Okay, now for some details. We arrived on this gorgeous island about 2:30 p.m. local time on Wednesday. It took us about an hour to get out of the airport, onto the shuttle, to the Thrifty rental place and finally get our black Jeep Wrangler and be on the road (it's so pretty!) Jeff had already downloaded the coordinates to the Westin Rio Mar in our TomTom, so we just punched it in and were off. We accidentally missed a turn, though, and ended up on a toll road. This would have been fine, but we pulled up to the express lane where you have to have exact change, which we didn't. The lady took Jeff's dollar and casually meandered over to make change. By the time she was back there were about a dozen ticked-off Puerto Ricans blaring their horns at us to move on. It was funny, because if that had happened in America Jeff would have been the one laying on the horn! But all we could do was laugh and drive on.

We arrived at our resort about 4:30 p.m. and our breath was taken away. The hotel we are staying at is located on a couple hundred acres of beach/jungle/mountain territory. There is a mile of private beach nestled back in a little cove. It is simply stunning. Our room is on the back side of the hotel, so we have this view.

Since I have been spending so much time reading Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers lately, I can't help but be reminded of Mt. Sinai and how the Isrealites saw God descend upon it in a pillar of cloud.

Not only is our view gorgeous, but we are right next to the rain forest, so the sounds of birds and all kinds of other creatures fill our room at night. It is amazing.

We were so tired on Wednesday night that we walked around a little bit, had supper, and were literally in bed by 8:30. Unfortunately we had some bizarre ghost in the walls of our room that would rattle the closet door every time someone opened and shut a door in the hall. So Thursday morning we kindly requested a room change and they were gracious enough to accommodate us.

We spent Thursday moving back and forth between the beach and one of the two pools. This was our view late in the afternoon. This pool actually has cushions for the chairs, so we were happy to get to lounge here for a couple of hours.

We had dinner at the main hotel resteraunt Thursday night, and when we got back to the room I called my mom-in-law to check on the kids. That's when I found out that due to a violent day of throwing up since about 9:00 a.m., my Bailey had been taken to the doctor and was now at the emergency room getting rehydrated and given anti-nausea medicine intraveneously. This doesn't sit well with a mommy thousands of miles away and unable to do anything. I'm so thankful for mine and Jeff's parents being able to take complete care of our children in our absence. It is worth its weight in gold to know that even though I'm not there, my baby is in good hands. But I can't wait to see her nonetheless.

Yesterday we decided to hop in the jeep and do a little sightseeing. We drove down to Old San Juan, which is where our ship will be docked today. There is an old, and I do mean old, fort located right at the tip of the cliffs, and we spent an hour or so touring it. The original structure is from the late 1500's, but has been updated over the centuries. The last battle the fort saw was in 1898 during the Spanish-American war. One of the rooms even had cannon fragments in the wall from an American battleship.

The scariest part were all of the tiny little staircases and alcoves where the soldiers would shield themselves from outside attack. This little tunnel was a place where a soldier with a musket would stand at the end and fire out on the sea. For a quasi-claustrophobic like me, I had to do a whole lot of convincing myself to walk down to the end and look out. If the wind hadn't of been blowing so hard, I don't know if I would have been able to do it. But the view was worth a look, even if it was quick!

We ate lunch at Popeye's chicken (don't ask) and stopped by Belz Factory Outlet mall on the way back so Jeff could get another swimsuit. The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging on the beach and by the pool again. We ate dinner at a resteraunt in the hotel called Palio's, wonderful Italian food. But every time we have eaten we have had visions of the food that is to come beginning tonight!

So I need to wrap this up, because Jeff is busy in the room packing up our stuff to head over to the port. We will board our ship around lunchtime, but we won't actually leave port until about 11:00 tonight. We are only going to St. Thomas tomorrow, which is less than 50 miles from here. We are going to be poking through the water tonight!

I don't know if I'll be able to have access to wireless via my laptop on the boat or not, so I may not get to blog about the cruise until after we get back. If not, I hope you enjoy your week. I know I will! :)