Spending the Night in Houston

Our connecting flight from Houston to Salt Lake was canceled, so we are spending the night in Houston. See everyone tomorrow.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Our Last Night Here

Today was another beautiful day, with blue skies and tropical temperatures. As usual, we started our day out with breakfast at beach side, with orange juice, pineapple juice, fruit and french toast.

I did a shark dive after breakfast. Compared to the sharks I dove with in Belize, these were bigger sharks, but seemed tame. There were about 18 divers on this dive, which to me, was way too many. I felt like the dive shop I dove with today (Different than the dive shop I have been using on the other days) was more concerned on packing as many divers on the boat as possible, and not focused on making sure the diver has a pleasant experience. Other than that, it was exciting to dive with a fish that is top of the food chain.

Something I learned today. In the movie Pirates of the Carribbean, at the first of the movie when Captain Jack Sparrow sails into a sea port as his little boat sinks in the harbor, he was sailing into Port Royal, Roatan, the same harbor that was once occupied by the famous Captian Henry Morgan and his pirate gangs until they were run out by the British Fleet. That why in the movie the British were occuping the habor when Jack Sparrow arrives.

We ended the day with another beautiful sunset, walking hand in hand on the white sandy beach of Roatan. Tomorrow night we'll be in Houston, and will be able to call on our cell phones.

As always, we continue to miss everyone, and love you all.

Love,

Mom and Dad

PS. We haven't heard as much from you. Please let us know how your lives are going.

We awoke this morning to blue sky, with a few clouds, and a lot warmer weather. We saw the sun most of the day. We took strolls down the beach, laid out in the lounge chairs and just had a very relaxing day. We saw a lot of women in bikinis, and just took in the sites.

We learned from a few of the "regulars" here that there were 45 people arrested, 8 hospitalized and several shot with the protesting here on the island. We haven't noticed anything here, other than we can't get from one side of the island to the other and our resort is operating on a backup generator. We're hoping that we can make it to the airport on Saturday to catch our flight home. Everyone we have talked to has said that we should have no problem. We'll have to see.

We have to keep reminding ourselves that we are in Honduras, a third world country, and things are done differently. Kind of reminds me of Nepal and the riots I saw there a few years ago. Everything aside, we have always felt safe and never in danger.

Today, I did another wall dive. It was a drift dive, meaning that we dove down to a depth of around 50 feet, along side of a coral reef vertical wall and allowed the current to carry us along the wall. Dive lasted about an hour. It was a good dive.

We have talked to a lot of people here. For example, this is Evelyn, from Lousiana. She owns two condos here and had to tell us about everything she knows about everything.

We ended the day watching the sun set...the first time this week. It reminded us of how beautiful this place really is.

Until tomorrow... We love you all!

Mom and Dad

Go Fish!

Right now we are sitting on our patio playing "Go Fish" and listening to the rain.

Middle of our Trip

(Looking across the pool to our condo unit.)

Here it is Wednesday, and the weather was a little bit better today. As usually, we started off the day with breakfast, ordering french toast, the same thing we have ordered every morning since we arrived here, since the only choice we've had has been either pancakes or french toast.

Today was kind of interesting. The locals held a strike against the high price of electricity, closing all roads and shutting down the electricity, cable TV and Internet services. Things came back on just a little while ago. It really hurts the local economy when this happens, because the businesses suffer. A cruse ship was even in the harbor this morning ready to disembark their passengers, and when they found out that the strike was on, they pulled up anchors and left. The cruse traffic really brings a lot of money to the island.

Mom got a $50 massage from a local lady who approached her while Mom was laying out, and insisted that she give her one. (You know how Mom dislikes massages) This lady told Mom she had five kids to feed and lifted up her shirt to show Mom her stretch marks to prove it. Mom said no repeatedly, but the lady ignored her and and started working her body over. Finally Mom gave in and had a 30 minute massage. When the lady was done, she held out her hand and said "fifty dollars." Mom about dropped her jaw. But reluctantly paid her. The lady stopped by tonight to see if she needed another massage, or if I needed one. I think she is going to stalk us the rest of the trip.

I dove again today. Our first dive was a wreak dive. I think it was a sunken Spanish ship from the 1700's that was once loaded with gold bars. Needless to say, I got there a little late. But the dive was enjoyable. Here's a picture of me peering over the bow of the boat.

Our second dive was through a cave. It was fun.

We sat on the beach tonight and watch a partial sunset. Hopefully the weather will continue to improve. However, it beats the snowy weather at home.

Love you all. Talk to you tomorrow.

Mom and Dad

Hello, from the rainy island of Roatan, Honduras. We continued to have rain off and on today. But, there is a silver lining through all of this...we'll have to return again to Roatan sometime soon to enjoy the sun. We're already planning our next trip.

As you can see in this picture the skies are cloudy. This is pretty much what we have had so far this week.




We had dinner at this little Deli and then afterwards picked up some groceries. The Deli and the grocery store were in the same room.


There is not much to select from for groceries, so we loaded up on what goodies to eat between meals. The people here are very friendly and nice. Seems like a nice place to live.





On my dive today, the camera worked out a little better. I'm learning how to use it to take better underwater pictures.




I came swimming up to this big cone and peered into the top of it and found this fish hiding. I thought the cone was really spectacular.











Here is a lobster I found hiding under a rock.








This is Juergin, a German friend I met. He owns a dive shop here. He and I got talking about the lost gold of Captain Henry Morgan on Roatan and I told him that I had an underwater metal detector and he got all excited about exploring for gold. He told me that he would show me some areas to explore and that we could split 50/50. Nice fellow. On our next trip down, I look him up and do some serious exploration.

Speaking of exploring, I did a little metal detecting today in front of our hotel. I found something...but I can't say what... it is a secret until I make it back to the States. :)

Well, Penny and I are off to the Bananarama Bar and Grill for some chocolate something.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Monday...Some Sunlight!

To all of our children, "Mi casa es su casa." If you don't know what that means, ask Adam to translate.

We had a nice breakfast this morning of french toast, as we sat overlooking the beach and blue waters of Roatan.

First day of diving was okay... not spectacular, but okay. I did a wall dive and saw some stuff. I was the only diver signed up with Mayan Princess Divers, so I had personal, first-rate attention. I dove with Vera, the divemaster, a cute girl from The Czech Republic. We dove along a wall just off the south shore. It was interesting, while we were diving, it started raining so hard that we could hear the rain on the surface from 65 feet below.

Mom, competed with the rain today, trying to read her book in outside. She would go out to read and then it would start raining, so she would go back in again. This happened several times through out the day. She finally got a little sunshine.

Penny and I went for a walk tonight on the beach. It started to drizzle, and before we made it back to our room it was pouring and we got drenched.

We ended up eating a nice dinner in our room brought to us from room service.

Mom sends her love, her kisses and her hugs. She misses you all, especially her grandkids.

Well, not much else to report. Talk to you tomorrow.