A bit over 6 years ago I accepted a new position within the federal government, transferring from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland over to the Department of Veteran Affairs in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Career-wise it was a small step, but geographically and culturally it was a giant leap for Pat & Jenn-kind.

My first day in the office I was greeted by my new boss, Ivan Rosado. He took me around and got me acquainted with the campus. From the get go, he seemed like quite the character and my instincts were not wrong. Next we went to the office to meet the rest of the team. As the door opened, the cacophony of voices hit us and it was difficult to discern whether multiple of my future colleagues were having a passionate argument, just having a laugh, or something in between… almost always it was something in between, but always passionate. It turned out that this would be a pretty common, if not daily, scene and usually would involve 5 to 10 people talking at the same time but somehow making it work. It wouldn’t be long before I’d also be part of it and contributing in my own broken Spanglish.

I’m very grateful and genuinely feel lucky that my new office welcomed me so warmly and took me in as part of the team without hesitation. Our project, was extremely complicated and I like to believe that my contributions were significant. At the very least I got the mosaic (below) relocated from the original 1965 bedtower (seen behind me in one of my first posts) and reinstalled in front of the hospital entrance. I feel particularly indebted to Arq. Francisco Jayo who showed me the ropes in my new position as well as Orlando Casillas who always looked out for me as my 2nd supervisor (also he makes some tasty BBQ). Though I certainly have learned much from everyone in a professional capacity, in probably a more invaluable way they taught me a ton about Puerto Rico and the culture in general. I still have a lot to learn but I certainly have got some of the Boricua influence and have a better understanding of the island. For that I’m eternally grateful to all of them.

There are plenty of others that were part of our team that are not in the above photos and certainly influenced me, mostly for the better, but on a project this size it’d be too many to name. I’m sure some of them will pop up in future posts as I hope to stay in touch with many of the guys.

So essentially this all has been a very long-winded way of saying that I’m leaving the VA and federal government to go out on my own. My thoughts and reasons for doing so are complicated and more appropriate for discussion over drinks than an internet blog post, so feel free to come find me if you want to pick my brain.

We’re not leaving the island, I’m just doing some professional transitioning. Maybe I’ll even have some more time to update our website. I hope all the best for everyone that worked alongside me and will always reflect fondly on the time we spent working together.

P.S. if you need an Architect in Maryland, DC, or Puerto Rico, send me a message ;D

Once again we’ve been lazy about posting our comings and goings here. Truth be told, we haven’t been up to too many interesting things as of late. Cats are still cat-ing, work is still working, and weekends have been mostly filled with chores and some relaxation time at the beach. That doesn’t mean we haven’t done anything, and certainly have plenty of photos to dump of our favorite felines. Here’s some of the highlights.

Anyways that’s good enough for now. Hopefully we’ll get into some more interesting adventures soon. I’m hoping to get back out on the Hobie Cat this summer and finally learn to sail. Maybe I can get the GoPro out with me and not lose it; TBD.

Ever since I’ve been here at Pine Grove, I’ve watched a particular wave off in the distance on the outer reef. I’ve decided to remove the name of the wave because frankly it should remain a mystery to most. During big swells you can tell the waves are massive from shore and can see waves crashing on the rock outcropping, so obviously I’ve been dying to go check it out.

Fortunately and unfortunately it is not easily accessible. The wave is about a mile offshore from pretty much any point. I’ve considered paddling out to check it by myself but without knowing the lay of the land (water) and the intricacies of the reef, channels, currents, etc. I’ve decided the adventure to stupidity ratio was leaning too much in the stupid direction. So up until recently I’ve been resigned to watching from shore. My various other surfing neighbors have been out there and we always talk about getting a boat to go out when conditions are good, but things never have lined up. That is until a few weeks ago.

So in comes Eddie. If you’ve read any other posts, it’s not that Eddie; however, it is his grandson. Eddie’s also a surfer and we’ve discussed surfing that wave on more than one occasion. Usually the discussion revolves around how the hell do we get out there?

Luckily Eddie’s visit was also coinciding with a pretty significant swell. I was working the first day or two he he was here but finally on Saturday we were able to get out for a surf. Additionally, it was the biggest day of the swell.

We started off going to the inner reef and catching a few waves. The swell angle wasn’t lining up great for the spot but we got a few and had some fun. We went in ahead of lunch and decided we’d all go out to Ocean Lab just down the road for some food.

