I go to El Yunque too much!

Hey all! I've been moving around quite a bit, so I haven't updated the blog much recently. But here's a brief recap of the past few weeks.

July 25, 2007: ELA Constitution Day and a trip to El Yunque

It was constitution day here in the ELA (Estado Libre Asociado, or "commonwealth"), and we had the day off of work. So, as a good law clerk does, I took two of our summer interns for a trip up to El Yunque! First, I have to say that our interns this summer were awesome. They are a bunch of brilliant women (plus Josh, who is bright, but not a woman) who really helped us to get our chambers in order.

[the gang]

So as a reward, we figured that we'd put together a quick "summer outing" to one of Puerto Rico's most famous sites: El Yunque (also known as Caribbean National Forest).

Going to El Yunque on a weekend is usually a bit of a challenge - the parking situation is not great, and the tables at El Yuquiyu - the best burgers in the forest - are usually packed. Nothing prepared us for this voyage though: not a single parking space was to be found at the normal trailhead! So instead, we decided to take the Mount Britton Spur to El Yunque, a trail which was quite a bit steeper initially, but ultimately much shorter. However, we made it to the summit, and look at these views:

[Gia & Montse]

After coming down the mountain, we discovered that there were no tables or parking spaces to be found at Yuquiyu. So instead, we went to El Hamburguer, a shack right off of Nozagaray in Old San Juan, which in addition to serving up some really great burgers, also happens to be the only place I have found in PR to serve root beer - amazing!

July 27-30, 2007: Drew visits and . . . a trip to El Yunque!

My friend Drew - also my college roomate (go G-dubs!) visited this weekend, which was also my last weekend in the apartment. It was a really great weekend - some tasty food, good beers, and we also saw The Simpsons movie, which turns out to be just a really long Simpsons episode (~ 65 minutes). Still, not bad. We also made it out to - wait for it - El Yunque! The weather (and traffic) for this trip were really good, and we managed to hike the main El Yunque trail. When we made it up to the rock outcropping right before the summit, this guy told us that there was an even more interesting rock to climb a bit further. So after coming to the road at the end of the trail, we turned left, and took the La Roca trail. It was pretty off the beaten path - it did not look like anybody had hiked it for some time, but it was pretty cool. Check out this picture:

[Adam & Drew]

Later that night, we took a kayak tour of the bioluminescent bay at Fajardo. It's a really cool experience - these tiny microorganisms in the bay (dynoflagellates) start glowing when the water is agitated at night (a little like a firefly glow, but blue instead of yellow). It basically makes it look like you have neon glitter on you. Unfortunately, it is virtually impossible to capture on film . . .

Also this weekend, my roomate for the past 2 months - the pigeon - hatched her chicks. Congratulations to the pigeon!

[roommate pigeon + chick]

July 31: I say farewell to Condominium Condado del Mar

Today, I began the first step of leaving Puerto Rico, as I had movers come and pack all of my stuff up so that I could move out of my apartment. For all of you who did not get a chance to see my beautiful apartment (with some very scary elevators), here is a picture of the view:

[View from Adam's Balcony]

August 3-6, 2007: Amy visits and . . . you guessed it - Adam goes to El Yunque!

Amy, one of my great friends from Law School came to visit this past weekend. It was honestly one of the most relaxing weekends I've had in PR yet (which is good, because it was my last weekend in PR). On Saturday, we got up at around 10, and drove to El Yunque. This was probably the best traffic out of the past three visits, but the worst weather. It was misty the entire time; the summit was not visible from the bottom. Nevertheless, we trekked on, and took some fun pictures in the mist:

[Amy on El Yunque]

Later that night, we went to a gathering of all of the PR law clerks who were leaving. It was a fun party, but a bit bittersweet - a lot of these people have been my close friends for the past year, and I'll be sad to leave them behind.

[Ivan, Lory, Adam]

[Karen and Adam]

And then finally, yesterday, I sold the green monster: my enormous 1994 Ford Explorer, who hadn't been looking so well recently:

[now in better hands]

That's all folks! Next weekend, Valerie and I will be posting (or at least planning to post) from Essex, MA where we join much of my father's family for a weekend at the beach.