My husband and I honeymooned in Puerto Rico in May of 2011 while we were living in North Carolina. Ever the educational enthusiasts, we found ourselves not only enjoying the beach and indulging in the piña coladas and tostones, but also driving up winding mountain roads to check out the Arecibo Observatory, the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope at the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, and scampering over the 16th century walls that fortified Old San Juan. Due to Puerto Rico’s U.S. Territory status, the two major fortresses of San Juan are a part of the U.S. National Park Service, making up the San Juan National Historic Site.
Sometimes I wonder if my husband knew what he was getting into when we walked into the gift shop, and I picked up my “Passport to Your National Parks®” book. I had heard about the passport program, started in 1986 and celebrating its 25th anniversary that year, and what better time to start collecting passport stamps and cancellations while at one of the harder-to-reach destinations in the Caribbean??
What I like about the Passport program is that it gives you an opportunity to strike up a conversation with park staff, to get a historical perspective by visiting a site in a new city, and to get off the main highway to discover some of the more remote NPS sites, never a disappointment. Visiting the parks has also allowed me the ulterior motive of showing off the best the West has to offer to my East Coast-bred husband after our relocation to my native California in 2012. I hope to share some of our “adventures in stamp collecting” along with related topics on this blog!
Passport books are published by Eastern National and are available at http://www.eparks.com/store/ as well as in Parks stores.