Puerto Rico Vacay

The day after Christmas, we got up at 2 a.m. to drive to Vegas to fly to Puerto Rico. We'd booked good flights but Spirit cancelled them and rebooked us. Now, we had a 9 hour layover in Atlanta. Mark had never been to the Cheesecake factory so we decided to rent a car, eat, and go see some sights!

Check out the gull-wing doors on the Tesla.

The Cheesecake Factory was going to be a while to get a table so we hung around the mall and got a tasty beverage at Starbucks. After the Cheesecake Factory, we went to the Atlanta temple. There weren't any lights, just a nativity statue. It was cold if you can't tell. 

We flew into San Juan late and had to drive another hour and a half to the airbnb. Got there at 4 a.m. and crashed. We got up and walked the half block to the beach. 

My hair got caught on this branch. Merril took a picture before rescuing me.

Then we went sightseeing at Punta Tuna Lighthouse.  

We found some hermit crabs by the lighthouse.

The Puerto Rico flag is often painted on doors and walls.

Mark and Mikayla weren't going to get wet but did. There was a stray dog that wanted to play but we weren't having it. Riding in the van.

Got back in time to see the sunset. More on this later.

The next morning, we got up early and traveled back an hour to get to the San Juan Temple for baptisms.

Mark and I ran an errand and I niggled with our flights home. We changed to a flight that connected through Orlando instead of Baltimore. It's shorter and we depart at 11 a.m. instead of 2 a.m. Yay!

 After the temple, we went to old San Juan and Castillo San Felipe del Morro.

The streets are so pretty and skinny! It was hard to find a place to park.

The old fort is amazing! How did they build this with primitive tools?

We walked around the castle/fort.

We drove back to our airbnb through the El Yunque National Forest to see the rainforest. 

We hiked down to the river.

The river was cold but that didn't stop Mark. It was a little rainy so I wasn't that keen on getting in.

After we got back to our airbnb, Maxine and Merril went down to the bars by our place to sing karaoke. Merril sang Living La Vida Loca in Spanish. Maxine got a lovely beverage. 

The next day, Merril remembered getting roasted pig when he was here before. We found the same place. Some of the kids were freaked out by the pig. Food was great though. We didn't order very well but it's fine. Language barriers and what not.

We found another beach and bought some ice cream.

Mikayla chased this green iguana.

We checked into a different airbnb and changed for our night swimming adventure in a bay of bioluminescent plankton. I didn't take any pictures. This isn't us but I feel like it represents what it looked like and is probably as good as I would've gotten with my phone camera. There was no moon and our experience was fantastic. I didn't think I'd get in because the idea of night swimming in the ocean when it's not that warm didn't really appeal to me. A boat transported us to a bay, threw out an anchor and said, go swim. The first person jumped into the dark, murky water and thousands of bluish twinkle lights erupted from the splash. The agitation activates the plankton.

It's like swimming in glow stick water. I didn't hesitate after that. It was so surreal! If you lifted your arms out of the water, it was like stars were dripping off you. Super cool! Few things feel magical as an adult and this was an experience filled with wonderment. The more you kicked and splashed in the water, the more it glowed. It only took a few seconds of remaining calm and it would go dark again. So crazy! There's only a few places in the world that have the right conditions and three of them are in Puerto Rico. Very awesome! 10 out of 10 stars!

The next day we had a fantastic beach day at Crash Boat Beach. 

I rented an umbrella because I don't love the ocean and don't want to sit and roast in the sun. The beach umbrella elevated my beach experience ten fold! Amazing. The kids were constantly in the water. Mark came in for a bite to eat and and a drink and ran back out to the waves. He said, "The grind never stops!" as he ran back out. We bought several blended drinks and ate chicken pinchos (kabobs). 

Cutesy girls!

The only bummer about our trip was how many bug bites Juliet and Merril received. We all got a few but they got the most. Mostly biting beach gnats the first night while watching the sunset. Juliet's body doesn't respond well to bug bites so we were trying to help her with ice, Claritin and anything else we could think of. Just so you know, none of us got dengue fever from our bites. I was worried about it but all is well.

Our last airbnb was right by the San Juan temple and we drove back after the beach to be closer to the airport. When we woke up in the morning, the power was out. On the whole island! We managed to get some breakfast and fly outta there. 

The outage lasted a few days. Luckily the airport has generators. We had a 5-hour layover in Orlando and rented another car to eat and see a temple. Merril really wanted to hit Waffle House.

The Orlando temple is being renovated but it was pretty from the outside.

We made it home at 2 a.m. and I was beat. What a way to end 2024! Love these peeps of mine!