Time to Move On!

Stardate 66614

11:23 - Well, Focus Foxies, this has been a long time coming, but it is time for me to move on from my apartment.  I know I have only been there for a few months. What you really need to know is that I was dealing with a stage 4 maybe 5 crazy person where the best things I could say about her was that she mostly paid her bills on time and did not steal from me or stab me. That is no exactly a ringing endorsement.... 

Luckily I have found someone else to live with in a near by apartment. That someone is the sweet and awesome Kelley! She has chosen to live with me despite my faults and knowing my love of shenanigans. So win win.

I think I am most excited about decorating this new place. My previous place was a dirty cave, but this place will be bright and sunny! I went to town/pinterest to create for myself a lovely little feminine bedroom complete with a makeshift canopy (see above). The canopy consists of Ikea curtains and curtain rods and some led lights (they don't heat up). I decided on purple because I love all things purple.

The next was the living room! Kelley got an awesome purple rug...notice the theme of the place. I painted a bookshelf along with a couple of other paintings for the walls.

Red Hook Lobster

Stardate 66565.2

15:45 - On a cold day, (far colder than in the Dominican Republic) I decided to indulge a love of mine: food trucks. I had nothing in my fridge for lunch and wanted to continue to walk on the wild side, so food from a moving vehicle fits the bill. For this particular culinary adventure, I chose the Red Hook Lobster.

Red Hook Lobster has a claim to fame as being the best DC lobster truck. They specialize in Maine Lobster Rolls. What qualifies as a ‘Maine Lobster Roll’, Focus Foxies? I am not sure. I really do not have that type of regional knowledge, but the sign on the truck mentioned mayo. I was mostly sold on that point. I went with a shrimp roll meal. This buttery roll was covered, nay suffocated with little shrimp. I mean a pile of shrimp on a bun. The shrimp was coated in a homemade lemon mayo, which was tangy to say the least. The shrimp were on a bed of lettuce, but I had to fight my way in to figure that out.

The meal felt like a little trip to the Northeast. It came with the traditional Northeast Cape Cod chips. They are your typical kettle chips that I adore. The most notable thing about the truck was their drink selection. They had a fountain right there on the side of the truck. All of the cokes were made by Maine Root. This is a small, independent 'soda' manufacturer. They have bunches of different organic sodas to try. I decided to go with something more regionally familiar to me: Mexi-cola. I enjoyed it. It was spicier than your usual coke. It was cool to see Red Hook Lobster support local (by local, I mean Maine) companies. It made it feel more authentic.

This wouldn't be your typical lunch at $12 a meal, but it did make for something different in L'enfant plaza. As I was walking up, the cook/owner and a guest were talking about DC chef twitter fights. It was pretty legit place. I felt like I was a part of something. Soon you won't recognize me, Focus Foxies. I will be a part of the culinary underground.

Four Boats and No One's Funeral

Stardate 66597.2

Our last day in the Dominican Republic, we decided to visit the South side of the island. We booked a tour that led us on four different boats that explored the Southern coast.

Boat 1: We sailed on the catamaran along the coast, catching wonderful views of the Parque Nacional de Este on land. The National Park is one of the few in the world that tries to protect the whole coastal ecosystem from the ocean to the mangroves to the shoreline. It’s actually one of the largest marine national parks in the region. We sailed on the catamaran until we reached the channel between the main island and Isla Soana.

Boat 2

Lunch

Boat 2: Our second float was just that a float. Our tour guide made a joke about it being what Cubans tried to get to Florida on. So we figured it was pretty sturdy. We took the canoe raft into the mangroves to see the breeding grounds of frigate birds. Fun fact, frigate birds are large and have huge red necks that can be puffed out. They would swoop all around us, giving us the feeling of being wild adventurers. The tour guides were also able to drudge up some weird looking jellyfish for us. They were up-side-down jellyfish, meaning their tentacles were on top. I’m not going to lie, Focus Foxies, I petted one. I did not get stung, but it did feel gross.

Up-Side-Down Jelly

Boat 3: Next, we flew past the channel between the main island and Isla Soana in a speed boat. Our destination was the sand bar where the Caribbean and Atlantic Oceans meet. So they let us out to drink and have fun in crystal blue waters.  We watched as the waves came crashing into the sand bar and intermixed forming some outstanding blue hues. This water was much choppier than the sandbar we were on the previous day. Also, the wind came in pretty strong as well. We just stayed under water with our drinks for warmth. That's a free survival tip for everyone out there.

Boat 4: Our final boat consisted of paddle boat that took us upstream into the main island. It seemed like a trip back in time with the old school transportation and the Jurassic vegetation.  It was as if the boat and river pierced a hole in the gigantic wall of jungle. Focus Foxies, I think we were in the Rio Yuma that borders two providences in Dominican Republic. There is actually no way to be sure. Our guide just dropped off after a while.

As the sun set, I held a rum cocktail in hand and propped my feet up. I felt peaceful amongst the jungle and happy about our last day in the Dominican Republic.