Our feet touched the ground in Rhode Island one fine late-october afternoon. The weather was lovely, mimicking an end of summer rather than start of winter. All of the trees still waved their green leaves in the wind. Thanks to the hurricane earlier in the season, the deciduous trees decided they would wait an extra few weeks to put on the fall spectacular.
It was a strange time of year to celebrate the holidays, particularly since it wasn't even thanksgiving yet, but my brother only had a 2 week leave "sometime in november" from afganistan, so we blocked out the whole month to make sure we saw him. its kind of scary over there in desertland so it was good to have him home.
With four full weeks on our hands in prime hurricane wave season, we figured we'd have our hands full surfing everyday, in between hanging with the family. Twas not to be. While we did get a fun little session on a beautiful sunny day, the boards stayed in the garage for the whole trip. It did allow us to get in good quality time with family though - good books, movies, coffees, food, walks, and laughter. That warm fuzzy stuff that holidays in the movies feels like.
Our 4 weeks were up in a flash, and loaded onto another plane to San Diego to see Gary's family. Thankfully, California has more consistent surf than RI and we were able to catch a few waves there. Family bike rides, mountain hikes, and proper christmas celebrating also soaked up our time their until we loaded on another flying device and tumbled once again in Pura Vida Land, which is somehow still raining even though my guidebook clearly states that dry season starts in December. ;) ok too much coffee and too many things to do. until next time.....
