Seattle to Puerto Rico
With the rain coming down relentlessly (Ang says we are just having a “bad spring”, but if that’s true, then how many years do I have to live here to see a good one?), and our plans for India on hold due to some unreliable babysitters (seriously, what kind of excuse is heart surgery?), my mental health hinges on synthesizing some vitamin D. So after digging around a bit for some travel options, we settled on taking the entire horde to Puerto Rico for two weeks.
Now normally this wouldn’t be on my hot list of destinations, but with two of the boys’ passports in for renewal, our choices are limited to the U.S. So bags in hand, we leave the house at 5 am for the airport.
In the interest of efficiency, I’ve blended this trip together with a work trip to New York and Toronto, so while our route from Seattle to JFK and then onto San Juan isn’t the most direct, it gets me where I need to be on time and at the cheapest price (while it costs almost $500 to fly TO New York, it turns out that for $350 you can fly THROUGH New York, travel 1,500 extra miles, and get two weeks of beach time in the mix – go figure).
Against my better judgment, I’ve also been convinced to use my last 3 American Airlines upgrades to get 3 seats at the front of the plane for the outbound flight. Somewhere along the line it became unacceptable for the Roberts boys to fly coach, so instead of coming home from Toronto in comfort, I’m looking forward to a middle seat back near the bathrooms.
Other than settling the arguments of who gets to sit in the upgraded seats when, the flights are fairly uneventful, although all in, they make for a pretty long day. It is definitely worth it though, as walking out the airplane door feeling the 80 degree weather reaffirms we’re not in Seattle anymore.
As travel destinations go, this one is a breeze. No customs to clear, and a quick cab ride gets us to our hotel. Our first few nights are booked in Old San Juan so that we can explore the original city and the forts that defended it. That will have to wait though, as with the time change, we are checking in close to midnight and headed for bed.