The 2014 Snowpocalypse in Atlanta

The Snowpocalypse that hit the South here in the States slammed into Atlanta pretty hard along with the rest.  On Tuesday, my boss sent us home early at 12:30.  I've never had experience driving in the snow, but I'd had a plan of bringing home dinner from a nearby Vietnamese place, and I stopped there first.  Within the 20 minutes it took me to get back into my car and onto the road, Downtown had become a parking lot.  It usually takes me 10 minutes or less to make the 0.5 mile trek home.  On Tuesday, it took nearly 2 hours.  I hadn't eaten my lunch before I left work, but others ended up not eating for 24 hours as they were stuck in their cars over night!  I heard of a lady who had to give birth on the road with the help of her husband and a police officer.  One man's house caught fire in an unrelated incident, but no fire trucks could get through the traffic, and the man's entire house was lost.  Many people went out to help those trapped on the roads, and I wish I had been one of those stories.  Instead, I recorded my own as I waited in my car.

 8 minutes, 44 minutes of attention-loving entertainment

Human Moment #80: Meeting Mr. Thompson

Caleb and I stopped at a good ole ghetto gas station late one Sunday night.  I stayed in the car, and Caleb filled her up.

A rough-looking older man walked toward us and stopped right by our car.  I didn't realize he was there until I heard him start to speak to Caleb.

"Can I ask you a question?" he said.

"Yeah..."

Vieques Honeymoon: Wrap up

Really, I just want to show you pictures of these little guys.

Listen to this 20 second clip of coquis singing while you read on.  Here that high pitched chirp that sounds like "coqui?"  That's them!

Vieques Honeymoon: The Beaches and the Jungle

There isn't tons to do on Vieques.  There aren't any clubs or movie theaters or anything like that.  There are plenty of beaches, though, each a little different from the others.  And there is the jungle.  It's not a rainforest, mind you, but there are trees and iguanas and mongooses and vines and huge wasp nests.

I didn't get a chance to dig very deep into the jungle, but we did find some sugar mill ruins among the trees.  If you take the roads to the western side of the radar, park right where the road splits to the radar and goes into the woods.  In the triangle section of the Y, beyond a few trees, you'll find paths that wind around remarkable tree trunks and that weave between vines like hair.  There are ruins there, great concrete structures that look like they were once important.  Caleb and I arrived just at dusk, and we didn't have much time before we could hardly see anything.  The canopy is so thick and the vines are so everywhere that not much light gets through to where we were at the ruins.  If you can make it during the day, you'll have a great adventure.  Don't forget the bug spray!

See all the vines hanging down?  It was so cool!  And about halfway into the picture, you can see some stone pillars from the ruins.

Vieques Honeymoon: The Bioluminescent Bay

There's a bay on Vieques that's different from most in the world.  It is home to bioluminescent creatures called dinoflagellates.  They glow at night when they move.  We took a nighttime kayak tour to the bay and got to see the magic in action.

Caleb tried to take pictures, but they didn't turn out at all.  In lieu of original content, let me show you these pictures of a similar phenomenon in the Maldives.

Photography by Will Ho via Colossal

Vieques Honeymoon: The Ceiba Tree

When looking up things to do on Vieques, I learned of this huge, old, magnificent tree.  There weren't great directions anywhere, so I was worried that we wouldn't find it, but it was actually hard to miss it!  Driving toward the pier from the airport, it's right on your right after a while in a field.  There is a little hut with informational signs nearby, and then there is the tree.  No fence, wild horses nearby, and The Tree.

Vieques Honeymoon: The Restaurants

After getting an overview of the selections on Vieques, Caleb and I decided to forgo snorkeling trips and other paid tours to make our dinners our splurge.  From my first step off the plane, I was craving seafood the whole time, and we were in the right place to get it.  We got our fill of deliciousness, by golly.

See where we ate (and my reviews) after the jump...

Vieques Honeymoon: Prequel

Caleb and I got married in September when we had just gotten jobs and just started getting money in our bank accounts.  Given the options of a honeymoon within our state directly after the wedding and a honeymoon in Puerto Rico two months later, we saved for the splurge.  And it was worth it.

So I don't overwhelm one post with all my pictures and information, I'm going to be breaking things up so they'll be easier to digest for the curious.  To give you an overview, I've made a short teaser video and a brief summary of the highlights.

Highlights include: seeing my old home from the airplane, taking a nighttime kayak trip to the bioluminescent bay, meeting a barracuda while snorkeling, being the only ones on the beach for most of our beach trips, laughing with and trying to understand the pool maintenance guy who made fun of my Spanish, a full day of reading at our house, making 4 trips to the street food stand selling garlic BBQ pinchos, and having a mountaintop two-building house with a private pool and a view of the island all to ourselves.

Click below to see my other posts and recommendations for traveling Vieques:

Where we stayed
Where we ate
 The Ceiba Tree
The Bioluminescent Bay
The Beaches and the Jungle
The Coquis

101 in 1,001 REBOOT

In order to encourage myself to reach the goals I'd like to see myself reach (instead of just spending hours consuming entertainment), I've created this challenge for myself.  In 1,001 days, I'd like to accomplish these 101 things.

I've done a 101 goals in 1,001 days challenge before, and while I didn't complete everything on the list, it was very helpful for keeping my focused on things I want to do.  In general, I work best when I have a pace runner, someone or something to egg me on to get things accomplished, competition.  Going through my firstmy first challenge motivated me to do a lot of things I wouldn't have otherwise done.  Also, when my challenge finished in November, I almost immediately dropped by 3-year strong habit of journaling every day.  Ridiculous.  This is why I decided to make a new challenge (which I've detailed below).  It's a tool for me to keep track of my goals, and for me, it works!

In an effort to keep growing, learning, and doing, this is my second 101 in 1,001 challenge.

Start date: January 1, 2014
End date: September 28, 2016
90% complete

In progress  ::  Completed