a week ago today i was getting off a plane at the houston airport. not hobby. the other one. the one with a great food court. where was i flying from you ask......why PUERTO RICO of course!
patrick and i have traveled a little together (branson, fort worth, kc, wichita), but this was our first 'real' trip together (like just us for 5 days . . . no charming family members to entertain us!) here are some of the things i learned . . .
1. if you call my name while we are walking and i turn around and you snap a picture of me, chances are i will look drunk. this would be okay if it were true. in the picture below, it is NOT.
seriously. what is wrong with my eyes?
2. bobby flay is just as hot in puerto rico as he is in my living room in oklahoma.
i have a feeling patrick is more interested in the hot dogs bobby is cooking than he is in bobby's hotness. yes. we watched the food channel while we were on vacation. more on this in a bit.
3. um. i'm short compared to a lot of people. but especially when compared to patrick. (on a nerdy note: we watched the nba draft last night and decided to measure our wingspans. mine is a WHOPPING 5'3". patrick's? 6'8". crazy. i like this because i can always find him in a crowd. except a NASCAR crowd. there are a ridiculously large number of very tall NASCAR fans. um yes. i went to a race. another story....)
but kind of just the right height to annoy him when he is trying to take pictures . . .
. . . and i hold my camera up to get the "high" shot.
4. it rains. even in puerto rico.
5. san juan is VERY touristy. especially old san juan as it is in easy walking distance for the cruise ship crowds when they dock.
but even in the midst of tourist central you can find some great places to eat. our absolute favorite meal was at cafe berlin, which you can kind of see behind the statue of christopher columbus. so. if you go on a cruise and your ship stops here walk a little further up the hill, past the hard rock and senor frogs and harley shop and find this place instead. it's apparently an amazing vegetarian establishment . . . i wouldn't know. we ate meat. and it was goooood. their hummus was fabulous, too. (don't you think i should be a food reviewer? so eloquent with my descriptions of taste and such.)
6. now. there's a chance i have some pretty radical statements and opinions about food. but. such is me. one food i've never been a huge fan of is coconut. the texture scares me and the smell/taste is way too close to hawaiian tropic for me to consider ingesting it. but, since i was in a tropical locale and everything is served with coconut and rum (something else i've never been a huge fan of), i decided to forget my biases and dive headfirst into a pina colada.
now. maybe it's because i drank it on the beach while i was slathered in hawaiian tropic (which ironically IS one of my favorite smells), but i rather enjoyed my first pina colada experience . . . and my second and fourth and fifth . . .
7. we have not mastered taking photos together.
exhibit a - the camera was on zoom when a nice lady tried to take our pic for us.
exhibit b - the WIND!!! like there's A LOT on the beach at night!
8. this was my first real vacation. ever. my family and friends live all over the country, which for the most part (other than the not getting to see them enough part) i LOVE because it means i get to travel to some really great places to visit people i care about. being a teacher has made that even more plausible because i have a big chunk of time to do that traveling. but, being a teacher has also means i don't always have the funds to do "other" kinds of trips. yes. i've done england a couple of times, but i don't really consider that a vacation because, well, i was either in school or traveling with cody. (with LOVE! i say this with LOVE!) she doesn't really stay still. and also my sister and cousin, erin. who also don't really stay still. so yes. i've traveled. but i haven't really vacationed. and that's what we did. and except for our flight back from puerto rico every single part of our trip was relaxing. and chill. and just what i wanted it to be. no real plans. just hanging out together.
even if that meant watching throwdown with bobby flay randomly in the afternoons while we were trying to stay out of the heat.
