maj

Amita and Evan on Condado BeachI slept pretty good last night, despite the fact that the three of us (Evan, Amita June, and I) we're sharing one bed for the first time in a couple of months. The hotel had managed to scrounge up a play pen for AJ, but she`s never slept in anything but a bed and we were all to tired to figure out how to introduce the concept to her. AJ and I got up around 8 and went out to check the deal with the free breakfast in the courtyard. I was hoping for something along the lines of tropical fruit and maybe some local bread... reality check: Honey Nut Cheerios, cup cakes, doughnuts, and coffee & juice. AJ was pretty happy about the whole thing-- she didn't even know they made sugar coated Cheerios!

Evan joined us just as Amita had finished exploring the courtyard, pointing at the fish in the pond and squinting at the bird in its cage. We walked down to check out the beach and quickly realized we'd made a terrible mistake-- we hadn't bothered to get suited up first! We made a beeline (or a toddler-line) back to the hotel for swim gear and then hit the water. After wearing her out at the beach it wasn`t too hard to convince AJ to take an unusually early nap-- 11am instead of 1pm.

What turned out to be hard was waking her up! At 2pm she was still out cold and we were supposed to head into the Old City for the meetup launch lunch (lunch- launch?). We were also waiting for User:Sapphire to show up from the airport, so I let her snooze a little longer, but at 2:30 we really had to start to get out of there. I tried rubbing her back, singing, calling her name softly... nothing was working! I finally just hauled her up out of bed. She blinked a few times and then promptly went back to sleep sitting up! I got her into the stoller still half a sleep and we went out to catch a taxi.

The drive was super scenic, with beaches and waves and the wide open sea streching out to the sharp edge of the horizon. The driver dropped us off right outside the meetup restaurant and we piled inside. I hadn't really looked into where we were going so I was a bit surprised by the old-fashioned family restaurant feel. There were a dozen or so booths and seating for a dozen more at a counter. It felt a lot like some of the old bakeries I'd been to in Lisbon and other forgotten corners of Europe. The food ended up being pretty good-- it's probably even great if you knew what to order. I went with the shrimp & rice and a local beer. Just after we ordered, User:Sapphire (aka Andrew) appeared! We handed out T-shirts and took some photos.

After lunch we went for a great stroll through the scenic streets with their brightly colored two-story buildings. A lot of the shops were things like Subways and McDonalds and Walgreens, but it managed to still look quaint and charming. There were also a lot of really interesting looking bistros, cafes, and bars. Enough to make me realize that we were barely going to scratch the surface of what San Juan has to offer.