I AM BACK from Puerto Rico. What a grand time it was. This post would be more interesting with photos but I don't have any on my laptop just yet. We only got home sixteen hours ago!
So if I wasn't clear, Justin and I went to the El Conquistador resort in Fajardo, PR. Its about an hour from San Juan. This was my first time in PR but Justin has been before with Draw the Line. I left work at 2 on Monday and came home to finish up getting ready for the airport. We were in the airport in plenty of time so we went to find food. While waiting in line for my meal I heard a very Caucasian looking man say to his daughter, "Do you have Gringo money?" WHAT???? Our plane boarded and took off just fine and off we went to Houston. We got there just before 10pm which was sad for Justin because his favorite place to get a veggie burger (Rubys) was closed. We had a two hour lay over so we wandered around the airport and found one place still open. I got a bagel, Justin got a danish. I was really tired by that point and I wanted to sleep through the second flight but it just wasn't happening for me.
I always seem to have this issue on overnight flights with Justin. When I am at the window, I fall asleep and then wake up to find I REALLY have to pee. But I am stuck because its me, Justin and a stranger lady and I hate waking up strangers. So I had to hold it for a while. I think I finally gave up on sleeping around 4 am. It was still dark by the time we landed in San Juan. On the airplane I had on a sweatshirt and when we stepped off into the jetway it was HOT. It was like stepping into a sauna. 80 degrees at 5 am!!!!!!
Our bags were pretty much waiting for us when we got down to the carousel so we were able to find our shuttle to the resort very quickly. I dozed on the shuttle because there wasn't much of note to see on the drive. PR is very run down =/ However once we pulled past the resort gates it was like a whole different world. Manicured lawns and green trees and grass. It was SO beautiful. We were taken to the main lobby where we checked in quickly, courtesy of Mike Russell who ran down to the front desk right before we got there. We were taken to our room and got the first look at our view.
(Ill steal some of the pictures Justin posted from his phone while we were there)
Here is the view from our hotel room:
There were three pools at the main building and we had easy access to all three. Plus 3 jacuzzi's, one with a really great view of the Caribbean. Oh and in the above picture you can see the private island, Palomino off in the distance
After enjoying the view for a moment we decided to take a nap. Woke up about two hours later and hit the resort to explore. We found a breakfast place where it was very expensive to eat(a running theme of our trip) but worth it because we were starving. Bride and Groom saw us eating and came in to say hi for a moment! After going around some of the shops and riding the Finicular down to the marina we decided it was time to hit the pool. Thats pretty much what we did the rest of the day. Pool, relax poolside, go into the air conditioning for a while, relax pool side...eventually Mike came to our room with a "wedding survival kit" and ended up taking us to see their digs. We went past their building and saw the infinity pool and had lunch with him. I had a REAllY good burger and some Yuca fries and an amazing frozen mango mojito. OM!! Mike charged it to his master account. Bwah it was awesome.
After lunch we parted ways with Mike so he could do the rehearsal. We could *almost* see the garden where the wedding was from our room but trees blocked it. We ended up going back into the pool for a while. I can't really remember what we did after that. I think we might have done some shopping...I think we got showered and looking nice before hitting up the end of the rehearsal dinner lol. That was nice. Afterward, the bridal party and some other friends decided to go swimming again so Justin and I joined everyone for some more pool time. Getting rather hungry, Mike invited us all back to his and Monica's room to eat all the snacks they had stored in there. It ended up just being Justin and I plus Monica's bridesmaid Kelly to snack, chat and watch Seinfeld. We were only there for an hour before calling it a night.
Wednesday morning found us breakfasting at the same place as Tuesday. Our goal for Wed was to check out the private island. It was a bit annoying at first because the boat took forever to get there but it was worth it. The water was like bath water!! The sand was rocky though. A nice sitting beach but not so much a good swimming beach. Shallow. However, we spent some time laying in beach chairs IN the water letting the water lap up over us. Then we got out and decided to go in search of a beverage.
We found this great strawberry fruity drink which we enjoyed under some tiki hut thingys. Got burnt to a crisp, went back in the water a bit then headed back to main land to hit up the pool one last time. We had a late lunch IN the pool at the poolside cafe which was AWESOME Except for when stupid kids were jumping in right by us and splashing our drinks.
After lunch we went back to our room and got ready for the wedding.
My fabulous hair only lasted me until we walked to the garden because the wind picked up. Boo.
The wedding was absolutely gorgeous. Not much to say about it other than that !!! We saw a rainbow on the walk to the terrace where the reception would be held. It was so nice. The food was amazing! The people were nice..the Puerto Ricans were dancing! It was the coolest!
It was such sadness to have to leave. I won't go into the lovely travel we had yesterday. Lets just end this on a good note and sometime this weekend maybe I will have more photos to share!!
