Old San Juan

The last day of our cruise was spent in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where we also began our journey. The difference was that we had all morning to spend there on the way out, whereas we went straight from the airport to the ship on the way in. To pass the time we took a bus tour of new and old San Juan. These pictures are all from the old San Juan, specifically an area that had a lot of shops. Our bus stopped here for a while so we just wandered around and took it all in.

It was really hot and humid that day (what else is new for Puerto Rico, right?). My stepdad found a little restaurant and sat down and got a drink while my brother and I wandered with my mom. Eventually we got really hot and went to have a seat in the restaurant, but it wasn’t much relief from the heat. The fan was nice, but not nearly enough.

Despite the heat, I enjoyed seeing this area. The buildings there are all so colorful and pretty. We also toured an old fortress, of which I have many pictures. But those will have to wait for another day.

bicicleta

Bikes are fun vehicles, and I’m intrigued by the different types of bikes out there. In California everyone had sweet beach cruisers (I spent a lot of time in places those were practical). Around here there are a lot of general bikes, like mountain bikes and road bikes. Then you’ve got your hipsters with fixies, like my dad, who just built a cool custom one from scratch. In Minneapolis you can rent community bikes from little stations all around town; freaking sweet. I think after I get settled here I might want to build a fixie too. I’ll give my dad’s a try next time I’m home to see how I like riding it before deciding, but I can imagine it’ll be pretty cool. There are a lot of really sweet looking bikes on Flickr, and that only serves as more motivation to build my own. There’s something about a fixed gear bike that looks especially cool. That short chain going straight from one cog to the other, with no derailleur hanging down is so clean and simple looking. They look even cooler with custom handle bars, like bullhorn handlebars, or some drop handlebars with a nice smooth arc to them. Then when you color coordinate certain parts, it just brings it all together in one sweet looking piece.

California Love

I've had a lot of mixed feelings the last few weeks.  So take a look at these California love based pictures.  On film.  As they should be.  Courtesy of my Olympus OM-2n.