Good Bye Galveston, Hello Caracas

In true Haver style, we spent our last night out with our friends and my parents at Dibella's

Restaurant in Galveston. It was wonderful, we had the back room and God bless our ONE waitress. She had her hands full with about 25 people including children. The wine flowed f

reely, the food was delicious, but being surrounded by some of the people we love most in the world was priceless. After dinner, we headed to the Gaido's for more company and wine. Some time around midnight, we decided to head home for some much needed sleep.

We were leaving at midnight the next day, so we slept in as much as possible. I spent the morning unpacking, repacking and trying to make each bag as close to 50# as possible. I called Continental to clarify their baggage policies. OK, so you can't take more bags than is allowed (2 per Economy Class ticket), but you pay a hefty fee if they are between 50 and 70 pounds. However, if you have a first class ticket (Chris gets to fly first class), and we did, you can take 3 bags on that ticket up to 70# free of charge. I began to work every possible algorhythm in my mind on how to get all of our luggage within the required weight, and pay as little out of pocket as possible.

We showered, dressed, loaded up the car, hugged my parents, and headed out. We had plenty of time as our flight did not leave until midnight, so we stopped at Pappasito's in Clear Lake for one last meal of good Mexican food, which Chris assures me is sorely lacking in Caracas. Dinner was wonderful and I happened to see two of my former patients who worked there. As an

other fluke, Todd and Laura Flores were there with their girls having dinner on the way home from Camp Mystic.

We arrived at the airport and parked our rental cars. Luckily, there were empty baggage carts right next to our cars so we were able to load them up. Chris had 4 bags and I had 3 plus the carry-on. When we were checking in they weighed our luggage. 5 of the 7 checked bags were over 50#. I was offered a first class upgrade for $199. In a stroke of genius, I talked Chris into upgrading one of the three coach tickets to allow us to not pay the $100 charge. He he. I have yet to fly coach to Caracas. Madeline and I snuggled in first class, while Chris and Katherine had a whole row in coach.

Once the bags were on their way, we headed to the rental car center to drop off the cars and take the bus back to the terminal. We had a couple of hours to kill, so we made good use of the President's Club before our flight left. Madeline thought we were walking into a hotel it was so nice. We boarded the plane at 11:30 and at midnight, took off for Caracas.

We landed at 5:30 am and made it through customs with minimal trouble. A "pacheco" driver greeted us with Chevron Security and brought us to our car. A second car was there to carry our luggage. The drive took over an hour due to traffic and the girls slept most of the way home. Madeline commented on the barrios she saw near the airport - "Mommy, where is all the pretty stuff, why do people live there??" When they woke up, we were home.

They loved the apartment. We showed them around. It is pretty empty as our stuff from home has not arrived yet. It is fun to imagine what it will look like when it is full of our beautiful furniture. At 10 am our regular driver arrived to take us to the grocery store. His name is Eric and he speaks NO English. He is so nice, likes the kids, and smiles a lot. The kids started practicing their Spanish with him. We started with the basics, Hola and Gracias. Madeline said she was too shy to talk Spanish - but by the time we left the grocery store loaded down with staples for a week, she was talking Spanish to any one that would listen. She was saying gracias over and over again, just with variations like gassy-ass, goss-see-oss, and grathias. People in the store were giggling..... Katherine (the pro) in style was flawless in her pronunciation of "Hola Senor Eric". It is so cute. After groceries we went to the neighborhood sushi (pronounced sue-chee here) for food. YUMMY. So glad to find something so good and so close.

Today we awoke to two large birds staring at us outside of our window. Kind of like a cross between a buzzard and a raven. They enjoyed posing for photos, then flew away. We then got out the guide book and decided to take the kids on an adventure. Chris picked El Hatillo - an old colonial settlement in the southern suburbs of Caracas. The guidebook and my parents who went there 27 years ago described it as quaint, full of beautiful old buildings, little shops, and lots of Curacan's out for lunch and shopping. Caracas French Quarter here we come. There was a slight miscommunication with Eric who took us to the wrong side of town, but we got that straightend out and 1.5 hours later ended up in El Hatillo. So now I'm thinking more 5th ward than French Quarter..... I was hesitant to get out of the van. We braved it and started walking around. We found an out of the way Spanish restaurant that served Tapas and we decided to give it a go. Not a thing healthy on the menu, but the food was pretty good. We walked around the square and found that, much like the French Quarter, the inside of the buildings may not reflect what is on the inside. We did find some beautiful furniture stores with hand made carved wooden furniture, as well as antique and art shops.

We got home and I learned how to work the iMovie function on my new Apple computer and Wow is all I have to say. Posted in this edit is my first stab at a movie. Welcome to Caracas.