Ryan and Debi

Tag: travel

  • Plenitud – Puerto Rico Trip – day 6

    This was another work day.  But, if my memory serves me correctly, we also had a special treat.  Because we were only working half days and getting rained out in the afternoons, the staff at Plenitud arranged for a dance demonstration.  Some local dancers who dance a Puerto Rican traditional dance style, Bomba, came to…

  • Plenitud – Puerto Rico Trip – day 5

    This was our first of two excursions during the service trip.  I voted (well, strong-armed) the students to do this excursion over some of the others – it was a trip to El Yunque National Forest.  It’s the only tropical rainforest in the United States.  We got up early and hit the road, as it…

  • Plenitud – Puerto Rico Trip – day 4

    This day was like the previous one, following the standard schedule.  But we did have our first novel activity that the staff arranged because we were stuck in the Learning Center in the afternoons: Salsa lessons.  They knew a young woman who was quite good at Salsa who came out this night and gave us…

  • Plenitud – Puerto Rico Trip – day 3

    This was a pretty typical day on the farm.  We got up at 6:00.  I read at the gazebo while some students did yoga.  We ate breakfast, then went out to work on projects – the ones I mentioned in the previous post (e.g., road maintenance, planting, weeding, etc.).  We’d usually work from about 8:00…

  • Plenitud – Puerto Rico Trip – day 2

    The staff at Plenitud are, well, they’re hippies.  And I’m totally cool with that.  In another life, I probably would be too.  Anyway, I only mention that because it helps explain some of what we did during the time we were there.  Like, for instance, every morning at 6:00 am one of the staff members…

  • Plenitud – Puerto Rico Trip – day 1

    I was invited to go with UT students on another service trip.  This time we went to Puerto Rico to live, work, and learn on an eco-farm called Plenitud.  The farm is run using permaculture principles which, in a nutshell, boil down to utilizing sustainable agricultural principles based on natural ecosystems.  For instance, permaculture principles…

  • Weeki Wachee

    Debi’s mother and brother came to visit us over the holidays and we decided to go on some adventures.  Included on the itinerary was Weeki Wachee State Park, which is most famous for its mermaids.  It was, undoubtedly, an interesting experience.  The park is rather rundown and definitely not of the caliber of either an…

  • some clips from my Scotland trip

    I posted photos from my Scotland trip, but forgot about the footage.  Here are some clips I shot. Here’s the bowl in the Cuillin Hills that was amazing: Here’s a shot of the scree pile I hiked to get to the top of the Cuillin Hills bowl: A short clip of the summit and the…

  • additional clips from Morgan visit to Florida

    We visited Busch Gardens while Debi’s family was here.  Toren and Ethan went on the kids’ boat ride and had to spice it up as it was a little too tepid for them: Brent showed us some cool crustaceans that get washed out of the sand when waves come in but then wiggle back in:…

  • videos from Granite Peak

    I just posted my trip report for Granite Peak.  In addition to the report, I posted, I shot a few videos. First up, here I am rappelling from the top of Granite Peak: Now Tom’s turn: Now the mountain goats’ turn… Okay, they weren’t rappelling.  But they did climb right up one of the chimneys…