Cruise day 6, ST. MAARTEN!

We left the ship and walked into a post card.

Turquoise blue water, white sail boats, calm island vibes.

This was the only stop where we had an intinerary.

Maho beach or bust.

The beach is across the road from the airport.

Planes literally fly right above your head to the point you

 think you can reach up and touch it.

I wanted to spend half the day there, then switch and go to Mullet Bay beach.

Another popular beach I discovered while researching.

I made sure we were ready to disembark right when we could.

No time to waste!

That helped us get on a van first and not have to wait.

We squeezed a lot of people into this sprinter!

Talk about small island. 

No highways.

It was a 30 minute drive through windy, one way roads.

I thought this shopping cart was so cute.

They parked and we had to walk in to get to the beach.

It used to have tons of sand.

Hurricane Irma ruined it.

Didn't matter to me, I was happy to be there!

Walking on the one way road to get to the water. 

Sunscreen couldn't get sprayed fast enough before
 kids started running into that gorgeous water!

Look how clear that water was.

Unreal.

We had the place to ourselves for a while.

Then the crowds started to come.

Didn't bother us!

Smaller cargo planes had flown over, which was cool.

We got sand blasted by a boeing 737 taking off.

 Our first jet plane was coming in hot!

This is not zoomed in.

It was the neatest experience!!

You can see that the airport was right across that dinky little street.

Poor Pam got taken out by a wave.

They sucked in and out pretty strongly!

She could NOT stand up!

The waves kept coming in and taking her back out to sea!

Lindi thought it was hilarious.

We brought snorkeling gear from home.

Such a smart move.

I'm glad somebody told us to do that.

 Beach braids!

Ya, these ladies were scrappy.

I can't remember how much they charged,
but they made a killing off of all of us!
Time to quit my day job, no joke.

Sadly, Lanes hair was long enough to braid.

I think she made $10 from him.

Yep, we are suckers.

Jake getting a nice foot rub!

the hair braid line up

Got a kick out of the bobbers, floating their worries away.

I floated my worries away, too!

I couldn't believe I was swimming in the Caribbean ocean.

Pinch me!

My goal was to eat lunch at the restaurant right on Maho beach.

Then get in the taxi and drive to Mullet Bay beach.

Something about island time and no rushing.

Lunch took longer than expected. 

We could have made it to Mullet Bay, but it would have cut it way to
close to the time we needed to be back on the ship. I wasn't willing to risk it.

But it was a fun eating experience.

From our table you could see the planes landing.
Not a postcard!

And taking off.

Back in the van we went to our home on water.

More views before leaving.

After getting ready for dinner we went to the balcony to watch the tug boats help
 taxi us back to the open waters.

Hello neighbors!

They took a picture of us.

We dropped the 10 and under kids off at the kids club so we could go see Columbus in the theater.
But first, round 2 of dessert at the Windjammer!

It was Mexican night at the buffet.
I walked past some quesadilla's

while getting dessert.

I had to sample it, duh.

The sample turned to a plate full!

I have never had a yummier quesadilla.
Not that I was starving by any means.

These boys.

Happy as clams sporting their braids, beads and puka shell necklaces.

Ready for the show to start!

Cruise performers are amazing!

Columbus was a story of Christopher's luckless distant cousin Marvin, 

on a madcap voyage to the Caribbean.

It totally exceeded our expectations.

It had innuendo 's that went over kids heads, like Shrek.

But they tied in pop culture and today's hit music that made it interesting for 

everyone. We loved it!

Cruise day 5, PUERTO RICO!

"This is how it goes down in Puerto Rico"...

Pretty soon we would be walking those Despacito lyrics, but first we had to get there!

It was an afternoon port stop.

Why not pass the time with ice cream and swimming.

and animal balloons on the boardwalk.

 I went back to the room to get ready to leave when I saw land approaching!

It was jaw dropping gorgeous.

Pretty soon we would be standing right in the middle of it all!

This port was mass chaos.

I grabbed Lindi's hand and told her to never let go.

There were people screaming at you in every direction
trying to get you to buy their excursion package.
We quickly knew that we could not all stick together. 

We teamed up with Jesse and Kristen, struck a deal with a guy and were
quickly ushered into his sprinter van!

