Puerto Rico - December 26th through January 2nd

The day after Christmas Granny, Grandma, Uncle George, Grandpa, Wind, Violet and I all got on a plane to Puerto Rico (vis PHX and CLT). Our plane left PDX around 8pm, which worked out pretty good because it was Violet's bedtime. She went to sleep pretty quickly on the plane, but HAD TO sleep on my lap. For some reason she refused to sleep on Wind. This foiled my plans of sleeping peacefully while Wind held her all night. :)
We had two layovers, which woke her up, of course, but it wasn't too bad because she pretty much went right back to sleep. It was uncomfortable and long but we made it safe and sound.
As soon as we all got there we went to the car rental place where we found out that we could not all fit with our luggage in the SUV we had rented. After my Dad and I pulled some shenanigans we got a mini van that we all fit in. We went on our way to Fajardo.
We checked into out hotel the Passion Fruit B&B. It was beautiful. Wind, Violet and I had own own room that was right next to Granny, George, Grandma, and Grandpa. It was 80 degrees and quite lovely. That night we drank rum on our porch while Violet slept. She woke up at 11pm and decided it was time to party and Wind and I had to stay up until 1 or so, but then she went to sleep and slept pretty well.
The next day we went had a DELICIOUS breakfast at the hotel and then went to the rain forest. And it was a RAIN forest! We had to stop driving several times because we couldn't see anything.
We decided to go hiking to a tower that was supposed to have a nice view. We put on our rain jackets and I put Violet in the Ergo and we went off on our way. We walked for a couple miles and it started raining CRAZY hard. We tried to wait it out, but it never stopped... so we decided to go back. In 5 or 6 places there was a RIVER flowing across the trail we had come up! We locked arms and waded trough the rivers flowing across. Violet didn't care at all that we were soaked she just wanted to keep moving!
We went back to our room and rested. Then that evening we went on tours of the bio-luminescent bay. The grandparents went on the 6pm tour and Wind and I went on the 8pm tour. V wasn't able to go, so she just hung out at the room with whoever wasn't on the tour. The bio bay was AMAZING! Plus it was super fun to go kayaking!
The next day we drive around much of the island, ate at a cliffside restaurant, went to a lighthouse, and drove up a 1 lane jungle road to our next destination, the Casa Grande Mountain Retreat. It used to be a coffee plantation and was up in some amazing crazy mountains in the middle of Puerto Rico.
We had a cat who hung out at and IN our room all the time which Violet was a BIG fan of. She also really liked the restaurant at the hotel which was outdoors. She made everyone we were with walk her around the deck hundreds of times.
The next day we planned on driving to a cave, but I found out, after driving for a couple of hours, that I had left the diaper bag, with my wallet in it, at the hotel. So, we had to drive back and get it. I felt horrible, but everyone was super nice about it.
The rest of the time we spent in San Juan which was great. We went to the beach, ate lots of good food (annd some not-so-good), saw old Spanish forts, and walked all over town. V was an amazing traveler. She slept in the car, in the stroller, and in the room. She was fun and not very fussy at all.
It was a great trip, but it wouldn't have been the same without our amazing families. I had a lot of fun and I know Violet did too.
Here is a slide show of pics from our trip... enjoy...
Please view it full screen to see the images nice and big. :)