On Wednesday we left super early and made it to Puerto Rico around 4pm. There was a cocktail welcome reception at 6pm, so we grabbed something quick to eat and got ready for the reception. I didn't bring my camera to that, but I did take a lot of pictures around the resort when we first got there.
The resort is built on a huge hill. There were some rooms on the bottom of the hill on the marina (that's where ours was), and some on the top of the hill where the lobby and restaurants were. This picture is on the top, looking down onto the water. So beautiful.
The resort didn't have a beach attached to it, just the marina, so we had to get on a boat to go over to their private island where the beach was. This picture is of another island, not the resorts, but there were about 3 or 4 of these random islands within view of the resort. One of which was on the last Pirates of the Caribbean.
There was only one way up to the lobby from our rooms and one way down to our rooms, and it was by riding this thing. It was called a funicular. It was super steep!
I tried to take another picture of the funicular. See it on the bottom left corner? It was on its way down. Also, the boat in the water, is the boat that takes you to the beach.
This picture is me standing near the lobby, looking down to the marina where our room was.
This is the rest of the resort on the top of the hill.
There was a water park on the bottom, but the remainder of the pools were at the top of the hill. This was one of them. It was so nice here because the resort wasn't super crowded, unlike the last few times we've been to a resort and you have to fight for lounge chairs by the pool.
That night after we got back to our room from the welcome reception, we discovered a gift from Mr. Hunt's work with lots of surprises inside.
There were two huge Paycom towels which were the softest towels Ive ever touched, a President's Club Plaque, two Paycom hats, two Paycom shirts, sunscreen, trail mix, coconut cake, a $250 Visa Card, and the bag. We were super spoiled.
The next morning we got up somewhat early and went on a catamaran ride over to a private island to snorkel.
The views were gorgeous on our way over.
Me and Whitney. Whitney is 8 months pregnant with a little baby girl Blake. I'm so excited for them.
This was our catamaran. If you look close you can see Mr. Hunt about to get off.
We walked down to the corner of the beach to get to the best place to snorkel.
On our ride back we ran into some dolphins. Its so funny to see how people react to dolphins. Mr. Hunt and I grew up seeing them all the time, so we weren't so impressed at first and let everyone else oooo and aaaaa over them. It was also so funny to see the people from Oklahoma and places that don't have oceans, try to get into the water to snorkel. They were seriously freaking out. Mr. Hunt and I said it made sense, because that's how we are with lakes. Lakes seem a lot more dirty and scary to us than oceans, and vice versa for them. So after a few minutes of them freaking out about the dolphins, they started counting how many there were out loud. This is when I started freaking out! I kid you not, there were at least 30 all together. I couldn't believe it. Ive never seen that many together before. I tried to get some pictures, but it was very hard since everyone else was trying to get pictures too. You can look close and see some of them.
Look at my handsome husband!
That night we all headed over to the resorts private island for a pirate themed dinner. If you don't know, Mr. Hunt LOVES pirates, so this was very exciting for him.
Mr. Hunt and one of his reps Hannah decided to go buy these pirate eye patches and tattoo to wear for the function. Everyone was surprised. I loved Hannah's blinged out eye patch. So funny!
They had parrots there to take picture with. I asked if we could put them on our heads. It sounded like a good idea, everyone else was use putting them on their shoulders, so I wanted to be different. It was actually kind of scary once they were up there. They were clawing our scalps so it hurt, and I was freaking out once they were up there that they were going to poo on my head.
The buffet dinner was very yummy lobster and steak. It sprinkled on and off a few times while we were there, but it didn't phase anyone. Its funny how when you are on an island, rain doesn't phase you, but if you are out and about regularly, people act like the world is going to end.
Some of the men, including Mr. Hunt, found this basketball court on the island and started shooting hoops. Before anyone knew it, they had a whole game going on. It ended up getting pretty serious. Everyone gathered around and cheered them on. Mr. Hunt's team ended up taking their shirts off so they could tell the teams apart easier. Mr. Hunt's team won three games so they played almost the whole time. The last game, I think they tried to lose because their bare feet were hurting. When they were finally done, I looked at Mr. Hunt's toes and he had ran the skin off of them. The rest of the trip, he was limping around with band-aids on.
The next morning was the morning Mr. Hunt was anticipating the most. We were going fishing. There were 6 of us, and it was a great morning of fun.
