Vitoria, Spain

The next day we went into Vitoria. The Capital of the Basque country. We will be going back on the 4th or 5th for their fiestas to see all the excitement. We spent the day hanging with my cousins but then in the afternoon we went to a type of bull fight but where the bull doesnt get killed. Its a portugese style fight that places like barcelona are starting to adapt.

There are the bull fighters that do leaps and bounds avoiding the bull. At one point after tiering the bull out one of them hopped on his back and took a bow. One bull charged and hit the fence so hard his horn went right thru the fence. One of the bulls did get a horn in one of the guys legs but the rest escaped without too many scratches. It was very entertaining and some of the stunts quite amazing. It is also interesting to watch them pray and ask for saftly many times thruout the event to crosses around their necks or just bowing their heads.

Granon, La Rioja, Spain

We took our first day in granon easy we went to the saturday market in santo domingo and bought some fruit for the week. The place we are staying is a two bedroom apartment style place downstairs from the owners. Its called una casa rural. Very nice has a full kitchen and plenty of space. We later went to the garden of my uncle and picked beans, potatos, carrots, and zucchini. The bean plants were humungus. They are a spanish bean they say versus the french beans we see in the US. Id say they were twice as tall as Quinn. I think joe and quinn ate as many as they picked.

Montserrat

Next day we went to MontSerrat. A monistary in the mountains outside barcelona. There is one main one and hikes to a number of smaller ones. We hiked to one and will have to go back a diffrent year to do others. The way to the top was a train first then we took a cable car practicly strait up it seemed. You could see for miles all the way around. After here we took the long drive into Granon. It was about 5 hours over toll roads. I couldnt image what it would be over a regular road. Speedlimit around here is around 120km/hr not sure what that eqates to in the US.

Barcelona to Cordona

In Barcelona the main thing to see was the architechure called modern by Gadi. Boy is it weird. Anyway his buildings are all over the city so we took a hop on hop off bus all around. So after the day of going around Barcelona and seeing a very diffrent city we headed for the hills. It was a nice drive except for the golfball size hail that was hitting the car. At first i thought a car had thrown up a rock but then it started coming over and over again. The trees along the side of the road had leaves flying down everywhere. It was very diffrent weather than phoenix. Finally we reached our evening destination an old castle turned into a hotel by the spanish goverment. I think they are non profits and always historic places. It was very nice with breakfast included. Not your standard holiday in breakfast. There was wine, hams, cheeses, muffins and other baked goods. It was very yummy.

Day 5 & 6 - Mediteranian Coast

We took a plain over to Barcelona from london. From here we went south and payed almost 10 Euros to use the road down south. It seemed a bit steap. But then on the way back to barcelona we took the old road and i see why. The toll road had alot of tunnels and was a very smooth ride. But no views. The old road was very windy and hugged the coast and mountains going around the mountains that the toll road went thru. We spent the morning on the beach. It was great the water was so clear you could see down. Almost too much joe and I went out into the water and i saw a bright blue fish swimming around. I dont care much for fish neither swimming with em or eating them. One funny story was we went walking down the beach looking for shells. Quinn found one as a wave came up and grabbed it with some sand. Opened his hand and he had actully caught a crab. He jumped and dropped the crab and it burried it self in the sand. Was very entertaining but I'd have been a little more dramatic he was rather calm. Once we arived in barcelona we walked up las ramblas to the statue of chrstopher columbus. We were all very entertained by the street acts. There were some real unique creations. One guy was on a toilet, here was another dressed as an alien and many others.

Day 4 - London

Quinn was able to ride his first train called the tube in london. After checking in we headed over to the national gallary where we were able to see lots of art. Quinn found the naked people in the paintings rather interesting. I was surprised he didnt have the same reaction the next day with the greek statues in the British Museum. Those guys had it all hanging out. We went to the tower of london.

Quinn enjoyed seeing all the armor but not so much the crown jewels. Go figure. :-) From the tower of london we took the boat down the Thames to Westminister. Saw Big ben and walked over to Buckingham Palace. Didnt get to see the changing of the guard but did see them marching back and forth. On the way back to the hotel we had a nice walk thru green park. The next day we before heading out we stopped at St Pauls Cathedral.

