Life in the Slow Lane (The Pearl)

Feb. 2 - San Juan, PR

“It feels good to be lost in the right direction” –Unknown

Six hours from Austin to San Juan...not too bad. Now we're in paradise. The island of Puerto Rico is beautiful and the people are warm and inviting.

We arrived in San Juan with just enough time to pick up our rental car, check into our hotel and venture out to find a place for dinner, a few drinks and to watch the Super Bowl. Here are a few pictures of our first evening in Puerto Rico.

Our home for the night in San Juan was the Acacia Boutique Hotel.

The beach in front of our hotel.

We found a little local place called Fillie's to watch the Super Bowl.

Right outside of our room was a large hot tub...a great place to relax before we went to bed.

Our room is to the right in this photo.

Views from the hot tub

Puerto Rico Adventure

“Adventure is a path. Real adventure, self-determined, self-motivated, often risky, forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world” – Mark Jenkins

We're off on our winter adventure. It seems we're drawn to the same kind of places each year...warm weather, beaches, waterfalls and natural wonders to explore. This winter we're off to Puerto Rico...the feel and excitement of being in another country, but all the conveniences of being in the United States since it's a U.S. territory. Sounds like a great place to spend a few weeks.

Puerto Rico's location. While we're in PR we'll be on Atlantic Standard Time, which is one hour ahead of the eastern seaboard.

Puerto Rico is an archipelago made up of about 143 islands, cays and islets and is part of the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean Region. The main island of Puerto Rico, Vieques & Culebra are the only inhabited islands. It lies east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands. The north shores face the Atlantic Ocean and the Southern Shores face the Caribbean Sea. The main island is about 35 miles wide (north-south) and 100 miles long (west-east) and just under the size of Connecticut.

History Lesson: When Christopher Columbus discovered the island in 1493, he named it San Juan Bautista (St. John the Baptist). The city later became known as Puerto Rico (meaning rich port). In the 1520’s the city’s name changed to San Juan and the island to Puerto Rico by a confused cartographer.

Puerto Rico became a territory of the United States in 1898 following the Spanish–American War. It was acquired from Spain under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. Puerto Ricans were outraged after the war, instead of becoming citizens, they were in limbo. They didn’t have any legal standing in the U.S. system until 1917. Although they are U.S. citizens, they can not vote for president or elect voting senators or representatives to the U.S. Congress.

Jan. 23-27 Dripping Springs Family Vacation

“Family ties may lengthen to accommodate distance but they are are never broken.” –Earl Hamner

The best vacations are spent with family and friends...we spent five relaxing days in a wonderful home outside of Dripping Springs. There was plenty of room for our families and a few close friends. We spent our days swimming, talking, playing, eating barbecue and visiting the Jest King brewery.

The home gave us plenty of room to run, play and ride bikes.