Day 1 – Wednesday, October 16
You never know about the weather in October and when we left
Bloomington at 6am for Atlanta and San Juan everything looked clear and it
was.
In Atlanta we only had enough time to walk from our landing
concourse to our departure gate and we literally walked right onto the plane.
We arrived at about 1:30pm (88 degrees) and there was no problem getting
the luggage, getting a car and we were in our room probably by 2:30pm to unpack
quickly.
We are staying at the Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino,
right on the ocean. This is a Marriott
that we have stayed at many times and we really like it and the staff is always
wonderful. When we were here last year,
we couldn’t stay here as they were too damaged from the 2017 hurricane. The resort looked beautiful.
They upgraded our room to the 10th floor and a
corner room two large balconies overlooking the ocean.
We had contacted the Senior Executive Secretary about a
month ago to book our room as we had asked her to match a cheaper Marriott’s
rates that we had originally booked away from the ocean. She did so and it saved us about $100 a day!
We took the time to say hi to her and it was so much fun to
talk about all the times we had been here.
She told us for the first week of the hurricane she was at
the hotel and did not know for a week whether or not her daughter was even
alive as there was no communication ability!!
Can’t imagine what this island has gone thru.
We took a quick walk to a local restaurant and had a great
lunch before going back to the hotel and then to the pool to get some sun.
For dinner we walked east from the hotel to a restaurant
that we had found and basically had Purtorician Tappas. They were really good.
Then it was back to the hotel and a session in the casino
where both of us lost a little.
Finally, it was 10pm and we slept until 8am the next morning
– we really needed it!!
Day 2 Thursday, Oct 17 –
Yes, it was 8am when we woke up and went to have breakfast
and it looked like it would be another beautiful day.
After a good breakfast, we took an Uber to Dollar Rental and
picked up a car that we had rented for the next 3 days. About an hour out of town towards the east
coast, we stopped at a McDonalds to get a tea for Barb. The staff did not understand what she meant
by half sweet and half regular so she ended up with a Diet Coke!
Around noon stopped at this roadside stand that had a lot of
locals eating there. There was not one
there that spoke English; however a customer did and helped us order as the
only thing that we recognized was chicken and then there was also rice. We ended up eating a great lunch and actually
ate with the couple and their daughter who had helped us order. There had met on-line 20 years ago and now
have 5 kids. He was from Pennsylvania
she is from Puerto Rico. We had a
wonderful time talking to them.
We then spent the next couple of hours driving around the
eastern part of the island and it really wasn’t that much fun.
Then it was back to the hotel where Ed worked on a problem
with the Corvette Adventures web site shopping cart before going out to eat at
about 7pm
We found a wonderful Porto Rican restaurant again and had a
great meal.
Then it was back to the hotel to go to the casino where Ed
made up his losses and then a little and Barb lost just a little again -
$20. But, it was fun.
Night from San Juan around midnight.
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| The view from our balcony |
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| First evening out |
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| McDonalds - trying to order tea |
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| Lunch out in the country |
