Puerto Rico

 Bryan invited us to PR with Meaghan's family to surprise her for her 40th birthday. Mom and Brett agreed to come watch our babies so we could go on our first ever kid free vacation (together) to celebrate Meaghan and do a trip together since we both turn(ed) 40 this year. 

We originally had a 1:30 flight out of Charlotte, getting us in around 4:20. Our plan was to get the rental then drive from San Juan to Aguada (Casa Aleeza), which was 2.5 hours, figureing we would eat on the way and get in around 8:30pm.

Due to a big storm coming we (Lindsay, Mike and myself) opted to hop on an earlier flight (currently free to fly standby on same day flights). LInds was able to get in from Charleston to Charlotte on time and all 3 of us got on the 9am flight to SJ (getting us in at 1:30)!! We were even able to switch one seat and all sit together. We knew it was too good to be true..after sitting on the runway for a while, we were told to disembark due to plane maintenance. We went to the lounge but they were full so we grabbed some drinks at the bar. We ended up getting into the lounge a bit later so we enjoyed some free food and hung out for a bit. We ended up on a different plane all together and left at 12:30..so we only ended up getting into PR an hour early than planned but at least we had some snacks to hold us over until we got to the house. Bryan told us there would be plenty of food and to just eat there.

Bryan asked Meaghan to change Hudson's diaper right when we were arriving so we were able to sneak in and sit at the table. She came in a few minutes later and seemed pretty surprised!

We were pretty beat from being up since 4:30 and travling for like 14 hours so we showered and headed to bed. 

The house was perfect. 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, even had a pool! Linds shared a room with Kim, Mike and I had our own room-Meaghan's parents (Jeff/MaryAnne) and aunt/uncle (Liz/Paul) were there too!

The next morning we got up, had our coffee then headed to Cascada Gozalandia. Glad we brought water shoes! We headed down to the biggest one and unfortunately Paul slipped and fell very hard on his back and hit his head on a rock.Thankfully there was a doctor who saw the whole thing happen and immediately ran over to assess him. Linds ran up to get ice as we cleaned him up. MA/Liz and Paul went to the top to hang out at the restaurant once he was able to get up. The rest of us jumped off waterfalls and swam in a small cave. 

Bryan and Mike jumped off a pretty steep portion, which was terrifying to watch bc you could see how slippery it was. I thought I was going to vomit watching. Linds/Meaghan and I (Kim is pregnant, so she couldn't) climbed to a safe spot and jumped in but when we counted to 3, my foot slipped so they jumped and I didn't. LOL oops. So then we had to go back up to jump again-this time together haha. We climbed up to another waterfall and Bryan/Linds climbed up to sit underneath it.

We met up with the rest of the crew and ordered some tropical drinks and monfongo's (Chicken for Linds/Mahi for Mike and shrimp for me).

On the way home we stopped at the PR pyramid lol turns out it was just randomly constructed 20 years ago, nothing to see there lol. We stopped at a cute coffee shop/plant shop then headed to the house to get ready for dinner.

For dinner we went to Reina Mora which was a restaurant on the first floor and the owners family lived on the second floor. It seated 5-6 tables. The husband is a self taught chef and his wife was the hostess/told us all about the 4 course set menu. We started with a yogurt base mixed with avocado and fruits with a cashew butter-incredible. Next course was eggplant and plantain. Followed by pork belly and kale over sweet potato puree. Dessert was a pumpkin ice cream and pumpkin cake. Very cool experience. From there, we went to a bar called El Taller speakeasy, which used to be a mechanic shop.

The next morning, we packed sandwiches and headed to surfers beach for a great hike! Unfortunately, it was high tide so we couldn't make it down to the beach at that spot but we hiked back and went to the beach by where we parked. Took a walk, watched a surf tournatment and headed back to get ready for Meaghan's birthday luau! Linds and I brought a whole suitcase full of decor/grass skirts, leis etc.

We decorated then went in the pool while Bryan made us pina colada's. We had a private chef come to the house for dinner, who made pinapple fried rice and the best Wahu I've ever had!

After some more drinks, delish carrot cake and coconut guava cake (Bryan got two cakes-said one was for my birthday too, very sweet!) we played a couple rounds of Codenames and went to bed.

The next day, we went to Steps Beach in Rincon. Got to relax, take some great pics on a swing and the steps that floated up one day and gave tthe beach its name. Bryan took Hudson home to nap and the rest of us went to Calypso for lunch. Mike and I got the tuna poke wrap and the other gals had fish tacos. Meaghan, Mike and I got some oysters from a stand near the restaurant-So good! Then we finished up and went to shop. (I got a cute tie dye romper). We had leftovers for dinner and hopped in the car to drive and hour and 15 mins to La Parguera for a bioluminescence bay experience. When you move in the water, micro organisms called dinoflagellates emit a burst of light that reminded us of what fairy dust might look like. There are only 5 bioluminescence bays in the worls so that might be a once in a lifetime experience and it was absolutely incredible! We got back around 10:30 from our 7:30 tour.

Mike and I woke up and headd to old San Juan to spend the day exploring before our 5:55pm flight back home. 

We parked in a garage near where the cruise ships were docked and walked alongthe water overlooking San Juan bay. We stopped for a photo with the Boriqua sign which means Puerto Rican pride. Looking down as were walked we were stunned  by how cool the blue copplestones were! We stopped to admire the Raices or Roots fountain and walked onwards to the red gate or La Puerta de San Juan. We passed the bronze sculptures called Crecimiento which represent the affirmation of life. The shapes, rising from the ground, convey the idea that the fragility of growth is only an impression and what is truly important has to be eternal.

We continued on to El Morro and then went to take some pictures at various spots in the rain-in between hopping in some souvenir shops. Unfortunatly umbrella street didn't have umbrellas-had breast cancer flags hanging-but we enjoyed walking throught the colorful streets. We also came across La Casa Esrecha-the 2nd narrowest house in the world.

We dined at Cafe Manolin, where Mikke had the special-a sort of lasagna plantain/beef dish and I had another Shrimp Monfongo. We grabbed a pina colada at Barrachina before heading to the airport.

We changed clothes, checked our bags then relaxed and had an early dinner in the lounge.

My mom and Brett had to head back to Jax on Sunday so Cassie brought her kids and went to take over all day Sunday. Brian came to help (Beckett was so excited to tell me that he got to ride in Uncle Brian's car and he had one cupholder, but Norah had two-but no toys lol) and they went up to have quesadilla's at camp north end. (Mommy, I had a chicken quesadilla with cheese and it was folded like my magnatile-round at the top and then folded like this and like this" (it wasn't facetime but we could imagine him folding his hands over haha). Brian took their kids home and Cassie stayed the night with ours and took them to school the next morning. Sarah Burns picked them up and took them to her house for dinner and a "sleepover" until we scooped them up around 11:30pm. We couldn't wait to see our babies!!!