Castillo San Cristobal
501 Calle Norzagary- San Juan, PR 00901
- (787) 449-4049
- Website
This post might look similar but it really is different than post about Castillo San Felipe del Morro.
Castillo San Cristobal is part of the San Juan National Historic Site along with El Morrow and the wall that surrounds the city. If you pay to get in to one of the forts, you get in to the other as well. We paid at El Morro then walked over to San Cristobal after lunch.
Castillo San Cristobal is about 200 years newer than El Morro. The fort as we see it today started construction in 1766. When it was finished not quite 20 years later, San Juan had a second fortification and the city was walled off. You couldn’t get in to the city from land or by sea.
San Cristobal sits on the east side of the city on PR-25 at the intersection with Calle Norzagary. The entrance to this fort is a little bit more modern with a parking lot for staff vehicles in front of a farily modern visitors center. The visitors center is air conditioned and we really needed that. They show a short movie on the history of the fortifications in San Juan alternating between Spanish and English every fifteen minutes.
Pirilo (Old San Juan)
201 Calle TancaI didn’t do a ton of research when I started looking at restaurants in San Juan because I was hoping we’d just stumble on somethings. We didn’t have a car so I wasn’t going to plot out our meals knowing we’d have to take Ubers everywhere.
J and I spent our first full day in Puerto Rico exploring the forts of Old San Juan. We spent a couple of hours at Castillo San Felipe del Morrow then made our way down the hill looking for someplace to eat.
One of the few restaurants I kept seeing over and over again as a place we needed to eat at was just a few blocks away so I put it in my GPS and we headed that direction.
Pirilo in Old San Juan is on Calle Tanca in the heart of Old San Juan. I was super confused by that address because the entrance to the restaurant is actually on C. Fortaleza right around the corner. The building is shared with Douglas Pub so I assume that’s where the Calle Tanca address comes from. You can find the entrance to the pizza place by looking for the awning on the front door. Read more…
Castillo San Felipe del Morro
501 Calle Norzagaray- San Juan, PR 00901
- (787) 729-6960
- Website
Time to do some sightseeing. The first thing we both wanted to do was check out the historic forts in the Old San Juan area of the city.
We called for an Uber after we got done with our quick breakfast and had him drop us off right at the entrance to the bigger of the two forts…Castillo San Felipe del Morro.
Castillo San Felipe del Morro was built beginning in 1539 by Spain. The Spanish would continue to add on to the fort and the surrounding city all the way up until the Spanish-American ware in 1898 when the United States was ceded control of the fort and the Island to the Americans with the Treaty of Paris.
El Morro sits right on the Atlantic Coast on the Islet of Old San Juan. There is a really long sidewalk that leads through two large open fields that are apparently a really good place to fly a kite. Our Uber dropped us off in the roundabout right next to the start of this long walk and we started the hike up the slight hill. Read more…
La Panderia
Avenue Ashford 1309- San Juan, PR 00907
- (787) 722-7000
- Website
- Menu
The first full day in San Juan was spent exploring the historic parts of the city. We took an Uber out to the National Historic Sites and walked through Viejo San Juan.
We wanted to start the day with something light and not get bogged down in a big heavy breakfast. The feels like temperature was over 100 degrees and we were going to be outside walking a lot.
We noticed a little cafe area just inside the entrance to our hotel when we checked in. J jumped in the shower when we got up and she asked me if I’d run down and grab something to eat.
La Panderia is inside the San Juan Marriott Resort and Stellaris Casino in the Condado subbarrio of San Juan. The hotel is right along Condado beach on Ashford Avenue where it meets CII Caribe. La Panderia is right inside the lobby when you walk in off to the right. It’s tucked in to the corner of room with no walls separating it from the rest of the lobby.
BUNS Burger Shop (Condado)
Avenue Ashford 1214I am not a world traveler. I love getting away with J for a vacation but the thought of traveling somewhere I don’t speak the language and may not eat the food has never really appealed to me.
J wanted to go someplace warm for our 10th Anniversary. We looked at several Caribbean Islands but the price was always much more than we wanted to spend.
I was browsing the Costco Travel website and saw a link to Puerto Rico. Technically, it’s still in the United States, most people speak English even though Spanish is the primary language of the Island so I’d be able to communicate, and it was fairly cheap since we were looking to travel during peak hurricane season.
We were a little nervous about the weather since Tropical Storm Karen decided to pass right over the Island the day before we were scheduled to fly out. It looked like it wasn’t going to be a huge deal so we didn’t cancel the trip and flew out of Kalamazoo Wednesday morning. A quick layover at O’Hare then a five our trip to San Juan and we were on vacation.
We stayed at the San Juan Marriott Resort and Stellaris Casino. Our travel package included ground transportation from the airport so we headed straight there and checked in.
We knew Wednesday was going to be a pretty laid back day. We go to Kalamazoo-Battle Creek International AirportKalamazoo-Battle Creek International Airport just before 5:00 AM so we were tired. We weren’t super hungry when we got in because J decided to make our anniversary a little extra special and upgraded our seats to First Class.
