Puerto Rico Family Vacation part 1

Back in July we started planning a surprise birthday trip for Pops to celebrate his 70th.  We decided on Puerto Rico and booked the flights and a big house in Luquillo that could fit all 14 of us going.  I'm honestly surprised that nobody blew the surprise in the months leading up to the trip.  We left the day after Christmas and it took some coordinating, but we all showed up to the gate to surprise Pops who was sitting there thinking that him and Nana were going by themselves.  It was fun and he seemed truly surprised!

We landed around 3:30pm.  Josh had booked two Explorers with a rental agency near the airport and he also hired another car to take the rest of us to the house.  Since Mindy and Matt wanted one of the Explorers for the carseats and Josh wanted the other since it was in his name, we took the hired car.  Turns out the cars fell through at the agency and they had to wait two hours to figure that out.  I felt a little guilty already being at the house, picking out our rooms, and unpacking.  We walked down the street to the ocean and enjoyed that for a bit.  Then, the others Ubered to the house and Scott grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for a quick dinner. 

The next morning I was up early and decided to make pancakes for the kids.  The plan was to go to a beach for the day.  It took a bit to get people up, moving, and ready for the beach.  Josh was able to rent a 15 passenger van at a local car rental agency in Luquillo so he went to get that.  We took a walk on the beach and got caught in a rain shower.  And then we were off to Balneario La Monserrate (the best beach in Luquillo).  The beach had a small fee to enter and park.  But, it had public bathrooms or paid private bathrooms, a tropical drink hut, and a food truck.  The waves weren't super strong like they were at the beach by the house so that was a win with the little kids.  

We got washed up back at the house and decided to go into the downtown area of Luquillo for dinner.  We soon discovered that the restaurants moved much slower than they do at home.  Matt stayed back at the house with his boys so there was 11 of us, but it still took close to 3 hours for us to get a table, eat, and check out.  We ate at a place called Board Riders that had decent food, good views, and karaoke music!  

Saturday morning we got ready on the earlier side to leave for San Juan for the day.  There was a bit of traffic and it took a minute to find parking and get acquainted with where things were in Old San Juan, but it was all decked out for Christmas, very busy with cruise ships in port, and they were setting up for the live New Years Eve show.  We walked around and made our way to the fort.  The boys did their Junior Ranger badges at the fort and we enjoyed the visit there.  Then, it was time to find a place for lunch...which was quite a challenge!

We had some hangry kids and wandered all over OSJ with no luck finding a restaurant to accommodate all of us initially.  So, we split up and still had a minimum 45 minute wait.  Scott and I and the boys went to the original spot of the Pina Colada, but there was a long wait so we put our name in, did some shopping, and wandered around to a pizza place where the rest of our family just happened to be.  We squeezed into their table and finally had lunch, but whew...that was a process.  The pizza was good!  We left OSJ after that and drove to the Bacardi Factory, but they were sold out of tours for the day so we got a drink from the bar and did some shopping at their gift shop instead.  

Our final stop of the day, on our way back to the house, was a brewery in Carolina called Ocean Lab.  It was a gorgeous spot since it was connected to a private beach club.  The beers were tasty, we had some appetizers, and did some shopping at their gift shop.  And then it was on the house!

Part two to come...