Real Life: Last Week This Week All the Weeks

A week ago tonight we got back home after our 9 day getaway to our Caribbean island/another planet. I had a million unread emails and five conference calls scheduled for Tuesday, the kids were suddenly at home and very much not back in school as planned, stores were empty, and James was facing a $0 session in what is usually his most lucrative season. It was kind of a lot. But it worked, so here's all the filler from the last week that I missed writing while working and mentally revisiting Curacao as much as possible.

~ ~ ~ Home School:

James took over schooling and has been doing such an amazing job that I frankly find him at least 50% even more attractive than I did before. He has such creative ideas- today he asked the big kids to design a Jumanji game (we watched Jumanji 2 on Friday night; loved it!). They needed to create at least 3 characters, name them and give them strengths and weaknesses, and then create 3 levels, each featuring at least one animal or topological challenge. The kids can illustrate them and write a narrative for each level describing how the characters do, how their strengths and weaknesses come into play, and how the facts they've researched about the animal or land challenge try to defeat them. It's GREAT.

When I took a break from reviewing documents, Landon couldn't wait to read me his characters and first level (alligators in a swamp with trees and long vines that are sometimes actually snakes; did you know alligators can run up to 20 mph? I do now!). There's math facts contests and their still-evolving business plan (currently working out an advertising budget), PE challenges and reading time, art and writing letters... we're not yet using any of the suggested online programs, but our school hasn't started distance learning (and may not; we have a large population of low economic status students, I'm not sure distance learning can work for us?), so nothing is specifically required.

We likely have many weeks to go and I'm sure there will be many bumps along the way, but I love that the art room I designed last Spring is getting so much use and everyone is getting some joy from our current schedule. I love that the kids are getting this time with their dad and that I get to pop in and enjoy it on the sidelines. I can't wait to hear their Jumanji games- Claire has a character named Rebecca (that's me) and I'm just sure she's going to win.

Always a winner, though probably not in Jumanji

A funny story from one of last week's "science lessons," watching "Our Planet" on Netflix. A few minutes in to Episode 1 the camera zooms in on a small bird, trailing behind his block on the Peruvian coast:

Landon: Oh that baby bird's a goner for sure.

Claire: What?! No! He might make it!!

Cora: WHERE IS THAT BIRD'S MOM?!!

...

Landon: Told ya.

A learning experience for all. Cora was quickly switched to art. Disney may have conditioned her to expect parents to die, but the baby birds should all make it!

In real science class news, my expert biologist teacher-of-the-year-too-many-times-to-keep-giving-it-to-her mama is going to teach the kids and some of their friends a science lesson on viruses this Wednesday morning! It's going to be great and I think we'll all learn a lot from Professor Gigi.

Super into perler beads right now

~ ~ ~ Exercise:

One thing that has been helping my sanity is getting out for walks with the kids during lunch or as soon as I sign off from my computer. James has great PE lessons- running sprints back and forth in front of the house; doing lunges and other bits of dry land in our back yard; biking while he runs a few miles through the neighborhood, but after 3 days of just sitting in my repurposed kitchen/desk chair in my bedroom, I decided I should move too. So last week I took the kids on a long walk and we met a fellow yoga teacher trainee and her bird! In her backpack! While not strictly socially distanced (though I tried to keep them only behind her), each kid got to "hold" the bird on their finger through her backpack while she said hello to Maggie.

It was a glorious meeting of human, avian, and canine, and the kids have brought it up daily ever since.

On Saturday I finally decided I needed to actually work out. As of last week I've been a barre instructor for 5 years and am a certified yoga teacher- both forms of exercise are well suited to working out at home, so you'd think of all people I could manage a workout or two but NO. NONE, I just cannot do it. Just let me sit braless in my same pj pants and sweatshirt for 3 days and let's pretend it's required under the quarantine rules.

But after watching James work out daily I decided I could put out the slightest effort so I put on workout clothes and a real sports bra (ugh, it felt like such big step and I worry for when I need to wear real clothes to work again) and went for a run.

A RUN.

Landon, post PE

And dammit, it felt freaking great.

Then I came home and did a quick 20 minute yoga flow and that ALSO felt great.

Which was annoying because now I have no excuse not to get on my mat every day. I got a very sweet email from a blog reader asking me to stream a class AND I might be doing a Zoom class for my Urban Yoga studio next Sunday, so I'll keep you posted!

