{"id":16159,"date":"2021-02-12T08:56:28","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T13:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=16159"},"modified":"2021-08-26T09:20:56","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T13:20:56","slug":"one-year-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=16159","title":{"rendered":"One Year Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"One year ago this week, I brought my beloved husband back to my very favorite Caribbean island, Puerto Rico, to enjoy a 25th anniversary return to la isla del encanto<\/em>. I had retired at the end of 2019, and Spouse and I planned lots of travel during 2020 with the new free time I was going to have.<\/p>\n

Back in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, I traveled a LOT to this island for…
\n
\n…work. My line of work had a national scope of interest for public service.<\/p>\n

I learned the language by immersion. The locals were (and are) very friendly and encouraging of me to learn their Spanish. I learn well that way, and soon I was understanding them, and later, more able to speak the language rather well. Or at least that’s what my new friends told me.<\/p>\n

In February, 1995, I had scheduled another trip to conduct a week of training. I left on Sunday February 5 with training to begin on Monday for the rest of the week.<\/p>\n

On Friday, February 10, my beloved man flew to San Juan. I met him at the airport when he arrived that afternoon. I had rented a car, and drove us to the southwestern end of the island where we stayed in a Parador — a local tourist hotel.<\/p>\n

We explored the sunny and warm coastline, and relaxed on secluded beaches. <\/p>\n

On Monday, February 13, I drove us back to San Juan and checked us in to a really nice, high-class hotel in the Condado, which is a subbarrio of the barrio of Santurce — essentially a neighborhood within the large metropolitan city of San Juan.<\/p>\n

\"\"That day we toured the El Morro national park in Old San Juan. This is about the most touristy site on the island, and a must-see (once) for people who have not been there to learn the history of “rich port” aka Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n

\"\"We had a lovely day walking on the cobblestone streets and enjoying the vitality and hospitality of the locals. They were thrilled that I spoke the language, and extended their warm appreciation in the form of special foods we had for dinner.<\/p>\n

On Valentine’s Day, we spent the day on the beach that adjoined our hotel. Then that evening, we dressed nicely and walked to a very special restaurant where some local friends had made reservations for us a month previous, because was very hard to get a table at this restaurant, especially on a holiday for lovers.<\/p>\n

As I recall, we were treated very well — no difference that we were a couple of men (we were concerned about that. Turned out not to be an issue.)<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, we began our return home.<\/p>\n

That was a very special Valentine’s Day for us. On return, then, this week one year ago, I wanted to share a special Valentine’s Day dinner with my love once again.<\/p>\n

\"\"This time, we were staying on the west coast of the island. I had learned how very special the western part of the island is. <\/p>\n

Well away from the metropolitan city of San Juan, the west coast is a more authentic representation of the island with which I fell in love.<\/p>\n

Being “more authentic” means that few people speak English. But with my long-learned Puerto Rican Spanish, I got along very well.<\/p>\n

My husband and I spent the week exploring again, and had a great time. My post on this blog one year ago explains much more of our joyful and fun visit<\/a>. We especially enjoyed a nice meal at a restaurant on the coast so we could watch a glorious sunset. It was perfect. (Photos of our 2020 trip here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\"\"As a dear friend from Puerto Rico said to me recently, “I am so glad you came and had such a wonderful time here. Little did we ever think, imagine….”<\/p>\n

Yes, little did we know then what 2020 would become and how our world as we knew it would be turned upside down.<\/p>\n

However, I cherish these rich memories of joy, love, and togetherness that I will hold in my heart forever.<\/p>\n

Life is short: show those you love how you love them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One year ago this week, I brought my beloved husband back to my very favorite Caribbean island, Puerto Rico, to enjoy a 25th anniversary return to la isla del encanto. I had retired at the end of 2019, and Spouse … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-partners","category-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}