Wedding: October 2004 Archives

No, not the Mick-e-dees arches, silly, the arches at El Morro in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Ya know, that extra "state" we keep around so that U.S. drug companies will have a tax-free place to produce copius amounts of drugs that may or may not benefit our health? D. and I spent the last three, er, four days--thank you then-tropical storm Jeanne--of our honeymoon  in and around San Juan. Not being a fort person, I felt a bit reluctant about the visit to the more than 400-year-old historic site. The 95ish degree heat and a strange bubbly rash that formed on my arms near the end of the trip didn't help, either. Still, the power of history can flow from inanimate objects, and this stately fort imprinted its share of history on my mind. Perhaps most memorable came when I dashed into an air-conditioned series of rooms that served as a museum for the site. Inside a group of *very* American elderly tourists milled about, discussing the fort. One of the older guys, a veteran, related how waaay back in the day the soldiers at El Morro figured out how to skip hot cannon balls across the water and right into the wooden ships to set them on fire. Pretty ingenious, and it kept the fort sound until 1898 when the U.S. invaded during the Spanish-American war. Another telling photo inside the museum was the U.S. soldiers using one of the great lawns in front of the fort to play golf.  Below is a famous sculpture in Old San Juan depicting (I believe) the Spanish conquistadors. I'm sure D. would find it amusing if I included the photo of me straddling the cannon, but I can't quite seem to find it ...