7 July 2013 - Buenos Aires to New Jersey

On Monday morning, we took the bus from Santa Fe to Buenos Aires.  I had a meeting at the Fulbright office Tuesday morning, and it's a seven hour drive from Santa Fe to B.A., so we got the long drive out of the way Monday.  On Tuesday we went to the Fulbright office, then went to the docks to catch a boat to Uruguay.  Here are the girls on the boat.

Upon our arrival in Uruguay, we rented a car.  Here is our car:

It was sunny, but not super warm to be driving a stretch-limo golf cart, but the girls had a blast riding in it, I had a blast driving it, and people all around town had a blast seeing it.  We even had a few times where we came back to it in the parking lot and found tourists taking pictures of it (and even in it a couple of times!)

First we went to the beach, which was awesome, but cold.

This however did not stop the girls from rolling up their pants and wading in.

The town opposite Buenos Aires in Uruguay is called Colonia and it is a Spanish colonial era fort town.  Not much of the old fort remains, but the lighthouse has been preserved and is still in use today.

This is Joanne at the top of the lighthouse with some nearby islands in the background.

Here are the girls sitting on a remnant of the fort wall.

All around Colonia, old cars are positioned on the streets.  It's a very tourist friendly town.

The girls found this little cannon in one of the town parks and staged a scene.

After a full day in Colonia, we ate churrasco at a beach restaurant and watched the sun set.  Pictures of these gorgeous sunsets often don't do them justice.  This one turned out pretty nice.

Tuesday night we took the boat back to B.A.  Wednesday was our last day in Argentina. With a 9 PM flight, we had a whole day before heading to the airport.  We took a hop-on-off bus tour around the city. This is one of the many monuments around the city.

B.A.'s answer to the Washington Monument is the Obelisco.  It's smaller than the Washington Monument, but still impressive, and right in the middle of the busiest street in the city.

This is the official presidential residence.  We have the White House, they have the Pink House.

Our bus took us to the Boca Juniors soccer stadium.  As professional sporting venues go, this is the equivalent of Yankees Stadium for Argentina.

Here is me on the bus in the waterfront district in B.A.  Note that my hood was up, even though the sun was very bright.

After a full day of touring the city, we made our way to the airport for our long ride home.

We arrived back in New Jersey around noon on July 4th.  The girls were excited to see cousins again.

We went to a picnic with Jerry's family, then found our way up a hillside to watch the New York City fireworks on the Hudson River.  As with sunsets, photos rarely do them justice.

Eden and Calista made welcome home signs for us.  They were excited to have us stay with them to play for a few days.

On Friday, we went to Great Falls in Patterson, New Jersey.  I hadn't ever heard of these, and it was really cool to see falls like this right in the middle of a city.

It wasn't all fun and games though.  The back door of Jerry and Danae's house faces most of the storms that come along, and over the years the threshold and step had deteriorated pretty badly.  The cold (and hot) air would filter under the door fairly freely, so we removed the rotten wood and installed a new threshold.  It's a nice complement to the tile floor we did in the kitchen last year.