BLOG, THE NINTH

November 19, 2018
 
Short and sweet tonight.  I have a talk in the morning that I’ve only done twice, and I want to rehearse before hitting the hay (and I’ll do it again in the morning right after breakfast).

We went ashore in San Juan and walked 7.5 miles today (actually she walked 7.5, I walked 6.5).  We were going to walk out to El Morro, the fort that protected the city from the British, but my companion had taken a couple of Tylenol before heading out and that is a strenuous walk, so we wound leisurely through the old city, exploring some streets we hadn’t seen before.  We went into an art place, kind of a gallery with stuff for sale, where I bought a frog key chain – I’ll show it to visitors to 233.  Bonnie bought a _____ (I can’t tell you what it is, because it’s Karen’s Christmas present).  We dodged some jewelry stores and perfumers saying, “No thank you.” Or, “Get lost!”  And went back out onto the main street, popped into a CVS where I bought a Snickers Ice Cream Bar.  Yummy. 

Paul, the owner of the art place, told us the city had been without power for 53 days after the hurricane struck last year, and they were the part of the island that got power back on first.  We saw one tree uprooted and most of the top cut away and hauled off, but in the roots someone has painted a Puerto Rican flag.  The couple who sat at the table beside of us tonight, said they specifically looked for places they recognized from earlier visits to see what damage had been done, and described major trees uprooted and even the old wall around the city damaged, too.

Oh, before we set out on our adventure we went to the post office so Mom could mail some postcards.  We will probably be in Rome before they get to you, but they are on their way.

Tonight’s show was a combo of crew and guests doing music from the 50s, and it was most enjoyable.  You could tell some people were in it for the fun of it and some people were serious about it.  Afterwards there was a new PG comedian who was moderately funny (and in a strange setting, he is doing an adults only show at 11:30, but said, “You don’t have to cuss to be funny.”  Adults only shows I’ve been to were cuss-city.  Oh well).

That’s about it for tonight.  See you from somewhere in the Caribbean heading home tomorrow.

TTFN