Part 1: Traveling from Chicago, Illinois, United States to San Juan, Puerto Rico

Friday, 18 February 2011

Today was the start of our 10 day sailing trip in the British Virgin Islands aboard Breanker. Tiff worked a half day today, but I took the day off to stay home and finish getting us ready. Our taxi arrived a little after noon, and we filled up a couple of our traditional Meijer fountain pop cups with beer for the ride to O'Hare. The airport was kind of busy, and our flight was delayed from 3:20pm to 4:15pm, so we had a wake up shot to get the vacation started.

We finally boarded the plane, only to sit at the gate another 30 minutes before taking off. The first leg of our trip was on an American Airlines Boeing 757 to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Our flight attendant was exceptionally nice, (she must have known who we were) - she went ahead and snuck us a bag of warm peanuts from first class (its not easy being celebrities - even flying in coach wasn't a good enough disguise :-). After about four hours of flying, we approached Puerto Rico, and flew directly over downtown San Juan, the cruise ship port, and the neon lights of the Condado area, where we'd stayed two years earlier, at the start of our Eastern Caribbean cruise.

We arrived at San Juan's Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU) at about 10:30pm, grabbed our bags, and headed outside. It was about 75 degrees and it felt great!

Feeling the warm, humid air for the first time is one of our favorite moments of every trip. To us, it is always a sign that we are back where we belong...

We were staying inside the airport at the Best Western San Juan Airport Hotel, so we didn't have far to go to check in. Even though it was late, we were both hungry, so we headed down to B.J.'s Bistro to get a bite and a beer.

B.J.s Bistro specialized in fresh sushi, and it smelled and looked great, but the cook was already taking everything down for the night. I had a Medalla Light Beer, and we ate a chicken ceasar wrap and some barbeque chicken wings - not exactly the Caribbean dinner we were looking forward to, but certainly better than having any dinner back home. We hung out for a while after we finished eating. From there, we went looking for the hot tub. God must have decided not to give us shriveled skin and a hangover for tomorrows flight, because the door to the hot tub was locked. We were tired anyway, so we gave up and went back to our room to crash for the night.

Saturday, 19 February 2011

We awoke this morning around 7:15am, after snoozing since 6:30. We could see the control tower and runway from our window. There were a few beautiful Caribbean storm clouds in the distance. Once in a while we could even see a jet taking off. Our room was basic, but it was very convenient, as it was just a short walk to the American Eagle gate.

After checking out, headed to the gate to prepare for the flight to our next destination, Beef Island, in the British Virgin Islands.