The Best Laid Schemes . . .

The Mister and I had modest plans for our recent trip to Ecuador. When my dear friend Janet (aka Happy Cricket), a Peace Corp volunteer in Ecuador asked us what we wanted to do while there, our list was fairly straight-forward:

1. see boobies-- both red and blue footed


2. spend time by the ocean


3. admire volcanoes


4. take a crazy train ride through the Andes


5. hang out with Janet in the cloud forest

We successfully completed #3.

I'll be posting about our adventures as the photos and thoughts become organized, but I'll start with the extra fun prairie dog had in Washington D.C.
Prairie Dog spent a few days in the George Washington University Hospital re-assuring Janet that her surgery would be fine. Janet, you see, broke her leg badly just before we were set to arrive in Ecuador. She was medically evacuated from Quito to D.C. late Sunday night. We were set to fly early Monday morning from D.C. to Quito. Miraculously, we had e-mailed her the phone number of Bee Sorter, who we were spending Sunday night with, we managed to change our tickets without penalty, we had good friends to spend time with in D.C., and the constantly changing plans were communicated even though nobody actually spoke with another person until late on Monday.

In the end, we were able to hang out with Janet in D.C. as they put her ankle back together and Janet's and my beach-ready toes were for naught (Follow the "Happy Cricket" link to see photos of Janet's post-surgery green toes and new ankle hardware).

The best laid schemes o' mice an men gang aft agley.
Robert Burns "To a Mouse"

I think I'll avoid both Burns and Steinbeck this year, but there are some nice mouse references currently unexplored.