Today I did my run at lunch. I ran 2.5 miles and it didn't even feel terrible and I think this may be a thing I do now? The kids went with me, the girls on bikes and Landon LITERALLY running circles around me the whole time and it was actually pretty great. Even if I wasn't wearing pj's.

Ugh.

~ ~ ~ Housekeeping:

We told our housekeeper to stay home this week (and I'm sure for the next several weeks) to keep her safe and follow the "essential employees only" measures of our county. I actually consider our housekeeper one of the most essential people in my life, but sadly that's not the public health yardstick we're using here. We still paid her of course- she's been with us since I went back to work after Cora was born, and while I'm sure some people truly can't afford to keep making payments for things like that, I am still getting paid, even if James isn't, and we can do the right thing. She was very appreciative and I hope very much that most of her clients are doing the same.

This decision gave us the chance to teach out kids how to clean a bathroom, something I'm honestly pretty embarrassed to realize they had never done before, so personal growth opportunities abound! They were not exactly thrilled, but I gave them each a bathroom (I helped Cora with ours) and they cleaned showers and bathtubs, scrubbed sinks and toilets, mopped the floors, and cleaned the mirrors. They actually did a really great job and, the above picture notwithstanding, were pretty doggedly cheerful about it. I also divided up the house into two parts for vacuuming and dusting and they each changed the sheets on their beds. It was really good, like a life skills home school lesson, and opened my eyes to the fact that though I grew up doing those chores regularly, my children have not and I'm glad they're learning them now.

Their regular chores continue of course (someone asked me about this a while ago but I never listed them): Landon (12.75) does all his laundry, washes the dishes every night, walks Maggie in the morning, and takes out the recycle whenever it's full. Claire (9.75) folds and puts away her laundry (I start and switch it), wipes the table after dinner, empties the dishwasher each morning, and takes out the trash when it's full. Cora (6.25) does the same as Claire with her clothes, clears off the table after dinner, and feeds Maggie both her meals. They also take the big trash cans down to the street for collection and bring them back up once per week, scoop poop in the backyard, and keep their rooms/cubbies straightened up and help with whatever else is asked. In return they get room and board and pretty great vacations; they don't really complain too often, though Landon's wail of "But I have to do ALL THE THINGS" when asked to take out the trash a few years ago remains a family-favorite response to nearly everything.

~ ~ ~ Socially Distant Neighboring:

An upside to everyone being home is that everyone has been going on a lot of walks. We've had many friends walk by our house and give a shout so we can wave and yell hi from our front porch. Landon yelled "bro" back and forth to one of his buddies just today and both seemed to get enormous joy from doing so. A sweet older neighbor at the end of our street lost her husband earlier this year. It was her birthday on Sunday, so we all brought our own drinks and stood in the corners of our yards and sang to her while she sat on a chair in her yard drinking a bottle of champagne. The kids brought her cards the next day and taped them on her door. It was lovely and I met a few neighbors I hadn't actually seen yet! Though every single one knew our dog and she's only lived here a year. (Our 8th anniversary of moving here was also last week; hard to believe, honestly.)

Famous; uses her powers for good.

~ ~ ~ Food

As I noted, we stocked up on essentials before we left on our trip, but cleared our refrigerator of anything perishable (as is tradition before going on a long trip, Saturday's dinner was a very strange one). Then we got home Monday night and stores were absolutely empty, and we were trying to quarantine ourselves after going through Customs and hanging out in the International Terminal at MIA for 6 hours, so we weren't doing much shopping. This was fine- I had provisions!- and we cobbled together meals from the freezer and pantry, supplemented with James's short Lysol covered forays out to our local store for attempts at finding bread, milk, eggs and produce. He tried twice and came home with a few things each time, but we mostly hunkered down.

On Saturday night we did our first takeout order. We're trying to balance our duty to quarantine, with our limited budget (James's swim school income is $0 for the foreseeable future) and my need to use the food that we stocked, with our love of food (the only downside to Curacao was an extreme lack of restaurants so we made pretty much all our own meals) and desire to support our local businesses. Finally, on Saturday, I decided it was time. We ordered a family fajita pack from our local Chuy's which included a ton of steak, all the sides and toppings, lots queso, jalapeno ranch, more chips than we could eat in a week, some fresh produce (the catering director said they're trying to use up inventory), and a big roll of toilet paper. It was $50 and it was GREAT. And we had the leftover steak and sides with breakfast tacos the next morning. I'm thinking we may try to do that once a week until this is over? That's twice as much as we normally eat out, but I'm also eating all my lunches at home, so I think it balances. TBD.

