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We missed Bonaire while we were in the States.  It was nice to get home.  We have a beautifully decorated home in Bonaire, with decorations that came with the house.  Over the past three years we have tried to incorporate our stuff and style so that we feel more at home. It's an ongoing process to have things that are our choice in the house. Nevertheless, we love our house in Bonaire.

The Sahara Dust welcomed us home with a layer of dust everywhere including the pool.  It's a fact of life in Bonaire this time of year. I promised myself that I would not complain about the conditions on the island because it is still paradise for us...dust and all.

I am now a wildlife photographer (ha).  I was floating in the pool and was harassed by a dragonfly that wanted to land on me.  I shooed him away many times and then decided to embrace the moment.  So here is my attempt at capturing the dragon fly resting on my toe.

Bonaire has the best sunsets. The Sahara Dust and clouds seem to make each sunset more spectacular. It's good to be home!

 

Kansas City

Rick and I traveled to Kansas City to visit his brother who is going through chemo treatments. A trip that found us in the middle of winter on the American Plains to bring moral support and positivity to the patient and his wife. Two of our kids also made the journey a week prior to our trip. It became a family affair. We named our efforts to encourage toughness and resolve as: "Go Team Luce".

 

I had promised myself I would never see a snowflake again or shovel snow. But there we were in a snow storm with temperatures in the low 30's. Rick and I had packed every warm sweater, sweatshirt, long pants and socks that we owned.  We don't have winter coats so we wore fleeces and rain coats. Believe me it was not enough to keep us warm.

One day we discovered palm trees in Kansas City. Okay, they were metal but palm trees nonetheless.  It reminded us of home even though we were wearing everything we brought to stay warm (not wearing flip-flops) and standing in the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant.  

The locks on the grocery carts that require a quarter to unlock the chain holding them together was a familiar sight as we have the same system on Bonaire.  We shopped in a Walgreens that shocked us. The shelves were empty and disheveled. An armed guard stood at the main entrance.  Some items were locked behind wire mesh.  The store manager told us that rampant shop lifiting was real.  He said, " The stuff you see on the news is happening here everyday",  They could not keep the shelves stocked or orderly.  We have never seen a store in such bad shape.

We had an opportunity to get some Cruzan rum which we haven't had since we were on St Croix.  It's a rich spiced dark rum distilled on St. Croix but not exported to Bonaire.  It did a fine job of warming us in the evenings from the Kansas City cold.

The Superbowl was held while were were in Kansas City.  The whole town was going wild after the win and then went quiet after the shooting.  We saw and felt the highest high and the lowest low. 

The hospital had a huge balloon display and so we had to take a selfie to commemorate our Kansas City visit. 

Bocce

One of our friends set up a Bocce league at a local snack bar out in the kunuku. We joined up and played our first games.  It's a great Sunday afternoon pastime.  We used to play Bocce at our  water ski lake in Colorado. Now we have an actual playing course instead of playing on the beach.

Happy's is a snacky which a hut out in the wilds of Bonaire.  Every Sunday they reserve a table and at Bocce course for us.  We play for free but buy loads of beer and food.

 

It's quite competitive and we have a referee with tape measure that settles all disputes about who got what points. I would like to say its a friendly game but we do have some keen competitors and there is a lot of trash talking going on throughout the match.

We all have a lot of fun just being together ....drinking beer lightens our mood.