About 18 months ago, I saw a call for proposals to a language conference in Puerto Rico. I have wanted to go to Puerto Rico for many years–but for sure since I taught a really cool unit on Puerto Rico as a high school teacher in College Station, Texas, nearly 20 years ago. Puerto Rico just seemed like the most fascinating place–technically part of the U.S., but also its own country, Spanish- and English-speaking, puertorriqueños have U.S. citizenship, they can vote–if they’re living in the U.S., but not if they’re living in Puerto Rico, etc.
So I submitted a paper proposal and crossed my fingers. Months later, I found out that it had been accepted (yay!), which meant I had to write the paper I said I’d write (boo!). And then I had to figure out how Brent and I were going to get down there for a few days. The conference was the week of both of our birthdays–his 44th and my 40th. It would be perfect.
Brent and I have spent precious few nights away from our kids, so whenever we do, I forget how hard it is to make that happen. [While we were there, I actually calculated the number of nights we’ve had away from them: 0.2% of our nights as parents – ouch / ha ha!]
I also didn’t anticipate Brent dragging his feet about going (whah??). Who could possibly not want to go to Puerto Rico?? I’m not gonna lie: some harsh words may have been said about this and some tears may have been shed. Long story short: we figured out the kids (thanks to a veritable village) and Brent got on the plane.
We spent parts of 4 days there together, wandering around Viejo San Juan (Old San Juan) and driving around other parts of Puerto Rico. It was fabulous and restorative and rejuvenating. We walked long and hard, ate lots of weird and delicious foods, had fun speaking rusty Spanish, and laughed and then laughed some more. Then Brent left and I did my conference thing. I was there, alone, on my 40th birthday, which felt weird, but we had had such fun prior to that day, it was okay.
We weren’t there on a Sunday, so we didn’t actually go to church, but here are some pictures of our first day wandering around in the old part of the city. We visited El Morro (an old fortress), a beautiful cemetery, and the San Juan Cathedral. More Puerto Rico pictures to come.
Thanks for the photos. The cemetery was beautiful, as was the cathedral.