Fueled by fajitas, I decided to do our regular weekly grocery shopping as early as possible on Sunday morning. Our family of five, with a James who eats for another 4, is like a pack of locusts going through our stock and our weekly shopping is usually pretty voluminous, so I was worried about how much we could get. I was in the parking lot at 7 a.m., my first time driving since before we left on our trip, to see my first store in our new Coronavirus restriction measure world. Our Kroger was pretty well stocked- they'd gotten in trucks the night before, but plenty of shelves were eerily empty. They were limiting all customers to only 3 of any item (which is great, but it turned out to be 3 of any CATEGORY of item, which I didn't know until I went to check out and felt like a dirty food hoarder, apologizing and removing things from the belt), but I was able to get much of my list. Or substitutes for much of my list. By the time I was done the store was getting more full and it was harder to keep a distance from people. I couldn't get any fresh meat, so I went for ham hocks (pea soup!), smoked turkey sausage (red beans and rice and jambalaya!), and tried to adjust my other ingredients on the fly. It was an interesting experience, made all the more so after my 16 days away from our usual errands. A LOT has changed since I last ran to the store the day before we left on March 7th.

My cart was full and I was getting some looks from people as they went about shopping. It seems like maybe it would be better to shop for less more often, but we're trying to limit going out, so I don't know. I truly only got what we would eat over the next 5 days, and I carefully considered each item before placing it in my cart, it's just that we need a lot of food!

James went to Trader Joe's 20 minutes before it opened to try to get what I could not. There was a line and they were limited how many were in the small store at a time. He was able to fill in my gaps (chicken! bread! milk! one green pepper and two onions! refried beans because I went over my 3 "canned good" allotment at Kroger!) and we should be good for the next week. So with that background, here's our menu:

Sunday: Crock Pot Creamy Ranch Chicken and Potatoes. (My sister sent around this recipe on Saturday and it was the perfect thing to use up half a bag of potatoes (that bag representing one of the only produce items James was able to get last week), a bag of baby carrots, and some frozen chicken breasts I had bought before we left. I always have brown rice on hand and happened to have a Ranch packet in my pantry's recesses! It was very good, though I recommend doubling the Ranch packets, something my sister didn't tell me she'd done until after we were eating it. The flavors were there, but needed more oomph.)

Monday: Split Pea Soup. (I added about a tablespoon each of onion powder and garlic powder because they make almost everything better. It smells amazing as I type this.)

Tuesday: Tacos (thanks to frozen Costco ground beef purchased before we left), Mexican Rice, Refried Beans; available toppings: diced fresh tomato (yay!), sliced black olives from the last can on the shelf, shredded cheese.

Wednesday: Creamy Pesto Pasta with Chicken and Broccoli. (I make this up as I go. Start with a bunch of pesto in a large saute pan- I had the Costco container still in my fridge and it lasts a while- warm it up, add heavy cream, stir around let it thicken. Add in cooked pasta (we'll do whole wheat rotini) and cooked chicken cut into strips. I'll probably dump the broccoli into the boiling pasta water the last couple minutes of cooking so it gets added with the pasta too.)

Thursday: Red Beans & Rice. (The store was out of the small red beans I prefer, but they had dried red kidney and that should work.)

Friday: Homemade Personal Pizzas, hopefully with some leftover fruit or veggies. (I use this recipe for the dough, jarred pasta sauce for the sauce, and whatever mix of cheese and toppings are left in the fridge.)

Saturday: Chili and Mac & Cheese. (The mac & cheese is family style Blue Box goodness courtesy of Kroger and I don't care who knows it. Chili recipe based on this one, but with shredded carrot added in the saute step, and a can of pinto beans and 1 tsp. of paprika added after that. I like a generous spoon of mac & cheese in the middle of my bowl with the chili spooned over the top. Shredded cheese and fritos on top of that for the perfect savory sundae.)

Sunday: Hopefully another curbside takeout meal from somewhere local and delicious.

