Puerto Riiiicoooo!

Stars aligned and miraculously, April was able to take an extra day off of work. With four day weekend (vs. 3-days) we quickly called our friends in Puerto Rico to see if they would be up for last minute visitors. Quickly, our originally planned Chicago trip turned into a tropical vacation! We took a red-eye out Wednesday evening and very quickly discovered that our travel luck thus far had come to an end. Our flight was delayed almost 4 hours. Not only did we have to change our connecting flight at JFK, we almost didn't make it! We finally made it (albeit, a couple hours late) to Puerto Rico on Thursday afternoon to visit the Brennan family.

Though we slept almost the entire flight from Long Beach to JFK we were still a little jet-lagged. We caught up with Jess about island life since their move earlier this year. We decided to wait for Mike to get off of work and took the opportunity to take a little nap. That evening we visited Old San Juan (popular docking location for cruises of the Carribbean) and enjoyed really yummy Tapas. We also learned that the service isn't the same as the States but the food definitely made up for it!

The next day we got a little bit of a late start thanks to the time change. When we finally got on our way Jess brought us to Espana- a nearby bakery. There were so many desserts to choose from, we decided to try a melange! Baby Walker was over the moon. Our favorite was the quesito- we took a dozen home!

When we finished stuffing ourselves with sugary delights we walked to the beach. It was a little cloudy out but the weather was perfect. We enjoyed a nice beach afternoon without worrying about heat exhaustion. We spent most of the time searching for sand dollars. We left with 5 or 6!

Brandon also entertained himself for about a half an hour after finding a coconut. Mommy hopes Baby Walker has her Daddy's sense of imagination. Brandon was convinced he would be able to crack the coconut. He kept saying, "I can hear the juice!".

That evening Mike and Jess took us to Ceviche House. We ordered family style and the food was absolutely delicious. We enjoyed good conversation which complimented our meal well.

The morning of our last full day we woke up to a delicious breakfast cooked by Mike and Jess. When breakfast was over we headed to Pinones- a beach area in Puerto Rico frequented mostly by natives. It was beautiful! We enjoyed the water and sun along with a couple rounds of Catch Phrase!

We consider ourselves so fortunate to have been able to visit our friends in Puerto Rico. Not only did we enjoy beautiful beaches and amazing food but we also enjoyed spending time with great friends. There isn't any other way to experience Puerto Rico than with natives- we are so glad we got the "real life" experience vs. the touristy resort version!