Dave - distal bicep rupture repair

 reminder to post about this

Puerto Rico - February 8-15, 2022

Our family made a getaway to Puerto Rico mostly in celebration of Violet turning 16!  This was great timing because after setting up, staffing, and tearing down the Budget Blinds home show set up at the convention center which was a tiring weekend, this was a great break.

The most stressful part of the trip for me was making sure we had the covid testing and entry requirements to PR correct.  There was confusion about what type of tests they would accept and I ordered at-home tests, got the kids appointments at a pharmacy for drive-through rapid testing, and got test kits sent to a lab through Test Iowa.  I got mixed messages when I called places for clarification...but in the end worked it out.  PR required a health form to be filled out and negative results uploaded which in the end were NAAT tests and what PR accepted. The kids did get their 2 doses of the vaccine but their last dose was 1/31 and our departure date was 2/8, not leaving the full 2 weeks of space after the last dose to be considered "fully vaccinated".  Anyway...Dave and I didn't need tests, the kids did...and we got in the country.  

We left our house at 2:45 am to drive to Des Moines to catch a 6:40 am flight to Charlotte, NC.  Then we had our second flight from Charlotte to San Juan around 11am.  Both flights were on time and uneventful.  We snacked on cereal on the drive, had a snack on each plane ride, a quick half sandwich between flights, and our first real meal at a restaurant after we arrived at our place. 

Feb 8, 2022

First airport photo in Des Moines

Arrival at Ocean Villas in Rio Grande

Sweet 16 yr old Violet

Mexican food at Dos Panza Taqueria y Cantina

We made a trip to a nearby grocery store, got breakfast and snacky things, then went to our apartment, got settled, went swimming (it was windy!), and crashed hard.  We wer all so tired!

Feb 9, 2022

I'm going to call today our "wake up late" and hang by the beach day.  We got up around 9am, some got up later.  The boys of course were up earliest, and by the time Dave and I had breakfast ready, the boys had already swam in the pool with all the floaties we found in the closet.  We made a green pepper/potato/bacon/onion hash with fried eggs, Violet had oatmeal, boys had cereal and eggs, Vanessa had cereal.

We are communicating with a hired advisor to plan 3 days here.  We spent some time communicating with him and his suggestions via the ViaHero app.  So far we're planning a rainforest day with a hike and an experience with the bioluminescene bay in Fajardo, and another day in Old San Juan.  

The kids have been in and out of the pool and ocean most of the day.  Dave and I got down there to hang out in the water with them, and now they're getting snacky and wanting lunch.  

This is my view while blogging.  Just incredible.

view from kitchen...that chair on the deck is where I'm sitting

The sand dunes by the beach attracted Calvin

Violet is craving star damage....haha

we are steps from the water!

A blast of rain shot through the island and we came inside.  The kids surveyed their sunburns....even though we applied sunscreen at some point in the day.  Turns out we need it applied stronger and more frequently.

Eli's shiveled up hands from too much water

We found a pizza place called Revolution Pizza - New York style.  This place was one of the 50 or so little "kiosks" all lined up along the road in Luquilla.  They're like a strip-mall (but closer together) of a variety of foods. 

Thurs, Feb 10, 2022

I had asked our host Frank if there was any laundry soap in the facility, and he had some delivered at 9am.  We must have slept through that knock.  There were 5 gain laundry pods at our doorstep!  

Violet was already up and on a beach chair by the pool at 9am.  I made some breakfast sandwiches with bacon, munster cheese and eggs.  All the eggs have "US" stamped on them.  The butter and milk is good too...just like at home.  Violet had already made oatmeal packages so she just had a couple slices of leftover bacon when she came back up.  

Today was kind of a "firming up of plans" day.  We made a couple pots of coffee as we spent some time researching options from our guide Antonio (via ViaHero)....we booked a kayak bioluminescence tour for the evening, researched and planned a hike in El Yunque rainforest for tomorrow, researched and booked a catamaran sailing boat cruise and snorkel tour to the nearby island of Culebra for Sunday morning. decided to visit Old San Juan tomorrow (Fri).....so all that research and booking things took some time.  The kids were in and out of the apartment at the pool and the beach, snacking on pizza leftovers.  

Once plans were made, we had a few hours to kill so we decided to hit a nearby beach, Luquillo Beach, where the waters were calmer and easier to swim in.  The drive was about 10 minutes away...parking was $4.  The waters were indeed calmer.  We didn't spent too much time there.  Vanessa needed to find a bathroom so she and I explored around for a bathroom.  We stumbled upon a public bathroom without any TP or soap.  I had a kleenex in my bag and we used water and scrubbed.  

walking to Luquillo beach

I took this for fun...every person we see is masked...so are the toys and play babies 

We stopped at a slushie truck and got MASSIVE slushies!  Violet - mango, Dave - strawberry, Maria and Vanessa - snickers, Eli - nutella, and Calvin - oreo.  Those suckers were $9 each and definitely worth it.

