Life is Fun in Spain: U.S. Friends

There is always a festival happening in Barcelona...big or small. The one below was small, and it celebrated the customs of Mallorca, one of the Balearic islands in the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain. As always, there were the giant figures of people and creatures marching through the streets.

There was a massive bonfire in the center of the plaza, surrounded with folks singing their traditional songs and playing their traditional instruments.

On Super Bowl Sunday, we had a midnight dinner with Robert (in yellow), who is a diehard Seahawks fan (since he is from Washington), and Pablo, who joined in on the fun and helped us figure out all the technicalities of streaming the game live to our TV. The game started at 12:30am in Barcelona, and we finally hit our heads to the pillow at 4:30 in the morning.

Our friends, Ryan and Padma, came to visit us!!

Ryan is the boys' (and my) dance instructor from Truckee, and Padma, a contemporary and jazz dance teacher, has taught them some dance technique, as well. While visiting, they took a variety of dance classes in our dance studio in Barcelona (La Urban Dance Factory). Besides seeing Barcelona, we took some out-of-city side trips and had such a blast together!

Here we are at the train station before heading to Sitges, a small coastal town 30 minutes south of Barcelona.

Our time in Sitges happened to be during the annual "Carnival",

about 5 days of partying and festivities prior to Ash Wednesday when lent begins.

Ryan and the boys are watching a break dance show near the beach at Sitges. They even each took a turn showing their moves when encouraged by one of the performers (who the boys knew).

We walked through the streets and soaked in the architecture in this fun coastal town, Sitges.

That same day was Valentine'e day, and we went to our favorite Barcelona restaurant for dinner,

Flax & Kale. I had the black rice dish...unimaginably delicious!!!

Ryan and Padma...a perfect Valentine couple!!

We also took a trip to Figueres, where Ryan and Padma went through the Dalí Museum, which we had visited a couple months prior. Then we drove to the coast and visited the castle in Tossa de Mar. (It is really a medieval fortress with living quarters, grounds, a church, etc.) Our family had been there before, but we only had 10 minutes to explore before having to head back to the city with our group. This time we had lots of time to wander the scope and grounds of the fortress.

What a spectacular place! (Forgive the number of photos I included here.)

The boys brought their drone and flew it in the castle grounds.

Finished exploring the castle; now time to fly the drone on the beach.

Happy guys!

Another day we went to Tibidabo, a high point in Barcelona with a big cathedral (imagine that!)

We took a train, tram, and bus to get there. It was mighty windy, but the views were grand.

Somehow I caught Jacob's mishap below with a series of consecutive shots (I didn't know the camera was on that setting). Jacob (notice the headphones around his neck) was balancing on the pole, as you can see...