2025 Fox-Vega Yearly Family Reflection

This past year was a lovely one for our family. We started January camping in Luquillo, soaking in river air. In February, Paul had an unforgettable encounter with a scorpion fish. March was busy: Moni ran the San Blas Half Marathon again, and we were so happy to welcome the Halls for a visit. April was quiet and steady. Soon after, in May we celebrated Xio and Matt’s wedding and got to spend time with so many Foxes — with the added bonus of Rachel and Joe staying a few extra days. May brought a special homecoming when Moni’s older sister moved back to Puerto Rico, and Diego graduated Kinder. It has been fascinating to watch him slowly acquire reading and writing skills in 2025. In June, Diego went to summer camp for the very first time — a big milestone. July took us to MKE, and in August Moni danced away at Bad Bunny’s residency concert. In September, Paul and Moni organized a food drive for Happy Givers. In October, Moni won a monetary prize in a 10K race. For Halloween, we dressed as How to Train Your Dragon, fully committing to the theme. November brought a reunion with graduate school friends in NYC. In December, Diego competed in his first fishing tournament, in addition we can't believe that we went diving for the first time since 2018 before heading back to MKE to celebrate Christmas together. Not everything was perfect, of course. We had hoped to finish the rooftop and make the guest room more functional, but we ran into several roadblocks along the way. We also faced a very disheartening situation with the HOA. Learning to be parents — and learning how to coordinate life together — is an ongoing process; every day brings a new challenge that we try to navigate as a team. We had our share of disagreements in 2025, but most days were filled with laughter, hugs, and gratitude for one another. P.S. Jincho remained the luckiest dog alive ------------------------------------- Este año que pasó fue uno muy lindo para nuestra familia. Comenzamos enero acampando en Luquillo, disfrutando del aire del río. En febrero, Paul tuvo un encuentro inolvidable con un pez escorpión. Marzo estuvo lleno: Moni corrió nuevamente el Medio Maratón San Blas y estuvimos muy felices de recibir la visita de los Halls. Abril fue tranquilo y estable. En mayo, celebramos la boda de Xio y Matt y pudimos compartir con muchos Foxes — y con el bono adicional que Rachel y Joe se quedaran unos días más. Mayo también trajo un regreso muy especial cuando la hermana mayor de Moni se mudó de vuelta a Puerto Rico, y Diego se graduó de Kinder. Ha sido fascinante verlo adquirir poco a poco destrezas de lectura y escritura en el 2025. En junio, Diego fue a campamento de verano por primera vez — un gran logro. Julio nos llevó a MKE, y en agosto Moni bailó sin parar en la residencia de Bad Bunny. En septiembre, Paul y Moni organizaron una colecta de alimentos para Happy Givers. En octubre, Moni ganó un premio en efectivo en una carrera 10K. Para Halloween, nos disfrazamos de Cómo entrenar a tu dragón, comprometiéndonos por completo con el tema. Noviembre trajo un reencuentro con amigos de la escuela graduada en NYC. En diciembre, Diego participó en su primer torneo de pesca; además, no podemos creer que volvimos a bucear por primera vez desde el 2018 antes de regresar a MKE para celebrar la Navidad juntos. No todo fue perfecto, por supuesto. Esperábamos terminar el rooftop y hacer el cuarto de invitados más funcional, pero nos encontramos con varios obstáculos en el camino. También enfrentamos una situación muy desalentadora con la HOA. Aprender a ser padres — y aprender a coordinar la vida juntos — es un proceso continuo; cada día trae un nuevo reto que tratamos de enfrentar como equipo. Tuvimos nuestras diferencias en el 2025, pero la mayoría de los días estuvieron llenos de risas, abrazos y gratitud el uno por el otro. P.S. Jincho continuo viviendo una vida envidiable.

P’s 31st birthday in Amsterdam Jan 24th to 27th 2013

Paul had mentioned his curiosity about visiting Amsterdam; hence, I decided to take him for a birthday weekend getaway. 

Another reason to choose Amsterdam was that there are 2-3 direct flights a day from Stansted Airport to Amsterdam. In London there are many airports (like Stansted, Gatwick, Luton, Heathrow, Southend and London City), but Stansted is the closest to Cambridge, just a 30 minutes train ride away. Also one expense to keep in mind and add to the final traveling cost when in UK is the train ticket to the airport. Going from Cambridge to Stansted airport cost £14 return vs £44 - £75 that cost to go from Cambridge to Heathrow. Luckily EasyJet a popular charter airline travels to Amsterdam for an affordable price. I found return tickets for £85.48 per person from January 24^th to the 27^th.  

For budgeted travel my preferred way of accommodation are vacation rentals, which are leased directly by their owners. I typically use websites like airbnb.com, homeaway.com, flipkey.com, tripadvisor.com and vrbo.com etc. For this particular time I found a studio using bookings.com for £63 pounds per night (a total of 3 nights for 189). The studio name was Truelove Antique Guesthouse. Although Guesthouse is part of the name it seemed to me the business consisted of various apartments scattered around a close perimeter but not all in the same building. Our studio was at 2 Herenstraat, strategically located close to everything. I mean it when I say everything. It was two blocks away from the Red District, but yet, completely isolated from it. Ten minute walk from the main train station, four blocks away from the Anne Frank museum, a couple of blocks away from the outdoor market called Boerenmarkt and basically with easy access to all sorts of things like bike rentals and Jordaan, the new hip neighborhood with a myriad of restaurants to choose from. Here is a street view of the studio (http://goo.gl/maps/PNxvD) located in the basement. 

