7-28-2017 Florida Business Trip

Last minute we had to make a trip to Florida to take care of some business in person. Unfortunately, not everything got done
on Friday, so we would have to go back on Monday. That left us with a decision of what to do over the weekend.

We decided to explore the historic downtown of nearby Pensacola and consider our options.

We only explored a little bit then stopped for a drink, and Eric searched online for hotel deals. We discovered that the hotels
in Pensacola were expensive, and the amazingly the best deals in a decent destination within a 4-5 hour drive were in New
Orleans! That's a place we love, so we decided to go.

On the walk back to our car we passed this food truck courtyard.

We love food trucks, and we love Airstream trailers, but this place seemed a little too "cookie cutter" and lacked the charm
of the food truck courts that come about organically.

We drove as far as Biloxi, Mississippi then stopped for the night.

We checked out the Hard Rock Casino, which we found freezing cold since it's highly air-conditioned and we are used to
Belize heat without A/C. Still, we had some fun then slept for a few hours in our car. (We had folded the back seats flat and
laid down our comfy camping mats to make for nice sleeping.)

7-22-2017 Heading Stateside

We have some projects to work on, things to take care of, and people to visit, so we decided to return to the US for a bit.

The view from the "hopper" plane from Dangriga to Belize City is wonderful.

It's kind of hard to tell from the photo, but on our approach to the Belize City airport the pilot made a really hard right turn to
circle around - like nothing we had ever experienced before. If you look closely at the top right corner of the empty co-pilot
seat you can see the horizon extending up at almost a 45 degree angle. That's because WE were at that 45 degree angle.

The view out Cara's window during that hard turn.

The flight from Belize City to Houston had a little turbulence because of a storm, but it was uneventful.

We had a several hour layover in Houston, which gave us plenty of time to go through customs and let the storms pass.
However, we also had an hour delay while we waited for our flight attendants to arrive.

At the gate our seats were suddenly changed, which was actually a bonus for us. Our seats, which were directly behind the
Business Class seats, had extra leg room - woohoo!

We arrived in Indianapolis just fine, but then we had to sit on the tarmac for an hour because they had closed the baggage
ramps due to rain. Don't know why we still couldn't have gone to the gate and debarked, but during that hour wait on the
tarmac we couldn't get up to use the bathroom, and they couldn't serve us any drinks or snacks. Once we finally did get off
the plane we still had another hour wait to finally get our bags - they kept closing the baggage ramps due to rain. So, it was
about 3 am before we got to our final destination.

7-9-2017 Sunday Beach Walk

On our usual Sunday beach walk we had to stop at Laruni Hati for a late lunch - cassava fries (a favorite) and burritos.

We ran into Paul at Driftwood Beach Bar & Pizza Shack, and he came along for the rest of the walk.

When we got to the area known as "Hawaii" (where the lagoon meets the sea) we saw lots of these lovely purple crabs.

Paul said he hadn't seen them before and bets they are specific to swampy area that will be filled for phase two of the Seiri
del Mar condo development.

7-7-2017 Nick & Amanda's Beach Wedding

Eric took video of the event, and Cara helped the photographer, Roi, but we managed to still get
a few nice photos of our own.

The decorations were simple yet beautiful.

Wedding souvenirs - inside each cup was a small bottle of the local One Barrel rum and two small bottles of green and red
Marie Sharp's hot sauce.

The wedding cake and cupcakes - beautiful and delicious.

Guests started to arrive around 4 pm.

Thankfully there was no rain, and it was a gorgeous day!

Nick and Amanda wrote their own vows.

Mr. and Mrs.

Family photo time

Dinner time - Geckos Restaurant catered the wedding and did a wonderful job.

The back door had been left open for people to find the restroom. Unfortunately, there were lots of crabs out and about
because of the recent rains, and several of them found their way inside, then found themselves trapped in a corner. We just
laughed and shooed them out with our flip flops (forgive the pun, lol).

Several lovely speeches were given, as well as a funny roast by Amanda's younger brother, Nolan.

Time to cut the cake

The wedding itself was just close family and a few friends, but after that was a reception/party for all the friends living in Belize. Amazingly, we failed to get any photos of the party, but it was also great fun. 

7-6-2017 Wedding Rehearsal & Dinner

Nick and Amanda got engaged here on this beach last year, so they came back this year to have a small ceremony in Belize.

James, our friend and co-owner/cook at Geckos Restaurant, would act as officiant.

Here they are practicing under the palapa, which was the scenario for rain, because it has been raining almost all week.

After the rehearsal the whole wedding group met at Chef Rob's Gourmet Cafe for dinner.

Curry and Coconut soup - amazing as always!

Our group took up most of the tables at the restaurant.

Garden salad

They are pros at Chef Rob's - even with more than twenty people in our group, everyone's food came out at the same time!

Chef Rob always has nice vegetarian options for Cara - this is Gado-Gado (that's rice, veggies, and a peanut sauce), one of
Cara's favorites.

Crepe with flamed banana and whipped cream - delicious!!!

It was a lovely evening with a great group of people!

Proud mama Sabrina and Mark