Weekend in Puerto Rico: The 'Ron Tour' and El Yunque

We enjoyed the last two days of our Puerto Rico trip tremendously!




Day 1: Puerto Rico is famous for their rum, and so we decided to tour the factory on Saturday morning.  Well, our planned "ron" tour, didn't quite happen when we got off the ferry and realized we were supposed to follow a group of strange men into a parking garage to get into a white van and be driven to god-knows-where.  We both made the most of the moment and talked about what a nice ferry ride we had.  :)

After that we spent the whole afternoon strolling around Old San Juan.  We saw El Morro, watched a wedding, lied in a huge grassy field while about 100 people flew kites, and then ate cupcakes at an adorable little cupcake shop.  That night we went out and made some fun friends, who kept us company, and who somehow managed to get us drinks all night without us paying a thing!  What a wonderful day.

Watching the kites fly overhead 

El Morro

Una Cena Puertorriqueña

Day 2:  We spent the day en El Yunque, Puerto Rico's tropical rain forest (and the only one in North American).  Not to be crude, but Emily decided to take this visit to "El Yunque" and make an "El Duque" on the side of the road on the way into the rainforest.  Jaja.  After our emergency pull-off, we traveled into the rain forest and were wowed at the moments where, as simple as it may seem, it rained.  It is amazing to stand in the middle of the greenest green ever, and hear the rain come down around you.  We enjoyed the sites and then headed for the airport.  What an awesome trip.

Puerto Rico: The Weekend Version

When I saw flights from Tampa to Puerto Rico for $183, I thought to myself, "Yes!".  Within a half-an-hour I called my friend Emily and she was all about it.  We booked our tickets for a weekend getaway (which seems so reasonable after having traveled to Madrid for the weekend once).

She found us a great hostel in Viejo San Juan, at only about $30 per night for a private room and a view of Plaza Colon like none other.  We arrived to the rental car agency, both Spanish speakers, to pick ourselves out a car for the weekend.  I must say, because this was the first place I came when I arrived back in 2008 on my first trip to PR, this little Enterprise car rental will now forever hold feelings of nostalgia when I think of Puerto Rico.  :)

That night we made our way to the hostel, arriving at almost 9:30pm, and then decided to stroll and find some dinner.  Puerto Rico keeps a much more American eating schedule than most Latin American countries, and so we ate almost completely alone.  As we were finishing up dinner, two Dominican guys came up to our table to chat.  They told us that they were going to convert the restaurant into a bar/club after hours and that we should definitely come back.  While the thought of staying out and dancing the night away with some Dominicans holds some sort of "vacation appeal", it was in this moment that I realized I am starting to get old.  Together we decided to head back to the hostel and just enjoy the night in so that we could make the most of tomorrow.  What happened to me??  Seriously.

Either way, it was a nice dinner with true piña coladas, and it feels great to be back in Puerto Rico!

Chihuly Rocks My Socks!!

Well, we met some great friends on the cruise.  They were our Bananagram, happy hour, late night show friends.  We decided that we would spend our last day strolling around Seattle with them because in all sincerity, they were just that wonderful.  We spent the morning at Top Pots Donuts, an adorable coffe and donut shop where we ate donuts while sitting in a library loft.  Then we watched some guys blow glass for about a half an hour, which honestly, I could have watched all day.  Finally, we headed to the new Chihuly museum.  It opened about 10 days ago, so I felt really fortunate to get to see it.

The museum is so well done.  Each room has a theme, that together with the amazing glass art, light and colored walls make the art come to life.  I'll pop in a few pics, but this is the kind of thing that needs to be visited and revisited.  What a great day!

Alaska

Cruising around Alaska was just breathtaking!  Much like the cruise around the Mediterranean, there are SO many stories to tell.  This trip has been so fun, so cold, so amazing, and I fortunately journaled once or twice, so when I go back one day to write the stories it will come together.  For now, I will add a few pics and captions.  More to come though for sure!

We toured the kitchen with the head chef!  This man prepares 10,000 meals a day.  Wow. 

View from the top of the ship

Not so shabby, huh? 

Her kind of bear 

Train ride through Skagway 

Skagway

He's passing on by and looking rather happy because he gets to stare at this view everyday of his life.  

Small boat, eh? 

Cold, but still happy! 

When you can't do the typical cruise limbo contest on top of the ship, a napkin folding demonstration seems in order, no? 

Drinking phenomenal beer in Victoria!  

Heading to the dog sledding in Juneau! 

This pretty much sums things up.  :)  

A Stroll Around Pike's Market, and the Off to Alaska!

This morning we woke up early and decided to stroll around Pike's Place Market before embarking on our Alaskan cruise.  My mom loved the shops, the flowers, and the art.  I did too, but I've been here before, so it is a little more fun to see things through her eyes.  We managed to really take advantage of the morning and are about to check out of the hotel to catch a cab to the pier.  I am really excited, but a little nervous about the cold.  Alaska here we come.

