Puerto Rico!

So Adam has been in Puerto Rico for 3 months now, and Luke and I were fortunate enough to go visit him for 2 whole weeks in April! I must say, it was the BEST vacation I've ever had! Adam was so sweet. He had a welcome basket waiting for me and everything :). He was so surprised by how much Luke had grown.
Here is the view from his hotel room: The day after Luke and I arrived, Adam had a special mini-trip planned for us. As soon as he got home from work, we caught the ferry to a little island called Vieques. Adam had arranged for us to go see the bioluminescent bay that night. We snapped this cute little number while waiting for the ferry:Adam had arranged for a "tour guide" to pick us up from the ferry. I say "tour guide" because once we arrived in Vieques, we were greeted by a man named Din Din, who said he would take us to the BioBay in his van. Now, this van was obviously a work van that was unmarked and white, without normal seats in the back. There were two seats that had been taken out and set in the back sideways, and another "seat" that was a tire with a pad on top. We lifted Luke and his entire stroller up and into the half-empty van (as there was nowhere to buckle him in anyway). Mind you, it was about 11p.m., and our little family was in the back of a creepy van being driven to the middle of nowhere by two Puerto Rican men listening to loud Spanish music.

As Din Din turned onto a very narrow and incredibly bumpy dirt road, I turned to Adam and quietly expressed my feelings of fear. I honestly thought they were going to kill us...well, I thought they would kill Adam and Luke and sell me in some sort of human trafficking scheme. I mean...I'm too pretty to kill. lol : ) So we pulled up to a little watery area surrounded by trees, where a tiny fishing boat was floating in the water. One of the men waded into the pitch black water with his flashlight and retrieved the boat. I grabbed Luke in his carseat and waded through the water and onto the boat with Adam. At that time, I decided that we were all 3 going to die and be tossed overboard. (I'm not kidding...this really went through my mind). It wasn't until we started heading into the BioBay that I decided that Din Din really was going to give us a tour. What's so neat about the BioBay is that it is full of little organisms that light up neon blue when they're disturbed, kind of like fire flies. Although this picture isn't either of us, this is what we got to do! It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. The water was so clear that you could see every single fish lighting up the microorganisms as they swam away. I'm talking hundreds of neon blue fish. Din Din took us out to his fishing net, where he piled it onto the boat, along with a dozen or more fish. When we made it back to the van, his companion tied the net up in a tarp and tossed it in the back...with us...right beside Adam. We couldn't help but laugh about the whole experience. Din Din was kind enough to take us to our little hotel room on Vieques that Adam had reserved. It was really fun and cute. The next day, we took a stroll down to the beach: Adam rented some snorkel gear and swam off to the little island in the distance, where he was told there were a lot of tropical fish:I, on the otherhand, did NOT swim to the island, as I would have been sure that a shark would eat me, and I would have drowned out of sheer, unnecessary panic. We headed back to the hotel and relaxed on the balcony while waiting for a taxi to take us into the city:
We toured around the town and headed back to the main island. While in Puerto Rico, we introduced Luke to the swimming pool!

He actually seemed to like being in the water with mom and dad!Here is a cute picture of Luke and Adam on one of our beach strolls:

One day we headed into Old San Juan to see the forts that were built in the 1600's. While crossing one of the bridges, I saw something come up for air in the water. Adam thought I was just being paranoid because of my fear of sharks, but a minute later, it surfaced again! It was a manatee!
After viewing the main fort, we headed to another one where hundreds of people go to fly kites. Adam decided to join them:It was so neat to see all of the different kites flying in the air. It reminded me of the book, The Kite Runner (read it!) Luke was more interested in the grass than the kite:When Adam had let the entire spool of kite string out and the kite was really high in the air, he handed it off to a random person as we were leaving. I think they were confused...but happy! haha. Here I am by one of the old fort lookouts, which are symbolic of San Juan:While Adam was at work, Luke and I relaxed on the beach. It was hard to try to keep him shaded in the hot Puerto Rican sun!:My sunblocked baby:One night we went to a VERY local BBQ joint called Bebo's, where no one spoke English. Here's Adam with our 1/2 chicken, plantains, and Spanish-English Dictionary:Honestly, it was the BEST chicken I have ever had! So good...mmm...

My favorite part of the trip was our catamaran trip to go snorkeling: I had never been snorkeling, and I was absolutely amazed by how many hundreds of fish we saw! The water was so beautiful and clear, and I even saw a stingray!On the catamaran back to the dock, we saw a humpback whale! (not an amazing picture, but you get the idea!)One of the last days in Puerto Rico, we visited the El Yunque Rainforest, where we hiked down to one of the main waterfalls.The rainforest was amazing, and I was very tempted (and prepared) to swim in the waterfall, but we had a pretty long hike back, which I knew wouldn't be fun wet:Luke was pretty worn out by the end of the hike!It was so wonderful to visit Puerto Rico, and I feel so fortunate that I was able to go see my husband while he was deployed. (The virgin Pina Coladas every night weren't so bad either!) He should be home June 10th, and I can't wait for our next adventure!