Puerto Rico - Day 3: Old San Juan

Monday we got up early to go to the lancha again and see another island. When we got there to buy our tickets we realized that we had missed the ferry - the weekend launch times are different than the weekday times so we missed it by a half hour accidentally. We quickly rearranged our plans and decided to go to Old San Juan that day instead. We met up with the Oldies back at the houses and all headed up to San Juan together (in our 3 separate cars but still going together.) Josh was the driver of our van and we had Hayley and Caleb with us and then Garrett bounced from car to car, riding with whoever he felt like riding with for the day. This day he was with us and we started a mad game of 20 questions on the way to San Juan. 20 questions is a game that I've learned is very serious with Hayley and Caleb. They are very particular about the kind of questions they ask and think about each question beforehand so as not to waste a question on one that won't give them much information. Garrett wasn't quite so careful and started blurting out questions before giving them much thought. We were down to 10 questions before we knew it and without getting much info from the questions he asked. Rookie! He did learn over time which questions were good and which weren't - and then gave himself the praise when he asked a good one. "Great question!" he would say about himself when he asked something that gave us some good info. I think we did end up solving all the problems in the end, but we got a good laugh out of Garrett and his "great questions."

We ended up getting downtown before the Oldies did and waited for them for a while (they got lost on the way) and just browsed in the shops. They finally made it and then, between the 15 of us, we couldn't all decide on one place to eat. We ended up splitting up and Garrett took Caleb, Hayley, Josh and I to a little bakery/restaurant that made authentic Puerto Rican food.

We had "Mallorca" which is like a sandwich but they smash it between 2 grills and put butter, ham and cheese on it and then sprinkle it with powdered sugar. Sounds different but it was delicious!

Josh ordered "Beefsteak Empanada" with rice and beans on the side. I had "Mofongo" which is made of a mass of a type of banana (planta) that doesn't have much flavor then covered in a chicken and vegetable stroganoff. It was also very delicous.

This is the Mofongo. Garrett says it is one of the most authentic things they make in Puerto Rico. We were glad that we went to eat with Garrett so we could taste some good Puerto Rican food. (I think everyone else ate at Subway or Burger King - nothing you can't get in the US!)

We met up with the rest of the group in this little park. I loved this fountain and statue.

When everyone got back together we found out that we had lost mom, Laurel and Grandma Wisniewski to the shops. They did not want to be bothered with the touristy stuff and just wanted some time to browse (and buy) in the "market."

So the rest of us walked up the hill to the "San Cristobal Castle" which is one of the forts that was built as protection for Puerto Rico. It was very interesting and we loved walking around. Plus the view was amazing! We learned the timeline of Puerto Rico and how it ended up being a US Territory.

Some pictures of the fort and the city wall.

This is what dad looked like most of our trip - video camera up to his face. Catching all the memories on tape!

This is one of the lookouts.

And this is the view from the lookout - amazing! You can see one of the other forts at the other point of the island. We didn't make it over to that one but it was cool to see it from here.

We found this pile of canonballs (they were really just cement shaped like canonballs and painted black) and we wanted to get a picture like we were dying from being shot by the canon. Fooled you huh?

Down underneath the fort are lots of passageways. Garrett was hiding in one of the cutouts and tried scaring us. Nice try!

This was a cool tunnel!

Caleb and Hayley - scared you're going to get locked up or something?

This was one of the rooms that they actually locked up people they captured. On some of the walls are original drawings that were carved and scratched on the walls from hundreds of years ago. We learned a lot of cool things and it was a very interesting place to tour around. After we left the fort, we found this cool frozen yogurt place and stopped in for a quick treat. We actually ended up staying for a little while because it was air-conditioned inside and was a nice break from the hot, humid air outside.

After we left the frozen yogurt shop we went back the the "market" to meet up with the shopping ladies. Grandpa Iverson ducked into a bar and told Garrett that he was going to grab a beer while everyone shopped. We shopped for an hour or so and then finally met up with the rest of the group. When everyone got together, we found out that the Oldies were all in an uproar because no one could find Grandpa Iverson. They had searched everywhere and in every shop and had no idea where he was. They had called the police, the coast guard and were about the call all the hospitals in the area - of course expecting the worst. Garrett said, "oh I know where he is. He stopped in that bar to get a drink." Then he walked directly to where grandpa told him he would be and found him in the same place he left him. Safe and sound. Grandma and the rest of the Oldies were mad at grandpa the rest of the day for not telling them where he was and "making them worry!" If someone had just asked Garrett, he would have showed them precisely where grandpa was! Nothing to worry about! Overall it was a fun trip to Old San Juan, minus the drama from the Oldies.

We had spent most of the day in San Juan and headed back home to spend the evening. The Oldies got lost again on the way home. We thought it was very ironic that they had a GPS and were always talking about just "punching the address into the GPS" and everything would be fine. But they ended up getting lost more than anyone! Josh joked that they would "never need a map again!" (But really they could have used a map!)

Justin and Steph made spaghetti for all of us that night and we watched the last game of the world series. Giants won the series 3-1.

After the game, we jumped in the pool and played a competitive game of "500." We loved our pool. It was such a fun, refreshing thing to do at the end of the day. There was a shower right next to the pool and a few signs reminding us that we needed to rinse off before getting in.

This is the backyard and our pool.

Good way to end our day - relaxing in the pool!