Up North for MLK Weekend

For the first time in years, I had MLK day off of work (no professional development).  We took advantage of the long weekend and minimal sports and decided to go up north to Scott's parents' lake house.  We left Friday after work and ate Jimmy Johns in the car and got up there by 7:30pm.  We caught up with Scott's parents and played Euchre for a while before going to bed.  The plan was to ski in the morning and be out the door by 8am.

We decided to ski at Otsego Resort again this year.  It's about an hour and 15 minutes from Gladwin and we loved it last year!  We got there by 9:30am, rented Sean equipment and got on the slopes.  Evan is snowboarding this year and it took him some time to get the hang out of getting down some of the hills and by late morning, he was doing well!

We took a lunch break around 11:30am and got lucky with both finding a table and having a short line for food.  That place really gets crowded!  The kids loved the french fries and chicken strips!  And then we went back out for a several hours before calling it a wrap.  By the end of the day, Evan was cruising on his snowboard and I think Scott and Sean both liked being on mostly greens all day!

We met up with Scott's parents in Gladwin at the Merry-Hearted Cidery for a flight and then they picked up carry-out to bring home for dinner.  We played a few early hands of Euchre before the Lions game.  Sadly, they lost and it was pretty devastating to watch.  Everyone went to bed around midnight and looked forward to sleeping in on Sunday.

Sunday morning we were lazy until about 11am when we decided to bundle up and go sledding.  The temperature had dropped quite a bit so we knew we would only last about an hour sledding.  

We had lunch back the house, watched some football, read, and played games. We decided to go to the indoor pool.  The kids practically had the pool to themselves, although Evan decided not to swim.  We grabbed dinner at The Hearth and came back home to relax.  Pops wasn't feeling well that evening so he went to bed early and it was a quiet night.  The next morning we had breakfast and packed up to head home.  We enjoyed our weekend away!

Puerto Rico Family Vacation part 2

Sunday we had an early start out again with our boat excursion out of Fajardo.  Fajardo is 15 minutes from Luquillo and we had to be at the marina at 8:15am.  The catamaran had about 70 passengers and a crew of 5.  AJ woke up with a fever and wasn't feeling great, but she persevered and took some motrin to be able to go.  We all took Dramamine to be preventative since the company warned us that it might be choppy.  Turns out, it wasn't bad at all!  And it calmed down while we were at our first stop, Icacos Island (about 45 minutes away in the boat).  We got there just before 10am and had until 12:30pm to swim to shore, enjoy the beach, and eat lunch on the boat.  They served cold cuts, sub buns, pasta salad, coleslaw, chips, and more.  It was delicious and they had an open bar pretty much all day!  Evan did the waterslide with Mindy, the boys played football and found some amazing shells, and we all enjoyed the sun and sand. 

The captain had originally told us we would be at this Island most of our time as the water was too rough to snorkel, but the water calmed down and we all got back on at 12:30pm to head a little bit away to a reef to snorkel.  Half of us got in the water to snorkel and it was fun!  Not as great as what we saw in Hawaii, but it was still good.  And then it was time to head back to the marina.  We got back around 3pm.  

We went back to the house and everyone got washed up.  No one felt like going back out again so we made food at the house and Scott grilled hamburgers and hot dogs again.  The guys put football on the TV in the game room and some of walked down to the beach to see the sunset.  It was a relaxing evening at the house.

On Monday, Scott, Mindy, Nana and Pops went golfing in the morning at a place nearby and rented clubs.  The rest of us had a slow morning and packed up to head back to the same beach from a few days ago.  This ended up being a really fun beach day!  We got to the beach around 11am and found a spot closer to the kiosks (food stalls).  We rented chairs and umbrellas.  Josh went to pick up the golfers when they were done and brought them to the beach after they changed, everyone went to the kiosks for lunch at some point, picking out what they wanted.  Sean and I tried some different fried Puerto Rican foods and Evan got chicken fingers and fries from a restaurant.  

We enjoyed the Mojito Lab and got some fun drinks for the beach.  We decided to stay long enough for the sunset and ordered a pizza to go and some burritos and bowls to go too from two different restaurants.  We ate on the beach.  Then, we went back to the house and showered and got ready for the Lions game.  Jackie, Josh, Mindy, Matt, Scott and I walked down the street to a bar and enjoyed the local beer.  Then, we watched the game back at the house.

On our last full day, Tuesday, we got up and out of the house by 8:30am to head to the rainforest.  The power had gone out sometime in the middle of the night, but the house had a generator.  Turns out about 90% of the island lost power - it was wild.  But, it didn't impact our day at all.  We went to the visitor's center, the boys did their Junior Ranger books to get their badge, we did a short hike and then got back in the van to do some sightseeing in the park.  I'm glad we went early, because the roads are switchback in the park and very narrow.  We saw some waterfalls, did some climbing, and saw a tower with great views!  Scott and I had been there on our honeymoon so it was like a blast from the past.  

We left the park and went back into downtown Luquillo and split up to find a restaurant running on a generator for lunch.  Most of us ended up at this cute spot that had pretty darn good food!  And then it was back to the house to relax.  Jackie and Josh made tacos for dinner and we had brownies and ice cream for dessert since it was New Years Eve.  The little boys made it until around 8ish and then we did a pretend countdown with them.  The rest of us, minus Jackie, made it up until midnight.  Man, Puerto Rico sure loves their fireworks.  Everyone around us was setting them off and it was so loud.  It was a really fun way to ring in the New Year!

Wednesday, everyone slept in, made breakfast and packed to head home.  We had Ubers pick us up around 1pm and our flight took off on time and was a smooth flight home.  What a fantastic week together in Puerto Rico!  Happy Birthday, Pops!