the way. For all that know Julian this will be no surprise. They talked about space and the stars and shows they have both watched on Animal Plantet and Discovery. We were welcomed home with a banner that my niece Jacquelyn made letting us know that we are now the "New Fish" and that means that we get last dibs on the good accomodations. So Julian and I are sleeping on the porch and loving every second. It's like sleeping outside only you have no bugs. And when it gets cold you can shut the many windows that wrap around the room. Our weather has been true New England style meaning it can be hot one minute and cold the next. We have seen mist, driving rain, thunder storms, sun, clouds, dry hot weather and cool sunny weather. They say if you don't like the weather in New England just wait a minute. And it has been exactly that way since we arrived. We were lucky to miss the hot humid weather that left the night before we arrived after the waves of thunder storms that had the airport in a tizzy 24 hours before our arrival. So we were lucky. I'll write more and post more pictures later.