I'm off to a busy 2007.

My parents had been talking about coming to visit DC and since they were planning on driving I did a quick check for last minute vacation packages and found them r/t air (direct flights) and 3 nights at the Washington Marriott for $601.22. Cheaper than the air or hotel alone. I had to abandon most of my plans for the weekend, but that is fine because I like spending time with my parents.

After their arrival on Saturday I took my parents out to the Eden Center and I bought my dad a fancy new unlocked quad band cell phone so that when he is in Vietnam and other SIM card friendly locations he can use his phone without paying roaming charges. On Sunday we visited with a Vietnamese homestay student they had years ago who is now living in the DC area and is married with a 4 month old baby.

After my father's business meeting on Monday, I dragged my parents out to Restaurant Week lunch at Kinkead's, then gave my mom my acupuncture appointment and wrangled a bunch of friends into meeting my parents over dinner at Buca di Beppo. The Pope room was perfect for a group of our size.

My mom worked in a second acupuncture appointment on Tuesday and then the three of us went to lunch with my father's business contact. Before my parents left that evening I was lucky enough to be able to get a last minute reservation at Sushi Taro and I'm glad I did because it's not every day my mom enjoys her food as much as she did that evening.

When I returned to work on Wednesday I discovered that my flight to Puerto Rico for my Caribbean vacation was on Thursday and not on Friday as I had thought. I had one less day to get ready. Just a little panicking on my part.

In the end, everything worked out ok, but I was stressed since I hadn't done any of the planning myself and I didn't know what the plans were.

Our group of 11 departed DC for Puerto Rico around lunch time on Thursday. We checked into the Normandie Hotel that evening and then headed to the El San Juan Hotel and Casino for whatever nightlife we might find there.
The next morning we went to La Bombonera for brunch where I had the arroz con calamares and then we wandered around the streets of Old San Juan until it was time to board our ship.

The ship was nice and it had many activities, but I didn't take advantage of the services available aboard the ship. I did get a chance to visit Coki Beach in St. Thomas and went on a catamaran tour which took us to a sunken ship for some snorkeling and to a mostly deserted beach for some swimming in St. Maarten. I didn't have enough time to do any shopping, but I did get to soak up some sun (without getting burned) and swim in the warm Caribbean Sea until I was tired so it was a good, if short, vacation.

The group I went with this year had gone on the same cruise last year and they didn't want to kill a day in Puerto Rico before coming home so booked us on an early flight home. Unfortunately, we didn't know we were supposed to notify the ship of our need for an early departure and so at 8:30am we were still on the ship and wondering if we'd catch our 10:00am flight.

Luckily, we found our bags quickly once we were allowed to disembark and had no problems with customs and immigration. A mini bus was right outside the secured area and got us to the airport with time to spare.

It wasn't the most relaxing vacation I've taken, but the cruise was a learning experience. I now have a better idea of what I'd like to do next time and will plan a way to maximize our short time ashore in the future without going too far over budget.