San Juan, Puerto Rico

The next day we went to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We hadn't been here either and so we didn't know what to expect. There were no beach excursions so we thought we would just walk around. They advertised having a huge fort for protection and so we thought we would go see that. As we were coming into the dock we passed two different forts and they were beautiful and imposing and I couldn't wait to go see them. We didn't dock until 1 pm so that morning we took the kids swimming. San Juan was horribly hot and we weren't sure if we wanted to walk to the fort. The front office employees (who we had become good friends with because of their love for Ryan) told us to just rent a taxi. That they would charge us $3 a person to get there which didn't seem bad at all. So that is what we did. There were 11 of us going and the taxi only charged us $20. Way to go. But the drivers there are so scary. The streets are narrow and crowded. But we made it to the fort safely.

There were six levels to the fort and fortunately there was a nice breeze blowing because otherwise we would have died of heat exhaustion. It was hot but with the breeze it didn't feel very bad. Josh loved all the cannons and wanted to see all of them. Alot of the fort was only accessible by stairs and so Eric took the kids to them so the rest of us could stay with the strollers and babies.

This was the only time Ryan got put down on the ground because it was just to windy and dangerous. Notice his hair with the sunscreen. What a look.

The views from the port were absolutely stunning. I was in awe of the beauty surrounding me and could easily have a vacation home there. Oh wait you need money for that .

Josh was just looking at this picture and saying mom look it is the wall I almost fell off of into the ocean. Not true but whatever he wants to think.

Once again the kids not cooperating.

We spent a couple of hours at the fort and had planned on walking back to the ship because it was all downhill but the kids and us were getting fussy so we decided to get another cab. This one was just a minivan and so we had to cram inside. My mom and I had Ryan, Lexie and Ethan on our laps in the back seat and Josh had his own. Don't know how that happened. On the drive back to the ship we asked the driver to drop us off downtown so we could go shopping. Josh had fallen asleep in the van and so we put him in the stroller and I carried Ryan who fell asleep. That was exhausting work. Especially since the streets were so narrow that only one stroller could fit on the sidewalk. We made it to only one store where Lexie picked out a photo album to store all of her vacation photos and then we went to CVS where we bought chocolate. By this time my body was hurting so bad. But I can't push the stroller in crowded places without running people over. So my only other option was holding Ryan. I really enjoyed San Juan. It was really pretty and I was glad that we went sight seeing instead of to the beach. That night we all slept very well and got ready for another excursion to the beach.