Puerto Rico! You lovely island! I'm definitely a "shark" when it comes to talk of this place! My mind was blown at how amazingly beautiful this little piece of paradise was. Within minutes of leaving Louis Munoz Marin airport, I was wide eyed and had my camera glued to my face. I wanted to capture everything because it was all just so amazing! It's funny that I loved Puerto Rico so much. I always imagined it to be nothing more than a bunch of beaches where people lounged about all day long, which is definitely not my idea of fun! I have never had this burning desire to go to Puerto Rico like I had to go to Europe. I was never particularly proud of my heritage; I wasn't ashamed, I just didn't care all that much about being Puerto Rican. My how visiting Puerto Rico changed my preconceived notions and entire perspective! I've never been more proud to say I am half Puerto Rican! Anyway...
We left Grand Junction late Tuesday morning. It had been a whirlwind of a day: football practice, parent teacher conference, packing, cleaning, school, you know the routine. We finally made it out of town at around 8pm. The drive to Denver was relatively calm and the boys slept most of the way. Unfortunately, most does not mean entire. All three woke up about an hour before we arrived at our hotel, and consequently, were wide awake at 1am!
Nathan and my two biggest littles were up at a balmy 3:30 am to head over to the airport; Quincy and my flight was delayed until 9am, so we were lucky and got to catch up on some shut eye. Both G-man and Card-style were less than thrilled to be woken up so early. Grant asked his dad why he couldn't just sleep and Carter just screamed and cried and said he didn't want to go. Fortunately, soon after they headed out of the hotel, everyone calmed down and it was smooth sailing for the rest of the day.
Quince and I caught our flight nice without too many issues. Before we had even boarded, his diaper leaked through his clothes, and of course mine, so that was loads of fun to deal with! We made it onto the plane though, after taking an accidental detour through the tornado shelter, and mozied our way up to first class! This was my very first time flying with the upper echelons and hopefully not my last. A few things I learned flying in first class: Uber rich people like to talk about how rich they are! Seriously, both flights, I talked to three different men who spoke of plastic surgeons in Vail, racing vintage cars in Europe, and owning boats that cost $9000 to fill up with fuel! I just sat back, nodded my head, and wanted to joke about how bad they are with money because they actually PAID for this flight! ;)
Okay, so, we made it Puerto Rico at about 6:30pm. Quincy was pretty awful the entire first flight, but fortunately he fell asleep and slept through the entire second flight! Miracles do happen! I met Nathan at the airport and he picked me up in the rental car. We both popped out our phones and powered up our navigation! Unfortunately, neither of our navs were cooperative and after being lost for about a half an hour, we ended up in the projects of San Juan! No joke. I am pretty sure SIRI was trying to kill us; actually, I'm positive of it! Rude!
Obviously we eventually found our hotel, which was like 20 minutes away from the projects, once again solidifying my suspicions of SIRI and her evil intentions! We checked in, got our free cookies, thank you Double Tree, unpacked, and headed out for some din din! Just down the street was a great little restaurant named Bebos! The food was great, the kids, not so much! We ended up getting everything to do and took it back to the room! I was pretty excited to mow down my cuban sandwich!
The next day we woke up bright and early because my kids don't believe in sleeping, and we headed over to Arecibo to see the observatory. The drive there was absolutely stunning! I felt like I was dreaming. We drove our way up through little one way, or at least they should have been way one, roads in the lush sub-tropical rainforest. It seemed unreal that there the largest radio satellite in the world was hiding somewhere in this jungle, but it definitely was.
The visitor's center at Arecibo was awesome! The kids, well, all but Quincy, absolutely loved it. There are so many hands on learning activities for them to explore. Nathan and I were just as fascinated as the kids and had just as much fun looking around the center.
After what could have been several hours playing around in the visitor's center, we walked out the back door and, BAM! The satellite is just right there in front of your face. It was so amazing. I still can't get over just how big it is.
After finishing up at Arecibo, and investing in some corny science shirts for each of us, we realized our visit didn't take nearly as long as anticipated and had lots of free time. As we were walking out, a pamphlet mentioning some nearby caves caught my eye. I asked the worker how far away they were and she said only 15-20 minutes, and considering how crazy the traffic in Puerto Rico is, that was not bad at all. We hopped in the car and headed over to the Camuy caves not really knowing what to expect. Of course we made several wrong turns on our way over, but it was totally okay because the scenery was just fantastic! We made it up to the caves just in time for the last tour of the day. While we waited for it to commence, we stopped at the restaurant in the park and grabbed a bite to eat. Seriously, everywhere we ate in Puerto Rico the food was great. There wasn't one time where we had anything gross! This restaurant was no exception. The arroz con gondulez was awesome!
