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We found a beautiful place to go hiking this weekend. Just an hour away from us is a waterfalls park that was really beautiful. There were lot’s of fun bugs and plants (including tons of cherry trees) and a few fun swings over the waterfalls. So nice to get outside! The weather report said rain but we went anyways and there wasn’t a single drop.

WEEEEEEEE!

For memorial day we headed south to go camping, lay on the beach and explore the city that is it’s own country, San Marino. Sorry, no pictures of the beach. But San Marino was GORGEOUS! It’s a fortress on top of this huuuge hill. We parked at the bottom and took the gondola up. Very touristy, but neat nonetheless. Our friends Jenni and her two kiddos came with us for the weekend, it was nice for Jonah to have his girlfriend Keira to play with all weekend.

At the beginning of May we had some friends invite us to accompany them to a kite festival on the beach. It was really fun to see all the different kites. A lot of them were HUGE, or could do really cool tricks. We pretty much just sat on the beach and watched the kites. The big ones did go up high in the air but it was harder to get a good picture of them once they were up, so that’s why you see them on the ground here. Except the big puffer fish, he stayed on the ground. He was the biggest, and Jonah was deathly afraid of him. I think he thought he might roll over him since he kept kind of rolling around.

Right at the end they had a “candy drop” where they dropped little parachutes with candy for the kids from a kite that was used in WWII to take photographs of enemy lines (kind of a cool history behind a kite I think). It was fun to run with all the kiddies and try to get the candy falling from the sky.

Gaudi is this crazy architect that built all kinds of cool stuff in Barcelona. The last years of his life he committed to builing the Sagrada Famiglia. They started it in 1882 and it’s still not done! See all the cranes? It is definitely an interesting church and kind of a breath of fresh air after the hundreds of churches we have seen that all seem the same.

 He was inspired by nature, you can see the trees when you look up at the supporting columns of the church.  Check out the modern art stained glass, very refreshing and bright.

 Among Gaudi’s other works was what was supposed to be a gated neighborhood. But it was too far from the center of the city and so it became a park. People say he was ahead of his time because nowadays the rich people want to be further out, but back then they didn’t. It makes a neat park though with all of his artwork. Including the world’s longest bench, the gingerbread looking houses at the entrance and the symbolic lizard that welcomes you.

 In Gaudi’s park, it resembles the tunnel of a wave.

 Barcelona is where Columbus brought back the Native Americans (There is a Columbus monument in Barcelona on the port due to the fact that Spain funded his journey, it is ironic because his discovery sort of killed their trade for awhile). In one of the churches is supposedly the Baptismal font where they baptized the native americans (see above).

Creepy statue

Lions around the Columbus monument

Crazy Gaudi buidling

The magic Fountain, it dances to the music and changes color.

I did steal the camera a few times and get some photos of Nick, but apparently I’m not a good photographer cuz Nick didn’t like any of them. I swear he was there though!

Barcelona has an amazing open air market open everyday except Sunday year round. Because they are a port town they get fruits and veggies from all over the world. There is a huge fish and meat section. We enjoyed the fruit drinks and all kinds of tropical fruit. We walked through the market almost every day just to enjoy the atmosphere.

This last week we had to opportunity to go to Spain. We had a few hitches here and there but I learned a lot from them…such as be sure to check the dates of your flights before pushing the “purchase” button. Or, never say you want a receipt at a foreign ATM because sometimes it will ask you to provide the paper for your receipt before it will spit out your money, and apparently it doesn’t want just any piece of paper so the paper I put in it jammed up the whole machine (which was good because it ensured no one else got my money). And always ask the price of those little pizzas at the bakery instead of assuming that they are 2 euro each because they could be 8.50 euro each.

But there were some good things too. Like the amazing newly remodeled apartment that I found right on the beach for $80/night. And the fact that the woman who owns the apartment gave me the kiss-kiss greeting (That was my very first one in a year of living in Europe! I was super excited!) The weather was great. We had plenty of time to see everything and spend time on the beach. Overall, Barcelona was not my favorite place that I have been in Europe but it was worth a trip.