Sunburned!

Greetings all! I know it has been a little while since I last posted, but there has been good reason. As you read in my last post, I was recovering from my surgery. Then there was a week back at work, but there was still pain, so I wasn't up for doing much other than resting (and frequent rushes to the facilities). I popped a stitch as well, so I went back to the doctor and he took care of it with some "glue." Yep, they just glue you up and send you on your way. Let that be a lesson to anyone thinking of not following doctor's orders and trying to do more than the doc says you're allowed. Stupid military mindset.
Secondly, we went on vacation...to the Canary Islands. Well, let me tell you, if you're ever thinking about going, save your money! The people we encountered almost everywhere were rude (except our waitress at Hooters, she was superb!) and couldn't be bothered with the tourists that we were.
The trip started off generally pleasantly, but almost as soon as we landed, the trouble began. The hotel we booked didn't offer shuttle service, so we had to take a taxi. We got in a taxi and asked the driver to take us to our hotel...but the paperwork we had from the hotel didn't have the name of the place on it, just a city...so the driver took us there and dropped us off...in the middle of nowhere...in the middle of the night (3am). I am so sorry I don't speak more Spanish than I do. I did what I could, but I'm limited. So we were stranded. We called the taxi company to try and get another taxi, but there were no signs around to tell us where we were, so I had to describe what was around us. Another hour later (now 4am) a taxi drove by, so I tried to flag it down, but it zoomed past me (a problem with wearing all black in the night with nothing around you...so when it turned around, I whipped off my shirt and the paleness of my skin was like a beacon to the driver. He picked us up and drove us down the road a little. Still,not having the name of our hotel, he dropped us off at the wrong place again! So here we are, walking around a foreign country with our luggage in the middle of the night, not knowing where we were, or how close we were to our hotel. So long, painful story short, we started walking, and luckily, our hotel was just about a hundred yards away. Praise God!
Don't get me wrong, some parts of the trip were nice, like the views. We walked down to the beach front and saw the Mediterranean. That was cool! We saw the ruins of an old Spanish fort that had been built on an inlet so as not to look like anything from the water other than more rocks on the beach (our island was a volcanic island, so rocks were prominent...I even saw the lava flow residue). We also spent a great day at a waterpark. Good times, but yours truly, forgot (neglected) to wear sunscreen, and paid for it dearly. The only part of me that didn't burn in some way were my swim trunk areas, and my operation scars, that I had the fortune of rubbing with a SPF lotion before leaving that morning. The best part, though, was a night of dinner and theater (pics to come) where they did popular songs from musicals set in locations all over the world. Yours truly got up on stage, and was serenaded by a man in drag singing "Big Spender," while Vanessa was asked to be a part of a yodelling competition. It was great fun! We also went on a boat trip to see whales (we got to see a family (pod) of four or five - Mom, Dad, and a few little babies - but again, there were rude people there, so it was a mixed trip (Seriously, who jumps over and in front of another person and stands there purposely blocking the view!!!). I got more sun there, so yeah, like the header reads, I'm a little crispy.

But, now we're back, and ready to start work again...I hope things get better. There's a chance work will be sending me back to Spain in a few weeks. Yay, travel season!

- - - -

ULI