We stayed at a cute guest house in the Condado section of San Juan. I enjoyed going to many nearby shops — from t-shirts to works of art, they had me covered.

From there we toured the northeastern section of the island. The beaches were spectacular ... but it was disconcerting to see how much garbage was strewn about. In many areas we could drive right up to the water ...

We also visited El Yunque, the tropical rain forest. It was a climb of about 2,500 feet up the Sierra de Luquillo, the highest we could go by car, into the dense, lush vegetation. It was beautiful, I think — kind of hard to tell because it was dark, cloudy and rainy —but I guess that's what a rain forest is about ...

This is a good place to mention the coquí — the tiny tree frog that is found only in Puerto Rico. They have a call that sounds like their name ... listen ... we never saw one (they are nocturnal) and first thought we were hearing birds. They are sort of a national icon and you see them represented on all kinds of souvenirs.

We went all the way to the east coast of the island, through Luquillo and Fajardo. This is where the huge El Conquistador resort is situated above the ocean. My parents had stayed there back in the 70s, attending a company sales meeting. It was interesting to see where they'd been. The coast nearby was nice, and rocky in places.

After the round, we changed into bathing suits in the temporary club facilities and headed over to the sand. It was a glorious place. I started walking and was immediately surprised and excited: a sand dollar! And then another, and another! Some were bleached white and hard, others were shades of brown and green, and soft, having washed ashore recently. We must have found over 30 of them. Then there was driftwood, shells, coconuts ...I was in heaven. Now the only problem was, how would I get all this home?