We're not in Kansas anymore!: Packing Up!

The past five months have flown by. We have two more days here....hard to believe.

Cher on Hurricane

My friend Cher was planning to be here for a 10 day visit and leave on April 17th. But she loved it here like we do....so she extended her stay until the 20th. Having her down her helped keep us busy and our minds off what we needed to do.....which is get ready to leave.

Classy....drinking jumbo size beers in the pool!

Beach at Sosua Oceal Village

Dinner at Gorditos

Jim went with us - but couldn't put down his Ipad

Dr. Bob - Herm's doctor

We had a great time taking Cher to our favorite spots....sometimes a couple of times. She also went with us to take Herm to the vet to get his health certificate.

Dr. Bob's Office

Oreo wanting to know when she can go back to the beach!

We've also been pet sitting! Our neighbors Pat and Angie are in Montana for a bit. Angie had some health issues she need to get taken care of and Pat went back to help her recover. We are taking care of their three dogs. One is their spoiled little Shitzu Oreo and the other two are the "security dogs" Houdini and Angel (Angel is the street dog I found and had spayed and Pat agreed to take her). Thankfully Cher was her to help with spoiled little Oreo as she likes a lot of attention. Now that Cher is gone, Matt and I are doing the best we can. She is really a good girl and is accustomed to going our with her people where ever they go.

Oreo at the Beach

Angel always has a sweet hello for me!

Houdini wants some attention too!

Dinner, Cabarete Style! Grilled Langostinos!

Matt dug our suitcases out and we're starting to think about filling them up....maybe tomorrow. We've done a good job of emptying our fridge.....so looks like we'll be eating out the last few days. But that's OK, lots of great restaurants in this town!

Angel trying to teach me Spanish!

My Spanish tutor, Angel, proposed that we work together every night my last week....sort of a mini-immersion class. He gave me a great discount to do this but I have a lot of homework. Don't want to disappoint him so I try very hard. I actually am able to "think" in Spanish much better now....but actually getting my thoughts out as words is still hard. And I guess I could have found a tutor that wasn't so dang cute, but why?

Saturday my neighbor Jim and I took our motorcycles up to La Cumbre. This is absolutely my favorite ride and was so glad to get the opportunity to do this mountain ride one more time. Jim was test driving a bike he wasn't familiar with so he went much slower than what I'm accustomed. I told Matt that Jim drove like a "vieja". When I did this trip with the Lush Ladies we kept our speed about 45 kilometers per hour, which was nice and comfortable. Jim was good at that speed up hill, but going down hill he was going 20 KPH. The upside is that I saw a lot of great scenery I hadn't noticed before! We went to El Rancho for lunch and admired the view but then we needed to move....Jim's girlfriend was arriving on the flight from Miami. I thought that might inspire him to move a little faster on the down hill trip......but not so much. But then we reached the bottom of the mountain and he was flying! He said he was up to 70 KPH....the fastest I'd every been on that bike was 50 KPH. So quite the trip.....but a great one. Always fun with Jim!

Sunrise from our balcony

One of the reasons why I love it here is how beautiful this country is. Everywhere we go here has a special and different kind of beauty. But some of my favorite views are from our condo Gorgeous view from either our back balcony or our front door.