We decided to book a kayak tour to see the bioluminescense (LIGHT UP plankton!)...apparently there are only 5 places in the world where this is visible and Puerto Rico is one of them.  The light is visible when a chemical in their bodies reach with oxygen.  We kayaked on the far east side of the island in Fajardo Bay with Kayak Puerto Rico Tours.  We had to be there at 5:45 so between Luquillo beach and the time we had to leave some of us rinsed the salt water off and changed.

The kayak tour took us through a mangrove-lined canal and to "Bio Bay".,Dave teamed up with Eli, I teamed up with Vanessa, and Violet and Calvin had a kayak together.  It took 30 minutes or so to get to the bay.  We had lights on the front and back of our kayaks.

When the sun went down, we lined up and hooked our kayaks together, and the guide told us to grab tarps to cover us up like tents to block out the moonlight, and then *bam* you swish your hand through the water, and it lit up and sparkled!  Definitely a cool moment.  Apparently the bioluminescence is better when the sun is shining all day, and today had cloudly/rainy moments...but it was still cool.  

We'll get photos emailed to us from this trip.  I wasn't risking my phone on the water, so we locked everything we had in our rental van.

We got a snack of granola bars and water when we came out, changed into dry clothes, and found a nearby restaurant for an evening meal.

We got back to our apartment in Rio Grande around 9:30...somehow Vanessa and Eli had enough energy to swim.  Violet, Calvin, Dave and I sat on beach chairs and relaxed and watched them swim.  We met Iowans from Davenport (Andrea and Simon) in the hot tub and talked to them a little.

It wasn't until around 11:15pm that kids finally tuckered out and went to bed.  Dave read a devotion and we listened to music while I caught up with the blog.

Tomorrow's plan is El Yunque rainforest!  I hope to see plants, waterfalls, and great views.  I hear it takes 2 hours to reach the top of the mountain....we'll see how that goes.

Feb 11, 2022

We started the day with the best breakfast we've had all week.  This restaurant, Lluvia (translated "Rain"), was a great start to our day.  We got fancy coffee with latte art, and every food item we ordered was delicious.  Guava pancakes, avocado toast with scrambled eggs, waffle sandwich, french toast sandwich....great service and clean bathrooms. 

Violet's breakfast appetizer of avocado toast with scrambled eggs was enough food for the meal...she put down two banana pancakes after this!

It's ok we had a big breakfast....we planned to hike trails in El Yunque national forest and the energy was needed

Driving up the trail to the visitors center provided great views

La Coca Falls

the tree above has this label on it - translated "Champion Tree" - the oldest and biggest tree in PR

We stopped to park and walk up this:  Yokahú Tower is an observation tower within El Yunque National Forest on the island of Puerto Rico. The Yokahú Tower is one of the two observation towers located in the park and is at an elevation of 1,575 feet. Constructed in 1963, it is widely considered the better of the two with regard to the view offered. The other tower, Mount Britton Tower, is situated at a higher altitude. Owing to this, the view from it is frequently obscured by cloud cover. When it comes to convenience, Yokahú Tower again has an advantage over the Mount Britton Tower. Yokahú Tower has a parking lot nearby whereas the Britton Tower is in the middle of the forest.

After the tower views, we walked up another trail that was pretty rough and took us to waterfalls that create natural pools you could get in.  Nobody really wanted to take off muddy shoes and get in freezing water so we watched.  This trail became incredibly difficult to walk on past the waterfall so we only went up a ways and came back down to find something else.

Ahh this is better - this trail took us 45 minutes of heart pounding hiking going UP to another observation tower, Mt. Britton.

Inside is a circular staircase and the top is simply an obsevation deck to see the views.  The comments about Yokahu tower being better are true - this one is so high it is literally in the clouds.  We couldn't see much from there but experienced powerful wind and weather.

I liked the contrast of the rusty iron orange with the palm tree tops here

One more quick stop to see a site constructed by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) in the 1930s to revive the economy and help natural areas become reforested.  

We stopped at the visitor's center and enjoyed looking at this 3D map finding out the two towers we climbed to.  Dave is pointing to Mt. Britton and Calvin is pointing to the Yokahu tower.  The place where we are staying is just north to the right of those two land peninsulas.

