i'm back

from the little trip I mentioned. We went to Puerto Rico. We like the Wyndham Rio Mar Beach Resort. We stayed there last time but instead of only staying a few days and then the rest of the time in San Juan, we stayed at Rio Mar the whole week. We landed, picked up our rental car and headed out to the hotel (which isn't too far from San Juan, 30 minutes maybe). We checked in and found out our room was on the first floor. Wait, photography is my thing and I'm in a hotel with the beach on one side and the rainforest (El Yunque) on the other. If there's one thing I knew I didn't want, it was a room on the first floor. They did some searching and found a spot for us on the seventh floor. In my reservation, I requested a rainforest view since I knew we probably weren't heading over there but spending all of our time on the beach. I ended up with an ocean view. I didn't complain.

(The view from our balcony the first morning.)

The first morning Cosme wanted to go for a run and asked me to come down to the beach while he ran. He sent me a text when he got down there letting me know chairs were already out for me to sit on. This is where the vacation took a wrong turn. I messed up in a big way. It was early, the sun was hidden behind the clouds and I figured we'd be right back to the room in an hour. If I could rethink and redo that moment, I would. Instead of putting my usual Hawaiian Tropic tanning lotion with sunscreen, I used some Australian Gold accelerator. UGH! I had a long dress on over my swimsuit but we sat on the chairs and I pulled my dress up some, exposing my shins. FYI, it might be cloudy in Puerto Rico one minute but in 15 minutes, the clouds are usually gone and your left with a sunny day. That said, three hours later or so we headed back to the room. By that evening I was SORE. By the next morning I could barely walk. I limped most of our trip. I learned my lesson the hard way. Burned shins are NOT fun.

I won't give a long detailed play by play. A week at the beach explains it all. Here are some pictures I took.

(I just wanted to try and get the colors... notice I said TRY. The blues are SO blue and the greens are SO green.)

(We went across the highway to a little town at the bottom of the rainforest called Palmer, I think. I saw a souvenir shop online and knew I wanted to go. I took this pic when we were walking down the street to another shop.)