Puerto Rico: Day 3 - El Yunque Rainforest

Our big plan for Friday was to visit El Yunque Rain Forest. We were planning on going early, but the kids both slept in pretty well so we just lazed around in bed for a while. The condo is nice, it has two bedrooms - Cam has his own bedroom with two twin beds in it, and Mama, Daddy and Leah share the other bedroom. In the mornings though, we all snuggle together in Mama and Daddy's bed!

After breakfast at the condo, we headed out to El Yunque. We started off at the visitor center, called El Portal. To get into the visitor center, you go over a high bridge that goes through the trees. The bridge is about mid-tree level, so you can see lots of neat plants, flowers, animals, fruit, etc.

Inside the visitor center were lots of kid-friendly exhibits with things to touch, move, spin, lift, look into, etc. Cameron LOVED it and ran from one exhibit to another. He didn't actually care what the exhibit was about, just so long as he could play with something on it! Here he is showing how big he is compared to the lizard.

Cam was interested in touching everything, including this big tree that was on the side of the visitor center.

After spending some time at the visitor center, and having a great lunch of Puerto Rican specialties, we headed into the rainforest. Our first stop was an overlook that had great views out to the ocean. The two buildings you can see in the center of the picture are the condo that we stayed in.

Next stop along the way was at La Coca waterfall. It was right on the side of the road, so it was very easy to get to and look at. Cameron really liked it, although you can't tell from this picture because he was trying to hide his face so Daddy wouldn't take his picture!

Along the side was a pipe that had run off from the waterfall. Of course, Cameron wanted to touch the water...

...and drink it!! Oops... well, hopefully there isn't any bacteria in there that is too harmful. Actually, we saw a bunch of people drinking it, so we figure it is fine!

Along the way we stopped to change Leah's diaper. She was very happy to get out of her car seat and was giving some huge smiles after her diaper was changed.

"No Daddy, don't take my picture!"

"Well, okay, I guess you can."

We decided to try doing a hike with the kids. We picked Big Tree Trail, which leads down to La Mina water fall. We figured we wouldn't make it all the way to the falls, because the trail was around 1 mile each way, but we thought we would go for as long as we could.

Starting out - Cameron walking and Leah in the sling.

The independent hiker takes off down the trail!

Soon he wanted to walk with Daddy though, so they could look for things. There was so much to find along the way - snails, lizards, and lots of trees and plants. We heard tons of the coqui frog, but we never did see one.

Cameron wanted to stop and look at this tree. He called it "the Carrot Tree" because its roots were bright orange and skinny like carrots.

Cam in his little hiding spot under the fallen tree.

Making our way down the trail. It was so gorgeous and lush! It was actually raining a good part of our hike as well, but since we were in such dense trees, not too much of the rain made it down to us!

Leah was a great little hiker, snoozing in the wrap for most of the way!

Cam pointing out a mini water fall. Alas, this was just about the biggest one we saw because we never did make it to La Mina Falls at the end.

A big part of the hike for Cameron was finding things and then touching them. Here he was touching a mossy stone, which he declared to be "soft like Soft Buh" (Buh is his fleecy blanket.)

On top of a big rock being a goofball!

Gorgeous hiking - so different from anything we have done at home!

Along the way there were some steps (70 of them, in fact). Cameron insisted on climbing them himself. This made for a very slow part of the hike. :-P

Mama, Leah and Cam

Cam loved this giant leaf that he found.

I like hiking, especially when I don't have to walk at all!

At the end/beginning of the trail. In total, we probably made it about 3/4 of the way to the falls before Cam got too tired and Leah started fussing. We hiked for about 1 hour, 15 minutes round trip and probably went 1.5 miles. Cam walked for almost all of it, only riding up on Daddy's shoulders on the way back for a few minutes at a time to rest. Leah was really good too, sleeping most of the way or looking around with interest when she was awake.

Our last stop was the Yokahu Tower. We climbed to the top and had a great view all around the rain forest and out to the ocean. On clear days, you can see all the way to the US Virgin Islands. It was not clear enough to see that far when we were there, but it was still a great view.

Rain forest vista

Cam and Daddy on the top of the tower (or "castle" as Cam called it).
Mama and Leah on the tower. Leah was not crazy about the wind and spent most of the time nuzzled into Mama.

