A Turtle in Our Home

After lunch, Jake & I drove Ryan back to our house, where I showed him into the furnished guest room (not to be confused with the one that has just a mattress on the floor, tons of books and toys) so he could drop his pack and take off his shoes and relax.

We went back downstairs where David and Ryan talked about the Florida Trail. David hiked a lot of it in 2002-2003, so he brought out his maps to compare to Ryan's maps.

I also asked what strawberry leather was, as he mentioned it a few times in his blog. He went up to his room to bring down some for us to share. Yum! It's like a THICK fruit rollup.

They talked shop, while I finished icing the carrot cake I made before I left for lunch. Isabel woke from her nap, came down stairs and stopped dead in the foyer when she noticed a new person in the room. She stood firmly planted there until David went over and picked her up.

Ryan got on the computer a bit, then came back down to watch Jake play Guitar Hero while we discussed his trips to South America, speaking Spanish, differences in cultures, etc. etc. ....and he showed me his feet. LOL

David was starved by then because he hadn't eaten lunch, so I helped him prepare dinner, although I was still kind-of full from that great lunch. We made chicken & steak fajita meat on the grill, then cooked up some onions, peppers and fajita sauce to put the meat into. Spanish rice, refried beans, avocados, sour cream, lettuce, salsa, tortillas and cheese were all laid out and we created ginormous burritos that I could barely eat.

Ryan went back upstairs and finished some work on a new feature he'd been developing for Atlas Quest. He showed us some behind-the-scenes stuff, and had Jake enthralled with his portable hard drive. Ryan installed something to Jake's portable drive which thrilled Jake to no ends and he continues to play with it.

Meanwhile, Isabel went to bed while David sat behind Ryan playing Call of Duty 4 and being very loud over his head set. *groan* That's my geek.

(Ryan, I completely forgot to offer you our phone! Free nights and weekend and I never even thought to ask if you needed to use it!. I bet you were just too polite to ask. Gahh! My bad.)

We exchanged signature stamps and a cool traveler he had for this journey.

He looked up in this picture beause he didn't want the flash to hurt his eyes. (you can click on the pictures to make them bigger. Notice the books on the hutch? All HP books, Buffy Guides, Angel Case Files and Firefly Companions - Yea! and a picture of Vicky's Chihuahua Diva).

We do a retake...and David takes so long, I fought to not blink. Here's what THAT picture looks like.

Yea, nice one.

Since I had to get up the following morning, Monday, VERY early for work, Ryan opted to sleep in and have David and Isabel drive him back to Lake Mary later in the day. I put a towel and soap in his room, gave him a hug and went to bed. That's the last I saw of the Green Tortuga.

The next morning, after a shower and breakfast, David and Isabel dropped him off in Lake Mary between 10 and 11:00 a.m. and off he went. He signed our guest book in the foyer and even stamped it.

So, that's our story. A nice (boring) stay at home with us.