San Juan, Puerto Rico

Our second port of call was San Juan, Puerto Rico.  This island was beautiful and we loved seeing all of the European influences in the architecture.  We walked up the hill to the Castillo de San Cristobal and explored the outside of the fort while we waited for this national historic site to open.

Once we got in we were treated to some spectacular views of the city, cruise ships and some iguanas.

We also checked out the dungeon...not a place I would want to spend much time.

We ran into JB and Mary's family and were able to get this shot of them looking through some of the cannon runs.

We also spotted Jeff and Joe.

We ended walking over the Capitol building with Jeff and Joe.

They explored the Capitol while Phin slept...and while Seth and I enjoyed our first mango ice cream.

We enjoyed our second while watching some of the local pigeons in a square.

We did quite a bit of shopping in Puerto Rico.  We got a neti pot for Scott since he had been sick the whole trip and a bag of rice for JB who was so excited to run into the ocean water at St. Maarten that he had forgotten he had his cell phone in his pocket.  We also found Seth a hat and a drum shaker and some maracas for Phin.  

We were pretty tired at the end of the day from walking around on the cobblestone streets so Phin decided to relax in the bedside table and play with his favorite toy.

St. Maarten

Our first port of call was St. Maarten.  We were excited to get off the ship after two days cooped up on the boat.

We were hoping to rent a scooter or ATV to explore the island...but were told that we couldn't with Phin.  They did recommend we rent a car but that didn't sound nearly as appealing so we decided to head to the beach.  It was a warm and sunny day so we started the day off right with some gelato.

We found Captain Jack Sparrow as we walked along the beach.  You will also see the umbrellas and chairs in the background that the locals rent out to tourists.

We walked along the beach and happened to run into my brother JB and his family.  Then my parents and Bart's family showed up.

Phin fell in the sand and was not very happy about it.  I was struggling to because there wasn't much I could do to help him out.

Seth was wise and decided it might be a good time to take a break from the sand and take a walk to the shopping areas.  We bought a hat for my mom, a little cabana suit for Phin and some sand toys.  Phin fell asleep on the walk back to the beach so his cousins got to test the toys out first.

When he woke up he was delighted to get in on the action.

Then we took him down to the ocean for his first time.

He liked the water...as long as it wasn't touching him.

We ended up walking back through town to the port.

Our cruise ship is the one on the left in the picture...the MSC Divinia.

After a shower we changed Phin into his cabana shirt and he and Seth fell fast asleep.

Phin was obsessed with the phone in our room.

After dinner we decided to head out to explore the ship and get some pictures of Phin in his cute outfit.

Our little cabana boy even got to meet Smurfette.