from San Juan Puerto Rico! We made it! After a long and uneventful flight from Long Beach to Fort Lauderdale, a 3.5 hr layover and another somewhat shorter and uneventful flight to PR, we arrived. (I guess the only eventful part was that our second plane left 45 mins late due to "the brakes being broken." Glad they noticed that one!). BTW, aside from that brake issue, Jet Blue kinda rocks! We ended up with free movies (Hereafter, True Grit and the King's Speech), lots of yummy snacks and plenty of leg room. Oh yeah!!
We got to our hotel but couldn't check into our room for a few hrs. So, on about an hour's sleep for Bobby and I and about 4 hrs for G --over the previous 40 hrs or so --we started walking the city! Old San Juan is a very cool area. Its built on a hill starting from the ocean --where cruise ships dock for the day-- up to the historic fort area. Walking here is really good exercise. All the buildings are very old and built in rows a bit like San Francisco. The streets are blue cobblestone, mostly one way and lined with very narrow sidewalks. It makes maneuvering with the stroller challenging to say the least. Its a great tourist area filled with restaraunts and shops. Although, I have to say that these are probably the most boring of all tourist shops I have ever encountered. Everything is exactly the same and not even remotely interesting. And I normally love cheesy tshirt shops so this is really saying something. But, what makes the area great are all the outside areas to eat, the great architecture, the fantastic weather (daytime 80s, nighttime about 70) and the views of the ocean. Awesome walking area!
SJ reminds me of a very upgraded Mexico. For the most part the roads are pretty good and things are pretty neat and clean and, you can drink the water. But, its definitely not the US, in a good way I guess.
This is G with the Senor Frog. She was so excited when she saw it. She ran to it yelling "take my picture with the froggy mama!!!"
Bobby found this hat in one of the shops so he wanted to pose with an example of "local art". He's such a goof.
I've taken dozens of pix of the city and the streets trying to capture their unique look. I don't think I was successful but here's one anyway. Imagine rows and rows of these streets one after another as you make your way up the hill.
Another neat thing about the area is all the public art. There are sculptures and monuments everywhere you look. I can't remember who this guy is and I forgot to take a pic of the plaque, darnit.
Here's a pic of the blue cobblestone streets. A lot of them are being torn up and redone, quite a bit of construction going on. I'm not sure why the stones are blue, I'll have to look that up because it seemed unusual to me.
Tomorrow we visit the forts!
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