Puerto Rico: natives refer to it as Borinquen: "Land of the Valiant Lord" (according to my sources)

Our honeymoon-isms were spectacular!  Puerto Rico is a unique blend of the tropics, culture, history, America, Spain, food, the claimed birthplace of the piña colada, diverse architecture, and many more features too plentiful to list here, especially by a non-Puerto Rican.  

Once we touched down in San Juan, we collected the neon green rental car.  If you haven't heard the story of Charley's two speeding tickets accrued in under 60 minutes in California, then you may not appreciate the irony in this rental car assignment.  Nevertheless, as Charley will quickly tell you - and I concur - the driving laws in Puerto Rico are merely suggestions, not rules.  Someone recently told Charley that driving in Puerto Rico made him long for his days of driving in Mexico.  

Our lodging destination was located in Dorado, a suburb of Puerto Rico - in my description.  It's a historic little town and here are photos, including our home away from home for the week - Casa de Reyes:

Dorado, PR

Lovely Casa de Reyes is owned by a high school classmate of Charley's, and it had a starring role in an episode of HGTV's House Hunter's International (although I am unsure how it qualified for the 'international' offshoot of the show, but that's trivial, I just like to mention it for whatever/no reason each time I have the opportunity).  

When we were not lounging around Casa de Reyes, or in Dorado, we took a couple of excursions into Old San Juan.  I use the term excursion cautiously, since it's only a five minute ferry boat tour from the town of Cataño.  Photographs taken in and about charming Old San Juan:  Old San Juan

In Old San Juan, we spent lengthy time at El Morro and could have easily returned for more.  El Morro explained so much of the history of Puerto Rico and it's incredibly well preserved, as you can see in these photos:  El Morro tour

The Vieques (photos) portion of the trip was our favorite highlight and we voted to spend more time there, along with explore the island of Culebra, if we we return to PR.  While in Vieques, we explored the small town, enjoyed the most remote beach (in both of our personal beaching experiences) - no more than two dozen visitors, baby blue/turquoise water, and nothing but vegetation (zero man-made structures...you best pack anything you need before you venture through the jungle to get there...) in view from the water - a restaurant, which you'll see several photos of, that I fell in love with even before our meals arrived, admired the wild horses that have zero fear of humans or automobiles, and kayaked on the 
Bio-luminescent Bay.

Until next time, Puerto Rico!