Disney on Ice

It snowed in Puerto Rico today!!!

We took the kids to Disney on Ice for the second year in a row. Last time we saw it in Ponce. This time we ventured to the Coliseo in San Juan.

Pina Colada vendor walking around. Probably non-alcoholic but do they sell these at the Stateside shows? lol

The 4 o’clock start time came and the skaters began the opening number. If you know anything about island time you know that virtually nothing starts on time. Even the movie theatres say a show starts at 4 but then it has half an hour of previews and starts at 4:30. Not Disney on Ice! I would estimate that at least 1/4 of the audience hadn’t arrived for the start of the show. They trickled in culminating in the people in front of us seating themselves at 4:30.

Arial and a guy coming in late

While my kids watch Disney cartoons on TV, I realized that they have ever seen a Disney movie. Oh wait – my daughter watched Moana once in the airplane. But other than that – none. (Star Wars a New Hope notwithstanding). They know a few characters from a “Five minute Princess Stories” book we have. They enjoyed the show nonetheless.

Trevor needs to teach this move on iCoachSkating.com haha

When Disney on Ice travels outside the States they change the sound track to the local language. PR loves Spanglish so the songs were in English but all the recorded dialogue was in Spanish. The actors tried to lip sync with the words but sometimes they just moved their lips a little and used lots of expression.

Most Puerto Ricans have never ice skated and are pretty impressed with simple skating moves. Trevor was the sole clapper for the double axels and triple toes that we saw. 🙂

Being as the skating world is small, Trevor actually knew one of the skaters. She played Elsa and her name is Anna (don’t get confused here!).

Trevor knew Anna playing Elsa

 

Security was extra tight so we couldn’t go backstage but she and her friend Rachel came to us.

I asked if the show had a contingency plan for if the power went out. (I was serious). She laughed and said no. They’d just stop skating. Fair enough. After this tour she is slated to do Disney shows in Europe. Yay! More lip syncing in foreign languages!

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La ultima dia de escuela – mama y dada

The school year went a bit late this spring to make up for the 27 days lost to hurricanes last fall. Thursday was the last school day, so Trevor and I decided to have a mini adventure without the kiddos before we would be in close quarters ALL summer long.We donned our full face snorkel masks and swam around Steps Beach in Rincon! (highly recommend the full face masks-much more relaxing to use and easier to see stuff.)

I didn’t know the [incorrect] date was on the photo. How old school.

This is the 2nd time we’ve snorkeled here (and anywhere on the island). The coral is protected and it’s a popular place to dive. I don’t know why everything is so brown and not colorful. I’m sure Cassie knows. But it’s a whole different world to explore!

But we saw many many species of fish! Blue ones! Stripey! The Elkhorn formations too (which I called Moose when I was there – close enough) and the biggest Brain coral ever. haha

Elk. Moose.

What a big brain you have

There were plenty of other people enjoying the area too, so we didn’t feel isolated. Which actually I liked.

The waves ebbed and flowed and it was fun to watch this school of fish literally just go with the flow.

Usually he sinks in water

We swam for about 45 minutes then called it quits. I’m grateful that we can do something so cool while the kids are in school. We didn’t tell them we went haha

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Festival de la Piña

My daughter and I went to the Piña Festival in La Parguera, Lajas today. That’s in the Southwest part of the island where the climate is very dry. The boys in the family didn’t have much interest in going so the chicas went sola.

An easy 40 minute drive from home, we snagged a parking spot in a dirt parking lot. We started sweating immediately!

I was hoping this was a little better than the coffee festival in Maricao. It was smaller, but there were many more piña-themed items here than there were coffee-themed items at the coffee festival. So that made me happy. Not as many craft vendors but oh well. My 6 year old wasn’t in the mood to shop much. But I did manage to buy a pineapple soap.

At 11am there was already make-your-ears-bleed super loud music playing in the middle of the festival area. Am I the only one who thinks music that loud is unnecessary? I had to carry my girl in my arms while she covered her ears and we rushed past. Oh well.

This poor guy/gal was in a piña costume. It was like 90 degrees outside, and as someone whose worn those costumes a few times, I know that person was DYING inside!

We walked to where the guaguas (buses and trolleys) were taking people to a nearby pineapple farm. Since we pretty much did everything at the festival in like 20 minutes, we decided to go to the farm. We waited about 20 minutes for the 15 minute air conditioned ride to the finca (farm).

