[Composed August 1st, 2024]
We started our day back in Old San Juan. Shira dropped Myself, C, D and J off to search out Casa Blanca. Our Fodor's Guidebook claims that Casa Blanca is the "oldest continually occupied residence in the Americas." That was enough to land it as the day's first destination.
Generally, while exploring my role is that of cheerleader and cruise director. I can't be bothered with minor details like navigation and logistics. Thankfully, J stepped up and pulled out his phone, routing us to Casa Blanca. In that moment, he was no longer a kid needing supervising, but a young man leading our group. I couldn't have been more proud of how he rose to the challenge.
Casa Blanca didn't disappoint. J loved the impressive views and history, C loved snapping pics of the stray cats and D loved spotting hummingbirds among the trees.
Up next, we met the girls at Castillo San Felipe del Morro. J routed us to the 485 year old stone fortress, where we picked up T and G. By now the temperature was crazy high, with humidity to match. Still, we pushed on to tour the fort.
After touring the top level, T wasn't feeling well. She and I hung out on the main level exploring the exhibits in the shade while I sent the other 4 kids to explore. I explained to them that this heat had put me in an ice cream mood, and that to keep me in an ice cream mood they would need to come back with the description of at least one cool discovery each.
To their credit, not only did they find interesting parts of the fort, but they documented each of them with pictures or video. Like J's navigation feat from earlier in the day, it was a privilege to see the kids operate as such a cohesive team and was a delightful glimpse into their future as adults.
From Castillo San Felipe del Morro, we met back up with Shira and made our way to Anita Gelato. Apparently, Anita's is a world wide chain, so perhaps it's not the most authentic choice. But their selection was vast and delicious.
When we started the day, the weather forecast called for showers to start mid morning. As we toured the fort, the sun was shining and it seemed that the threat of rain was overblown. In fact, it just arrived late: when we left Anita's, the rain was coming down in buckets. But, we had a plan: it was time for an indoor adventure.
When T learned that we were heading to Puerto Rico she did an impressive amount of research and came up with an extensive list of possible activities. One that Shira and I hadn't considered was Distritot T-Mobile, specifically the Toroverde Urban Park. This arcade / indoor adventure park seemed like the perfect way to ride out the rain that was promised for the rest of the day.
But, before we could embrace our inner x-gamer, we had the minor detail of feeding five starving teens (well, technically four teens and one preteen, but who's counting?). We solved this in perhaps the most functional way possible: essentially pulling off into a parking spot from the main road and shoveling food in the direction of the kids. Shira was on sandwich duty (PB&J, or tuna - your choice!), and I stood back near the trunk pulling items from our supplies. We've practiced this routine for years now, and it's as unremarkable as can be. And yet, as I stood on the side of the road in, I tried to be as present as possible, knowing full well that one day that moments like this will just be a memory. In a blink of an eye, the kids won't be kids any longer, and I'm vividly aware that even these mundane moments are worth treasuring.
Toroverde was just what the kids needed. J and T opted to rock climb. D was immediately down for zip lining and G, while scared, stepped up and opted to zip line as well. The plan was to have Shira take D and G, while I did my favorite amusement park activity: holding bags and snapping pictures.
But there was a glitch: Shira didn't have closed toed shoes on. The logical choice was for me to take D and G zip lining. My immediate reaction was, oh hell no. The park had a work around, and Shira purchased a pair of inexpensive water shoes so that she could take D and G.
As soon as I stepped outside to take pictures of the zip lining crew and saw what they were actually doing, I realized I could have easily taken the kids. The three segments along the zip line course would have totally been doable. My fear of heights, combined with my fear of the unknown had robbed this experience from me.
Later in the evening, over dinner, I explained how I'd let fear get the best of me and how I wasn't pleased by this. I went on to explain that the solution wasn't even to ignore my fear and blindly say yes. The fix was simple: when asked if I wanted to go zip lining the only sane response is: show me the course. There's little I can do about my fear of heights, but vanquishing the fear of the unknown is easy: get informed.
G aced the very test I failed. She was scared to zip line for the first time, but she didn't let it derail her. She went for it and the result was an awesome experience.
With climbing and zipping out of the way, we gave the kids a full card worth of credits and told them to play games to their heart's content.
In the end, the day was more than I could have asked for. We got to see and experience some unique historic sites, and for a couple of hours, the kids got their dream vacation. It was a win-win!
