Sylvia's Scenario

Yes, they take selfies in Spain, too.  These are Nick's next door neighbors in El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain.  We met them while we were visiting last month when Imma and Luis invited us over for coffee. Our little coffee hour turned into about a three hour BFF event.  And we don't speak Spanish and they don't speak English so go figure that one out...Nick was the middle man.   Nick had been practicing his Spanish for about three months and visits a tutor twice a week since he moved to Spain so he is getting pretty good.  "What did he say, Nick?"  "What did she say, Nick?"  Nick, tell her that.....".  Nick, Nick, Nick....Poor Nick but it was really good practice for him and we all actually seemed to understand each other.  We all had translators on our smart phones so we would try that but honestly, it was just easier to communicate via Nick and that's what we mainly did.   Imma served us some pudding cake that was quite yummy with our...

We've been home from Spain for 3-1/2 weeks  now (it seems much longer because July has been such a busy month with everyone's birthdays, etc) but I never finished writing about our adventures so here is a continuation.  I did write about Paris on our anniversary  here  which is where we ended our trip.  Of course, we definitely want to go back and since we've been home, we keep talking about plans for future visits.  It's hard to get it out of your system.  So, as you can see, it's been 3-1/2 weeks and I'm still thinking of things to write.  The above photo was taken in Cádiz, Spain which is the largest city near where Nick lives in El Puerto de Santa Maria.  I mentioned it before because Bruce and I went shopping at the mall there.  It is a super old city, founded by the Phoenicians in the 7th century BC and where Christopher Columbus sailed out of for two of his journeys.  It is considered the most ancient city still standing in W...

Oh, to be young again...I remember our wedding like it was yesterday so how could 42 years go by so fast.  Isn't that what everyone says?  This is the month of all our birthdays and also our anniversary. Nick and Lauren are turning 36 and 34 years old this month.  So, I guess it has been that long but it's still hard to grasp. The thing to do is to just embrace it and celebrate so that's what we did last night.  After being in Paris earlier this month, we wanted to do something similar so we picked an outdoor cafe-type setting at a restaurant on Capitol Hill called  Monsoon .                   Nothing is really like Paris except Paris but we did our best living in Seattle.  At least it was a sidewalk table and it was on a really nice street with lots of trees and not noisy with traffic.  My favorite thing about Paris was...well, there were so many things but #1 was the sidewalk cafes.   Since it is Euro...