This Puerto Rican parrot (called an iguaca) is extremely endangered with about a hundred in captivity and 30-40 in the wild.

A unique piece of art intending to blur the lines between humanity and the forest

learning about the life cycle of the freshwater shrimp

RAIN on the way out of the visitors center

I didn't take a pic of this but we stopped at RicoPan bakery and grabbed some pastries and coffee on our way back.  The boys didn't want any so Violet, Vanessa, Dave and I polished them off.  Our favorite was the one with cream cheese.

Our shoes were so muddy after the hikes so we used the beach's rinse-off spots intended for cleaning sand off feet to clean our shoes.

Violet and I hung out on the beach and tried to spot riptides after watching some videos helping us learn how to spot them

later Dave and the kids grabbed the boogie boards and played around with the waves trying to get pushed to shore

I did not feel like swimming since I'd just showered from the sweaty hike so I stayed on shore and took pictures of the white foam created by each wave that crashed on the shore

We researched restaurants and landed at La Fonda Gourmet.  An absolute hole in the wall with what we discovered to be authentic PR food.

This is El Jibaro - a sandwich made with smashed and fried plantains for the outside of the sandwich.  Inside is chicken, cilantro, sauce, other yummy things...haha

Dave got "Trifongo" - TriFongo is a legendary cousin of the famous Mofongo. It comes 100% from Puerto Rico's African roots and is a mixture of three kinds of vegetables fried to perfection then mashed with garlic to create an explosion of flavour. 

Violet got chicken and rice -- polly y arroz

When we got home everyone wanted to watch the next show in the Lost in Space series we've been following for a few years.  Two episodes later, it was midnight....so bedtime.

Feb 12, 2022

Today was our day to visit Old San Juan!  We had to take care of some housekeeping this morning...sweeping, making beds, organizing piles of clothes everywhere.  We had a plan to eat breakfast at a place in Old San Juan but we didn't get there and actually sit down until close to 1:00pm.  The drive to San Juan from our Ocean Villas condo was approx 45 minutes.  The feeling of being transported from new to old was palpable as the environment completely changed.  The buildings seem intentionally colorfully arranged.  

Adventure was around every corner and in every decision once we arrived.  How to drive through those narrow streets with our van? Where to park it? Nope, it won't fit in the spot that little Smart car just drove away from. We found a parking garage and had to leave our key so the person managing it could move cars around as needed to get people in and out.  24 access and reasonably priced.  We put our names in on the waiting list for ChocoBar, a restaurant recommended to us by the Via Hero guide.  They told us an hour wait, so we said ok, put our names in, and hit a few souvenir shops.  

Side note: Every single restaurant asks for proof of covid vaccines.  I took pics of them and texted them to myself so I could pull up pictures of them easily instead of digging out my wallet.  I'm glad the kids got the vaccines, or I don't really know what we would have done.  

parking garage

so many colors

Violet was hangry - and didn't like the idea of having to wait 60 minutes so right across the street she staved off the hunger by grabbing a quick little cup of blueberry cheesecake gelato.  

killing time by visiting a nearby plaza and kids were impressed by how the pigeons just don't care you're around

We finally got seated at ChocoBar!  This place incorporates chocolate into everything they have.  Grilled chocolate and cheese sandwiches, chocolate marble waffles, chocolate waffles, chocolate in the ketchup for the fries.  

This is a chocolate old fashioned.  Normally don't go for cocktails in the middle of the afternoon, but we HAD to share one of these.

An entire pitcher of chocolate.

Statue of Christopher Columbus

an old original wall from San Juan - established in 1521!

Eli used the fountain to cool off 

so did Calvin

ohh we saw a cool critter - iguana, lizard, I have no idea what it is.  He bobbed his head up and down then climbed up a tree

more old walls - walking along the ocean and taking in the feel of old history

saw a cool crab hopping from rock to rock

kept walking - kept seeing more old wall

San Juan Gate - original from when the walls functioned as protection from the city.  This was one of 5 of the entrances to the city.  Read below... 

San Juan Cathedral

The cathedral is one of the oldest buildings in San Juan, located in Old San Juan, the oldest cathedral in the United States, and is the second oldest cathedral in the Americas.

The original cathedral in what was the city of Puerto Rico (changed to San Juan Bautista in 1521) was constructed from wood in 1521. It was destroyed by a hurricane and the current structure constructed in 1540, being reshaped in later centuries, the last time being in 1917.

