scuba

In the morning, we packed up our belongings and checked out of Costa del Oro. When we went downstairs to the office, there was no one there to help us check out. Finally, we located the lady of the house out near the pool. Despite the fact that she spoke no English at all, we finally checked out and headed over to the Hyatt Dorado Beach for a wonderful brunch that Doug & Kelly’s families hosted. There was a breakfast bar, pasta bar, made-to-order omelettes and waffles, a carving station, cereal, and wonderful fresh fruit. Mimosas flowed like water.

 

 

The view from the lobby of the Hyatt  

Doug & Kelly arrived at the brunch about an hour late (they’re on Puerto Rico time, after all). It was amusing to watch Doug & Kelly attempt to enter through various sets of (locked) doors before one of the hotel staff finally opened a door and admitted them to their own brunch, to gentle laughter and welcoming applause from the guests.

Wendy & Drew sat with Mel & Rob, Todd from Vegas (hey Todd… did you pick up Guild Wars yet?), and Michael & Lovey (neighbors of Kelly’s family). We had a great conversation with this group of nice people, and Michael gave us much better directions to La Parguera, which worked out beautifully.

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(All of Drew’s pictures from Doug & Kelly’s wedding are here. Check their site for more pictures!)

After a hot day in Old San Juan, Drew & Wendy hustled back to the Costa de Oro to get ready for the wedding. We got to the church on time — as in, about 30 minutes before the wedding was scheduled to begin — and we were the first ones there. Noticing that we were unable to locate the unlocked door, one of the nuns directed us (silently) to the entrance to the church.

Since no one else was there, we had the chance to explore the church a little bit. The first thing that we noticed was that there is an effin BIG JESUS at the front of the church. I’m told that it is the largest (or second largest) sculpture of the risen Christ in the world, and I believe it. The only things missing were a smoke machine and laser beams from his eyes, and “Jesuzilla” would have dominated the earth!

 

 

Jesuzilla. See the people below him? One big Jesus, eh?!  

People started arriving and plans were discussed (all the groomsmen had missed the rehearsal, remember).

The wedding was beautiful. We didn’t get many pictures during the ceremony because Drew was involved with the wedding (and therefore not able to snap photos), and Wendy’s seat didn’t give her a clear view of the proceedings.

 

 

  

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On Saturday morning, Drew & Wendy got up at 8:30am, had a continental breakfast of rolls & coffee at the pool bar, and headed over to the Hyatt to meet Kent & Julie Anne to drive into Old San Juan. They decided not to go, preferring instead to spend the day with Doug. We met up with Rob in the lobby and he checked with Melody (who was swimming) and they agreed to join us. We left the Hyatt around 11:30am and headed toward Old San Juan.

With the exception of the event that will forever be called “Drew’s Toll Booth Crime” (our directions said that we should stay in the LEFT lane, so we did… Directly into the ePass toll booth lane — which offered no option for throwing in the $0.70 to pay the toll, so we broke the law), the trip into Old San Juan was uneventful. Since it was Saturday, the traffic was light (well, by Puerto Rico standards, which means it was insane by USA standards).

Once we found our way to Old San Juan, we parked in a municipal parking structure. Rather than trying to remember the name of it, we snapped a picture:

 

 

  

We parked, got out, and got our first view of Old San Juan. Below is a poor-man’s-panorama of the view of the waterfront.

 

 

  

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We woke up pretty early on Friday morning, feeling refreshed from a decent night’s sleep. The terrible pillows notwithstanding, we were comfortable in our little tiny room at Costa del Oro. We washed up, dressed, and went downstairs to see what their definition of a “continental breakfast” might be. At the poolside bar, we ate muffins and doughnuts washed down with caffe con leche, all while watching the Three Stooges on the nearby television. Then we had a quick dip in the pool. Wendy laid out to sunbathe and read while Drew got ready to go into San Juan with Doug to pick up tuxedos.

 

 

  

Doug was supposed to come get Drew by 10:00, but around 11:45, Doug showed up with his van full of other groomsmen & attendants. It became clear that there was no way Drew was going to be able to wedge himself into the van, so Drew decided that he’d follow in the rental car instead.

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Our trip started out a day earlier than planned. Our flight was scheduled for 7 AM Thursday morning, leaving out of Indianapolis. We had planned to leave home about 3 AM to get there in time for security delays, parking, and all the associated travel things. Wendy’s voice teacher reminded us that there is an hour time change (which would have made us an hour early to the airport; a nuicance rather than a disaster). During our pre-trip grocery shopping, our pharmacist happened to mention…

…which gives you a hotel room near the airport, a shuttle to the airport, and you just leave your car at the hotel for the duration of your trip. It’s available all over the country, so instead of leaving early Thursday morning we packed up and drove to Indy on Wednesday evening so we could sleep in a bit on travel day. We met a little yellow cat at the hotel whom the desk clerk said had been hanging around for a few days. Kitty was hungry and rather boogery and covered with soot. Realizing that in the hurry to pack Wendy had forgotten a few critical items, we checked into the hotel and made a side trip to K-mart, where we bought the necessary items and two little pouches of cat food. We gave our little furry friend some dinner (and had one left over for his breakfast the next morning), had our own dinner at the hotel restaurant (Andrew had a pork tenderloin sandwich that was pressed out flat and fried up to be bigger than his face), and went to bed. 

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We’re back!

We were in Puerto Rico to celebrate the wedding of our friends Doug & Kelly and to have a dive vacation for ourselves.

The pictures are being uploaded to the server as we speak and we will work to caption them and write our articles as soon as possible. If you want to get a jump on viewing the pictures, go here.