Puerto Rico, pt. 2

I am buckling down and posting the rest of the photos from our trip....why is that such an overwhelming thing to do??  We have had a busy month with several birthdays and lots of stuff happening...and school hasn't even started yet.  So, without further ado, here is a little synopsis of our trip.  

There were qualifying tournaments held all over the country for a berth to this tournament, and our team earned the trip for our region.  Each qualifying team gets an all expenses paid trip for two coaches and 20 players.  Luckily we were able to find tickets for the younger three kids and I for a great deal so we decided at the last minute to to tag along.  

On the last day of our trip we had some time to head into San Juan to do a bit of sight-seeing.  This photo was taken in front of El Morro, which is a huge fort that was used to defend the island from those pesky Spaniards.....no offense to our friends across the pond.  

The kids had a great time roaming around, aiming ancient cannons, and manning the lookout stations for intruders.

After El Morro, we walked into downtown San Juan and did some exploring.  

It was time to eat, so I told our tour guide we wanted some authentic Puerto Rican food.......he verified that I wanted carne asada, pork, or mashed plaintain.  And, I said, "No, we want some good tacos and/or burritos!"  So, we went and found an authentic "Mexican" restaurant.  

If you watched our video from my last post, you got to see a lot of the baseball side of things.  I was a little worried that we wouldn't have a whole lot of time after going to the games, but it actually worked out quite well.  We only had one game a day for the first few days in the afternoon.  So, we would head down to breakfast every morning......these pictures don't do it justice.  The hotel provided a free continental breakfast every morning (which was fantastic so we could just mosey on downstairs instead of hitting Burger King around the corner....which we pretty much did for every other meal).  

There was just about everything you could think of to eat......omelets made to order, pancakes, cereal, pastries, lots of juices, and eggs/bacon/sausage/hash browns.  

After breakfast each day, I took the younger three down to the pool/beach to hang out until around lunch time.  The boys couldn't join us until after their games to conserve energy.  The sun was different down there, it seemed like the prime time to be out was in the morning and then it would rain every afternoon and be completely dark by 7pm.  

The field/stadium the boys played at was actually quite nice.  It was covered so we didn't feel the heat, although it was like being in a concrete jungle.  The snack bar was interesting to say the least, a big skillet with chicken kabobs frying up and empanadas were pretty much all there was to eat.  Everyone kept raving about how great they were but I lost my courage to try one after I watched them prepare it all on-site.......a whole lot of raw meat and questionable conditions.  So, we just went to Burger King.........again.

One funny thing about playing baseball in Puerto Rico is that there are no lightning delays.  At one of their first games, there was lighting striking all around the stadium.....and none of the officials even took notice.  Funny coming from a place where if it is even sighted or detected by our sophisticated detection systems, the games are halted until 30 minutes has passed without a strike in the vicinity.  We tried not to get too stressed, since the locals obviously weren't worried.  After all, only the batter is truly in danger with a metal bat/lightning rod in their hands......right?

These pics are a bit blurry since they were taken with a phone as the guys were leaving.  Travis played baseball in high school when his family lived in Puerto Rico and one of his teammates was a kid named Jorge Posada.....as in that guy who plays for the Yankees.  We have stayed in touch with his family and his dad, Jorge Sr., wanted to meet up with Travis and the boys.  He is an MLB scout and was out of town working most of the time we were there but was able to come to the airport to see the boys off.  Definitely a highlight of the trip for them. 

So, now the season is over.  The girls are playing soccer and Jordan is staying busy with fall-ball and basketball.  It never seems to slow down around here!  We had a lot of great trips this summer and while most were centered around baseball, it was fun to explore some places we most likely wouldn't have visited on our own.  I am justifying here, I think.  Life has definitely changed to center around our kids' activities now that they are getting older and from what I hear, it is going to get a whole lot busier as they become teenagers.  It has been a challenge to find a balance between supporting this whole crazy sports thing and trying to have a normal family life.  I wish I could say we have it all figured out but I am not there yet.   We definitely have our ups and downs and there are days where I just want to take a break from it all.  It is so hard to know if we are doing the right thing, you know?