Puerto Rico--Day 2

We all slept in this morning. We were pretty tired after getting very little sleep yesterday. John did get up earlier than anyone else and went running. When I saw him, he was drenched. Completely soaked. It’s that hot.

When we looked outside this morning, there were a bunch of huge iguanas just running around on the golf course! Huge! I couldn’t get a good picture because they’re the same color as the grass, but you can kind of see the one in the middle of the picture, right across the path, and then that lump above and to the left is another one. That one by the path is easily three feet long.

After everyone finally got up and dressed, we all went shopping in Humacao. First, we went to Wal-Mart, which was pretty much like any other Wal-Mart, though we did notice that the sizes of containers are smaller. They don’t sell big jumbo-sized anything. Ruby tried chatting with anyone and everyone she could. Which is how she is in stores back home. She wanted everyone to know that her first language was English and that she only knew a little Spanish. The cashier was very friendly and nice about Ruby chatting with her. She didn’t speak very much English, and spoke Spanish really fast, but we had a nice little conversation. Then we asked her for directions to a grocery store (supermercado), and I was able to understand her well enough to get us right there! Yay me!

And then we went to the grocery store. And between that and Wal-Mart, I was reminded why I don’t take my kids shopping with me. I mean, we already stood out in our pasty white-ness, but my kids are really loud. “Hey, look, all the signs are in Spanish!” “Wow, look at all the pineapples!” “Wow, it’s just like the United States here!”

At the grocery store, Ruby again struck up a conversation with anyone who would stop and talk to her. She met a little girl who lives in Palmas who learned English at school, and whose mother thought Ruby was delightful and declared that, “With that personality, one day you will be famous for something.” If we don’t run into them on the beach, someone is going to be very disappointed.

We survived the shopping trip, ate lunch, and John’s parents arrived while we were eating. They all went to the beach, while I had a quick nap to try to get rid of a headache that had developed (probably due to shopping with my kids).

When I was feeling better, I joined them down at the beach. The water was perfect. Just warm enough that we didn’t need to get used to it or anything, just jumped right in. The kids played in the sand, jumped in the waves and Ruby is convinced that a crab pinched her on the ankle (she said that because it pinched both sides of her ankle at the same time). We took lots of pictures and watched pelicans diving right next to where we were. You can see them just behind where Ruby is playing.

Ruby's favorite thing was body surfing. This is the best picture I got of her.

Sam climbed a coconut tree. Unlike Hawaii, they don’t cut down the coconuts in the tourist areas, so there were also lots of coconuts to be found. If we ever figure out how to crack open the hard outer shell, we might just eat the one we have sitting here on the counter.

The kids and their grandparents on the beach.

Our family. On the beach. In bathing suits. On the internet. Don't pass out.

We stayed at the beach until dinner time, then we came in, rinsed off, ate, and John’s parents left to go back to their place.

A nice, laid-back, getting settled kind of day.