Today we left for a week vacation in Puerto Rico. We were going to meet our friends, Judy and Steve, in San Juan. Our flight left O’Hare at 8:30 am. I was really excited to go somewhere warm because Chicago had been bitterly cold for the past couple of weeks with highs in the teens. The weather wasn’t so great when we were leaving so we were getting worried that our flight would be delayed or canceled.

Luckily, our flight was on time. The flight from Chicago to San Juan was pretty good. We bought the flight with our American Airline points. I sat next to a guy that kept falling asleep, but when he fell asleep he moved around a lot and ended up hitting me in my side a few times. He was really annoying. One thing cool about this flight was I believe it was the first time we have had a woman pilot. Oh, I almost forgot though…note to self, never agree to sit in the “bulkhead” seating. We switched our seats before the flight because they were not together and the attendant asked us if we were okay with sitting in bulkhead seating. We just agreed to it. It is the row right behind first class. There is no under the seat bag storage and the arm dividers do not move. The seats felt very cramped but we did a have a little more leg room. But never again, if we can avoid it.

We got to San Juan around 3:30 pm. They are 2 hours ahead of us in Chicago. We took a cab to our hotel, the Condado Plaza Hilton Hotel. The cab fare was about $20 from the airport. Our cabbie was cool, he was very proud of his automatic van doors. The lobby of this hotel was beautiful, it had a big aquarium and the whole place was just nicely decorated. Once we checked in we decided to venture out for some food and to check out the pool. It felt so good to be in warm weather! The grounds around the hotel were beautiful and they had a great pool area and their own beach.

We were going to eat at the hotel but then we decided to walk around outside the hotel. We saw so many restaurants. We decided on a place that had Mexican and Puerto Rican cuisine. It was okay…I had a steak and was expecting a delicious steak like I had last time in San Juan but it was not very good. It was too well done. The rum punch there was excellent though. I wish I could remember the name of this place but I can not find it on google maps right now. Maybe it will come to me later. Here’s some pictures of the view from the restaurant and our food. Don really enjoyed his meal, it was a fried pork chop.

After dinner we walked around more. We were right next to the ocean so the views were amazing. It was funny to see Christmas decorations and be in a such warm weather. We got some ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s because neither of us had actually been to one before.

We got back to the hotel around 8:30 pm and we were so tired. We fell asleep and around 1 am Judy and Steve arrived. They had switched their flight to avoid the winter storm Electra. They stayed with us in our room the first night. Slumber Party!