Very impressive ceilings and then we found out you could go up to the top. so we went up it was 250 steps or so. but then there was even a more up section by the end of it we went up 500+ steps. The stairs at the bottom where wide with two way traffic. The next section was old castle style, whindy deep stone steps. Then the last set were metal spiral staircases all the way up. The views made it worth the excercise.

England Day 3

Busy day just relaxin. Gotta love it. In the morning we went and ate.. oh i mean picked fresh strawberries and rasberries. The stawberries were yum-me. Its amazing what type of road they consider a wide road. Glad im not driving, too many cars, wrong side of the road and roads smaller than our dirt roads with card parked everywhere so they are even skinnier.
After getting a lot of fruit we went back for a family get togeather. Quite a large group there were 3 generations of cousins. Quinn played cars with his gen cousin, then they also played some lawn janga. They then played an interesting bowling sticks lawn game. Should try to find one for phoenix it was quite fun. There were 12 sticks counting from 1 to 12 and then a bigger stick you would throw at them. if you knock one down you get the value of the stick if you knock more you get the number you knocked down. you have to get exactly 25 to win. and if you get none three times in a row your suppose to be out but they just start your points back at zero. Tommorrow off to London bright and early. Quinn will get to ride the tube (their underground) should be interesting.

Day 1 to 2 - Kent, England

We left phoenix about 15 minutes late so around 8pm AZ time. I ordered special meals on the pain so they were actually half way decent. Quinn slept most of the way, feet on one person and head on the other. Must be nice to be that small. Joe and I were able to catch up on some movies. Each seat had its own private theater on the back of the seat in front of them so you could watch whatever you felt like. and stop and start it as much as you wanted. Worked out well. I watch Clash of the Titans, Valentines day and the bounty hunter. so that took up 6 hours of the 9 hour flight. Sleep didnt take up the other three. Oh well. So the second day we went over to Bodium Castle. Quinn really got to step into midevil times. Almost literally. He put on some kids chainmail, breast plate, sword, shield and helmet. After being dressed we had 30 seconds before he said it was all too heavy. So we ditched the shield and had a few more moments of pictures. Quinn also tried his hand at the bow and arrow. Not so impressive, the animals got away but the grass had a beatting. But he stepped up in history and tried out a machine gun. little better aim there he actually hit some of hte buildings.


The castle it self is very good for kids. The middle is all open but it still has some towers intact. You walk up very tight windy stair cases to the tippy top tower and get a great view.
On the way up you see some old fireplaces and the original pit toilets. but in this case instead of a hole in the ground it dumps out into the moat. yuck.

The moat looked very moat like, green and slimy with gigantic fish. they were so big they looked like they could eat you hand or foot. After our fill of the castle we were able to watch a demonstration of a caterpolt. They say they use to use hot white sand in the old days but inorder not to hurt anyone they use water bombs and cantelopes today. They fired it off into the moat. something you wouldnt see here. No lines for safty just a warning that they have been known to fire backwards so he told the people behind they may want to move. But it was up to them.

After a picnic lunch we went off to see where Winnie the Pooh is from. We took a nice walk down to Pooh bridge thru the 100 acre woods (alhtough the map said 5 acres or something like that). We had some pooh sticks but the water was a bit low so we just contributed to the damb building up for the most part. It was a nice walk. Today we relax and hang with the family after we go pick some strawberries and rasberries. Yummy im looking forward to that. Yesterday we polished off a big ol basket of fresh cherryies. Gotta love summer in the country.

Copper Mountain

After a full day at Beaver Creek we headed over to Copper Mountain. We stayed in a 5 bedroom condo with the family. Thursday Quinn took a lesson while the rest of us covered the mountain. Quinn had a great time in the lesson and learned how to ride a lift. He received a mini report card that said he is a level 3 but needs to make sure the falling leaf doesnt become a crutch. He has that move mastered so the rest of the next day we were going to practice Toe Side. Friday Quinn and I took on the green runs and worked on our turns. By the end of the day he was able to make it all the way down the hill without stopping. He was very pleased with him self that he could beat Joe down. Saturday we decided to go snow shoeing. It was a very entertaining seeing Quinn follow his Uncle Alex off the track into the deep snow. When we stopped for lunch Quinn decided to make his own tracks and was waist deep it seemed at times. Then if he lost his footing he would put his and down to get up and just sink in farther. Most of our track was packed trails but then we made our way onto the runs and inorder to avoid the skiiers decided to track thru the trees. It involved alot of slipping and sliding and at one point we ended up on a ridge with the only way down being to slide. Very fun but alot of work. Saturday night we went to a fondoo place and Quinn very much enjoyed dipping the veggies into the cheese and later the fruit into the chocolate.