One of the places buried in the jungle near Arecibo where we stopped to ask for directions, but ended up figuring out we were on the right track, so I just took a picture instead because it was so colorful!
Arroz con gondulez is a Puerto Rican staple food! If you go, make sure you try this amazing stuff!
Waiting around at the restaurant in the cave park for our tour to begin!
Little Moosey kept saying "Da Donnnnng!" as he would jump up. We couldn't quite figure out why until it suddenly dawned on me; "Knock Knock!" His brothers LOVE telling knock knock jokes, and now apparently Quincy does as well.
We loaded ourselves onto a little tractor looking thing that had a bunch of seats attached to the back and began our journey down to the caves. The picture above is a glimpse of the ride down to underground cave system.
I was shocked when we got to the caves. I was expecting just another, well, cave! I've been to a few throughout my lifetime and although they are always neat, they are, to me at least, big holes with ridiculous humidity! This though, was unlike any cave I have ever even dreamed about. This place is something you only see in the movies. It was the most beautiful place on Earth! I'm not even exagerating. I was expecting fairies to pop out at any moment because of how magical it was. 
After leaving the caves, we came across this little fruit gold mine! I can't believe how excited I was to stop and:
A. Take pictures
B. Eat amazing, fresh, and delicious produce
On Thursday, while we were out exploring caves and learning about the universe, my parents, brother and his wife, and baby sister flew into town! The boys, and I of course, were so excited to see them all and to spend time with them here in the land of our heritage.
Friday we met up with my family in Old San Juan and we only got lost a little bit on the way there, so that was exciting! Old San Juan was just as amazing as everything else we had seen! We walked up to the old fort and did some exploring there.
Carter's pineapple shaved ice! T
The blue cobblestone streets throughout Old San Juan!
We made our way down from the fort and back down towards the parking garage. On our way, we took a little rest at the pigeon park where we all got to some serious fun feeding these most like disease infested creatures!
Finally, that evening, we made our way, and of course got lost about a thousand times, to my aunt (I think that's what she is!) Eda's house. She was the kindest little old lady I have ever met and she just loved my boys. Of course she fed us as well and the food was AMAZING!We left Grand Junction late Tuesday morning. It had been a whirlwind of a day: football practice, parent teacher conference, packing, cleaning, school, you know the routine. We finally made it out of town at around 8pm. The drive to Denver was relatively calm and the boys slept most of the way. Unfortunately, most does not mean entire. All three woke up about an hour before we arrived at our hotel, and consequently, were wide awake at 1am!
Nathan and my two biggest littles were up at a balmy 3:30 am to head over to the airport; Quincy and my flight was delayed until 9am, so we were lucky and got to catch up on some shut eye. Both G-man and Card-style were less than thrilled to be woken up so early. Grant asked his dad why he couldn't just sleep and Carter just screamed and cried and said he didn't want to go. Fortunately, soon after they headed out of the hotel, everyone calmed down and it was smooth sailing for the rest of the day.
Quince and I caught our flight nice without too many issues. Before we had even boarded, his diaper leaked through his clothes, and of course mine, so that was loads of fun to deal with! We made it onto the plane though, after taking an accidental detour through the tornado shelter, and mozied our way up to first class! This was my very first time flying with the upper echelons and hopefully not my last. A few things I learned flying in first class: Uber rich people like to talk about how rich they are! Seriously, both flights, I talked to three different men who spoke of plastic surgeons in Vail, racing vintage cars in Europe, and owning boats that cost $9000 to fill up with fuel! I just sat back, nodded my head, and wanted to joke about how bad they are with money because they actually PAID for this flight! ;)
Okay, so, we made it Puerto Rico at about 6:30pm. Quincy was pretty awful the entire first flight, but fortunately he fell asleep and slept through the entire second flight! Miracles do happen! I met Nathan at the airport and he picked me up in the rental car. We both popped out our phones and powered up our navigation! Unfortunately, neither of our navs were cooperative and after being lost for about a half an hour, we ended up in the projects of San Juan! No joke. I am pretty sure SIRI was trying to kill us; actually, I'm positive of it! Rude!
