Vacation at Last!

Our first day of vacation went great after we got the problem with Ed’s ticket resolved. It took us an extra hour at the airport to get his tickets re-written to reflect his name correctly. This was unfortunate, but we made our plane just as they were boarding.  We did the Sunday NY Times crossword puzzle on the plane—one puzzle on each leg of our flight. Team Brittany/Ed won both times, with team Judy/Crystal coming in a close second. It made the flight go by very quickly. We passed the time happily on our layover in Houston with several hands of Mormon bridge.

Belize is a confusing country to me. It looks like Latin America, but all the signs are in English and everyone speaks English. Ed likes it. We were picked up by Kent from DuPlooy’s Jungle Lodge. He picked us out of a crowd because we were wandering around looking lost. We were really looking for a giant sign that said, “Welcome to Belize, Bush Family!”

 On the way to our lodge we stopped at the Belize zoo to see the native wildlife that we might not otherwise see in the wild. It was a nice, natural looking zoo, with a nice variety of cats, birds, crocs, foxes, tapirs and some cute little things we’ve never seen before. We got our picture in front of the jaguar pen. One of our favorite animals was the coatimundi.

We arrived at our jungle lodge about 6 p.m., and were very happy with it. It has a cute screened porch with a hammock.  We have a little suite with two rooms and a shared bathroom. It sports eco-air-conditioning—ceiling fans in both rooms. 

We were the only guests for dinner, but the meal was delicious, and we enjoyed having the place all to ourselves. We spent a good deal of time at dinner talking about the funny things Amanda has done on our family trips. We recognize the family is changing with Amanda on a mission and Brittany getting married soon, but it’s hard to let go, and we miss Amanda. It’s not the same, but we’re very grateful for her calling as a missionary, and we’re determined to buck up!