Boom, upside your head!

If you are singing the little cheer in your head, than you get the title. If not, just ignore my humor and check out this funny story:

We're all walking along the promenade to the beach, excited to see the coast and feel the water. As we're admiring the harbor and chatting a group of young Spanish teens start walking towards us with little clipboards, wanting us to sign petitions. We don't really pay attention until they get really close to us, asking us if we spoke English. Stephen and the girls kind of part ways around them, saying "NO!" and kept walking.

I, unfortunately, was cornered by one of the aggressive little ladies. She pushed her clipboard into my stomach, shouting things in Spanglish, when I felt a little movement in my purse. I pushed her back a bit, saying "No! What are you doing?" when she FREAKED OUT. She walked past me and then HIT ME with her clipboard in the back. It didn't hurt, but I was completely stunned.

Aimee and the others caught on when they heard me yelling at her. They whipped around in time to catch her hit me and just bust out laughing. Well, that's not completely true. They were concerned for a second, but then cracked up. I mean, who gets hit by a pickpocketer? She didn't get anything out of my purse, only unzipped it halfway.

We watched the teenagers reassembling further down the promenade and were able to catch her have a hissy fit at her lack of skills again, throwing her pencil and stomping. Guess I won this round, babe!

The Sagrada Familia and the Jazz night that never was...

Well, our jazz night was a flop. We arrived at the door to be told it was a 10 euro cover charge "unless you can find the people handing out flyers, then it's free!" Are you kidding? Guess they weren't, and we found a flyer-man rather quickly. We make it inside to be told we were the FIRST people at the club. It was midnight. Ridiculous. So, we tried out the music and decided we should make a move to another location. We ended up at a little Irish club called "Cheers!" and found a back booth to play cards. Though overdressed, we had a great time!!

The next morning we decided to head to the Sagrada Familia. I was VERY excited about seeing this part of Gaudi's works. Unfortunately, the church was mostly in scaffolding. I guess that's pretty typical of our European Adventures. Almost all good things have been under construction or being cleaned. The amazing thing about this structure, though, is that Gaudi died way before it was finished, and they are only finishing it as donations and money is given (and according to his strict plans). So, it's estimated that it will take 30 more years to complete! It was amazing, though...see for yourself!

Park Guell and other Gaudi fun...

We ventured out today after the morning rain and went on a little Gaudi walking tour. We decided to save the museums for a different day, since Monica is leaving tomorrow morning. We wanted her to be able to see all of the goodness, so we went to the major sights she hadn't already seen, including two of his houses, and the Park Guell.

The park was a bit crowded, but we had a great time and enjoyed seeing all the kitsch designs! After the park, we walked around our neighborhood, the Old town (Barri Gotic), and enjoyed some late afternoon tapas and gelato...perfect!

Stay tuned for the Sagrada Familia and Jazz night!

The beach was a success!!

This is my favorite city EVER!! We had great weather yesterday-mid 80's and the sun was shining. I'm now a lobster...life goes on! We spent the afternoon walking along the beach, people watching and enjoying a nice cold glass of Sangria. It was fantastic.

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering the city and enjoying the great company we have here! Monica, a friend of Kelly and Aimee's is here for a few days in between work commitments. It's been so nice having fun friends here on vacation with us!

Today was spent lounging around, and tomorrow will be a full day walking tour, a la Stephen's tours, to see Gaudi's work. I absolutely can't wait! Hope I can sleep :)

Barcelona...

We're here! That Weather.com is full of crap, it's absolutely beautiful here. Low 80's, sunny and gorgeous! I love Spain!!!

Here are a few pics of our first two days! We walked around the city yesterday...it was their Valentine's Day. The men give women flowers, and the women give men books. It was fun to wander around the markets and people watch...but a little too busy! We're looking forward to a little more space on the roads today!

We're headed this afternoon to the beach. We walked the harbor yesterday, looked at the boats and the coastline, and now we're thinking it's time to get some sun! Wish us luck :)

Normandy...

We drove to Normandy for the Easter weekend. We had Monday off, so we decided we would do a little "long weekend" trip, and we both wanted to see the sights on the French coast.

We arrived in Caen, France on Friday night, and we were exhausted after working and driving 5 hours. We called it an early night, as we had to be up and at the tour meeting sight at 8:20. We took a tour called "American WWII History," from 8:30-5:30. It was long, but so great. We arrived to find we were taking a bus with another couple from Michigan. We were pretty excited there would only be 5 of us, well six if you include Gracie and the tour guide, Olivier.

We drove around to all of the major WWII sights, including the German gun battery, Omaha and Utah beaches, the Culleville-sur-Mer American cemetary, Pointe du Hoc, Carentan, the 506th Headquarters, Drop Zone D (the paratroopers), Sainte-Mere Eglise (and Museum), Hiesville (General Taylor's HQ), the Pratt Memorial, Marmion Farm, and Brecourt Manor. There were even more little sights along the way that were were able to see as well!

The tour was fantastic, and they had original maps, pictures, and plans to correspond with all of the sights. It really was fascinating. The cemetary was incredible, and we even went to a lot of the "Band of Brothers" filming spots. I was skeptical of the length of the tour, but not once did I feel like it was long...the time actually flew by. The only thing wrong with the trip was the weather...it was cold and rainy. But I hear that this is par for the course in Normandy, so if you are planning a trip, be prepared!

We finished the day with a nice meal and hit the hay...we were exhausted! The next morning we drove to Deauville/Trouville-sur-Mer and stopped to walk around. This area came highly recommended, and I absolutely loved it. The houses were like nothing I'd seen in France, or Europe for that matter, and the area was so cute. The towns are within a stones throw of each other, and they surround a cute harbor and the ocean. It was cold and windy, but very crowded and posh. They had all of the designer stores and fun terraces to eat at, and a casino. Stephen and I played a few slots...of course lost all our money. I shouldn't have even mentioned it...how sacriligious to gamble on Easter.

We decided to forego lunch and head straight to the Palace of Versailles to round out our day. I was disappointed that the flowers weren't planted yet, but the gardens still amazed me. It's incredible how enormous the gardens behind the palace are. What a fun backyard! Stephen and I joked about how amazing that would be, if our backyard was that big...

Now back to reality! We relaxed and did almost nothing yesterday, and it was back to the grind today! It was such a fun weekend, but of course the reason for the season is that HE IS RISEN! I'm such a rhymer :) Hope you all had a great Easter!