Neither of us had ever sat in First Class before and now we never want to go back. In addition to wider, more comfortable seats, we actually got breakfast on the plane. It wasn’t anything super special. I selected the Eggs Benedict and J got the Apple Tart. It was a decent breakfast and held us over until we got settled at the hotel.
Garrett Popcorn Shop (O’Hare Terminal 1)
5600 Mannheim RoadBuckle up, friends. We’re going on vacation.
J and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary last week and to celebrate, we took a trip to Puerto Rico. This is the first trip we’ve taken without kids (J was pregnant with B when we went out west four years ago….so technically, we had a kid with us) since our 2nd anniversary when we went to New York.
We picked Puerto Rico because J wanted to go somewhere she could put her toes in the sand and I didn’t want to leave the country. Also, it’s hurricane season so it was somewhat cheap.
We started our journey at the Kalamazoo-Battle Creek International Airport with a 6:30 AM flight to Chicago. We had a short layover in Chicago before embarking on the five hour ride to San Juan.
We flew United so we hopped off the plane at the B Concourse. We both had the same thing in mind as soon as we touched down. Popcorn!
There are three Garrett Popcorn stands in O’Hare International Airport. The one in Terminal One is on the B Concourse right by the TSA checkpoints so if you come in there, it’s one of the first things you will see.
Buddy’s Pizza (Grand Rapids)
4061 28th Street SEGood news! Buddy’s Pizza is moving to Kalamazoo…er Portage actually. The Detroit pizza chain made the announcement in August not long after Old Chicago closed. Pretty much everyone assumed another Credit Union would go into that building…but surprise! It’s gonna be a Buddy’s!
That reminded me, I haven’t been to the Grand Rapids Buddy’s Pizza yet.
I spent a couple of days on Mackinac Island for work and had to stop in Grand Rapids on my way home. I asked J if she wanted me to bring home pizza. We hit the 11:00 AM ferry back to Mackinaw City so it was going to be right around dinner time when I got home.
I saw Buddy’s uses DoorDash for their online ordering which made my life easier. When I dropped my colleague off at the office, I put in an order for a four square cheese pizza and a four square Motown Museum.
The drive across town was about twenty minutes and that’s how long my pizza ordered was predicted to take.
The Grand Rapids Buddy’s Pizza location is on 28th Street just east of East Paris Avenue. The stand alone store used to be a Carrabba’s Italian Grill but that closed down abruptly at the beginning of 2017. Buddy’s dropped the Italian countryside decor and went with their own blue, red, and yellow color scheme. Read more…
Broken Picture Links
I’m aware the pictures aren’t working on the blog right now…and that’s kind of a problem. Photobucket changed up their hosting plan and now none of my photos work. I’m trying to figure it out with Photobucket and get the site back to normal soon. The pictures are all still on their site, they just changed their hosting terms while I was on vacation….we just got back from Puerto Rico so I have a lot of cool things to blog about but I would like to get the photos back online before I get going on those.
Sanders Chocolate & Ice Cream Shopped (Mackinac Island)
7330 Main StreetMy family doesn’t even ask anymore. It’s just expected I come home from my work trips to Mackinac Island with fudge.
I went for a walk Saturday night just because I haven’t really spent much time in downtown on any of my trips there. In the past, we’ve always stayed either at Mission Pointe or in Mackinaw City. This time, we stayed downtown at the Lake View Hotel so it gave me some more time to just enjoy downtown Mackinac Island at night.
A few of the fudge shops were already closed and a few were starting the closing process but I found one shop that still had the light on and doors open..plus, it was one of the shops I haven’t bought fudge from before..so they were the ones that got to make my family happy on this trip.
Sanders Chocolate and Ice Cream Shoppe has a pretty rich Michigan history. The Sanders name dates back to the 1870’s in the Detroit area. Over the last 140 years or so, the Sanders chain grew to as many as 57 stores in the Great Lakes area. By 2002, almost all of them had closed and the company name and recipes were bought by a competitor who chose to keep the Sanders name on some of the stores in Detroit. There are nine Sanders stores now. Eight of those in Metro Detroit. The other is on the corner of Main and Astor Streets in downtown Mackinac Island.
Island Slice Pizzeria
7248 Main StreetMy Saturday work day on Mackinac Island was long. I got to the Grand Hotel about 8:30 AM and left a little before 8:30 PM…and I still wasn’t done but I decided to work in my hotel room back at the Lake View Hotel because I could get a bottle of Pepsi from the vending machine there for $2 compared to buying a CAN of Coke for $4 from the Grand.
I was still on a pretty tight deadline but I was hungry. I didn’t eat all day because, again, everything is expensive at the Grand and even though it’s company money, I still feel bad spending that much on lunch.
I decided just to see if there was a pizza place I could pick something up from and eat while I was finishing up my work for the day. I quickly found what appears to be the only pizzeria on the Island and put in my order.
Island Slice Pizzeria is on the north end of downtown across from The Pink Pony. The restaurant is a classic counter service pizzeria tucked in between a fudge shop and a cafe in one of Mackinac Islands classic vintage buildings.
SW Michigan Dining 