Una Semana en Puerto Rico

My little man happy to have his mama back home!
What a sweet face to come home to!
City view of San Juan at 5:30 a.m.
View from my room at Hilton Caribe

Another view from room

One of my virtual coworkers from Illinois who I enjoyed hanging out with on the trip.

View of Portuguese Dam during construction

Another view of Portuguese Dam site

It's hard to tell from the photo, but these slopes are very steep.

Larger view of job site

My week in Puerto Rico was definitely a whirlwind, but I'll try to share a few bits and pieces that I haven't already. I left bright and early Monday morning (5:30 a.m.) and headed to the airport for a 7:30 flight from Jackson to Atlanta. We then flew from there to San Juan and I arrived in San Juan around 3:20. We separated into groups to carpool to Mayaguez. Let me just say..the trip from San Juan to Mayaguez was enlightening. First of all, it was raining and secondly...there are more cars on the island than there are people. Traffic is interesting to say the least. It took us three hours or more to make the 120 mile trip to the Mayaguez Resort and Casino and this is just something that those who live there have come to accept. It was 7:30 by the time we arrived and my granola bar from breakfast and the peanuts from the plane had long been gone! By the time we stopped for a bite to eat and checked in the hotel, I was completely wiped. Unfortunately, we were instructed to meet the group in the lobby at 7:30 the next morning, so there was no rest for the weary. Tuesday morning came and we all piled into cars to head to the University. I set up a large display at one of the buildings, set up a video and a couple of briefings in the Civil Engineering Auditorium, and then spent the rest of the day working a second display and information booth. By 6:00, we left campus and headed to the hotel to change clothes and then to dinner at Vista Bahia. On the way to the restaurant, I discovered that the back seat makes me car sick. I guess it's been a while since I've ridden in the back. After this discovery, guess who nabbed the front seat for the rest of the trip? HA! We ate on the patio next to the bay at Vista Bahia. I enjoyed a churrasco (an Argentine cut of steak), but couldn't eat but a few bites and I was full. There were 30-40 tarpon (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_tarpon for a picture) swimming right next to where we were sitting on the patio. They were huge and were just waiting for someone to throw them something to eat. The tarpon were very happy to eat some of my leftover steak. :) I spent Wednesday morning working the information booth again at the Civil Engineering Department and then spent the afternoon over at the Student Placement Center in the Union helping with the interviews. We had to climb five flights of stairs to get to the interview rooms, so I got my exercise that day for sure. Once we finished up at the University and had freshened up at the hotel, a handful of us headed to a local bakery for deli sandwiches and then on to a semi-pro woman's volleyball game. Our host from UPRM, the head of the Civil Engineering Department, is one popular guy in Puerto Rico and happens to co-own the team. We were treated like royalty and were given reserved seats and a reserved parking place. Volleyball is a huge sport in Puerto Rico and the girls on the team are some of the best collegiate athletes across the country. I've never really been interested in volleyball, but let me just say...those girls are tough! One girl was 6' 4"...I couldn't get over how tall she was. Thursday morning was really hectic as I tried to pack everything up from the booths and have it shipped back. I also accompanied our Commander over to the ROTC building and set up a presentation for him. We checked out of the hotel around noon and piled into cars once again to head to the Portuguese Dam in Ponce. It took several hours to get to the dam and quite a few times turning around, but we finally made it. As I said before, this is one of our (the Corps of Engineers) projects in Puerto Rico and is scheduled to be completed in 2013. We left the dam and drove to San Juan where we checked into the Hilton Caribe. We went to dinner at Yerba Buena (translation "Good Grass") and enjoyed a wonderful dinner. I had chicken with an amaretto and mango salsa with a side of traditional Puerto Rican rice and black beans. I also tried a mojito, which was really refreshing with the fresh mint. After dinner, we walked a block down the street and had some gelato (Italian ice cream). I ordered the praline gelato, which was the perfect ending to the week. Our hotel was fabulous and I wish we had stayed there the entire week rather than just one night. In fact, my pictures don't even do it justice since I had to snap them at 5:30 a.m. and it was still hazy. The room was very updated and had a pillowtop bed with sateen sheets. After a long week of hustle and bustle, I melted when I crawled into the bed that night. I got up before daylight on Friday, scarfed down some pastries and fresh pineapple from the continental breakfast, and we took a shuttle to the airport. I woke up in 84 degree temps with sunshine in San Juan, flew into a sunny 53 degrees in Atlanta, and ended up in Jackson at 3:30 p.m. with cold and rainy weather. Despite the rain, I was so happy to see my babies and my hubby! Absence definitely makes the heart grow fonder..even if your baby welcomes you back home by projectile vomiting all over you! :) Here are a few pics that I haven't already shared. I don't have a lot of photos that are not work related, so I am just posting a few. Hope everyone has a great week. I am so glad that tomorrow is a holiday so that I can have an extra day to recover.