Lunches: I was able to get deli meats and one bag of wheat rolls, so today was sandwiches for all. We did a breakfast taco brunch on Sunday that was delicious and are offering an option of leftovers from the night before or sandwiches for the rest of the week. We have apples this week and cucumbers for Cora (our little fruit-hater we keep thinking will change) and bell pepper for all. It's a pretty normal week meal-wise and we feel very lucky to be able to say that.

Hope you are all doing well! Thank you for your comments on the last few posts, they give me a smile and feel a little less isolated each time one pops up.

Curaçao Day 5: Blue Room Success, Sea Turtles, and Jumping Off All the Cliffs

I continue to blog backwards and forward. I will admit to feeling a little silly travel blogging as a virus wages war on the entire globe, so I hope very much these posts are taken (or ignored! also fine!) with the spirit with which they are intended. These are bizarre and scary times and we all need our escapes. I can feel the gravity of our current situation and feel fear for my friends in the medical profession, concern for my elderly loved ones, and empathy for those whose livelihoods have already been decimated or made very uncertain in the last few weeks, and also enjoy looking back and telling a story of our travels one short/INCREDIBLY LONG week ago. I think we're all operating on a lot of different levels and if you enjoy travel escapism like I do, please enjoy the below and let me know your favorite trip you've ever taken and/or your dream place to travel. It would be nice to spend some time googling something beautiful and day dreaming of the future.

Friday morning office meeting;
my 3rd day in those pajamas

In the present, working and schooling from home continues to go smoother with each day. I expect that to slide backwards at some point and we certainly have our highs and lows within each day (and hour), but after my meltdown on Tuesday (sobbing, sobbing when the backlog of post-vacation work hit me in the face along with all our changed circumstances after getting home very late the night before), James has completely taken over our kids' daytime school schedule and that has made life possible. I still pop in and help- I don't actually like working behind the closed door of my bedroom all day while they make memories and do math (my love) and other academic things in the sun room, but he owns it and runs it and I have honest to god fallen more in love with him listening through the door. It's a powerful thing when your partner thoroughly steps up for you and I want to capture this feeling because there will absolutely be bumps in the road along the way.

Video we made for my parents who had just sent the kids a treat to buy a new book

I love that they're getting to see the Finance degree and MBA side of their dad. None of them really remember that he used to wear suits and work with spreadsheets all day. It's been fun for me to hear it too. I also have an emotional support bulldog who is here for us.

I sincerely hope you all are doing well, and if you aren't, let me know that too.

~ ~ ~

And now going backwards- we're at last Thursday, Day 5, in Curaçao.

Each night I'd go to bed thinking we'd wake up early, but we slept in every day (well, except the next day, but we'll get to that), waking up lazily with the sun already shining high on the ocean behind our house. And because we had seven full days and no itinerary or excursions, we could! I usually woke up first and went to make tea to sip while watching the water. The kids tumbled down the stairs around 8 and James would emerge a little while after to make breakfast for everyone. On this particular day we made breakfast tacos with eggs, potatoes, black beans, and cheese (they had the BEST cheese) and this enormous avocado half we bought for $1.80 (i.e., super cheap for something fresh on the island) that was creamy and delicious and HUGE.

While everyone ate breakfast I packed lunches with our Dutch deli meats and cheeses and super delicious wheat rolls, apples, and chips. We had waited our two days and we were going to hike to The Blue Room! And this time we were going to take the EASIER PATH!

We planned to do some exploring of other beaches post-hike, so we piled the back of the car with our cooler (all the gratitude to the homeowner for providing one, with copious blue ice), extra snacks, snorkel equipment, snorkel vests, water shoes, towels, water bottles, and waterproof cases. Once parked back at Playa Santa Cruz we again saddled up with what we needed for the actual hike, jump, and swim, knowing we couldn't leave anything on the rocks behind us. James wore the waterproof case to put our phones, keys, and glasses, the kids wore their inflatable vests, and we all wore our thin water shoes. The path was MUCH more open and easy to traverse (and shorter! omg I still can't believe we did the other "scenic" route).

But first, you walk through a very narrow path between Playa Santa Cruz and the secret black sand beach of Playa Santu Pretu. And about 5 steps into the first path, Claire slipped, threw her hand out to catch herself, and caught a cactus full-on instead.

