Their Vacaion, Our Vacation

Excitement was in the air this morning as we helped load up our van with Brian and Janessa's luggage. They were leaving for two weeks in Hawaii and we were driving them to the airport.
They each had one carry on and one for overhead. They packed wisely.
Our son Brian is getting over having a terrible cold and still has some congestion so I'm praying he does OK on the plane flights.
They will leave Pittsburgh to fly to Chicago where they would eat lunch,  they have a four hour lay over, and then leave for Los Angeles, having another lay over before finally taking off for Hawaii.
 That's six times all together taking off and landing. No wonder it takes so long to get there. Why, if the planes didn't have to land and take off all those times it would not be such a  long trip. But no matter what way you cut it it's still between four and five thousand miles.
We could feel their excitement which made us excited for them. They will stay on the island where they land for the day to rest up and then the fun begins as they
 will be hopping from one island to another to see all. Brian wants to see everything about Pearl Harbor. Janassa is looking forward to snorkeling. By time they finished telling us all they have planned we want to buy tickets on the spot and go along with them!
After dropping them off at departure with a lot of hugs and kisses, and telling them this and that, you know how parents do, we pull away to start the drive home.
We are in awe of all the hundreds of cars,( at least a couple of thousand) filling up the short and long term parking areas. We discuss all of the money the airport is pulling in just from parking fees and what they do with it all. We decided we didn't know what they did with the money so
we both start talking at once about the same subject!  "Puerto Rico" - Reminiscing about our vacation there and St Thomas Island. How we were just as excited as Brian & Janassa were today.
   We stayed right  on Roosevelt Roads, a gated Navy base community. You could see the ocean from their enclosed patio, in fact we could walk to it. It was my first time ever to see banana's growing on trees. Beautiful coconuts looked so heavy as if they were ready to fall off the tree.
We were guests of my cousin and her husband. My aunt was already with them which was an added plus. What fun we had, nothing like being with close family when you are vacationing. Laughing at family jokes and just being at ease with each other.
They were great guides, showing us all the landmarks.  San Juan is an old city that was very interesting to tour. We saw the large cruise boats that had just pulled in., I watched for a little as the people were getting back on. I was happy it was not me getting on the cruise ship. Not fond of cruises at all!  
There were so many stores, they sale gold like they sale milk over here! I loved the  old cobblestone narrow streets that we walked along. there were quaint little stores on each side of the narrow streets that had awesome window displays, it made me want to go into each and every one, but of course I didn't. We went to the rain forest, all the way to the top - it was so breath taking beautiful. The mist we fellt on our bodies was so refreshing and the huge bambo poles were awesome to see. We could here the Cucans, big colorful birds squaking along with all of the other sounds, including the water cascading down the rock formation. Their was an old tower when we reached the top with rest rooms in it to freshen up. By time we reached the top we needed them!
We were so close to Luquillo beach, one of the most popular beaches in Puerto Rico with it's sandy white beach, tall palm trees and the beautiful turquoise ocean in front of us. Laying on the beach, we watched women as they weaved palm into hats, their fingers going so fast you couls tell they were sure of what they were doing. Yes,of course I bought one !- wish I knew where it was now. We saw and listened to a native guy playing happy sounding music on his guitar while sitting on an old stoop. There were little hutches here and there that served alcohol and wet drinks which we made use of maybe to much sometimes (lol).
 I was memorized by the beauty of it all. One day we hopped on a little prop plane to fly over to St. Thomas Island. I was the last one to board and the open seat was next to the exit door. The pilot comes back and sits by me, he starts telling me what to do if need be, I know my mouth was hanging open with my face white ,because I detest to fly, and I would be the last one ever  to get the door open or show any one out of the plane. All of my family knew this and started laughing. My cousin's husband took pity on me by getting up and changing seats with me. I have to say it was beautiful to look out the window at the white foam caps that was the ocean while flying to St. Thomas. We stayed the day  and shopped and shopped. No tax on jewlery and so many jewlery places to go into. We finished up the day by eating at one of the outside upscale resturants.
We have been on many vacations but this was the big one for us and one we will never forget. It was made so special by being with family to share it with.
Our next favorite place and we consider it "Our Place" is Rockport, Mass.
Someday I hope to write about those special times in our lives. I can still picture all of it in my mind, we went so many times it was like our home away from home.
Thanks for visiting, please leave a comment if you wish.