Friday, June 20, 2025

Puerto Rico - Day 5

Day five was supposed to be a drive into El Yunque, the rainforest...however, we all decided that we had had enough driving, and just wanted a quiet day at the house.  The "quiet" day quickly turned into some pool olympics, with basketball being the main event.  We had some great music playing, visited the horses again, and ventured into Patillas for a quick trip to the store.  































After enough shenanigans, we decided to end the trip with a great dinner.  There were two places we kept seeing on our drive to/from Patillas, so we opted for the one with an ocean view.  It was a great gamble because it was delicious food, a few island drinks/shots (even for Carter!), and the view was just as advertised.  This vacation was just what we needed and we had the best time!















Thursday, June 19, 2025

Puerto Rico - Day 4

Day four was a really early morning wake-up to get to our half-day snorkeling adventure.  Another beautiful drive, this time up the eastern side of the island, to Fajardo.  The tour itself was so much fun.  Maybe 25 people on the boat, and the crew did a great job!  We first went to the reef for some snorkeling.  I was really worried that Mase would have trouble with snorkeling, but he jumped right in and was head-down the majority of the time.  We saw a ton of fish, plants, and coral!  They fed us a delicious lunch after snorkeling, and then took us over to Icacos Beach for some swimming.

















Once we got to Icacos Beach, they opened up the bar (free local rum drinks!), inflated the water slide, and showed people the jumping platform.  Talk about a hit!  I stayed in the water for the whole two hours, just people watching and taking pic/videos of the family.  Definitely a workout treading water for that long, but it was the best time.



























After we got back to mainland...is it still considered "mainland" if it's an island...we drove about 20 minutes to a town called Luquillo.  Luquillo is known for their food kiosks - think 60+ food trucks, but in brick and mortar format, like a strip mall.  SO.MUCH.FOOD.  The smells were incredible, the music and dancing were all local...like a big party!  We got some really good food, and I helped myself to a pina colada IN a pineapple.  It was spendy but so worth it.  More souvenir shops here, too, so we poked around for a little bit, and then made the drive back to the house.