Puerto Rico: Here We Come!

We have been looking forward to this week of Caribbean fun for a while and it was finally here!! Bill's parents were generous enough to take us all on a week long cruise through the Southern Caribbean and we were all thrilled! Being the organized parents that they are, they had clothes pressed and neatly laid in suitcases a week prior to the trip.....wouldn't life be nice if you could be that put together? But as most of you know, Bill and I don't roll that way. Yup, 8:45 p.m. the night before and we are zipping around to Walmart looking for a swim suit bottom (mine is at the bottom of lake Manawa), dropping Phoebi off at

Cottonwood Pet Estates, Radio shack looking for some headphone thingy Bill needed, Target looking for water bottles and zip lock bags and taco bell for a nutritious dinner. We still had laundry in the washing machine, suitcases mostly empty, a fridge still full of perishable food and just too exhausted to really figure out what still needed to be done before a very early morning.

But somehow, we got it all washed, packed, bought, put away and thrown out! The alarm went off at 3:10 a.m. and after showers and last minute things that always

creep up, we were off to the airport where Bill's parents sat nervously wringing their hands that we were going to be late. We got checked in, baggage wasn't too overweight and we were off!!!!

Vacation has officially commenced!

We had the early flight out to Texas and then on to Porto Rico. This was Sawyer main form of transportation for the entire trip. The Alex Taxi.

Sawyer and Nana Kathy on the Skytrain having a nice quiet moment.....this was just before they started some game that involved Sawyer half falling off the seat, Nana catching him by his back belt loops and somehow Micky Mouse underwear was in full view and to a four year old, it was hilarious!

Quick Breakfast: Sawyer had a banana, applesauce and peanut butter crackers, I had a yogurt parfait and of course Bill had a light breakfast of a bacon cheese burger and fries from Fudruckers :)

Does anyone know what we're supposed to be doing?

The Leapster handheld, the itouch and the ipad came in quite handy on our flight down to Puerto Rico....but we made it there in one piece! :)

Little bit of confusion as to which hotel we were at, what day we were getting on the cruise, where our luggage was being taken to and if our stickers should already have been stuck on.....but after a few confusing moments of wild gesturing and raising our voices a little louder to get our point across (because after all, that's what you do when you are talking to someone who doesn't speak English all that well...you just speak louder.....good grief.....)

As we were whipping around the narrow streets of San Juan, where the walls were spray painted with graffiti, occasional people sleeping under bridges, and every surface was some sort of grey because of the pollution, I felt right at home. Downtown Sao Paulo looks quite similar. After a short twenty minute jaunt, we pull up to the GORGEOUS Sheraton Hotel. It was massive, clean, modern and shiny!

This was our hotel room! It was a great retreat to just drop our bags at the door and flop on the bed! We were excited to go down and meet up with Bill's sister Dani and her Boyfriend Ron who had arrived earlier in the day from New York.

I know this is a horrible picture. The lighting is bad and Ron and I and Dani look less than enthused about being on vacay....but oh well.

We headed up to the rooftop pool cafe and bar for dinner and the view was just spectacular! You could see down to the beautiful Sherton convention center and grounds, the lit up streets and the cruise liners that were already docked.....it was good the the scenery and atmosphere were good because this is officially going down in the record books as the longest dinner ever. We placed our orders and then waited....and waited....and waited....about an hour in we get our drinks.....we check with the server about if our appetizer was coming (two bowls of chips and salsa sure do take a loooong time to get ready).....we wait some more....other tables with bigger parties that came in after us are getting their main courses....we ask again.....we get one bowl of chips.....then another round of drinks on the house.....then the second bowl of chips....three people's meals arrive.....we don't have silverware or napkins.....the rest of the meals arrive along with some silverware! Well! That only took a little over TWO HOURS!!! Oh well, we were on vacation and didn't have anywhere we needed to be and our blood sugars did recover....we collapsed into bed, excited about the week ahead!