Puerto Rico - Part 1 - Temple, Old San Juan, Cat Park

We didn't do a family trip during the February break and our spring break was available (no girls camp), so Amber threw together a last-minute trip to Puerto Rico.

We flew out on Saturday evening, ate dinner at our layover in Orlando, and arrived in San Juan after 1 am. Apparently this is normal in San Juan, because the rental car desk was open. We picked up our Hyundai Palisade and drove to a nearby Airbnb, where we crashed at about 3 am.

We had hoped to go to church the next morning, but we were all too tired to make it to the only ward at 9am. In a neat coincidence, however, we found out that we were literally right next to the San Juan temple and could see it from our window. We went over to check it out once everybody was up. Unfortunately, it was closed, so we couldn't go on the grounds.

We made our way from there back towards Old San Juan, with a stop at a Wal-Mart to get some supplies. I parked the giant SUV in a tight, multi-level parking garage and we had fun seeing all the different products. We bought lunch at the deli.

We got caught in a bit of a traffic jam trying to get into old town, which is apparently a hot spot on the weekends. We eventually parked in another tight parking garage and started a walking tour around the outside of the peninsula along the Princess Pathway and El Morro Pathway.

The fortifications were very impressive, and there are some cool buildings to see along the way, like La Fortaleza, the governor's mansion.

At the tip of the peninsula, beneath Castillo del Morro, we watched the waves crash against the rocks.

We continued around the castle until we found a path that led us back through the walls.

We didn't want to pay an entry fee because we were planning on coming back later, so we explored the large grassy area in the middle of the peninsula and enjoyed the beautiful cemetery on the northern shore.

We walked along the walls, and waited in line behind the instagram girls to take pictures in the distinctive garitas.

We got some ice cream from a street vendor, then stopped off at Parque de Los Gatos, a park full of stray cats.

When the kids finished playing with the cats, we walked back to the parking garage and drove to our second Airbnb, closer to downtown. We had some trouble getting in, but eventually figured it out. Amber and I walked to a nearby Mexican restaurant to pick up some dinner for everyone.