Puerto Rico – Day 1

-
Mom celebrated her 60th birthday on December 17th, and she’s been planning what to do for about a year and a half now.  Earlier options included going to Williamsburg, Virginia, San Francisco, and other locations.  However, she eventually came back around to one of her first ideas, Puerto Rico.  To celebrate, Chris and I joined her in PR, along with my brother Jim and my sister-in-law Leigh.

We all started our travels on Saturday, December 14th, Chris and I from Phoenix and Jim, Leigh, and Mom from Tampa.  Mom, Jim, and Leigh ate breakfast at Cigar City Brewery in the airport; Jim’s included beer, while Mom and Leigh’s included bloody mary’s and screwdrivers. 


Mmm...beer

Amy and Chris ate second breakfast in airport at Barrio Café (mmm…chorizo…) and picked up sandwiches to go at Le Grand Orange for lunch on the plane. 


There may be a theme developing here...

After an uneventful flight to east coast, Chris and I killed a few hours in the Orlando Airport watching the Army-Navy game and eating dinner food at Outback. 

Chris: “I’ll have a Bloomin’ Onion.” 
Waitress: “Just for you?”
Chris: “Yes.  And a beer.”


Crikey!  That guy just ate a whole Bloomin' Onion on his own!

Mom, Jim, and Leigh arrived in San Juan after a calm flight...


San Juan from the plane...

...then proceeded to pick up the rental car.  The car was in Jim’s name which was obviously a good move, as this exchange shows…

Clerk: “Did you know your license is expired?” 
Jim: “Shit.” 

For my readers who don’t live in the Sunshine State, Florida driver’s licenses expire on your birthday, and Jim’s birthday is on June 29th.  Do that math, if you wish.  The car went in Leigh’s name instead.


Lady P, our mobile home for the week.

Our casa for the trip was a home away stay place in a condo on Calle de La Luna, through a company called Vida Urbana.  This worked out absolutely great; the folks at Vida Urbana (particularly Irma, who we worked with throughout the reservation process and while we were in PR) were outstanding, the location was excellent (it was within 15 minutes - walking – of everything in Old San Juan and the street was nice and quiet), and we all had plenty of space (three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen, living room, and balcony).


The front room


Kitchen and hallway leading to the bedrooms


Chris and my room


Jim and Leigh's room

Since Jim, Leigh, and Mom arrived first, they had the unenviable task of getting from the airport to the condo and navigating in a foreign place.  The group called Irma to let her know they were on their way and get some directions:

Irma (in her gorgeous PR accent): “Turn right on this street.” 
Jim: “But Irma, that’s the wrong way on a one way street.” 
Irma: “But it is the only way to go!”*

After parking the car in a reasonable location, Jim, Leigh, and Mom got settled then headed out to eat dinner at Verde Mesa, near the bay.  Allegedly, it was good.


Old San Juan street parking

A few hours later, Chris and I flew in, and Mom and Jim picked them up at the airport.  At the San Juan airport, you have to wait outside these huge glass windows to pick up your friends and family flying in, so you get to watch them come down to baggage claim, then stare as they make their way across the baggage claim area and out to meet you.  It looks like this:


Except more humid

After finally eating our brains gathering us and our luggage, we hopped into the car and then sat for 30 minutes in a traffic jam inside the airport parking garage.  Before we left, Chris and I watched a show on the Esquire Network called The Getaway featuring San Juan.  One of the comments in the show was, “if you’re not in traffic, you’re not in San Juan,” and we found it to be exceptionally true throughout our stay.  Adding to the normal traffic issues, apparently, Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum were in town, filming 22 Jump Street, which made things even worse in this area.

Eventually, we made it home to the condo and into bed, ready to explore the island the next morning.

Adios!

Amy

PS – Since we have roughly 8,000 pictures (and even more stories) from this great trip, I’ll be spacing out the entries over a few weeks.  Stay tuned for more!

 * This became our de facto motto for the trip.  “Why are we going this way?” “But it is the only way to go!”  We may make family t-shirts...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Some News...Part One

-
Image
Well, hello there, everyone!  It's been a hot minute since we last blogged together, and a lot has been going on! The two of us outside the house in North Encanto, in  which we just passed the 5 year mark! In addition to our normal roster of working, frequenting local restaurants, and spending time with friends and family, the past few months have been a flurry of activity - although we've been thinking about it for several years, we're finally taking the plunge and relocating further east, moving from Phoenix to the greater Lexington, Kentucky area.  While some folks have been apprised of every step we've taken in this journey, to others, this may come as surprising news.  To hopefully help explain, here's a brief timeline of events that led us to this major life change: January - March 2019 - We decided that although life in SoCal is amazing, it isn't for us (Chris' 90 minute commute each way to work was a major factor), and we relocated back to Phoenix, b
Read more

Some News...Part Two

-
Image
Did you read Part One already?  You probably should! As mentioned in the previous blog entry, we're moving (yes, again); this time we're heading northeast, to Richmond, near Lexington, Kentucky! Welcome to 1601 Four Mile Rd, Richmond, KY ! In mid March, Chris flew to the Lexington area for a long weekend, during which he met with our realtor (and cousin!) Scott and visited around 10-15 houses.  He was quickly able to eliminate several; we plan on parking the travel trailer on our property and raising a few chickens (eventually), so anything with an overly restrictive HOA was out of the question.  Due to the egg machines and a few other projects we'd like to pursue (extensive gardening, beekeeping, etc.), anything with less than acre of land wouldn't work, nor would anything where said land was extremely steep, which is a concern in this hilly part of the country. Of the properties that met these criteria (along with the initial set we established, which included having
Read more

House Pictures...Finally!

-
Image
Howdy, everyone!  It's hard to believe, but we're fast approaching the four month anniversary of signing our closing papers on the house in Richmond, Kentucky, and we're  finally  ready to share interior house pictures with all of you lovely blog readers!   But first, an exterior one! As is pretty normal, it took awhile to get everything settled; although we were unpacked and living comfortably in the house within a month or so, finishing up the interior decorating took substantially longer.  One of the main reasons for this is the bright, sunshiny yellow door you see in the picture above.  When we bought the house, this was the front door: While the black color was fine (if uninspired), it was the massive amount of glass in the door that drove us to find a better solution.  The road in front of the house is moderately busy, and we often have deliveries being dropped on our porch; every time someone drove by, which the dogs could easily see, they would assume invaders were
Read more