I slept quite a bit on our flight down. The kids watch the new Karate Kid movie and really enjoyed it. I am loving Orlando. It is so nice to fly from here! Our flight was only 2 hours and 20 minutes. We had Even More Legroom (EML) seats (a full 38" pitch) and I was in heaven. Even though I'm not tall, I enjoy being able to walk past the person next to me without almost falling into their lap. When we landed, it was raining and I worried about our plans for walking around OSJ. Thankfully the weather cleared up by the time we got to Charlie's to pick up our minivan. We stopped by Panaderia Espana Reposteriafor a late lunch and shared some sandwiches. The best one was Alyssa's pastrami. I want to go back again sometime and buy something different. They have lots of yummy looking desserts I decided to skip this trip.
After trying to bid on Priceline for 2 rooms, I gave up when I couldn't get them cheap enough. I decided to look for a place to rent on VRBO.com and ended up with a 1 bedroom apartment with free parking for $99/night and only a $45 cleaning fee. It was in between the airport and the party and had a high chain-link fence across the front of the property with a gate that had to be locked and unlocked every time we came or left. I can't imagine living in a place where crime is so prevalent. The little courtyard in front of our room was very pretty and we could hear coqui frogs calling at night.
After getting cooler clothes on, we ventured out to OSJ and found a parking garage near El Morro. Thankfully we did bring our GPS which helped immensely! There are so many one way streets in San Juan. The kids were so excited to see the huge expanse of lawn to play on... Next time they want to fly a kite.
We spent so much time walking around the grounds, that we didn't leave much time to go inside. Troy, Doug, Jared, and Tyler toured inside the fort for about 40 minutes before it closed at 6 pm.
The sunset was beautiful to see and the wind made the temperature enjoyable. We'll try to plan more time when we visit next time.
All this walking resulted in huge appetites for dinner. We headed to Mojito's Restaurantbecause it was #13 on TripAdvisor and not too pricey. Wow - YUM!!! There is a parking garage right across the street with $3 parking after 6 pm. The waiter told us that it was the first night they had been open in 8 weeks - Lucky for us! It is low season right now in PR and lots of places are closed. We ordered a shredded beef mofongo (mashed plantains formed in a bowl shape filled with meat and veggies), skirt steak, and steak with onions for entrees with sides of black beans and Mojito's rice. Everything was so good that we cleaned our plates and ordered seconds :) For dessert the 7 of us shared a coconut flan and guava cheesecake. They didn't have any tres leches cake that night, so we'll have to try that next time.
We stayed about one block from Parque Barbosa and three blocks from the beach. All of us enjoyed the beautiful slightly cool water on Saturday morning. They don't have any way to wash off the sand which is a change from Florida.
The JetBlue party was scheduled from 12-4 pm for the whole family with another adults only party from 7-11 pm. The Conrad Condado Hotel was a gorgeous setting for the party with pools and a waterslide available for the kids when they finished eating. I had a Nestle la Frutta popsicle (Caribbean Mix Fruit bar variety) that was full of fruit and my favorite of all the treats.
Doug watched Redbox movies back at the apartment with his brothers during the evening party and the girls came back to the hotel to play with one of their friends, Nicole, who flew out from Utah for the party. Dinner included whole roasted pigs and everyone had to pose with them.
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| I didn't get the "Wear Black" memo :) |
After the party, we took Doug out to El Churry (recommended on Man V. Food) for a late dinner since it is only open from 7 pm to 4 am. We grabbed a couple sandwiches and headed back to the apartment... Still lots of fun, huh?
Did I mention the scary drivers in San Juan? I had posted on Facebook how glad I was not driving due to the narrow streets and reckless drivers... So on the way home, we were hit by a car driving in the opposite direction. The Lord blessed us that no one was injured and our minivan had pretty little damage. The other car wasn't so lucky. We waited until the police came and then they called for help because they couldn't speak English. The other car's occupants lied about the accident which is worrisome because sometimes insurance will believe their insured's claim despite a police report to the contrary.
Before our flight on Sunday, we headed over to Pinones just past the airport (How do you get a tilde for the n?) to get a bite to eat. I wish I had more cash left. The food is cheap and tasty!
The rental car company immediately charged the whole amount of the damage to our credit card when we returned the car later. Fortunately, AmEx allows you to dispute the charge so that you don't have to pay for it while the insurance companies get the information they need to resolve the claim.
Since it was dark we couldn't see all of the damage to our van, but the impact left marks from the passenger door to the taillight. The total damage to our vehicle was about $860 - Grrr! :(
During the flight home, we had EML seats again :) Even better - JetBlue played Toy Story 3 for free. We hadn't seen it before (other than Doug, that is). I LOVED it! I'm such a crybaby sometimes and was bawling at the end. Troy was just laughing at me.
Sounds like a mostly fun trip! What a scary accident though! Yikes! I love the pic of Alyssa's head and (I assume) Katie's feet sticking up from the grass. Very creative!
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