Looking down from the top of the tower. There were 96 steps from bottom to top.

Climbing back down. Cam insisted on doing it all by himself, so it was a rather slow descent.

Back in the car, Leah showed off her curious face.

And a big smile!

We had a great day at El Yunque. Cameron was really interested in all of the different things we did and Leah was such a good girl. It was exciting to see how well they did on the hike - we feel like we will be able to do more things like that at home now.

More to come...

Puerto Rico: Days 1 and 2

We wanted to go on a vacation this summer while I am on maternity leave, but since we have been having some trouble getting Leah's passport, we decided to go somewhere that didn't need a passport. We went back and forth between a bunch of places and decided on Puerto Rico. Beaches, great weather and best of all - no passport required!

We left on Wednesday for our trip. Both kids were great on the plane. Leah either slept, ate or looked around. Cam was super good too - he colored, looked out the window, watched a movie and took a nap.

Mama and Leah ready to go. Cam is reading the airplane safety sheet, just in case.

He was counting pictures of airplanes.

Cam and Leah hanging out at the rental car place.

We got to Puerto Rico and drove to the condo that we were staying. The drivers here are crazy, so the ride from the airport to the condo was a little crazy. Couple that with the complete lack of directions (and uselessness of the GPS with PR maps) and it was a fun drive! We are staying in a condo in Luquillo, which is a nice beach town. The condo is in a complex that has two pools and is right on the beach. The view from the porch is AMAZING - ocean as far as the eye can see. Other than that, the condo isn't too exciting. It is a two bedroom, one bathroom place, and is good for our home base for a few days.

On Thursday, we didn't want to do too much, so we just went to the pool and the beach. There is a kiddie pool here, so that is great from Cam. He took his beach toys (purchased from the Walmart in Fajardo!) into the pool and had a blast.

Hiding between buckets

Leah slept for quite a while. I loved the way she had her arm while she was sleeping, she looks so comfortable!

After she woke up, she wanted to look around and check everything out!

Cam and Leah in the pool (well, technically only Cam is in the pool!)

Leah wanted to check out the beach

After lunch and naptime, we headed down to the beach right in front of the condo. The sand was great, a deep orange color and really perfect for digging and building castles. Mama and Leah sat in a chair and looked out at the ocean.

Cam, not surprisingly, dug in the sand for as long as we would let him. He loves the beach!

Daddy went for a swim

Cam being silly

Grabbing some sand to put in his bucket

It is great having the beach and pool right here. We are having such a good time!

Adventure Home

After a lovely fourth of July weekend in Swansea, we set off for home. We were towing our boat on a trailer. Tim and his dad spent a lot of the weekend getting the trailer and boat ready for transport, including doing some testing to make sure that Tim's car could actually pull the trailer. By 11am on Sunday morning, we were ready to leave. The drive normally takes us 5 hours including stops, so we were expecting to be home by late afternoon.


We headed out of Swansea, with one more reminder from Tom to stop in a half hour or so to make sure the trailer was doing okay. We went for about 45 minutes and pulled into a gas station to check it out. It was a good thing we did! It turns out that the shock springs on the trailer had broken and the fenders were riding right on the tires!! This was wearing away at the tires, plus it was wearing a hole in the top of the fender. The wear spot on the top of the fender was so hot that Tim burned his hand.

We pulled the boat around to the back of the gas station and Tim decided to take the fenders off. Unfortunately, we didn't have any tools. Even more unfortunately, neither did the gas station. One of the employees had a few tools in his car, but they were all really crappy and did not get the job down. We had to unhook the trailer and drive to the nearest Home Depot, which was about 20 minutes away. We drove there, Tim bought the tools he needed, and we headed back to the gas station.

At this point we decided that it probably was not a good idea to be bringing the boat and trailer home because another four hours and who knows what could go wrong. So Tim called his dad to get a truck and come up and meet us, to tow the boat and trailer back to Swansea. In the meantime, he used his new tools to easily remove the fenders from the trailer.

We went into the gas station, which luckily had a Subway and Dunkin Donuts, to have some lunch around 2pm. Tim's parents showed up not too long after and they hooked the trailer up to their truck. We all left the gas station around 3pm - Tim's parents towing the trailer back to Swansea, and us just in our car heading home.

