First Match Win

Christian had his first tennis match (ever) today with CK vs Calvary Christian. He won! He seemed very happy.

Another mini-vacation...

Olin was able to go to 2 days of school (Monday and Tuesday) before Sagebrush announced they'd be closing the elementary for the rest of the week due to an exposure at camp last week and two more people becoming sick due to that exposure, as well as supposedly some more people with symptoms. Bummer. Olin will miss salmon summit tomorrow (where they spend the day at a park and release salmon eggs, I think). At least he and I get to spend some more quality time together! haha. I am sure he'll be thrilled. 

He did manage to squeeze in his Science Fair presentation today, and while I wasn't able to attend (I tested positive on Sunday....sigh) my friend sent me video and photos. 

He also missed school pictures day and since they don't offer retakes I did a home portrait so that at least he'd have a picture in the yearbook that the kids always enjoy ordering. The school photographer always does a black background so I tried to recreate. Good old portrait mode to the rescue! This isn't the picture I submitted but I caught him mid-laugh and it's so cute.

He said it went well but "people asked a whole bunch of questions that we didn't know the answer to"

Conveniently wearing his fancy garb from science fair today

Post-Trip Thoughts

As if we've been gone months or years (instead of weeks)....these are the random things I'm thankful to return to, as well as the things we are missing!

Thankful to return to:

• Normal flush handle on the toilets rather than the little buttons
• Clothes dryers
• Non-lidded garbage cans. I can't stand garbage cans with lids!
• Being able to speak the language
• Being able to relax at home without wearing a mask
• Blogging on a laptop

Things we will miss:

• Fresh squeezing our own OJ at every grocery store
• Everything is so cheap!
• People don't really move for you on the streets or anything, but no one gets upset if you don't move for them
• Taxi drivers all very nice and professional
• Time with the kids with no obligations
• High speed trains
• Beautiful cities, beautiful country
• Walking everywhere
• Riding the metro - so easy and cheap
• Espresso and cortados in tiny cups
• I never had to inset my credit card - every business from taxi drivers and convenience stores to grocery stores and department stores had no touch credit cards (wireless scanners)

The End of Spain

We weren’t going to celebrate until we landed on US soil, and we finally arrived midnight of Friday (today) in Pasco after a Madrid-Munich-Vancouver-Seattle-Pasco flight. 24 hours of travel but not even a peep of complaint out of anybody in our travel group of three! In fact that was more or less my takeaway from the trip: the kids were pretty much dream travel companions. Although we were all fairly stressed about the day to day uncertainty there were almost zero complaints and very little fighting. They hauled really heavy backpacks and suitcases up each new place (of our 6 different accommodations). At least half didn’t have elevators, we walked miles, dealt with whatever food was presented, did dishes, took out trash, did homework (!) and worksheets, and didn’t even ask to do a huge amount of Nintendo or iPad. Maybe an hour a day? All things considered I already was - in a weird way - missing the time together. It was a really unique experience and unique 3 week time together.

Late night stretches at our last airbnb

He holds him like this all the time these days

Last dinner was at La Hummuseria after the sushi place we walked to was closed. That happened a lot where a place on Yelp or a grocery store on my map was no longer there. 

One of the better lounges we’ve been to - Madrid airport

Madrid Day 12 (of 14?)

I’m writing a day late of Tuesday’s activities. The kids asked to go back to Parque Rio so we went and enjoyed some outdoor activity. 

The big event was dinner at “Dans le Noir?” Restaurant - started in Paris maybe 20 years ago and Ev, puops and I went in 2005 - and I noticed they have one in Madrid! It was just as interesting and memorable of an experience as it was 17 years ago. Pitch black, eyes never adjust, and surprisingly hard to figure out what you’re eating and, if you’re using a spoon, how to get the spoon to your mouth without bending your head really close to the bowl, as well as figuring out how much food is left in the bowl without using your fingers to scope it out! The kids were totally fascinated by the entire experience. Our blind waiter, Sam, was awesome. 

Madrid Day 11 of tbd

We took the 30 minute high speed train to Toledo today. The kids told me on the ride home “you were passed out! We could tell that your mouth was open even underneath the mask”. Anyway, Toledo is known for its enormous cathedral which houses “art worthy of the Prado” by El Greco, Caravaggio, Velasquez. Who knew I’d ever know so many artists’ names. El Greco was apparently a Greek guy who lived in Spain, so they nicknamed him “the Greek”. The train station in Toledo is also photo worthy. The cathedral itself was huge, beautiful, freezing cold, and had exquisite sculpting/molding/artwork throughout. It is 1500 years old. Another fun fact: Toledo is know for its mazapan which I googled and conflicting results say it either is or isn’t exactly like marzipan. I got some and it tastes like marzipan. The city of Toledo is SO cute. Tiniest streets, all hilly, not a flat surface. Our cab from the train station drove on streets so narrow people had to scramble and duck in to doorways to make room, there were literally not inches to spare. 

Other side note: New Balance seems

to be the shoe of choice here amongst Spanish.  

In less exciting news, our Covid tests all seemed either extremely faint or negative this morning so we went to the clinic, only to be told both kids were definitely positive and no need to retest for 2-3 days. How discouraging. Even the girls at the clinic were surprised when I told them Christian was on Day 10 of a positive test. 

 

Madrid Day 10 of tbd

Today’s events: Segway tour (very fun) and bullfight (not very fun). They messed up on our Segway reservation so gave us an extra hour for a total of 2 hours. Kids really enjoyed it! So did I even though it took a few minutes to figure out how to adjust my weight to make the Segway move and turn and stop. 

Bullfight: well I can certainly see now why it’s so controversial. I had been to one 20 years ago but did not for some reason recall a bull actually dying. This time I felt it was pretty cruel, and unfair. I suppose if it’s part of your culture that you grew up with it probably seems like a pretty normal event, but we ended up leaving after 1 bull (of 12!).

We had decided to give kids new bikes for Easter and I decided to still make it happen. Good thing I have been keeping tabs on local print shops for C homework!

Madrid Day 9 of tbd

Today’s big event was stopping in an Asian market close to our place (kind of like an awesome dollar store) and picking out various things. Kids picked up molding clay and I picked up stuff to make a necklace. Haha. 

Also, this foosball table has provided the kids with a lot of enjoyment and Olin has taken up some alternative seating positions.  

And thank goodness I didn’t toss my Rick Steves book! Turns out I’ve needed it for several more cities than I had planned!

Madrid Day 8 of tbd

We rented a mini cargo van (it was the cheapest) for a day trip to Segovia, one hour away. The cargo van seated 3, and we were seated 3-wide in the front seat. The day went fine and the Roman aqueduct was awesome - 2000 year old! - but we probably drove around the narrow city in that van for 2 hours looking for a parking spot. It’s Good Friday and people must have the day off work because there were SO many people there. Seemingly local tourists. 

Also we have become pros at hanging our clothes out to dry