Day 4 - Beaver Creek

So from Aspen we drove into Avon which has Beaver Creek one of Vails 4 mountains. The road into Avon was a bit snowy and we went thru some cool tunnels that Quinn really enjoyed. When we arived at the hotel they were nice enough to upgrade us so we got a room with a fireplace, patio and kitchenette. Too bad we are staying only one night. The hotel had its own gondola that went up to the mountain so we took a round trip ride. It was very neat cause it went over the highway and river up to the mountain. The next day we went up to the main area and got a lift ticket for Joe and one for Quinn. For Quinn they had a nice green run ticket so we were able to ride the gondala up and he could take a nice wide green run down. Quinn would then ride down the green on his board while I walked down ahead of him. Did that about 4 times before we took a break. It was very nice taking the gondola up. Much easier than a lift.

Day 3

A little bit painful in the morning after a day on the mountain. Quinn said he was fine not sore at all. Quite amazing. So to loosen things up a bit we walked around downtown Aspen looking at the shops. It was very well layed out and a nice walk. At night it was a very nice site as well they had alot of trees lit up and other items. There was a gazebo that had lights and snow on top that I really liked. We hung out at the hotel it was called the St Regis. Very nice and at the base of one of Aspens four mountains. On the way outta town we stopped at Buttermilk where the XGames will be this weekend. They had a half pipe and some crazy ramps. There were a few people practicing so we watched that for a little while. On our way out we stopped at a nice restaurant in Carbondale called EcoGoddess. From there we headed to Avon which is where Beaver Creek is one of Vails mountains. It was snowing most of the way so it was a little slow going. The views where nice and we went thru some tunnels that Quinn really enjoyed. When we arrived at the hotel it has its own gondala up the mountain so we took that for a spin to see the sites. We will see if we go snowboarding again. It gets a little expensive.

Day 3

We got up early and drove down to Aspen snowmass. A real big mountain. Quinn went into snowboard lessons which turned out real nice because it was only him and one other kid with the instructor. Joe and I headed up the gondala and went down the run back to the bottom. When we got back up to the top quinn was up there but complaining about his toes being cold so I sat inside with him for a litte warming his feet and then we was ready to go again. We checked in on him a few times and he was doing great. So we decided to head to all the peaks that had at least one blue to get down. At the highest point we were aroung 11.8. Not sure if we are use to altitude but except for the fact it was snowing and freeking cold it didnt bother any. The ride down was a long one and by the time I got down the second or third peak i was done. Joe went off and did some other runs on my way down i saw quinn. He wsa doing a great job. The mountain was a great run, it wasnt busy and it was easy to find runs with no one in sight.

Day 2

The lodge was about 13 miles down the colorado. So on the way out we got a real good view of it. Quinn was very fasinated by the fact in some locations it was frozen with wholes on occasion. We headed into arches and decided to hike the delicate arch trail. It was 3 miles round trip not too bad. we only saw 3 sets of people the whole time. One couple mentioned that in the summer you would have to wait in line for a picture there were so many people. One of the fun pictures we took was in the shadow of the arch the sun was just in the right spot. After delicate arche we went to the windows a bunch of arches in one area. its an easy walk around. From here not too much excitement drove into grand junction then into aspen.

Ski Trip 2010

On the road again. After watching the weather all week and wondering if they would open I-17 today we lucked out. They opened the road at 9am. We hit the road at about 10am with the sun shining in spots. We saw alot of snow as we aproached Flagstaff. The road was good, we hit a few low clouds that were still dumping snow but nothing crazy. I thought there was alot of snow in flagstaff until we hit Montecello UT i think it was called. that place had piles and piles of snow everywhere. The drive was very peaceful and scenic. We went thru monument valley and mexican hat. Not too much snow there. The drive over all was very peaceful, traffic was next to nothing and the flat planes where white with snow with only mountains around. All the mountains seemed to have low clouds around them. There were ocasional thunder clouds and the ones at sunst were quite a site. the picture doesnt do it justice. Tommorrow off to Arches National Park to check it out before heading into Aspen.