April 27 - A Day In My Life

This past weekend, we went on a trip to the Pearl Islands!!  This will probably be our last trip in Panama and it was a good one!  The beaches were beautiful and they were practically empty.  We had a wonderful time!

Another early wake up time for a day off!  

At least I didn't have to go to work.

A quick bowl of cereal before leaving.

On our way to catch the ferry.  Jessica and Abby joined us for this weekend adventure.

Buying tickets for the ferry - it was all very official as you can tell by the plastic chairs and TV tray "desk"!

Enjoying the ride on the ferry!

Our first glimpse of Isla Contadora and our hotel.

To get from the ferry to shore, we had to transfer to smaller boats.  It was very precarious, but we made it.

Checking in.  We purchased our hotel vouchers on Oferta Simple (Panama's version of Groupon) and it included breakfast, welcome cocktail, and a tour of the island.

Bill in our room with our welcome cocktail (it was just a fresh fruit smoothie).

 

Enjoying the view outside our room.

Bill and Abby discussing photography.

A view of our hotel from the airstrip.  Yes, the airstrip was directly across the street so we got to see lots of planes take-off and land.

Our view at lunch - with the nearly empty beach behind us!

Walking the beach and marveling at the blue/green rocks.

Waiting for our tour of the island...aka "nap time".  We weren't sure what to expect for our tour, but we were surprised...

 

 ...it was a BOAT tour.  We had fun looking at the homes of the rich and famous and seeing the multiple deserted beaches.

 

Time Check.

We walked up to the little island store.  On the way, we passed a sign for another hotel/restaurant.  It was very repetitive!

Ice cream on a hot day - delicious!  I obviously enjoyed the Choco Bigger.  (I don't know why I have crazy eyes!)

 

Shopping for snacks and drinks.  Abby is always posing!

Here's the mandatory picture of me in a mirror!  Applying lots of sunscreen before heading down to the beach.

We were the only ones on the beach.  It was lovely!

Planes continued to take off and land over our heads.

We had dinner at Villa Romantica.  It was nice, but there were lots of flying bugs (and a crab).

 

I forgot to take pictures of the food - but we clearly enjoyed it.  (Abby is still posing!)

 

This was our sweet ride...the restaurant actually picked us up from our hotel and took us back again after our meal.

Just a little "musical mattresses" before bed.  Jessica's bed was completely wet because the AC had leaked.  So, we loaned her our extra mattress.

South American Cruise

You may have heard that we recently returned from a trip of a lifetime...a South American cruise...around Cape Horn!!! It was wonderful - we had so much fun! We experienced so many wonderful things and we will never forget the amazing time we had!

I've been working hard to compile a video from all the footage I had and create a nice summary of our trip. I finally finished the video...and it's 15 minutes long! I know...that's long, but we were gone for TWO weeks. So, I decided it was ok. If I wanted it to accurately portray our vacation, I couldn't trim away anymore! I guess if you think it's too long - just stop watching. Or, don't start! :)

However, because the video is so long, the file was too big to upload! I had to upload it at a lower resolution just to make it work. Therefore, the video quality isn't the greatest, but you can still get an idea for what our trip was like. (If you're ever at our house, you can watch the higher resolution with us!)

We had a lot of fun and hope you enjoy the video:

South American Cruise from Kara Hurt on Vimeo.

Week 42

October 16
On our way back to Panama, we had a 12-hour layover in Newark. Instead of sleep all day in the airport, we went in to New York City to see some sights. We were really tired from our overnight flight, but we were able to take a tour bus around and see the highlights. It was fun!

October 17
We bought a lot of goodies in the US. My favorite candy, Peanut Butter M&Ms, were available in snack sizes because of Halloween so I bought a bunch. The bag in this picture is from the pie we bought at Shari's. It was a delicious pie!

October 18
Happy Birthday to me! I celebrated my birthday before we left Oregon and again when my co-workers threw me a surprise party so I didn't really do anything on the evening of my birthday (other than eat from my favorite restaurant here). Instead, I went to Bible Study and helped prepare for the women's retreat. It was a good birthday.

October 19
Bill is sick. Too much vacationing and changing temperatures! He started his last two classes this week but he's been very sick.

October 20
Coming back from vacation is so much work. My desk is a mess and it bothers me that I don't have time to clean it up. The upcoming weeks look just as busy so I'm afraid my desk won't get cleaned off for a while! Uggh!

October 21
We had our Women's Retreat this weekend. It was fun to share a room with Abby, Amber and Jen. We had a really good time!

