Caribbean Princess in San Juan, Puerto Rico

Hello from San Juan! You know it's going to be a good day when the ship's bridge cam view looks like this all day.

We love San Juan. It's probably one of our favorite non-cruise places in the world. In fact, in all our visits to San Juan this is the first time we've arrived by cruise ship. Usually we just fly here and spend a few days eating, drinking, and relaxing. We know this town. And we are so happy to be back.

It's our first visit post-hurricane. When the hurricane hit and pictures and stories started coming back to the mainland from Puerto Rico, we were heartbroken. We still carry sadness in our hearts over the US government's response. While there isn't anything we can personally do, we can spend our tourist dollars here.

When we stay here we always avoid the cruise port (and cruise passengers) so we can have a more authentic Puerto Rican experience. But with hubby still not feeling sprightly, we couldn't veer too far from port. We bought him a t-shirt to replace his old San Juan one at home that has long since been faded and stretched out. We sat in the shade drinking fresh squeezed lemonade and watched the goings on around the food trucks.

Since the hurricane our go-to spot for breakfast, lunch, and dinner is closed on Wednesdays. So instead we stopped at Tijuana's. It's tucked away down by the water near the cruise port. You'd miss it if you weren't looking for it. Those are the kinds of places we like.

 We shared a delicious plate of beef fajita enchiladas with rice and beans.

It was a great day. I would have liked to do more, but with hubby it's just not possible to get too far from the ship right now. I have plenty of San Juan photos from previous visits, but here is one my all time favorites I took as we were getting ready to land at the airport.

How can you not love a city this beautiful?

Some other things from today:

*I went up to talk to our old cabin steward about his towel animal video I posted on YouTube yesterday. His family back home were so excited to see him making towel animals on the internet. His six year old son couldn't believe his dad knew how to do it! His wife has been sharing it with family and friends and posting it to Facebook. I am happy I was able to be part of him feeling like a movie star today.

*The gals in International Cafe saw the picture I posted of them yesterday and the thank you I wrote. They were surprised to see how important they really are in a passenger's life. One gal is sharing with her mom what we wrote. Her parents should be proud. 

We have the Most Traveled Guest Party tonight up in Skywalkers. Again, if I take food pics I'll post them when we get back.

Medallion™ Update:

To make the progression of the roll-out more clear I've grouped the posts by week. You can find today's post here.

Want to see how we got here? I started on Caribbean Princess back on August 18. 
Check it out:Sept 1-8 updates can be found here.
August 25-Sept 1 updates can found here.
August 18-25 updates can be found here.

Encouraging Words Money Pocket Drop Off:
Left on Deck 5. You can pretty much guess where.

Caribbean Princess in St. Thomas

Before I get started with anything about the day I have some thank yous I'd like to dole out today. 

• Thank you to those who understand the importance kind words have on others. To those who understand choosing to be joyful makes all the difference. And to everyone who has been emailing me to share stories of  your own encouraging words/dollar bill projects, please continue to spread your love and gratitude. 
• Thank you to the gals working in the International Cafe on the Caribbean Princess. You give my husband a reason to get out of bed in the morning, no matter how much pain he is in. Readers, if you see any of these ladies, please give them a hug and tell them thank you for their kindness to Ed.
  

• Thank you to John Padgett from the Carnival Corporation for allowing me insight into the inner workings of the Medallion roll-out process and for the support you've given me as I work at delivering an honest account of my experiences on the ship. I hope you've found my coverage fair and factual. And thank you to the team - from Vicki and Francois to Korli and Andrew. All of you have been extremely helpful and supportive as I've asked my dozens and dozens (and dozens) of questions. 
• Thank you to those people who understand how much work blogging from a cruise ship every day really is. While I'd like to say I can sit down at the computer and type something up in a few minutes time, I can't. I have to think it through quite a bit before I ever start writing. Then I write and re-rewrite and proof it. I then post it and BAM, find mistakes. As much as I'd like to be perfect I'm not. I enjoy what I'm doing and if what I share is a little bit helpful to others I'm a really happy camper.

Okay, back to the day. 
Hello from St. Thomas! Three visits to St. Thomas and three visits to The Smoking Rooster. Can't beat days like this one.

The guys doing the smoking had already finished up for the day. Darn!

But Tish, the server who has been taking care of us these past few visits, had already put in our drink order before we ever sat down. Thanks, Tish! 

She's also the one who last week recommended an amazing drink, the Blue Parrot Tail. Oh, my. Just look at all the rum that Lily the bartender puts in that thing!

And the BBQ at The Smoking Rooster? It's just darn good.

Today we even had live music today from St. Groovus.

It was a no other place day. What's that? I wrote about it here over a year ago.

Medallion™ Update:

To make the progression of the roll-out more clear I've grouped the posts by week. You can find today's post here.

Want to see the progression of the roll-out? I started on Caribbean Princess back on August 18. Check out how we got here:

Sept 1-8 updates can be found here.

August 25-Sept 1 updates can found here.

August 18-25 updates can be found here.

Encouraging Words Money Pocket Drop Off:
I left it in a sugar container at International Cafe. Two couples who are blog readers know exactly where I was sitting.

Can you believe I ran out of labels today?

Tomorrow we are off to San Juan.

As usual, if you have any questions or comments, please click on the envelope icon at the top right of this screen.

Tutorial Tuesday - How to Make Towel Animals

Ever thought about how towel animals are made? Me, too. Thanks to our gracious cabin steward, last week I found out how to make a dog and rabbit.

Take a look at my guest instructor at work!
You can find the video here:

A Letter I Wrote

Those who know me know I believe in the power of the Universe. I believe in The Secret. I believe in the power of positive thinking. That if you look for the good you will find the good. I believe life is flippin' amazing and each day will be amazingly awesome.

I also believe in the writings of Pam Grout. Check her out here. Along with the powerful books she's written, she's the one who gave me the idea of doing the encouraging word money pockets. When I hear the stories of people who have wound up finding the ones I've dropped off I am awe-inspired at the power a few kind words can have on a person. I also have people telling me about their own encouraging word projects. Just today I had an e-mail from someone sharing that she is planning on handing out 70 of them in honor of her 70th birthday. How amazingly awesome is that?

A couple weeks back I e-mailed Pam and told her my story. Today she featured my email in her More Stories to Rock Your World section. Check it out here.  I'm guessing you can figure out which one is mine.

Yep, life is flippin' amazing.