Ron's thoughts

I’m home safe and sound. Yeap, I was stuck in San Juan’s airport for about 5 hours. The flight was scheduled to leave at 2:30 and it didn’t take off until after 7. I got to Philly around 11:30. Of course, luggage delay, parking garage shuttle bus delay. To finish my day, I got pulled over by Harleysville police on my way home. He said that I was swerving and wanted to make sure I wasn’t drunk. Nope…just real sleepy. I got home around 2:00am. It was great to finally get home.

As U Jr. said, we had a great great time together. Lots of family fun, mixed with enjoying the culture and the island of our heritage. It was great to reconnect with him. I felt as connected to him as we were in the coffee house ministry days in the early 80’s. I’m grateful also for all the pictures and videos that he took of our trip. I kept telling him to put down the camera and just enjoy it. But, he kept saying, “I don’t ever want to forget these visions and memories”. As he said, we really caught up on stories, families, interests, jokes and even old catch phrases (Just SU & BM). That’s our inside joke.

Tio Manuel and Titi Emma are so hospitable. Even though they had a house full of there own kids and grandkids (10 total!). We felt just as welcome. It was great to see Jeannie and her family. I’ve missed her. Tony, Jessica and there kids were of course great to hang out with. My sweetie, Christina stayed by my side and kept me entertained most of the time in San Sebastian.

I spend the day Thursday with my sister Eleana in Aibonito. I took her and her two boys to the Beach (La playa de Salina). We spent the evening swimming in her kid’s pool.

Friday, I spent most of the day walking through the cobble stone streets of Old San Juan. Jim, Iris and the boys arrived in San Juan that afternoon. They are taking a Caribbean cruise that leaves on Sunday from Old San Juan. We all connected that evening for dinner in Isla Verde.

The one phrase that we (Ulyses Jr and I) both kept coming back to was, “Man, I wish the other cousins were here”. So we agreed to reattempt this event in two years. That would be July 2008. Tony has already said that he would plan on attending. Chicky said, “Count me in!” Four down, 13 to go….