Fort Happy Place

We live in Puerto Rico- the isle of enchantment...paradise. Cruise ships flock here for the natural beauty and wealth of history. We are surrounded by gorgeous beaches, towering palm trees, blooming tropical flowers and lush, mountainous jungle. And yet, in the midst of all this stunning beauty, my favorite place on the island is rapidly becoming...the Fort Buchanan Army Base. Beth laughed at me the other day when she asked what was the next thing I was looking forward to and I said 'getting to go on base this afternoon.' But it's TRUE! To understand why I've developed such strong feelings, it's important to grasp what driving everywhere else in San Juan is like. Here are some pictures I took on an average day (today) on my drive home from the base. Don't worry, my car was not moving during the making of this footage.

I like this one because it demonstrates a common phenomenon- namely that although this street is meant to have one lane going in each direction, me and the car next to us are sharing the lane. This will work OK until we come to a car parked in my half of the lane, which happens about once per block.



Here we have the ambulance (with lights and sirens) attempting to get through the crowded intersection with no one making any attempt to get out of their way. Also note the efficient use of electrical and telephone wires.


This is the intersection to get into our neighborhood. It's, well, crowded. I feel crowded a lot.


Then, you drive onto base. At first glance it's nothing impressive. The buildings are drab, single storied and functional. There's been no particular landscaping, and there's no ocean front view or interesting topography. No, what draws me to the Army base is that it's so...peaceful. It's quiet. Traffic is orderly and goes at a constant speed in a constant direction. There are large swaths of open green space, and adequate off street parking for every building. No one honks. Today I actually yielded to a pedestrian. I don't know where the dogs poop, but they don't do it in the street or on the playgrounds. Here are Lucy and Theo relaxing under a tree at school, getting ready to run the gauntlet of the drive home:


Every day between 2:15 and 2:30 the base school system loads 2500 kids from three separate schools onto 23 different buses and delivers them to the far corners of San Juan. They do it reliably and with a minimum of fuss. It literally only takes them fifteen minutes to load those buses! I can't get the three kids in my Primary class to the bathroom and back in fifteen minutes. It's truly a minor miracle of efficiency and planning. Here is a shot from the parking lot up the hill to where the buses wait. Can you feel the tranquility?


The base actually has this sign:

and we have literally had to STOP FOR DUCKS three times!

It kinda makes me proud to be an American. Go Army!