Look at that, before 10am! 

The picture doesn't quite give it perspective, but this is the largest garlic I have EVER seen.  

All aboard! Alaska here we come. 

Seattle Just Does Things Well :)

I love Seattle.  I really do.  This city is my kind of city.  It's got natural beauty, lots of fun things to do, an appreciation of the arts, the origins of all kinds of great music, and in the summer it is dressed in the most gorgeous of greens.  I had a surprise for my mom tonight, a dinner atop the Seattle Space Needle.  I thought while it had the potential to be touristy and overpriced, it would provide us a neat little peak into the city, with at least a spectacular view.  Boy, was I blown away!

This dinner was just lovely.  The waitress loved her job (she shared it with us), the view was like nothing I've ever seen, and the food was incredible.  I had set the reservation for about twenty minutes before sunset so that we could see the city in the light and then as it twinkled.  Watching a sunset in a rotating restaurant, while the mountains glow and the sea sparkles made me feel a type of grateful I forget to feel most days.  I am living a life that most never can access, and for that I am deeply aware and amazed with my blessings.  My mom and I sat there for two hours, enjoying the conversation and the experience.

From our Seattle Hyatt 

The first view from our table

Mom happy with her surprise :) 

The view about twenty minutes in to dinner

Happy to be dining on top of Seattle

The view about 45 minutes into dinner

Celebrating!! (the happy waitress decided we needed candles)

Seattle all lit up! 

Lake Tahoe is God's Way of Bringing It!

Oh my goodness.  So instead of trying to bike around the lake, we took a nice morning walk and then decided to drive around a good bit of Lake Tahoe.  It was challenging to control myself from stopping every 13 seconds to get out and take photos and dance around, repeating to my mom "Do you see this???  THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!!"  It is though.  This place is just phenomenal.

I took that photo, yep, me.  Just a simple 'point and shoot'.  Honestly, I can imagine coming here at any moment to just get away from the world.  It really is magical.  

On a lighter note, we found a little sports pub that has delicious chili and have already planned a second visit tomorrow :).  Life is so very good.  

Enjoying the sunshine and the view! 

Lake Tahoe: Climbing Almost 3000 Feet Gets a Little Chilly Really Fast!

We arrived to Tahoe today!  Wow- it's GORGEOUS.  Simply GORGEOUS.  I have a feeling that I will be thinking and writing that a lot during this trip.  We started in Reno, rented a car, and made the climb up the mountain.  Phew, quite the trek for these Florida girls.

When we arrived at the Hyatt Regency (see amazingly gorgeous website to take a peek: http://laketahoe.hyatt.com/), we were so impressed with the fireplace, the rooms, everything.  As we we began to unpack a bit and chat about the plan for the afternoon, talk of the hot tub sounded great to both of us.  We had just flown 6 hours and it was a bit chillier than we had planned, so a hot tub would be perfect.  Getting ourselves ready to go down to the hot tub, we noticed it had begun to snow!!!  It's June!  Decidedly we would still go, and like the people in the movies, we would enjoy the hot tub with the snow falling.  

The view from our room

The rest of the day we spent working out, exploring the area, eating some chili, and watching a movie.  Not quite the sunset boat ride on the Lake that we imagined, but gorgeous nonetheless.  

Alaska, Lake Tahoe, Seattle: the summer version!

My mom and I are off again to see the world!!  This yeah she decided to keep things a bit closer to home (well, in the domestic vs. international sense).  We leave next week for 2 days in Lake Tahoe, 2 in Seattle, and an 8 day cruise to Alaska.  This trip is going to BLOW MY MIND.

Here's the plan:

Day 1: Fly to GSP to Reno (rent a car and head to Tahoe)
Day 2: Lake Tahoe (boat ride? drive around the Lake? rent bikes?)
Day 3: Morning in Tahoe, head to airport for Seattle!
Day 4: Seattle (one of my FAVORITE cities in the summer)
Day 5: Board the ship for Alaska!
Day 6-11:

08-Jun	Seattle, Washington		4:00 PM
09-Jun	Cruising
10-Jun	Alaska Inside Passage			Cruising
10-Jun	Juneau, Alaska	11:00 AM	8:00 PM	Docked
11-Jun	Skagway, Alaska	7:00 AM	8:30 PM	Docked
12-Jun	Tracy Arm Fjord, Alaska	7:00 AM	12:00 PM	Cruising
13-Jun	Cruising
14-Jun	Victoria, British Columbia	9:00 AM	6:00 PM	Docked
15-Jun	Seattle, Washington	7:00 AM

Day 12: Seattle!

I'm about to have the most chilly summer vacation of all time! :)