Category Archives: Day Trips

Britton’s Surprise Birthday Party and Dome’s Beach Trail

With some friends

We always have fun going out and about as well as staying in at the property, but for Britton’s birthday we had a little something different in mind. A surprise! Our neighbors Kim, Anthony and Lamar and I helped plan a surprise birthday party just up the street and it was so much fun! Britton had no idea when we stopped in to say hello before our planned beach outing that there was a party there just for him. We had a great time and love our neighborhood and friends.

Surprise!
Anthony, Kim and the birthday boy

A make-your-own pizza party and homemade carrot cake! The best!

Fun times, good food and great friends

We had to whisper the Happy Birthday song because Aeden was starting to fall asleep. In Puerto Rico you can sing the English version of “Happy Birthday to You” or the Spanglishized version “Cumpleaños Feliz” but you should always add this song after:

Feliz, feliz en tu día
Amiguit@ que Dios te bendiga
Que reine la paz en tu vida
Y que cumplas muchos más

It translates to: Such happiness on your day, my friend we hope God blesses you, that peace reigns in your life and that you celebrate many more birthdays!

We did have one little party pooper there though 🙂

We didn’t miss out on celebrating Britton’s birthday his expected way as well though. Taking a nice walk down one our favorite trails in Rincon following the Spanish Wall by Dome’s Beach is one of his favorite things so we made sure to do that as well.

Britton and the munchkin

Me and the babe with Pools Beach and Aguadilla in the background

Such a cool trail!

Out enjoying our beautiful town of Rincon

Dome’s Beach is named for this, well, dome -the non-working nuclear reactor plant

It’s a favorite beach for surfers

And a good place to hang a hammock

Spanish Wall was formerly a railroad used by the sugar cane industry

Sad Palm

Happy Family

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A Day in Aguada

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Britton and Aeden in the plaza of Aguada

The other day we went to Aguada for a doctor’s appointment for Aeden. We were surprised to be in and out quickly, so we decided to wander around the town a little. Although it is right next to it, Aguada is very different from Rincon in so many ways. Whereas Rincon makes me think of Hawaii, Aguada reminds me of Mexico, with lots of little boutique clothing stores, a large plaza, street vendors and a buzz of work. Rincon feels much more like a vacation destination where the beach and hanging out are the central points and swimsuits are often spotted. Aguada feels more like daily life and pants and shoes are common (as are the shops that sell them!). Aguada is also quite a bit bigger with about 50,000 people compared with little Rincon’s 15,000. Because of its size and the tiny roads, the traffic is often a mess, so walking around the downtown makes more sense than driving.

Vendors selling fireworks to celebrate the holidays (yes, it is a loud time of year!)

Bright, colorful buildings

Lots of clothing stores around every corner!

I like to stop in and check stuff out sometimes!

More street vendors and clothing stores

Sometimes feels like you’re walking into the 70s or 80s!

Family photo in the Aguada Plaza

Two soft drinks you don’t see in the states often- Coco Rico and Malta (normally in a glass bottle)

Aguada is known for its horses and horse events too

Aguada, like Rincon, has awesome sunsets

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Colorful Aguadilla

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Apparently the artist who painted the town (literally) of Yauco has been going around the island and finding other similar neighborhoods to paint. We had heard that Aguadilla got the touch up as well and just had its grand hurrah a little bit ago. We spent the afternoon wandering around and stopped by Rompeolas by the sea for a bite to eat. It is pretty cool, but I think it would have been a little neater had they changed it up a little (maybe polka dots instead of patchwork?). Still very eye catching and a fun little jaunt up many a flight of stairs.

From the park, El Parterre, in Aguadilla looking up; it’s hard to miss!

The subdued park is such a contrast

El Parterre park was very old European in design

I am still surprised people live in this type of hodge-podge and very poor neighborhood. There is no way this would be allowed to fly in modern building codes, but I think they have been sort of grandfathered in from long ago when these were just squatter shanties during the sugar cane days.

Britton carried Aeden all the way to the top!

Having fun!

Look, we are camouflaged!

In a little side room/casita the residents encouraged us to take pictures

Britton and the little monster

Here fishy, fishy

People hanging out watching all the tourists check out their houses

One guy ran out of his house and chased us down to give us these old calendar photos of how Aguadilla was in the olden days

Cool detailed murals all around

From the road

Some areas up there still hadn’t been repaired since the hurricane

We had a nice lunch seaside at Rompeaolas

Look at that sweet smile!

Near Rompeolas there is a HUGE ceiba tree

It had dropped its petals everywhere!

Some of the real boats of Aguadilla

And Aguadilla’s gorgeous shoreline as we drove home

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Out and About with Baby

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Out to a Mexican Restaurant in Aguada…he is not so sure of the whole thing!

Life with baby can be somewhat exhausting. He’s a good boy, but he still needs to eat every 2-4 hours even in the middle of the night which leaves us pretty worn out. We are starting to get the hang of it, though and have started to take him out and about with us around town. We are getting much better. We’ve had a few diaper blow-outs and had to find strange places to breastfeed, but overall, he is just sort of our tag-along and it has been fun to have a new sidekick in our adventures.

With friends Frank and Rosa at our first time back to Art Walk