Dude behind us is smiling too

Then we waited a short time for a tractor ride through the farm. I thought it would be like the pumpkin rides I’d been to. We get off and walk around looking at the piñas then hop back on and ride back. Nope. It was an 8 minute ride in a circle and the driver pointed out the seca piña plants (they were too dry to grow). But we were in a covered wagon and couldn’t see much. Oh well.

Tiny pineapple on the dry plant

We got a piña colada in a real pineapple. (The girl gave me a funny look when I asked if it had alcohol. No it didn’t. I forgot that you actually have to specifically request Rum in your piña coladas here. It’s ok I was sharing with my kiddo)

We took the bus back then walked to the car. Super hot. But I’m glad we went.

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Papel de inodoro

Toilet paper.

Papel sanitario.

TP.

It goes in the toilet when you’re done. Right?

Not always…read the signs!

(Ok two of those aren’t about toilet paper – one says don’t put your feet on the wall and the other says Imagine if doctors were good football players or movie actos, it wouldn’t be important how much you pay or wait to see them. It was in the doctors waiting room)

I asked my friend why this was such a common request in public bathrooms.

She said it was probably because people use way to much paper and it clogs the pipes. Maybe the pipes are old and maybe the fact that water pressure is not always consistent has an impact. Dunno.

What I do know is that I forgot. Every time. They seriously need to put those signs like two inches from the toilet paper roll or on the floor by my feet. Lifetime habits are hard to break!

My daughter on the other hand has embraced this completely and I have to gently remind her that a home we CAN and SHOULD put the TP in the toilet. Otherwise it smells so bad!

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Email notifications!! And pigs

Hey readers! (All two of you haha)

I finally got my butt in gear and added an email notification to my side bar. You can submit your email address and the little people inside WordPress send you a note when I write a blog. And you won’t get spam because, well, you won’t. I can’t think of one good reason why I’d send out spam.

Here’s a totally unrelated photo for your viewing pleasure:

I saw these pigs four days apart on my drives to school. No one seems to know what species they are or why they are wandering around. 4 years driving this route and I’ve never seen one before. And then 2 in 4 days!

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Rusty sewer pipe – let’s go

Puente de la Bellaca was something I randomly read about and decided we needed to hit next tome we drove ‘up north’ by Quebradillas. Today was the day!

Only making one u-turn then asking a guy in his front lawn where to go (those Spanish lessons pay off!) he told us to drive on the short questionable-looking road. There was a space to park and a path thru the woods. Naturally, I was nominated to walk first to break the spider webs.

Thankfully only a 5 minute hike or certain family members would’ve complained, we reached the bridge! It seemed sturdy enough after the hurricane. Let’s test it by walking on it with our kids!

It’s not that long and you can see some cool caves in the hillside and the ocean. It didn’t even sway in the wind. Haha. But… it smell like sewer.

We were too hot, tired and hangry from partying the night before we didn’t hit the pirate lair on the nearby beach but we’ll add it to the next day trip north.

Turns out my friends Cassie and Britton visited this place too! Read about it and get more history here

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Golfing Puerto Rico style

We’ve really been missing our family tradition of going skating on Sunday mornings. In November we drove to Aguadilla to see the rink, but there wasn’t any apparent damage. Someone nearby said it might open in March, which made us quite sad. So here we are in May and it’s still closed. Obviously it’s not a priority for the city to repair it. Maybe there was extensive mold or something inside…

Instead we decided to give golf a go last Sunday morning. Trevor had already been to the range a few times and knew just where to go. I had forgotten the dress code was called for collared shirts but at least Trevor was dressed properly. No one said anything to us.

The Cabo Rojo Deportivo opens at 7am. We thought we should’ve gotten there earlier due to the fact the driving range was in the blazing sun, but it wasn’t too excruciatingly hot yet at 9:30 when we arrived. And it wasn’t too busy. This Ball has the Conquistador logo on it. You seriously can’t get any farther from Cabo Rojo on the island than the town of Fajardo (where the Conquistador resort is). How’d the golf ball get way over here? HahaThere were several ant hills. This one was peculiar because it was more like an ant ball. I stepped in one right away and got bit by several ants within seconds. The ants show no mercy here. Note to self – wear socks next time.

