We are just a stones throw away and slowly acclimating to the culture and climate of home. It’s bittersweet. We’ve seen so many incredible places and have been touched by experiences that will stay with us forever. Wow. Hard to believe three months can seem to last forever yet vaporize before your eyes.

Up until now we have had the luxury of having ports of call to ourselves. But shortly after pulling into our pier in San Juan, we were soon joined by a Carnival Celebration and its 5,374 passengers (6,500 max capacity) that eclipsed our ship with it’s passengers spilling from it like an ant’s nest that had been stepped on.

I could not even get a complete picture of the Celebration, which is 7 stories higher, 300 ft longer and 37 ft wider than our Crystal Serenity.

We had no planned excursions for San Juan other than revisiting a couple of places we had been to a couple of years ago. But today was a day of misses.

During our last visit to San Juan, we stumbled upon Cafe Lab and stopped in for a latte.

There we met the owner and a local by the name of Damian who, like everyone else in San Juan, is welcoming, friendly and will go out of their way to assist you when they see you standing motionless, looking at your phone–– offering you directions.

At the time, I had asked Damian what was a good rum to buy. He told me he was a rum expert and to avoid the recommended high profile brands and to go to a local grocery store around the corner and get the one he recommended (which I forget the brand at the moment). We did. He also said we should go visit his sister’s art museum and shop. The Poet’s Passage. We did.

However, on this trip, we made our way to the Cafe Lab, but he had run out of their bags of coffee to sell so we stayed for a latte and chilled out for a bit. Afterwards, we made our way to The Poet’s Passage and caught up with Damian and Lee (his sister). I had asked about speakeasy night, which was the night before we arrived. Lee told me it was fantastic and they had poets, readings, musicians and a guy who showed up with a synthesizer. They do this every few weeks and it is held from 5:30 PM to midnight. This is the kind of establishment I so want near us in FL. Somewhere to go where I can listen to poetry and readings while snapping my fingers and saying things like “oubally oubally pow!” with Maynard G Krebs sitting next to me.

After our visit, we walked the streets, ducking into a shop or two where I managed to pick up a traditional shirt of Puerto Rico (GUAYABERA SHIRT) and Meredith found a few earrings at one of the outside markets.

The real excursion of Old San Juan is walking the streets and taking in the architecture with its blue glazed brick streets, vivid colors and old world charm.

But there is still the dress