WITH blasting AC, awe sooo nice.

I felt bad for the others who decided to stay on foot the whole day.

It was also nice because we were clueless at where to go, and what to do.

He knew the island like the back of his hand. 

He drove us to this convention center to get a picture in front of 

I heart Puerto Rico!

Tourism at its finest:)

He pointed out some wild fruit trees they have everywhere.

I can't remember the name.
I asked what they tasted like.
All of a sudden he pulled over, hopped out, picked a handful.

Got a bottle of water and washed some fruit for us to try!

He wanted us to see what real Puerto Rico was like.

He drove us to some project areas.
In fact, weeks later there was national news of a big murder.
We were RIGHT where it happened.

He showed us neighborhoods impacted by hurricane Maria.
A whole month without water or electricity.
They were still doing construction on most of the buildings.

 And also where they film movies.

Puerto Rico is a big country for movie making.

I guess cheaper taxes because its a Caribbean country run by the USA?

Plus its absolutely beautiful there.
Fast and the Furious was a big one.
He is used to seeing lots of movie stars.

So glad we had our guide, he was awesome!

This was a popular beach.
Next door was a 5 star resort.

I think I shoved my way off the van first. haha.

Move it or lose it!

My shoes were off in half a second and I was running into that water!

If only we could stay and swim!!!

The warm water was so inviting.

Sand as soft as brown sugar.

We had so much more to see and do.

We made our way to old town San Juan.

 In front of the capital building.

Down the street was Castillo San Felipe del Morro.

GORGEOUS spot. 

In fact, they filmed a bunch of Pirates of the Caribbean,
 and the Count of Monte Cresto right here.
This spot is the view from the picture I posted from our room deck.
The light house "castle" is to the left.

It was built to guard the entrance to the San Juan Bay and defend

the Spanish colonial port of San Juan from seaborne enemies.

Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis cemetery.

Our driver then drove us down the road to Castillo San Cristobal.
We bid our thanks for a great tour.

I guess this is a huge tourist attraction to San Juan.

It is a fortress build by Spain to protect against land based attacks on the city of San Juan.
It covers 27 acres of land.

To say this place was huge and amazing is an understatement.

 Real forts?

The boys were stoked.

We couldn't get passed the lobby!

After coming out of the many tunnels. 

Its like we were on top of the world!

And not going to lie, it was borderline dangerous. 

You know, teenage boys walking to the edge of rock cliffs.

My heart was pumping.

Scratch that, BEATING out of my chest!

Looking out of a cannon barrel hole.

This view took my breath away.

I have never seen anything so amazing.

And on that shore line you can see colorful buildings.

A zoomed in look.

That, right in front of our eyes, is where Justin Bieber himself
shot the music video for Despacito.

Our driver made sure to warn us not to go there.

It is a dangerous hood.

Other side of the cannon hole.

Unbelievable. 

I vowed right then and there to make it to more parts of the world.
To take in its beauty and wonder!
I've always been a wanderlust.
Something about birthing/raising kids and money...

One day I'll roam the earth!

Our cruise ship in the background. 

Walking the cobblestone streets in search for
the restaurant who invented the pina colada!

We found it!
10 pina coladas, stat!
 If you want to know how amazing they were,
Casey to this day still talks about them.

They were unreal.

The best frozen drinks that have ever touched our lips.

 We went back out to the cobblestone streets to walk 20 feet only to find rolled ice cream.
No brainer there.

I'm glad Jesse and Kristen's family likes food just as much as we do!
YOLO!

Such a quaint town.

It was dark and time to head back to the ship.

We missed our dining time, so off to the Windjammer (buffet) for dinner.

Why not have a crepe to top off the rest of our sugar meals that day!

That night the performer was a riot!

He was a singing entertainer with a LOT of energy!
We got groovy dancing to all the hit songs from different genre's and decades.

He would talk and tell funny stories in between.

It was a blast!

We went from one party to the next!

On the Promanade they had a stage with people demonstrating
 line dance moves with music blaring.

My heart was so happy!

Conga line, yes please!

A flying pig welcomed us home.

I was surprised at how much I loved Puerto Rico.

I could go back in a heart beat.

We barely scratched the surface.

Puerto Rico is muy bonito!