The first school in Puerto Rico was the Escuela de gramática (Grammar School). The school was established by Bishop Alonso Manso in 1513, in the area where the cathedral would later be constructed. The school was free of charge and the courses taught were Latin language, literature, history, science, art, philosophy and theology.^[2]

The cathedral contains the tomb of the Spanish explorer and settlement founder Juan Ponce de León. It also has a shrine to the Blessed Carlos Manuel Rodríguez Santiago, the first Puerto Rican, the first Caribbean-born layperson in history to be beatified.^[3]

burial place of Ponce de Leon - a Spanish explorer who joined Christopher Columbus on his second journey to the New World. Ponce de Leon was Puerto Rico's first governor.

This is the top of the wall!  Very thick.

A Brief History of El Morro

The Old San Juan was founded in 1521 by Spanish settlers. The first fortification, La Fortaleza (The Fortress), began construction in 1533 and currently serves as the governor's mansion. The Castillo San Felipe del Morro, or El Morro for short, was the second fort built on the islet of what is now Old San Juan and Puerta de Tierra. El Morro's construction commenced in 1539 and finished in 1790; during those 250 years, El Morro went from a promontory mounted with a cannon to a six-level fortress designed to unnerve attackers approaching from the sea.

El Morro was closed when we arrived which was ok...we were happy enough to walk around it and learn about its history

piragua is San Juan's signature slushie!

We found the restaurant we planned to go to - Pirilo Rustic Pizza.  We put our names on the waiting list at 6pm and that was the right choice because the host told us 1.5 hr wait.  We hit some more souvenir shops.  My foot was hurting quite a bit so Calvin and I sat on a bench while Dave and the others did a little more shopping.

This place was worth the wait.  The "7 Queso pizza", pepperoni, and pesto pizzas were a.m.a.z.i.n.g.  

A tiring but fulfilling and fun day in Old San Juan.  This place is a strange mix of Spanish and American.  It has strong spanish and African roots, but has been claimed as a US Territory since 1898, yet unincorporated and they are governed by their own constitution.  The people all seem to know spanish and english, the military force is US Army, and the currency is the US dollar.  Flights to and from and considered domestic, not international, so no US passport is required.  It was most interesting to explore the old walls and what life was like with a walled-in city.  From 1521 when the spanish settled to now as a US territory has been 501 years total.  There is a huge presence of pride and independence for Puerto Rico.  I wonder if they'll ever be "their own country"?

Need to go to bed...tomorrow is snorkeling, and we have to leave the condo at 6:30am for a 8am boat ride take off!

Sunday, Feb 13, 2022

Today we planned a snorkeling day.  The only way to do this in PR is to take a catamaran out to a reef - so when we did our planning day on Wed we booked this trip.  Lots of places offered rides and we ultimately picked Salty Dog to take us there.  We had to leave our place at 6:30 am and check in at 7:00am, an hour early before an 8am take off time.  We got up with enough time to eat some scrambled eggs and toast and we left at 6:34 am. Not bad!

The drive was approx 30 minutes and checked in with no issues.  The catamaran held 40ish people, so lots of people were also checking in.  Everybody around here requires proof of vaccination.  If you look at a map of PR you'll see an island on the northeast side called Icacos.  

The catamaran took us to Icacos and we spent a couple hours on the beach and ate a provided lunch of a turkey sandwich, apple, pasta salad and packaged cookies.  

Later we took another 5 minute ride to the reef and snorkled for an hour or so.  It began to rain a little as we took off for the marina so that part was cold, but we are learning the rain bouts are quick around here, and it dried up and the sun came out within a few minutes.  I applied sunscreen to everyone two times throughout the day.  

I didn't take many pics because my phone didn't charge last night - the part that plugged into the wall was too loose I guess and I only had 17% battery.

our early breakfast!

early 7 am check in!

great ocean views on the ride to Icacos!

Icacos beach

This is the part of the journal where I share that Dave experienced an unfortunate event.  I didn't see it happen so how he describes it is how I understand it.  Dave was heading from one part of the boat to another to toss some trash and his feet slipped.  He reached his left arm out to steady himself and as he fell, his hand caught hold of a nearby overhead rope, and he fell further and extended his arm further than it should have extended.  His left knee also made contact with the bumpy boat floor surface and tore up the skin a little.  It all happened in like a second.  The weight of his fall caused the tendon connecting his bicep to his elbow to tear, but for awhile he didn't know what had occurred.  He sat down to recover for a few moments with the crew and they video chatted with their medical contact.  Meanwhile I texted the wife of a friend of ours whose husband is an orthopedic surgeon.  Dave had messaged him pictures and the story of what happened.  The surgeon is Ben Torrez and he saw the pictures and used his wife's phone to communicate to us immediately identified the injury as a distal biceps rupture.  Basically, his left bicep is disconnected.  This requires surgery, and should happen with in 2 weeks of the injury.  Dave will get an MRI when we get home to determine the extent of the tear (which looks complete) and schedule surgery as soon as possible.  He definitely felt a
"pop" and immedately knew something was wrong.  He is not in pain, however.  It is a strange feeling, and says certain movements are painful and managing it with ibuprofen as needed.  He is instructed not to lift anything with his left arm.  His bicep is balled up and looks a little strange.

