Puerto Rico--Day 20

Today I had one of those moments where I tried to figure out a way to just stay here. They have schools here, John will be working here for a while, we could just stay. . .

We just had a most excellent day today. I don’t think a blog post can properly express how much fun we all had today. Today we went to the Palmas Beach Club. And it was awesome. We didn’t even do everything they have to do there and we still had a great day. I didn’t take a lot of pictures, because I was in the water most of the day. I did take a couple.

First off, we staked out our spot. We got a few lounge chairs under an umbrella, and they had these egg-shaped cabana beds and we got one of those too. When we first got there, it wasn’t very crowded at all. It was really windy and dark clouds were rolling in. Thankfully, due to the wind, they rolled out quickly, I think I felt two drops of rain and I can’t be sure they weren’t from someone splashing. Once the clouds blew through, we had a nice breeze and occasional clouds, which helped make it a nice, not too humid day.

So, at the Beach Club they have a bunch of pools (kiddie pools, lap pools, volleyball pools, waterslide pools, etc.), with lifeguards, two tall waterslides, a big old water play complex thing with one of those giant buckets that fills up and dumps out and fountains and water squirters, a soccer field, sand volleyball, ping-pong tables, a non-water playground with swings, a restaurant, poolside service from the bar and grill, towels, lockers, and whatever else you might need.

The kids pretty much spent the whole day on the waterslides and the water play complex. There isn’t a lot to tell about, but they made friends and just had a great day. Sam had some lap races with some boys his age. I think they were playing some sort of Mario Kart game. He also played water basketball. He and Squig played ping-pong for a quite a while, too.

Here's a good shot of Sam and Ruby by the play complex. You can also see the dark clouds that were there in the morning.

And Ruby on the waterslides:

I played in the water with the kids (yes, I rode the waterslides, and yes, they were a lot of fun), then sat and read a book in the cabana thing for a while, then went in the pool for a bit, then read a bit while sipping a frozen blended drink. We got a pizza and ate lunch poolside. This is my idea of a vacation: sitting by the pool reading while someone else watches my kids (well, I still kept an eye on them, lifeguards get distracted sometimes).

Squig took this picture later in the day with me in what we called the "egg beds". I'm glad she took this picture, because it helped me figure out how only the right side of my legs are sunburned. It does not explain how my shoulders are also a burned. Everyone had double sunscreen on their shoulders this morning before we left: lotion AND spray, and I re-applied mine at least twice, and the kids all got a full spray-down at lunch whether they wanted it or not.

The kids kept finding coquí frogs swimming in the pool! It was pretty funny. They’d catch them and try to take them around to show everyone. And I learned that Ruby is not very gentle with the frogs. I made her put hers in the bushes. She was just a little too rough and I kept having visions of squashed coquí frogs.

Squig found the first frog of the day.

Ruby with her frog before I made her put it in the bushes.

Squig also found an itty bitty crab.

And that was our fabulous day at the beach club. We're all a little sunburned. Mostly the kids' faces, since they rub their faces a lot. We'll probably take it easy tomorrow and stay out of the sun. But definitely, two thumbs up to the Palmas Beach Club!