The scream was blood curdling. We raced over and saw about 12 long thorns sticking out of her hand and at least 100 smaller ones. She was writhing and sobbing and James held her hand still with his left hand while we both used our right to surgically pick out every single thorn, blood dripping as we went. It was awful.

We got all the thorns out, she could flex and move her hand, though it hurt, and we rinsed her hand in the salt water of the beach. She wasn't bleeding anymore and she said she wanted to hike, so off we went, wondering if perhaps we weren't meant to do this.

The easy path, while far more open (and easy!) was HOT and sunny. Curaçao is an arid climate with cacti and scrubby thorny bushes and very few trees. At one point, Cora realized she was no longer holding Landon's goggles. She seemed befuddled as to where they could have gone, so we waited under a tiny tree while James jogged the path back, scanning for goggles along the way. Luckily, it wasn't too long when we heard his happy shout. He jogged back, dripping in sweat in his rashguard and we pressed on. And after what should have only been a 20 minute walk, we got to the turn-off to The Blue Room entrance.

And after 5 (?) minutes on the narrower path, we got to the rocks and coral and little blue dots that show you where to jump in.

We donned our gear, left only our two water bottles, and jumped in the gorgeous blue water.

And after hiking in long sleeve rash guards in felt AMAZING. What a gorgeous spot, and in the now much calmer water (we could now appreciate what the kind local told us two days before, there was NO WAY we could have entered the cave that day; the ocean was entirely different now), we could see how crystal clear and beautiful it was.

We swam over to the right, finding the opening to the cave. When the waves rolled in, the entrance disappeared, when the waves rolled out, the entrance was visible again, so you needed to be prepared to swim about 10 feet underwater before you could pop back up inside the cave with its much taller ceiling.

James and Cora went first. We semi-inflated each kid's vest, so they could go underwater, but it would also pull them up if needed. James held Cora's upper arm while they swam and took her through. I'll admit to a little gasp when the wave came in and their heads rose to nearly hit the cave entrance before James pulled her underwater to kick the rest of the way, but I heard her delighted shout once they were in. I sent Landon just ahead of me while I took Claire. We took a big breath when we felt the water rise, put our hands up to not hit our heads on the entrance ceiling, and kicked like crazy, popping up on the other side.

And wow. It was a truly extraordinary site. I use a lot of superlatives already, so I don't know what I can add here, but the unearthly blue glow of the water was simply a wonder.

The waves kept crashing in, as waves do, so it was hard to stay still and get out the camera (we'd found ours didn't like taking pictures through the smaller pouches), but James managed these two and they don't come close to capturing the glow. The cave was lighter than it seems in the photo, and the blue glow truly electric... the waves would roll in and out, adding more light and taking it away, but the glow of the sun off the white sand below stayed constant.

While it's incredible, and well worth the hike, there's not a whole lot to do inside, so once we'd all soaked it up and swam around we made our exit.

And stayed to jump off the cliffs and snorkel and splash in the beautiful water of our own private set of cliffs and patch of coral.

Cora, feeling IMMENSELY pleased with herself after swimming to an underwater cave like some kind of super hero, did her first cliff jump! Her leap into the water brought her up beaming, and if the climb back out wasn't so hard (basically a full body press up, with coral to avoid), she would have done it 100 more times instead of 2.

Eventually we got our stuff together to hike back, knowing the car (and lunch!) was a good 30 minutes away and I know to ALWAYS leave when the kids are still having fun and think they could stay forever- you need that happy stamina for the walk back.

We ate at Playa Santa Cruz where we'd parked the car pre-cactus-attack and Blue-Room-swim. The kids splashed, the beach was empty, and I sat at our picnic table under a palapa and drank the Amstel Bright I'd packed along with the food.

It was now about 1 p.m. and flush with the joy at being among those who have seen the inside of the Blue Room (we felt like we'd been inside Aladdin's Cave or something), we decided to hit up another new experience- swimming with the sea turtles at Playa Grandi, about a 10 minute drive north from Playa Santa Cruz.

the roads; so crazy the gorgeous ocean is only a few hundred yards over to the left

We parked at Playa Forti, which we had discovered and loved the night before, with a plan to snorkel over to Playa Grandi which was only a few hundred yards up the coral-lined coast. (You could also park at Playa Grandi, but it's a smaller beach that was more crowded and we knew we wanted to end with more cliff jumping at Forti; they're very close together.)

