CF Benefit Night at Grand Finale

What a joy it was tonight to be joined by a great crowd of family and friends for our CF Benefit Night at Grand Finale, to benefit our family's fight to find a cure for cystic fibrosis (on behalf of our grandchildren, Calleigh and Ryder).

And that wasn't even everyone (for instance, our friends Brad and Treena Newcomer came in just as we were leaving, with their family)!

Thank you to all who joined in the event, and to Grand Finale (in Glendale, a northern suburb of Cincinnati) for making the event possible. And also to Robin for allowing me three (count 'em, three) bites of her puff pastry dessert!

Sabbath Walk, March 9, 2014

A lovely day for a Sabbath Walk...with Ender (our Shiba Inu), Aubrey, Kevin, Calleigh, and Ryder.

The Broadmoor

The lovely Robin and I are so happy to return to the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, one of the finest hotels in the world. I am here as a speaker for the Writing for the Soul Conference, hosted by some guy named Jerry Jenkins. I hear he writes books, too.


While a large portion of this sprawling hotel is undergoing renovations, our room is unaffected. It couldn't be more comfortable. We are tempted to assert squatter's rights and stay forever, instead of leaving Sunday as we are scheduled to do.

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Casa Blanca, San Juan

Among the many highlights of our whirlwind tour of Old San Juan last week was a circumlocution of "Casa Blanca," the sprawling house built by Spanish explorer (and early governor of the region) Juan Ponce de Leon.

Casa Blanca was built by Juan Ponce de León in 1521, though he never lived in it. He died during an expedition to Florida while the structure was being built. It was, however, the residence of his descendants until the mid-eighteenth century. Commanding a west-facing promontory and surrounded today by tiered gardens (the gardens were planted by the first American governor of the island in the nineteenth century), Casa Blanca served as the first fortification of the island, mostly protecting its residents from the native Taino.
One of the few disappointments of our visit to San Juan was our inability to enter and tour Casa Blanca, as it was under renovations. But we did the best we could, under the circumstances, walking all around the place until a single museum official told us we had to leave.
I took the photo above in an effort to show how the city wall (closest to the water) and the walls of Casa Blanca formed a double barrier between this enclosure and the sea.

Today, Casa Blance  is a museum of sixteenth- and seventeenth century artifacts managed by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture. It is one of the oldest buildings in Puerto Rico and is, of course, a cultural treasure.

El Morro, San Juan

A thirty minute walk from Castillo San Cristobal, which the lovely Robin and I explored together last Saturday, is another breathtaking fortress, El Morro.
Whereas San Cristobal protected the city of San Juan from attack by sea and land, El Morro (with its still-operating lighthouse, above), guarded the entrance to the port of San Juan, a priceless asset.
The photo above shows the entrance to San Juan harbor from El Morro. With cannon on El Morro and also at another fort across the entrance, any ship trying to enter the harbor would be caught in a deadly crossfire. Even today, cruise ships and other vessels that enter the harbor must be guided carefully into the bay.
El Morro (its full name is Castillo San Felipe del Morro) evolved from a promontory with a cannon to a massive six-level fortress that is a masterpiece of military engineering. In the picture below can be seen the "tracks" of the cannon assemblies that once allowed soldiers to move and aim the weapons. The photo also shows the shoreline facing east from El Morro to the ancient cemetery where many of San Juan's dignitaries are buried, the Capitol building, and in the distance, Castillo San Cristobal, the other fortress in the extensive defensive works that once surrounded the city.
It is an amazing thing to see--five hundred years of history, from Christopher Columbus's second voyage in 1493, to the present day. A part of that beautiful island's remarkable heritage.

Castillo San Cristobal, San Juan

Last Saturday, the lovely Robin and I had a great time touring the  majestic and imposing Castillo San Cristobal in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The sprawling fortress was built over a period of 150 years by the Spanish to protect the port and city from attack, thus preserving the lucrative plunder of gold and other exports from the New World.
Built on a hill originally known as the Cerro de la Horca or the Cerro del Quemadero, San Cristobal is the largest European fortification in the Americas. When it was finished in 1783, it covered about twenty-seven acres. It is not only an impressive and imposing sight; it also discloses many of the techniques and tactics of sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth-century warfare.
Among the notable features of San Cristobal are the many guerites, or sentry boxes. One of these, below, is known as "the devil's box," or "La Garita del Diablo." Various legends claim that soldiers regularly disappeared from this particular guerite, though local stories tell only of one soldier named Sanchez, who fled his post to escape with his girlfriend. The Devil's Box is inaccessible to visitors; it can only be seen from a distance.

One of the casemates in the fortress is furnished so visitors can see how the troops lived during much of the fort's operational life.
Castillo San Cristobal continued to be used for military purposes through World War II, when various vantage points were fortified and used as lookout posts. Below is the view from one of those. I might have volunteered for that duty.
Perhaps most remarkably, San Cristobal is only one of two major fortifications in the system that protected San Juan until sections were destroyed in 1897 to make room for the city's expansion.

The Streets of Old San Juan

Last Saturday, the lovely Robin and I were so blessed to accompany my brother Don and his wife, Arvilla, on a walking tour of Old San Juan, guided by our friend Jorge Marzan, who grew up in Old San Juan. After parking, we began our adventure at the plaza surrounding the statue of Christopher Columbus.
We saw so much and learned so much. Old San Juan occupies a tiny island off the larger island's north coast, and is connected to the rest of Puerto Rico by three bridges. The explorer Juan Ponce de León is credited with founding the original settlement, Caparra, nearby in 1508, but what is today Old San Juan traces its beginnings to 1509.

The narrow, blue cobblestone streets and flat-roofed brick and stone buildings date to the sixteenth and seventeenth century, when Puerto Rico was a Spanish possession. The facades of the historic buildings are carefully protected by the city, and cannot be demolished.

Old San Juan is a delight to visit, a place throbbing with life and distinction. We loved every minute, and only wish we could have spent more time exploring it.