Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! We certainly have a lot to be thankful for...including all of you.
Last posting I left off with us preparing to head south a bit with Jess, Chad & Esme. We left Wednesday November 26th, and our first stop was at the Roman aquaducts
near Tarragona, a town south from Sitges. Here's Jackson ready for a hike. He kept saying "I don't see any aquaducts, where are the aquaducts - quack quack!"
Caroline and Esme were too cute in their matching sweaters.
Here they are - the aquaducts! The structure and architecture were just amazing.
The top was open to allow people to walk across - I'm not sure this would have been allowed in the US! Jess and I arrived first with the girls, and we made our way across.
Caroline and Esme on the aquaduct.
Once the guys arrived Caroline couldn't wait to take them across the top.
Picnic lunch in the sunshine.
Caroline sitting on Rudy the deer, he came along on the trip - that's a long story!
Group shot by the aquaducts - Rudy too!
There were a number of nice paths to take, we chose the red route which was best for the kids.
From Tarragona we continued on about another hour and then found the castle at Pensicola by the sea. It was about halfway to Valencia, our final destination. It was definitely a sleepy town in the winter! We drove straight to the castle since it was almost dusk. We thought about leaving the boys in the jail there. :)
The views from the castle were amazing!
Luke in front of the church that was attached to the castle.
Off to the one side there was also a pretty lighthouse.
Like I said, the views were amazing, especially at sunset!! We loved it. This was the view to the north from the castle. 
And to the south was a fishing port. Que bonito!
We found a great hotel for the night, and headed back to the old town and castle in the morning. I love the contrast of the mountains with the sea.
Morning views to the south.
Bell tower and coast to the north in the morning.
From inside the watch-tower.
Inside the church.
We found a room underneath the castle that had all kinds of knight and soldier statues on display! Jackson was in his glory. Most of the time he just stood there and stared. Ha ha! This one was his favorite.
And this was Luke's favorite.
On the way out of the old town, we stopped at this amazing ceramics and hand-crafted gift shop. Chad really enjoyed talking with the guy, since he's a potter as well, and we got some great gifts there! 
Off to Valencia! Another 1.5 hours later and we found Valencia. We drove straight to the old town area to find lunch and walk around a bit. I had read that Valencia was the home of paella, and a number of the restaurants that we saw listed Valencian paella as the special. I was excited about trying this, since our paella here is more of a seafood paella. Well, I didn't realize that Valencian paella was made using chicken and rabbit. Yuck! :) Here are Jess & Chad walking through a cool archway in old town.
As I'm sure you know, Valencia is known for it's oranges, and there were pretty orange trees all over the streets of the city.
Pretty doorway, this may have even been the back side of the Cathedral, I'm not sure.
Another view of the same building, I liked the curved archways to the left. Just amazing.
The Valencia Cathedral exterior.
Valencia Cathedral interior. So beautiful.
On our way back to the plaza by the Cathedral we found Brian and the kids in McDonald's, they weren't crazy about the rabbit paella!!!
This is the plaza by the government buildings, it was fun to see their Christmas decorations and of course pretty fountains.
On the same plaza there were beautiful flower stands.
We ended up staying at a great hostel on this plaza, after driving around for an hour looking at other places! The kids were happy to chill out for a while. They found a great zoo animal show in Spanish.
Friday, November 28th. In the morning Jess, Chad and I went out to find the Central Market, and left Brian at the hostel with all 4 kids. :)
There were about 1,000 vendors, and it was almost all fresh produce and meats, with a whole seafood section. We bought a HUGE bag of clementines for about 5 euros, not sure whether we'd be able to eat them all. They melted in your mouth and the kids just loved them. The entire bag was gone in 2 days!
Took a picture of the seafood section but we didn't spend much time there. The smells were a little overwhelming. :)
After we returned from the market, Brian and the kids and I headed to the aquarium while Jess, Chad & Esme stayed in the city to explore some more there. It was a great aquarium! Here are some pretty fish.
Jackson loved watching the fish.
Cool seahorses.
Walking through a tunnel with fish all around.
And a beluga whale!! He swam all around and always had a smile on his face. :)
The aquarium had really nice inside and outside spaces, but most of the restaurants were outside and closed for the winter. We found one that was open and had a nice warm lunch. It was pretty cold walking around outside.
After lunch - the sharks!!
And at the end of the day there was an amazing dolphin show. Brian said he thought it was the best one he had ever seen. There were 4-5 trainers working with different groups of dolphins all at the same time, so there was lots to watch. Here are 3 of them twirling hoola hoops.
It was really fun to see how the trainers swam with them, and went flying through the water being pushed by them.
Six jumping at a time. It was a great show!!
And a sea lion trying to catch some sun on our way to the exit. Along with the aquarium tickets we purchased tickets for a show in the Hemispheric (like an IMAX but you lay back in your seat and it's not 3D). The way the timing worked out, we saw the show on the Mystery of the Nile. It was an amazing documentary of the first every voyage from the origin of the Nile in Ethiopia to the Mediterranean Sea. Very impressive. We then met up with Jess, Chad & Esme and headed back to Sitges.
Back in Catalunya, we spent Saturday around Sitges, and Sunday in Barcelona. Jess had heard about a great restaurant called 99.9% Origen, which we went to for lunch on Sunday. We loved it!!! They made local food from all over Catalunya with local products, and it was excellent. I just accidentally deleted the nice group photo I took there (sorry), but here's a picture of the restaurant.
And last but not least...Jess & Chad taught Luke how to play hangman, which he loved. This kept him occupied while waiting for lunch. :) On Monday I stayed home with the kids, while Brian took Jess & Chad to Montserrat. It was another cold day, and while the kids really did great with all the traveling, they were ready for a day at home. They watched the kids that night while Brian and I went to small group, and then left early Tuesday morning. As always, it was great to spend time with them - this time in a very different environment - showing them what we love about Catalunya and exploring new things with them as well!
Brian left on Wednesday and it's taken me a few days to get caught up with things. Yesterday we met up with Alisha in BCN to see the Christmas fairs and displays - very festive. Today is a holiday here and we didn't have anything going on, so we got the house all decked out for Christmas. It was very fun! I will have to post those pictures next time. :)
Happy holiday season to you all, and lots of warm hugs!
Tonya
Tonya
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