The hotel we reserved was the marriot near the airport. It was nice...but I'm sure we got such a good deal because it was close to the airport. But you get used to the frequent jet take-offs.
It was beachside which was a perk. But I think we've discovered that we enjoy more exploring kind of activities rather than relaxing. Back in the day, I could spend hours soaking in the sun. But I find now days that I don't really tan, I just age, so it kinda takes the fun out of that. We did get some snorkel gear, but there wasn't much to be seen other than sand dollars. I tried to relax on a float, but the waves quickly carried me away from Chad. So we didn't spend as much time there as we originally thought. But we did enjoy the beach for a few morning and night walks.
I don't know if the latin culture is just more fiesta mentality, but we also had 2 encounters with crazy neighbors. One time we had to switch rooms because the neighbors were a little noisy. Awkward. The other time us & multiple neighbors called the front desk on some teenagers throwing a party. Fun times.
We loved some of the typical puerto rican dishes! Chad served a mission in the Dominican Republic, so many of the dishes were similar to dominican dishes. We loved the empanadas and the beans and rice. And many of the dishes were made with plantains- Mofongo, trifongo, tostones, even a lasagna type of dish made with plantains instead of noodles (Pastelon).
This is us at Old San Juan. Well, we mostly explored El Morro & the Castillo de San Cristobal.
But we did get to see some of the beautiful colors and architecture of Old San Juan. And the world cup was going on, so Chad wasn't going to miss that. We grabbed a bite to eat in a local bar. Chad stayed and made friends with all the drunk soccer enthusiasts. I went exploring the streets more and found a beautiful Cathedral and a coach store. (I was sorely tempted to buy a purse but I didn't. haha).
These pictures are kinda painful to see. We had an excursion planned that day to go to "one of the 10 most beautiful beaches of the world"- Vieques. Well, early in the morning...like 3ish, I began to feel nauseated and headachy. I had been suffering from motion sickness on and off. In hindsight, probably water in the ear from Florida, but at the time I thought I was dehydrated. So I forced myself to drink a lot of water. Well, that made things much worse. I knew I wouldn't be able to go on an excursion, let alone a boat, in this condition. We had trip insurance. And I knew that to not lose out our money on this excursion, we'd need to have a doctor's note. So farewell, world renowned beach, hello Puerto Rican ER! We waited for several hours. There was a crazy, stoned homeless guy on a skateboard that came in (which made me even more nauseous. I hate seeing people on drugs!). Basically they gave me a tylenol. Just part of the adventure I guess.
Chad's grandma is Puerto Rican, so we got to meet some of his family that lives there for the first time.
This is his great aunt Haydie (I hope I spelled that right). And the left is a picture of his great grandma Carmen Gomez y Diaz.
We went out to dinner with his 1st cousin once removed, Donny & his wife. They were so kind to spend the evening with us and we enjoyed talking with him & learning more about the culture & Chad's family. 
We always plan on going to church if we can when we are traveling. It was cool because when I was looking up the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints online, I found a nearby congregation with a website attached. I clicked on the link out of curiosity. I was surprised when the page that loaded had a big picture of my former mission president and his wife, Claudio & Dina Zivic, with a message from them. I had forgotten that they were assigned as a general authority in the Carribbean. That got me thinking of them. Maybe they would just happen to be there that day?? Well, as you can imagine, that didn't happen. But I consoled myself by saying, 'You're spanish has become really rusty. Wouldn't you rather see him one day in the future and your spanish is much more polished'. I decided I needed to set a goal to improve my spanish (still working on that one. Eek!). That day the message was about learning and maintaining the knowledge that we have and continuing to grow and learn and prepare to meet God. I thought that was no coincidence. And then another tender mercy happened. During the third hour of classes, they were reviewing a general conference talk. Guess what it was?! Claudio Zivic's talk "He That Shall Endure unto the End, the Same Shall Be Saved". I know that my loving Heavenly Father was aware of me and he orchestrated those events (the website, the congregation we attended, the talks & the general conference talk lesson) for me! (I loved the church layout! It was very open and outdoorsy. And a mango tree as part of the landscaping! What?!).
We also wanted to find Chad's great grandma's grave. Not the most touristy thing to do. We looked through books and books with the help of a cemetery worker. Sadly, we didn't find it. And we got so lost in the task that we completely forgot that we had a tour planned to go see the bioluminescent dinoflagellates in a bay in La Pagera! (The other bays, which are more popular hardly have glowing dinoflagellates after the hurricane and with all the tourism). In fact, we missed the van that was supposed to pick us up at our hotel. So we quickly made arrangements to meet them at their last stop. There was just one problem, we had no swimming suits or towels. What to do?! Luckily, there was a walgreens adjacent to the hotel were we were being picked up. Maybe there would be something there? It was slim pickings. All they had was a bikini that was way to small for me (luckily they also had a rash guard and some running shorts). And the shorts for Chad were a little on the small side too. Oh well. Eek!
The tour was beautiful! And we made a lot of new friends. Some girls from New York, a family from Egypt, and our Puerto Rican guide.
The bio bay was other worldly! This experience will be among our top ten favorite vacation moments! (You can't capture the glowing dinoflagellates unless you have a very slow shutter speed. It was fun playing around with my camera to try to get cool shots. I think I kept the shutter open for 10+ seconds). 
This was the morning of our last day. There was a tropical storm coming. Luckily we missed the storm enough to come home. 
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