a weekend at the beach...

Just some quick snapshots from the weekend in LBI. The weather was beautiful & we had a great time.


Kaleb spent a lot of his time searching for shells, but I did manage to get him to give me one quick smile. lucky me!

Today was back to reality... now I MUST focus on the house & getting some things done around there. I'm still hoping to be moved in before Andrew goes back to school.
Sorry it's a quick post... I still have lots of Spain pictures to edit and hopefully post, but I've been super busy & super exhausted all at the same time.

Cordoba

Here are a few pictures from Cordoba. We went to what was originally The Masque and eventually became the Cathedral of Cordoba. This Cathedral was particularly interesting because many of the original features from the masque still were present in the Cathedral.




I was also trying to post some pictures from Salamanca, but my internet connection was not cooperating :(
This morning we are heading to Toledo for the afternoon. It's only about an hour from Madrid. We're touring another Cathedral & checking out the city as well.
Only 3 more days until I'll be heading home! I'm counting down the days until I see Andrew, Kaleb, Ella and the rest of my family! I miss them like crazy!
Not sure if I'll get to post again before I come home, but maybe on Wednesday. Once I get home I'll post a bunch of pictures, I haven't had much time to edit but I have tons more pictures :)

quick post

Sorry this has to be a quick post, but I'm short on time this morning. Monday we were in Granada and saw the Alhambra. Tuesday we were in Seville & toured the city as well as the Cathedral in Seville. Both were amazing sites. The details in these places are just unbelievable.


These pictures below are from Granada. We took a tour of the Alhambra. The gardens in this place were beautiful & the history behind the building was pretty interesting too. The weather while we were here was pretty overcast so the images are a little grey.



We're heading out this morning to another city, then back to Madrid tonight... but only to sleep. We're off to Salamanca in the morning.
I still miss everyone...

Random in Spain

Here are a few random pictures from my trip so far. It's basically my roommates and some funny stuff.

These are 3 of my roommates. Diane, Catie & Yolanda. The picture was taken at Guell Park in Barcelona.

This was at the airport departing for our trip to Barcelona. I've quickly come to realize that PDA's are so totally the thing to do around here... and I couldn't pass up taking a picture of the two airport janitors sharing a PDA moment! (sorry the picture is a little dark but I was trying to not be too obvious)

Found this lovely lady on the way to the Prado in Madrid. Isn't she pretty?

One of the best street statue people we've seen. The guy on the right is right is the real person & the one on the left is fake. This guy was the best one we've seen so far. We were actually convinced it was the other way around.

how funny is this?

And lastly, a quick self portrait of Diane & me.

That's it for now.
Leaving Valencia tomorrow morning, heading back to Madrid. First thing Monday morning we're heading back out on the road. (Sevilla, Granada & Salamanca are on the schedule.)

hope to share more pics again soon.

Sangrada Familia

yesterday we went to Gaudi's Sangrada Familia. What a beautiful place. The story behind the church is pretty neat too. Anyway, it's still under construction, they hope to have it finished by it's 100th anniversary. Most of the pictures are of the outside as the inside is really under construction.

this is from the back of the church (this is Gaudi's work)

also the back of the church.

back too. when construction began, Gaudi started with the back of the church. so most of this intricate work is Gaudi's. The front is completely different.

again the back of the church.

this is from the inside looking toward the ceilings. again the detail is amazing.

this picture is of the front of the church. quite obviously a different sculptor

this one was from the back of the church as well, actually from across the street & I still didn't get the entire building in the frame.

lastly, this was a detail shot of the front. It's so interesting to me how different the two pieces are... yet on the same building.

Anyway~ It's a little after 5:00pm here. We hit the stores today and just walked around the city. Tonight we fly back to Madrid. Hopefully I'll post again maybe sometime on Friday. I'll be heading to Valencia on Friday (staying at a hotel, so there should be internet access.)

Here are some quick pictures from the first couple days in Madrid & Barcelona. The places are beautiful, but I'm pretty homesick. I'm still very much adjusting to being away from home, hopefully each day it will become easier.

This is the Palacio Real. The picture doesn't really do justice to the building's size & beauty.

This picture is of the Plaza de Oriente. This is the square right in front basically of the Palacio Real.

A house in Barcelona, I couldn't get the whole house with the lens I had on the camera. But regardless it was beautiful.

This was the ceiling inside the Palacio Real. We weren't allowed to take photos once we were inside the Palace, but we managed to fire off a few random shots. Basically I just held my camera facing up and shot. (that's why there's not any real "framing" done on the picture, either way I still liked the picture.)

This is in Gaudi's Park Guell. This park was amazing. I have tons of pictures from here, I'll have to post more hopefully tomorrow.

Another one from Guell's Park.

This was in Plaza de Oriente as well. The weather this day was gorgeous.

One more from the Plaza.

Today we toured Casa Batlo, Casa Mila & The Sagrada Familia. All were beautiful. The "houses" have these amazing rooftops. And the church is still a work in progress... but amazing none the less. I hope to edit some of those pictures tomorrow & post.

Tonight Melinda & I went to the Hard Rock Barcelona. We both just really needed a meal that felt like home! Pasta & mashed potatoes never tasted so good! And yes I ate both pasta AND mashed potatoes... i didn't feel so bad she had mashed potatoes AND onion rings!

Tomorrow is a free day in Barcelona. We fly back to Madrid in the evening. I'll try to post more pictures tomorrow.

i love and miss all you guys!

leavin today...

So my Spain trip is here... I had no idea it would show up this quickly. I had no idea I would get so emotional. I had no idea it would be so hard to leave them... so I'm gonna keep this post short. I don't have much to say except...

I'm gonna miss these guys like crazy!