Out of all the songs I heard yesterday, somehow “Under the Boardwalk” was the one that stuck in my head and was in my dreams. How sad when so many other great songs were performed. Paul and I were up at 6:30, but Mia and Cali were already on the two porch hammocks and had been there since 6:00. Yikes. Kier and her friend who slept on our couch, were still asleep.
Paul and I did what we normally do at this hour, went in search for coffee. Much to our utter shock and dismay, the kitchen only opened at 7:30. We had a whole hour to wait, coffeeless. We decided to go and sit down by the lake to distract ourselves.
There were a number of fishermen hard at work casting nets. The fishermen have no trouble ignoring all this talk about a polluted lake. They just keep doing what they know how to do, living separately from the rumors or reality of a polluted lake.
Mia had been sick during the night with the runs. She spent most of the day in bed, but in the afternoon felt better and went over to Pana to pick up Dad and his wife, my brother, his wife and their daughter.
We spent our morning eagerly anticipating the arrival of everyone in the afternoon. The younger girls spent the day in the pool and hot-tub. Kier and I spent the day lounging by the pool, enjoying the quiet lake. Paul kept himself busy swimming with the girls, then he took the hotel’s mountain bike and went for a long ride in the countryside, went swimming in the lake. He sat still for about 2 minutes, as much as he was able.
The owner of the hotel said to Kier, “Haven’t you been here all weekend, but with different families?” It’s true that she was here on Friday with the band, then we stayed for two nights. He offered her a job bar tending, in jest I’m sure. A 16 year old bar tender. Down here that probably happens.
Mia went over to meet the rest of the family in Pana, then bring them across the lake to the hotel. She found them a private boat, so they came right up to the hotel pier. We could see them from the pool. It was a dramatic entrance.
We all checked into our rooms, each unique, lot of Guate decorations. Ours was a bedroom with a living room that had beds for 3 people, Dad’s and Mia’s rooms were two bedrooms joined by a bathroom, my brother’s room had a king sized bed on the bottom floor and an impressive loft with a view up a ladder.
Madi’s cousin invited her for a sleepover in the loft, so she was pumped. We had a long and leisurely supper. A two hour meal is typical. The menu explains they do not prepare fast food, and to their credit, they are right. It was tasty. Cali did napkin origami for a couple of hours–there was a book there. She can follow those crazy diagrams like no other. Madi and her cousin were playing some kind of card game. The rest of us talked. For me, those are the absolute best memories, being with lots of family in a unique setting.
After that there was some night swimming and we made a fire (ala Kier the boyscout) in our fireplace. Kier stayed up and watched that old, old Hollywood movie about Moses. She was disappointed that she couldn’t stay awake much past the parting of the Red Sea. I told her I’m quite certain we can find that somewhere in Canada when we get home.
They have candles in the room, something that wouldn’t happen at home. We had all 10 going and it lit up the entire two rooms. Our bed had a huge piece of rock as a headboard. Felt like I was sleeping in a cave.
Then at 4 a.m., Music Festival’s revenge struck my g.i. tract. I was sick, sick, sick. I was doing projectile vomiting and the water faucet runs with the force of an open fire hydrant in a hot St. Louis summer. Ya, I hope the description makes one cringe, because the experience was brutal. I had to wake up Paul because I thought I was going to pass out and hit my head on the glorious stone tub or floor. Was not pretty. I had what Mia had the day before. As I rested my cheek on the cold stone floor. I’d probably eaten from almost every food stall at the music festival. For that, I was going to pay.