puerto rico

We're embarrassingly late in posting about our adventures in Puerto Rico....but better late than never. I have to give some kind of tribute to the trip that saved me through the blasted non-existent Boston "spring."

Our dear friends the Snows watched Hazel and Charlie so that we could get away for 4 days of paradise. Puerto Rico has a very special place in our hearts (it's where we had our first kiss) plus it's super cheap to get to from Boston (free in this case thanks to being bumped twice last summer with the kids). And, to top it off, being the cheap people we are we stayed at a super luxurious hotel for less than crappy motel prices in exchange for sitting through a 90 min time share seminar (which was actually pretty entertaining) . All in all, a luxurious and bargain vacation.

The Gran Melia hotel where we were staying was so relaxing that it was hard to leave to do anything else but just sit by the pool or ocean and read and eat and talk. One day we tore ourselves away to go and hike through the rain forest.
It is shockingly green and lush. Every time I'm in the tropics I can't believe what beauty the earth can grow with all that rain. Everything is over sized and alive and intertwined. I could spend all day in there having my senses flooded by all the amazing intricacies of the rain forest.

Then there was the beach and the sunsets and the shells and hermit crabs. It was a little creepy walking on the beach and looking for shells to bring to Hazel and Charlie...it seemed everyone we picked up was inhabited by a little crab. They were fascinating.

My little crappy camera was on macro for this shot and it did a pretty good job. These look like big old shells, but really they are tiny pieces of sand. Pretty amazing.

I love the colors of the beach....so vibrant.

To be truthful, I was really dreading taking Emmeline. I just wanted to be able to be free from this little parasite.....but she was a dream baby and actually pretty fun to have around. Jeff was awesome at letting me go sit by the pool while she napped and he read in the room. And she even took some great naps in the little beach cabanas they had.

She slept great through most of our meals and at night. We hired a hotel babysitter to watch her one of the evenings so that we could go into old San Juan for a mouthwatering, romantic dinner at a place called Marmalade. It was such good food....I can't tell you how much I love eating really really fine food at a really cool restaurant with jeff. It is heaven to me. I don't have to cook or clean or even think beyond trying to decide between all the amazing food creations. It was perfect. I really love old San Juan. You feel a little like you're in Europe....it reminds me of how much I loved Spain and miss it.

Emmeline's first time in the ocean. I think she liked it. I know she LOVED having her feet free and while we were there she discovered how to grab her toes and stick them in her mouth. Boy, I love that discovery, it's so darn endearing to see those little chubby toes stuffed in that tiny little rosebud mouth.

The thing I loved most about the trip was having so much time to talk to Jeff and get a little glimpse into his life and brain right now. There's a lot of stuff going on there that I haven't had time to think about and it was so nice to reconnect. I love that guy. Sadly we didn't get even one picture of us together.....so just imagine one of us here, happy, connected, in love in front of a beautiful Puerto Rican Sunset.

Ahhh, I already can't wait for our next trip to some kind of child free paradise. It has been so good for us to have these little get aways. Thanks to everyone who has made them possible.