Day 2

Good morning! We are on day 2 of our excursion. We were up before 3:30am this morning. We took the shuttle to the airport from Econolodge. It was uneventful except Marissa is unable to get a hold of Jessie this morning. Go figure, I probably would not answer my phone at this time in the morning either. Not used to flying. The procedure has changed so much over the past few years. We showed up at the Delta bag check to check in. Trying to deal with a person anymore is obsolete. The woman told us to use the kiosh to check in. It took a moment or so to figure out what to enter. Once I found our ticket number on the documents Mari got from the travel agent it went quick. I got it to print all of our tickets. Within seconds of being entered the woman at the baggage check started calling our names to check the baggage. From there we went through the security checkpoint. The only problems that were encountered there was David or I did not take out our laptops from our carryon bags. Therefore, we had to go over to the screening, the security guard pulled the laptops out and resent the bags, and laptops back through. Carolyn, Mari and Marissa are sitting across from David and me in row 14.

Here I am typing day 2 blog as we fly to Atlanta on Delta flight 1554. The flight is an hour-half and should get in about 8:30 am EST. Then we get to sit around for about an hour until we catch our next flight Delta 419 to San Juan, PR which is about a three and half hour flight.

Sounds like we are ahead of schedule and we are starting to make our descent. I have a few minutes left before I have to put up the netbook. Did not get much for in flight snack, you get a soda and cookie or peanuts. I hope we terminal have a coffee shop so I can get drink and breakfast. David let me sit next to the window this flight with the agreement that he can sit next to the window and the flight to San Juan.

As I look at the window, it is a great view. There were not too many clouds to allow one to see the land below. I always enjoy seeing the quilt like patchwork of the different colors of the land and seeing the different textures from the trees, water, and ground. I hope we have enough time with the layover so I can plug my computer in and get the battery recharged. This netbook is nice for trips. It is small enough that it does not take up hardly any room and it is very portable. I hope I can blog throughout the day. Yes, I know I am rambling so I better put it up for now.

We are now on our second flight, flying out of Atlanta to San Juan. There was not much of a layover in Atlanta. The kids are doing well; they got their smoke breaks in the smoking areas at the terminal. I hope they keep up the good behavior throughout the day and trip. We did have to switch from terminal B to A. Got breakfast from Cinnabon. Turned out not to be very good because they were hard and cold and neither was the coffee. The chairs on this flight are hard and not very comfortable. I would prefer the "green" chairs back at the station to these. Looking at the in flight information on the screen on the headrest in front of me we have 2 hours and 25 minute flight. We are over the water flying at 37,015 feet above the water. In the distance, you can see the peninsula of Florida.

We made it to San Juan. Ha, no, sooner than we landed and not even off the plane Marissa was on the phone with her boyfriend. She loudly talked to him as we disembark and halfway through the terminal. She finally got off the phone since we in the lower level of the airport to get or baggage and find a taxi to our hotel. We got to the Sheraton in Old San Juan very quickly. Mari and Carolyn got us registered. As they were registering, the kids took off. Who knows were? We went to our rooms without them. We are on the 6^th floor. Very nice rooms with all the amenities one would accept. Tomorrow we just go across the street to get on the boat. Very nice location. Well we have not had a good meal so it sounds like we are going to go search for somewhere near to eat.

Well, we went down stairs to the restaurant in the hotel, Chicago Burger Co. which they had descent food. After late lunch or early supper, depending on how you want to see it we started walking the along the port across from the hotel. Somehow, I had gotten split up from Mari and the rest of the crew. They said they were going to walk in one direction and I turned around and found that they were not around. So, I headed back to the hotel. As I was waiting for Mari I had seen out our window the Castillo San Cristobal just up the hill from the hotel. About the time I was going to go Mari showed up and said they were going swimming. I did not want to go swimming but go exploring so I went up to the old fort. As you can see from the photos, I took several. Got several photos of me using a small tripod and setting the timer on the camera. Got back to the hotel, meet up with Mari, David, and Carolyn, and went out to check out the nightlife of Ole San Juan. We had seen many vendors pedaling their wares. Found the pier where we will get onto the ship. The ship gets in at 5:00am in the morning then we leave port at 10:00pm. I’ll take a couple of pictures of the boat before embarking. Until tomorrow, day 3, good night.