Puerto Rico!

We left Naperville at 4:45 yesterday morning in hopes of making it all the way to Puerto Rico without any meltdowns.  James was, per usual, as good as gold, and never once ever cried one single drop.  He played happily during the morning flight to Atlanta and made several friends with the people in surrounding seats.  He didn't nap, though, and was getting quite edgy as we waited for our (delayed) flight to leave for Puerto Rico.  But once we lifted off he fell asleep with prejudice and slept for two+ hours before waking up and cooing cooly all the way to the island.  El Gordito fue muy bueno!  After a long wait for the rental car, during which a vaguely bilingual Thrifty employee spent 20 minutes affixing James' car seat, we hightailed it south an hour on into the dusk and on crumbling roads to the swanky megacondotron Palmas Del Mar.

We arrived at our place just as the sun was setting, and Silva and Claire were ecstatic to see their baby cousin.  Mostly Silva, actually, as Claire is shaking off a cold and was distracted by the television.  Within the hour, Dad had taken James and the girls down to the pool and, despite explicit instructions, took him in swimming with him.  James was in heaven.  The rest of the evening featured the "haggling over what we're going to do" routine, and despite our best intentions to formulate a schedule then a there, the details of the itinerary are filtering in slowly.

In the morning, we were able to shuttle around the Palmas Del Mar compound, and our little corner of it (Crescent Beach).  It's essentially a walled-off section of the coast about 7 miles long and extends about 3 miles inland.  Within it are several commercial districts, two golf courses, a K-12 school, a casino, tons of opulent condo developments that all basically look alike, and lots and lots of old people.  Our place is RIGHT ON THE BEACH WOOHOO (except for the pools in between, which I'm willing to forgive.) To the view!

James was quickly snatched off to a morning session in the pool by his adoring cousins and grandpa, who went whole hog into it...

...while Erica, Mark, and I a made quick grocery run to pick up food for James and some booze and mixers to make Painkillers, which turned into the proverbial 3 Hour Tour.  The byzantine morass of crappy roads and their medieval signage had us lost just shortly after we took this glam snapper from the mountains above Palmas... 

That's Vieques in the distance

Shortly thereafter a dinobaby-sized iguana ran across the road in front of our car, and we were also treated to the sight of a local boy bareback on a horse riding at full sprint against the grain of traffic.

Completely lots within 15 minutes, we were forced to unmanfully stop and ask directions at a home improvement store (we never found the Ralph's we were looking for).  Mark was overheard by a patron who was headed directly to a Ralph's in Humacao, so we followed him there, and he stopped twice (even getting out of his car once) to make sure we wanted to go to Ralph's and not Walmart. This had us put off for Ralph's, but it ended up being basically a Jewel, so I'm not sure what the hold up was.  Among the items purchased was Puerto Rican wine, which wasn't awesome.

We met Julia and Molly at the Bohio Beach Bar just down the beach for a late lunch.  Much to our wondering eyes, it was not even outrageously captive-audience-at-a-resort pricey.  James stayed back to play with grandma and then refused vehemently to nap at all,which rendered him fairly crabby the rest of the day. 

Romance!

Romance!

Molly and Mark made tasty fish tacos for dinner, and we all enjoyed some good family time on the lanai, backed up by the sound of waves crashing on the beach.  Tomorrow, a visit to El Yunque, the only rainforest in the US!

Thorn: no nap.  erg.

Rose: the beach! the sun! the fun! the rum!

Bud: La Mina waterfall in E Yunque