He snorkeled anyway, tried to enjoy the rest of the boat ride, but the injury shadowed the whole boat ride.  It's definitely a bummer.  He isn't sure how it will impact his life right away - but it will affect his work for sure. 

We got back to our apartment after that sunny and tiresome experience, and everyone rested.  We took naps, and Violet made supper for her and the other kids using some frozen grilled chicken, veggies and cheese.

The rest of the day has been relaxing.  Some walked along the beach, some swam, some showered.  Violet got an idea and wouldn't let it go that she needed to make a cake for Valentine's Day.  She and I went to a grocery store very much like a Walmart, called Amigos.  It had great value brand things and was much cheaper than the other grocery store we had gone to when we first arrived.

We found cake mix, a very small amount of items for food for our last day, and got back in time to watch the Super Bowl.  LA Rams vs Cincinnati Bengals.  During this football game I wrote up the blog.

We have one more full day tomorrow with no plans, so maybe we'll just do laundry and nap. :)

Monday, Feb 14, 2022

Our last full day in PR had no "plans".  We happily slept in, made a big breakfast of onion/pepper/sausage/potato hash with fried eggs.  I'm not sure why that breakfast is always the vacation breakfast - we have it at home sometimes too - it's just so yummy.  We spent all day swimming, playing in the sand, sitting around, taking pictures, etc.  While we were swimming we spotted a huge iguana in a palm tree and Dave, Violet and Calvin went closer to look at it.  It climbed down to the ground and Calvin got brave enough to put leaves near its mouth and it munched on them. I didn't have my camera at the time.  The iguana bobbed his head up and down which made us all laugh...we named him "Bob".  Bob climbed up on top of some nearby bushes that were thick enough to support his weight.  Bob munched on the leaves so we all joked that he climbed into his salad bowl.  He stayed there for a long time and seemed to stare at us for a long time.  I think we lost interest and he must have moved on.

We grabbed a nearby beach walker and asked her to take some pics - so she did and did a great job!

This isn't Bob but another guy we found near our pool.  He ran off and didn't play with us.

Eli built a cool sand castle.

Violet and I spent a long time watching people jump waves and make sand castles.

Vanessa found a bucket and made a good one.  

Violet and I helped her decorate it with leaves and shells.

Happy Valentine's Day <3

This was Violet for hours...she took more pics than I did.  That's not an easy task!

Our final dinner we chose to get "steak and pasta".

All restaurants that we encountered required vaccination cards - so we were glad for the decision to get everyone vaccinated before we left.
This place was small, very busy, and our sweet young waitress seemed overwhelmed.

The meal turned out delicious but the chef seemed overwhelmed and our food all came out at very different times.  We waited so long for Vanessa's buttery noodles to come out that the bill was eventually changed so we paid about half the original bill.  The food was worth it though - the sausage appetizers were a favorite, and we shared a gnocci soup that was really good.  

The rest of the evening we cleaned up, packed as much as we could, checked under all the couch cushions and every nook and cranny we could find to make sure we packed everything and didn't leave anything behind.

Tues, Feb 15, 2022 

The plan was to leave at 6am.  Our flight boarded at 7:30, and we pulled into the airport car rental return at 6:30.  Not bad!  We are thankful for an uneventful day of travel.  Especially thankful for TSA precheck, which got us through security much faster and helped all of us avoid a long line that would have probably made us miss our first flight if we didn't have that.

First flight from San Juan to Chicago was 5 hours.  I think I slept 3 of them.

Second flight gave us enough time to grab lunch at the airport.  We stopped at Garrett's popcorn for a few flavrors, grabbed burgers at the Chicago Cubs grill, and got right to our gate in time to board the 1.5 hr flight to Des Moines.  Eli tried to work on homework on the airplane.  I don't know how much he got done...

We landed and got out of the airport, happily throwing our disposable masks in the trash on the way out to the parking ramp.

I drove the 2 hr drive home not dealing with hardly any traffic, facing a gray road, gray skies, and patches of dirty-white snow.  Such a contrast to our colorful vacation!