I don't have any pictures of this next part because we kept our cameras in the waterproof pouch James wore around his waist, but I'll never forget it anyway. We got everyone's fins and snorkels and masks on at Forti, and set about on a slow float along the coast. The coral was vibrant and beautiful and there were a TON of fish. We saw so many: Parrotfish, Angelfish, Butterflyfish, Eels, Needlefish, and tons more I don't know the names of, and Cora's little happy scream through her snorkel every time she saw something new and beautiful was my favorite thing.

As we got closer to the anchored fishing boats of Playa Grandi we saw our first hazy shadow in the deeper water. As we swam closer we saw that it was a turtle! A beautiful, graceful, silent turtle, just swimming around in the crystal clear water. We swam further out, among the boats, and saw two more HUGE turtles. One had a shell that was at least 3 feet long and was about the size of Cora. We dove underwater, swimming closer (no touching! but to give you an idea of proximity, you absolutely could have), simply in awe of these enormous graceful creatures swimming through the ocean beside us.

Seeing Cora (and all the kids!) dive under, her face light up in joy, kicking alongside a giant turtle is something I will never, ever forget. We probably saw 20? They'd swim off deeper and we'd wave goodbye and then you'd see another shadowy shape in the distance that would slowly become clearer. We saw medium ones, small ones, and at least 8 huge ones. It's my favorite memory of the whole trip.

After our sea turtle adventure, we swam back to Playa Forti, admiring the coral fish along the way. James and the big kids practically ran up the stairs to get to their cliff jumping while I stayed down to let Cora play on the sand a bit. There aren't any chairs or shade at Forti (it's a tiny beach), so after 15 minutes or so I decided to seek shade at the cliff restaurant where my children had been entertaining customers with their leaps.

Lunch felt like a lifetime ago, so I ordered a few snacks- fried funchi (polenta) which is Landon's new love, and tostones (fried mashed plantain) which he remembered fondly from Costa Rica. I also got a drink with blue Curacao, which felt like the right thing to do.

There are iguanas all over the island and several live on the cliffs at Forti. I felt this one was posing just for me, so I took his picture.

Hello Good Sir.

James and the big kids jumped a few more times (each one takes a while as you have to swim about 75 yards to shore, walk up the many stairs and across the parking lot to the edge of the cliff again) and Cora and I enjoyed our corner table, snacks, and the spectacular view. The water remained a marvel- I took this while walking back from the car of the big kids swimming to shore in the deep water below.

We finally packed it up and went back to the house around 5? 6? I have no idea.

The kids explored the caves for a bit, we all enjoyed the sunset, and then James and I made dinner- a big salad with farro for James and I and small salads with mac & cheese I'd packed from home for the kids. I drank Prosecco and we all faced the ocean at our table, quietly eating, enjoying the view, and feeling very ready for bad. It was a great day.

(All Curaçao posts tagged here.)

Curaçao Day 4: Downtown Willemstad and the Tall Cliffs and Water Rescues of Playa Forti

Real life update: Today was a much smoother day. I installed another folding table desk in our bedroom and spent most of the day there on calls and responding to emails without distraction, while popping out occasionally to interact with my family because if I live in a room by myself for 8 hours all day I will either go insane or get severely depressed or both. James handled the schooling with aplomb and the kids are doing some fun, creative, and personalized things. I took a 3 mile walk with the kids at my lunch and their "PE" time and James took a break. Maggie's love is big enough to hold all of us. She loves the quarantine ad she loves you. She is the home-bound hero we all need. It was a good day.

~ ~ ~

So let's go back to precisely one week ago when we woke up and enjoyed a lazy breakfast at our rental house on the undeveloped, but crazy gorgeous west side of Curaçao. The day before we had run into a fisherman when walking back from The Blue Room attempt who said we should "come back in 2 days, let the sand settle," so we decided to follow his advice and head into town for the day instead.

And so we drove 35 minutes to the capitol city of Willemstad! We parked at the Renaissance Parking garage (free and very close to all the things), explored the Rifort (fort built in the early 1800's to protect the port), and then headed to the famous floating Queen Emma Bridge.

And it really does float! I thought James might get sea sick, but he held it together while we crossed over to the city.

The colorful buildings are so fun and after two days without really seeing or interacting with anyone, we enjoyed the gentle bustle of crowds and the mixture of languages being bandied about.