Obviously we eventually found our hotel, which was like 20 minutes away from the projects, once again solidifying my suspicions of SIRI and her evil intentions! We checked in, got our free cookies, thank you Double Tree, unpacked, and headed out for some din din! Just down the street was a great little restaurant named Bebos! The food was great, the kids, not so much! We ended up getting everything to do and took it back to the room! I was pretty excited to mow down my cuban sandwich!
The next day we woke up bright and early because my kids don't believe in sleeping, and we headed over to Arecibo to see the observatory. The drive there was absolutely stunning! I felt like I was dreaming. We drove our way up through little one way, or at least they should have been way one, roads in the lush sub-tropical rainforest. It seemed unreal that there the largest radio satellite in the world was hiding somewhere in this jungle, but it definitely was.
The visitor's center at Arecibo was awesome! The kids, well, all but Quincy, absolutely loved it. There are so many hands on learning activities for them to explore. Nathan and I were just as fascinated as the kids and had just as much fun looking around the center.
After what could have been several hours playing around in the visitor's center, we walked out the back door and, BAM! The satellite is just right there in front of your face. It was so amazing. I still can't get over just how big it is.
After finishing up at Arecibo, and investing in some corny science shirts for each of us, we realized our visit didn't take nearly as long as anticipated and had lots of free time. As we were walking out, a pamphlet mentioning some nearby caves caught my eye. I asked the worker how far away they were and she said only 15-20 minutes, and considering how crazy the traffic in Puerto Rico is, that was not bad at all. We hopped in the car and headed over to the Camuy caves not really knowing what to expect. Of course we made several wrong turns on our way over, but it was totally okay because the scenery was just fantastic! We made it up to the caves just in time for the last tour of the day. While we waited for it to commence, we stopped at the restaurant in the park and grabbed a bite to eat. Seriously, everywhere we ate in Puerto Rico the food was great. There wasn't one time where we had anything gross! This restaurant was no exception. The arroz con gondulez was awesome!
One of the places buried in the jungle near Arecibo where we stopped to ask for directions, but ended up figuring out we were on the right track, so I just took a picture instead because it was so colorful!
Arroz con gondulez is a Puerto Rican staple food! If you go, make sure you try this amazing stuff!
Waiting around at the restaurant in the cave park for our tour to begin!
Little Moosey kept saying "Da Donnnnng!" as he would jump up. We couldn't quite figure out why until it suddenly dawned on me; "Knock Knock!" His brothers LOVE telling knock knock jokes, and now apparently Quincy does as well.
We loaded ourselves onto a little tractor looking thing that had a bunch of seats attached to the back and began our journey down to the caves. The picture above is a glimpse of the ride down to underground cave system. 
I was shocked when we got to the caves. I was expecting just another, well, cave! I've been to a few throughout my lifetime and although they are always neat, they are, to me at least, big holes with ridiculous humidity! This though, was unlike any cave I have ever even dreamed about. This place is something you only see in the movies. It was the most beautiful place on Earth! I'm not even exagerating. I was expecting fairies to pop out at any moment because of how magical it was. 
After leaving the caves, we came across this little fruit gold mine! I can't believe how excited I was to stop and:
A. Take pictures
B. Eat amazing, fresh, and delicious produce
On Thursday, while we were out exploring caves and learning about the universe, my parents, brother and his wife, and baby sister flew into town! The boys, and I of course, were so excited to see them all and to spend time with them here in the land of our heritage.
Carter's pineapple shaved ice! T
Obviously I like taking pictures of doorways and gateways!
Right before entering the fort, we decided to let the boys roll around the grass and down the hills. That was a BAD idea because they broke out in an itchy rash! 
The blue cobblestone streets throughout Old San Juan!We made our way down from the fort and back down towards the parking garage. On our way, we took a little rest at the pigeon park where we all got to some serious fun feeding these most like disease infested creatures!
After leaving Eda's, Nathan, I and the boys had to follow my parents ALLLLL the way to Fajardo, over an hour's drive, drop the boys off with them, and then head back to San Juan where we would stay the night and drive another 1 1/2 in the morning to embark on our next adventure, which I will save for a new post because this one is sure getting long!
1 comment:
Great pics Toni!
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