We were very close to the Mass Pike so we just jumped on it. Big mistake! From one exit to the next, about four miles, it took us 45 minutes of stop and go traffic. Doh, we forgot about Fourth of July traffic! We exited at the next exit and started driving on a road that parallels the Mass Pike. Mileage-wise it was longer and there were a lot more traffic lights, but the traffic itself was much less.

We thought that we were on our way, but then Cam and Leah decided to put on a show. Leah started crying hysterically because she was hungry, and Cam decided he REALLY had to go to the bathroom. Not two minutes after we got off the Mass Pike, we were stopped at a Wendy's for bathrooms and food. A half hour later, we were on our way.

The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful and we only ended up stopping two more times - once for dinner and once for a diaper change. We got home around 9pm. The whole trip, from start to finish, took us 10 hours... twice what it normally takes!!

Although it was a long day, it did show us what amazing travelers our kids are. Despite the heat (oh yea, the temperatures hovered between 93 - 99 degrees that day!) and extremely long amount of time in the car, they were both amazing. Leah slept or sat happily in her seat (when she wasn't crying because she was hungry) and Cameron played with his toys, read his books and looked out the window. We were so proud of both of them for being so good. They were certainly better behaved than Mama and Daddy, who were frustrated and exasperated with the whole situation!!

So that was our adventure home... hopefully the next car trip won't be nearly as exciting!!

Fourth of July in Swansea

For the Fourth of July weekend, we headed down to Swansea to spend the weekend with the Walkers. The weather was beautiful all weekend, although it was very hot on the actual day of the Fourth. On Saturday, the weather was great so we went down to the Landing to play on the beach and swim in the water. The Borsts all swam in the water. Cam was not so interested in the water (it was "too cold" for him!) but he had a ball playing on the beach. He liked digging, even though it was rocks and dirt and shells, no real sand.


There is a large rock near the dock, and Jack decided to climb up it. Once he was on top, he decided to pose like a model!

Of course, Cam and Ella thought climbing the rock was a great plan, so they climbed up too.

Cousins (minus Leah) on the big rock.

Then they all threw rocks into the water. It made the moms nervous because they were scrambling all over the big rock to get things to throw in the water. We were sure that one of them would go tumbling down!

Cathy came down and joined us at the beach. Cam made her dig in the dirt with him.

They climbed into a boat to do some more posing.

We went back to the Walkers and Jack wanted to hold Leah. She started fussing a bit, and he immediately started bouncing up and down to calm her down. It was hilarious, and worked! Jack bounced and bounced and bounced, and Leah stayed happily on his lap. We were all very impressed with Jack's "baby whisperer" skills!

Cameron Scissorhands

Leah thought her grandpa was pretty funny. She was smiling at him so much!

The next day was the Fourth of July and the annual Horribles Parade. The theme this year was hippies/peace. It was a bit harder to find costumes, but we made some good decorations and everyone looked great. Jeff and I prepare for the walk in the 90 degree weather. We were sweating before we even started walking!

Here is Leah's parade costume. Not hippie at all! Cameron actually wore the shirt she was going to wear - it was way too big for her and a bit small for him. I figured since Cam would be a bit more visible, he would wear it. Leah was wearing such a cute Fourth outfit anyway, I just left her in it. Leah was very good for the parade - she slept through the whole thing!

Cam in his hippie gear. He looked awesome!!!

Our entire group of hippie peaceniks.

Cam rode the entire way in his peace wagon. The decorations were made by Kim, Mama, Cam, Ella and Jack. We colored a bunch of stuff to put on the wagon and stroller.

A full-length view of my little hippie.

Family photo

We watched fireworks that night. There were some across the river in Fall River, as well as a ton up and down the river at other towns and houses. We probably saw 10 fireworks displays all going off at once, it was awesome.

The best fireworks, though, were the ones that were going off to the left and right of us. Neighbors of the house we were at bought their own fireworks, and they were AMAZING! These were not the roman candles or pinwheels that I was used to for at home fireworks - these were full on fireworks show fireworks. They were being shot up on both sides of us. It was very, very cool.

More cool fireworks.

This is how Leah spent the entire fireworks show - sleeping in my arms. She didn't wake up once and didn't flinch at all, despite the very loud noises.

It was a great Fourth of July weekend!! The ride home was not so fun, but that is for another post...