Holy long post about our short vacation!

We're back from our kid-free Caribbean vacation and only one word can describe it...amazing! But since I am a girl with a lot of words, I can't leave it at that. It was a great vacation and since I haven't had more than a 2 minute conversation with anyone since I returned, I'll tell you about it here:

Day 1: We did a day-long snorkeling trip off of Puerto Rico. We went with some co-workers/friends and took a sailboat and docked off of 2 different islands: Palomino and Palominitos. The water was about 82 degrees, clear, and aqua blue. We saw dozens of fish, coral, sea urchins, and even a sea turtle.

Here's a picture of Brentt helping lift the sail:

And here's a picture of the group on the boat.
Drinks were free-flowing so we were feeling good by this point!

Day 2 : Salsa Dancing, a lazy (hung-over) afternoon on the beach, and a nice dinner. Here's where we spent most of our stay-- the Wyndam Rio Mar Beach Resort:And here are some of the locals:

I love this picture of Brentt and I before we went down for dinner.

Day 3: While Brentt was in a business meeting, I went hiking in the El Yunque Rainforest, the only rainforest in the US Nat'l Parks system. With a guide I saw so many creatures that are great at camouflaging themselves. Like this walking stick:

And this grasshopper was cool. My camera had a really hard job focusing on this guy.

Day 4: Brentt and I went back to the rainforest because he wanted to hike through it too.

La Mina Falls, El Yunque Rainforest

On the evening of day 4 (Saturday) we did a Kayak tour of the Bio-Bay in Laguna Grande. This was the best thing we did in all of Puerto Rico! Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera because we were in the water the whole time. This is a tour that you do at night. We kayaked through the bay, into a mangrove-covered canal that led to a big lagoon. Since we scheduled this on an evening of a new moon, it was completely dark until.... you touch the water in the lagoon. The lagoon is full of micro-organisms that glow green when touched. Everytime you paddle, the water that moves glows a turquise-like green. These micro-organisms are very similar to fireflies. The greatest thing was when you'd see a fish darting through the water--they looked just like giant shooting stars.

Day 5: We went to and stayed in Old San Juan and did the regular tourist thing. Old San Juan was a walled city with 2 main fortresses. Much of the old wall and buildings still exist. We visited the Spanish fortress Castillo de San Felipe del Morro, built in 1589"

And we also visited La Fortaleza:

Here are a few pictures I took in Old San Juan

And the next day was a full day of travel home. Even though it was a great vacation, I was ready to come home. I was just starting to miss the kids and my liver was starting to hurt from this rum-infused vacation. In case you were wondering... Beth and the kids did wonderfully while we were gone. Besides Beth being sick, I think she enjoyed watching the kids. It couldn't have been too bad because she volunteered to do it again! (CRAZY!) Now, I'm looking forward to scrapbooking the whole vacation!

Cheers!
Christy