puerto rico: part three

Ha! I just discovered this post. It's been sitting in a draft folder since February. I can't believe I never posted it. All I had to do was finish writing a few things and it would have been ready to share. I have been such a lazy blogger this first half of 2014. I don't have any excuses except that I let self-doubt get in my way. Sometimes I feel like I don't have anything worth sharing, that no one reads my blog, and that it doesn't inspire the few people who do. And that's just silliness because when I write it makes me happy and that's kind of the point of this blog. It doesn't matter how many people read it as long as I'm happy writing. Although I do realize that I need to step up my game and get busy creating my happy. This is a great reminder that there's a lot I still want to accomplish before another year comes and goes, and I can do it all if I just stART doing it. Really, that's all there is to it. Just get busy creating- do a lot of work, especially the work that makes me happy.

And, finally, here are the last photos from our 5-year anniversary trip to Puerto Rico.

At our rainforest hotel, El Hotelito.

This was the driveway up to the hotel and, of course, we got stuck in the mud on our first day.

Luckily, the hotel owners came to our rescue and we made it safely up to the hill. However, there were several other times during our stay when we got stuck in the mud or stranded at the bottom of the hill. Needless to say, I hated that muddy road.

But we eventually conquered it on foot!

The view from our room overlooking the rainforest and you could see all the way out to the sea.

A new friend in our room.

Another view from the hotel patio looking out to the sea.

We visited the El Yunque rainforest and hiked to a waterfall.

A couple of sun-kissed sweeties celebrating 5 years together.

And then we said good-bye to the island and headed back home to Chicago. It was good to come back home but we were not excited about the cold. In fact, we're still not excited about the cold. This winter is never-ending and I'm so over it.*

*Eventually winter came to an end because it's now summer and there's no place like Chicago in the summer time.

puerto rico: part two

The play opened on Thursday night to a sold out house and our first review is in. Breathing a sigh of relief! What a great experience I've already had and it's only the first weekend of a 5-week run. I'm so proud to be a part of such a talented group of actors. Now I can catch up on creating other things that make me happy like sharing the rest of our Puerto Rico trip.

We left Old San Juan on January 2 and drove about 2 1/2 hours to Cabo Rojo which is on the southwest side of Puerto Rico. This side of PR turned out to be our favorite part of the island- the beaches were beautiful and it had a relaxed, yet fun and local vibe. We rented an apartment through AirBnb and spent the next few days celebrating year five, lounging at the beach, reading, sampling the local cuisine and drinking the local drinks.

year five dinner @ pineiro's

combate beach

playa sucia

overlooking play sucia from the lighthouse

mofongo & medalla's @ annie's place

the view from annie's place

fish nuggets, rum punch, and medalla's @ annie's place

playa sucia

playa sucia

sunset @ combate beach

What I wouldn't give right now to be at the beach reading a book and sipping on a pina colada! Is winter over yet?

puerto rico: part one

I'm really excited to share with you the first part of our Puerto Rico trip. Looking through all of our photos I can almost feel the warmth of the sun on my skin and the cool, salt air blowing through my hair. I might have to make a Pina Colada later just to make myself feel like I'm back on the island. And I do wish I was back on the island today…it's 19 degrees and snowing in Chicago. Ugh!

We arrived in Puerto Rico on New Year's Eve and stayed in Old San Juan for two nights. We had ambitious plans to party it up on New Year's but ended up just going out to dinner at a Jamiacian restaurant, roaming the streets and people watching, then heading back to our hotel to watch a movie. The long day of traveling had it's toll on us and we didn't want to start the New Year, or our vacation, completely exhausted. We were in bed before midnight and only woke up because of the gun shots and fireworks…just long enough for a quick New Year's Eve kiss!

We stayed at Villa Herencia, a cute yet slightly over-priced bed & breakfast, in the heart of Old San Juan. The location was perfect (and they served some great local coffee that we are now hooked on) so I guess that's what we ended up paying for. It had a rustic feel to it as you can tell from this picture of the courtyard.

The room was small but it was clean and air conditioned. It lacked a level of privacy that I'm used to since the door had shutters that didn't close completely, there were no curtains on the shutters and it opened right into the courtyard. Anyone could have peered in if they came right up to the door. Needless to say, I always made sure to change in the bathroom. Luckily, there were no looky-lou's and everyone was respectful of the noise level. You could hear almost everything. But that's part of traveling - the adventure of being outside your comfort zone.

