I have been working or overseeing work on the house now for over 8 months and including all the financial shenanigans I needed to pull off to negotiate the approval of our loan I have had this house in my head non-stop for over a year and a half. In the past month, I have felt a bit consumed with it so when our great friends Conner and Dianne decided to come down for a quick visit, Summer and I decided to not do any construction work or have anyone else come work on the house for the length of their stay.
(Yes, we did finish building the closet, but all the measuring and cutting were already done and it was cool to have Conner and Dianne help us glue and finish nail it together…Nail Guns are cool…we owe the experience of using one to visiting friends)
At the end of their trip, Summer and I drove them back to San Juan so we could go to the Marshals Mega store and hopefully score some furniture, rugs, kitchen stuff cheap. We decided to go up a couple of hours early so we could visit Old San Juan and eat at one of our favorite restaurants FireFly DragonFly.
We scored a parking spot right before the streets turned into little one way alleys allowing for easy parking of the truck. Conner and Dianne won’t know the difficulty of finding a parking spot in Old San Juan on this trip.
We walked around, checked out the architecture and ate some food. We may have had a rum drink or two as well.
Check out some pictures of the architecture of Old San Juan Puerto Rico:
Can anyone tell me what the significance of any of these buildings are? I know that the buildings with the big front lawns (i am jealous) are government buildings of some sort…
I know this picture of the Airport in San Juan Puerto Rico is completely random, since I am showing pictures of Old San Juan, but I couldn’t help but think that this new terminal looks a lot like a space ship. I have a completely new fascination with construction projects now that I am building our house. I’d say it compliments my life long fascination with architecture quite well.
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just a private building. It is neat though
http://www.ca2pr.com/images/san_juan_architecture.jpg
ditto
http://www.ca2pr.com/images/san_juan_architecture_1.jpg
the old casino, now the government reception building (used as a ballroom)
http://www.ca2pr.com/images/san_juan_architecture_2.jpg
el capitolio/the capitol
http://www.ca2pr.com/images/san_juan_architecture_3.jpg
and another private building
http://www.ca2pr.com/images/san_juan_architecture_5.jpg
this will be the new international terminal at SJU. I’ve heard that there’s gonna be another Iberia nonstop to spain, lufthansa to germany and many more connections to latin america and the caribbean
http://www.ca2pr.com/images/san_juan_architecture_4.jpg
I love Old San Juan as well… except the parking. I decided to parking in a garage several weeks ago. I was on the third floor. At 2am, it took me just over an hour to get out of the garage (groan). Have you guys checked out Ponce’s historic section?
Robert - Ah, that’s good to know about the parking garage. When we found out that it was something like $4 to park in the garage, we swore that is where we would park next time…I much prefer just taking a cab to Old San Juan. It’s so much easier and well worth $20.
Stefan - The Firefly, eh? I’ve never been there. You must have taken your other girlfriend ;)…(The restaurant is actually called Dragonfly)
ahh.. dragonfly, good place
I discovered a few weeks back that I’m obscurely related to their landlord. Perhaps I should pull that card 
Anyway, my suggestion for SJ parking is just look for the people flagging you down, and give them $5. Make sure it’s a legal parking area first (no yellow curb, no signs saying NO), and give the dude a lincoln. That’ll be quite possibly the safest spot you’ll ever have. Also, the garage on the top of SJ (I want to say La Bajada, the one close to El Morro), is much easier to get in and out of than the one at the bottom I was referring to.
Personally, depending on my reason for going to SJ, if I know I’ll be out during daylight, I’ll use public transit. Park my car at the train station, then take the train+bus and not deal with parking. Otherwise, a cab works well, just negotiate the fare beforehand.
Last, a good tip to have the police officer let you into OSJ through the right (next to the fort, heading up by la perla (LOCK YOUR DOORS), into la bajada, the easy in/out garage). Just speak to the officer in english… odds are he doesn’t speak enough to tell you to turn around/you can’t pass, and he’ll just let you through. It’s at a 100% success rate for me