October 22
The hotel where we had our retreat was really nice...including a beautiful pool! What a fun time with great friends!

Week 41

October 9
While we were in the US, we spent a lot of time shopping. (There are many things you miss from America when you live in a foreign country.) We also had shopping lists from several of our friends for things to bring back. We were out all day and went to many fun stores - but I forgot to take pictures. The only time I took pictures was in Walmart - of the Christmas blow-up lawn decorations (for a friend in Panama). At least this picture represents the vast randomness of our shopping list...it was so fun!

October 10
Much of my focus during a vacation to the US is on food...and enjoying the restaurants I can't go to when I'm gone. So, we ate out everyday - sometimes twice a day. Here is our second visit to Shari's (a diner-type chain). I love Shari's!! And, what a beautiful Oregon fall day it was!!

October 11
Another day, another restaurant! Dinner at Red Lobster, if only for the CHEDDAR BAY BISCUITS!! I ate so many biscuits and they were delicious. The other food was good too - but those biscuits are amazing!!

October 12
Tonight we went downtown to the Old Spaghetti Factory on the river. It was dark so we couldn't really see the river, but it's such a fun restaurant. We had one of the back rooms almost to ourselves. And, delicious food!

October 13
This is my future kitchen...I hope. Except, we're going to completely remodel it. So, this is the "before" shot and someday I hope to show you the "after" shot. We spent three hours at the house and I forgot to take a picture of the outside. Oh well! This is inside the house we hope to buy!

October 14
Yes, another restaurant. This time we stayed home and made the food come to us!! Bellagio's Pizza is what we served at our wedding and it is still one of our favorites. The chicken pesto pizza is so good. Again, I was so excited to eat that I didn't take a picture until the end...these are the leftovers!

October 15
Watching the Oregon game...in the airport. We bought tickets to go to this game (it was supposed to be in the afternoon of the day we were scheduled to leave Oregon) but then the kick-off time changed and we couldn't go (because it conflicted with our flight). Sadly, we were only able to watch part of it in the airport...and we were wishing we could have been in the stands!

Week 40

October 2
The road construction near our house includes a new traffic circle. Apparently people don't know how to use it because they've recently put up instructions on how to enter the circle - incoming traffic has to yield. Hopefully this will help the traffic, but we aren't holding our breath.

October 3
Bacon doesn't like it when Ubi goes outside. She whines at the front door while he's gone. And when he starts to come back, she hides next to the door to jump out and scare him.

October 4
I went to the airport with Bill again today while he did his mail run. It's fun to sit on the tarmac and see everything that goes on. You really feel like you're part of the action!

October 5
I was able to take a special tour of the locks on the Panama Canal. We even crossed over the locks and visited the control booth. It was really cool! We watched as large container ships passed by - we were so close to the action! The picture below shows we were between the two lanes of locks on the canal - not many people get to do that!

October 6
Here is another monthly picture of me. I'm taking it early this month because we leave for vacation tomorrow!! I can't wait!

October 7
We traveled all day! It was an exhausting trip, but we finally made it. In Houston, we changed terminals and got to ride on the little train - that was fun. In our new terminal, there was a Chili's restaurant and I was beyond excited to get a chance to eat at Chili's. However, when we got there it was closed...at 7:00 PM!! I was very, very sad. No Chili's for me on this trip!

October 8
Our first day in America. It was a beautiful day! We must have brought the sunshine with us. It was so nice that we put the top down on Bill's car and drove around. What a lovely day!!

Week 22

May 29

Still in Bocas, we went on a day trip to see dolphins. It was tons of fun...we circled around them and they circled around us. When you see them up close, they are so much bigger than expected. I like dolphins! (My pictures of the dolphins weren't so good because my camera is slow. Check out Bill's photo's, they are much better!!)

May 30
This was the dock outside our room...our own personal dock. We went swimming and snorkeling right outside our room. It was a lot of fun and SO beautiful!

May 31
Another coffee maker. I don't even drink coffee, but we have 4 coffee makers. This one came with travel mugs and makes two separate cups at a time. Fancy!

June 1
Out to dinner at our favorite restaurant. Not exactly healthy, but we were invited by someone else and I just couldn't say no! Pesto pasta is delicious!

June 2
This is a healthier meal. Sauteed fish and green beans. We added a little rice because it was leftover. We really are trying to eat healthier.

June 3
Looking for houses online. I'm ready to buy a house! We found a really great one, but then someone else bought it. I guess it wasn't meant to be ours...too bad.

June 4

We attended a graduation party...congratulations, Megan!! We'll miss you!