The views were wonderful.
That is our resort in the distance.
To get started, we had to cut up this fish for bait.
and wait around while the tour guide man rigged all the poles.
Then it was time to get started.
A few minutes later, the first fish was caught. It was some sort of snapper.
Then we moved around to a few more spots and re-rigged the poles.
The water was getting more and more choppy as the morning went on. At one point, the waves were crashing onto each other making white caps in the middle of the ocean and the waves were about 2 or 3 feet high. That didn't stop us. Although the tour guide guy said usually its harder to catch fish on windy days. We surprised him.
In order to find where the False Albacore (fake tuna?) were, we would follow the birds and cast where they were. It was super hard though because they moved fast.
But finally, Mr. Hunt got one.
It took a while to reel in, but I got the second half on camera.
Watch it HERE
Mr. Hunt was so proud. I'm glad he caught a big one.
Then a little bit later, one of the wives, Stacy caught another big one. I forget what this one was called.
Then I caught mine. Don't laugh, you can hardly see it, but believe me, mine was the scariest one. It was some sort of Lady Fish/Barracuda/something else, but it had the biggest, sharpest teeth Ive seen a fish have.
They kept telling me to kiss it. I would have kissed its mouth, but I didn't want my lips to be bitten off for good. See my proud husband in the back?
We caught a few more small ones like mine and many that got away, but all in all, it was tons of fun!
That night was the only free night, so we went to a nice steak dinner at The Strip House. We didn't have anyone to take our picture, so we used the elevator.
Look how handsome!
Then that night, we kayaked in the Bio luminescent Bay. This bay literally glows in the dark. I didn't bring my camera since we were kayaking, but it was so awesome, I had to find some pictures online. There are only a few of these Bays in the world, so this was special that we could do it.
The next day was a free day so Mr. Hunt and I took our two free passes to the water park. We thought it would probably be a few small slides, but we were wrong. The slides were actually very fun!
The view from the watermark was great too.
We also relaxed.
Then Mr. Hunt went down the big one. The straight down one. You can see him at the top, headed down.
Now almost at the bridge.
And then at the bottom.
Then the final night was the awards banquet. The cocktail hour was outside with a beautiful view of the gold course and the Puerto Rican Rain forest in the background.
Here is Mr. Hunt with the two reps from his office that came, Hannah on the right and McKenzie on the left. They were both such sweet girls.
This is all the reps and managers from Mr. Hunt's region which is Dallas, Fort Worth, Tampa, Austin, and Houston.
Once inside, we ate yummy food, listened to the CEO Chad, and the Vise President of Sales Jeff talk, and then it was time for the awards. They announced each individual person one at a time and had them come up to get their award. For Mr. Hunt, they said "From Austin, by way of Charlotte...CHRIS HUNT!" Then really loud music blared as he walked up on stage. His picture and a little something was written about Mr. Hunt from one of his reps Hannah was up on the screen.
Mr. Hunt and McKenzie with their awards. So happy!
This is Mr. Hunt, McKenzie, and Mr. Hunt's Boss (regional manager) Matt, making funny faces.
I'm a proud wife.
Mr. Hunt and his reps, McKenzie and Hannah with their awards.
Mr. Hunt and his old boss from Charlotte Hailey.
Then we danced the night away until 11:30pm when they announced where the 2013 President's Club is going to be. This was what everyone was looking forward to. They showed a video with pictures and video clips, describing the place without saying where it was until the VEY end of the video. Thats when they announced that its going to be in MAUI!!!! Hawaii! Ive never been there! Then two hula dancers came in and put leis on everyone.
We are so super excited that its going to be in Maui. Of course, nobody is guaranteed to go, everyone has to work super hard. Unlike last year when Mr. Hunt was a rep and he had to get there with his own personal goal that was given to him, this year he has a goal as a manager. I think this is a little harder since its not just on him alone, but I have confidence he can do it. His boss couldn't stop telling me how awesome Mr. Hunt is already doing here.
I do know that everyone was ready to get to work that night to get to Maui. Im not kidding, they all were talking about getting right back to work.
All in all, it was a GREAT trip, and Mr. Hunt deserved it all. We are happy to be home though and back with the fur babies.
Love,
Puerto Rican Vacationer
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