El Primer Fin de Semana

This weekend was full of sunshine, exploring, and (of course) delicious food! Early Saturday morning, basically the crack of dawn, around about 10AM, we took a train to the nearby historic city of Santiago de Compostela. When we first arrived the first thing we noticed was the heat - it was at least 10 degrees hotter than La Coruna, mostly due to the lack of an ocean breeze. However, as we made our way deeper into the city, the streets became more and more lively, with people who this time looked just like us, with bulky backpacks, hats, and walking shoes. At first we thought they were other tourists, which some were, but many had a seashell on their backpack - the mark of someone completing the spiritual pilgrimage to Santiago, called the Camino de Santiago. People come from all over the world to travel from hundreds of different places in Europe on foot, bike, or sometimes even horse, to the Cathedral of Santiago. It was very neat to see so many people look so happy and rocking some really great tan lines.

While we were there, we explored a museum filled with items from long, long ago as the community developed, ate some very delicious lunch at a local restaurant, and finally toured the incredible cathedral. Unfortunately, the tour was entirely in Spanish, and while I'm a little better than last week, I'm not quite good enough yet. All I was able to get from her was that there was a religious conflict of some kind with the Romans. Imagine that. Anyway, we were all able to catch some pretty neat pictures, and thank goodness that means there's no translation necessary!

Our Crew!

Not 1 spiraling staircase, but 3! Even Dumbledore would be jealous.

Where art thou, Romeo?

The start of my modeling career.

Told her to look at Victoria like she liked her. Nailed it. 

Face Face-Off

Shade was in short supply, but Soraida found her own little oasis!

If you look closely, you'll see Addy's head jumping above her newest outfit.

The Gardens

Which is clearer: 1...

or 2?

The stones were cold. They were not.

Featuring our new Coloradoan friend Bret

Bret likes to be included.

The Squad

After our time at the cathedral, we'd decided we'd had enough of the heat and headed for the train station to catch our train back to La Coruna. Luckily, that meant there was a moving vehicle, and that meant I was asleep almost instantly. Once we got back I think everyone else had a pretty similar idea. Later night we tried to be cool and hip and experience the Spanish night life, but all we figured out is that we are all actually 80 years old on the inside and that this country literally never sleeps. It was fun to hang out together and talk, but I'm afraid we were all tired from a long day of walking and beyond that I think it would take special training to be able to keep up with these folks. It's very impressive. No wonder they have siestas.

The kids were fighting.

Coolest ceiling ever.

Bret got a high five for rocking the ratio.

"Addy are you taking a picture of me?" "No..."

Sunday was a pretty slow day - we woke up late, Addy and Vic hit the beach (I was in hiding from the sun, didn't want to sunburn my sunburn), and cleaned up a little bit. At around 7:45, we all met up with our classmates and made our way to Monte de San Pedro. What we were worried might be a mountain turned out to be more of a rocky hill (Colorado changes your expectations) and as we walked to the steepest edge we saw the coolest elevator I've ever seen. You've seen the Incredibles, right? Well if you haven't I need you to stop reading and go watch it immediately because it's iconic. "Where is my super suit?" Anyway, if you have, then hopefully you remember the little white ball car things on the secret island. Well, that's what we were about to ride up to the top, and that's when Addy, Vic, and I couldn't control it anymore and started geeking out about the trusses and gears and overall super cool design. That moment gave us all hope that perhaps we are in fact studying the right major and the concerned looks on the faces of our fellow classmates backed that up, too. We climbed into the bubble and were soon gliding up the cliff side. Once we reached the top, we were let out to a view of the whole peninsula and miles and miles of ocean. Amazing.

The Spaceball (just one)

Trust the Trusses.

Our little Urkel

Once we took in as much of that spot as we could, we moved on to the other side on the mountain, which took us through a very green park and past an observatory-like building with balconies with even more beautiful views. From the balconies we also spotted an ice cream stand, which Addy and Vic wasted no time running to even though it was on the other side of the park. At least they had to work for it. We then made our way to some old bunkers with huge guns that were installed (but never used) just before WWII. It was there that we relaxed and waited for the sun to set over the deep blue ocean horizon. Wow. Wow wow wow.

Only the most confident sailors look where there ship isn't going.

They call us the Three Musketeers. I kind of love it.

What a cutie.

My Jack is travel size.

If you don't have a cruise ship, an artillery gun will do.

About two minutes after the sun had set, we all realized just how hungry we were. By then it was about 10:15 and we still had to get back to civilization before we could eat dinner. We took a bus back to the center plaza and found a place that happened to have "American food" and nearly all of us ate burritos the size of Addy's forearm. For me, "ate" might be a bit of an understatement - inhaled is more like it. I don't know if it was the taste or my hunger that made it so delicious, but it really hit the spot. From there we called it a night and walked our full bellies home in the warm evening air. What a weekend.

I realize that was a lot of photos, but I hope you liked them! Thanks for keeping up with us!

Quote of the Weekend: "Can we, Mom, can we, pleaaaase?" -Addy and Vic, in sync, asking to go get ice cream while already running there.