Our Vacation: Puerto Rico

Nine years ago, today, I stood in front of a congregation of family and friends and committed my life to my husband.  I love thinking back on that day and everything that made it special: the gift of marrying my best friend, feeling beautiful in my wedding gown, knowing that I was no longer waiting for a husband, people we loved and who loved us who were there to celebrate, and much more.

We honeymooned in Belize and had a wonderful time.  Travel is something we both enjoyed before we knew one another, and something we hoped would be a regular part of our married life.

Enter children.  Four of them in 4.5 years’ time.  And the Navy.  And all kinds of other life events that kept us from the wandering we had hoped for.

No, I wouldn’t trade any of it.  BUT, I am so thankful that we took the time to go on an adventure to Puerto Rico this summer.

Why Puerto Rico?  Good question.

1. We made some money from the military by moving ourselves last winter so we set that aside for the purpose of a vacation.

2. Bradley’s job makes it a bit complicated to receive travel approval to other countries, so we kept the paperwork simple by choosing a US territory.

3. We didn’t want to spend too much time traveling and/or dealing with jet lag so we chose to stay within our time zone (this took Hawaii out).

4. The pictures we saw of Puerto Rico were beautiful, and even though it is still technically the US, they speak Spanish and it was more exotic to us than a beach in the Southeast or a cabin in upstate NY (both options we considered).

Highlights of our Trip:

Sleeping, doing whatever we wanted whenever we wanted, driving around the island, snorkeling, paddle boarding, lounging at the pool and beach, eating in local eateries, drinking GOOD coffee, touring Old San Juan, and being together.  Pictures are more fun, so here are some of my favorites:

Food:

Fun:

Sights:

Lessons From our Vacation:

1. We need to be more intentional at home in having time just the two of us.  This has always been a challenge, for various reasons.  At the end of the day, when the kids are finally in bed, we mostly want to do nothing and say nothing.  And often that’s what happens.  So we learned that sitting for even 15 minutes and talking –sometimes about serious things, sometimes logistics, sometimes goofing off–needs to be a regular occurrence.  No matter how tired we might be.

This also means we’d love to start having date nights.  We are blessed by the fact that we now know someone in our town who we can trust with our kids.  So, we’re hopefully going to be able to have at least a once a month date night.

2. Vacation is good for us.  It’s hard to be still sometimes, as both of us are task-oriented people.  But we need it.

3. We missed our kids.  Honestly, I was a little worried that I wouldn’t want to come home .  And I had purposely planned on not face timing with the kids while we were away.  My mother-in-law sent us updates of the kids just about every day, and can I tell you that I loved it!  We would look at the pictures and watch the videos over and over again.  And, I was ready to get back to them.  I’m so thankful for this!

4. We need to have a vacation like this at least every other year.  Not always to an exotic destination, but definitely time away from the kids for 5-7 days.  We’re already talking about where to go next.

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Planning a trip to Puerto Rico?  We recommend:

Where to stay:  Rincon Beach Resort, Courtyard Marriott San Juan

Where to eat:  La Cambija, Sharana’s Coffee Shop, Mahi Mahi, Das Alpen, Fogo de Chao – San Juan, Carta Buena