In preparation for the trip I made three maps using My Places from Google Maps, these maps are public and here are the links to them. 

         Amsterdam Beer-Food-Coffeeshops http://goo.gl/maps/at5NS   
     Museums Amsterdam  http://goo.gl/maps/FuXEw

           Touristy in Amsterdam http://goo.gl/maps/yBNwH

I was able to gather a lot of this information thanks to my College friend JO who lives in Amsterdam now for nearly a decade with his lovely Dutch wife.

I was really excited planning this trip because I knew Amsterdam had a lot of things that P likes. For example, Amsterdam has embraced a bit more than other European countries the concept of microbrewing and experimental brewing. Also the city, made famous by its manmade canals system has a nautical feel about it that I know P is fond of, not to mention that some of his favorites painters are Dutch, including Rembrandt. Last, but not least, is the idea of experiencing what is advertised as a very liberal society and his hopes of seeing/experiencing me very very high. The only thing we had against us was the insanely cold January weather.  

The flight to Amsterdam with EasyJet was ok but extremely full. Amsterdam is one of the favorite destinations for Stag parties (so call Bachelors’ parties in USA), hence a larger than normal amount of obnoxious males were on the plane. When arriving at the airport we needed to get a 15-20 minute train to the center of the town. The easiest way to buy the tickets is using the machines above the train tracks. Unfortunately those machines do not accept Visa or Mastercard debit cards and to use them you must have a Dutch debit card or a Maestro-enabled debit card. Of course we didn’t know that and spend some time trying to figure out why it didn’t work. Luckily you can buy train tickets at the ticket office with cash or any credit/debit card plus the added surcharge of 50 cents per ticket. When we arrived to the city train station we walked around 10 minutes to pick up the keys of the rental, we got a bit lost but were able to find it alright. We left our stuff at the studio and ran to Arendsnest (tp://www.arendsnest.nl/) a great bar serving 30 Dutch microbrews on tap and 10 bottled. Amongst others, we sampled Texels Skuumkoppe, Mikkie Stout a beer made for the owner of the Proenflokaal (tasting bar) and TempelBier Blond. This bar is considered world class and we felt that when we were there, definitely will come back here next time. 

Woke up went to Baton Brasserie (http://www.brasseriebaton.nl/) for breakfast, nothing memorable but a very nice ambient. The closest museum was Anne Frank’s;  this one is located in the actual place where the hiding took place during WWII. The front of the museum is the storage and office of the Frank family business Opekta (selling spices and pectin). Everyone has to go, I am still speechless.  We stopped at the Boerenmarkt  a more organic type of market by Jordaan and walked around a bit. Right at one corner of the market area we ate the famous Dutch apple pie at Cafe Winkel (http://www.winkel43.nl/). We spent some time at a coffeeshop but that was a bit disappointing because they were not very helpful or educational. We then headed for a nap at the studio if I remember well. Then we we woke up and went to Los Pilones (http://www.lospilones.com/) a restaurant recommended by JO. It was really good and we were not disappointed. 

The next day we went to Rijksmuseum where they hold Rembrandts masterpiece the Night Watch. Unfortunately the museum was partly close but we were able to see some of Rembrandts and Vermeer’s important paintings. We then decided to rent some bikes in the corner of Westermarkt.  To see some of the Van Gogh exhibit, we biked to the Hermitage museum were the masterpieces are being show while they remodelled the proper Van Gogh museum. The exhibit was very informative but not overwhelming. I definitely became more aware of his genius, and was particularly amazed by paintings like Vase with Violet Irises Against a Yellow Background. I am ever drawn to still life but seen this one in person really changed my perspective. Later we went for lunch to Albertcuypmarkt in a very ethnically diverse part of town. There you can find anything you might need. That day we had lunch at the Butcher (http://www.the-butcher.com/about.html) a pretty hip burger place.  Apparently the establishment also holds an exclusive secret bar behind carefully designed movable walls that you can only access with the proper password.  By that time my dear friend JO was ready to show us around. We met at AlbertCuyp markt and biked to his home. There we truly had a great time hanging out with him and his wife. They cooked a traditional Dutch meal called Witlofschotel , SUPER. Then we headed to the Red Light District were we met with a friend of JO who happened to live there. That was really nice because he showed us around and took us to all the must see in RLD. We ended up in a really nice bar that I wished I remembered the name of. Anyhow that was a long night with peek show included and all. 

The next morning we woke with only enough time to get ready and check out. The check out was as easy as the check in, but then we had all day to play around. Luckily the train station holds a self served luggage storage system; it is uber convenient and affordable. Then we basically walked around all day. We went to the center to see the Palace, the touristy stores, the Flower market and some other things I can’t remember because we were really hang over that day. The trip was great we regret not being able to do two things. One was to take a boat trip on the canal and the other one was to tour the Heineken Factory. Hopefully we can go back to do it again.