ThrowbackThursday | Caridad Pineiro® Romance Author

July 28, 2022

Welcome a New Baby and a Family Baptism Photo

We have a new baby in the family which is so exciting! It made me think of this baptism photo of the new baby’s grandma and I thought I’d share it with you. This is my sister’s baptism in Cuba. I’m the little girl just left of center, my brother is all the way to the right, and my dad is to the extreme left. The rest of the people are the godparents and some family friends, but not my mom which I always thought was weird.

I remembered my grandmother explaining that in Cuba the mother didn’t go to the baptism and this morning I did a little research and found an article that explained this practice which was known as “the churching of women.” Apparently, baptismal practices changed from having adult baptisms to baptizing infants because of infant mortality and sometimes mothers were still recuperating after birth. Somehow that became the reason for mothers not being at baptisms and that practice remained in place until the early 1970s. Wow!

P.S. – If you’re interested in learning more about the Cuban experience, especially after coming to the U.S., please check out my novel The Family She Never Met.

July 21, 2022July 20, 2022

Enjoying My Summer Beauties

Since I have limited space in my garden, there is only one rule: You give me either flowers or food! LOL! Luckily I have some beautiful flowers as well as tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, assorted peppers, and some fennel. Today I’m sharing some of my flowers with you on this Throwback Thursday. I was also lucky enough to get a photo of this beautiful Monarch butterfly that was visiting my garden.

July 14, 2022

Exciting Adventure on the Jersey Shore

On this Throwback Thursday, I’m sharing some video I took when hubby and I ran across a school of skates! Since the weather was so nice we were taking a long walk and on our return trip over the Shark River Bridge, we caught sight of a large school of bait fish jumping out of the water. We decided to watch the bait fish to see if anything big would come to chase after them, like a dolphin. Nothing came to eat the bait fish but then we spotted two small skates in the water. A few seconds later, however, we saw a school of over a dozen skates gliding through the water. I managed to get out my phone and capture some video of this amazing sight! I so love being this close to nature and being able to see things like this right on my doorstep. It’s one of the reasons I set the At the Shore series in this area.

June 23, 2022

Happy Road Trip to Space Coast Book Lovers Conference

We hit the road on Tuesday to head down to the Space Coast Book Lovers Conference. Luckily, traffic was at a minimum and conversation was at a high. Before we knew it, we had hit our first stop: Wilmington, North Carolina.

Wilmington is a very nice town along the Cape Fear River. We had made reservations at one of Marriott’s new Aloft concept hotels. It was located along the River Walk and next to a Railroad Museum. Part of the hotel was housed in what was once the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad terminal!

We had a lovely dinner with my co-pilot’s family in the area and then we were off the next morning for Cape Canaveral, Florida. Not a bad trip as well especially since we were able to hit Buc-ees and get ourselves some souvenirs and beaver nuggets. Unfortunately, it was too early to get some brisket because it is nom nom. LOL!

We finally hit our destination in what is actually Cocoa Beach (Cue I Dream of Jeannie theme song). It was time to drop off some swag at the Convention Center and check-in. After dinner, we spent some time assembling some other swag for the Friday events at the conference.

This is my first time to the Space Coast Book Lovers Conference and I really looking forward to it! I’ll try to keep you posted over the next few days on how it’s going!

Here are some photos from our road trip!

June 9, 2022

Fun and Gloria Estefan

I love Gloria Estefan and often played her music. So much at times that my daughter learned to count to Gloria’s 1-2-3 song! One of the first times we went to South Beach we even stayed at the Cardozo Hotel which the Estefans own. We had a fun time on that vacation and went back to Miami fairly often. It’s why I decided to set so many books there, including my upcoming South Beach Security series that begins in December. This photo is a picture of us all ready to head to a Gloria concert. We saw many of them over the years!

May 26, 2022

Day 2 of Our Danube River Cruise

After a very restful night, we woke to a beautiful sunrise.

Not long after that, we found ourselves in a lock! We actually went through two of them as we made our trip upstream. This is speeded up quite a bit. It took at least half-an-hour to make it to the level necessary for us to continue our trip up the Danube.

Soon our ship was on the way to our next location: Bratislava, Slovakia!

Bratislava is a beautiful city and the capital of Slovakia. So many pristine buildings and quaint squares. We walked around for a few hours to see the church and many of the older buildings in town. We truly enjoyed this amazing city!

After a delightful lunch on the sky deck of the ship, we were off again to see the many sights along the Danube. So many towns, churches, and castles along the way. We even went by one town where I counted at least six churches. The name of the town: Göd. Not kidding you! As night fell, we found ourselves in another lock so we could continue our overnight cruise to our next location!

May 24, 2022

Happily Sharing My Danube River Cruise

For my retirement from a legal career in 2019, my husband gifted me a Danube River Cruise and we have finally been able to go. Because of the two-year COVID delay, the cruise also became a trip to celebrate hubby’s retirement and a big anniversary! We had a lovely time and today I’m sharing our first port-of-call: Budapest, Hungary.

We arrived a day early to avoid any issues with airplane delays and I am glad we did. We had delays out of Newark and barely made a connecting flight but our luggage didn’t make It. Luckily that all got straightened out by very late that night.

Budapest was actually two towns — Buda and Pest — on either side of the Danube River that were united in the latter 1800s. When we arrived in Budapest, we started our walk along the Danube. Budapest is a lovely city that is wonderful for exploring since it’s a great walking city thanks to the walkways all along the river. There is artwork at various spots along the river as well as views of Budapest’s many bridges and Pest across the way! A convenient train line also runs along the river.

Our first stop was a memorial to World War II victims who had been shot along the banks of the river. The “Shoes along the Danube” is a stirring reminder of the human element in war.

Our next stop was the Parliament Building and surrounding structures and statues. Truly beautiful.

Close to Parliament was a memorial to the 1956 Hungarian uprising against Communism. Thick metal slabs were dented and punctured by gunfire. For me it was a reminder of the brutality of life under Communism and Marxism for so many in the past and today.
1956 Hungarian Memorial

All around the memorial and Parliament buildings were beautiful gardens and other structures. We kept on walking since it was an absolutely glorious day. In fact, we had beautiful sunny weather the entire time we were on the cruise! We were very lucky. We were able to stroll around the city until late that night.

The next morning we strolled to the city’s Great Market Hall where we picked up some pate and paprika! There were some amazing stalls for purchasing meats, fruits, and vegetables as well as food stalls to pick up something to eat. On the second floor, you could pick up souvenirs as well as locally made clothing, leather, and embroidered items.