Cadiz ...

 We took a trip to Cadiz again in hopes to meet up with Elder Ryan Jack.  He is a missionary here in Spain from our home ward and we brought him some fun things from his parents.  We called them and found out where they lived but once we got there they thought maybe it was a better idea if he didn't see us, so we just dropped the package and he came down and picked it up.  We ended up spending a beautiful day in Cadiz though, so it wasn't all lost.  We would have liked to see Elder Jack, but know he was being obedient and that is what matters.  We enjoyed a yummy treat from the corner Carmella shop by his apartment too, that was a huge bonus!  It is a beautiful city, that is for sure.

More Beach pictures ...

 We try to spend as much time as we can at the beach since at home in Idaho it is freezing cold with snow!  We are trying to take in the sun while we can.   We've built hot tubs, turtles, surfed, found lots of shells, rocks and sea glass.  Last Saturday Jake actually got to try stand up surfing. His co-worker Mike rented a surf board while he was here and let Jake take a turn.  He did a great job as he was pounded over and over again by the waves.  The standing up part looked like fun, but the getting hammered by the waves part, no thanks!!  Anthon couldn't be left behind, he grabbed the boogie board and caught some waves too!  We got to watch some wind paraglides too.  We really are falling in love with the beach, especially because most of the time we have the beach to ourselves!

 

La Rabida #3 ....

 While I completely enjoyed seeing the life sized replicas of the boats, I think my favorite spot was the monetary where he studied, and revealed his plans and dreams to set sail.  It was actually quite a sacred spot.  We were able to get hand held tour guides that shared lots of very interesting information about the different rooms and such.  Like where they would eat, where Christopher Columbus and his crew prayed before they left on their voyage, where Christopher Columbus and the monks tried to figured out how they would get their funding and the Queen and King to back them.  It was all very interesting.  It was a lot bigger monastery than we thought from the outside.  Even the kids seemed to enjoy listening to the information.  The one room upstairs had a bunch of flags with a little bit of dirt from each of the countries of the flags displayed.  It was quite interesting to see the differences in the soils.  All in all, certainly worth the drive to experience this cool place of history!

Some park time in La Rabida ...

 We had some time to kill before we could get into the monastery that Christopher Columbus stayed and studied at so we found this fun little park in La Rabida.  The kids had a good time even though it was cold and a little rainy the whole time.  Jake ended up finding the spot where they say that Christopher Columbus got their fresh water supply for their journey.  Pretty cool place full of history!

La Rabida #1...

We had a fantastic day going up to Huelva, La Rabida to visit the Christopher Columbus museums.  They had 3 life size replicas of the Nina, The Pinta and the Santa Maria that we could go on.  They had them set up as they would have been used so it was cool for the kids to get to see them.   They had a good time going up and down the steep ladders and seeing these quite small ships.  I certainly wouldn't have want to spend 70+ days on these ships in the middle of the ocean.   We got to see a video talking about the voyage and some of the instruments they used to tell their directions.  It was a very cool stop.  We complete enjoyed it.  

DownTown El Puerto ....

 Our first visit to downtown El Puerto de Santa Maria was just a walk around the city during siesta time.  It is a beautiful little city.  We walked to the Plaza de Toro, the old castle and the church.  We ended up running into the Sister missionaries from our church and also a nice guy from South Africa who lives here who pointed us in the right direction to the castle.  It was a nice little day out and about.

An evening walk on the beach ...

What a beautiful world we live in, especially here in Spain.  I am not positive why I don't live by an ocean in a warmer weather climate!  I may have to see about changing that soon.  We took an evening walk on the beach and were lucky enough to be there when the sun was setting, what a beautiful site!