March Break 2015, Day 5: San Juan, Part 1

Lucas had his last hockey practice of the season earlier. Next weekend, he'll have one, possibly two, games depending on how they play in the semifinals. Then it all wraps up with an end-of-the-year party the following week. Unlike last year, I'm going to miss hockey once it's all done. The Novice level is the first level in which they play real games so it was a lot more interesting than going to practices and scrimmages like we did at the IP level. More importantly, thanks to the out of town tournaments as well as the bonding experiences of watching games together, we got to know the other players and parents much better than last year. I'll definitely look forward to seeing some of them next season.

Day 5 of the Disney cruise was a busy photo day since we had a port stop (San Juan) and that night was Pirate Night on the ship. As a result, I'm breaking Day 5 into at least 2, possibly 3, separate posts. This first one will focus on the morning as well as San Juan.

First up, some shots of Marilu and Lucas's morning rides on the AquaDuck. Once again, I can't express how pleased I am with the quality of shots our new Nikon allows. Action and clarity...who'da thunk?

Can't have a cruise without at least one pool photo.

Marilu and Lucas elected to stay on the ship, but I wanted to get off to see the sites, particularly the historic Army forts located in Old San Juan. I'll warn you now that the rest of this post will be primarily "tourist" photos. It can't always be about Lucas. :)

A section of San Juan from the top deck of the ship.

A couple photos of the front of the Disney Fantasy. Always a popular port photo.

Although San Juan isn't quite as glamorous a port of call as places like St Maarten or St Thomas, I was looking forward to it. On the first cruise Marilu and I went on together, back in 2008, we stopped in San Juan and planned to walk up to one of the forts. Unfortunately, we walked along the lower level of the city, which was the wrong way and weren't able to get up to it. It would have taken a good half hour to walk back to it so we blew it off. I saw this cruise as my opportunity to make up for that. Obviously, Marilu didn't.

Of the 2 forts in Old San Juan, I decided to visit Castillo de San Cristobal. For anyone who has been there, it's the one that isn't on the point. Rather, it looks out over the city. I took a LOT of pictures while walking the grounds, but I'll try not to bore you and only post the highlights.

One of the coolest things about the fort was running across this guy sunning himself.

I left to look at some other stuff, but when I came back, he had moved to an even better position for taking photos. It allowed me to see just what the zoom lens on our new camera is capable of.

There was a fantastic view of the ocean from the fort, as  you can see below.

The other major fort in Old San Juan is Castillo San Felipe del Morro. I'd planned to go to it, but it was really hot that day, and I forgot to bring water so I decided to leave it for next visit. However, I was able to get a shot of it in the distance.

I was able to get a couple of fellow tourists to take some photos of me so this isn't a completely Deal-free section of the post.

A couple of nice views from the fort: the first is an open area downtown that had a small marketplace set up, and the other is a shot of the harbor.

After I left San Cristobal, I walked the streets of Old San Juan for a while. I walked down this one street that was a few blocks from the touristy area, and I took a picture since it was so peaceful and quiet.

Finally, I took a picture with a link to our 2008 trip. Remember when I said we walked along the lower section of the city and couldn't find a way to get up? Well, here's a photo from that upper section looking down on the spot we walked 7 years ago.

For the heck of it, here's a blast from the past from July 4, 2008 as we walked that lower path.

Next up: still Day 5 but with pirates!