Last week we traveled to España to celebrate the R-Dog's birthday, and to partake in a wooloo-sponsored art project (as part of the European art show Manifesta 8). We spent most of our vacation in the Mediterranean city of Valencia, which proved to be a great place for some Alex-oriented fun. It reminded me of San Diego in that it's a lovely modern city by the sea, with lots of family-friendly activities. Some highlights of our time there include:
A day at the Valencia Aquarium:
 |
| Sharks! |
 |
| Watching a Dolphin Show |
 |
| Alex was most impressed by this stunt. |
 |
Baby Beluga!
(Actually, I think it was full grown, but all beluga whales
are babies in our world these days) |
Playing at the giant Gulliver's Travels slide:
 |
| I thought Alex was too little for this one . . . |
 |
| But I was wrong. He loved it. |
Wandering through the endless city parks:
 |
| Pinecone hat |
 |
Doing "tricks" in the plaza after watching some
big boys with their skateboards |
 |
| Cutie on a bridge |
The Animatronic Dinosaur Museum (in the rain):
 |
| They had some very unusual dinos |
 |
This one was Alex's hands-down favorite.
It hatched every few minutes to reveal . . . |
 |
| A baby dinosaur, of course! |
A visit to the Valencia Cathedral:
 |
| The Holy Grail (allegedly) |
For the wooloo art show, we rented a car and road-tripped our way to Murcia. We spent Russ' actual birthday here, with Sixten and the wooloo gang. Here is the photographic evidence from that portion of our trip:
 |
Russ and our rental car
in an unknown Spanish town |
 |
| El Toro |
 |
Alex mastered his arm-crossing technique
during our lunch stop in Elche |
 |
Birthday wishes do come true:
Churros y Chocolate for breakfast |
 |
| Alex liked them too |
 |
There was a man selling inflated cartoon characters in front
of the Cathedral in Murcia, so . . .
we now have an inflatable Mickey Mouse. |
 |
| Sixten, Russ, and Mickey |
All-in-all, it was a wonderful trip. As you have seen, we kept Alex entertained with all sorts of toddler excitement, which we greatly enjoyed as well. And we kept our bellies happy too: We ate tapas, paella, tapas, bocadillos, and more tapas. We drank horchata, cerveza, sangria, and more horchata (Valencia is apparently the birthplace of both horchata and paella. Both were delicious). Spain is such a beautiful, relaxed country. The perfect place to celebrate Russell's birthday.