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Classic car show

Blackouts are distant memories when there are fun things to do around town. This morning we went to a Classic and Antique car show in San German, a 20 minute drive south of us.

The show started at 8am, so factoring in Island time we decided to go around 10:30. Perfect!

Air temp was 85, felt like 90 with the humidity. The kids were only mildly entertained and decided whining was a good way to pass the time

We were able to walk the whole display in about 40 minutes. Trevor and I picked out cars we’d like to gift each other for Mother’s and Father’s Day haha

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Too soon for another apagón

Having the power come and go randomly in Puerto Rico has become standard. Yesterday at the gym when the power went out nobody batted an eye. Little did we know it was an islandwide apagón. Blackout.

At first it felt annoying but when a friend of mine posted a meme I wondered how bad the public sentiment was going to get. How long was it going to last? How dire were people going to act? We have enough food supplies in the house, and are 45% full on our generator tank. I decided not to turn on the generator until night time.

Reports said that the power would come back between 24 and 36 hours. That’s enough time to worry people. I decided to get gas for my gas tank on the way to school. I wouldn’t have enough gas in my car to go up and down the mountain 2x to school the next day. but as I passed the gas station I counted 50 cars – I’m not exaggerating – lined up to get gas. Some of them might’ve been just trying to proceed down the road. It was only two lanes. People were sitting on their hoods because the line was not moving. At least they were polite.

I had planned to take my kids north to Happyland in Añasco but with the gas situation we had to cancel. My Plan B was to go to Krispy Kreme for donuts but again after calculating my gas I didn’t want to waste that much. I suppose that’s why so many people were in line at the gas station. It really really sucks to have to ration the gas you have available in your car knowing that it is a precious commodity.

My very nice neighbor offered to take my kids to school the next morning. We went over to her house after school and tried to assess if we could fit three car seats in the back of her car. The conclusion was no.

My friend texted me on WhatsApp (did you know that functions much better than texting during a power outage?) that her husband found gas at 8:45 PM without any lines. So at about 9:20 PM I went out too. I want to first gas station I saw that had no line (which thankfully was the closest to us) and they only had premium gas left because regular was all sold out. Sold.

Power came back on in Mayaguez in the middle of the night. It went out for a bit again in the morning but I’m crossing my fingers that business is back to usual.

Blackouts create chaos. Most people hunker down, but I avoided the major Hwy 2 road at all costs. Imagine a major thoroughfare in your city. A six lane street with stop lights every 1000 feet. All those lights were dark and the road because a free for all circus.

This is too soon after Maria. As my friend said, it’s still too raw. People were quick to panic giving a clear message to the government and power company, “We don’t trust you.”

This next hurricane season might be tough.

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St Maarten aviones

Since we are an airplane lovin family, when we found out our cruise ship would dock at St Maarten it really wasn’t a question as to what we’d do there

Go to the beach where everyone gets sand blasted by jets!

Of course we’d be reasonable and stand off to the side when the jets take off.

Rishi was the best cab driver ever! $20 for the four of us to get to Maho beach and $20 back to the port. Better than $8 / person we were expecting. We saw SO MANY broken and sunk boats (and even an upside down airplane) carnage from post-Irma. As Richi said, we in PR felt bad for them when Irma hit and then they felt bad for us after Maria.

He drove us to the smaller but much cooler restaurant Driftwood, on the eastern part of the beach, rather than the busier side most people go. He stayed there until we were ready to go. I can’t tell you how much peace of mind I had knowing we didn’t worry about being stranded. He even let us change the kids’ clothes in his van because there were no bathrooms.

We looked at the airport schedule ahead of time so knew when to look to the skies. So cool!

There are no more 747s coming in but Delta’s inbound from ATL was big enough for us! And when it left it sure did blast us with sand even though we thought we were off to the side. I brought a fair bit of St Maarten sand home in my hair.

The waves were huge so we didn’t swim much. We had a great time. I think the guys at the beach also had fun lookin at the topless lady suntanning.

If you’re looking for the classic relaxing Caribbean beach to decompress and forget about your woes, this ain’t it. Everybody on that beach is there to see the planes and take their selfies. The delicious mojitos at Driftwood restaurant are icing on the cake.

There weren’t any restrooms available and the waves were a bit rough so when we went in we held tightly to our kids. Many adults were getting knocked around.

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