Hurricane Mary Hits Spain :)

Hola Amigos!! On Monday morning October 20th at 6.30am (1.5hrs early!) Hurricane Auntie Mary hit Barcelona, Spain!! She came the whole way from Durango, Colorado. The first day we just rested, went for a walk, ate lunch on the terrace in the sunshine, and then we were so happy she could go along to small group with us! We are studying the book "If you want to walk on water, you've got to get out of the boat" by John Ortberg. Mary caught up to us on her flight over, and we had a great meal and discussion of Chapter 5, which was very relevant to all of us!

The forecast for Tuesday was mid-70s and sunshine, so we knew exactly what we were doing!! A day at the beach! We packed a lunch and headed out. After laying on our stomachs on our towels for a while, we got up and realized that we had both been digging our feet in the sand while we talked. Ha ha! It was a gorgeous day by the sea.

We got home in time to take Caroline to gymnastics, and then she showed Mary around the Sitges church and old town areas of our pueblo.

Caroline took a picture of us at the base of the church, a favorite spot.

Mary and Caroline walking down the street from old town towards the San Sebastian beach.

And of course, Caroline's favorite road! We then went home and found garlic and saffron wafting out the kitchen window - Brian was making paella for dinner!!

Wednesday morning we woke up to a cloudy sky, and decided to catch the train to the next little town of Garraf. There is a pretty beach there with nice terrace restaurants where we thought we would eat lunch.

Here is a view of some little houses along the beach.

Mary, Caroline and Luke looking out over the marina.

Jackson wanted in the photo too!

There was a pretty old stone lighthouse in town. Brian had to jump up and down to get them to laugh. :)

I liked this view because you could see the sea and boats as well.

Well, we found that the town was pretty well shut down after the summer season. There were some nice houses to look at, but the restaurants were closed during the week.

Brian and the kids headed back on the next train, while Mary and I went to explore the old church and restaurant on the other side of town.

Here's where we were headed, but we had a little trouble finding our way there. Mary ended up taking me out along the railroad tracks, and we got scolded by two Spanish construction guys!

When we finally got over there, the restaurant was closed, but we found an iron gate that wasn't locked, so we let ourselves in. :)

Old watch tower looking out over the sea.

We climbed up to a look-out on the top of the church!

We had fun exploring, but then decided to head back to Sitges to have lunch with Brian and the kids at Pizza Marzzano.

On Thursday, Mary and I took the train and headed to Barcelona for the day. It was a bit rainy at first, but cleared up as the day went along. We first went to Sagrada Familia, and bought an umbrella so that we could walk the block around the cathedral and study all of the carvings. It's really amazing! We then took the metro to Montjuic and rode the red cable car out over the sea!

This ride gives such a good overview of the city. Here is the old port area (Port Vell).

Mary looking out over the beach at Barceloneta.

At the end of the cable car ride, from the edge of Montjuic.

We then walked up La Rambla from the port area, and stopped at Placa Reial.

We continued up La Rambla and stopped at El Mercat de La Boqueria. The colors are just amazing in there.

We then made our way across the Barri Gotic district to El Born where we stopped for tapas at a great little restaurant!!

We continued down that street to the Santa Maria del Mar cathedral that you can see in the background.

How appropriate, Placa de Santa Maria!

We then walked up Via Laietana in search of the Palau de la Musica Catalana, and got side-tracked by this authentic little shop where we stopped for churros and cafe. YUM!

We finally made it there, and it was a gorgeous building, but we were too late to get inside for a tour. There was a classical music concert there that evening.

So we headed through Placa Catalunya with the pretty fountains, to the Passeig de Gracia.

We stopped by one of Gaudi's houses, Casa Batllo, before catching the train back to Sitges. A very fun day in the city!

On Friday we met up with a group of Americans from Atlanta for a tour of the Torres Family Winery. Here is a view from the winery across the vineyards to the neighboring town. I like how the church is often the first building you see.

We enjoyed a really nice tour! Here we are with Caroline on the train ride of the grounds of the winery.

View of part of the original homestead and more vines. The grape harvest has just ended, so the vines are looking a bit tired.

Taken by our photographer, Caroline.

Inside the winery we walked through a museum that had beautiful Spanish tiles on display.

Of course Mary ended up knowing one of the people from Atlanta! She had lived there for 27 years. This group was here from Northpoint church to help with a little church in Sitges, where some of our friends go.

After the tour of the winery, we took Caroline home and then headed out to visit Montserrat, the monastery built high up on a beautiful mountain range. We rode the cable car up to the monastery, and then hiked out to a point which gave us this nice view of where we had come from.