The kids were each given $5 to buy a souvenir and the care and excitement and agony that went into those purchasing decisions was truly something to behold.

We wandered narrow alleys between the brightly colored buildings and eventually ate a fantastic Dutch Caribbean lunch at a tiny café tucked between shops.

The big kids had thick yet fluffy pancakes with fruit and banana bread, Cora had a ham and cheese arepa, James had many things, and I had the most amazing giant shaved steak double layer sandwich with a full salad in the bottom half and steak, cheese, and a fried egg in the top half. It was made of magic and I miss it very much.

Along with my daytime mojito. Because that's a thing you can do on vacation.

It was super hot, so we tried to stick to the shade as we wandered around, popping into tiny shops, admiring murals, and exclaiming over Caribbean bulldogs.

"Look mom! It's Maggie!!"

Landon purchased a tiny iguana made of painted shells and Cora bought a bracelet. Claire never made her decision and left empty-handed, which is highly unusual for her. Usually she's the first to spend her cash (and the first to lose/forget what she spent it on). We found a city park across the bridge, so of course had to stop there for a bit. The kids reminisced about that time we found a park on a public beach in Playa del Carmen, Mexico and how it's equipment was just like ours at home but this one was different. I love hearing how they view their world travels: through the lens of playground equipment.

The slide was judged to have a design flaw, but they loved all the things that spun.

Cora got a stop at Dutch Treat at the end of the bridge, since the kids got smoothies with lunch and she hates fruit and all its flavors. She went with a chocolate ice cream bar and who can blame her.

We walked back to our car, meandering through the fort, and headed home, stopping at the only big grocery store on the island for more provisions. We were now basically experts at shopping in Dutch and got just enough to see us through the second half of our stay.

Once home we changed into suits and headed out for a late beach trip to a new destination: Playa Forti, with its promise of tall cliffs for jumping, many iguanas, and great snorkeling. Those were literally the bullet points I made during my pre-vacation research and MAN did it live up to them. I think we stopped here every day for the rest of our trip.

The beach is named for the old fort that sits atop the cliffs and now serves as the foundation for the restaurant that sits there today. I had many a snack and/or beverage there watching my husband and children throw themselves off the cliff to the applause and shock of the other people eating. I couldn't even tell you how many videos there must be of Claire flying off- a whole table sitting by the edge of the patio gasped, and then cheered when Claire surfaced with a huge grin.

But on that Wednesday, I felt that I needed to lend my beauty and grace to the proceedings and show my kids that mom grew up jumping off tall things on vacation too.

You guys, it was REALLY high. Forty feet high, per my google searches, and, while I'm not afraid of heights and really did throw myself off stuff with regularity as a child, my stomach flipped a bit when looking over the edge.

But I jumped.

And I fell forever and did like 6 different weird things with my arms until I hit the water and bruised them.

There is a coral reef near the cliffs that had amazing snorkeling and, having proved that I could jump off the cliffs if I wanted to, I sat on the beach watching Cora splash in the water while James and the big kids continued leaping, swimming 75 yards to shore, climbing the stairs and walking across the restaurant parking lot, and jumping again.

It was a gorgeous evening.

that little dot floating by the cliff is James

When we were getting close to wrapping it up and heading home, a new group of tourists arrived in the parking lot. Two of them decided they should also jump into the water and followed after James's last jump, nearly landing on him. James swam to shore and then the next thing we knew their friends were yelling "help! they can't swim!" and the two jumpers were sinking.

Luckily (and seriously SO MUCH LUCKILY; we were the only other people on the beach the whole time we were there), a strong swimmer, trained lifeguard, and CPR certified President of the Fort Worth Drowning Prevention Coalition was there on the shore to swim back out and rescue them both. And because he is trained, he knew how to do it safely, without putting himself at risk with two large panicked men in very deep water in the ocean without a ring or other flotation device to help him move them the 75 yards to shore.

Both men are fine and I told James later that makes five people he's water rescued in our time together. There are literally people on the earth who might not be if not for him and that's pretty amazing.

We went home and made tacos for dinner. The kids went to bed (it was a 3 bedroom house but they all insisted on sharing one room while the other stayed empty) and, as became our tradition, James and I sat out on the balcony, listening to the waves and enjoying the breeze for another hour or two, chatting and resting up before the next day's adventure would begin.

(All Curaçao posts tagged here.)