April 2007 - Viva España!

In April, we set out on our first big road trip since Mariah was born -- to the Costa Brava in Spain. On the way we stopped in Carcassone, a gigantic medieval fortress town in southern France. What a fun place -- especially for a 2-year-old! The Spain part of our trip was a little disappointing. (It was nice, however, to be in a country where we could actually speak the language!) We had planned on cycling a lot, but it rained every day so we didn't get much biking in. In fact, we ended up leaving a couple days early so that we could do some biking in the glorious sunshine bathing Switzerland. We did get one nice hour or so at the beach and did a couple fun day trips into Barcelona.

CARCASSONE

Here we are in front of the huge fortress town.

This photo illustrates what I spend my time doing in most castles -- feeding Mariah.

Anna Claire had the time of her life running around the place.
BARCELONA

La Sagrada Família -- Gaudí's famous cathedral that is still only half-built. We came on Palm Sunday, so the front side was packed. This is the back. It is impressively vertical from afar, but up close I could only think of Hell melting. Family picture again, but as in most, Mariah is in the back of the stroller.Parc Guell - Gaudí's experimental park. Lots of fascinating architecture and a place for Anna Claire to run around.Hi guys! Here I am! Mariah loves this place too!Hmm, let's see if I can move this.Ooomph!Whew, this is hard work! Now this is more like it!At the Barcelona Aquarium. Hi fishies!Check me out on this giant turtle! I liked this place so much, Mommy and Daddy almost lost me, several times!Oooh, shark!

COSTA BRAVA

Our one sunny hour at the beach. . . We stopped at the Salvador Dali Museum on the way home. Fascinating, but our tour was quick because the kids had a meltdown in the middle of it.