stops along the way: July 2013

We found a peaceful rhythm for our days at the beach. They all kind of went like this: first, get up and walk along the beach to town for breakfast.

Eat at the pastry shop. Walk around town a little bit.

Walk back, spend some time in the ocean outside our apartment (before the sun gets too strong).

Do some digging in the sand.

And then some swimming.

Then, after awhile, make our way to the pool area. A very short trip indeed.

Play in the foot wash & shower. A serious highlight of the day for Soren.

Take the path to the apartment for lunch. Stop to pick up rocks for throwing.

Soren naps while Micah kiteboards.

Meet Micah at kiteboard shop. Eat dinner on the beach. Usually fish. Sometimes pizza.

Get some ice cream or gelato. Or a popsicle. Anything cold, really.

Go to sleep. Repeat next day!

See you next time, Dominican!

So we'll start where we left off. On Monday morning after eating breakfast and visiting with the folks at the Vivero, we packed our bags and then went back to the school. Summer camp was starting!

Brendali has grown into a calm & gentle little girl! Who reads! WHOA!

Staci and Emeli read too!

The "graduates" of La Academia were able to return for El Campamiento when their public school let out. We were there for the first day. Each age group was split into a color and had their own teacher. They rotated around the school building for different blocks of time during the day. They had reading, games, math, language, personal health and safety, and arts. I'm so proud of how well the preschool teachers are doing and how far these kids have come since they were small.

Soren joining reading hour....err...actually he's just distracting everyone.

Alberto the Artist from Argentina. He's in charge of "fun" at camp. Practicing animal noises and laughing about the differences. American dog says "woof woof" and Spanish dog says "gua gua."

Mama Kitten meets Soren.

We snuck away from the school for a bit (we were really distracting) and went to our friends Ari and Christian's house for a visit. These boys spent a lot of time with Micah, helping to lead Las Aguilas (Boys Club) and it was great to get caught up on their lives. They both speak English really well and are in college in Santiago. Their mom prepared us really delicious ripe mangos and Soren played with their little cousin. How did we not get photos of this? I am not sure...but here is one Ari took.

The colmado next to Ari and Christian's house.

And then...before we knew it...it was time to say goodbye to our mountain friends and prepare for Vacation Phase 2. THE BEACH. We were so so so sad to leave, because it felt like we had just arrived (well, yes, we had). But, because it also really felt like we had never left the Dominican, since everything was so much the same, we decided that this was not goodbye, but a see you later. So we pretended that we were just going to the beach for the weekend and we'd be back for week 2 of camp. It made driving away easier (a bit) and also it made us feel less badly for all the friends we didn't get to spend enough time with.

Beautiful drive along the old highway to Cabarate, the beach.

Stopped to see our fruit-selling friends! Yep, they are STILL THERE! And their fruit is still the best.

And after a nice drive, we arrived at our apartment. Our experience with airbnb.com was great. We decided to rent this apartment because it looked pretty kid-friendly (and it was) and the location was perfect-O. Right between Kite Beach and town, where the beach wasn't too busy and we could easily walk where we needed.