Mary and I at Montserrat.

Beautiful views from our hike.

And more views.

We even found some flowers way up there. I liked this shot. You can see how strange/different the rock mountains are in the background.

Mary and I at the top of our hike.

We then went back to the monastery to go through the cathedral and grab a cup of coffee before riding the cable car back down. Here Mary is watching as the clouds are approaching.

That night the three of us headed out for a waterside dinner at the port in Sitges. We ate at Cafe Tiburon (shark). We had a wonderful time together. We thought about kidnapping her so she couldn't catch her flight out the next morning, we didn't want her to leave!! It was a very special visit. We love you Mare!! Come again soon. :)

She left on Saturday, Brian left on Sunday, and then my Mom arrived this morning! It's been raining all day, so we're all enjoying a day of rest. The kids are excited to show her all around, so we're hoping for more sunshine again soon.

Have a great week and we'll be in touch again soon. Hugs and kisses to all!
Tonya

Fieldtrips

Fieldtrip #1: The zoo! Last Friday we took the kids to the zoo for a fieldtrip, with plans to actually read the signs and learn more about the animals. :) Brian hadn't really been all throughout the zoo yet, so the kids had fun showing him around. First stop, the flamingos.
Flamingo Luke.
Next stop, the cats. One of Caroline's favorites: the jaguar.
One of Luke's favorites: the meerkats.

They all like the hippos.
The big guy. What an interesting body shape.
Every trip to the zoo requires a stop at Noah's Ark. Here's Jackson the elephant, Caroline the monkey, and Luke the camel.
We stopped for a snack on the upper walkway by the giraffes, and this guy wanted some of our food.
The kids liked having Brian tell them about all of the animals.

Caroline continuing with the monkey theme.
The zoo closed at 7pm, and on our way out we saw them setting up for a wedding! I couldn't believe it. Now there's a new idea.
It was a very pretty setting!
Fieldtrip #2: Exploring the Parc del Garraf. There are a number of beautiful Natural Parks near our town, and we've been wanting to explore them for quite some time. So on Sunday after church the kids and I took a road up through the hills/mountains of Parc del Garraf. We saw some rock climbers, stopped for a picnic with a nice view over the sea and Port Ginesta, saw a bunch of great trails for hiking (took a short hike), and came upon a Buddhist Temple in the middle of no-where! We had heard it was there, but weren't sure exactly how to find it.
It is apparently the only Buddhist Temple in all of Catalonia.

There was a nice courtyard there, a store, a restaurant, some fountains, and flags.
There was also a big garden area with lots of walking paths and this structure in the middle.
We followed one path through the woods, curious to see what we would find...
and we found a pond with some cool rock formations all around it.
In the pond there were turtles,

lots of fish, and ducks!

The kids found big dried leaf things to use as swords.
Instead of driving back the way we came, we decided to find our way through the Parc back to Sitges. What I didn't realize was that the roads soon turned into dirt roads, and we had a very bumpy ride home. The kids loved it. We finally came over the crest of a hill and had this view of Sitges and the sea in the distance.
Fieldtrip #3: Parc del Foix. We had heard from a number of people that there was a nice castle on a lake less than 30 minutes away that was a nice place for a visit. On our drive through Parc del Garraf on Sunday we picked up some information on all of the local Natural Parks, and realized that the castle with the lake was in Parc del Foix. So we headed there today, and this is the castle that we found! The kids said it was a good guys' castle, they were sure.
As we walked around the grounds there were some nice views of the lake and small village by the castle. However, we learned that the castle is only open to the public on the weekends. We'll have to go back.
Up the hill from the castle was the old church.
The boys sitting by a beautiful old door at the church.
A cemetery between the church and castle.
The bells of the church, which we heard ringing a couple times.
The kids found a nice shady spot to sit.
I had brought our home-school books along, so we stopped for a little school near the castle over-looking the lake.
Luke wanted to show you the workbook he was working on.
The flies got pretty bad while we were sitting there (thanks to the grape harvest, so I hear), so we eventually moved on to a different spot for our picnic. We followed a road that went down near the lake and found a great cool, fly-less spot with a view of the castle across the water. There wasn't another soul around! Unfortunately this is the only picture I have of the picnic, ha!!
Here was the view through the trees.
On our way out of town we stopped for another nice shot of the castle. We look forward to going back again sometime!

We are now preparing for my Aunt Mary's arrival on Monday!! We can't wait for her to come visit! Brian should be arriving the same day. I'm sure I'll have more to report then.

Have a great weekend and we'll talk to you again soon!

Con mucho amor,

Tonya