Reacquaint yourself with Janina who currently lives in Clearwater Florida but is visiting Christa and I in Puerto Rico. You may recall from my 5/8/08 blog post that Jani and I had lunch together while I was visiting my parents in Florida in May.

Janina barely made it out of Orlando before Tropical Storm Fay became a big headache for Central Florida. Of course on my way to the San Juan Airport I got caught in what the newspaper the next day called "A Massive Traffic Jam." So I crawled for two hours and advanced two miles before being released from a very tense filled situation. Air conditioning would have been an asset in this situation. Unfortunately the Mirage lacks this amenity. But I was overjoyed to scoop up Janina at the airport. We decided celebrate her arrival by going to my favorite breakfast joint in San Juan called Pinkey's.

Since our arrival in Salinas we have slipped into the south shore grove. Janina has adapted well back into cruisers leisurely style. We had dinner on Tuesday at the Cruisiers Galley for meat loaf night, taken in a movie at a local theater and enjoyed dinner and movie night last at the Cruisers Galley. Yesterday we hopped into the Mirage and drove to the town of Coamo which lies somewhat in the mountains. We checked out a called Hotel Banos de Coamo founded in 1847. The major draw to the place is it has hot spring feed pools. It has a really cool outdoor feel with an open air bar and what looked to be a nice restaurant. The downside was it is old and not maintained very well. The pools had cracks in cement and such but it was great place to mingle with the locals. One of pools, a smooth 109 degrees in public so just anyone can come swishing in and enjoy some aquatic therapy. Word around the campfire is that the Coamo baths were considered the Fountain of Youth that Ponce de Leon was seeking. The baths have been a place of rituals and pilgrimages. Now after soaking I was so dazed over the soothing water and more importantly Janina's presence that I lost the car keys.

The blasted weather! Janina is a wonderful distraction from my obessing about the weather. However I have not lost the ball. We are watching active weather possibly heading our way. Stayed tuned.

Capt Chris