Spain Day 3

Today was our first day with Joel at the conference, and it was also the first nice sunny day in Spain so we decided to take it easy and spend it outside at the park. First we had breakfast. Caroline decided to wear her fancy shoes:

Then Bennett told some weird selfies before we ventured out:


The Parque de Alamillo wasn’t too far from our hotel, and from what i saw online there was a playground. Joel’s coworkers teenage daughter came with us, which was nice, just to have someone new to play and talk to. There was still a bit of a chill in the air, and pretty windy, but the sun felt so nice after the loooonnnggg MN winter. The first playground we came upon was overrun by a bunch of schoolaged kids, so we found a map and saw there was a second playground. This one was much bigger than the first, and totally deserted so we were in luck. The kids were thrilled!
















We decided to walk around the park and visit the two little ponds. Honestly, ‘ponds’ is an understatement. They were teeny, but it was just so nice to walk in sunshine.


Eventually we saw the school kids were leaving and decided to stop at the first playground.


Bennett solved a maze puzzle:




Then we walked Annie back to the hotel to meet her dad and ventured off to find some lunch. I was pretty nervous to find us lunch because the whole language barrier thing is super intimidating, despite everyone being so nice. We went to an area about 15 minutes away, that the concerige recommended. In our walk, we got to cross a bridge we had driven on quite a few times:


We opted to not eat at the place recommended to us because it was completely empty, but went to the place with the most people eating outside. Euro Mania. Tons of teeny sandwiches for 1 euro. We ordered two ham sandwiches for the kids, a salad for me, chips, Fanta and a cookies and crepe sandwich for dessert. Naturally the kids picked out the ham and only ate the sandwich bread. Orange Fanta is Joel and my vacation staple and the kids were huge fans. Obviously they loved the dessert. Who wouldn’t love Nutella and crushed Oreos on chocolate bread?










The restaurant was near a fountain and playground, so we stopped for a while before heading back to the hotel.






Back at the hotel we napped in bed for the first time since arriving in Spain. It took a bit for the kids to fall asleep and they actually weren’t in sour moods at the park but i wanted a nap, so everyone had to nap. After our naps, we met Anie to go swimming. The hotel has an indoor and an outdoor pool that are connected. Obviously the kids, especially Bennett, wanted to venture outside. It wasn’t TOO bad, as long as wet parts stayed under water.






As luck would have it, Joel didn’t have dinner plans like he thought so we ate at the hotel restaurant. It was pricy but delicious. Sea bass cooked at low temperature. I’m not sure why they needed to specify the low temp but it was fine. Steak with sweet potato sponge, yes, sponge (basically sponge bread). It was delicious. Then paella with a reverse socarrat (the crusty bottom layer of rice. Who knew it had a name?! AND wasn’t just a Chinese thing?!?!?!) Paella was super delicious. Bennett actually ate about a fourth, which is more than he’s eaten so far, other than bread. He said he liked the steak and sponge as well. Caroline ate bread, obviously. She did try two bites of streak, and actually asked to eat the shrimp on top of the paella. I’m not sure if she just really wanted shrimp or if she was finally starving, since she is still on her bread and fruit diet.






The day actually went really well. I think it helped that the kids could be loud and get wiggles out on all the playgrounds. We are semi on Spain time now. We’ve been getting up super late, around 10 am, have a mid-morning snack on the go. Then eating lunch at 2 and dinner after 8:30, which is all normal Spanish meal times, although completely crazy to me every time i look at the clock. However the kids are still wired at night. It is midnight and both are still wiggling in bed. Tomorrow we are going to meet Annie for breakfast at 10 so I’ll be waking the kids up early at 9:45. I hope this doesn’t ruin their good moods because we plan on going to the aquarium tomorrow. It is supposed to be another windy rainy day, so what better way to spend it than inside. However that means I’ll be my first time taking a taxi without Joel. That’ll be slightly terrifying. I also don’t plan on bringing a stroller to the aquarium either. I really hope I’m not making a horrible decision.