There was a rooftop patio that had working showers and tubs that we assumed were for rinsing off after sun bathing. We never used them but this just added to the charm of the place. The rooftop was a peaceful place to read and drink coffee in the morning. It also had a great view of the Old San Juan Cathedral.

The local gato's liked to hang out on the rooftop as well. San Juan has a major homeless and abandoned cat problem so we saw a lot of cats roaming the streets. There's an organization called Save A Gato that works with the National Park Service to try and find homes for these cats so most of them looked well-fed and they were always lazily lounging in the sun and seemed to be enjoying life but it was still sad to see.

We roamed the streets of Old San Juan and I took picture after picture- I loved the old world charm of the cobbled streets and the bright colored buildings.

We walked the perimeter of the El Morro Fort where we saw, you guessed it, more gatos but also some huge iguanas just hanging out on the side of the cliff.

Then, we double-backed and walked to the other side of Old San Juan to check out the view from the San Cristobal Fort.

We finally made our way to the top of El Morro and the view was amazing! There were families flying kites and having picnics. It seemed like everyone was out having a good time.

After all that walking it was definitely time for a drink. We quenched our thirst with some mojitos and the local cerveza before heading out to dinner at a tapas restaurant called Rosa de Triana. Great name, right? The food was pretty good and they served us the biggest pitcher of sangria we've ever had and it was delish! It was the perfect first day of the New Year.

{all images via create.your.happy}

and we're back!

playa sucia, cabo rojo, pr

What an adventure we had in Puerto Rico. I'm so grateful to have celebrated year 5 with this guy in such a beautiful place.

I'm savoring these last few hours of vacation so I'm keeping this post short and sharing just one picture. I'll be posting more photos later this week but narrowing down 1000+ photos is a bit of a daunting task. Of course, I realized, while quickly looking for just one photo to share, that I took too many photos of some things and not enough of others…like cute photos of Ebert and I. You can never have too many of those kinds of photos. Oh well…we are have our memories which are sometimes better not shared but kept in the secret place of our hearts.

happy new year!

via thelastmermaid

It's the last few hours of 2013. Ebert and I are on a plane to Puerto Rico to celebrate our 5-year anniversary. I'm sure there will be lots of reflecting on this trip, not only of this past year but of the past 5 years. I know it's a bit of a cliche to say but seriously where has the time gone?

I'm really looking forward to a new year with new opportunities for creating my happy and doing all things with love. 2014 I'm expecting lots of awesomeness from you!

Happy New Year, friends! May this new year be filled with love and happiness for each one of you.

puerto rico

via caborojopr

This is why I'm excited about the end of the year…in less than four weeks Ebert and I are headed to Puerto Rico to celebrate our 5-year anniversary. I can't believe it's going to be five years since we said "I do". Where has the time gone? Anyway, it's going to be an amazing trip! We're looking forward to escaping the cold, wintery streets of Chicago in exchange for the warm, sandy beaches of the Caribbean. We leave on New Year's Eve so we'll be ringing in the New Year in Old San Juan. After a couple days in the city we'll head to the west coast, then drive to the east coast and make our way back to Old San Juan before heading home. It will be an epic journey around the island of Puerto Rico.

this year's ornament

This year's ornament has arrived! Year five's ornament…can you believe it?

I started this year's search having already put a lot of pressure on myself to find just the perfect ornament. Sure, I wanted something "just a little bit fancier" but I had no idea what that was. All I knew was that I wanted something special because celebrating five years of marriage is something special. Luckily, I came across Timber Green Woods on my first etsy search. I knew this was the ornament as soon as I saw it and it was a good thing Ebert did too! It wasn't as fancy as I thought I had originally wanted but it ended up capturing everything that I was looking for- something special and heartfelt. And the best part is that it comes from Wisconsin where Mike's family roots are. Perfect, right?

Now, I'm not one to get overly excited about Christmas and I don't hang decorations throughout our apartment but this year there will be a tree in our window with white lights and all five of our ornaments will be hanging on our tree for all to see. It will be merry and bright!

anniversary date

I've been wanting to share a few pics from our anniversary date. We kept it simple for year four and just went out for an amazing dinner at Las Tablas. We live around the corner from this restaurant and couldn't believe that was our first time there. We had the most delicious meal and it's BYOB Monday thru Thursday! We'll definitely be dining there again especially during the summer when we can sit outside and drink mojitos!

How I'm longing to be here again where we celebrated our first anniversary in the warmth and sunshine, near the beach watching the sunset.