As fortune would have it, as soon as we walked up the stairs to Ocean Lab we could see wave after wave just perfectly peeling down the outer reef. My jaw and Eddie’s both hit the floor and we knew we had to get out there and see it in person. Although we often get nice waves, we don’t often get nice offshore winds throughout the day. If we hadn’t gone to Ocean Lab for lunch I don’t think we would’ve realized quite how good it was. We wrapped up lunch quickly, mostly because Eddie Sr. wanted to get back for a pilón delivery for his collection (we’ll save that for another time) and returned to Pine Grove.

Once back, we began discussing our options. I knew from conversations with my neighbor, Tito, that there was an “abandoned” kayak in the storage area of one of the buildings and that he would probably lend me his. We went down to investigate. The initial plan was to each take a kayak, with me borrowing Tito’s; however—again fortuitously—another neighbor happened to be around and mentioned that Carlos had a two-person Hobie kayak outside his storage locker. It was perfect! Thanks Carlos!

So Eddie and I pivoted to this new vessel and wrangled it up the stairs and outside. This was the beginning of our 4 hour workout. I went back up to my apartment and grabbed my trusty 7′-0″ Ashton mid-length, threw some fins in it, lathered on some sunscreen, and then met Eddie back outside. After a bit of scouting, we decided on a spot to launch our adventure and picked an area of the reef that looked deep enough to get across but without much wave action. At this time it was pretty much dead low tide and it would’ve been embarrassing getting rolled on dry reef within the first few hundred feet from shore. We timed it well and made it to deep water past the reef without incident.

The next leg was about 30 minutes of paddling to the outer reef. It was mostly uneventful but we had the wind at our backs and adrenaline in our systems as we began approaching the break. At first we weren’t entirely sure if we’d be able to make it out. It seemed like waves were breaking all the way across the reef; however, we took our time and managed to find a channel which was a lot smaller than anticipated. After some careful maneuvering we managed to get to where the boats were anchored and got to take in the spectacle.

Unfortunately, my GoPro wasn’t charged and didn’t seem to be working at all and we had to rely on Eddie’s phone for video, so apologies for the quality. Here’s some of the videos from when we first got out there… they really don’t do it justice.

While we were spectating we had a chat with one of the surfers coming back to his boat. He seemed to know the spot pretty well and told us where to sit and gave us a nice little breakdown. He even offered to come scoop us up if we got in trouble. We both thanked him but at that point we were still pretty set on just watching.

Maybe about 20 minutes passed and the lineup started clearing out some since it was getting towards the end of the day. At this point we had to decide whether we wanted to take a go at it or just call it and begin paddling back. Eddie gave me a bit of an encouraging nudge to give it a shot and I decided he was right, I wanted to be able to say I’ve surfed it.

With that, I was in the water and paddling over into the lineup. There was a lot of water moving around and I realized it wasn’t quite as easy to figure out as it seemed. Initially I was sitting too far out but after a few went under me I moved inside and prayed that I didn’t get caught by a huge set. A few of the other guys caught some and finally it looked like I was in the spot; I turned, put my head down and scratched into a massive lump of water. I made the drop, was gliding down the face and started a nice drawn out bottom turn and that’s when I caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye…

I had just committed a major faux pas: I went on a wave when another surfer on my inside also was going and he had priority. Realizing my mistake, I said a curse or two and promptly pulled up and off the back of the wave. I was then almost immediately and properly punished for my error by having to take two fairly sizeable waves on my head. My leash held and thankfully I didn’t get much more than a good rinse and I was back on my board paddling towards the channel.

As I was making my way back I saw that I was inadvertently in the perfect spot to catch another; so once again I turned, put my head down, and got into a second massive wave. Thankfully, this one I took solo. It was one of the largest and most perfect waves I’ve ever ridden. As I was getting to the end of it, I saw the other surfer I had dropped in on filming me with his GoPro… I took this as a good sign that he wasn’t too pissed. I promptly apologized to him and he took it all in stride. At least with waves this size there’s a lot of space to maneuver so I didn’t really mess up his ride. I probably should’ve exchanged more information with Matt from Barceloneta and could’ve had the video of my wave but I was too excited and we just chatted for a bit, stoked on catching some great waves.

I paddled back over to the kayak since I had my taste and checked to see if Eddie wanted a run at it. He ultimately decided watching was enough for the day so we packed it in and began our laborious paddle back to shore.

Navigating the channel back was much more nerve racking. Neither of us particularly wanted to get caught by a 10′ wall of whitewater and they kept getting awfully close to us on both sides; however, I think with a bit of luck and hard, well-timed paddling we made it to the inside.

I’m not sure whether it was the wind or lack of adrenaline or just being tired but it took us about an hour to get back. We made it back past the inside section of the reef and pulled the kayak up to shore. We were triumphant! And tired. The kayak seemed about 50 lbs. heavier than when we first took it out.

