Pitty picture. Because I can.
The other touristy thing that must be done on a true vacay is shopping.
Anthony and I chose to do most of our damage at Dooney & Burke.
Because that's how we roll.
Amy and Heather may have picked up a purse or two there as well.
We did a couple of touristy things on our PR vacay. Like get robbed by some parking bandit, almost get a $100 ticket from the parking police, all while visiting this fort.
It was old and cool.
Someday, I too will be old and cool.
Serious faces.
Just kidding! You can't be sirious on vacayshuns, it's ginst the rules!
Heather and I have been on two cruises. The first was a 5 day trip out of LA to San Diego, Catalina Island, and Ensenada Mexico. The second one Heather got to choose, and we went to Alaska, Inside passage, out from and back to Seattle. I'm picking the next cruise, and all I can say is, there WILL be beaches.
We had some good beach time in PR. The condo that we rented was in the Condado area, and our place was about 1 block from the beach. So we went to the beach.............a lot.
A little beautiful native scenery.
This was my screen saver on my laptop for a long time. I'll bet those PR kids you see pictured on the right ended up in a lot of people's screen savers, and not just mine.
Sandy toes.
Pretty non-native scenery.
Oh, beautiful beach, how I love you and miss you so.
So, when the Beneezee's and the Aises get together, we do food right. Like, RIGHT. So pretty much every night that we spent in PR, we ate dinner somewheres fabulous. The first night was awesome. (yeah, I've been on the street were the pina colada was invented.)
We went to this place called The Parrot Club. I remember traffic was horrific, and we had to park quite a ways away (more on that later), bu the food was terrific. And there was much fruity drink enjoyment had by most.
Cool Vacshuners.
Delicious Beverage.
Jason's meal. Best mofongo I had the entire time I was there, plus, some pretty amazing BBQ chicken.
Heather's dish. (much more on this later)
Amy's dish. For some reason, I have no photographic record of Anthony's dish. So he must not have had anything. Oh well.
But they sure looked cute!
We didn't look so bad either.
The food was excellent. I loved my chicken, and Amy and Anthony loved their meal, and Heather RAVED about her pumpkin gnocchi. So, by this point, we had already informed our friends that we were expecting. Heather was in the early stages of the pregnancy, you know, the kind were any little smell can set you off. Also, I mentioned that we had parked kinda far away. Up hill. So the restaurant was at the bottom of a hill, and that means we had to walk back to the car, like, half a mile. Up hill. Not fun. The street that we were on was kinda grody in some places, with garbage and a couple drunks and shady characters, and some of the smells were not so kind to the Heatheraise. The only person that had any leftovers in a doggie bag was Heather. So, we're walking back and Heather starts to get queasy, what with the walking up hill, post-meal, the drunks, the exhaust, etcetera. By the time we made it to our car, Heather was NOT feeling well, and insisted that we toss her leftovers. In the garbage. Sadness. Well, whaddya do-pregnant lady rules all that the eye can see. Delicious Parrot Club pumpkin Gnocchi-gone, into the garbage. We get into the car, rolling homewards, and Heather starts to feel better AND really really really regret tossing her gnocchi. Ha, she still regrets it to this day. So, if you're ever in the vicinity of The Parrot Club, try the gnocchi, and BRING SOME BACK FOR HEATHER!!
Rental Car numero 1. Since we got to the island first. we were in charge of picking up the rental. the island is a lot smaller than we thought, I'm usually pretty good at reading a map, but we did a loop thru Old San Juan like, 10 times because I kept insisting that we just had to go a little bit farther, when in reality, I just kept overshooting our destination because the island was a lot smaller to navigate than I was used to. Also, this was rental car numero uno because it had been in a wreck, so whenever I made a left turn, there was a horrible scraping noise. Too bad, that was a spunky little car.
Beach!
The Benezra's!
And the Aises! On a tropical Caribbean beach vacay-shun! Sans Jack child or any other responsibilities. More on that later.
One of the first days there we hooked up with an old high school friend of mine and her husband for Lunch at this place.
Solimar and her husband were great, and gave us a lot of great tips on what to do and see on the island, plus the food was really good. I think this was my first ceviche.
Oh, look out! Vacay toes!
Around abouts Febrooary, we went on a little trip to a place I like to call......Puerto Rico. it was awesome, to say the least. On our way down, we stopped in Los Alamos, and stayed with an old college roomie, Evan G and his family. Funny story, the day I found out Heather was pregnant, I called Evan to let him know, and turns out, his Emily was pregnant too! In fact, we had the same due date. He and Ems got married the same year as us, and we went down for the wedding. we kicked it in Albuquerque at the temple, hung out in Santa Fe, and attended a reception for them in Los Alamos, then enjoyed a carefree drive home thru Colorado on our way back to Utah. Good times. The above picture is our first born batch. Ty ended up being born almost a month ahead of Jack, what with being born a little early, and Jack being born almost a week late, but not only did these kids have the same due date, they were probably conceived on the same day. Ha!
Since that time, Em and Ev have had another (we did let them know that our own #2 was in the oven), and he looks just as cute as the first.
We arrived in El Paso where we dropped Jack off with his Cousin Kia, and they took up right were they left off. It's nice having cousins.
Finally.............Puerto RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIICO!!! Note the pre-vacay paleness.
So pretty. And much smaller than we expected. We arrived a little bit before our friends, the Beneezee's, and could't resist stopping at the first beach we saw and walking around.
You might say it's been a while since I've posted on a re-goo-lar type basis. You might say. So.....in an effort to mend broken (blogosphere) relations...........let's play 'catch-up!'
In 2009, we bought our first membership to Thanksgiving Point. Since, you know, it's like, hardcore winter here for 9 months outta the year, we desperately craved some sort of indoor activities that we could take the munch kinder to for blowing off steam purposes.
We've spent a lot of time there since, not only at the Dino museum, but also at the gardens and Farm Country.
Also in 2009 I got my first job as a male nurse. YAY! Finally a career and not just a job.
So there you go, blogosphere. You are a demanding mistress, and I hope my initial return offering is acceptable. Here's to never abandoning you again. Cheers!
