Puerto Rico--Day 1

(note: this also includes part of Day 0, because we left one day and got here another)

As many of you know, John has projects in Puerto Rico from time to time. When he does, he he doesn’t get to come home very often and we miss him a lot. We’ve never been able to go with him due to various reasons, but finally, on his 4th big project, we’re getting to go!

We spent the day Saturday packing and cleaning up the house. It didn’t get as clean as we wanted for the housesitter, but we did what we could and hopefully she won’t spread nasty rumors about our housekeeping skills (or lack thereof).

Our flight didn’t leave SFO until after 11:00p.m., but we left early so we could swing by and have some twin-hugging time. But, since it was us, someone had last minute things that just had to be done and we didn’t get off until 6:00. Since the babies go to bed at 7:00, we figured it would be a long shot to see them.

We got lucky, Liam really wanted to see me and he stayed awake to give me some cute little smiles and some snuggling in his swaddle and he spit up on my sweater I’d be wearing for the next day and a half so I wouldn’t forget him. We didn’t stay long, just long enough for some hugs and for the kids to fight over the iPad. And they wonder why we don’t think about getting one.

Anyway, our flight to Chicago was uneventful, though Ruby had a hard time popping one of her ears on the way down and I suspect her ear infection is back (considering how bad I was at giving her the drops, I’m not surprised). Good thing I brought her ear drops. Poor baby. We all slept the whole time. I’m not ashamed to admit I gave Ruby and Sam a Benadryl and took one myself. Apparently, I brought that bottle instead of ibuprofen. The landing was so smooth I didn’t even notice we were down until the wing flaps popped up. I meant to say something to the pilot, but we exited through the coach door and didn’t see the pilot.

We spent a few hours in Chicago (thanks to John) in the Red Carpet Club, where they had some breakfast (cold cereal, hot chocolate, toast and fruit, not fancy, but just enough) and outlets for the kids to plug in the ancient travel DVD player we have and watch a movie. I slept.

On the flight from Chicago to San Juan, everyone got a good nap, the kids watched another movie, I got some knitting started, practiced the pattern for a new skill I’m trying out, read a little, listened to some podcasts, and watched the airplane movie in Spanish. It was interesting. I kind of got what was going on, but they seemed to say “remember” a lot, so either they did, or I misunderstood what they were saying and there are a lot of words that sound the same. It wasn’t the most interesting movie and I did fall asleep in the middle, but I don’t think I missed much. It was Country Strong with Gwenyth Paltrow as a country singer. I probably won’t watch it in English. I might read the movie spoiler though, just to see what was really going on.

Anyway, we made it to Puerto Rico. First thing we noticed, all the signs are in Spanish and some of them have English subtitles. At least in the airport. All the road signs are in Spanish, and while the map from the car rental company had some notes on what the signs mean, it didn’t have all of them. While John drove, I was flipping through the dictionary trying to make sure we didn’t go the wrong way (like the sign at the toll booth that said “carril izquierda” for the auto pass, but we didn’t know what carril meant. It means “lane”. Kind of important. “Izquierda” means “left”. We did know that.)

And the second thing we noticed, is that it’s HOT here. And very, very muggy. When we stepped out of the airport, our glasses all fogged up completely.

We also noticed that traffic laws seem to be optional. That includes stop lights, stop signs, traffic lanes, and waiting your turn (seriously, if you’re waiting in line to turn left, don’t be surprised if someone just drives around everyone in line and cuts across the oncoming traffic.) Defensive driving is an absolute must!

We met up with John’s parents at their resort in Rio Grande, but just had time for quick hugs before we had to take off for Palmas del Mar.

Here are Sam and Ruby at John's parent's place looking out at the ocean.

Here's the sign at the entrance to Palmas del Mar:

The rental office where we needed to pick up the key to our place was going to close before we could get there. So we zipped on down and got to the office 10 minutes before closing. Only they had decided to close up early and go home. After a number of phone calls, we got instructions for the night drop, got through Palmas security and found our place. We ate some KFC John’s parents had kindly picked up for us and after that we pretty much went to bed. It had been a long two days and we were all really tired.

And that was day one.