Regardless, we were both stoked on the day and happy we finally got to see this wave in person. We parted and each got some dinner and then Jenn and I spent the rest of the evening down at his grandad’s all sharing wine and stories. All and all a great day! Can’t wait to get back out there… next time with an electric motor!

Mostly due to laziness we haven’t updated our page for awhile, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been doing stuff. I figured I’d just do a small photo dump of various little things we’ve done in the last few months.

Jenn and I finally got ourselves out of San Juan and took a quick trip over to Luquillo, the sleepy little beach town to the east of us. We only stayed two days but overall had a pretty good time.

We frequented a fun beachside bar and restaurant called Boardriders.

While there we had a chance to meet up with one of my coworkers and his wife, George and Aida. They recently bought a condo to spend weekends in Luquillo and invited us over for some wine and snacks. Jenn of course was mostly infatuated with their dog, Apolo.

The next day I went for a surf in what I hope was mostly sediment the rains brought down from the mountains and later we had plans to go out to lunch with George, Aida, and Apolo. Unfortunately, in typical Puerto Rican fashion the owners of the establishment we planned to dine at were out on vacation. After our lunch failure we parted ways and went back to San Juan. I’m sure we’ll be back for another round sometime soon.

In case you were wondering, we coincidentally happened to be vacationing on the Outer Banks during the whole Hurricane Fiona thing and thus bore no deprivation from it whatsoever. The electricity was on when we came home and everything. Spare a thought for the southwest part of the island, though; they were hit much harder.

And spare a thought for the lizard that chose, upon confronted with the eldritch horror that was Pat’s hand, chose to sprint into the open freezer and hide there. Is he still there? Is he dead, frozen? Is he dormant? Did he escape? We don’t know. But it haunts us.

Last week Pat attended an architecture convention at the El Conquistador Resort, and I tagged along. El Conquistador is in Fajardo in the northeast of the island, and pretty much the quintessential beach vacation hotel.

We found our room to be only okay for the price, but you really can’t beat the amenities. They’ve got like 87,000 pools and hot tubs, including one with a swim up bar, which leads us to…

the required fruity drinks.

They also have a full-on water park…

And my personal favorite, the funicular!

Of course it’s all oceanside, because how could it not be.

If it’s your first time in PR, I wouldn’t recommend this over, say, exploring Old San Juan or El Yunque, but for a second or third trip you could certainly do worse. Any place with a lazy river is okay by me.

Last weekend we headed to arguably Pat’s favorite place on the island, Rincon, to celebrate the birthday of arguably my favorite person on Earth, Pat. We were mostly there because of a good swell coming through, and he got several surfing sessions in. But we did other stuff too!

We drank watermelon juice…

Visited the ruins of the lighthouse…

Visited the not-ruins of a lighthouse…

And had a poolside birthday brunch.

I also tried to feed some horses mints, but they weren’t interested. 😦

We also went to the Rincon Art Walk, which is a kind of arts and crafts fair that happens there every Thursday. He found a nifty artist he really liked and walked away with a t-shirt.

Overall a great completion to the Pat-year, some big waves and good drinks!

So we took the cats out West to an area of Rincón called Puntas this week. It was a bit of a mixed bag if you were to ask Minx and Ruffian.

As usual, beachfront cocktails were had.

I, of course, mostly made the voyage to get some fun surfing in and the waves definitely didn’t disappoint.

The surf was fun but left me battered and bruised. At least I still caught some fun ones.

Overall I’d say it was a success, even if the 2.5 hour car ride was the worst thing that has ever happened to the kitties. Maybe they’ll join us for more adventures… screaming all the way.

After at least one deferred trip thanks to COVID, we finally made it out to Vieques! Similar to Culebra, Vieques is an island on the southeast coast of Puerto Rico. It is larger and more populous than Culebra, and a surprisingly popular American mainland tourist destination. It does not presently have a hospital, though, so please stand 6 feet apart.

Our primary goal on this particular excursion was to cash in on my birthday present: horseback riding! With real live horses and everything! + Cute dog!

Vieques also boasts any number of wild horses, after the fashion of Assateague Island. Unlike Assateague Island, however, there are no park rangers or posted signs admonishing you to stay away from them. You can catch one if you want. (Pat wouldn’t let me.)

(Yes, we rented a golf cart. Yes, you should be jealous.)

Aside from riding, we spent our 3-day weekend in traditional island style: with fun drinks…

Breakfast sandwiches (of champions!) from a really awesome place called Rising Roost…

The world’s most free-range chickens, which local chefs’ actions suggest probably-to-definitely end up in your dinner…

And of course, making sweater-thief kitty friends. Always!